n, now seemed to be made of india-rubber and steel
springs. I should not have been more surprised had the great timboso
tree, beside which he lay, arisen and danced a jig. He seemed to
spring from the middle up into the air without the aid of either
his head or his tail. Then he brought his tail around in a circle
and struck the skeleton roots of the mangrove with such force as to
dislodge a small monkey in its top, which fell whistling with fright
into the lower limbs, while the crocodile's great jaws, which seemed
to measure a third of his length, opened and shut viciously, snapping
off limbs and roots like straws.

"He sick!" shouted the Chief Justice. "Fire quick."

I threw the cartridge from the magazine into the barrel, and raised
the gun to my shoulder just as the huge saurian struck the water. My
bullet caught him underneath, near the back legs. My companion's must
have had more effect, for the crocodile stopped as though stunned. I
had time to drop my gun and snatch up my revolver.

It was an easy shot. The bullet sped true to its mark and entered one
of the small fiery eyes. The huge frame seemed to quiver as though
a charge of electricity had gone through it and then stiffened
out,--dead.

Our Malay boys got a rope of tough gamooty fibres around the great
head, and we towed our prize out into the stream just as the Resident's
launch, bearing the Prince and the ladies, steamed up the river to
watch the sport.

A crowd of servants got the crocodile up on the bank near the palace
grounds and drew it two hundred yards to their quarters. Now comes
the strangest part of the story.

My servants had half completed the task of skinning him, for I wished
to send his hide to the Smithsonian, when the muezzin sounded the call
to prayers from the little mosque near by. In an instant the devout
Mohammedans were on their faces and the crocodile in his half-skinned
state was left until a more convenient time. At six o'clock the next
morning I was awakened by a knock at my door:--

"Tuan, Tuan Consul, come see boyah (crocodile)."

I got up, wrapped a sarong about me, put my feet into a pair of grass
slippers, and followed my guide out of the palace, through the courts
to where the crocodile had been the night before, but no crocodile
was to be seen. My guide grinned and pointed to a heavy trail that
looked like the track of a stone-boat drawn by a yoke of oxen.

We followed it for a hundred yards in the direction o