BLOWING UP A CROCODILE. 361 



were also tied to this bait ; and, to one of these, the con- 

 ducting wire was firmly bound with small cord. The ropes 

 were about thirty yards long, and had each attached to its 

 extremities one of the inflated goat-skins used by water-car- 

 criers. Hall, with his goat-skin under his arm, and a coil of 

 loose rope in his hand, took one side of the nullah, while my 

 brother, similarly provided, took the other. My brother's rope 

 contained the wire ; so I walked beside him, while two coolies, 

 with the battery ready charged, and slung to a pole upon their 

 shoulders, accompanied me. A small float was also attached 

 by a string to the kid, so as to indicate its position. 



These arrangements being made, we commenced walking up 

 the nullah, dragging the carcass of the kid in the stream, and 

 moving it across from side to side, so as to leave no part of 

 the bed untried ; and as the nullah was only about twelve 

 yards wide, we felt pretty confident that if the mugger were 

 in it, we could scarcely fail of coming in contact with him. 

 We had proceeded only about a quater of a mile, when the 

 float suddenly dipped. My brother 'aud Hall threw the loose 

 coil of ropes they carried on the water, along with the inflated 

 skins. These made it soon evident by their motion that the 

 mugger had seized the kid. He was dashing across in a zig- 

 zag: direction down the stream. I ran after him as fast as I 



o 



could, and paying out the cord from the reel when I found it 

 impossible to keep up with him. 



On reaching a place where the banks were steeper than 

 usual, he came to a stand-still I got on the top of the bank, 

 and commenced hauling in the rope. I did not, however, ven- 

 ture to lift the skin out of the water, for fear of disturbing 

 him, until the coolies with the batteries had time to come up. 

 This was a very anxious time ; for if the mugger had time to 

 shift his quarters before they came up, a fresh run with him 

 would have ensued, with the chance of his breaking the wires 

 with his teeth. After a while I heard the coolies approach- 

 ing, and my brother scolding them and urging them to hasten 



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