jaws opened, a tough membrane automatically closed off the throat to prevent water rushing down it into the beast's lungs.
Schreuder aimed into the depths of the open throat and snapped the lock. The burning match dropped and there was an instant of delay as the powder flared in the pan. Then, as Schreuder held his aim unwaveringly, came a deafening roar and a long silver-blue spurt of smoke flew from the muzzle straight down the throat of the crocodile. Three ounces of antimony-hardened lead pellets drove through the membrane, tearing through windpipe, artery and flesh, lancing deep into the chest cavity, ripping through the cold reptilian heart and lungs.
Such a mighty convulsion racked the great lizard that fifteen feet of its length arched clear of the water and the grotesque head almost touched the crested tail before it fell back in a tall spout of foam. Then it rolled, dived and burst out again, swirling in leviathan contortions.
Schreuder did not pause to watch these hideous death throes, but dropped the smoking musket and dived headfirst into the deepest part of the channel. Relying on the beast's frenzy to confuse and distract any other of the deadly reptiles, he lashed out towards the far bank with a full overarm stroke.
'Pay out the rope to him!' Maatzuyker yelled at the men who stood paralysed with shock, and they recovered their wits. Holding it high to keep it clear of the current they let it out as Schreuder clawed himself across the channel.
'Look out!' Maatzuyker shouted, as first one then another crocodile pushed through the surface. Their eyes were set on protuberant horny knuckles so they were able to watch the convulsions of their dying fellow without exposing the whole of their heads.
The softer splashes thrown up by Schreuder did not attract their attention until he was only a dozen strokes from the far bank, when one of the monsters sensed his presence. It turned and sped towards him, ripples spreading like a fan on each side of the twin lumps on its forehead.
'Faster!' Maatzuyker bellowed. 'He's after you!' Schreuder redoubled his stroke as the crocodile closed in swiftly upon him. Every man on the bank roared encouragement at him, but the crocodile was only a body length behind as Schreuder's feet touched the bottom. It raced in the last yard as Schreuder flung himself forward and the mighty jaws snapped closed only inches behind his feet.
Dragging the rope like a tail he staggered towards the tree-line but still he was not clear of danger for the dragonlike creature raised itself on its stubby bowed legs as it came ashore, and waddled after him at a speed that the watchers could hardly credit. Schreuder reached the first tree of the forest only feet ahead of it and sprang for an overhanging branch. As the snaggle-toothed jaws clashed shut he was just able to lift his legs beyond their bite and, with the last of his strength, draw himself higher into the branches.
The frustrated reptile lurked below, circling the hole of the tree. Then, uttering a hissing roar, it retreated slowly down the bank. It carried high its long tail, crested like a gigantic cockscomb, but as it reached the river it lowered itself and slid back beneath the surface.
Even before it had disappeared, Schreuder shouted across the river, 'Make your end fast!' He looped his own rope end around the thick trunk beside which he was perched, and knotted it. Then he yelled, 'Maatzuyker! Get those men busy building a raft. They can pull themselves over on the rope against the current.'
The hull of the Resolution had been cleaned of weed and, barnacles, and as the crew paid off AT her hoving lines she righted herself slowly against the press of the incoming tide.
While she had been careened on the beach, the carpenters had finished shaping and dressing the new mainmast, and it was at last ready to step. It took every hand to carry the long, heavy spar down to the beach and lift the thick end over the gunwale. The tackle was made fast to her other two standing masts, and the slinp were adjusted to raise the new spar.
With gangs heaving cautiously on the lines, 'and Big Daniel and Ned directing them, they raised the massive length of gleaming pine towards the vertical. Sir Francis trusted no one else to supervise the crucial business of fitting the heel of the mast through the hole in the main deck and then sliding its length down through the hull to the step on the keelson of the ship. It was a delicate operation that needed the strength of fifty men, and took most of that day.
'Well done, lads!' Sir Francis told them, when at last the massive spar slid home the last few inches and the heel clunked heavily into its prepared step. 'Slack off!' No longer supported by the ropes, the fifty-foot mast stood of its own accord.
Big Daniel shouted up to the deck from where he stood waist deep in the lagoon, 'Now woe betide those cheese heads Ten days from today, we'll sail her out through the heads, you mark my words.'
