Crocodile Summary and Analysis

The chapter opens and closes with two parts of a single crocodile-hunting story which comprises the bulk of the chapter's length. Capstick and Paul Mason eat scrambled eggs and impala liver for breakfast, and they watch a local woman walk by carrying what looks like a birdcage. Capstick explains that it is really a fish trap. The woman plunges it into the river and gathers out any fish which might be entrapped. As the two men chat and order more food, the woman proceeds to the river, begins to fish, and suddenly screams out in pain and shock. Grabbing their rifles, they run toward the river, crossing the 100 yards quickly enough to see a long, thin arm waving above a watery turmoil for a moment before vanishing. Both men shoot toward the spot where they imagine the crocodile to be, and...