THE GREEN CROCODILE
_Cala cala_, as they say, seven brothers lived near the creek of the
Green One. It was not called the creek of the Green One in those far-off
days, for the monstrous thing had no existence.
And the seven brothers had seven wives who were sisters, and it would
appear from the legend that these seven wives were unfaithful to their
husbands, and upon a certain night in the full of the moon, the brothers
returning from an expedition into the forest, discovered the extent of
their infamy, and they tied the sisters together, the wrists of one to
the ankles of the other, and they led them to the stream, and no sooner
had they disappeared beneath the black waters than there was almighty
splashing and bubbling of water, and there came crawling from the place
where the unfaithful wives had sunk so terrible a monster that the seven
brothers fled in fear.
This was the Green One, with his long ugly snout, cold, vicious eyes,
and his great clawed feet. Some say that these women had been changed by
magic into the Crocodile of the Pool, and many people believe this and
speak of the Green One in the plural.
Certain it is, that this terrible crocodile lived through the ages--none
hunting her, she was left in indisputable possession of the flat
sand-bank wherein to lay her eggs, and ranged the sandy shore of the
creek undisturbed.
She was regarded with awe; sacrifices, living and dead, were offered to
her from time to time, and sometimes a cripple or two was knocked on the
head and left by the water's edge for her pleasure. She was indeed a
veritable scavenger of crime for the neighbouring villages about, and
earned some sort of respect, for, as the saying went:
"Sandi does not speak the language of the Green One."
Sometimes M'zooba would go afield, leaving the quietude of the creek and
the pool, which was her own territory, for the more adventurous life of
the river, and here one day she lay, the whole of her body submerged and
only her wicked eyes within an eighth of an inch of the water's surface,
when a timorous young roebuck came picking a cautious way through the
forest across the open plantations to the water's edge. He stopped from
time to time apprehensively, trembling in every limb at the slightest
sound, looking this way and that, then taking a few more steps and again
searching the cruel world for danger before he reached the water's edge.
Then, after a final look round, he lowered his soft muzzle to the cool
waters. Swift as lightning the Green One flashed her long snout out of
the water, and gripped the tender head of the buck. Ruthlessly she
pulled, dragging the struggling deer after her till first its neck and
then its shoulders, then finally the last frantic waving stump of its
white tail went under the dark waters.
Out in midstream a white little boat was moving steadily up the river
and on the awning-shaded bridge an indignant young man witnessed the
tragedy. The Green One had her larder under a large shelving rock half a
dozen feet beneath the water. Into this cavity her long hard nose flung
her dead victim, and her four powerful hands covered the entrance to the
water cave with sand and rock. More than satisfied with her morning's
work, the Green One came to the surface of the water to bask in the
glowing warmth of the morning sunlight.
She took a survey upon the world, made up of low-lying shores and a hot
blue sky. She saw a river, broad and oily, and a strange white object
which she had seen often before smoking towards her.
And that was the last thing she ever saw; for Bones, on the bridge of
the _Zaire_, squinted along the sights of his Express and pressed the
trigger. Struck in the head by an explosive bullet, the Green One went
out in a flurry of stormy water.
"Thus perish all rotten old crocodiles," said Bones, immensely pleased
with himself, and he placed the rifle on the rack.
"What the devil are you shooting at, so early in the morning?" asked
Hamilton.
He came out in his pyjamas, sun helmet on his head, pliant mosquito
boots reaching to his knees.
"A crocodile, sir," said Bones.
"Why waste good ammunition on crocodiles?" asked Hamilton; "was it
something exceptional?"
"A tremendous chap, sir," said the enthusiastic Bones, "some fifty feet
long, and as green as----"
"As green!" repeated Hamilton quickly, "where are we?"
He looked with a swift glance along the shore for landmarks.
"I hope to goodness you have not shot old M'zooba," he said.
"I don't know your friend by name," said Bones, "but why shouldn't I
shoot him?"
"Because, you silly ass," said Hamilton, "she is a sort of sacred
crocodile."
"She was never so sacred as she is now, sir, for:
"She's flapping her wings in the crocodile heaven," said Bones,
flippantly; "for I'm one of those dead shots--once I draw a bead on an
animal----"
"Get out a canoe and set the woodmen to dive for the Green One," said
Hamilton to his orderly, for a shot crocodile invariably sinks to the
bottom and can only be recovered by diving.
They brought it to the surface, and Hamilton groaned.
"It is M'zooba," he said in resigned exasperation. "Oh, Bones, what an
ass you are!"
Bones said nothing, but walked to the stern of the ship and lowered the
blue ensign to half-mast--a piece of impertinence which Hamilton did not
discover till a long time afterwards.
