Calypso's Mast

Chapter 12 - Taking the Bait

Pringle drove the dinghy up to the trap and Schofield tied up to the tree above it.

"I think it's empty, Mick"

"There's something in there. The door's shut."

"Is there? It's not just the pig, is it?" Schofield peered hard at the semi-submerged trap in the muddy water of the Claudie River. "You're right there is something in there. I don't think it is our little boy though."

"Having a winch and putting those wheels on the trap was a great idea, you know," said Pringle. "It's made checking the trap a simple job."

"Yes. I've been doing this for a lot of years now and we've always had to drag them out by hand. I could never figure out why no-one's thought of using a winch and wheels. It can then be done by two blokes instead of six or eight.

They climbed out onto the bank and lashed the electric winch to the big tree up higher and attached the hook to the trap and connected it with a cable to a battery in the boat, then winched the twelve metre long trap up onto the bank. As it came out of the water, it rode up on the big castors underneath.

There was a two meter long baby crocodile in there and he thrashed about inside the cage when it was moved. He'd torn a chunk off the side of the dead pig's hind quarter.

"Looks like he's had a meal of the bait, at least. He's healthy too. No marks on him," said Pringle.

"A fine specimen. This tells me that granddad is gone."

"Yes. He would have killed this little fellow to protect his territory. I think you are right. We have been coming here for three days now and nothing."

"I wonder if the cyclone drove him out."

"Don't know. He'll be in the ocean by now. Which way would he go? North or south?"

"I reckon, North. He's too smart. Too many people to the south."

Pringle nodded. "I think you're right. What do we do now? Boss won't be happy. We spent two weeks looking and built a big trap and got no lizard."

Schofield grimaced. "Yes. I know. This one's too cunning. I reckon he knows we are hunting him. He's taken off." He paused thoughtfully. "There's only one thing we can do here with this."

Pringle looked at him expectantly. Schofield continued, " We go fishing. We have Barra for lunch and we drink them XXXX beers in the cooler. Then we go tell the boss his crocodile is gone."

Pringles huge ear-to-ear smile was only matched by Schofield's triumphant grin.

They let the little crocodile out of the trap to splash into the water and disappear in a swirl. Then they loosened the bait and let the pig carcass roll down the inside of the cage, down the steep bank to splash into the water. It then bobbed to the surface and drifted slowly down the river.

"He don't smell too good," remarked Pringle. "He's going off already. We'd have to shoot another pig if we were going to keep going."

"It's a good thing then. The croc won't eat rotting pig. He'll want fresh meat."

Leaving the trap out of the water, they pulled their fishing rods out of the dinghy and started casting the lures out midstream.