climbing a beech startled them. From the top of the greenknoll they looked all round, and thus examined the glade. There was notthe slightest sign. The feathers of a wood-pigeon were scattered on thegrass in one place, where a hawk had struck it down. This had happenedsince they were last at the glade. It was probably one of the pigeonsthat roosted in the ivy-grown oak.
Crossing to the oak, they flung sticks up into the ivy; there was noroar in response. While here they remembered the wires, and looked atthem, but there was nothing caught, which they considered a proof thatthe rabbits were afraid to venture far from their burries while thetiger, or whatever beast it was, was prowling about at night.
Returning to the shore, they recollected a large bed of sedges andreed-grass a little way back, and going there Bevis shot an arrow intoit. The arrow slipped through the reed-grass with a slight rustle tillit was lost. The spaniel ran in and they heard him plunging about.There was nothing in the reed-grass.
Lastly they went to the thicket of "wait-a-bit" blackthorn. Pan did goin, and that was as much, he soon came out, he did not like theblackthorn. But by throwing stones and fragments of dead branches up inthe air so that they should descend into the midst of the thicket theysatisfied themselves that there was nothing in it. It was necessary tocast the stones and sticks up into the air because they would notpenetrate if thrown horizontally.
The circuit of the island was completed, and they now crept up quietlyto the verge of the cliff behind the spiked stakes. The stockade wasexactly as they had left it; Pan looked over the edge of the cliff intoit, and did not even sniff. They went down and rested a few minutes.
There never was greater temerity than this searching the island for thetiger. Neither the bullet nor their arrows would have stayed theadvance of that terrible beast for a moment. Inside their stockade andcage they might withstand him; in the open he would have swept them downjust as a lady's sleeve might sweep down the chessmen on the board.Thus in his native haunts he overthrows a crowd of spear-armed savages.
"He can't be on the island," said Mark.
"It's curious we did not see any sign," said Bevis. "There are no marksor footprints anywhere."
"If there was some clay now--wet clay," said Mark, "but it's all sandy;his claws would show in clay like Pan's."
"Like a crab." Pan's footprint in moist clay was somewhat crab-shaped.
"Is there no place where he would leave a mark?"
"Just at the edge of the water the moorhens leave footprints."
"That would be the place, only we can't look very close to the edgeeverywhere."
"There's the raft; we could on the raft."
"Shall we go on the raft?"
"Suppose we go all round the island?" said Bevis, "on the raft."
"We never have been," said Mark. "Not close to the shore."
"No; let us pole round close to the shore--all round, and see if we canfind any spoor in the shallows."
They went to the raft and embarked. As they started a crimson glow shotalong under the clouds, the sun was sinking and the sky beamed. Thewind had risen and the wavelets came splash, splash against the edge ofthe raft. Some of the yellow leaves of the willows floated along andfell on the deck. They poled slowly and constantly grounded or struckthe shore, so that it occupied some time to get round, especially as atthe southern extremity it was so shallow they were obliged to go a longway out.
In about an hour they reached the thick bed of reed-grass into whichBevis had shot his arrow, and as the raft slowly glided by Mark suddenlyexclaimed, "There it is!"
There it was--a path through the reed-grass down to the water's edge--the trail of some creature. Bevis stuck his pole into the ground tocheck the onward movement of the raft. The impetus of the heavy vesselwas so great though moving slowly that it required all his strength tostay it. Mark came with his pole, and together they pushed the raftback, and it ran right up into the reed-grass and grounded. Paninstantly leapt off into the path, and ran along it wagging his tail; hehad the scent, though it seemed faint as he did not give tongue. Theystood at the bulwark of the raft and looked at the trail.
Volume Three, Chapter XII.
NEW FORMOSA--THE TRAIL.
