Bevis Part 86

"Serpents guarding treasures, and lamps burning; they have been burning these ages and ages--"

"Awful claps of thunder underground."

"We will go and see to-morrow--I believe there are heaps of kangaroos out there."

"There's the channel."

They could trace its windings from the tree, and marked it in their minds. At that height the breeze came cool and delicious; they sat there a long while silent, soothed by the rustle and the gentle sway of the branches. They could feel the mast-like stem vibrate--it did not move sufficiently to be said to bend, or even sway--so slight was the motion the eye could not trace it. But it did move as they could feel with their hands as the wind came now with more and now with less force.

When they descended, Mark continued fishing till they came to the raft.

They embarked and poled it round the island to the other side ready to start in the evening. Then Bevis wrote the letter dating it from Jack's house up in the hills. It was very short. He said they were very well, and jolly, and should not come back for a little while yet, but would not be very long--this was in case any one should go up to see them.

But when he came to read it through for mistakes, the deceit he was practising on dear mamma stood out before him like the black ink on the page.

"I don't like it," he said. "It's not nice."

"No; it's not nice," said Mark, who was sitting by him. "But still--"

"But still," repeated Bevis, and so the letter was put in an envelope and addressed. In the evening as the sun sank Mark tried for bait and succeeded in catching some, these were for the trimmers. Then they laid out the night-line for eels far down the island where the edge looked more muddy. To fill up the time till it was quite moonlight, they worked at a mast for the raft, and also cut some sedges and flags for the roof of the open shed, which was to be put up in place of the awning.

They supposed it to be about half-past nine when they pushed off on the raft, taking with them the letter, a list of things to be got from the town to save the labour of cooking, and the flag-basket. The trimmers were dropped in as they went. Mark was going to wait by the raft till Bevis returned under the original plan, but they agreed that it would be much more pleasant to go together, the raft would be perfectly safe.

They found the channel without difficulty, the raft grounded among the sedges, and they stepped out, the first time they had landed on the mainland.

As they walked they saw a fern owl floating along the hedge by the stubble. The beetles hummed by and came so heedlessly over the hedge as to become entangled in the leaves. They walked close to the hedge because they knew that the very brightest moonlight is not like the day.

By moonlight an object standing apart can be seen a long distance, but anything with a background of hedge cannot be distinguished for certain across one wide field. That something is moving there may be ascertained, but its exact character cannot be determined.

As they had to travel beside the hedges and so to make frequent detours, it occupied some time to reach the cottage, which they approached over the field at the back. When they were near enough, Bevis whistled--the same notes with which he and Mark called and signalled to each other.

In an instant they saw Loo come through the window, so quickly that she must have been sleeping with her dress on; she slipped down a lean-to or little shed under it, scrambled through a gap in the thin hedge, and ran to them.

She had sat and watched and listened for that whistle night after night in vain. At last she drew her cot (in which her little brother also slept) across under the window, and left the window open. Her mind so long expecting the whistle responded in a moment to the sound when it reached her dreaming ear. She took the letter (with a penny for the stamp) and the list and basket, and promised to have the things ready for them on the following evening.

"And remember," said Bevis, "remember you don't say anything. There will be a shilling for you if you don't tell--"

"I shouldn't tell if there wurdn't no shilling," said Loo.

"You mind you do not say a word," added Mark. "n.o.body is to know that you have seen us."

"Good-night," said Bevis, and away they went. Loo watched them till they were lost against the dark background of the hedge, and then returned to her cot, scrambling up the roof of the shed and in at the window.

They got back to the island without any difficulty, and felt quite certain that no one had seen them. Stirring up the embers of the fire, they made some tea, but only had half a cold damper to eat with it.

This day they had fared worse than any day since they arrived on New Formosa. They were too tired to make a fresh damper (besides the time it would take) having got up so early that morning, and Bevis only entered two words in his journal--"Monday--Loo."

