Dinner was ready on their arrival at the house, and the party sat down to it with excellent appetites—the result of their ride over the estate. All went to bed early, as the hint was given that the next day would be a fatiguing one. But the character of the sport to be provided was not given.
They breakfasted early, and immediately started in a boat that was ready at the little pier in front of the house. Two boats had already gone ahead of them, and while the boys were wondering what was to be done, the Doctor called their attention to something below the surface of the water. The boys looked, and speedily discovered that the strange object was a huge crocodile.
"There's no fear of him," said Mr. Segovia, "as he happens to be dead."
"How was he killed?" Frank asked.
"I can't say positively," their guide replied, "but he has probably been shot at by somebody, and died in consequence."
"The crocodile is very difficult to kill, as his scaly hide will turn a bullet, except in a few places. The most vulnerable point is behind the foreleg, where the skin is comparatively thin; and if you can creep up to within fifty yards of a sleeping crocodile, and lodge a ball in that spot, he is done for. If you make use of explosive balls, so much the better, as you then tear a great hole in him, and disturb his organs of digestion and respiration. Nineteen-twentieths of the crocodiles that are shot at escape apparently unharmed, but we have the satisfaction of knowing that many of them afterward die from the effect of their wounds."
"How is that?"
"If a crocodile has ever so small a scratch in his skin, it is his death-warrant. He lies down to sleep in the mud, the shrimps find the scratch and begin eating at it, and in a little while they enlarge it to a huge wound. They continue to eat away at it, are joined by other occupants of the water, and in the course of a week or two the crocodile is literally devoured. He has nothing to do but die, and so he climbs to a sand-bank or sinks to the bottom of the lake, and ceases to be a terror to the inhabitants of the shore.
