A queer premonitory feeling came over me as I 

 saw we were making straight for the bathing pool ; 

 but before reaching the bank the herd boy squatted 

 down, indicating that somewhere in front and below 

 us the enemy would be found. An easy crawl brought 

 me to the river bank and, sure enough, on the very 

 spot where I had stood to wash, only fifty yards from 

 us, there was an enormous crocodile. He was lying 

 along the sand-spit with his full length exposed to me. 

 Such a shot would have been a moral certainty, but 

 as I brought the rifle slowly up it may have glinted in 

 the sun, or perhaps the crocodile had been watching 

 us all the time, for with one easy turn and no splash 

 at all he slid into the river and was gone. 



It was very disgusting and I pitched into Jim and 

 the other boys behind for having made a noise and 

 shown themselves ; but they were still squatting 

 when I reached them and vowed they had neither 

 moved nor spoken. We had already turned to go 

 when there came a distant call from beyond the river. 

 To me it was merely a kaffir's voice and a sound 

 quite meaningless : but to the boys' trained ears 

 it spoke clearly. Jim pressed me downwards 

 and we all squatted again. 



" He is coming out on another sand- 

 bank," Jim explained. 



Again I crawled to the bank and 

 lay flat, with the rifle ready. There 

 was another sand streak a hundred 

 yards out in the stream with 

 two out-croppings of 



383 



