t hung above the water, before looking round for some one--
boatman, or any other native whom she could question. But there was not
a soul within sight, and as proof of the lateness of the hour, not a
light was to be seen.

"Ah!" she cried, with a start, for the woman behind her had suddenly
caught her by the wrist with one hand, while she stood with the other
outstretched, pointing up the stream. "What is it?" she said. "Can you
see the boat?"

"No. Listen."

"Ah! You hear them coming?"

The woman shook her head violently.

"Croc," she whispered; and her word was followed by a light, wallowing
splash.

"Ugh!" ejaculated the Doctor's wife, with a shudder. "Come back. They
may have returned by the other path and called at the officers'
quarters. They are waiting for us by now perhaps," she added to
herself.

Leading the way back to the bungalow, she hurried in, with straining
ears, with the hope that the pair would come out to meet her slowly
dying away.

"They must have come back directly we went out, learned that we had gone
down to the river, and followed us."

Stepping in quickly to the servants' part of the bungalow, she found the
other servant fast asleep, ready to stare at her vacantly and
wonderingly as she was shaken into wakefulness. The woman had to be
spoken to by her fellow-servant before anything could be got from her;
and then it was only to learn that the expected ones had not returned.

"Something must have happened," said the Doctor's wife, fighting hard
now to keep back the horrible forebodings that were troubling her. "Oh!
this is not being a woman," she said. "Come back with me to the river."

The woman hesitated, but Mrs Morley caught her hand, and they hurried
back to the river-side, where, before many minutes of excited watching
had passed, at least a dozen horribly suggestive splashes had been heard
far out upon the flowing stream.

"Come back," she whispered to her companion. "I cannot bear it. What!"
she ejaculated, as the woman crept more closely to her and whispered
something in her ear. "Those horrid creatures drag people into the
river sometimes? Yes, yes; I know--I know. Come back. Perhaps they
have come," she continued, trying to speak firmly; and once more she
hurried to the bungalow, to find the other servant again fast asleep.

The clock showed that it only wanted a few minutes to midnight, and
setting her teeth hard in her determination, the trembling