“’Nosserus,” said Dick the sailor, who generally contrived to be pretty close to the youths, and depended upon them largely for his supplies of tobacco. “It’s one on ’em having a wallow, like a big pig, somewhere in the shallows.”
“That’s a tiger, isn’t it!” said Tom Long, as a hoarse roar came over the smooth surface of the water.
“Shouldn’t wonder, young gentlemen, if it were; but I’ll say good night, for ’taint my watch, and I think a turn in won’t be bad preparation for a hard day to-morrow.”
Everyone expected a busy day upon the morrow; but it was long before the two youths could tear themselves away from the side of the vessel, for there was something so mysterious and weird in the look of the black water, in which the stars just glimmered; while right before them all looked dark and strange, save where there was the distant twinkling of the fire-flies, ever changing in position.
“Hark!” whispered Long; “there’s a splash again. That can’t be close to the shore.”
“No, that’s not a hundred yards from the ship. I say, Long,” whispered Bob with a shudder, “I shouldn’t much like to swim ashore. I’ll be bound to say that was a crocodile.”
“I shouldn’t wonder,” was the reply; and they still stood trying to make out the cause of the strange splashing noises, till, utterly tired out, they sought their cots, and were soon fast asleep.
The getting up of the anchor roused the two lads soon after daybreak, by which time steam was up; and with the faint morning mists slowly rising like silver gauze above the dense belts of trees, the steamer began slowly to move ahead.
The tide was flowing, and the mangroves were deep in the water, though not so deep but that their curious network of roots could be seen, like a rugged scaffold planted in the mud to support each stem; while as they slowly went on, the dense beds of vegetation, in place of being a mile off on either side, grew to be a half a mile, and soon after but a hundred yards, as the steamer seemed to be going straight into a broad bank ahead.
As they approached, though, a broad opening became visible, where the course of the stream swung round to the right; and after passing a point, the river rapidly contracted to about a hundred yards in width, and soon after was narrower, but still a smoothly flowing stream by the eternal mangroves. At last some signs of life began to appear, in the shape of an occasional crocodile, which glided off a muddy bank amidst the mangrove roots, into the water. Here and there, too, the long snout of one of these hideous reptiles could be seen, prone on the surface of the water, just above which appeared the eyes, with their prominences, as the reptile turned its head slowly from side to side, in search of some floating object that might prove to be good for food.