Now whatever might be the desire or wish of Hamilton, and however much
he might on ordinary occasions depend upon the loyalty of his warders
and his men, in this matter of the green crocodile he was entirely at
their mercy, for he could not call them together asking them to speak no
death of the Green One without magnifying the importance of Lieutenant
Tibbetts' rash act. The only attitude he could adopt was to treat the
Green One and her untimely end as something which was in the day's work
neither to be lamented nor acclaimed, and when, at the first village, a
doleful deputation, comprising a worried chief and a sulky witch doctor,
called upon him to bemoan the tragedy, he treated the matter with great
joviality.
"For what is a crocodile more or less in this river?" he asked.
"Lord, this was no crocodile," said the witch doctor, "but a very
reverend ghost, and it has been our Ju-ju for many years, bringing us
good crops and fair weather for our goodness, and has eaten up all the
devils and sickness which came to our villages. Now it is gone nothing
but ill fortune can come to us."
"Bugobo," said Hamilton, "you talk like a foolish one, for how may a
crocodile who does not leave the water, and moreover is evil and old, a
stealer of women and children and dangerous to your goats, how can this
thing bring good fortune to any people?"
"How can the river run, lord?" replied the man, "and yet it does."
Hamilton thought for a moment.
"Now I tell you this, and you shall say to all people who ask you, that
by my magic I will bring another green one to this stream, greater and
larger than the one who has gone, and she shall be ju-ju for all men."
"And now," he said to Bones, when the deputation had left, "it is up to
you to go out and find a nice, respectable crocodile to take the place
of the lady you have so light-heartedly destroyed."
Bones gasped.
"Dear old feller," he said feebly, "the habits and customs of fauna of
this land are entirely beyond me. I will fetch you a crocodile, sir,
with the greatest of pleasure, although as far as I know there is
nothing laid down in the King's regulations of the warrants for pay and
promotion defining the catching of crocodiles as part of an officer's
duty."
Hamilton made no further move towards replacing the lost Spirit of the
Pool until he learnt that his offer had been taken very seriously, and
that the coming of the great new Green One to the pool, was a subject of
discussion up and down the river.
Now here is a fact which official records go to substantiate. Although
the "Reports of the Territories" take no cognizance of ghosts and
spirits and other occult influence, dealing rather with such mundane
facts as the condition of crops and the discipline of the races, yet the
reports of that particular year in this one district made gloomy reading
both for Hamilton and for the Administrator in his far-off stone house.
Though the crops throughout the whole of the country were good that
Hamilton was apprehensive about the consequences--for men fight better
with a full larder behind them--yet in this immediate neighbourhood of
the pool, within its sphere of influence, so to speak, the crops failed
miserably, and the fish which haunt the shallow stream beneath the big
stream near the channel took it into their silly heads to migrate to
other distant waters. Here, then, was the consequence of Bones' murder
demonstrated to a most alarming extent. There was a blight in the
potatoes; the maize crop, for some unaccountable reason, was a meagre
one; there were three unexpected cases of sleeping sickness followed by
madness in an interior village, and, crowning disaster of all, one of
those sudden storms which sweep across the river came upon the village,
and lightning struck the huts.
"My son," said Hamilton, when they brought the news to him, "you have
got to go out and find a green crocodile, quick."
So Bones went up the river with the naphtha launch, leaving to Hamilton
the delicate task of finding a natural explanation for all the horrors
which had come upon the unfortunate people.
Green crocodiles are rare even on the great river which had half a
million other kinds of crocodiles to its credit, for green is both a
sign of age, and by common report indicative of cannibalistic
tendencies.
In whatever veneration the Green One of the Pool might be held, such
respect did not extend to other parts of the river, where the green ones
were sought out and slain in their early youth. Bones spent an exciting
seven days chasing, lassoing and, at tunes in self-defence, shooting at
great reptiles without getting any nearer to the object of his search.
"Ahmet," said he, in despair, "it seems that there are no green
crocodiles on this river."
"Lord, there are very few," admitted the man; "for the people kill green
crocodiles owing to their evil influence."
At every village there was news for Bones which lightened his heart.
Some one had seen such a monster, it lived in a pool or lorded some
creek, generally only get-at-able in a canoe; and here Bones, with his
Houssas, would wait smoking furiously, with baited lines cunningly laid
from thick underbrush or some tethered goat, bleating invitingly on the
banks. But never once did the hunter catch so much as a glimpse of
green. There were yellow crocodiles, grey crocodiles, crocodiles the
colour of the sand, or the dark brown bed of the river, but nothing
which by any stretch of imagination could be called green.
