understoodeach other better than had they used set speech. For two people alwaystogether know the exact meaning of a nod, the indication of a glance,and a motion of the lip means a page of conversation.
Having got the gun as they came back, Mark said perhaps Pan would eatthe duck. Bevis called him, but he did not need the call. Gluttonousepicure as he was, Pan, at a whistle from Bevis, would have left themost marrowy bone in the world; but Bevis with a gun! why, Polly with abroom-stick could not have stopped him.
Before they got to the willow bush it had been settled that Mark shouldshoot at the jack, as the matchlock was loaded with shot, and Beviswanted to shoot with ball, and reserved his turn for the time when hehad made the new sight. Bevis held Pan while Mark went forward. Thejack was there, but Mark could not get the rest in a position to take asteady aim, because the willow boughs interfered so.
So Bevis knelt down, still holding Pan, and Mark rested the long heavybarrel on his shoulder. The shot plunged into the water, and the jackfloated, blown a yard away, dead on his back; his head shattered, butthe long body untouched. Pan fetched him out, and they laughed at thespaniel, he looked so odd with the fish in his mouth. Bevis wanted tosee the glade and the rabbit's burries, but Mark said, if the duck wasdone, it would burn to a cinder, so they went home to their dinner. Bythe time they reached the teak-tree, the duck was indeed burned oneside.
It was dry and hard for lack of basting, when they cut it up, but notunsavoury; and what made it nicer was, that every now and then theyfound shots--which their teeth had flattened--shots from their own gun.These they saved, and Mark put them in his purse; there were sixaltogether. Mark gloried in the number, as it was a long shot at theduck, and they showed that he had aimed straight. The ale in the woodenbottle was now stale, so they drank water, with a little sherry in it;and then started to see the discovery Mark had made. Pan went withthem. The old spaniel had been there long before, for he found out therabbits the first stroll he took after landing from the Pinta, but couldnot convey his knowledge to them.
Bevis marked out a tree, behind which they could wait in ambush to shootat the rabbits, as it was within easy range of their burries; and then,as they felt it was now afternoon, they returned to the stockade, gotthe telescope and went up on the cliff to watch for Charlie's signal.The shadow of the gnomon on the dial had moved a good way since Bevisset it up. They had not the least idea of the hour, but somehow theyfelt that it was afternoon.
Long habit makes us clocks, if we pause, or are forced to consultourselves. Slow changes in the frame proceed till they are recognisedby the mind, or rather by the subtle connexion between the mind and thebody; for there seems a nexus, or medium, which conveys this kind ofeighth sense from the flesh to the mental consciousness. Birds andanimals know the time without a clock or dial, and the months or seasonsalmost to a day; and so, too, the human animal, if driven from theconveniences of civilisation, which save him the trouble of thinkingsoon reverts to these original and indefinable indications.
For instance (though in a different way), you can set the clock of yoursenses to awake exactly at any hour you choose in the morning. If youput your watch aside, reversing the process, and listen to the senses,they will tell you when it is afternoon.
The sandy summit of the cliff was very warm, and the bramble bushes werenot high enough to give them any shade; so that, to escape the sun, theyreclined on the ground in front of the young oak-tree, and between itand the edge. Bevis looked through the telescope, and could see thesand-martins going in and out of their holes in the distant quarry.
Charlie was not on the hill, or, if so, he was behind a sycamore and outof sight; but they knew he had not yet made the signal, because the herdof cows was down by the hollow oak, some standing in the water. Theyhad not yet been called by the milkers. Sweeping the shore of Fir-TreeGulf, and down the Mozambique to the projecting bluff which preventedfarther view, he saw a crow on the sand, and another perched on a rail;another sign that there was no one about.
"Any savages?" said Mark.
"Not one."
"Proas hauled up somewhere out of sight."
