ed
the bait, but this was not enough for his appetite, and he went straight
at the officer. He had had a young ensign sitting beside him, who had
often watched his work, and knew how the thing went. I was standing near
at the time, and he began twisting some screws and things as cool as a
cucumber, though I could see as his hand shook a bit. Well, he got it
right just in time, for the shark was not half a length away from the
captain, and was turning himself over for a bite, when the thing went
off, and there was an end of the shark. The captain was a bit shaken up,
but he made a grab at the rope, and held on to it till we lowered a boat
and picked him up. He had to be got up on deck in a chair, and it was
two or three days before he was himself again. When he got round he set
to work again more earnestly than ever; and I believe that if we had
stopped in the West Indies long enough, there would not have been a
shark left in those waters."

"It was a capital plan, Davis, and if we ever take possession of these
rivers, we shall have to do something of that sort to get rid of the
brutes. Are the Malays afraid of them?"

"I don't know, Mr. Parkhurst, but I think they are. I had a chat with a
mate I met in the Myrtle, which went home the day after we relieved them
here. He had been up some of the rivers, and told me that every village
had a bathing place palisaded off so that the alligators could not get
at the bathers."

"Well, there is one thing--we shall have to be very careful when we are
out in boats, for if we were to run upon a sunken log and knock a
hole in the boat's bottom, there would not be much chance of our ever
reaching the shore."

"You are about right there, sir. I aint afraid of Malays, but it gives
me the creeps down my back when I think of one of them chaps getting
hold of me by the leg. Bob Pearson told me that the only chance you have
is to send your knife, or if you can't get at that, your thumbs, into
the creature's eyes. But it would require a mighty cool hand to find the
eyes, with the brute's teeth in one's leg, and the water so thick with
mud that you could not see an inch beyond your nose."

"Well, I will make a note of that, anyhow, Davis, and I will take a good
look at the next alligator I see dead, so as to know exactly where to
feel for its eyes."

On the second day the scenery changed. In place of the mangroves a dense
forest lined the river. Birds of lovely plumage occasionally flew