Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1884-09-12
AN EXCITING ADVENTURE.
A THRILLING SCENE WITNESSED on
THE UPPER NILE.
The Living Mast and His Plunge
Overt Oard-sHOW a Gro OdiIe lost
His Com a amDIated Meal.

The Living Mast and His Plunge
OverbOard-gHOW a Gro OdiIe lost
His Contemplated Meal.
"What a queer craft I'm glad
haven't got to go up to Khartoum in a
thing like that"
So spoke a bearded, brown-faced Off
Ger standing upon the bank of the Upper
Nile, close to the Arab village of Shendy,
midway between Berber and Khartoum.
Certainly 1T was "queer craft" " and
he might well be glad that he had not
got to make long voyage in 1t. 1t was
a big, clumsy, fat-bottomed barge,
almost as broad as il was long, and
steered by a gaunt, half clad Arab with
something that looked very much like an
overgrown wooden shovel. But the rig
ging was more curious still. a tall,
bony native, standing bolt upright upon
the deck, served as a mast, while the
piece of coarse ea>sas which he held up
at full length in hio outstrefched hands
did duty for a sail. This living mast
was kept in its place by two other men,
one of whom clasped it around the waist,
while the other held on to its knees with
all his might and main.
To use living rigging is not always a
safe experiment, and in this case 1t proved
very unsafe indeed. A sudden gust OF
wind took the sail aback, and the Arab
who was serving as mast for it, and VINO
had planted his feet upon the two lower
corners of the canvas, in order to keepi it
stretched to its full extent, found him
self entangled in it almost before he
knew what had happened. Losing his
balance, he fell backward, and rolled
over the edge of the boat into the
water, dragging along with him one
of the two men who had been holding
him up.
The other man scrambled back into
the boat almost as quickly as he had
tumbled out of it; but the mast-man was
not so lucky. 1t took him two or three
seconds to get rid of the canvas that was
hampering him, and those two or three
seconds made all the difference. BY the
time he had got clear the ferry boat had
drifted good way down the stream, the
steersman having left his post and run
forward when he saw his comrades fall
overheard.
This of itself would have mattere1 lit
tie, for every Arab in the Nile valley
can swim like duck. But while the
struggling man was swimming with all
his might toward the boat, and the
steersman was working the boats head
round to meet him, new actor sud-
denly appeared on the scene, whose
coming made the affair look much more
serious.
No one had taken any particular notice
Of long black log which was lying on
the edge of sandbank little way out
in the stream. But at the splash made
by the two Arabs as they plunged over
board, the seeming log made a sudden
movement, displaying as it did so the
-ast Snalu .hnlk. gri ming teeth ana
small, cunning, cruel eyes OF u mUn-
strous crocodile!
The hideous creature waddled down
into the river so clumsily that any one
who had been watching it would have
been startled by the arrow-like swlftness
of it's course the moment it touched the
water. The poor Arab knew only too
we'll what was in store for him, and
made frantic efforts to reach the boat,
which was now close at hand. But the
monster was too quick for him. Gliding
in between him and the approaching
barge, it spun around suddenly and
darted right at him, opening its terrible
jaws wide enough to show two ranges OF
spiky teeth that might have crushed a
buffalo.
But Just as all seemed over, one of the
ferrymen took flying leap from the
side of the boat and came plump on to
the crocodile's back. There he stack
like limpet, while the long, sharp jam
beyah dagger in his right hand dealt
stab after stab into the monsters undeten-
ded side, just behind the fore shoulder.
Could the crocodile have spoken, he
would probably have cried out: " Foul
play two againstp AS it was he showed
his disgust plainly enough by his savage
snortings and the furious lashings of its
ponderous tail, till. finding that its
enemy was not to be shaken off, he
plunged suddenly under the water. Man
and beast went down in whirling eddy
the ripples of which were dark with
blood
4 cry of dismay burst from the crowd
that had gathered upon the bank as they
saw the brave Arab disappear. But all
at once the water began to heave and
bubble as if some fierce struggle were
going on in the depths below, and then
the Musselman's lean, dark face rose
again to the surface, upon which, a
moment later, the crocodile's mighty
bulk foatcd limp and dead, slain by a
mortal stab in the throat.
"Aferin, va habioip' (Wel done, my
friend) cried the Englishman, as the con
queror struggled ashore. " Here are
twenty piasters (6fty cents for you, if
you can accept the gift of an mbeliever. :"
mo matter for that effendi" gentle
mem, replied the Arab, with grin, ty-
ing up the coins in the greasy waistcoat
which was his only clothing. g You
may be an unbeliever but your money is
true Mohammedan.