Bevis Part 89

"So it is. No, we won't say anything about it. Isn't he a beauty!"

"A real beauty," said Mark. "Now let's see how we can shoot a lot more to-morrow; it's your turn; will you let me shoot once?"

"Of course; twice."

"Hurrah! First let's get up very early and see if a kangaroo is out; then let's go round Serendib; and, I say, let's go nearly up to Sweet River Falls--not quite, not near enough for the savages--and, I say!

there must be heaps of things in all those sedges we tried to walk through once!"

"We could pole across to them."

"Of course; and then get in ambush on the mainland in the evening, and shoot another parrot, and fish--no, fishing is slow, rather. Suppose we make a fish-spear and stick them! and stick it into the mud for eels.

Could you think how to make a fish-spear, not my bone harpoon, an iron one--sharp?"

"I'll try."

"O! you can do it; and let's put up some more wires, and--I do declare, I forgot to put in some more trimmers; we might put twenty trimmers and nightlines--"

"And build a hut on Serendib to wait in in winter when the ducks come-- don't you remember last winter--hundreds of them?"

"First-rate! But now to-morrow. How stupid we never brought any nets!"

"Well, that was stupid," said Bevis, still stroking his hare; he loved the creature he had slain. "I can't think how we forgot the nets."

"There's thousands of fish; we could haul out a boatful. Let's see, isn't there anything else we could do? Wish we had some ferrets! It's not the right time, but still it doesn't matter."

"Perhaps we could build a fence-net," said Bevis. "I forget the proper name; it's a stockade like a V, and you drive all the animals in with dogs."

"And a pit with strong spikes at the bottom in the corner. The perch are ready; move the things."

Bevis hung the hare up in the cave, but yet remained a moment to stroke the unconscious creature. The perch were very good indeed; as they were not in a hurry the fish had been cooked better. They played cards afterwards, discussing in the meantime various ways of killing the animals and birds about them.

Already in one day they had got more than enough to serve them for three or four, yet they were not satisfied. Like savages, they were hurried on by the thirst of the chase, like the thirst for wine; their tongues were parched with the dry sulphur fumes of powder; they hungered to repeat the wild excitement when the game was struck and hunted down.

Had it been the buffaloes of the prairie, it would have been just the same; had it been the great elephants of inner Africa, they would have shot them down without even a thought of the ivory.

As they were fastening up Pan at the doorway before lying down they recollected the visit of the unknown creature on the previous night, and went out and padlocked the gate. The matchlock was loaded with shot, which did not require so accurate an aim, and was therefore best for shooting in a hurry, and instead of being hung up it was leaned against the wall as more accessible, and the priming seen to. A long candle was put in the lantern on the niche and left burning, so that if awakened they could see to get the gun at once. The creature went off so quickly that not a moment must be lost in shooting if it came again, and they said to each other (to set the clock of their minds) that they would not stop to listen, but jump up the second they awoke if Pan barked. This time they thought they should be sure to see the animal at least, if not shoot it.

Volume Three, Chapter X.

NEW FORMOSA--THE TIGER FROM THE REEDS.

Pan did bark. It seemed to them that they had scarcely closed their eyes; in reality they had slept hours; and the candle had burned short.

The clock of their minds being set, they were off the bed in an instant.

Bevis, before his eyes were hardly open, was lighting the match of the gun; Mark had darted to the curtain at the door.

There was a thick mist and he could see nothing: in a second he s.n.a.t.c.hed out his pocket-knife (for they slept in their clothes), and cut the cord with which Pan was fastened up just as Bevis came with the gun. Pan raced for the aperture in the fence at the corner by the cliff--he perfectly howled with frantic rage as he ran and crushed himself through. They were now under the open shed outside the hut, and heard Pan scamper without; suddenly his howl of rage stopped, there was a second of silence, then the dog yelled with pain. The next moment he crept back through the fence and before he was through something hurled itself against the stockade behind him with such force that the fence shook.

"Shoot--shoot there," shouted Mark, as the dog crept whining towards them. Bevis lifted the gun, but paused.

"If the thing jumps over the fence," he said. He had but one shot, he could not load quickly: Mark understood.

"No--no, don't shoot. Here--here's the bow."

Bevis took it and sent an arrow at the fence in the corner with such force that it penetrated the willow-work up to the feather. Then they both ran to the gate and looked over. All this scarcely occupied a minute.

But there was nothing to see. The thick white mist concealed everything but the edge of the brambles near the stockade, and the tops of the trees farther away.

"Nothing," said Mark. "What was it?"

"Shall we go out?" said Bevis.

"No--not till we have seen it."

"It would be better not--we can't tell."

"You can shoot as it jumps the fence," said Mark, "if it comes: it will stop a minute on the top."

Unless they can clear a fence, animals pause a moment on the top before they leap down. They went back to the open shed with a feeling that it would be best to be some way inside the fence, and so have a view of the creature before it sprang. Mark picked up an axe, for he had no weapon but a second arrow which he had in his hand: the axe was the most effective weapon there was after the gun. They stood under the shed, watching the top of the stockade and waiting.

Till now they had looked upon the unknown as a stealthy thief only, but when Pan recoiled they knew it must be something more.

"It might jump down from the cliff," said Bevis.

While they watched the semi-circular fence in front the creature might steal round to the cliff and leap down on the roof of the hut. Mark stepped out and looked along the verge of the sand cliff. He could see up through the runners of the brambles which hung over the edge, and there was nothing there. Looking up like this he could see the pale stars above the mist. It was not a deep mist--it was like a layer on the ground, impenetrable to the eye longitudinally, but partially transparent vertically. Returning inside, Mark stooped and examined Pan, who had crept at their heels. There were no scratches on him.

"He's not hurt," said Mark. "No teeth or claws."

"But he had a pat, didn't he?"

"I thought so--how he yelled! But you look, there's no blood. Perhaps the thing hit him without putting its claws out."

"They slip out when they strike," said Bevis, meaning that as wild beasts strike their claws involuntarily extend from the sheaths. He looked, Pan was not hurt; Mark felt his ribs too, and said that none were broken. There were no fragments of fur or hair about his mouth, no remnants of a struggle.

"I don't believe he fought at all," said Bevis. "He stopped--he never went near."

"Very likely: now I remember--he stopped barking all at once; he was afraid!"

"That was it: but he yelled--"

"It must have been fright," said Mark. "Nothing touched him: Pan, what was it?"

Pan wagged his tail once, once only: he still crouched and kept close to them. Though patted and rea.s.sured, his spirit had been too much broken to recover rapidly. The spaniel was thoroughly cowed.

"It came very near," said Bevis. "It hit the fence while he was getting through."

"It must have missed him--perhaps it was a long jump. Did you hear anything rush off."

"No."

"No more did I."