Bevis: The Story of a Boy

by Richard Jefferies

craft began to drive before the wind. Mark knelt in front tokeep a sharp look-out for the shoals which they knew existed. As theCalypso drew so little water they passed over several without touching,where the Pinta, deep with ballast, had struck, and were soon past thefarthest point they had reached in the boat.

  Volume Three, Chapter XIII.

  NEW FORMOSA--VOYAGE IN THE CALYPSO.

  Surging along the Calypso sought the south, travelling but little fasterthan the waves, but smoothing a broad wake as she drove over them.Bevis held the oar-rudder under his right arm, with his hand on thehandle, and felt the vibration of the million bubbles rising from theedge of the rudder to the surface. Piloting the vessel Mark sometimesdirected him to steer to the right, and sometimes to the left.

  There were four herons standing in a row on one sand-bank, they rose andmade off at their approach; Bevis said he must have a heron's plume.They could just see the swan a long, long way behind in the broad openwater off Fir-Tree Gulf. Not long after passing the heron's sand-bank,Mark said he was sure the water was deeper, as there were fewer weeds,but there was a long island in front of them which would soon bar theirprogress. It stretched from one mass of impenetrable weeds to another,and they began to think of lowering sail, when suddenly the raft stoppedwith a jerk, then swung round, and hung suspended.

  "A snag," said Bevis, recovering himself.

  Mark had been pitched forward, and had it not been for thewillow-plaited bulwark would have gone overboard. They had the saildown in a moment, fearing that the mast would snap. As they moved onthe deck the raft swung now this way now that like a platform on apivot.

  "If it had been the Pinta," said Mark, "there would have been a holeknocked in the bottom."

  The thin planking of the boat would have been crushed like an egg-shell;the thick beams at the bottom of the Calypso could not be damaged. Theonly difficulty was to get her off. They tried standing at one edge,and then the other, depressing it where they stood and lightening it atthe other part, and at last by moving everything heavy on deck to onecorner, she floated and bumped off. Looking over the bulwark they sawthe snag, it was the top of a dead and submerged willow. Had they had alarge sail, or had the wind been rough the mast would have snapped to acertainty; but the wind had been gradually sinking for some hours. Theydid not hoist sail again, being so near the long and willow-grownisland, but let the raft drift to the shore.

  The willows were so thick that it did not appear any use to carry thematchlock with them as the long barrel would constantly catch in theboughs. Bevis took his bow and arrows, Mark his axe, and they climbedashore through the blue gums, compelling Pan by threats to keep closebehind. The island they soon found was nothing but a narrow bank, andbeyond it the water recommenced, but even could they have dragged theraft over and launched it afresh the part beyond would not have beennavigable. It was plated with pond-weed, the brown leaves overlappingeach other like scale-armour on the surface.

  There seemed indeed more weed than water, great water-docks at themargin with leaves almost a yard long, branched water plantains withpalm-like leaves and pale pink flowers; flags already a little brown,then sedges and huge tussocks; these last--small islets of tall grass--were close together in the shallow water like the ant-hills in theWaste. No course could be forced through or twisted in and out such amass, and beyond it were beds of reed-grass, out of which rose thereddish and scaling poles of willow. At the distant margin they couldsee the tops of the trees of the jungle on the mainland. Where thewater was visible it had a red tinge and did not look good to drink,very different from that at New Formosa. This was stagnant.

  The current, slight as it was, from Sweet River Falls, passed betweenNew Formosa and Serendib, hence the deep channel, and rendered the waterthere always fresh and pure. Over the pond-weed blue dragon-flies werehovering, and among the willows tits called to each other.

  "It's South America," said Mark. "It's a swamp by the Amazon."

  "I suppose it is," said Bevis. "We can't go any farther."

  Without wading-boots it was impossible to penetrate the swamp, and eventhen they could not have gone among the black-jointed horse-tails, thestems of which were turning yellowish, for they would have sunk in oozeto the waist. It would have been the very haunt of the bearded-tit hadnot that curiously marked bird been extinct on the shores of the NewSea. They had never even heard of the bearded-tit, so completely had itdied out there.

