igher it reared its head, then of a sudden it leaped
from the slope of rock, as alligators when disturbed leap from a river
bank into the water, coming so heavily to the ground that the shock
caused the cave to tremble, and stood before the dwarf with its tail
arched upwards over its back.

Again Otter shouted, half in rage and half in terror, and the sound
seemed to make the brute more furious.

It opened its huge mouth as though to seize him and waddled a few paces
forward, halting within six feet of him. Now the dwarf's chance had
come and he knew it, for with the opportunity all his courage and skill
returned to him. It was he who sprang and not the crocodile. He sprang,
he thrust his arm and the double knife far into the yawning mouth, and
for a second held it there, one end pointing upwards to the brain and
one to the tongue beneath. He felt the jaws close, but their rows of
yellow fangs never touched his arm, for there was that between them
which held them some little space apart. Then he cast himself on one
side and to the ground, leaving the weapon in the reptile's throat.

For a few moments it shook its horrible head, while Otter watched
gasping, for the reek of the brute's breath almost overpowered him.
Twice it opened its great jaws and spat, and twice it strove to close
them. Oh! what if it should rid itself of the knife, or drive it through
the soft flesh of the throat? Then he was lost indeed! But this it might
not do, for the lower blade caught upon the jawbone, and at each effort
it drove the sharp point of the upper knife deeper towards its brain.
Moreover, so good was the steel, and so firm were the hide bindings of
the handles, shrunken as they were with the wet, that nothing broke or
gave.

"Now he will trample me or dash me to pieces with his tail," said Otter;
but as yet the Snake had no such mind--indeed, in its agony it seemed to
have forgotten the presence of its foe. It writhed upon the floor of the
cave, lashing the rock with its tail, and gasping horribly the while.
Then suddenly it started forward past him, and the tough hide rope about
Otter's middle ran out like the line from the bow of a whale-boat when
the harpoon has gone home in the quarry.

Thrice the dwarf spun round violently, then he felt himself dragged in
great jerks along the rocky floor, which, happily for him, was smooth.
A fourth jerk, and once more he was in the waters of the pool, ay, and
being carried to its remotest