"Hear me, Virgine, dear sister! For Heaven's sake, come out! come--"
There was a sudden cessation of the merry tones; then came a short sharp
ejaculation, followed almost instantaneously by a wild scream. I
perceived that neither was a reply to my appeal. I had called out in a
tone of entreaty sufficient to have raised apprehension; but the voices
that now reached me were uttered in accents of terror. In my sister's
voice I heard the words:
"See, Viola! O mercy--the monster! Ha! he is coming this way! O
mercy! Help, George, help! Save--save me!"
Well knew I the meaning of the summons; too well could I comprehend the
half-coherent words, and the continued screaming that succeeded them.
"Sister, I come, I come!"
Quick as thought, I dashed forward, breaking through the boughs that
still intercepted my view.
"Oh, perhaps I shall be too late! She screams in agony; she is already
in the grasp of the alligator?"
A dozen bounds carried me clear of the grove; and, gliding along the
embankment of the turtle-crawl, I stood by the edge of the tank. A
fearful tableau was before me.
My sister was near the centre of the basin, swimming towards the edge.
There stood the quadroon--knee deep--screeching and flinging her arms
frantically in the air. Beyond, appeared the gigantic lizard; his whole
body, arms, hands, and claws clearly traceable in the pellucid water,
above the surface of which rose the scaly serrature of his back and
shoulders. His snout and tail projected still higher; and with the
latter he was lashing the water into white froth, that already mottled
the surface of the pond. He was not ten feet from his intended victim.
His gaunt jaws almost touched the green baize skirt that floated
train-like behind her. At any moment, he might have darted forward and
seized her.
My sister was swimming with all her might. She was a capital swimmer;
but what could it avail? Her bathing-dress was impeding her; but what
mattered that? The alligator might have seized her at any moment; with
a single effort, could have caught her, and yet he had not made it.
I wondered why he had not; I wondered that he still held back. I wonder
to this hour, for it is not yet explained. I can account for it only on
one supposition: that he felt that his victim was perfectly within his
power; and as the cat cajoles with the mouse, so was he indulging in the
plenitude of his tyrant strength.
These observations were made in a single second of time--while I was
cocking my rifle.
I aimed, and fired. There were but two places where the shot could have
proved fatal--the eye or behind the forearm. I aimed for the eye. I
hit the shoulder; but from that hard corrugated skin, my bullet glinted
as from a granite rock. Among the rhomboid protuberances it made a
whitish score, and that was all.
The play of the monster was brought to a termination. The shot appeared
to have given him pain. At all events, it roused him to more earnest
action, and perhaps impelled him to the final spring. He made it the
instant after.
Lashing the water with his broad tail--as if to gain impetus--he darted
forward; his huge jaw hinged vertically upward, till the red throat
showed wide agape; and the next moment the floating skirt--and oh! the
limbs of my sister, were in his horrid gripe!
I plunged in, and swam towards them. The gun I still carried in my
grasp. It hindered me. I dropped it to the bottom, and swam on.
I caught Virgine in my arms. I was just in time, for the alligator was
dragging her below.
With all my strength, I held her up. It needed all to keep us above the
surface. I had no weapon; and if I had been armed, I could not have
spared a hand to strike.
I shouted with all my voice, in the hope of intimidating the assailant,
and causing him to let go his hold. It was to no purpose: he still held
on.