"Hold on!" cried the doctor suddenly. "I'm going to loose him."

"No, no!" panted Jack, with a horrified look; but the doctor did loose his hold and caught up his gun.

"Now, then," he cried. "All together. Haul with all your might."

We obeyed, and though we were for the moment mastered we gave a good swing again, and it seemed as if Jack Penny must be dragged in two.

It was like playing a game of French and English, and we were in danger of getting the worst of it. We saw what the doctor wanted, and that was to get the reptile so near the surface that he could fire; but as soon as we got poor Jack nearly ash.o.r.e the creature gave a tremendous tug, making the water swirl and the mud and sand from the bottom rise in clouds.

This went on for five minutes, during which we were striving with all our might, when I nearly loosed my hold, for Jack said in a low despairing tone of voice:

"Joe Carstairs, don't let him have me till you've shot me first."

I held fast though, and the fight went on, till, just as we were beginning to despair, the reptile came nearer to the surface, the ugly protuberances over its eyes were level with the water, and, bending down, the doctor reached out with his gun in one hand, held the muzzle close to the creature's eye, and fired.

There was a tremendous sputter and we were nearly forced to leave go, but the next moment there was no resistance but weight, and we drew Jack and his aggressor, a crocodile about ten feet long, right up to the bank, the monster's jaws, which had closed over one of Jack's stoutly booted feet, remaining fast, though the upper part of its head was all blown away.

"Dat a big bunyip," cried Jimmy, forcing the end of his spear through the reptile's jaws and trying to push them open, which he did with his companion's help, and Jack Penny was free to limp feebly for a few yards, and sink down amongst the reeds.

Jimmy did not seem in the least afraid of the bunyip now, for hacking off a long lithe cane he put it over the reptile's jaw, and, twisting it tightly rope-fashion, he and Ti-hi dragged it right away from the water, and, avoiding the frantic lashings of its tail, they turned it over with their spears, used like levers, and kept on stabbing it in its tender underparts until it ceased to struggle, when Jimmy turned it over again and began to perform a triumphant war-dance on its back.

Meanwhile poor Jack Penny, who had been nearly speechless, began to revive.

"That's better," said the doctor. "Now let me look at your foot."

"Has he bit it right off?" said Jack faintly. "I can't feel it. Just when I needed it so badly, too!"

"Bit it off! No!" I cried. "Is it much hurt, doctor?"

"I can't tell till I have unlaced his boot," he replied. "Tell me if I hurt you much, my lad."

"It don't hurt," said Jack faintly. "I can't feel at all."

It was rather hard work to get the boot off; but at last it was free, and the doctor inspected a double row of red spots, two of which bled a little, but not much.

"I'm beginning to feel now," said Jack dolefully. "Why, he ain't bit it off!" he said, raising himself so that he could look down at the injured member. "I thought it was gone."

"No; your foot has only had an ugly pinch; the stout boot saved it. Let it bleed a little, my lad; it will save you pain."

"What! had he only got hold of my boot?" said Jack excitedly.

"And the foot in it," said the doctor. "See, here are the marks of the teeth."

"I thought he'd bit it right off, Joe Carstairs," said Jack dolefully.

"An' I say, what a coward I am!"

"Coward!" I exclaimed. "Why?"

"To be so frightened as I was," replied Jack, with a dismal sigh.

"Well, I don't know about being a coward, Master Jack Penny," said the doctor quietly; "but I do know that if I had had my foot in that reptile's mouth I should have been in a most horrible state of fear.

There, my lad," he continued kindly, "don't think any more about it, only to be thankful for your escape."

"But he ought to tell us first how he was caught like that," I said.

"Oh, there ain't much to tell," said Jack, sitting up and raising his leg, and softly rubbing his injured foot. "I was fishing, and the fish wouldn't bite, and I got a little nearer to the river side and threw in again and fished; and the sun seemed to get hotter, and I suppose I fell asleep, for I remember dreaming that the dingoes had got among father's sheep again, and that he flicked his whip-lash round my wrist. Then I tried to start up, but a big fish had hold of the line, and it tugged away so hard that I was overbalanced, and took a header off the bank right into the river; and when I came up, pretty tidy astonished like, and began to swim for the bank, the fish on the line, which I had twisted round my wrist, began tugging me out into the stream. It took me out ever so far before I could get the line off my wrist; and then I swam easily back, feeling awful popped like at having lost the fish and the line; and I was just wondering what you would say, when all at once there was a regular rush in the water, and something shut on my foot, giving me such an awful nip that I yelled out as I caught hold of that branch, and held on, shivering all the while with fear, for I forgot about the crocodiles, and thought it must be a shark."

"Well!" I said, excitedly; for he stopped.

"Well, what?" said Jack.

"What next? What did you do?" I said.

"Hollered!" replied Jack laconically. "So would you if you had been me."

"Yes," I said, "of course; but what took place next?"

"Oh, nothing; only that I held tight and he held tight, and as often as he tugged at me it jumped the bough up and down like a see-saw, and it was very horrid."

"Most horrible!" said the doctor.

"Then I hollered again," said Jack.

"Yes; go on!" I cried impatiently.

"I did go on," he replied. "I went on hollering, but them chaps at the camp were asleep, and I began to feel that I should have to let go soon; only I wouldn't, because I wanted to find out first what had become of the professor. Then at last you came, and that's all; only I don't feel much like walking very far to-day, so I shall sit still and fish."

"Fish! what, with things like that in the water?" I exclaimed.

"Oh! they won't hurt me," said Jack; "because I shall be on the look-out now, and won't go in after the next fish that takes my line. I say, where's Gyp?"

"I don't know," I said. "I have not seen him."

"Crocodiles are very fond of dogs," said Jack quietly. "I hope one of 'em hasn't got Gyp."

"Oh, no! he'd be too sharp for one of the reptiles," said the doctor rea.s.suringly.

"I don't know," said Jack in his quiet drawl. "I thought I was much too clever for crocodiles; but they're sharp--precious sharp about the teeth. Perhaps he's gone hunting something. He often used at home."

"Oh, yes; he'll come back," I said.

"Well, we shall see," said Jack. "I'm better now. Lend me another line, Joe Carstairs. I want to see if I can't catch a fish."

I looked about first to see if I could trace my line, but it was hopelessly gone. To my surprise and pleasure, though, I found the doctor's where he had left it, tied to a root and drawn out tight, evidently with a fish at the end.

I imagined that I could easily draw this out, and I did get it close up to the bank, but as soon as it was in the shallow water it sprang right out and darted away again, making the line rush through my hands so rapidly that it burned my skin.

As it leaped out I had a good opportunity of seeing that a great silvery fellow, fully a yard long, had hooked itself, and meant to have some playing before it turned over upon its side in token of submission.