THE CROCODILE AGAIN

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE CROCODILE AGAIN

HIS LATEST STORY.

"You know, Peter, as far as I can see, there's really only one, or perhaps two, children in the whole of the Club wia deserve O.S.B.'s—and neither have tliem. You know tot well that only a few children sent me greetings this year, and none of them were 0.5.8.'"5. Disgraceful, I call it. An they loval members ? Dashed if they are! They're no in on loyal to the Club. . . Yes, it's all very well saying thai they remembered you; you're not the only pebble on tie beach, nor is Wendy, for that matter; the whole trouble is that they make it a personal business, the whole aflsit, They care not for the Club. It's just you—you and Wend}* that's all." ! "Keep your tail on* Croc.," interjected Peter, when atlastj I stopped for breath. "They wrote to me, so they mast haw been thinking about the Club and its welfare.'"' "Think you're the whole blessed Club —Club member* ani captain all in one, do you? You're mistaken." "They must have —" Peter vainly tried to argue. "They didn't; they couldn't. It's utterly impossible Don't you see that if they thought about the Club, thejj would have thought about me, being one of the most iropo> taut members of it to-day, order of the 5.G.8., and what-not, They would have sent tne:r compliments to me aa veil M every one else connected with the Club." ; "Perhaps, but don't you see that in writing to me they— ""Writing to you nothing at all. Perhaps they did to you and perhaps to Wcndv and to Michael, and one other insignificant people." i "Call me an insignificant person," and Peter lost temper he has. Anything that touches his personal taniW makes him mad indeed. He seized the first thing ha cooMj J lay his hands on (this proved to be an oversized bottla ®J gloy) and threw it at my head. Now, no matter how my feelings are hurt, or on what business I am engaged, Ij cau never bear to see waste—especially is the thing to wasted is edible; so, with a deft twist of my head, my gaping wide, I welcomed into my inner regions the glojt did not bother to remove the bottle. "Here, you yahoo." (Peter learnt that word fro® JJ cowboy story he once read.) "I've just brought that guJJJ down from the stationer;, it will be the Dickens of a job to I get another bottle, and I must stick these papera before eleven o'clock. Croc., Croc., you'll break my heart befoif long," and Peter boiled down to a mere gurgle. "I don't know about breaking your heart, hot if stationer has to part out with another bottle it- will cerainijj break his. Only the other day I tried to get a bottle of from him. . ." '"He knows you for what you are, you greedy old thing,, said Peter, glad, to have the eliance ox passing some nastjf remark in my direction. "He'll see what you're made of in a minute, my if you give me too much of your cheek I'll snap you in "Any work for a doctor?"' asked the Witch Doctor, co®j ing in "at that moment and hearing only the last of thf argument. "No," Peter said, '"'but there's work for a genius." J "And what is that?*' inquired W itchy. ■ "Knock some sense into tlie Croc.'s silly head," Peter, with the "crowning glory" Dote in his voice. "I wouldn't try it," ended the Witch Doctor, taking the side which he thought uppermost. . "I always took you for a wise maD." finished Peter; an that was more than .any self-respecting crocodile coulaj stand; with a loud roar I sprang up and darted at r0.." aggressors, who, evidently thinking"that '"impression was "a better part of valour," took to their heel-. Now, 1 hate * confession to make; I have an exceedingly bad tenipc when it is aroused; and it was aroused now with a vengeance. I immediately took up pursuit and cha.-ed after the ing two. Like a hound after a hare. I was determined get niv prey. They, like the heir tor is it luiir? 1 quite torget in the cxcitcment of recalling those heated monicn being equally determined to elude capture. Lpstairs an downstairs, through doors and banging rooms—no, throug rooms and banging doors, into hits and out of them, t last, in despair, Peter and Witchy dashed into the room, the only sacred ground iu the whole of the office on which I will not trespass. Thus they were tree— for the meantime at least. - I was determined, however, not to be baulked. down determinedly on the doormat and peered throughn ,• keyhole. Peter was recounting to the Editor what taken place. . "Cm, um," said the Editor. "T fear that crocodile is dangerous beast, and he'H certainly have to learn hisles» Get a couple of hands to help you capture it and bave tied up for three days —with oulv old proofs to ea added, as if to make 'the puui.-rii'ient worse. _ 'I ins much. Here was an honest-to goodnvss good fellow (I rc _ to myself) trying to stimulate the interest of the children getting them to write to him. and that, that well, _ D • mind what—but that PKKS« iNAG IJ just- the same, hying, punish liim ft.r it. I shod'l be a vai.nv'_ r nat i> I catch me. With a defiant "Same to \oif through the K jJ hole I fled to my secret lair in the storeroom, doggo'' till things cooled duwn,