Nor could the shouting Ethiopians help me since they had only bows and dared not shoot lest their shafts should pierce me.

The crocodile began to sink again, snapping furiously at my legs.

Then I bethought me of a trick I had seen practised by natives on the Nile.
Waiting till its huge jaws were open I thrust my arm between them, grasping the short sword in such fashion that the hilt rested on its tongue and the point against the roof of its mouth.

It tried to close its jaws and lo! the good iron was fixed between them, holding them wide open.

Then I withdrew my hand and floated upwards with nothing worse than a cut upon the wrist from one of its sharp fangs.