Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/206

188 paddles, and turned the canoe in the direction of the land, saying as he did so, "Ah, sir, how sorry I am for your ill luck!"

But the excitement was not quite over yet. "We were still some hundred yards from the shore, when Drahman cried out, "Tuan, Tuan, here he is, look, look!" and, turning our eyes in the direction he pointed, about three hundred yards to our right, Ave saw what looked like the trunk of a small tree floating on the surface of the lake. In a few minutes this object seemed to rise partially out of the water, and very soon the long jaws, head, and part of the body of an enormous alligator were clearly visible on its surface. The glance of his ugly pachyderm which he permitted us to have, however, was only momentary, for almost instantaneously he again dived down into the depths, and was lost to us for ever.

On landing, the boatman again expressed his sorrow for our bad luck, adding, by way of comforting