Middy and Ensign

by George Manville Fenn

Just then the Malay seemed to leap at him, but at the same moment he uttered a smothered cry, which was silenced directly by the rushing water, and Gray found that he was alone.

He needed no telling that one of the loathsome reptiles of the river had been close at hand, and had seized his enemy; his wonder was that he himself had not been the victim.

It was enough to paralyse the bravest heart, and for a few minutes Gray clung to the roots of the tree beside him, feeling sick and giddy, and as if some reptile was only waiting for his next movement to drag him down.

It was fortunate for him that he did not stir, for the Malay’s cry had alarmed his companions, who could be heard talking quickly and in whispers, close at hand.

At first it seemed to Gray that they were coming to the help of their unfortunate companion, but this did not prove to be the case. They knew what had happened, from old experience, and accepted the accident as one of the misfortunes to which they were heirs, troubling themselves no more about the matter.

Recovering himself somewhat, but feeling all the time that any moment he might be seized, Gray crept once more slowly along, till he stood with the water nearly to his shoulders, beneath the overhanging bank, by Dullah’s hut, and between it and the two sampans.

The place was admirably suited for concealment, for now little more than his head was above water, and that he had contrived should lie behind a screen of drooping verdure, which made his chilly hiding-place so dark that he could not have been seen twelve inches away.

Having escaped from the reptiles so far, he felt more hopeful; and as he stood there, behind his screen, he began to try and make his position valuable.

He had not long to wait for this. In less than a minute, a voice, that he took for Abdullah’s, was whispering to some one on the river, and a sampan came so close in to the bank that had he stretched out his hand he could have touched the side.

It was a grief to him that he was not thoroughly conversant with the Malay tongue, but he had picked up a good deal, and had mastered a sufficiency to catch the import of the words he heard.