Four Young Explorers Part 6

"I shot the last one, and I will not fire at this one," added Louis, who was not disposed to monopolize the fun.

"All right; then I will be number two, Morris three, Flix four, and Achang five; and if you are all satisfied, we will fire in this order hereafter," continued Scott, as he took aim at the saurian.

He missed the eye of the reptile, and the bullet from the rifle glanced off and dropped into the water.

"How many shots is a fellow to have before he loses his chance?" asked the captain, as he aimed again.

"I suggest three," said Louis. "Those in favor of three say ay."

They all voted "ay," and Scott fired twice more. "Your turn, Morris;"

and he appeared to be very much chagrined at his ill luck. "I could hardly see the eye of the varmint."

Morris fired his three shots with no better success. Felix took a different position from the others, placing himself on the stem. He fired, and the saurian still kept on his course. He did better the second time; and the reptile floundered for a moment, and then turned over dead. The boat was run up alongside, and Achang was required to bring out his parong latok, with which he decapitated the game at a single blow this time; but the creature was only nine feet long.

Pitts called the cabin party to breakfast at this time. The Blanchita went ahead again, and the repeating rifles were left on the cus.h.i.+ons. At Louis's suggestion the captain gave the four men off duty permission to use the arms on crocodiles, but not on monkeys.

Ham and eggs, with hot biscuit and coffee, was the bill of fare; and the young men had sharpened their appet.i.tes in the sports of the morning.

Before they were half done they heard the crack of a rifle. They listened for the second shot, but none followed it.

"Who fired that shot, Pitts?" asked the captain, as the steward brought in another plate of biscuit.

"Clinch, sir," replied the man. "He knocked the crocodile over at the first shot, sir."

"Then he is a better shot than I am," said Scott, laughing.

"Or any of the rest of us who had their turns," added Felix. "Louis is the only fellow that brings 'em down the first time trying."

"The rest of you would have done better if the sun had not reflected on the water, and shaken your aim," said Louis.

Before the meal was finished, another shot was heard, followed by two more. When the party went forward they found that the little steamer had gone around a bend so that the forest shaded the surface of the water.

Wales had fired the last three times at a crocodile still in sight; but he declared that he could not hit the side of a barn twenty feet from him, and did not care to fire again. The men went to breakfast, and the cabin party picked up the rifles. It was Achang's turn; and he missed twice, but killed the game at the third shot.

"I can see four more of them. We seem to have come to a nest of them, and the family are out for a morning airing," said Louis, as he picked up his rifle, while Felix was filling the other chambers with cartridges. "They have all started to go across the river."

"That must be the father of the family at the head of the procession,"

added the captain. "It is your turn now, Louis."

"Go ahead a little, Pitts," said the next one in turn; for the cook had taken the wheel while Clingman went to his morning meal. "I can't see his eye yet."

"That will do; stop her. I can see his eye now, and there is no reflection on the water."

As soon as the boat lost her headway, Louis fired. The saurian leaped nearly out of the water, and came down wrong side up. There were three dead reptiles lying on the water. It was the captain's next shot, and when he placed the yacht in a position to suit him he fired. The crocodile lifted his head out of the water, and did not move again.

"Bravo, Captain!" cried Louis. "You did not have a fair chance last time, and you have redeemed yourself."

"I thought I could shoot better than before, and now I feel better. But there are two more, and your turn, Morris."

He killed the game with the third shot, and Felix finished the last in sight with the second. Achang had brought out his formidable weapon, and the six dead reptiles were decapitated. The last three killed were each nine feet long, while the one Louis had shot was fourteen. The heads were all put in the sampan, and they made a full load for it. The Blanchita arrived at Kuching early in the afternoon, and the chief of police measured the heads, and took the figures from Felix. He made one hundred and eight feet of crocodile, which the official approved as correct, and paid not quite forty dollars for the bounty.

