Besides the great wood in which they had wandered there were several others in the neighbourhood, and a Chase on the hills by Jack"s, so that in case of a beast escaping from a caravan it would find extensive cover to hide in.
"Only think," said Bevis, "when we bathed!"
"Ah!" Mark shuddered. While they bathed naked and unarmed, had it darted from the reeds they would have fallen instant victims, without the possibility of a struggle even.
"It _is_ horrible," said Bevis.
"There are reeds and sedges everywhere," said Mark. "It may be anywhere."
"It"s not safe to move."
"Especially as Pan"s afraid and won"t warn us. _If_ the thing had seen us bathing; It could not, or else--ah!"
"They tear so," said Bevis. "It"s not the wound so much as the tearing."
"Like bramble hooks," said Mark. The curved hooks of brambles and briars inflict lacerated hurts worse than the spikes of thorns. Flesh that is torn cannot heal like that which is incised. "O! stop! panthers get 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 jumped down on us."
"So it might any minute in the wood."
"Then we can"t go in the wood."
"Nor among the sedges round the sh.o.r.e."
"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, he barked--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 could take one thing without disturbing another. Dogs knock things down, cats don"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, and don"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 this before!"
"Why, we never suspected."
"But we ought to have suspected. You thought you saw something move in the 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 running away 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 their own 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 the trees--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."