Bevis Part 5

Bevis said nothing, but marched on very upright and very angry, and Mark followed, putting his feet into the marks Bevis left as he strode over the yielding sand. Neither spoke a word. The sh.o.r.e trended in again after the point, and the indentation was full of weeds, whose broad brownish leaves floated on the surface. Pan worked about and sniffed among the willow bushes on their loft, which, when the lake was full, were in the water, but now that it had shrunk under the summer heat were several yards from the edge.

Bevis, leading the way, came to a place where the strand, till then so low and shelving, suddenly became steep, where a slight rise of the ground was cut as it were through by the water, which had worn a cliff eight or ten feet above his head. The water came to the bottom of the cliff, and there did not seem any way past it except by going away from the edge into the field, and so round it. Mark at once went round, hastening as fast as he could to get in front, and he came down to the water on the other side of the cliff in half a minute, looked at Bevis, and then went on with Pan.

Bevis, with a frown on his forehead, stood looking at the cliff, having determined that he would not go round, and yet he could not get past because the water, which was dark and deep, going straight down, came to the bank, which rose from it like a wall. First he took out his pocket-knife and thought he would cut steps in the sand, and he did cut one large enough to put his toe in; but then he recollected that he should have nothing to hold to. He had half a mind to go back home and get some big nails and drive into the hard sand to catch hold of, only by that time Mark would be so far ahead he could not overtake him and would boast that he had explored the new sea first. Already he was fifty yards in front, and walking as fast as he could. How he wished he had his raft, and then that he could swim! He would have jumped into the water and swam round the cliff in a minute.

He saw Mark climbing over some railings that went down to the water to divide the fields. He looked up again at the cliff, and almost felt inclined to leave it and run round and overtake Mark. When he looked down again Mark was out of sight, hidden by hawthorn bushes and the branches of trees. Bevis was exceedingly angry, and he walked up and down and gazed round in his rage. But as he turned once more to the cliff, suddenly Pan appeared at an opening in the furze and bramble about halfway up. The bushes grew at the side, and the spaniel, finding Bevis did not follow Mark, had come back and was waiting for him.

Bevis, without thinking, pushed into the furze, and immediately he saw him coming, Pan, eager to go forward again, ran along the face of the cliff about four feet from the top. He seemed to run on nothing, and Bevis was curious to see how he had got by.

The bushes becoming thicker, Bevis had at last to go on hands and knees under them, and found a hollow s.p.a.ce, where there was a great rabbit-bury, big enough at the mouth for Pan to creep in. When he stood on the sand thrown out from it he could see how Pan had done it; there was a narrow ledge, not above four inches wide, on the face of the cliff. It was only just wide enough for a footing, and the cliff fell sheer down to the water; but Bevis, seeing that he could touch the top of the cliff, and so steady himself, never hesitated a moment.

He stepped on the ledge, right foot first, the other close behind it, and hold lightly to the gra.s.s at the edge of the field above, only lightly lest he should pull it out by the roots. Then he put his right foot forward again, and drew his left up to it, and so along, keeping the right first (he could not walk properly, the ledge being so narrow), he worked himself along. It was quite easy, though it seemed a long way down to the water, it always looks very much farther down than it does up, and as he glanced down he saw a perch rise from the depths, and it occurred to him in the moment what a capital place it would be for perch-fis.h.i.+ng.

He could see all over that part of the lake, and noticed two moorhens feeding in the weeds on the other side, when puff! the wind came over the field, and reminded him, as he involuntarily grasped the gra.s.s tighter, that he must not stay in such a place where he might lose his balance. So he went on, and a dragonfly flew past out a little way over the water and then back to the field, but Bevis was not to be tempted to watch his antics, he kept steadily on, a foot at a time, till he reached a willow on the other side, and had a bough to hold. Then he shouted, and Pan, who was already far ahead, stopped and looked back at the well-known sound of triumph.

Running down the easy slope, Bevis quickly reached the railings and climbed over. On the other side a meadow came down to the edge, and he raced through the gra.s.s and was already halfway to the next rails when some one called "Bevis!" and there was Mark coming out from behind an oak in the field. Bevis stopped, half-pleased, half-angry.

"I waited for you," said Mark.

"I came across the cliff," said Bevis.

"I saw you," said Mark.

"But you ran away from me," said Bevis.

"But I am not running now."

"It is very wrong when we are on an expedition," said Bevis. "People must do as the captain tells them."

"I won't do it again," said Mark.

