At last an old man passed by, and the Crocodile appealed to him, and at first he replied as the others did, but afterwards he relented and said, “Well, if you will follow me I will take you to a tank which is never dry.” So the Crocodile followed him, and he shewed him a tank no great distance off, which was filled with water.
The old man went first into the tank himself, and calling to the Crocodile, he said, “See here, how deep it is!” No sooner had the Crocodile had a good drink, than he made a grab at the old man’s leg. “Ah-ho! Ah-ho!” said the old man; “What are you doing? What are you doing?” “Well,” replied the Crocodile, “I have had a good drink, thanks to you, and as I have had no food for many days I am going to make a meal of you. That is what I am going to do.” “You wretched and ungrateful brute!” said the old man; “is this the way you reward me?”
At that moment a Jackal hove in sight, coming for a drink (the Jackals we know are the most cunning of all animals), and the old man said, “I will put my case before him, and if he says you are to eat me, very good, so you shall.”
The old man then beckoned to the Jackal to come close up to the tank, and telling him all the facts of the case, the Jackal said, “You know I am always a just judge, and if you want me to decide, you must shew me the place from whence you brought the Crocodile.”
So they all three wended their way back to the tank near the village, and the Jackal said, “Shew me the exact spot where you first found the Crocodile;” and when they got there the Jackal said, “Now I am going to give you my judgment, so prepare to listen.” Then turning to the old man, he said quietly, “You silly old idiot! What made you ever help a Crocodile? Now, you run one way, and I will run the other.”
The Jackal gave a skip, and was soon off out of sight, and the old man took to his heels also, and soon got away. The wily old Crocodile, now baulked of his prey, said to himself, “I know my way back to that water tank, and I will some day have my revenge on that Jackal, for he is sure to come there to lap water.”
So back he went, and as there were many trees near the tank, some of whose roots went beneath the water, the Crocodile lay in ambush there. By-and-by the Jackal came to drink water, and the Crocodile made a sudden snap at his leg, and held it. “Oh, you foolish Crocodile!” the Jackal said; “You think you have got hold of my leg, do you? but it is only the root of a tree.” So saying, the Crocodile released his hold, and the Jackal jumped off in high glee out of his reach.
The Crocodile then determined that he would try some other plan of entrapping him; so, as there were great numbers of a small fruit falling from one of the trees, which he knew the Jackal came to eat, he one night piled up a heap and hid himself beneath it, leaving only his eyes uncovered.
Presently the Jackal came prowling along, and noticing the pile of fruit he felt inclined to partake of some, but he drew near very cautiously, and in a moment he caught sight of the two eyes of the Crocodile glistening in the moon-light, when he called out, “Oh, I see you!” and scampered off.
