the reptile's tail, for he knew
that that was the only place where a blow of the axe would cripple it;
but, just as he was getting within reach, the crocodile suddenly shifted
himself round, making his tail fly like a piece of sprung whalebone.
Guapo leaped hastily back,--as hastily, I will make bold to say, as any
Indian of his years could have done, but not quick enough to clear
himself quite. He wanted about eight inches; but in this case inches
were as good as miles for the crocodile's purpose, for about eight
inches of the tip of his tail came "smack" across Guapo's naked shins,
and sent the old Indian head over heels.

It was just an accident that Guapo's shanks were not broken like sticks
of sealing-wax; and had the blow been directed with the crocodile's full
force, such would have been the unhappy result. As it was they were
only "scratched," and Guapo, leaping to his feet, ran to recover his
axe, for that weapon had flown several yards out of his hands at the
blow.

By the time he laid hold of it, however, the _saurian_ was no longer on
dry ground. His newly-opened eyes--opened, perhaps, for the first time
for months--caught sight of the water close by, and crawling forward a
step or two, he launched his ugly, mud-bedaubed carcass into the welcome
element. The next moment he had dived, and was out of sight.

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

THE CROCODILE AND CAPIVARAS.

Guapo was in no humour for enjoying the conversation of that evening.
The crocodile had "choused" him out of his favourite supper. The monkey
was literally knocked to "smithereens," and the pieces that still
adhered together were daubed all over with mud. It wasn't fit meat--
even for an Indian--and Guapo had to content himself with a dried
plantain and a stew of jerked horse-flesh.

Of course Don Pablo and the rest examined with curiosity the great hole
in the mud that had contained the crocodile. There it had lain during
months of the dry season in a state of torpidity, and would, no doubt,
have remained still longer, but that it was aroused by the big fire that
Guapo had built over it. The irritation produced by this had been the
cause of its sudden resurrection, for the crocodiles that thus bury
themselves usually come out after the beginning of the heavy rains.

It was a true long-snouted crocodile, as Don Pablo had observed in the
short opportunity he had had; and not an alligator--for it must be here
remarked, that the true cro