The Rajah of Dah Part 3

"Don't you see. There, fifty yards away, on the surface of the water?"

"No; I can't see anything. Yes, I can; two brown-looking k.n.o.bs. What is it? Part of a tree. Oh! gone. I know now; it was a crocodile."

"No doubt about that, Ned, and I daresay we shall see plenty more."

"Hah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the Malay again; and he pointed this time toward the right bank of the river, or rather to the fringe of mangroves on that side.

"Yes, I can see that one plain, just those two k.n.o.bs. Why doesn't it show more?"

"For the sake of being safe perhaps. There you can see its yes now, just above the surface."

"But the gun, uncle. Let's shoot one."

"Waste of powder and ball, my boy. It is a great chance if we could hit a vulnerable part, and I don't like wounding anything unnecessarily."

"Are there many of those things here?" said Ned, after watching the two prominences just above the water, and vainly trying to make out the reptile's body.

"Many things?" said the man, evidently puzzled.

"Yes; crocodiles?"

"Hah! Yes, plenty, many; sahib jump in and swim, crocodile--"

He ceased speaking and finished in pantomime, by raising one hand and rapidly catching the other just at the wrist.

"Snap at me?" said Ned.

"Yes, sahib. Catch, take under water. Eat."

"I say, though, is he stuffing me? Do they really seize people, or is it a traveller's tale?" said Ned, appealing to his uncle; but the Malay, who had been engaged from his knowledge of English to act as interpreter up the river, caught at the boy's words, though he did not quite grasp his meaning.

"No, no, sahib; not stuff you. Crocodile stuff, fill himself much as he can eat."

Then he turned sharply and said a few words to his companions in the Malay tongue, and they replied eagerly in chorus.

"There's no doubt about it, Ned," said his uncle. "They are loathsome beasts, and will drag anything under water that they can get hold of."

"Then we ought to kill it," said Ned excitedly. "Let's shoot it, at once."

"Where is it?"

"That one's gone too," said Ned, with a disappointed air.

"Plenty more chances, my boy; but if you do try your skill with a gun, wait till we see one of the reptiles on the bank."

"But there is no bank."

"Wait a bit, and you'll see sand-banks and mud-banks in plenty. But the appearance of those creatures answers one of your questions. There must be plenty of fish in the river, for that forms their princ.i.p.al food."

Just then their attention was taken up by one of the Malay boatmen drawing in his oar, and then taking out a small bag from which he extracted a piece of broken betel-nut and a half-dried leaf. Then from the same bag he took a small bra.s.s box carefully hammered to form a pattern, and upon opening this a thick white paste became visible.

"What's that?" whispered Ned.

"Lime made from coral and mixed into a paste with water."

"But what is he going to do?"

"Watch him."

Ned was already watching, and saw the man take a little of the wet lime paste from the box with his finger, and smear it over the leaf. Then the box was put away, and the sc.r.a.p of nut carefully rolled up in the leaf and placed in the man's mouth, when he went on contentedly chewing as he resumed his oar and pulled steadily on.

"I never saw them get their betel ready to chew before, uncle,"

whispered Ned. "I say, what leaf is that?"

"Sirih, a little climbing kind of pepper."

"Well," continued Ned with a laugh; "I don't know whether that's a bad habit, but it looks a very nasty one. What savages!"

"They might say the same about our Jacks with their tobacco," said his uncle.--"How would you like to live there?"

He pointed to where, in an opening in the mangroves, a tiny village of a few houses became visible, mere huts, but pretty enough to look at with their highly-pitched, palm-thatched roofs, showing picturesque gables and ornamentally woven sides, the whole raised on bamboo piles, so as to place them six or eight feet above the level of the river. A few cocoa-nut trees grew close at hand, and a couple of good-sized boats were drawn up and tied to posts, while a group of the occupants stood gazing at the pa.s.sing party.

"No; I don't think I should like to live there," said Ned, as the men rowed on, and the houses with their cl.u.s.ter of palm-like trees gave place once more to the monotonous green of the mangroves. And now the boy altered his tactics. For a time he had scorned the shelter of the thatched roof which covered the afterpart of the roomy boat, and been all life and activity, making the Malays smile at his restlessness, as he pa.s.sed among them resting his hand first on one, then on another brawny shoulder, to get right forward to the sharply-pointed prow, and sit there looking up the river; while his uncle rearranged some of the packages and impedimenta necessary for their long trip.

"There," he said, as he finished for the time, by hanging two guns in slings from the roof, Ned having returned to sit down, and he began wiping his face. "I think that will do. If we had designed a boat to suit us for our trip, we couldn't have contrived anything better. That is the beauty of travelling in a country where the rivers are the only roads. You require no bearers, and you have no worry about men being dissatisfied with their loads, and then having to set up a tent when the day's journey is over. Here we are with a roof over us in our travelling tent, and all we have to do at night is to tether the boat to the sh.o.r.e, have a fire lit for cooking, and eat, sleep, and rest."

"But you will not always keep to the boat, uncle?"

"No; we shall make a few little expeditions when we can, but, from what I have learned, the country farther north and east is nearly all jungle, with only a few elephant tracks through the forest by way of roads.

Here, hadn't you better sit still for a bit out of the sun."

"Yes; coming back directly," was the reply; and, going forward, Ned stood with his hands in his pockets gazing up the river. "I say, uncle," he cried at last; "I'm getting tired of these mangroves. Why, the sh.o.r.e's all alike, and oh, how hot it is!"

The Malays rowed steadily on with their eyes half-closed, paying not the slightest heed to the rays of the sun, which seemed now to be pouring down with a fervour that was terrible. The tide still set up the river, and very little exertion on their part kept a good way on the boat, as they swung to and fro, keeping pretty well together, their eyes half-closed, and their jaws working at the betel-nut each man had in his cheek.

"Here, come into shelter till the heat of the day is past," said Murray.

"All right, uncle."

Ned was standing right up on the prow, intently watching the two prominences over the eyes of one of the crocodiles which was gliding slowly about in the tideway on the look-out for food, when the summons came, and turning sharply, a peculiar sensation of giddiness attacked him. He threw up his hands to his head, and in an instant lost his balance, plunged in head foremost and was gone.

As the water splashed in over the bows, Hamet uttered a shout, the men ceased rowing, and Murray rushed out from beneath the shelter, tearing off his loose linen jacket, and eagerly scanning the water, ready to plunge in as soon as Ned reappeared.

"No, no," cried Hamet, hoa.r.s.ely; and then, giving a sharp order to his companions, the course of the boat was changed, and he leaned over the side, the men muttering excitedly to each other, for they had seen the eyes of the crocodile sink beneath the water just as the loud splash was made when the boy fell in.

It was a matter of only a few moments before there was a movement in the dark water three or four yards away. The men on the side opposite gave their oars a sudden dip and drag, the boat swung round across the tide, and, reaching over, Hamet caught Ned's wrist, dragged him to the side just as there was a sharp shock against the forward part of the boat, a jerk, and a sensation communicated to the occupants as if they had come into collision with the trunk of a tree, and it was pa.s.sing under the boat. While, as with Murray's help, Hamet hauled the boy into the boat, there was a tremendous swirl in the water, just where he had been, a great h.o.r.n.y tail rose above the surface and struck it with a sharp slapping sound, and disappeared.

"That was close!" exclaimed Murray, as the boat glided on, and the Malays talked rapidly together, Hamet giving his employer a curiously significant look.