ing his prey. Had he been a
smaller crocodile he would have been only too glad to have done so; but
trusting to his size and strength, and perhaps not a little to the
justice of his cause, he was determined not to go without taking the
capivara along with him.

The jaguar, on the other hand, was just as determined he should not. He
too, had some rights. The capivara would not have been killed so
easily, had he not frightened it from behind; besides, the crocodile was
out of his element. He was poaching on the domain of the forest
monarch.

Bit by bit, the crocodile was gaining ground--at each fresh pause in the
struggle he was forging forward, pushing the chiguire before him, and of
course causing his antagonist to make ground backwards.

The jaguar at length felt his hind-feet in the water; and this seemed to
act upon him like a shock of electricity. All at once he let go his
hold of the capivara, ran a few feet forward, and then flattening his
body along the ground, prepared himself for a mighty spring. Before a
second had passed, he launched his body high into the air, and descended
upon the back of the crocodile just over his fore-shoulders! He did not
settle there, but ran nimbly down the back of the saurian towards its
hinder part, and his claws could be heard rattling against its scaly
skin. In a moment more he was seen close-squatted along the crocodile's
body, and with his teeth tearing fiercely at the root of its tail. He
knew that after the eyes this was the most vulnerable part of his
antagonist, and if he had been allowed but a few minutes' time, he would
soon have disabled the crocodile; for to have seriously wounded the root
of his tail, would have been to have destroyed his essential weapon of
offence.

The jaguar would have succeeded had the encounter occurred only a dozen
yards farther from the water. But the crocodile was close to the
river's edge, and perceiving the advantage against him, and that there
was no hope of dismounting his adversary, he dropped the capivara, and
crawling forward, plunged into the water. When fairly launched, he shot
out from the shore like an arrow, carrying the jaguar along, and the
next moment he had dived to the depth of the stream. The water was
lashed into foam by the blows of his feet and tail; but in the midst of
the froth, the yellow body of the jaguar was seen rising to the surface,
and after turning once or twice, as if searching for his hated ene