Bob Pearson told me that the only
chance you have is to send your knife, or if you can't get at
that, your thumbs, into the creature's eyes. But it would require
a mighty cool hand to find the eyes, with the brute's teeth in
one's leg, and the water so thick with mud that you could not see
an inch beyond your nose."
"Well, I will make a note of that, anyhow, Davis, and I will take
a good look at the next alligator I see dead, so as to know exactly
where to feel for its eyes."
On the second day the scenery changed. In place of the mangroves a
dense forest lined the river. Birds of lovely plumage occasionally
flew across it, and after they had anchored in the evening, the air
became full of strange noises; great beasts rose and snorted near
the banks; sounds of roaring and growling were heard in the wood;
and the lads, who had been so eager before to take part in a hunt
on shore, listened with something like awe to the various strange
and often mysterious noises.
"What in the world does it all mean, Doctor?" Dick Balderson asked,
as the surgeon came up to the spot where the four midshipmen were
leaning on the rail.
"It means that there is a good deal of life in the woods. That
splashing sound you hear with deep grunts and snorts, is probably
made by a hippopotamus wallowing in shallow water; but it may be
a rhinoceros, or even a buffalo.
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