"Boyah besar!" (A royal crocodile) repeated our Malays under their breaths.
The Chief Justice and I fired at the same time, and the massive fellow who, but a moment before, had looked to be as stiff and clumsy as a bar of pig iron, now seemed to be made of india-rubber and steel springs. I should not have been more surprised had the great timboso tree, beside which he lay, arisen and danced a jig. He seemed to spring from the middle up into the air without the aid of either his head or his tail. Then he brought his tail around in a circle and struck the skeleton roots of the mangrove with such force as to dislodge a small monkey in its top, which fell whistling with fright into the lower limbs, while the crocodile's great jaws, which seemed to measure a third of his length, opened and shut viciously, snapping off limbs and roots like straws.
"He sick!" shouted the Chief Justice. "Fire quick."
I threw the cartridge from the magazine into the barrel, and raised the gun to my shoulder just as the huge saurian struck the water. My bullet caught him underneath, near the back legs. My companion's must have had more effect, for the crocodile stopped as though stunned. I had time to drop my gun and snatch up my revolver.
It was an easy shot. The bullet sped true to its mark and entered one of the small fiery eyes. The huge frame seemed to quiver as though a charge of electricity had gone through it and then stiffened out,--dead.
Our Malay boys got a rope of tough gamooty fibres around the great head, and we towed our prize out into the stream just as the Resident's launch, bearing the Prince and the ladies, steamed up the river to watch the sport.
A crowd of servants got the crocodile up on the bank near the palace grounds and drew it two hundred yards to their quarters. Now comes the strangest part of the story.
My servants had half completed the task of skinning him, for I wished to send his hide to the Smithsonian, when the muezzin sounded the call to prayers from the little mosque near by. In an instant the devout Mohammedans were on their faces and the crocodile in his half-skinned state was left until a more convenient time. At six o'clock the next morning I was awakened by a knock at my door:--