54 BIG GAME FIELDS 



silent arrow pinned him neatly to the ground, 

 while he writhed and struck again and again in 

 his wild hate and fury at the unheard-of enemy 

 that not only was eating out his life but riveting 

 him to the spot as well. Ranjettan, never missing 

 an opportunity to bring his cutlass into play, with 

 a quick, clean stroke decapitated the long, sinuous 

 mottled creature. 



Upon returning from some bird-watching 

 studies I could see something had taken place 

 during my absence. John Charley was wearing 

 his broad smile that always indicated he had 

 something to show me, or something had trans- 

 pired. It seems that he had contrived to tem- 

 porarily incapacitate an electric eel by wounding 

 it with an arrow, and had it penned up with 

 stones and sticks at the shore's edge, so that the 

 water could flow in and out, at the same time 

 keeping this most peculiar species of all the finny 

 tribe a prisoner. The eel was about four and a 

 half feet in length, and the slight wound he had 

 received did not seem to affect his health or activi- 

 ties. I had heard of the electric eel before in 

 fact, I had seen one mounted in the Georgetown 

 Museum and recognized this fellow at once. I 

 had also heard that they could send a shock 

 through the water so severe as to render a man 