CHAPTER VI

THE VOYAGE UP THE SADONG TO SIMUJAN

The money received for the heads of the crocodiles was in the hands of Felix, who was the clerk of the captain on board the s.h.i.+p, and it was proper to make him purser of the Blanchita. What to do with it was the next question. Louis's advice was asked for, and he promptly suggested that it should be divided into ten parts, and a share given to all but himself; and this was done. He refused to accept a penny, but all the others received about four dollars apiece.

The money was all in silver, as it is all over India and the Archipelago for general use. The engineer and the seamen shared with the four hunters; for the former had done all the work and some of the shooting.

The steamer was made fast at the sh.o.r.e, and all hands except Pitts landed for a walk through the town. Their first visit was to a fruit-store kept by a Chinaman; and most of the shops in the place were in the hands of the Celestials.

Bananas and oranges were the princ.i.p.al, though there were also nearly all the tropical fruits in season. Many of the party purchased useful articles in other places. They had learned in Singapore and Batavia how to deal with Chinese traders, and they seldom gave even more than one-third or one-half of what was demanded. After diligent search Achang found a certain Dyak tool he wanted,--a sort of axe, which Lane, the carpenter's a.s.sistant, ridiculed without mercy.

The young men visited the English Mission, where they were kindly received, and went to the school. The American missionaries are also active in Borneo, and one of them has made a vocabulary of the Dyak language.

It was decided to start down the river the next morning on the way to the Sadong and Simujan Rivers, the latter being a branch of the former.

In the early morning, as the hands were casting off the fasts, two Malays came alongside in a sampan, and asked to be towed to the Sadong.

Achang had some talk with them, and made the request of the captain for them. He learned that they were engaged in the business of catching crocodiles for the reward.

"They don't shoot crocodiles, and they have no rifles," added Achang.

"How do they get them then?" asked Louis.

"They fish for them."

"What, with a hook and line?" demanded Captain Scott.

"With a line, but have no fish-hook," replied the Bornean. "You must see them catch one."

"All right," replied the captain; "we will tow them down the river."

After the yacht had been moving about an hour, they came to a colony of saurians apparently, for several of them were in sight at once. Achang directed the reptile-hunters to catch one of them, and they paddled their sampan towards a large one. The Blanchita kept near enough to enable all hands to witness the operation, which the Bornean described to them as the Malays made their preparations, for they had all their fis.h.i.+ng-gear in their boat.

The line they used was a rattan about forty feet long. At the "business end," as Scott called it, they attached a float to keep it on the top of the water. The steamer just crawled along on the river in order not to disturb the game, though the reptiles were accustomed to the sight of vessels.

"Now you see that stick the hunter has in his hand," said Achang, though each of them had one. "'Most a foot long, like a new moon."

"Crescent-shaped," added Louis.

"Called an _alir_ in Malay. Made of green wood, very tough, pointed at the ends; they fasten the rattan line to the middle of the stick."

Some tough green bark, braided together, was then wound around the stick so that the game could not bite it in two. A big fish for bait was then attached to the alir, and carefully fastened to it so that the reptile could not tear it off.

Thus prepared, the apparatus was thrown overboard, and the sampan paddled away from it to give the game an opportunity to approach it, the Malays each paying out his forty feet of line, one on each side of the boat. The spectators watched the result with great interest. As the sampan receded from the saurians, they approached the bait. Crocodiles and alligators do not nibble at their prey, but bolt it as a snake does a frog.

The bait nearest to the observers on the yacht was soon gobbled up by the hungry crocodile, who appeared not to have been to breakfast that morning; and the Malay at the other end of the line gave a sharp jerk to his gear, the effect of which was to draw the pointed crescent "athwart s.h.i.+ps," as the sailors would say, or across his stomach; and the harder it was pulled the more the pointed ends would penetrate the interior of the organ.

The first Malay had hardly hooked his game before the second had another ready to haul in. Both of the saurians struggled and lashed the dark water into a foam; but both of the men in the sampan kept the line as taut as they could with all their strength; and this is the rule in hauling in all gamey fish.