Bevis Part 56

"Yes," said Bevis; "she must be at New Formosa on the equator and at home in the harbour. It's a very difficult thing."

"Awfully difficult," said Mark. "But you can do it. Try! Think!

Shall I tickle you?"

"It wants magic," said Bevis. "I ought to have studied magic more; only there are no magic books now."

"But you can think, I know. Now, think hard--_hard_."

"First," said Bevis slowly, tracing out the proceedings in his imagination; "first we must bring all our things--the gun and powder, and provisions, and great-coats, and the astrolabe, and spears, and leave them all here."

"Pan ought to come," said Mark, "to watch the hut."

"So he did; he shall come, and besides, if we shoot a wild duck he can swim out and fetch it."

"Now go on," said Mark. "First, we bring everything and Pan."

"Tie him up," said Bevis, "and row home in the boat. Then the thing is, how are we to get to the island?"

"Swim," said Mark.

"Too far."

"But we needn't swim all up the New Sea. Couldn't we swim from where we landed that night after the battle?"

"Ever so much better. Let's go and look," said Bevis.

Away they went to the sh.o.r.e on that side of the island, but they saw in a moment that it was too far. It was two hundred yards to the sedges on the bank where they had landed that night. They could not trust themselves to swim more than fifty or sixty yards; there was, too, the risk of weeds, in which they might get entangled.

"I know!" said Bevis, "I know! You stop on the island with Pan. I'll sail the Pinta into harbour, then I'll paddle back on the catamaran."

"There!" said Mark, "I knew you could do it if you thought hard. We could bring the catamaran up in the boat, and leave it in the sedges there ready."

"I can leave half my clothes on the island," said Bevis, "and tie the rest on my back, and paddle here from the sedges in ten minutes. That will be just like the savages do."

"I shall come too," said Mark. "I shan't stop here. Let Pan be tied up, and I'll paddle as well."

"The catamaran won't bear two."

"Get another. There's lots of planks. I will come--it's much jollier paddling than sitting here and doing nothing."

"Capital," said Bevis. "We'll have two catamarans, and paddle here together."

"First-rate. Let's be quick and get the things on the island."

"There will be such a lot," said Bevis. "The matchlock, and the powder, and the flour, and--"

"Salt," said Mark. "Don't you remember the moorhen. Things are not nice without salt."

"Yes, salt and matches, and pots for cooking, and a lantern, and--"

"Ever so many cargoes," said Mark. "As there's such a lot, and as we can't go home and fetch anything if it's forgotten, hadn't you better write a list?"

"So I will," said Bevis. "The pots and kettles will be a bother, they will want to know what we are going to do."

"Buy some new ones."

"Right; and leave them at Macaroni's."

"Come on. Sail home and begin."

They launched the Pinta, and the spanking south-easterly breeze carried them swiftly into harbour. At home there was a small parcel, very neatly done up, addressed to "Captain Bevis."

"That's Frances's handwriting," said Mark. Bevis cut the string and found a flag inside made from a broad red ribbon cut to a point.

"It's a pennant," said Bevis. "It will do capitally. How was it we never thought of a flag before?"

"We were so busy," said Mark. "Girls have nothing to do, and so they can remember these sort of st.i.tched things."

"She shall have a bird of paradise for her hat," said Bevis. "We shall be sure to shoot one on the island."

"I shouldn't give it to her," said Mark. "I should sell it. Look at the money."

In the evening they took a large box (which locked) up to the boat, carrying it through the courtyard with the lid open--ostentatiously open--and left it on board. Next morning they filled it with their tools. Bevis kept his list and pencil by him, and as they put in one thing it suggested another, which he immediately wrote down. There were files, gimlets, hammers, screw-drivers, planes, chisels, the portable vice, six or seven different sorts of nails, every tool indeed they had.

The hatchet and saw were already on the island. Besides these there were coils of wire and cord, b.a.l.l.s of string, and several boxes of safety and lucifer matches. This was enough for one cargo, they shut the lid, and began to loosen the sails ready for hoisting.

"You might take us once."

"You never asked us."

Tall Val and little Charlie had come along the bank unnoticed while they were so busy.

"I wish you would go away," said Mark, beginning to push the Pinta afloat. The ballast and cargo made her drag on the sand.

"Bevis," said Val, "let us have one sail."

"All the times you've been sailing," said Charlie, "and all by yourselves, and never asked anybody."

"And after we banged you in the battle," said Val. "If you did beat us, we hit you as hard as we could."

"It was a capital battle," said Bevis hesitatingly. He had the halyard in his hand, and paused with the mainsail half hoisted.

"Whopping and snopping," said Charlie.

"Charging and whooping and holloaing," said Val.

"Rare," said Bevis. "Yes; you fought very well."

"But you never asked us to have a sail."