they converged on the swimmer.

Barry watched with set lips and glittering eyes. He well knew the
improbability of hitting a vulnerable spot in a swimming alligator; his
marksmanship was scarcely equal to the certainty of finding one of those
wicked, armor-lidded eyes. It was with a hard gulp of fear in his throat
that he pressed the trigger for a second shot.

The bullet took the foremost reptile on the point of the snout, checking
the beast and causing a flurry among its companions. Little gained a few
precious feet, and as a patch of dirty gray belly showed for an instant
in the over-roll of the smitten beast, Barry fired again, and his friend
gained a little more.

Another factor now entered into the contest, and the ex-salesman was
safe. The brigantine was steadily stemming the tide, and now fairly past
the bar had reached far beyond the point to which the hawser had been
made fast. As she forged slowly ahead, with gathering speed as she left
behind the influence of the big eddy, the rope trailed more and more
astern and the ship's speed was added to that of the incoming hawser.

Little was hauled up to the quarter, and Barry himself let down the
boarding ladder and went over the side to assist the half-drowned
swimmer on board.

When Little had coughed several pints of muddy river water from his
system, he looked up at Barry with a whimsical grin, as if prepared now
to take the calling down that his recent action had delayed. But the
skipper had nothing to say about the escapade with his anchors. He
gripped his friend's hand with a hard squeeze and took him below for a
warming shot of rum with a simply spoken:

"Thanks, Little. That's the greatest thing I ever saw. You're free of
the ship forever!"

CHAPTER FIVE

Late in the afternoon the _Barang_ rounded a bend in the river and came
in sight of the trading station. The yellow, muddy stream swirled at her
blunt bows, and the matted verdure on the banks reduced the hot breeze
to a zephyr that barely gave her headway.

Bamboo thickets alternated with patches of dark forest; cane-walled
native houses peeped from beneath overhanging trees; silent, sarong-clad
people suspended their leisurely activities to stare at the passing
ship, and noisy birds and chattering monkeys redoubled their din at the
apparition.

A slimy reed-grown creek opened out to starboard, and evil miasma arose
from the rotting tree trunks across its mouth; the entire scene was