Then they fastened Pan to the door-post, allowing him enough cord to move a few yards, but taking care to make his collar too tight for him to slip his head. Pan submitted with a mournful countenance, well he understood why he was served in this way.

Volume Three, Chapter VIII.

NEW FORMOSA--THE MAINLAND.

In the morning, after the bath, Mark examined the night-line, but it was untouched; nor was there a kangaroo in the wires they had set up in their runs. Poling the raft out to the trimmers they found a jack of about two pounds on one, and the bait on another had been carried off, the third had not been visited. Bevis wanted to explore the Waste, and especially to look at the great grey boulder, and so they went on and landed among the sedges.

Making Pan keep close at their heels, they cautiously crept through the bramble thickets--Pan tried two or three times to break away, for the scent of game was strong in these thickets--and entered the wild pasture, across which they could not see. The ground undulated, and besides the large ant-hills, the scattered hawthorn bushes and the thickets round the boulders intercepted the view. If any savages appeared they intended to stoop, and so would be invisible; they could even creep on hands and knees half across the common without being seen.

Pan was restless--not weary this morning--the scent he crossed was almost too much for his obedience.

They reached the boulder unseen--indeed there was no one to see them-- pushed through the bushes, and stood by it. The ponderous stone was smooth, as if it had been ground with emery, and there were little circular basins or cups drilled in it. With a stick Bevis felt all round and came to a place where the stick could be pushed in two or three feet under the stone, between it and the gra.s.s.

"It's hollow here," he said; "you try."

"So it is," said Mark. "This is where the treasure is."

"And the serpent, and the magic lamp that has been burning ages and ages."

"If we could lift the stone up."

"There's a spell on it; you couldn't lift it up, not with levers or anything."

Pan sniffed at the narrow crevice between the edge of the boulder and the ground--concealed by the gra.s.s till Bevis found it--but showed no interest. There was no rabbit there. Such great boulders often have crevices beneath, whether this was a natural hollow, or whether the boulder was the capstone of a dolmen was not known. Whirr-rr!

A covey of partridges flew over only just above the stone, and within a few inches of their heads which were concealed by it. They counted fourteen--the covey went straight out across the New Sea, eastwards towards the Nile. From the boulder they wandered on among the ant-hills and tall thistles, disturbing a hare, which went off at a tremendous pace, bringing his hind legs right under his body up to his shoulder in his eagerness to take kangaroo bounds.

Presently they came to the thick hedge which divided the Waste from the cornfields. Gathering a few blackberries along this, they came to a gate, which alarmed them, thinking some one might see, but a careful reconnaissance showed that the reapers had finished and left that field.

The top bar of the gate was pecked, little chips out of the wood, where the crows had been.

"It's very nice here," said Mark. "You can go on without coming to the Other Side so soon."

After their life on the island, where they could never walk far without coming in sight of the water, they appreciated the liberty of the mainland. Pan had to have several kicks and bangs with the stick, he was so tempted to rush into the hedge, but they did not want him to bark, in case any one should hear.

"Lots of kangaroos here," said Bevis, "and big kangaroos too--hares you know; I say, I shall come here with the matchlock some night."

"So we will."

There was a gap in the corner, and as they came idling along they got up into the double mound, when Bevis, who was first, suddenly dropped on his knees and seized Pan's s.h.a.ggy neck. Mark crouched instantly behind him.

"What is it?" he whispered.

"Some one's been here."

"How do you know?"

"Sniff."

Mark sniffed. There was the strong pungent smell of crushed nettles.

He understood in a moment--some one had recently gone through and trampled on them. They remained in this position for five minutes, hardly breathing, and afraid to move.

"I can't hear any one," whispered Mark.

"No."

"Must have gone on."

Bevis crept forward, still holding Pan with one hand; Mark followed, and they crossed the mound, when the signs of some one having recently been there became visible in the trampled nettles, and in one spot there was the imprint of a heel-plate.