Thus we appeared, I riding the crocodile like a horse and stabbing furiously, while close by was Bes rolling his yellow eyes but helpless, for he had no weapon. Still the devil was not dead although blood streamed from him, only mad with pain and rage. Nor could the shouting Ethiopians help me since they had only bows and dared not shoot lest their shafts should pierce me. The crocodile began to sink again, snapping furiously at my legs. Then I bethought me of a trick I had seen practised by natives on the Nile.
Waiting till its huge jaws were open I thrust my arm between them, grasping the short sword in such fashion that the hilt rested on its tongue and the point against the roof of its mouth. It tried to close its jaws and lo! the good iron was fixed between them, holding them wide open. Then I withdrew my hand and floated upwards with nothing worse than a cut upon the wrist from one of its sharp fangs. I appeared upon the surface and after me the crocodile spouting blood and wallowing in its death agonies. I remembered no more till I found myself lying on the bank surrounded by a multitude with Bes standing over me. Also in the shallow water was the crocodile dead, my sword still fixed between its jaws.
“Are you harmed, Master” cried Bes in a voice of agony.
“Very little I think,” I answered, sitting up with the blood pouring from my arm.
Bes thrust aside Karema who had come lightly clothed from her tent, saying,
“All is well, Wife. I will bring you the lilies presently.”
Then he flung his arms about me, kissed my hands and my brow and turning to the crowd, shouted,
“Last night you were disputing as to whether this Egyptian lord should be allowed to dwell with me in the land of Ethiopia. Which of you disputes it now?”
“No one!” they answered with a roar. “He is not a man but a god. No man could have done such a deed.”
“So it seems,” answered Bes quietly. “At least none of you even tried to do it. Yet he is not a god but only that kind of man who is called a hero. Also he is my brother, and while I reign in Ethiopia either he shall reign at my side, or I go away with him.”
“It shall be so, Karoon!” they shouted with one voice. And after this I was carried back to the tent.