“Well, what then, Kati? I will not sit here and see a human being quietly fall into the jaws of a brute like that, if I can help it.”
“Me help it, sahib; me kill man-eater almost before grow to one man.”
But now our attention became fixed with terrible interest upon the scene before us: the boatman, panting, exerted himself to his utmost, the reptile still following, and evidently gaining upon the boat.
“I should like to put a bit of this salt upon his tail,” said Martin, fingering the lock of his rifle.
“No, no, not good send bullet—may want it if me not kill him,” replied Kati.
“Yes, let us reserve our charges,” said I; but the next instant the crocodile had passed under the boat; there was a wild moan, and man and sampan were some yards in the air; but as soon, almost, as they had again touched the water, Kati, who had leaped from our boat, and was between the boatsman and the reptile, the latter—apparently astonished that a man should be swimming boldly toward instead of from him—rested for an instant. That instant, however, was enough for the brave Kati to compose himself for the coming struggle. We kept our fingers on the triggers, and our rifles in such a position that, should the monster obtain the least advantage over its antagonists, we might send a bullet into its eye, or, if such a fortunate opportunity presented itself, its belly—for, you see, the scales are bullet-proof. Suddenly, the brute opened its huge jaws, a thrill of horror passed through our frames, and on the instant I should have fired but for Martin, who exclaimed—
“Great Heaven! Kati has thrust his arm down the brute’s throat!” and so he had, and immediately afterwards the surface of the water became tinged with black-red blood.
By opening his jaws, the reptile had given his enemy an opportunity, for at once Kati thrust in one arm up to the shoulder, while with the other he had stabbed it in the throat with his creese; and by repeating these blows rapidly, at the same time that the water entered the mouth, the body had swollen to the size of a large tub, and in a few minutes more the eater of men was dead and harmless, and Kati was ashore receiving our congratulations.
The delight of the native whose life had been so miraculously saved was almost frantic: he fell down before Kati, kissed his feet, and clasped his knees; but upon the body of the crocodile—which, when it had floated near the bank, we dragged ashore—he vented the most childish spite, stamping upon it with his feet, calling it the most horrible names, and stabbing it in the belly.
Truly, it was hideous to look upon—by far worse than when in the water. It was a large, double-crested crocodile, of the species common to the rivers of Java, being, from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail, twenty-five feet in length.