lying just as it
was before.

"I had only just closed my eyes, had I?"

"About five minutes, and your head was wagging about like a big fruit on
a stalk. You don't want the croc to drag you into the river too."

These last words effectually drove away the drowsy sensation brought on
by the silence and heat there beneath the trees; and, after a glance
round to see that the Malays were all as watchful as ever, Ned settled
down again to think about the white hen; about his own narrow escape,
and then about the horrible mishap that morning, and of the poor girl's
feelings as she felt herself seized by the great reptile.

"They ought to kill them all, Frank," he whispered.

"Kill whom?"

"The crocodiles. It is horrible to let these creatures be about the
place."

"Very well; let's kill 'em all, then. There'll be plenty of sport.
We're beginning with this one."

"But he does not come."

"Well then, let's give it up now and go. He is too artful. I daresay
he sees us, and will not come till we are gone. We'll go away and come
back this evening. That's the way the Malays catch the wretches. They
don't stop to watch, only let the rope be tied to a tree, and then come
back, and they often find one on."

"How do they kill it, then?"

"Same as we're going to kill this one when he is hooked; but, oh murder,
I'm getting so precious hungry; let's give up now. I'll tell them we're
not going to stay."

He crawled to the men, whispered softly to them for a few minutes, and
then came back, pausing to rouse up Tim, who looked very stupid.

"Ready?" said Ned, who was still holding the rope attached to the hen.
"No. I don't think I should like to give up. He may come yet."

"I don't know," said Frank. "The brute isn't hungry perhaps. I am, and
I daresay there's a white chicken waiting at home nicely curried, and
with plenty of cocoa-nut cream in it, and the whitest of rice round,
ready for me. I'm hungry, and can bite; so can you. Let's be off and--
eh? What?"

"Hist!" whispered Ned; "the water is moving. Look! look!"

They could only see a little of the water near the bank, where the
lotus-leaves were, but they were evidently being moved by something
passing through them, and the pale blue blossoms were nodding.

Then almost directly there was a splash, a hideous head appeared on the
bank, the wretched hen uttered a cackling shriek and leaped up to the
full extent of the tether, a loud snapping noise wa