remarked to the old sailor.

"You are right, sir; I would rather have a stand up fight with the
Malays than trust myself for two minutes in this muddy water. Why,
they are worse than sharks, sir; a shark does hoist his fin as
a signal that he is cruising about, but these chaps come sneaking
along underneath the water, and the first you know about them is
that they have got you by the leg."

"Which is the worse, Davis, a bite from an alligator or a shark?"

"Well, as far as the bite goes, Mr. Parkhurst, the shark is the
worst. He will take your leg off, or a big 'un will bite a man in
two halves. The alligator don't go to work that way: he gets hold
of your leg, and no doubt he mangles it a bit; but he don't bite
right through the bone; he just takes hold of you and drags you
down to the bottom of the river, and keeps you there until you are
drowned; then he polishes you off at his leisure."

"The brutes!" Harry exclaimed, with deep emphasis. "See, the first
lieutenant has hit that big fellow there in the eye or the soft
skin behind the leg; anyhow, he has got it hard; look how he is
roaring and lashing his tail."

"What is the best way of killing them?" Dick asked.

"I have heard, sir, that in Africa the natives bait a big hook with
a lump of pork, or something of that sort; then, when an alligator
has swallowed it, they haul him up, holus bolus. I should say a
good plan to kill them would be with 'tricity. The last ship I was