Bevis Part 78

"Pan, why don't you kill the rats?" cried Bevis. Pan looked up, as much as to say, "Teach me my business, indeed."

"Bother!" said Mark.

"Bother!" said Bevis.

"Hateful!"

"Yah!" They flung down knives and potatoes.

"Would the raft be wrong on Sunday?"

"Not if it was only a little bit," said Bevis.

"Just to Pearl Island?"

"No--that wouldn't hurt."

"Let the cooking stop."

"Come on."

Away they ran to the raft, and pushed off, making Pan come with them, that he should not disturb the rabbits again. The spaniel was so lazy, he would not even follow them till he was compelled. He sat gravely on the raft by the chest, or locker, while they poled along the sh.o.r.e, for it was too deep to pole in the middle of the channel. But at the southern end of New Formosa the water shoaled, and they could leave the sh.o.r.e. One standing one side, and one the other, they thrust the raft along out among the islets, till they reached Pearl Island, easily distinguished by the glittering mussel sh.e.l.ls.

A summer snipe left the islet as they came near, circled round, and approached again, but finding they were still there, sought another strand. Pan ran round the islet, sniffing at the water's edge, and then, finding nothing, returned to the raft and sat down on his haunches. The water on one side of Pearl Island was not more than four or five inches deep a long way out, and it was from this shelving sand that the crows got the mussels. They carried them up on the bank and left the sh.e.l.ls, which fell over open, and the wind blew the sand into them. They found one very large sh.e.l.l, a span long, and took it as spoil.

There was nothing else but a few small fossils like coiled snakes turned to stone. Next they poled across to the islet off the extremity of Serendib, where Pan had made such a noise. To get there they had to go some distance round, as it was so shallow. They poled the raft in among the reed-mace or bamboos, which rose above their heads out of the water besides that part of the stalk under the surface. The reed-mace is like a bulrush, but three times as tall, and larger. They cut a number of these as spoils, and then landed. Pan showed a little more activity here, but not much. He sniffed round the water's edge, but soon returned and stretched himself on the raft.

"He can't smell anything here to-day," said Bevis. "There's a halcyon."

A kingfisher went by, straight for New Formosa. The marks of moorhens'

feet were numerous on the sh.o.r.e and just under water, showing how calm it had been lately, for waves would have washed up the bottom and covered them. The islet was very small, merely the ridge of a bank, so they pushed off again. Pa.s.sing the bamboos, they paused and looked at them--the tall stalks rose up around as if they were really in a thicket of bamboo.

"Hark!"

They spoke together. It was the stern and solemn note of a bell tolling. It startled them in the silence of the New Sea. The sound came from the hills, and they knew at once it was the bell at the church big Jack went to. The chimes, thin perhaps and weak, had been lost in the hills, but the continuous toll of the five minutes bell penetrated through miles of air. So in the bush men call each other by constantly repeating the same hollow note, "Cooing," and in that way the human voice can be heard at an extraordinary distance. Each wave of sound drives on its predecessor, and is driven by the wave that follows, till the widening circle strikes the sh.o.r.e of the distant ear.

"Ship's bell," said Bevis presently, as they listened. "In these lat.i.tudes the air is so clear you hear ships' bells a hundred miles."

"Pirates?"

"No; pirates would not make a noise."

"Frigate?"

"Most likely."

"Any chance of our being taken off and rescued?"

"Not the least," said Bevis. "These islands are not down on any chart.

She'll be two hundred miles away by tea-time. Bound for Kerguelen, perhaps."

"We shall never be found," said Mark. "No hope for us."

"No hope at all," said Bevis. They poled towards Serendib, intending to circ.u.mnavigate that island. By the time they had gone half-way, the bell ceased.

"Now listen," said Mark. "Isn't it still?"

They had lifted their poles from the water, and there was not a sound (the lark had long finished), nothing but the drip, drip of the drops from the poles, and the slight rustle as the heavy raft dragged over a weed. They could almost hear the silence, as in the quiet night sometimes, if listening intently, you may hear a faint rushing, the sound of your own blood reverberating in the hollow of the ear; in the day it needs a sh.e.l.l to collect it.

"It is very curious," said Bevis. "But we have not heard a sound of anybody till that bell."

"No more we have."

There had been sounds quite audible, but absorbed in their island life they had not heard them. To-day they were not busy. The recognition of the silence which the bell had caused seemed to widen the distance between them and home.

"We are a long way from home--really," said Bevis.

"Awful long way."

"But really?"

"Of course--really. It feels farther to-day."

They could touch the bottom with their poles all the way round Serendib, but as before, in crossing to New Formosa, had to give a stronger push on the edge of the deep channel, to carry them over to the shallower water. It was too late now to cook the moorhens, and they resolved to be contented with rashers, and see if they could not get some more mushrooms. Directly they got near the hut, Pan rushed inside the fence and began barking. When they reached the place he was sniffing round, and every now and then giving a sharp short bark, as if he knew there was something, but could not make it out.

"Rats," said Mark, "and they've taken the bacon bits Pan left outside the gate."

Pan did not trouble any more when they came in. After preparing the rashers, and looking at the sun-dial, by which it was noon, Bevis went to look for mushrooms on the knoll, while Mark managed the dinner.

Bevis had to go round to get to the knoll, and not wishing to disturb the rabbits more than necessary, made Pan keep close to his heels.

But when he reached the open glade, Pan broke away, and rushing towards the ivy-clad oak, set up a barking. Bevis angrily called him, but Pan would not come, so he picked up a stick, but instead of returning to heel, Pan dashed into the underwood, and Bevis could hear him barking a long way across the island. He thought it was the squirrels, and looked about for mushrooms. There were plenty, and he soon filled his handkerchief. As he approached the hut, Mark came to meet him, and said that happening to look on the shelf he had missed the piece of cooked bacon left there,--had Bevis moved it?

Volume Three, Chapter IV.

NEW FORMOSA--SOMETHING HAS BEEN TO THE HUT.

"No," said Bevis. "I left it there last night; don't you remember I cut a piece for Pan, and he would not eat it?"

"Yes; well, it's gone. Come and see." They went to the shelf--the cooked bacon was certainly gone; nor was it on the ground or in any other part of the hut or cave.

"Pan must have dragged it down," said Bevis; "and yet it's too high, and besides, he didn't care for it."

"He could not jump so high," said Mark. "Besides, he has been with us all the time."

"So he has." They had kept Pan close by them, ever since he disturbed the kangaroos so much. "Then, it could not have been Pan."

"And I don't see how rats could climb up, either," said Mark. "The posts," (to which the shelf was fixed) "are upright--"