A crocodile took me, just as I was half-way across, and nipped off my right leg as clean as a surgeon could have done it, just above the knee.

What with the shock and the loss of blood, I fainted, and should have drowned if Holder had not caught hold of me and paddled for the bank.

I was five months in hospital over it, and when at last I was able to limp out of it with this timber toe strapped to my stump I found myself invalided out of the army and unfitted for any active occupation.
"I was, as you can imagine, pretty down on my luck at this time, for I was a useless cripple though not yet in my twentieth year.

However, my misfortune soon proved to be a blessing in disguise.

A man named Abelwhite, who had come out there as an indigo-planter, wanted an overseer to look after his coolies and keep them up to their work.