THE WILY CROCODILE 125 noted by these seemingly sluggish creatures. Again, I have sat as still as a rock to the leeward of buck without being discovered. So, as the crocodile here were numerous and large, I determined to stalk them. To show oneself, or merely one's head, at the edge of the bank was the inevitable signal for a rushing dispersal into the pool-waters below. So I chose the cover of a thick tree, overhanging the water at a height of 30 feet, at a spot where, over a distance of 300 yards on the sandy shore 80 yards opposite, were a dozen or more reptiles, two lying directly in front of me.

Hidden by the foliage, I crawled inch by inch, worming along prone under the cover of the thick tree-trunk, so that at no time could more than a portion of my helmeted head have shown over the edge of the bank amongst the leaves. They were also to windward, so no question of their powers of scent came in. Yet nine -tenths of them, firstly the most distant, and all apparently sleeping, detected the movement, slight and slow as it was, had divined it to be due to no other creature than man, and had crawled into cover.

Only the two which were hidden entirely by the tree-trunk remained, and a bullet went plumb into the neck of the nearer ; his enormous jaws opened wide, his tail moved convulsively, taking him just into the water, where he lay still in the shallows.

This day was a day of disasters. All sportsmen must have such in their memories, when the illchance of circumstance seems to prevail. But