He was on the bench, in court. Shrieks and shouts and a wild stampede of people was the informal announcement of the new arrival. They stopped all business; but nothing stopped them. Not knowing the way very well, they began by entering the Treasury. The sentry shouted and the guard turned out with fixed bayonets and loaded rifles, in case this might be a manœuvre for more easily rushing the Treasury.
“We are fetching a live crocodile to the Deputy Commissioner,” cried the newcomers to all who would listen to them. Then it was supposed they might have been sent for, and they were directed to the court-rooms.
The bailiff rushed into court, and, looking [104] ]distracted, trembling and hardly able to articulate, he said,—
“Six men, with a great struggling crocodile alive, on the verandah now, coming in, nothing can stop them. They want to see the Deputy Commissioner. I went for the Superintendent of Police, but he is out. They won’t listen to me.”
I went out to them and had the beast carried downstairs, and heard their story. There was no possible room to doubt their good faith. Their dream of a fortune, for such they expected, seemed like the Arabian Nights.
I told them I did not want a crocodile, but that as they had taken so much trouble I would pay them out of my own pocket, for killing it, the largest reward that Government used to pay. This was like offering a pound or two to men who looked for thousands. Of course they did not thank me. I left them to finish the matter themselves, and returned to business.
I was not to be quit of the crocodile so easily. For more than an hour a crowd continued to collect round the live monster as it lay on the grassy sands between the court-house and the sea. Then the bailiff returned to me more distracted than ever.
“The men have decided to unbind the crocodile [105] ]and leave it where it is, and depart. They say they will not accept money as the price of blood. This is a tamed crocodile. It is like a friend. If it is dangerous now it is only because it is hungry. So long as it is well fed it will hurt nobody. They are not damned fishermen, nor damned hunters.” (These adjectives were not used profanely, but correctly, as it is the popular belief that fishermen and hunters are damned.) “These men say that they are respectable Buddhists and cultivators. They would not kill a wild crocodile, much less a tame one.”
“Put it in the sea.”
“I told them to do so, but they said it wouldn’t go.”