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 NewFormosa. They were too tired to make a fresh damper (besides the timeit would take) having got up so early that morning, and Bevis onlyentered two words in his journal--"Monday--Loo."
Then they fastened Pan to the door-post, allowing him enough cord tomove a few yards, but taking care to make his collar too tight for himto slip his head. Pan submitted with a mournful countenance, well heunderstood 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 wasuntouched; nor was there a kangaroo in the wires they had set up intheir runs. Poling the raft out to the trimmers they found a jack ofabout 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, andespecially to look at the great grey boulder, and so they went on andlanded among the sedges.
Making Pan keep close at their heels, they cautiously crept through thebramble thickets--Pan tried two or three times to break away, for thescent of game was strong in these thickets--and entered the wildpasture, across which they could not see. The ground undulated, andbesides the large ant-hills, the scattered hawthorn bushes and thethickets round the boulders intercepted the view. If any savagesappeared they intended to stoop, and so would be invisible; they couldeven creep on hands and knees half across the common without being seen.Pan was restless--not weary this morning--the scent he crossed wasalmost 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 wassmooth, as if it had been ground with emery, and there were littlecircular basins or cups drilled in it. With a stick Bevis felt allround and came to a place where the stick could be pushed in two orthree feet under the stone, between it and the grass.
"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 andages."
"If we could lift the stone up."
"There's a spell on it; you couldn't lift it up, not with levers oranything."
Pan sniffed at the narrow crevice between the edge of the boulder andthe ground--concealed by the grass till Bevis found it--but showed nointerest. There was no rabbit there. Such great boulders often havecrevices beneath, whether this was a natural hollow, or whether theboulder was the capstone of a dolmen was not known. Whirr-rr!
A covey of partridges flew over only just above the stone, and within afew inches of their heads which were concealed by it. They countedfourteen--the covey went straight out across the New Sea, eastwardstowards the Nile. From the boulder they wandered on among the ant-hillsand tall thistles, disturbing a hare, which went off at a tremendouspace, bringing his hind legs right under his body up to his shoulder inhis eagerness to take kangaroo bounds.
Presently they came to the thick hedge which divided the Waste from thecornfields. Gathering a few blackberries along this, they came to agate, which alarmed them, thinking some one might see, but a carefulreconnaissance showed that the reapers had finished and left that field.The top bar of the gate was pecked, little chips out of the wood, wherethe crows had been.
"It's very nice here," said Mark. "You can go on without coming to theOther Side so soon."
After their life on the island, where they could never walk far withoutcoming in sight of the water, they appreciated the liberty of themainland. Pan had to have several kicks and bangs with the stick, hewas so tempted to rush into the hedge, but they did not want him tobark, in case any one should hear.
"Lots of kangaroos here," said Bevis, "and big kangaroos too--hares youknow; 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 upinto the double mound, when Bevis, who was first, suddenly dropped onhis knees and seized Pan's shaggy neck. Mark crouched instantly behindhim.
"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 andtrampled 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, andthey crossed the mound, when the signs of some one having recently beenthere became visible in the trampled nettles, and in one spot there wasthe imprint of a heel-plate.
"Savages," said Bevis. "Ah! Look."
Mark looked through the branches and a long way out in the stubble,moving among the shocks of wheat, he saw Bevis's governor. They watchedhim silently. The governor walked straight away; they scarcely breathedtill he had disappeared in the next field. Then they drew back into theWaste, and looked at one another.
"Very nearly done," said Mark.
"We won't land again in daylight," said Bevis.
"No--it's not safe; he must have been close."
"He must have got up into the mound and looked through," said Bevis."Perhaps while we were by the gate."
"Most likely. He came across the stubble, why he was that side while wewere this."
"Awfully nearly done; why it must have been the governor who startledthe partridges!"
"Stupes we were not to know some one was about."
"Awful stupes."
They walked back to the raft, keeping close to the hedge, and crept onall fours among the ant-hills so as to pass the gateway without thepossibility of being seen, though they knew the governor was now too farto observe them.
The governor had been to look at the progress made by the reapers, andthen strolled across the stubble, thinking to see what birds were about,as it was not such a great while till the season opened. Coming to themound, he got up and looked through into the Waste, over which (as overthe New Sea) he held manorial rights. At the moment he was looking outinto the pasture they were idly approaching him along the hedge, and hadhe stopped there they would have come on him. As it was, he went backinto the stubble, and had gone some fifty yards with his back turnedwhen they entered the gap.
"We might have been tortured," said Mark, as they stepped on the raft."Tied up and gimlets bored into our heads."
"The king of this country is an awful tyrant," said Bevis. "Very likelyhe would have fixed us in a hollow tree and smeared us with honey andlet the flies eat us."
"Unless we could save his daughter, who is ill, and all the magicianscan't do her any good."
"Now they are hoping we shall soon come with a wonderful talisman. Wemust study magic--we keep on putting it off; I wonder if there really isa jewel in the toad's head."
"You have not inked the wizard's foot on the gateway," said Mark.
When they got home Bevis inked it on the boards of the gate; he couldnot do it on the rough bark of the gate-post. They then worked at theshed, and soon put it up in place of the awning, which was taken downand carried to the raft. Next the mast was erected, and sustained withstays; it was, however, taken down again, so as to be out of the waytill required, and stowed at the side by the bulwarks.
The jack was cooked for dinner, and though not enough for such hungrypeople it was a pleasant change from the perpetual rashers and damper.After Charley had given the signal, they parted; Mark took his perchtackle and poled the raft out near Pearl Island, where he thought hemight catch some perch. Bevis loaded the matchlock with ball, and wentinto ambush behind the ash-tree by Kangaroo Hill, to try and shoot akangaroo.
Mark took Pan and worked the raft along t
ill he was within forty orfifty yards of Pearl Island, and on the windward side. The wind hadbeen changeable lately, showing that the weather was not so settled asit had been; it blew from the eastward that afternoon, just strongenough to cause a ripple. When he had got the raft into the position hewished, Mark put the pole down and took his rod.
The raft, as he had designed, floated slowly, and without the leastdisturbance of the water (such as his pole or oars would have caused)before the wind, till it grounded on a shoal ten yards from PearlIsland. Mark knew of the shoal, having noticed the place before whenthey were visiting the islets, and thought it would be a likely spot tofind perch. The ripples breaking over the ridge of the shoal made aminiature surf there.
On the outer or windward side the
Bevis: The Story of a Boy Page 77