river about a hundred yards by twenty, thickly shaded with overhanging
scrub. In he went with a header and a splash, and after a couple of
vigorous swims up and down was just coming out when something caught his
eye.

A long rakish narrow object lying along the almost horizontal trunk of a
half-fallen tree, not more than a yard from the ground--so motionless
that were it not for the scintillation of the eye you could hardly have
told the creature was alive. The squab, clinging paws, the hideous
crocodile head, the long tapering tail, seemed all exaggerated in the
half-gloom of the thick scrub, and in the start which the sight inspired
in the beholder.

Sellon stood transfixed, and a cold chill of horror and repugnance ran
through him. In his newness to the country it occurred to him that the
river might contain a fair population of alligators. Anyway, the beast
looked hideous and repulsive enough--even formidable. And it lay almost
between himself and the spot where he had left his clothes.

Just then he could have sworn he heard a smothered splutter of laughter.
The reptile must have heard it too, for it raised its head to listen.
Then a crack and a puff of smoke. The creature rolled from the trunk,
and lay snapping and writhing, and making every effort to reach the
water.

"Stop him, Mr Sellon. Don't let him get into the water," cried a
shrill boy's voice, and the youthful shooter came crashing through the
brake, armed with a saloon rifle, and followed by another youngster
about the same age.

"Stop him! How am I to stop him, you young dog?" growled Sellon, who
was standing up to his middle in water.

But the boys had wrenched up a stout stick, and deftly avoiding alike
snapping jaws and lashing tail, managed to hold the great lizard on the
bank where he lay, until his struggles had entirely ceased.

"Gave you rather a _schrek_, didn't it, Mr Sellon?" said the elder of
the two, maliciously, with a wink at his brother, and there was a broad
grin on each face that made Sellon long to cuff the pair. For the
average colonial urchin has scant respect for his elders as such;
scantier still if those elders happen to be "raw Englishmen."

"An ugly brute, anyhow," he answered, wading out to look at the carcase.
"What is he, eh?"

"Only an iguana, Mr Sellon. My! but he's a big un; five feet at least,
I expect. I don't wonder you took him for a crocodile."

"Took him for--You cheeky young dog, how do you