The boys naturally expected to see the orang-outang beat a hasty retreat. But instead it stood its ground, merely drawing back a few inches as the crocodile’s hideous snout and scaly body were successively protruded from the water. Jack now recalled what Salloo had told him one night in camp about the orang. The Malay had said it was the king of the New Guinea forests, fearing no man, beast or reptile, and this certainly appeared to be the case in this instance.
Had it wished to beat a retreat to safety, the mias, as the natives called the red gorilla, might easily have done so. One leap and he could have grasped a tree trunk, up which he could have scrambled in a jiffy. On the contrary, after its first backward steps, which brought it almost out of the water, the creature stood upright and, uttering savage growls, beat on its hairy chest with its huge arms, producing a sound like the reverberations of a savage “tom-tom.”
The scaly reptile continued to advance. Perhaps, to its eyes, the red gorilla was simply a native, a poor weak human being, such as possibly had fallen victim to the great crocodile before. However that may have been, the saurian, without undue hurry, could be seen to be making straight for the red ape and, maneuvering so as to get its monstrous armor-plated tail in position to give a fatal flail-like sweep, which would fling the orang-outang into the water, stunning it and making it an easy prey.
It appeared to flatten itself as it reached shallow water, its ugly lizard-like legs spread out on each side of its scaly body almost horizontally. Then, with a suddenness that made the boys catch their breaths in a quick gasp, the monster gave a sudden leap, aiding this maneuver by its tail, which it suddenly stiffened as if it had been a spring.
Its whole length was launched into the air as it sprang, and for a flash its wide-opened jaws with their hideous rows of triangular teeth, appeared to engulf the red ape. But while the boys were still held spell-bound by this spectacle, such a one as perhaps no human being but a lone native hunter had ever beheld before, the red gorilla gave a mighty leap. It was partly straight up and partly to one side. As the great jaws of the saurian came together with a snap like that of a titanic steel trap, the red ape landed fair and square on the scaled monster’s back.
