Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1910-02-10

across his knees gazing intentIy at
2 rough pagan or fence erected in.
the stream.
Hanging from this fence, and a
few feet above the water, were the
corpses of a monkey and several pa,
riah dogs, while half dozen ducks,
each tied to the fence by the les
with a long string, tapped about on
the water and quacked dismalIy in
their efforts to escape. I was just
wondering whether the whisky bot
tie or too much solitude accounted
for this state of affairs, when | mo-
ticed that G.'s leg was sWathed in
rough bandages from knee to ankle.
Throwing myself down near him in
the welcome shade I learned the fol-
lowing story: Two nights before, G.
was sleeping peacefully in his little
palm-leaf house, in clearing about
twenty yards from the river bank,
when his dog began to- growl and re-
fused to be silenced. G. turned out
and walked around the hut to ascer-
tain the cause of the disturbance,
but seeing nothing addressed him.
self to the dog in his usual lurid and
picturesque sailing-shfp language and
retired TO bed again Five minutes
later he was once more aroused BY
yelp from the dog and this time,
really annoyed, he seized a stick and
sailed forth to infiict dire punish
ment on the dfsturber of his dreams
Suddenly dark form glided swiftly
from the shadows and G. felt him.
self seized Dry the right knee as in
wise.
Shopping TO free himself, he found
he was IN the grip of a large cro-
codile. whose teeth were firmly i'm
bedded in flesh and bone. Backward
and forward the struggle swayed-
he. crocodile striving to pull its des-
tined victim to the waters edge. ana
o., hampered as he was by his i'm
pldsoned leg, fighting for his life to
reach higher ground. At last the
beast, hurting its victim to- the ground
with "a shake of it's powerful head,
began to drag him swiftly toward
the water Poor G., feeling. as he
expressed it, that it was "aIl over
bar the shoutin'," determined to
make one last effort for his life; and,
as the brute was steering past al
tree stump, he sat up and succeeded
In getting both his thumbs into the
only vulnerable part of a crocodile,s
head.
The rest of the story is perhaps
best told in G's own WORDS. or ar
nearly as circumstances land tine ed
1tor) will permit. Soon as gets
my .humbs made. fast in his eyes q
opens his mouth to shout an fets
go my leg. Then first thing next
mornin', the coolies lays is break.
tast for i'm, as you see, am eets
into this chair, an ere | STAYS. If,
us a month" Vainly / tired to per-
'suade G. to come away with me TO
the next station and see a doctor
argued with him, | implored Him.
but it was absolutely useless. He re-
FUSED to move from that chair TIL
he had bagged his crocodile, and 1
was at last obliged to leave him,
having dressed his leg, and exhausted
every known means of persuasion
short of brute force.
| met him again a week later in
a hospital bed, suffering severely.
put quite happy in the knowledge
that the bones of that croc. were
bleaching in the sun outside his
house. Poor old G. Only few
weeks afterward the habit of clear
ing creepers from his path in the
jungle with the butt end of his loaded
ana cooked rifle proved fatal torffm.