"You ought to be punished," said Bevis, "you ought to be put on half-rations. Are you quite sure you will never do it again?"

"Never."

"Well then, this once you are pardoned. Now, mind in future, as you are lieutenant, you set a good example. There's a summer snipe."

Out flew a little bird from the sh.o.r.e, startled as Pan came near, with a piping whistle, and, describing a semicircle, returned to the hard mud fifty yards farther on. It was a summer snipe, and when they approached, after getting over the next railings, it flew out again over the water, and making another half-circle pa.s.sed back to where they had first seen it. Here the strand was hard mud, dried by the sun, and broken up into innumerable holes by the hoofs of cattle and horses which had come down to drink from the pasture, and had to go through the mud into which they sank when it was soft. Three or four yards from the edge there was a narrow strip of weeds, showing that a bank followed the line of the sh.o.r.e there. It was so unpleasant walking over this hard mud, that they went up into the field, which rose high, so that from the top they had a view of the lake.

Volume One, Chapter V.

BY THE NEW NILE.

"Do you see any canoes?" said Mark.

"No," said Bevis. "Can you? Look very carefully."

They gazed across the broad water over the gleaming ripples far away, for the light wind did not raise them by the sh.o.r.e, and traced the edge of the willows and the weeds.

"The savages are in hiding," said Bevis, after a pause. "Perhaps they're having a feast."

"Or gone somewhere to war."

"Are they cannibals?" said Mark. "I should not like to be gnawn."

"Very likely," said Bevis. "No one has ever been here before, so they are nearly sure to be; they always are where no one has been. This would be a good place to begin the map as we can see so far. Let's sit down."

"Let's get behind a tree, then," said Mark; "else if we stay still long perhaps we shall be seen."

So they went a little farther to an ash, and sat down by it. Bevis spread out his sheet of brown paper.

"Give me an apple," said Mark, "while you draw." Bevis did so, and then, lying on the ground at full length, began to trace out the course of the sh.o.r.e; Mark lay down too, and held one side of the paper that the wind might not lift it. First Bevis made a semicircle to represent the stony bay where they found the roach, then an angular point for the sandy bar, then a straight line for the shelving sh.o.r.e.

"There ought to be names," said Mark. "What shall we call this?"

putting his finger on the bay.

"Don't splutter over the map," said Bevis; "take that apple pip off it.

Of course there will be names when I have drawn the outline. Here's the cliff." He put a slight projection where the cliff jutted out a little way, then a gentle curve for the sh.o.r.e of the meadow, and began another trending away to the left for the place where they were.

"That's not long enough," said Mark.

"It's not finished," said Bevis. "How can I finish it when we have only got as far as this? How do I know, you stupid, how far this bay goes into the land? Perhaps there's another sea round there," pointing over the field. "Instead of saying silly things, just find out some names, now."

"What sea is it?" said Mark thoughtfully.

"I can't tell," said Bevis. "It is most extraordinary to find a new sea. And such an enormous big one. Why how many days' journey have we come already?"

"Thirty," said Mark. "Put it down in the diary, thirty days' journey.

There, that's right. Now, what sea is it? Is it the Atlantic?"

"No; it's not the Atlantic, nor the Pacific, nor the South Sea; it's bigger than all those."

"It's much more difficult to find a name than a sea," said Mark.

"Much," said Bevis. They stared at each other for awhile. "I know,"

said Bevis.

"Well, what is it?" said Mark excitedly, raising himself on his knees to hear the name.

"I know," said Bevis. "I'll lie down and shut my eyes, and you take a piece of gra.s.s and tickle me; then I can think. I can't think unless I'm tickled."

He disposed himself very comfortably on his back with his knees up, and tilted his straw hat so as to shade that side of his face towards the sun. Mark pulled a bennet.

"Not _too_ ticklish," said Bevis, "else that won't do: don't touch my lips."

"All right."

Mark held the bending bennet (the spike of the gra.s.s) bending with the weight of its tip, and drew it very gently across Bevis's forehead.

Then he let it just touch his cheek, and afterwards put the tip very daintily on his eyelid. From there he let it wander like a fly over his forehead again, and close by, but not in the ear (as too ticklish), leaving little specks of pollen on the skin, and so to the neck, and next up again to the hair, and on the other cheek under the straw hat.

Bevis, with his eyes shut, kept quite still under this luxurious tickling for some time, till Mark, getting tired, put the bennet delicately on his lip, when he started and rubbed his mouth.