At the water's edge some flags were bent, and then the tall grass, ashigh as their chests, was thrust aside, forming a path which hadevidently been frequently trodden. There was now no longer the leastdoubt that the creature, whatever it was, was of large size, and as thetrail was so distinct the thought occurred to them both at once thatperhaps it had been used by more than one. From the raft they could seealong it five or six yards, then it turned to avoid an alder. Whilethey stood looking Pan came back, he had run right through and returned,so that there was nothing in the reed-bed at present.
Bevis stepped over the bulwark into the trail with the matchlock; Markpicked up the axe and followed. As they walked their elbows touched thegrass each side, which showed that the creature was rather high thanbroad, lean like the whole feline tribe, long, lean, and stealthy. Thereed-grass had flowered and would soon begin to stiffen and rustle dryunder the winds. By the alder a bryony vine that had grown there wasbroken and had withered, it had been snapped long since by the creaturepushing through.
The trail turned to the right, then to the left round a willow stole,and just there Pan, who trotted before Bevis, picked up a bone. He hadpicked it up before and dropped it; he took it again from habit, thoughhe knew it was sapless and of no use to him. Bevis took it from hismouth, and they knew it at once as a duck's drumstick. It was polishedand smooth, as if the creature had licked it, or what was more probablecarried it some distance, and then left it as useless. They had nodoubt it was a drumstick of the wild duck Mark shot.
The trail went straight through sedges next, these were trampled flat;then as the sedges grew wider apart they gradually lost it in the thin,short grass. This was why they had not seen it from the land, there thepath began by degrees; at the water's edge, where the grasses were thickand high, it was seen at once. Try how they would, they could notfollow the trail inland, they thought they knew how to read "sign," butfound themselves at fault. On the dry, hard ground the creature's padsleft no trail that they could trace. Mark cut off a stick with the axeand stuck it up in the ground so that they could find the spot where thepath faded when walking on shore, and they then returned to the raft.On the way they caught sight of Bevis's arrow sticking in the trunk ofthe alder, and withdrew it.
At the water's edge they looked to see if there was any spoor. Inpassing through the reed-grass the creature had trampled it down, and sowalked on a carpet of vegetation which prevented any footprints beingleft on the ground though it was moist there. At the water's edgeperhaps they might have found some, but in pushing the raft up the beamshad rubbed over the mud and obliterated everything. When they got onthe raft they looked over the other bulwark, and a few yards from theshore noticed that the surface of the weeds growing there appeareddisturbed.
The raft was moved out, and they found that the weeds had been trampled;the water was very shallow, so that the creature in approaching theshore had probably plunged up and down as the spaniel did in shallowwater. Like the reed-grass the trampled weeds had prevented anyfootprints in the ooze. They traced the course the creature had comeout for fully thirty yards, and the track pointed straight to the shoreof the mainland so that it seemed as if it started at no great distancefrom where they used to land.
But when they had thrust the raft as far as this, not without greatdifficulty, for it dragged heavily on the weeds and sometimes on theground, the marks changed and trended southwards. The water was alittle deeper and the signs became less and less obvious, but stillthere they were, and they now pointed directly south. They lost them atthe edge of the weeds, the water was still shallow, but the character ofthe bottom had changed from ooze to hard rock-like sand. Here they metthe waves driven before the southerly wind, and coming from that part ofthe New Sea they had not yet explored. The wind was
strong enough tomake it hard work to pole the raft against it, and the spray dashedagainst the willow bulwark.
These waves prevented them from clearly distinguishing the bottom,though the water was very shallow, but then they thought if it had beencalm the creature's pads would have left no marks on such hard sand. Itwas now more than an hour after sunset, and the louring clouds renderedit more dusky than usual so soon. The creature had evidently come fromthe jungle southwards, but it was not possible to go there that night inthe face of the rising gale. The search must be suspended till morning.
Letting the raft drive before the wind, and assisting its progress bypoling, they managed to get it by sheer force through the weeds into theclear deep water by the cliff, there they paddled it round, but unableto touch bottom, the waves drifted them over to
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