The place stank of crocodiles.

There was no ripple to break the oily flow except where a derelict branch swayed with the current.

Something in the stillness, the eerie light on the water, and the rotting smell of the swamp made that stream seem unhallowed and deadly.
I sat down and considered the matter.

Crocodiles had always terrified me more than any created thing, and to be dragged by iron jaws to death in that hideous stream seemed to me the most awful of endings.

Yet cross it I must if I were to get rid of my human enemies.