Bevis: The Story of a Boy

thing was very near when we first went out," said Bevis. "I wishwe had run to the gate directly without waiting for the gun."

  "But we did not know what it was."

  "No."

  "And I cut Pan loose directly."

  "It had only to run ten yards to be out of sight in the mist."

  "And it seems so dark when you first run out."

  "It's lighter now."

  "There's no dew."

  "Dry mist--it's clearing a little."

  As they stood by the fire the verge of the cliff above the roof of thehut came out clear of vapour, then they saw the trees outside thestockade rise as it were higher as the vapour shrunk through them: thestars were very faint.

  "Lu--lu!" said Mark, pointing to the crevice between the fence and thecliff, and urging Pan to go out again: the spaniel went a few yardstowards it, then turned and came back. He could not be induced toventure alone.

  "Lions _do_ get loose sometimes," said Bevis thoughtfully. He had beenrunning over every wild beast in his mind that could by any possibilityapproach them. Cases do occur every now and then of vans beingoverturned, and lions and tigers escaping.

  "So they do, but we have not heard any roar."

  "No, and we must have come on it if it stops on the island," said Bevis."We have been all round so many times. Or does it go to and fro--dolions swim?"

  "He would have no need to," said Mark. "I mean not after he had swumover here, he wouldn't go away for us--he could lie in the bushes."

  "Perhaps we have gone close by it without knowing," said Bevis."There's the `wait-a-bit thorns.'"

  They had never been through the thicket of blackthorn.

  "Pan never barked though. He's been all round the island with us."

  "Perhaps he was afraid--like he was just now."

  "Ah, yes, very likely."

  "And we hit him too to keep him quiet, not to startle the kangaroos."

  "Or the water-fowl--so we did: we may have gone close by it withoutknowing."

  "In the `wait-a-bits' or the hazel."

  "Or the sedges, where it's drier."

  "Foxes lie in withy beds--why should not this?"

  "Of course: but I say--only think, we may have gone within reach of itspaw ten times."

  "While we were lying down too," said Bevis, "in ambush It might havebeen in the ferns close behind."

  "All the times we walked about and never took the gun," said Mark; "orthe bow and arrow, or the axe, or anything--and just think! Why we cameback from the raft without even a stick in our hands."

  "Yes--it was silly: and we came quietly too, to try and see it."

  "Well, we just were stupid!" said Mark. "Only we never thought It couldbe anything big."

  "But It must be."

  "Of course It is: we won't go out again without the gun, and the axe--"

  "And my bow to shoot again, because you can't load a matchlock quick."

  "That's the worst of it: tigers get loose too sometimes, don't they? andpanthers more often, because there are more of them."

  "Yes, one is as dangerous as the other. Panthers are worse than lions."

  "More creepy."

  "Cattish. They slink on you; they don't roar first."

  "Then perhaps it's a panther."

  "Perhaps. This is a very likely place, if anything has got loose;there's the jungle on the mainland, and all the other woods, and theChase up by Jack's."

  "Yes--plenty of cover: almost like forest."

  Besides the great wood in which they had wandered there were severalothers in the neighbourhood, and a Chase on the hills by Jack's, so thatin case of a beast escaping from a caravan it would find extensive coverto hide in.

  "Only think," said Bevis, "when we bathed!"

  "Ah!" Mark shuddered. While they bathed naked and unarmed, had itdarted from the reeds they would have fallen instant victims, withoutthe possibility of a struggle even.

  "It _is_ horrible," said Bevis.

  "There are reeds and sedges everywhere," said Mark. "It may beanywhere."

  "It's not safe to move."

  "Especially as Pan's afraid and won't warn us. _If_ the thing had seenus bathing; It could not, or else--ah!"

  "They tear so," said Bevis. "It's not the wound so much as thetearing."

  "Like bramble hooks," said Mark. The curved hooks of brambles andbriars inflict lacerated hurts worse than the spikes of thorns. Fleshthat is torn cannot heal like that which is incised. "O! stop! panthersget in trees, don't they? It may have been up in that oak that day!"

  "In the ivy: we looked!"

  "But the ivy is thick and we might not have seen! It might have jumpeddown on us."

  "So it might any minute in the wood."

  "Then we can't go in the wood."

  "Nor among the sedges round the shore."

  "Nor the brambles, nor fern, nor hazel."

  "Nowhere--except on the raft."

  "Then we must take care how we come back."

  "How shall we sleep!"

  "Ah!--think, it might have come any night!"

  "We left the gate open."

  "O! how stupid we have been."

  "It could kill Pan with one stroke."

  "And Pan was not here: he used to swim off."

  "Directly he was tied up, you recollect, the very first night, hebarked--no, the second."

  "It may have come _every_ night before."

  "Right inside the stockade--under the awning."

  "Into the hut while we were away--the bacon was on the shelf."

  "If It could jump up like that, it could jump the fence."

  "Of course; and it shows it was a cat-like creature, because it couldtake one thing without disturbing another. Dogs knock things down, catsdon't."

  "No, panthers are a sort of big cat."

  "That's what gnawed the jack's head."

  "And why there was no mark on the ground--their pads are so soft, anddon't cut holes like hoofs."

  "The kangaroos too, you remember: very often they wouldn't come out.Something was about."

  "Of course. How could we have been so stupid as not to see thisbefore!"

  "Why, we never suspected."

  "But we ought to have suspected. You thought you saw something move inthe sedges on Sunday."

  "So I did--it was this thing: it must have been."

  "Then it swims off and comes back."

  "Then if we hunt all over the island and don't find It--we're no safer,because it may come off to us any time."

  "Any time."

  "What _shall_ we do?"

  "Can't go home," said Bevis.

  "Can't go home," repeated Mark.

  They could not desert their island: it would have been so like runningaway too, and they had so often talked of Africa and shooting big game.Then to run away when in its presence would have lowered them in theirown estimation.

  "Can't," said Bevis again.

  "Can't," again repeated Mark. They _could_ not go--they must face It,whatever it was.

  "We shall have to look before every step," said Bevis. "Up in thetrees--through the bushes--and the reeds."

  "We must not go in the reeds much: you can't tell there--"

  "No, not much. We must watch at night. First one, and then the other."

  "And keep the fire burning. There ought to be a fence along the top ofthe cliff."

  "Yes--that's very awkward: you can't put stakes in hard sand like that."

  "We must drive in some--and cut them sharp at the top."

  "What a pity the stockade is not sharp at the top!--Nails, that's it: wemust drive in long nails and file the tops off!"

  "And put some stakes with nails along the cliff--the thing could not getin quite so quick."

  "The gate is not very strong: we must barricade it."

  "Wish we could lock the door!"

  "I should think so!"

  Now they realised what is forgotten in the routine of civilised life--the security of doors and bolts.
Their curtain was no defence.

  "Barricade the door."

  "Yes, but not too close, else we can't shoot--we should be trapped."

  "I see! Put the barricade round a little way in front. Why not havetwo fires, one each side!"

  "Capital. We will fortify the