I did not want to answer just then, but I did exactly as I was told,
dropping the rope and standing ready with my pole on one side, so as to
thrust it into the brute's mouth.
I did not have long to wait for my opportunity, and it was not the
alligator's fault that he did not get right hold, for through
nervousness, I suppose, I thrust short, and the jaws came together with
an ugly snap that was startling.
"Never mind; try again; quick, my lad, or he'll get away back to the
hole."
To prevent this Morgan made a rush, and gave the brute a sounding thwack
with his broken pole, sufficiently hard to make it turn in another
direction, when, thoroughly excited now, I made a poke at it with the
pole, and it snapped at it viciously.
I made another and another, and then the teeth closed upon the end, and
the pole quivered in my grasp.
"Well done! Brave lad!" shouted Morgan, for he did not know I was all
of a tremble. "That's the way; hold on, and keep him thinking about you
just a moment. Pull! Let go! Pull again!"
As he gave me these directions, he got the end of the pole from me for a
moment so as to pass the noose of the rope he had picked up over it, and
then once more shouting to me to pull, he boldly ran the wide noose down
over the pole; and as the brute saw him so near, it loosed its hold to
make a fierce snap; but Morgan was too quick for the creature, and
leaped away with a shout of triumph, tightening the rope, which was
right round the reptile's neck, and running and passing the other end
about a tree.
"Got him now," panted Morgan, as the alligator thrashed at the rope with
its tail, and tugged and strained with all its might, but of course only
tightening the noose with every effort.
"Yes," I said, breathlessly, as I stood now well out of danger; "we've
got him now."
"Yes, we've got him now," said Morgan again, as we made the end of the
rope fast to a branch. "That would hold one twice as big. Let's see;
'bout how long is he?"
"Seven feet," I said, making a rapid guess.
"Well," said Morgan, in a slow, hesitating way; "here, hi! Keep your
tail still, will you, while you're being measured."
But the reptile seemed to thrash all the harder, dragging the noose
tight, and flogging at the rope in a way which promised, if time enough
was given, to wear it through.
"Oh, well, if you won't, I must guess. Yes, sir, he's quite seven feet
long--nearer eight; but he must be pretty young, for he's a lean,
lizardly-looking brute. Not nice things to tackle, are they? Look ye
here at the marks of his teeth."
As he said this, Morgan held up his broken pole, first one piece then
the other. "I say, Master George, he can nip. If that had been your
leg or my arm, we should have wanted a bit or two of sticking-plaster,
even if we hadn't had the bone cracked in two."
"It's a horribly ugly brute," I said, as I approached it a little
nearer, and examined it by the warm ruddy glow which shone down here and
there into the gloomy swamp forest.
"Yes; his mother ought to be very proud of him," said Morgan, laughing;
"wonder what his brothers and sisters are like. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
"What are you laughing at?" I said.
"I was only thinking, Master George. The idea of me coming out of
Carnarvonshire across the sea to find things like that!"
"Yes; it's different to home," I said.
"This is home," replied Morgan, stolidly--"home now. I've set and
tended many a lot of eggs; but I say, Master George, only think of a
thing like that coming out of a new-laid egg. Do rattlesnakes!"
I could not help smiling at the idea, but my face felt strange, and
there was a twitching about my temples as the last words fell upon my
ears.
"Halloa! What's the matter, lad?"
"You--you said rattlesnakes," I whispered hoarsely.
"Well, what of it? This is 'gator country. Rattlesnakes, they tell me,
likes the high, dry, hot, stony places."
"Yes--father said so," I replied in a whisper, as I looked cautiously
round.
"Well then, what are you looking for?"
"Indians," I whispered, for I had recalled how the savages had
surrounded us while our attention was taken up by the last noxious
creature we had attacked.
At my words Morgan made a bound, and then began to move past a tree.
But he stopped short, and returned to my side, looking wildly round the
while.
"See 'em--see any of 'em?" he whispered.
"No; but suppose they have stolen upon us again as they did before!"
"Yah! What do you mean by frightening a man? I teclare to cootness
it's too bad of you, Master George."
I smiled once more, for Morgan's speech had sounded very droll and
Welsh, as it often was when he grew excited.
"You tit it to scare me," he said, angrily.
"Indeed, no."
"Yes, inteet," he said; "and look you--I say, Master George, was it
meant for a choke?"
"Indeed, no, Morgan; I really felt startled."
"Then it's all right," he said. "There's none of 'em here, so let's get
home."
"But what are you going to do with the alligator?"
"Eh? Oh, I never thought of that. I wanted to catch him so that you
might have a bit of fun."
"But now we have caught him?"
"Well, dunno, my lad. Might take him home and chain him up. Turn down
a barrel to make him a kennel; he can bark."
"Oh, nonsense! We can't do that."
"He's no good to eat, though they say the savages eat 'em. Here, I
know; let's take him home, and ask master what's to be done with him."
"Take him home?" I faltered.
"Ay, to be sure. I'll lead him by the string, and you can come behind
and give him a poke with the pole when he won't go. Ought by rights to
have two ropes, like they do at home with a vicious cow; then when he
ran at me, you could pull; and when he ran at you, I could pull him
back."
"But we haven't two ropes. That isn't long enough to cut, and I can't
stop him if he runs at you."
"Might pull his tail," said Morgan.
"Ugh!" I ejaculated, as I recalled the use the creature could make of
it, giving blows that I knew would knock me off my feet.
"Well then, I tell you what; let's leave him tied up as he is, and get
back. The master will be wondering where we are, and fancying all sorts
of trouble."
"Seems cruel," I said. "The creature will be strangled."
"Not he. If he does, he'll strangle himself. I never feel very
merciful to things that go about doing all the harm they can as long as
they live. Say, shall I kill him at once?"
"No; let's leave him, and see what my father says."
Morgan examined the knot he had made, and then started away, for the
reptile made a lash at him with its tail, and in retort he took out his
big-bladed knife, opened it, and held it out threateningly.
"It's all very well, look you," he said; "but if you'd hit me with that
tail of yours, I'd have had it off as sure as you're alive."
It was Morgan's farewell to the alligator as we turned off with our
poles, broken and sound, and hurried back to find my father with a gun
over his arm, fast coming in search of us.