Bevis: The Story of a Boy
Page 8
unable even to turn.
A black cat came down the bank some way off, and they saw her swiftlydart her paw into the water, and snatch out a fish. The scales shonesilver white, and reflected the sunshine into their eyes like polishedmetal as the fish quivered and leaped under the claw. Then the catquietly, and pausing over each morsel, ate the living creature. Whenshe had finished she crept towards the water to get another.
"What a horrid thing!" said Mark. "She ate the fish alive--cruelwretch! Let's kill her."
"Kill her," said Bevis; and before he could fit an arrow to his bow Markpicked up a stone, and flung it with such a good aim and with such forcethat although it did not hit the cat, it struck a stone and split intofragments, which flow all about her like a shell. The cat raced up thebank, followed by a second stone, and at the top met Pan, who did notusually chase cats, having been beaten for it, but seeing in an instantthat she was in disgrace, he snapped at her and drove her wild withterror up a pine-tree. They called Pan off, for it was no use hisyapping at a tree, and walked along the shore, climbing over stones, butthe crowds of roach were everywhere; till presently they came to a placewhere the stones ceased, and there was a shallow bank of sand shelvinginto the water and forming a point.
There the fish turned round and went back. Thousands kept coming up andreturning, and while they stayed here watching, gazing into the clearwater, which was still and illuminated to the bottom by the sunlight,they saw two great fish come side by side up from the depths beyond andmove slowly, very slowly, just over the sand. They were two huge tench,five or six pounds a-piece, roaming idly away from the muddy holes theylie in. But they do not stay in such holes always, and once now andthen you may see them like this as in a glass tank. The pair did not gofar; they floated slowly rather than swam, first a few yards one way andthen a few yards the other. Bevis and Mark were breathless witheagerness.
"Go and fetch my fishing-rod," whispered Bevis, unable to speak loud; hewas so excited.
"No, you go," said Mark; "I'll stay and watch them."
"I shan't," said Bevis sharply, "you ought to go."
"I shan't," said Mark.
Just then the tench, having surveyed the bottom there, turned and fadedaway into the darker deep water.
"There," said Bevis, "if you had run quick!"
"I won't fetch everything," said Mark.
"Then you're no use," said Bevis. "Suppose I was shooting an elephant,and you did not hand me another gun quick, or another arrow; andsuppose--"
"But _I_ might be shooting the elephant," interrupted Mark, "and youcould hand me the gun."
"Impossible," said Bevis; "I never heard anything so absurd. Of courseit's the captain who always does everything; and if there was only onebiscuit left, of course you would let me eat it, and lie down and dieunder a tree, so that I might go on and reach the settlement."
"I _hate_ dying under a tree," said Mark, "and you always wanteverything."
Bevis said nothing, but marched on very upright and very angry, and Markfollowed, putting his feet into the marks Bevis left as he strode overthe yielding sand. Neither spoke a word. The shore trended in againafter the point, and the indentation was full of weeds, whose broadbrownish leaves floated on the surface. Pan worked about and sniffedamong the willow bushes on their loft, which, when the lake was full,were in the water, but now that it had shrunk under the summer heat wereseveral yards from the edge.
Bevis, leading the way, came to a place where the strand, till then solow and shelving, suddenly became steep, where a slight rise of theground was cut as it were through by the water, which had worn a cliffeight or ten feet above his head. The water came to the bottom of thecliff, and there did not seem any way past it except by going away fromthe edge into the field, and so round it. Mark at once went round,hastening as fast as he could to get in front, and he came down to thewater on the other side of the cliff in half a minute, looked at Bevis,and then went on with Pan.