And urgent messages came to Bones. The _Zaire_ itself, in charge of
Abiboo, came steaming up carrying a letter filled with unnecessary
abuse, for Hamilton was getting rattled by the extraordinary
manifestations which he received every day of the potency of this slain
monster. Bones sent the sergeant back in the launch with an
insubordinate message, and commandeered the _Zaire_ with her superior
accommodation for himself.
"There is only one thing to do," he said, "and that is to consult jolly
old Bosambo."
So he put the head of the _Zaire_ to the Ochori country, and on the
second day arrived at the city.
"Lord," said Bosambo, loftily, "crocodiles I have by thousands."
"Green ones?" asked Bones anxiously.
"Lord, of every colour," said Bosambo, "blue or green or red, even
golden crocodiles have I in my splendid river. But they will cost great
money because they are very cunning, and my hunters of crocodiles are
independent men who do not care to work."
Bones dried up the flood of eloquence quickly.
"O Bosambo," said he, "there is no money for this palaver, but a green
crocodile I must have because the evil people of the Lower Isisi say I
have put a spell on their land because I slew the Green One, M'zooba,
also this crocodile must I have before the moon is due. My Lord
M'ilitani has sent me many powerful messages to this effect."
This was another matter, and Bosambo looked dubious.
"Lord," said he, "what manner of green was this crocodile, for I never
saw it?"
Bones looked round.
Neither the green of the trees he saw, nor the green of the grass
underfoot, nor the green of the elephant grass growing strongly on the
river's edge, nor the tender green of the high trees above, nor the
tender green of the young Isisi palms; and yet the exact shade of green
it was necessary to secure. He ransacked all his books, turned over all
his possessions and Hamilton's too, in an endeavour to match the
crocodile. There was a suit of pyjamas of Hamilton's which had a stripe
very near, but not quite.
"O Ahmet," said Bones at last in desperation, "go to the storeman, and
let him bring all the paints he has so that I may show Bosambo a certain
colour."
They found the exact shade at last on a ten-pound tin of Aspinall
enamels, and Bosambo thought long.
"Lord," said he, "I think I know where I may find just such a crocodile
as you want."
Late that night Bones met Bosambo before his hut in a long and earnest
palaver, and an hour before dawn he went out with Bosambo and his
huntsmen, and was pulled to a certain creek in the Ochori land which is
notorious for the size and strength of its crocodiles.
II
No doubt but Hamilton had a serious task before him, for although the
grievance which he had to allay was limited to the restricted area over
which the spirit of M'zooba brooded, yet the people of the crocodile
had many sympathizers who resented as bitterly as the affected parties
this interference with what Downing Street called "local religious
customs."
A wholly unauthorized palaver was held in the forest which was attended
by delegations from the Akasava and the N'gombi, and spies brought the
news to Hamilton that the little witch doctors were going through the
villages carrying stories of desolation which had come as the result of
M'zooba's death.
The palaver Hamilton dispensed with some brusqueness. Twenty soldiers
and a machine gun were uninvited guests to the gathering, and the
meeting retired in disorder. Two of the witch doctors Hamilton's men
caught. One he flogged with all the village looking on, and the other he
sent to the Village of Irons for twelve months.
And all the time he spoke of the newer green one which was coming, which
his magic would invoke, and which would surely appear "tied by one leg"
to a stake near the pool, for all men to see.
He founded a sect of new-green-one worshippers (quite unwittingly). It
needed only the corporeal presence of his novel deity to wipe out the
feelings of distrust which violence had not wholly dispelled.
Day after day passed, but no word came from Bones, and Captain Hamilton
cursed his subordinate, his subordinate's relations, and all the cruelty
of fate which brought Bones into his command. Then, unexpectantly, the
truant arrived, arrived proud and triumphant in the early morning
before Hamilton was awake. He sneaked into the village so quietly that
even the Houssa sentry who dozed across the threshold of Hamilton's hut
was not aware of his return; and silently, with fiercely whispered
injunctions, so that the surprise should be all the more complete, Bones
landed his unruly cargo, its feet chained, his great muzzle lassoed and
bound with raw hide, its powerful and damaging tail firmly fixed between
two planks of wood (a special idea for which Bones was responsible).
Then Lieutenant Tibbetts went to the hut of his chief and woke him.
"So here you are, are you?" said Hamilton.
