80 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



whitey-yellow throat, at which I stabbed with all 

 my strength. Who is responsible for the traveller's 

 tale that the crocodile's skin is impervious to steel 

 weapons, and even to bullets ? Under my thrust I 

 felt the spear slice its way, parting the soft yielding 

 flesh before it. The spear - head entered up to its 

 hilt, and then I wrenched the shaft free from the 

 socket and seized the coil of rope at my feet. Thus 

 we now had a double hold on the crocodile Manap 

 holding by the rat tan -line and hook, and I by the 

 barbed spear and rope. If there had been a storm 

 before, there was a tornado now. At one moment 

 the open jaws would surge out of the broken water, 

 and snap together in unpleasant proximity to our 

 legs; the next moment the heavy tail would swing 

 free of the water, and, lashing through the air with 

 the cut of a flicking whip and the weighted swing 

 of a falling tree, would hit the side of the canoe a 

 blow that made it shiver. 



More than once the taloned claws got on the 

 gunwale of the canoe, and it seemed as if in the 

 blind turmoil the brute would get on board. We 

 were both drenched from head to foot in the water 

 that flew in every direction, and the little canoe 

 rocked so violently in the waves of the commotion 

 that there was no small risk of losing one's balance 

 and falling in on top of the raging brute. 



"We have him too close to the boat," Manap 

 shouted. "Let out more line!" We slowly paid 

 out the two lines, with the result that not only 

 was the struggle continued at a safer distance, but 

 that the crocodile entangled itself in the lines. As 



