Old Gold Part 31

It was Brace's charge of buckshot which tumbled it off with a tremendous splash into the river, where it writhed and lashed the water up into foam before making for the sh.o.r.e, swimming with ease, much to their surprise.

The spot where it landed was fairly open, and in the excitement caused by the adventure the boat, which was always kept towing behind the brig, was manned.

Brace, the American, Dan, the second mate, and four men followed to get a good opportunity for putting the reptile out of its misery when it had about half-crawled out among the bushes.

A well-placed shot in the head effected this, and the body lay heaving gently while the party landed. The question was then eagerly discussed what should be done.

"We ought to have that skin," said Brace. "It is an enormous brute.

Why, judging from what we can see, it must be thirty feet long."

"Say forty," cried Briscoe, laughing. "But who's to skin it?"

The question was received in dead silence, everyone gazing down at the slowly-heaving monster, about ten feet of the fore part of its body lying where it had crawled, and it was easy enough to believe that another twenty or thirty feet of the creature lay out of sight in the muddy water.

"I wouldn't do that job for a crown," whispered one of the men to another, and a chorus of grunts followed.

"Well," said Lynton, "who is going to volunteer? Mr Brace wants that skin taken off. We must have a rope round the beggar's neck, throw one end over one of the branches of a tree, and then we can haul him up higher and higher as we peel him down from the head."

"And suppose he begins to twissen himself up in a knot and lash out with his tail?" growled one of the men.

"Bah!" cried Lynton. "Here, a couple of you row back to the brig and get a coil of rope. I'll skin the brute myself if someone will help me to do the job."

"I'll volunteer, Mr Lynton," cried Brace; while Dan smiled and took off his coat before rolling up his s.h.i.+rt-sleeves.

"Will you, sir?" cried the mate; "then we'll soon do the job; but it's a bit nasty and slimy, you know, and I expect it will make us smell of snake for some days."

"Never mind," said Brace. "I'd do anything rather than lose that skin."

There was a low growling among the men as they laid their heads together before pus.h.i.+ng off to the s.h.i.+p.

"Now then," cried the mate, "what is it? Why don't you be off?"

"It's all right, sir," said the man who had first protested; "we can't stand by and let you and Mr Brace do the job by yourselves. We four'll help Dan peel the beggar as soon as they've fetched the rope from the brig."

The boat pushed off, and the matter was discussed, the American suggesting that the best plan would be to make an incision just below where the skull was joined to the vertebrae, dislocate these so as to put a stop to all writhing, get a noose round the neck, and then it would be easy to divide the skin from throat to tail, and draw it off.

"Oh, yes, sir," said one of the men, just as the boat reached the side of the brig; "we'll soon manage that."

"I say, Mr Briscoe," said Brace, "I suppose the ants won't be long in picking the reptile's bones quite clean."

"Oh, no; they and the flies would soon finish anything that was left in the way of flesh, but I was thinking of dragging the body afterwards into the river. It's a five-and-twenty footer, though, without doubt."

"Yes," said Brace, "but I hope they're not going to be long with that rope. I say, any fear of Indians about here?"

"Hi! look out!" cried one of the sailors, calling to Brace and the others from where they were dividing the thick growth and peering about trying to see what was beyond.

Three guns sent forth a clicking sound on the instant, as those who bore them turned to face the expected danger.

Brace's nerves quivered with excitement as he listened for the whizz of the arrows he expected to hear rush by.

"Give him another shot in the head, sir," cried one of the men; "he's trying to wriggle himself back into the water."

Brace raised his gun to fire a charge into the serpent's head again, for sure enough the monster was gliding slowly back through the undergrowth into the stream.

But the men did not wait for him to fire. Following Dan's example and setting aside all their horror and repugnance as they saw the reptile gliding back slowly into the river, they acted as if moved by the same set of muscles, and threw themselves upon the long lithe creature.

"Now then, lads, take a good grip of him," cried Dan, "and we'll run him up the bank as far as we can. Ugh!"

His mates backed him up well, seizing the serpent just behind the wounded head with powerful hands; but just as they had taken a firm hold and were about to put their plan into action, a tremendous thrill seemed to run from tail to head of the reptile as an eddy whirled up the water, and they let go and sprang away.

"Ah, catch hold again," cried Brace, dropping his gun and darting at the serpent, but before he could reach it the movement had become quicker, and they had the mortification of seeing their prize pa.s.s steadily backward under the bushes, and in spite of the renewed efforts of the men the half-crushed head reached the water, gliding down out of sight, and staining the surface with blood.

"Yah!" yelled the man nearest to the water, and he flung himself back against his mates, who could not for a moment tell what had terrified him.

On approaching the water's edge where it flowed along dark and deep beneath the pendent boughs they heard a wallow and a splash, and the lookers-on had a startled glance at a great h.o.r.n.y, muddied head and a pair of tooth-serrated gaping jaws, which rose above the surface and were plunged again into the bloodstained water, to disappear, but to be followed by a great gnarled-bark back and a long tail which lashed the water before it pa.s.sed out of sight.

Before another word could be uttered the water beneath the boughs seemed to boil up in eddies as if it were being churned from below, and during a brief s.p.a.ce the horrified lookers-on had a glimpse or two of the slowly twining and writhing body of the serpent, as it rose to the surface from time to time, while over and under enemies were dragging at it from all directions.

"Well, if that isn't a rum un, I'm a Dutchman," cried the second mate, as they watched the tremendous struggle going on. It gradually receded farther from the bank and the combatants were carried down stream by the current. "I never saw anything like that but once before."

"Well, I never saw it once," said the American; while Brace was silent, standing peering through the dipping boughs so as not to lose an atom of what was going on. "Where was yours?"

"At home in our river," said the mate. "I was lying on my chest with my hand over the side of the camp-shedding, as we called the boards put to keep up the river-bank by the weir. I was looking down through the clear water at a shoal of little perch playing about, waiting for anything that might be swept over the weir, when a big earth-worm came down and the perch all went for it together, some at the head, some at the tail, or the middle, or anywhere they could get hold, and it was just like this till they all went out of sight as this has done. For it's gone now, hasn't it?"

"Yes, quite out of sight," said Brace, drawing a deep, sighing breath.

"Why, the river seems to be alive with alligators."

"Hungry ones too," said Lynton, "and they've got a fine big full-flavoured worm for breakfast. Fancy their laying hold of his tail and pulling him away from us like that!"

"Say, Jemmy," said one of the sailors, speaking to another who was standing near him, "if at any time I'm ash.o.r.e and want to come aboard, you'll have to send the boat, for I'm blessed if I'm going to try a swim."

"That's a downright fine specimen gone, Mr Brace," said Briscoe drily; "and I'm real sorry we lost him. What do you say about its length? I think we might make it fifty feet?"

"Do you think it was fifty feet long?" cried Brace, laughing.

"Well, yes, and I call that a pretty modest estimate, when we might easily have made it a hundred feet."

Dan opened his mouth, showed his teeth, and laughed with a sound like a watchman's rattle that had lain in the water.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

THE BRIG JIBS.

Another fortnight's sailing brought the travellers abreast of a river which flowed slowly and sluggishly into the stream they had ascended, just when its waters had begun to grow clearer and more shallow. It had become more rapid too in its course, and everything suggested that they were gradually gaining higher ground. In addition, in spite of the favourable breezes they enjoyed, the brig could now hardly stem the current.

The consequence was that at the captain's suggestion the more sluggish waters of the confluent river were entered, and the fresh course slowly pursued ever northward and westward for weeks, till it became plain that much further progress could not be made in the brig itself.