IV
There were more shots. Raxworthy made another unsuccessful effort to rise. Then a pair of strong hands gripped him round the chest and partly dragged and partly lifted him to his feet.
“Thought the brute had got you, sir!” declared the bluejacket who, with others, had gone to the midshipman’s assistance.
“He has, I think,” rejoined Raxworthy. “He’s plugged me through both ankles!”
“What d’ye mean, sir?” inquired the leading hand. “Those bullets went well wide of the lot of us. They got the mugger all right.”
The midshipman, bewildered, but conscious of returning strength to his legs, knew that the term “mugger” is frequently applied to crocodiles frequenting Asiatic waters.
Then one of the men pointed to a dark object lying half awash and about fifty yards off. It was an enormous crocodile that had been lying doggo on the shoal, and had been mistaken for an exposed portion of the bank upon which the gunboat had grounded.
The brute’s back harmonized so well with the muddy water that the men laying out the anchor had got close to it before it took action. This it had done in customary fashion by making a terrific sweep with its tail and capsizing its victim. The latter happened to be Raxworthy, who was at the end of the line of men tailing on the anchor rope.
In another instant the crocodile would have seized its victim but for the prompt action of one of the seamen on board Sandgrub, who, with admirable coolness had snatched up a rifle and taken careful aim at the saurian.
The bullet struck the crocodile in his eye. In its death agonies it wriggled several yards, being assisted downstream by the current, until three more shots finished it off.