VIII AMID DIVERS PERILS 107 
I had thought, and between me and the bank, the water, 
instead of being wadeable, was high enough to be over 
my head, and the sloping banks were of soft mud. It 
was not a pleasant lookout, and I began to wonder how 
long a time I would take in drowning in this position. 
It was impossible to turn, so I commenced a back- 
wards movement, but my skirt got in the way and 
jammed me ; I was never, I think, in such a fix before. 
The branch behind me sloped upwards, and there was 
that fork of the tree to pass again, there was no 
creeping backwards up that. The water now had 
readied the top of the log. If I dropped my feet I 
knew that the current would suck me under, and in 
desperation I drew myself up and threw my body back- 
wards against the log and twisted round on my face. 
I could never have performed this acrobatic feat at 
any other time, but life at that moment seemed very 
sweet 1 When once I had my arms round the fork I 
pulled myself up on to the main branch. 
Between the root of the tree and bank there was 
now a great gap where the tide was rushing through 
with tremendous force, and close alongside of me there 
rose something that, for the moment, I thought was 
another half-sunken tree. Then it fell, a gray, loathsome 
creature that almost paralysed me with fear as I marked 
the long line of its greedy -looking jaws. I knew that 
the river teemed with alligators, but, somehow or other, 
I had never given them a thought. Its homy back 
was not more than a foot below me, and I hardly dared 
to breathe, much less to move. It slid along under 
the log and I felt the vibration of its body rubbing as 
it came up on the other side, then it turned with its 
head up stream again, its snout just above water as if 
it smelt game. Uncertain as to its movements, it 
sluggishly played round and round. My eyes were 
Digitized by LnOOQ IC 
