“There’s one under that bank, a big fellow.”

The captain sculled the skiff slowly toward the crocodile, which was lying on the water, just under the bank.  As they approached, the creature slowly sank beneath the surface of the water, which was shallow, and beneath it a bottom of mud in which the fleeing reptile had left his trail.  The captain followed the trail by the furrow-like track of the tail, the spoor of the paws and the roiled water, until Dick got a shot with his harpoon.  Then the crocodile towed the skiff into the deeper channels of the river, among logs and snags and under banks, sometimes rolling up on the line and biting at the skiff while Dick vainly tried to get a bight of the harpoon line around the creature’s jaw.  The reptile was too wary for him, until finally the captain threatened the crocodile with a pole, while Dick got a line around its jaws and took it in the skiff.  There was so little room in the skiff that Dick sat on the back of his captive until they reached the Irene.  If he had tried this with an alligator he would have gone overboard, pronto, but when a crocodile’s jaws are tied he is gentler than most lambs.

[Illustration:  “SIXTEEN FEET OF FIERCENESS LAY STRANDED ON THE BANK”]

As soon as Dick had his new pets safely on the Irene he examined them carefully and then shouted to Ned: 

“This is my old crocodile, the very one we turned loose when we were here before.  I’d know him in a thousand.  Don’t you remember the broken point to the tooth that stuck out through his upper jaw, on the right side, too?  Why, Crocky, old boy, how are you?  I’m mighty glad to see you again.”

“Don’t you want to set them free to-morrow, Dick?” asked Mr. Barstow.

“I don’t, but I’ve got to.”

“Would you rather send them North to be educated?”

“I surely would.  I wish I could.”

“I think it can be managed.  I know of a zoological collection where they will be very welcome.  If you think they haven’t been injured, I will ship both of them North from Miami.”

“They are all right.  I know that.  I made two bad throws and barely touched both of them.  I don’t believe you could find where either of them was hit, now.”

“Then North they go.”

The boys made a box for the little crocodile, gathered a lot of grass for his bed and stowed him away in the hold where he would be safe from the attentions of Tom.  There was not enough lumber on board to make a box for the big crocodile and the brute was put overboard to pasture at the end of a hundred-foot line.  As soon as the crocodile was overboard Dick drew it beside the boat and untied its jaws.  At first it tried to get away, but soon gave it up and thereafter rose to the surface every few minutes and gazed gravely upon its new friends on the boat.  When later the Irene was ready to sail, Dick drew his pet up to the side of the boat and tied his jaws without remonstrance from the reptile.  It took three of them to haul the creature aboard, where it was fastened to a ringbolt on deck for the first stage of its journey to the Zoo.