around him. Then he again turned towards the canoe, and seemed to leap
rather than swim, in his eagerness to reach it. A second bolt, fired
with even greater haste than the first, missed the panther entirely, and
the boys were about to plunge from the opposite side of the canoe into
the water, in their despair, when an almost unheard-of thing occurred to
effect their deliverance.

Just as one more leap would have brought the panther within reach of the
canoe, a huge, dark form rose from the red waters behind him, and a pair
of horrid jaws opened, and then closed like a vice upon one of his
hind-quarters. The panther uttered a wild yell, made a convulsive spring
forward, his claws rattled against the side of the canoe, and then the
waters closed above his head, and he was dragged down into the dark
depths of the stream, to the slimy home of the great alligator, who had
thus delivered the boys from their peril. A few bubbles coming up
through the crimson waters told of the terrible struggle going on beneath
them, and then all was still, and the stream flowed on as undisturbed as
before. For a few moments the boys sat gazing in silent amazement at the
place of the sudden disappearance of their enemy, hardly believing that
he would not again return to the attack.

When they had regained the fort, Laudonniere heard with horror Réné's
story of their adventure with the tiger and the crocodile, as he named
panthers and alligators, and bade him be very careful in the future how
he wandered in the wilderness. He did not forbid his nephew to associate
with Has-se, for he was most anxious to preserve a friendship with the
Indians, upon whom his little colony was largely dependent for
provisions, and he considered Réné's influence with the Indian lad who
was the son of the chief very important.