loating quietly, while others plunged about in the water.

"Capital!" exclaimed Wilkins, "now for the boat! According to
directions we must walk upstream till we find it."

As they advanced, they came suddenly on one of the largest crocodiles
they had yet seen. It was lying sound asleep on a mud-bank, not
dreaming, doubtless, of the daring bipeds who were about to disturb its
repose.

"Hallo!" exclaimed Wilkins, cocking and levelling his gun, "what a
splendid chance!"

It was indeed a splendid chance, for the brute was twenty feet long at
least; the rugged knobs of its thick hide showed here and there through
a coat of mud with which it was covered, and its partially open jaws
displayed a row of teeth that might have made the lion himself shrink.
The mud had partially dried in the sun, so that the monster, as it lay
sprawling, might have been mistaken for a dead carcass, had not a gentle
motion about the soft parts of his body given evidence of life.

Before Wilkins could pull the trigger, Mafuta seized him by the arm with
a powerful grip.

"Hold on!" he cried with a look of intense anxiety, "what you go do?
Fright all de 'potimus away for dis yer crackodl. Oh fy! go away."

"That's true, Bob," said Tom Brown, who, although he had prepared to
fire in case of need, intended to have allowed his friend to take the
first shot; "'twould be a pity to lose our chance of a sea-cow, which is
good for food, for the sake of a monster which at the best could only
give us a fine specimen-head for a museum, for his entire body is too
big to haul about through the country after us."

Well, be it so, said Wilkins, somewhat disappointed, "but I'm determined
to kick him up anyhow."

Saying this he advanced towards the brute, but again the powerful hand
of Mafuta seized him.

"What you do? want git kill altogidder? You is a fool! (the black had
lost temper a little). Him got nuff strong in hims tail to crack off de
legs of 'oo like stem-pipes. Yis, kom back?"

Wilkins felt a strong tendency to rebel, and the Caffre remonstrated in
so loud a voice that the crocodile awoke with a start, and immediately
convinced the obstinate hunter that he had at least been saved broken
bones by Mafuta, for he never in his life before had seen anything like
the terrific whirl that he gave his tail, as he dashed into the water
some fifteen yards ahead. Almost immediately afterwards he turned
round, and there, floating like a log on the