“And it will not be long first now,” I thought; and I did not look forward to my first appearance in full uniform under a hot sun with any degree of dread.
Then we were once more at sea, sailing on and on through fine weather and foul, till I learned that we were sailing up through the Sunderbunds, and on up the Hooghly, passing outward-bound vessels with great towering East Indiamen among them. Then the shore began to draw in, and I learned from one that there was good tiger-shooting in that district, beyond where I could see a fringe of palms, and from another that it would not be safe to bathe where we were.
“On account of sharks,” I said, with an assumption of knowledge.
“No, sir; muggers.”
And when I stared inquiringly, he added—
“Crocodiles; and higher up the river, sir, great turtles, which will snap a man, or a horse, or a dood to pieces in no time.”
It was the same evening that I was standing looking at the low, far-off shore, with Captain Brace, and I said quietly—
“I say, that little stout Mr Binns—”
“Mr Commissioner Binns,” said the Captain. “Give him his full title. What about him?”
“Was he telling me travellers’ tales about the crocodiles—muggers, as he called them—and the risk of bathing?”