Some tough green bark, braided together, was then wound around the stick so that the game could not bite it in two. A big fish for bait was then attached to the alir, and carefully fastened to it so that the reptile could not tear it off.
Thus prepared, the apparatus was thrown overboard, and the sampan paddled away from it to give the game an opportunity to approach it, the Malays each paying out his forty feet of line, one on each side of the boat. The spectators watched the result with great interest. As the sampan receded from the saurians, they approached the bait. Crocodiles and alligators do not nibble at their prey, but bolt it as a snake does a frog.
The bait nearest to the observers on the yacht was soon gobbled up by the hungry crocodile, who appeared not to have been to breakfast that morning; and the Malay at the other end of the line gave a sharp jerk to his gear, the effect of which was to draw the pointed crescent "athwart ships," as the sailors would say, or across his stomach; and the harder it was pulled the more the pointed ends would penetrate the interior of the organ.
The first Malay had hardly hooked his game before the second had another ready to haul in. Both of the saurians struggled and lashed the dark water into a foam; but both of the men in the sampan kept the line as taut as they could with all their strength; and this is the rule in hauling in all gamey fish.
"Tell them we will go ahead, Achang, and all they need to do is to make fast their rattans to the sampan," said Captain Scott, when he had taken in the situation.
In reply to the message the Bornean delivered to them, the Malays nodded their heads vigorously, and smiled their assent.
"Go ahead, down the river, Clinch," added the captain to the helmsman.
"I fancy there will be a lively kick-up on the part of the game," said Louis, as the boat came up to her course.
"Not much," added Scott. "If we put them through the water at the rate of eight knots an hour, the crocs will not feel much like doing any gambolling. We are not making more than four knots now."
"They are as lively now as a parched pea in a hot skillet."