  They moved a few yards along the bank, but found it was a ceaselessclimb from stole to stole, and so went back to the raft, and poled closeto the shore looking for traces of the creature. They poled from oneend to the other, up to the banks of weeds and flags, but without seeingany sign. So far as they could tell the creature had not started fromthis place, but it might have swum out from any other part of the shore.

  "He's not here," said Bevis. "We shall never hunt him out of all thesesedges; I think we had better set a trap for him."

  "In the reeds at home,"--New Formosa was home now.

  "In his trail."

  "Dig a pit," said Mark. "They dig pits for lions."

  "Or set up a big beam to fall and crush him when he pushes a twig."

  "Or a spring gun; would the matchlock do?"

  "Only then we want another gun when we go to find him. He might shamdead."

  "Wires are not strong enough."

  "No; the pit's best," said Bevis. "Yes; we'll dig a pit and stick up asharp spike in it, and put a trap-door at the top--just a slight frame,you know, to give way with his weight--"

  "And strew it over with grass."

  "And put the hare to tempt him."

  "And shoot him in the pit!"

  "Won't he glare!"

  "Roar!"

  "Gnash his grinders!"

  "Won't his teeth gleam!"

  "Red tongue and foam!"

  "Hot breath--in such a rage!"

  "Lash his tail!"

  "Tear the sides of the pit!"

  "Don't let's kill him quick. Let's make a spear and stick him alittle!"

  "Come on."

  They seized the poles, all eagerness to return and dig the pit.

  "Stupes we were not to do it before."

  "Awful stupes."

  "We never think of things till so long." Such has been the case withthe world since history began. How many thousands of years was it afterprimeval man first boiled water to the steam-engine? How long from thefirst rubbing of electron or amber, and a leaping up of little particlesto it, to the electric tramway?

  They had sailed to the swamp quickly, but it occupied more than an hourto pole back to New Formosa, so that it was the afternoon when theymoored the Calypso in the usual place. They were hungry and hastened tothe hut, intending to begin the pit directly after dinner, when as theycame near, Pan ran on first and barked by the gate. "Ah!"

  "He's been!"

  They ran, forgetting even to look at the match of the gun. There wasnothing in the enclosure; but Pan sniffed outside, and gave two short"yaps" as much as to say, "I know."

  "Reeds," said Bevis. "He's in the reeds."

  "He heard us coming and slipped off--he's hiding."

  "We shall have him! Now!"

  "Now directly!"

  "This minute!"

  With incredible temerity they ran as fast as they could go to the bed ofreed-grass in which they had discovered the trail. Pan barked at theedge; Bevis blew the match.

  "Lu--lu--lu! go in!"

  "Fetch him out."

  "Hess--ess--go in!"

  "Now! Have him!"

  Pan stopped at the edge and yapped in the air, wagging his tail andhesitating.

  "He's there!" said Bevis.

  "As sure as sure," said Mark. Their faces were lit up with the wild joyof the combat; as if like hounds they could scent the quarry.

  "Go in," shouted Bevis to the spaniel angrily. Pan crouched, but wouldnot go. Mark kicked him, but he would not move.

  "Hold it," said Bevis,
handing the matchlock to Mark. He seized thespaniel by his shaggy neck, lifted and hurled him by main force a fewyards crash among the sedges. Pan came out in an instant.

  "Go in, I tell you!" shouted Bevis, beside himself with anger; thespaniel shivered at his feet. Again Bevis lifted him, swung him, andhurled him as far this time as the reed-grass. The next instant Pan wasat his feet again. Encouragement, persuasion, threats, blows, allfailed; it was like trying to make him climb a tree. The dog could notforce his nature. Mark threw dead sticks into the reed-grass; Bevisflung some stones.

  "You hateful wretch!" Bevis stamped his foot. "Get away." Pan ranback.