"Soft pads," said Bevis, "they make no noise like hoofs."
"No, that was it: and it"s sandy too." Sand "gives" a little and deadens the sound of footsteps.
"Let"s go and look again."
"So we will."
They went to the gate--Pan, they noticed did not follow--and looked over again: this time longer and more searchingly. They could see the ground for a few yards, and then the mist obscured it like fleece among brambles.
"Pan"s afraid to come," said Mark, as they went back to the shed.
"The fire ought to be lit," said Bevis. "They are afraid of fire."
"You watch," said Mark, "and I"ll light it."
He drew on his boots, and put on his coat--for they ran out in waistcoat and trousers--then he held the gun, while Bevis did the same; then Bevis took it, and Mark hastily gathered some sticks together and lit them, often glancing over his shoulder at the fence behind, and with the axe always ready to his hand. When the flames began to rise they felt more at ease; they knew that wild beasts dislike fire, and somehow fire warms the spirit as well as the body. The morning was warm enough, they did not need a fire, but the sight of the twisted tongues as they curled spirally and broke away was restorative as the heat is to actual bodily chill. Bevis went near: even the spaniel felt it, he shook himself and seemed more cheerful.
"The thing was very near when we first went out," said Bevis. "I wish we 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 the hut came out clear of vapour, then they saw the trees outside the stockade rise as it were higher as the vapour shrunk through them: the stars were very faint.
"Lu--lu!" said Mark, pointing to the crevice between the fence and the cliff, and urging Pan to go out again: the spaniel went a few yards towards it, then turned and came back. He could not be induced to venture alone.
"Lions _do_ get loose sometimes," said Bevis thoughtfully. He had been running over every wild beast in his mind that could by any possibility approach them. Cases do occur every now and then of vans being overturned, 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--do lions swim?"
"He would have no need to," said Mark. "I mean not after he had swum over 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 without knowing."
"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 its paw ten times."
"While we were lying down too," said Bevis, "in ambush It might have been in the ferns close behind."
"All the times we walked about and never took the gun," said Mark; "or the bow and arrow, or the axe, or anything--and just think! Why we came back 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 could be 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? and panthers 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 the Chase up by Jack"s."
"Yes--plenty of cover: almost like forest."