Sir Francis smiled down at him from the rail. 'Not before we get the shrouds on that mainmast. And that will not happen while you stand there with your mouth open and your tongue wagging.'
He was about to turn away when suddenly he frowned at the shore. The Governor's wife had come out of the trees, followed by her maid, and now she stood at the top of the beach, spinning the handle of her parasol between her long white fingers so it revolved over her head, a brightly coloured wheel that drew the eye of every man of his crew. Even Hal, who was overseeing the gang on the foredeck, had turned from his work to gawk at her like a ninny. Today she was dressed in a fetching new costume, cut so low in front that her bosom bulged out almost to her nipples.
'Mister Courtney,' Sir Francis called, loud enough to shame his son in front of his men, 'give a mind to your work. Where are the wedges to steady that spar?'
Hal started, and flushed darkly under his tan as he turned from the rail and seized the heavy mallet. 'You heard the captain,' he snapped at his gang.
'That strumpet is the Eve in this paradise,' Sir Francis dropped his voice, and spoke from the side of his mouth to Aboli at his shoulder. 'I have seen Hal mooning at her before and, sweet heavens, she looks back at him bold as a harlot with her dugs sticking out. He is only a boy.'
'You see him through a father's eyes.' Aboli smiled and shook his head. 'He is a boy no longer. He is a man. You told me once that your holy book speaks of an eagle in the sky and a serpent on a rock, and a man with a maid.' although Hal could steal little time from his uties, he responded to Katinka's summons like a salmon returning to its native river in the spawning season. When she called him, nothing could stop him answering. He ran up the path with his heart keeping time to his flying feet. It was almost a full day since last he had been alone with Katinka, which was much too long for his liking. Sometimes he was able to sneak away from the camp to meet her twice or even thrice in a single day. Often they could be together only for a few minutes, but that was time enough to get the business done. The two wasted little of their precious time together in ceremony or debate.
They had been forced to find a meeting place other than her hut. Hal's midnight visits to the hostage stockade had almost ended in disaster. Governor van de Velde could not have been sleeping as soundly as his snores suggested and they had grown careless and rowdy in their love play.
Roused by his wife's unrestrained cries and Hal's loud responses, Governor van de Velde seized the lantern and crept up on her hut. Aboli, on guard without, saw the glimmer of it in time to hiss a warning, giving Hal a space to snatch up his clothing and duck out of the hole in the stockade wall, just as van de Velde burst into the hut with the lantern in one hand and a naked sword in the other.
He had complained bitterly to Sir Francis the following morning. 'One of your thieving sailors,' he accused.
'Is there any item of value missing from your wife's hut?'
Sir Francis wanted to know and, when van de Velde shook his head, he was heavy with innuendo. 'Perhaps your wife should not make such a show of her jewels for they excite avaricious thoughts. In future, sir, it might be prudent to take better care of all your possessions.'
Sir Francis questioned the off-duty watch, but as the Governor's wife could supply no description of the intruder she had been fast asleep at the time the matter was soon dropped. That had been the last nocturnal visit Hal dared risk to the stockade.
Instead they had found this secret place to meet. It was well hidden but situated close enough to the camp for Hal to be able to respond to her summons and to reach it in just a few minutes. He paused briefly on the narrow terrace in front of the cave, breathing deeply in his haste and excitement. He and Aboli had discovered it as they returned from one of their hunting forays in the hills. It was not really a cave, but an overhang where the soft red sandstone had been eroded from the harder rock strata to form a deep veranda.
They were not the first men to have passed this way. There were old ashes in the stone hearth against the back wall of the shelter, and the low roof was soot-stained. Littering the floor were the bones of fish and small mammals, remnants of meals that had been prepared at the hearth. The bones were dry and picked clean, and the ashes were cold and scattered. The hearth was long disused.
However, these were not the only signs of human occupation. The rear wall was covered from floor to roof with a wild and exuberant cavalcade of paintings. Horned antelope and gazelle that Hal did not recognize streamed in great herds across the smooth rock face, hunted by stick-like human archers with swollen buttocks and incongruously erect sexual members. The