Bevis, with a frown on his forehead, stood looking at the cliff, havingdetermined that he would not go round, and yet he could not get pastbecause the water, which was dark and deep, going straight down, came tothe bank, which rose from it like a wall. First he took out hispocket-knife and thought he would cut steps in the sand, and he did cutone large enough to put his toe in; but then he recollected that heshould have nothing to hold to. He had half a mind to go back home andget some big nails and drive into the hard sand to catch hold of, onlyby that time Mark would be so far ahead he could not overtake him andwould boast that he had explored the new sea first. Already he wasfifty yards in front, and walking as fast as he could. How he wished hehad his raft, and then that he could swim! He would have jumped intothe water and swam round the cliff in a minute.
He saw Mark climbing over some railings that went down to the water todivide the fields. He looked up again at the cliff, and almost feltinclined to leave it and run round and overtake Mark. When he lookeddown again Mark was out of sight, hidden by hawthorn bushes and thebranches of trees. Bevis was exceedingly angry, and he walked up anddown and gazed round in his rage. But as he turned once more to thecliff, suddenly Pan appeared at an opening in the furze and brambleabout halfway up. The bushes grew at the side, and the spaniel, findingBevis did not follow Mark, had come back and was waiting for him.Bevis, without thinking, pushed into the furze, and immediately he sawhim coming, Pan, eager to go forward again, ran along the face of thecliff about four feet from the top. He seemed to run on nothing, andBevis was curious to see how he had got by.
The bushes becoming thicker, Bevis had at last to go on hands and kneesunder them, and found a hollow space, where there was a greatrabbit-bury, big enough at the mouth for Pan to creep in. When he stoodon the sand thrown out from it he could see how Pan had done it; therewas a narrow ledge, not above four inches wide, on the face of thecliff. It was only just wide enough for a footing, and the cliff fellsheer down to the water; but Bevis, seeing that he could touch the topof the cliff, and so steady himself, never hesitated a moment.
He stepped on the ledge, right foot first, the other close behind it,and hold lightly to the grass at the edge of the field above, onlylightly lest he should pull it out by the roots. Then he put his rightfoot forward again, and drew his left up to it, and so along, keepingthe right first (he could not walk properly, the ledge being so narrow),he worked himself along. It was quite easy, though it seemed a long waydown to the water, it always looks very much farther down than it doesup, and as he glanced down he saw a perch rise from the depths, and itoccurred to him in the moment what a capital place it would be forperch-fishing.
He could see all over that part of the lake, and noticed two moorhensfeeding in the weeds on the other side, when puff! the wind came overthe field, and reminded him, as he involuntarily grasped the grasstighter, that he must not stay in such a place where he might lose hisbalance. So he went on, and a dragonfly flew past out a little way overthe water and then back to the field, but Bevis was not to be tempted towatch his antics, he kept steadily on, a foot at a time, till he reacheda willow on the other side, and had a bough to hold. Then he shouted,and Pan, who was already far ahead, stopped and looked back at thewell-known sound of triumph.
Running down the easy slope, Bevis quickly reached the railings andclimbed over. On the other side a meadow came down to the edge, and heraced through the grass and was already halfway to the next rails whensome one called "Bevis!" and there was Mark coming out from behind anoak in the field. Bevis stopped, half-pleased, half-angry.
"I waited for you," said Mark.
"I came across the cliff," said Bevis.
"I saw you," said Mark.
"But you ran away from me," said Bevis.
"But I am not running now."
"It is very wrong when we are on an expedition," said Bevis. "Peoplemust do as the captain tells them."
"I won't do it again," said Mark.
"You ought to be punished," said Bevis, "you ought to be put onh
alf-rations. Are you quite sure you will never do it again?"
"Never."
"Well then, this once you are pardoned. Now, mind in future, as you arelieutenant, you set a good example. There's a summer snipe."
Out flew a little bird from the shore, startled as Pan came near, with apiping whistle, and, describing a semicircle, returned to the hard mudfifty yards farther on. It was a summer snipe, and when theyapproached, after getting over the next railings, it flew out again overthe water, and making another half-circle passed back to where they hadfirst seen it. Here the strand was hard mud, dried by the sun, andbroken up into innumerable holes by the hoofs of cattle and horses whichhad come down to drink from the pasture, and had to go through the mudinto which