XIII 
THE CROCODILE 
39 
searched for at the place. A pile of clothes and 
his red fez were upon the bank ; but no person 
was visible. A number of men jumped into the 
water, and felt the bottom in every portion of the 
dock, with the result that in a few minutes his body 
was discovered; one leg was broken in several 
places, being severely mangled by the numerous 
teeth of a crocodile. There can be little doubt that 
the creature, having drowned its victim, had in¬ 
tended to return. 
This must have been a peculiarly wily monster 
to intrude into a place which was so continually 
disturbed. We could never discover any crocodile 
in the immediate neighbourhood upon which we 
could cast a suspicion as the depredator. Some 
months after this incident, a terrible calamity in the 
canal was adjudged to have been occasioned by the 
same crocodile, although no actual proof could be 
adduced. 
About 7 p.m., Lady Baker and myself, together 
with Commander Julian Baker, R.N., were sitting 
in an open shed in the comparative cool of evening, 
when a man rushed past the sentries, and threw 
himself upon the ground, clasping my legs in an 
agony of terrified excitement. The sentries im¬ 
mediately rushed forward, and seized him by the 
back of the neck. Releasing him instantly by my 
order, the man gasped out, “ Said, Said is gone I 
taken away from my side by a crocodile, now, this 
minute ! “ Said ! what Said ? ” I asked : “ there 
are many Saids.”—“ Said of the No. 10 steamer. 
