Page 115 - Adventures in Africa

brought my rifle. Little as I liked Ilans, I felt that
it was my duty to go to his assistance. Unless I did.
so he would be quickly dragged off into deep water,
and become the prey of the crocodile. Seeing that
his father and my uncle had already got hold of

Harry, drawing my hunting-knife I dashed forward,
shouting with all my might to try to frighten the
savage brute, Flans had caught hold of the branch

of a fallen tree, which he grasped with his left arm,
holding1 on to it for his life. Every moment I expected
to see him let go, when his fate would have been
sealed. Not for an instant did I think of the danger
I was running, lean scarcely even now understand

how I acted as I did. With a single bound I sprang
over the branches close to the head of the crocodile,
and seizing the man with one hand, I plunged the
knife into the eye of the monster, who immediately

opened his jaws, and as he did so, Ilans, with an
activity I could scarcely have expected, hauled him­
self up to the top of the bough, where I sprang after
him, while the crocodile, giving a whisk of his tail

which nearly knocked us off our perch, retreated into
deep water, the next instant to turn lifeless on its
back, when, floating down a few yards, its huge body
was brought up by a ledge of rocks which projected

partly out of the water,
u Well done, Fred, my boy,” shouted my uncle and
Mr. Welbourn in chorus.
Having placed Harry on the bank they hurried

forward to assist mo in lifting Hans off the bough to
which he was clinging, and to place him beside
Harry. For some seconds he lay, scarcely knowing