he held on for dear
life; and it seemed long to Bob Roberts before he could act; but it was
but a matter of moments before he had reached Ali's side, with his gun
cocked; and placing the piece close to the reptile's eye as it glared
savagely at him, and seemed about to leave one victim to seize another,
he fired both barrels in rapid succession.

There was a tremendous splash as the smoke hung before him for a few
moments, then as it rose the young middy saw nothing but the troubled
water before him, and Ali lying panting, and with his eyes starting,
close by his side.

By this time Tom Long and the two Malays had come up, eager with
questions, to which Ali answered faintly, and gladly partook of a little
spirits from the young ensign's flask.

"I ought to have known better," he said, "but I did not think of the
danger. It will be a warning for you both. These rivers swarm with the
brutes."

"But your leg?" cried Bob, kneeling down.

"A little torn; that's all," said the young Malay, stoically. "My
sarong and the trousers have saved it, I think."

All the same, though, it was bleeding freely, and with a rough kind of
surgery Bob's handkerchief was used to bind it up.

"I'm not much hurt," said Ali then; and to prove his words he rose,
limped a step or two forward, and picked up his gun, while Bob proceeded
to slip a couple more cartridges in his own, gazing once more eagerly
into the pool, but seeing nothing but a little blood-stained water.

He turned sharply round, for something touched him, and there stood Ali,
looking at him in a peculiar manner, and holding out one hand, which Bob
took, thinking the other felt faint.

"I can't talk now," said Ali, hoarsely; "but you saved my life. I shall
never forget it."

"Oh, nonsense, old fellow," cried Bob. "But, I say; what a brute! He
must have been twenty feet long."

"Oh, no," said Ali, smiling faintly, "not ten. The small ones are the
most vicious and dangerous. Let us go."

"But can you walk?" said Bob. "Have a cigar."

"Yes; I will smoke," said the young Malay, as he walked bravely on,
though evidently in pain; and lighting a cigar, he talked in the most
unconcerned way about the creature's sudden attack.

"Such things are very common," he said. "Down by the big river they
seize the women who go for water, and carry off the girls who bathe.
There are monsters, ten, twenty, and twenty-five feet long; but we are
so used to them that it does not