"I am here," said Bones with trembling pride, so that Hamilton knew his
subordinate had been successful; "according to your instructions, sir, I
have captured the green crocodile. He is of monstrous size, and vastly
superior to your partly-worn lady friend. Also," he said, "as per your
instructions, conveyed to me in your letter dated the twenty-third
instant, I have fastened same by right leg in the vicinity of the pool;
at least," he corrected carefully, "he was fastened, but owing to
certain technical difficulties he slipped cable, so to speak, and is
wallowing in his native element."
"You are not rotting, Bones, are you?" asked Hamilton, busy with his
toilet.
"Perfectly true and sound, sir, I never rot," said Bones stiffly; "give
me a job of work to do, give me a task, put me upon my metal, sir, and
with the assistance of jolly old Bosambo----"
"Is Bosambo in this?"
Bones hesitated.
"He assisted me very considerably, sir," he said; "but, so to speak, the
main idea was mine."
The chief's drum summoned the villages to the palaver house, but the
news had already filtered through the little township, and a crowd had
gathered waiting eagerly to hear the message which Hamilton had to give
them.
"O people," he said, addressing them from the hill of palaver, "all I
have promised you I have performed. Behold now in the pool--and you
shall come with me to see this wonder--is one greater than M'zooba, a
vast and splendid spirit which shall protect your crops and be as
M'zooba was, and better than was M'zooba. All this I have done for you."
"Lord Tibbetti has done for you," prompted Bones, in a hoarse whisper.
"All this have I done for you," repeated Hamilton firmly, "because I
love you."
He led the way through the broad, straggling plantation to the great
pool which begins in a narrow creek leading from the river and ends in a
sprawl of water to the east of the village.
The whole countryside stood about watching the still water, but nothing
happened.
"Can't you whistle him and make him come up or something?" asked
Hamilton.
"Sir," said an indignant Bones, "I am no crocodile tamer; willing as I
am to oblige you, and clever as I am with parlour tricks, I have not
yet succeeded in inducing a crocodile to come to heel after a week's
acquaintance."
But native people are very patient.
They stood or squatted, watching the unmoved surface of the water for
half an hour, and then suddenly there was a stir and a little gasp of
pleasurable apprehension ran through the assembly.
Then slowly the new one came up. He made for a sand-bank, which showed
above the water in the centre of the pool; first his snout, then his
long body emerged from the water, and Hamilton gasped.
"Good heavens, Bones!" he said in a startled whisper, and his
astonishment was echoed from a thousand throats.
And well might he be amazed at the spectacle which the complacent Bones
had secured for him.
For this great reptile was more than green, he was a green so vivid that
it put the colours of the forest to shame. A bright, glittering green
and along the centre of his broad back one zig-zag splash of orange.
"Phew," whistled Hamilton, "this is something like."
The roar of approval from the people was unmistakable. The crocodile
turned his evil head and for a moment, as it seemed to Bones, his eyes
glinted viciously in the direction of the young and enterprising
officer. And Bones admitted after to a feeling of panic.
Then with a malignant "woof!" like the hoarse, growling bark of a dog,
magnified a hundred times, he slid back into the water, a great living
streak of vivid green and disappeared to the cool retreat at the bottom
of the pool.
"You have done splendidly, Bones, splendidly!" said Hamilton, and
clapped him on the back; "really you are a most enterprising devil."
"Not at all, sir," said Bones.
He ate his dinner on the _Zaire_, answering with monosyllables the
questions which Hamilton put to him regarding the quest and the place of
the origin of this wonderful beast. It was after dinner when they were
smoking their cigars in the gloom as the _Zaire_ was steaming across its
way to the shore where a wooding offered an excuse for a night's stay,
and Bones gave voice to his thoughts.
And curiously enough his conversation did not deal directly or
indirectly with his discovery.
"When was this boat decorated last, sir?" he asked.
"About six months before Sanders left," replied Hamilton in surprise;
"just why do you ask?"
"Nothing, sir," said Bones, and whistled light-heartedly. Then he
returned to the subject.
"I only asked you because I thought the enamel work in the cabin and all
that sort of thing has worn very well."
"Yes, it is good wearing stuff," said Hamilton.
"That green paint in the bathroom is rather _chic_, isn't it? Is that
good wearing stuff?"
"The enamel?" smiled Hamilton. "Yes, I believe that is very good
wearing. I am not a whale on domestic matters, Bones, but I should
imagine that it would last for another year without showing any sign of
wear."
"Is it waterproof at all?" asked Bones, after another pause.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean would it wash off if a lot of water were applied to it?"
"No, I should not imagine it would," said Hamilton, "what makes you
ask?"
"Oh, nothing!" said Bones carelessly and whistled, looking up to the
stars that were peeping from the sky; and the inside of Lieutenant
Tibbetts was one large expansive grin.