At that moment the prow of the boat struck the bank and caused the fat professor to lose his balance and tumble overboard.
“Ha! ha! ha!” laughed the Yankee, as he observed his employer floundering about in the muddy water. “How d’ye like it, professor? You laughed at me when I fell overboard—now it is your turn, by gosh! I told you laughin’ was catchin’. Now, if one of them ugly ’gators was ter come along there would be fun. Thunder and lightnin’! if there ain’t one, now, I’m a rank sinner!”
A floundering was heard a few feet from the struggling professor, and a half-grown alligator was seen making for him with all his might.
The luckless man had now assumed an upright position, with the dirty, black water even with his chin, and as he observed his peril he bellowed lustily for help.
He strove in vain to reach the gunwale of the boat, but the distance was too far for his short arms.
Haypole, with an amused smile upon his face, allowed the alligator to get within a few feet of his intended prey, and then reached over suddenly and seized his employer by the arms.
He then saw that he would not be able to get him out as quickly as he had anticipated, and his gleeful look turned to one of alarm.
The professor was a heavyweight of the first water, and had it not been for the fact that Haypole was a very strong man, the ferocious alligator would certainly have had a good supper that night.
But by an almost superhuman effort he jerked him from the muddy water just as the ferocious monster made a vicious snap with its huge jaws.
“Murder!” yelled the professor, as he fell in a heap at the feet of the Yankee; “the thing has bitten off my foot!”