REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. $5 



calmly.. mounted .him, evidently trying the while to disengage 

 the slipnot which had now got tight round his own arm, and 

 to shove it over the brute's head. 



" Then the alligator started swimming, and we followed 

 down the bank, when, just as we were opposite the bungalow, 

 he pulled dead up, brought his tail out of the water and with a 

 fearful side sweep capsized Abbott, snapping at him as he fell. 

 Then came another fight, such as I never wish again to see ; 

 the pair eventually disappearing beneath the water. We 

 hauled away at the rope, thinking it was still attached to 

 Abbott, when unexpectedly we saw him come up a few yards 

 from the bank, evidently almost senseless. A Rajpoot peon 

 jumped in and dragged his master up the slope. He was 

 bleeding awfully and was a gruesome sight. Shirt in ribbons, 

 arms and chest torn all over, both hands badly maimed, and 

 the right foot completely crushed. He came to at once, and 

 only said the ' The rope's safe over his nose' ; and so it was, 

 sure enough, for the natives to whom I had thrown the rope 

 were now busily engaged in hauling the wounded saurian on 

 shore. 



" I never saw a man in such a mess ; and, to add to the 

 horror, down to the edge of the river, just as we had dragged 

 up her half-killed husband, rushed his young wife wringing her 

 hands, and naturally half out of her wits with terror. While 

 she was standing over him, and the servants were carrying 

 him to the house, he started singing 'Home they brought her 

 warrior dead.' A nice time of it we ."had; out in a jungle with 

 no appliances to tie the severed arteries, and with a patient 

 who would insist in trying to get out of bed to see how the 

 skinning of the alligator was getting on. We tried to hire 

 kahars, but the whole country was under water, and they re- 

 fused to budge from home ; so we put him into a shampony 

 and took him in to the doctor at Mozufferpore, taking from 10 

 o'clock on Tuesday till 7 o'clock the next morning to do the 



