Frank had so often heard what was the best thing to
do that he at once threw off his Norfolk jacket, plunged into the
stream, and swam to the spot where the eddy on the surface showed
that a struggle was going on beneath. The water was too muddy to
see far through it, but Frank speedily came upon the alligator,
and finding its eyes, shoved his thumbs into them. In an instant
the creature relaxed his hold of his prey and made off, and Frank,
seizing the wounded man, swam with him to shore amid the loud
cheers of the sailors. The soldier, who proved to be a marine,
was insensible, and his leg was nearly severed above the ankle. He
soon recovered consciousness, and, being carried to the camp, his
leg was amputated below the knee, and he was soon afterwards taken
down to the coast.
It had been known that there were alligators in the river, a young
one about a yard long having been captured and tied up like a dog
in the camp, with a string round its neck. But it was thought that
the noise of building the bridge, and the movement on the banks,
would have driven them away. After this incident bathing was for
the most part abandoned.
The affair made Frank a great favorite in the naval brigade, and
of a night he would, after dinner, generally repair there, and sit
by the great bonfires, which the tars kept up, and listen to the
jovial choruses which they raised around them.
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