s heard. They had
just a rapid view of a huge scaly, dripping body in the act of turning,
a great undulating tail waved in the air--there was a loud splash; and,
thrilling with excitement, Ned saw the slack coils of rope running out,
and that the bait was gone.

"That's right," whispered Frank excitedly, as a suppressed murmur rose
from the Malays; "give him plenty of line. He won't go very far.
There's lots of length;" and he stood looking on as, excited as he, Ned
dragged at the rope, and passed it rapidly through his hands as it kept
on running toward the bank, and into the river more and more and more,
till only about ten yards were left before the end was reached--the end
tied to a young cocoa-nut tree.

One of the Malays sprang up, whipped out his kris, and was going to cut
the rope, for a check might have made the crocodile leave the bait
before he had swallowed it, and the intention was to run with the end
over to the river's brim, thus giving another fifty feet of line to run;
but, just as he raised his kris, the great reptile ceased drawing out
the rope, and Frank gave his young companion a congratulatory slap on
the shoulder.

"Hurrah!" he cried; "he will not go any farther. He has got a
lurking-place down there, under those lilies, and he is busy swallowing
it."

He turned and asked one of the men a question, and the answer confirmed
his opinion.

"Yes; it's all right," said Frank.

"Shall I strike now?"

"Oh no; give him plenty of time to swallow his chicken curry. I say,
wait a bit; won't he find it warm in a few minutes."

"But I must strike soon. Let me do it."

"Oh yes; you shall strike, and then we'll have a lot of the fellows
ready to catch hold, for that fellow's seventeen or eighteen feet long.
I know, and you don't know, how strong these things are."

Ned made no reply, for he was suffering from a strange feeling of
emotion: his heart beat violently, there was a sensation of suffocation
in his breast, and the hands which held the rope trembled and twitched.

"Feel frightened, sor?" whispered Tim, smiling in his face.

"No, I don't think I'm frightened, because I wouldn't let go on any
account."

"I know. I felt just like that the first time I saw one caught, and the
men let me howld the line."

"But it must be time to strike now."

"Why, you talk as if you had a rod in your hand, and a fish had taken
your bait," cried Frank.

"Yes; it seems just the same."

"Only it is