Mark carefully felt his way to the very verge, and there sat with hislegs dangling over. He said the cliff was quite safe; and Bevis joinedhim. Underneath they could see deep into the water; but though sostill, they could not distinguish the bottom. Clear at the surface, thewater seemed to thicken to a dense shadow, which could not be seenthrough. It was deep there; they thought they should like a dive, onlyit was too far for them to plunge. There was a ball of thistledown onthe surface, floating on the tips of its delicate threads; the spokeswith which it flies as a wheel rolls.
"How did the rabbits--I mean the kangaroos--get here?" said Bevispresently. "I don't think they could swim so far."
"Savages might bring them," said Mark. "But they don't very often carrypets with them: they eat everything so."
"Nibbling men like goats nibbling hedges," said Bevis. "We must takecare: but how did the kangaroos get on the island?"
"It is curious," said Mark. "Perhaps it wasn't always an island--joinedto the mainland and the river cut a way through the isthmus."
"Or a volcano blew it up," said Bevis. "We will see if we can find thevolcano."
"But it will be gone out now."
"O! yes. All those sort of things happened when there was no one to seethem."
"Before we lived."
"Or anybody else."
A large green dragon-fly darted to and fro now under their feet andbetween them and the water; now overhead, now up to the top of the oak,and now round the cliff and back again; weaving across and across a warpand weft in the air. As they sat still he came close, and they saw hiswings revolving, and the sunlight reflected from the membrane. Everynow and then there was a slight snap, as he seized a fly, and ate it ashe flew: so eager was he that when a speck of wood-dust fell from theoak, though he was yards away, he rushed at it and intercepted it beforeit could reach the ground. It was rejected, and he had returned whencehe started in a moment.
"The buffaloes are moving," said Mark. "They're going up the hill. Getready. Here, put it on my shoulder."
The herd had begun to ascend the green slope from the water's edge,doubtless in response to the milker's halloo which they could not hearon the island. Bevis rested the telescope on Mark's shoulder, andwatched. In point of fact it was not so far but that they could haveseen any one by the quarry without a glass, but the telescope wasproper.
"There he is," said Mark.
Bevis, looking through the telescope, saw Charlie come out from behind asycamore, where he had been lying in the shadow, and standing on theedge of the quarry, wave his white handkerchief three times, with aninterval between.
"It's all right. White flag," said Bevis. "He's looking. He can't seeus, can he?"
"No, there are bushes behind us. If we stood up against the sky perhapshe might."
"I'll crawl to the dial," said Bevis, and he went on hands and knees tothe sundial, where he could stand up without being seen, as there werebrambles and the oak between him and the cliff. He drew a line with hispencil where the shadow of the gnomon fell on the circle, that was fouro'clock. Mark came after, creeping too.
"We won't sit there again," said Mark, "when it's signal-time. He keepsstaring. You can see his face through the telescope. We will keepbehind the tree."
"There ought to be a crow's nest up in it," said Bevis. "Suppose wemake one. Lash a stout stick across two boughs, or tie cords across andhalf round, so as to be able to sit and watch up there nicely."
"So we will. Then we can see if the savages are prowling round."
"The sedges are very thick that side," said Bevis, pointing to theeastern shore where they had had such a struggle through them. "Theywould hide five thousand savages."
They went down to the hut, and Bevis made the sight for the matchlock.The short spiral of copper wire answered perfectly, and he could nowtake accurate aim. But af
ter he had put the powder in, and was justgoing to put a bullet, he recollected the kangaroos. If he shot offmuch at a target with bullets at that time in the afternoon it wouldalarm everything on the island, for the report would be heard all overit. Kangaroos and water-fowl are generally about more in the eveningthan the morning, so he put off the trial with ball and loaded withshot.
It was of no use going into ambush till the shadows lengthened, so heset about getting the tea while Mark sawed off two posts, and drove theminto the ground at one side of the doorway of the hut. Each post had across-piece at the top, and the two boards were placed on these, forminga table. Bevis made four dampers, and at Mark's suggestion buried anumber of potatoes in the embers of the fire, so as to