Bevis Part 47

"And see unknown creatures in the sea, and b.u.t.terflies as huge as umbrellas--"

"Catch fevers and get well again--"

"We must make notes of the language, and coax the people to give us some of their ancient books."

"O! I say," said Mark, "when you were on the Unknown Island did you see the magician with long white robes, and the serpent a hundred feet long he keeps in a cave under the bushes?"

"No," said Bevis, "I forgot him." So he had. His imagination ran so rapidly, one thing took the place of the other as the particles of water take each other's place in a running brook. "We shall find him, I dare say."

"Let's land and see."

"So we will."

"Are you sure you're steering right?"

"O! yes; it's nothing to do, you only have to keep the wind in the sails."

"I wonder what bird that is?" said Mark, as a dove flew over. He knew a dove well enough on land.

"It's a sort of parrot, no doubt."

"I wonder how deep it is here."

"About a million fathoms."

"No use trying to anchor."

"Not the least."

"It's very warm."

"In these places ships get burnt by the sun sometimes."

Another short silence. "Is it time to take a look-out, captain?"

"Yes, I think so," said the captain. Mark crept up in the bow.

"You're steering too much to the right--that way," he cried, holding out his right arm. "Is that better?"

"More over."

"There."

"Right."

As the boat fell off a little from the wind obeying the tiller, Bevis, now the foresail was out of his line of sight could see the Unknown Island. They were closer than they had thought.

"Shall we land on Serendib?"

"O! no--on your island," said Mark. "Steer as close to the cliff as you can."

Bevis did so, and the boat approached the low sandy cliff against which the waves had once beat with such fury. The wavelets now washed sideways past it with a gentle splashing, they were not large enough to make the boat dance, and if they had liked they could have gone up and touched it.

"It looks very deep under it," said Mark, as Bevis steered into the channel, keeping two or three yards from sh.o.r.e.

"Ready," he said; "get ready to furl the mainsail."

Mark partly unfastened the halyard, and held it in his hand. Almost directly they had pa.s.sed the cliff they were in the lee of the island which kept off the wind. The boat moved, carried on by its impetus through the still water, but the sails did not draw. In a minute Bevis told Mark to let the mainsail down, and as it dropped Mark hauled the sail in or the folds would have fallen in the water. At the same moment Bevis altered the course, and ran her ash.o.r.e some way below where he had leaped off the punt, and where it was low and shelving. Mark was out the instant she touched with the painter, and tugged her up on the strand. Bevis came forward and let down the foresail, then he got out.

"Captain," said Mark, "may I go round the island?"

"Yes," said the captain, and Mark stepped in among the bushes to explore. Bevis went a little way and sat down under a beech. The hull of the boat was hidden by the undergrowth, but he could see the slender mast and some of the rigging over the boughs. The sunshine touched the top of the smooth mast, which seemed to shine above the green leaves.

There was the vessel; his comrade was exploring the unknown depths of the wood; they were far from the old world and the known countries. He sat and gloated over the voyage, till by-and-by he remembered the tacking.

They could not do it, even yet they were only half mariners, and were obliged to wait for a fair wind. If it changed while they were on the island they would have to row back. He was no longer satisfied; he went down to the boat, stepped on board, and hoisted the sails. The trees and the island itself so kept off the wind that it was perfectly calm, and the sails did not even flutter. He stepped on sh.o.r.e, and went a few yards where he could look back and get a good view of the vessel, trying to think what it could be they did not do, or what it could be that was wrong.

He looked at her all over, from the top of the mast to the tiller, and he could not discover anything. Bevis walked up and down, he worked himself quite into a fidget. He went into the wood a little way, half inclined to go after Mark as he felt so restless. All at once he took out his pocket-book and pencil and sat down on the ground just where he was, and drew a sailing-boat such as he had seen. Then he went back to the sh.o.r.e, and sketched their boat on the other leaf. His idea was to compare the sailing-boats he had seen with theirs.

When he had finished his outline drawing he saw directly that there were several differences. The mast in the boat sketched from memory was much higher than the mast in the other. Both sails, too, were larger than those he had had made. The bowsprit projected farther, but the foresail was not so much less in proportion as the mainsail. The foresail looked almost large enough, but the mainsail in the boat was not only smaller, it was not of the same shape.

In his sketch from memory the gaff or rod at the top of the sail rose up at a sharper angle, and the sail came right back to the tiller. In the actual boat before him the gaff was but little more than horizontal to the mast, and the sail only came back three-fourths of the distance it ought to have done.

"It must be made bigger," Bevis thought. "The mainsail must be made ever so much larger, and it must reach to where I sit. That's the mistake--you can see it in a minute. Mark! Mark!" He shouted and whistled.

Mark came presently running. "I've been all round," he said panting, "and I've--"

"This is it," said Bevis, holding up his pocket-book.

"I've seen a huge jack--a regular shark. I believe it was a shark--and three young wild ducks, and some more of those parrots up in the trees."

"The mainsail--"

"And something under the water that made a wave, and went along--"

"Look, you see it ought to come--"

"What could it have been that made the wave and went along?"

"O! nothing--only a porpoise, or a seal, or a walrus--nothing! Look here--"

"But," said Mark, "the wave moved along, and I could not tell what made it."

"Magic," said Bevis. "Very likely the magician. Did you see him?"

"No; but I believe there's something very curious about this island--"

"It's enchanted, of course," said Bevis. "There's lots of things you know are there, and you can't find," said Mark; "there's a tiger, I believe, in the bushes and reeds at the other end. If I had had my spear I should have gone and looked, and there's boa-constrictors and a hippopotamus was here last night, and heaps of jolly things, and I've found a place to make a cave. Come and see," (pulling Bevis).

"I'll come," said Bevis, "in a minute. But just look, I've found out what was wrong--"