'Can we manage them?' said Dick. He was unwilling to incur the extra work till the skipper's opposition to Norah's plan—from laziness, he thought—converted him, and, on the principle of 'worst first,' the ox, who had nearly pitched Dick into the hold the evening before, was lowered into the water.
They had paddled the greater part of the quarter mile that separated the steamer from the shore, when Obadiah the ox, as Dick had christened him, suddenly varied the puffing and snorting with which he met each wavelet, by a plunge that threw his quarters out of the water, and a bellow in which Norah, accustomed to cattle, could read an agony of fear and pain. He lashed out, plunging and rearing. His forelegs churned the water to bubbles that were dark with sand scooped from the bottom. His maddened struggles rocked the heavily laden boat.
'Look out, Changalilo; he'll have us over!' shouted Norah.
The frenzied beast, released by Changalilo, slipped rapidly astern, as if drawn by a current. As he passed her, Norah was moved by the agonised appeal in his mild eyes. A stain more sinister than sand now darkened the water. She looked at the deck hands and saw that they were resting on their oars, pointing with widely grinning mouths at the contortions of the ox. Bellow on bellow filled the air.
'What on earth is it, Changalilo?' she asked. Then as his lips framed the world 'ngwene,' she understood. 'A crocodile's got him?'
'Yes,' shouted Dick, 'look!' and she saw a black tail flick out of the water.
'Poor brute,' she sighed, and turned her eyes away.
The struggle receded from the amused view of the oarsmen, as the crocodile relentlessly drew his victim towards the southern arm of the bay. There was no hurry; he had a good hold on a hind leg and in twenty minutes or so the ox would be drowned and wedged on a certain muddy bank, where the swollen corpse could rot the time required to make it palatable.
In the distance the agony continued, now a fore-leg showing above the surface, now the wide horns, now the white belly.
'Do make them row in, Dick,' said Norah. 'It's horrible!'