"Be quick," said Bevis. "Run back to the settlement, and get the auger; I will mind the raft and keep off the savages; and, I say, bring a spear and the cutla.s.s; and--I say--"
But Mark was too far, and in too much of a hurry to hear a word. Bevis, tired of chopping, rolled over on his back on the gra.s.s, looking up at the sky. The b.u.t.tercups rose high above his head, the wind blew and cooled his heated forehead, and a humble-bee hummed along: borne by the breeze from the gra.s.s there came the sweet scent of green things growing in the sunshine. Far up he saw the swallows climbing in the air; they climbed a good way almost straight up, and then suddenly came slanting down again.
While he lay there he distinctly heard the Indians rustling again in the forest. He raised himself on one arm, but could not see them; then recollecting that he must try to conceal himself, he reclined again, and thought how he should be able to repel an attack without weapons. There was the little hatchet, he could s.n.a.t.c.h up that and defend himself.
Perhaps they would sink the raft? Perhaps when Mark returned they had better tow it back up stream, and draw it ash.o.r.e safely at home, and then return to the work of clearing the obstruction. As he lay with his knees up among the b.u.t.tercups he heard the thump, thump of Mark"s feet rushing down the hill in eager haste with the auger. So he sat up, and beckoned to him to be quiet, and explained to him when he arrived that the Indians were certainly about. They must tow the raft back to the drinking-place. Bevis untied the cord with which the raft was fastened to the willow, and stepped on board.
"Don"t pull too quick," he said to Mark, giving him the cord; "or perhaps I shall run aground."
"But you floated down," said Mark. "Let me get in, and you tow; it"s my turn."
"Your turn?" shouted Bevis, standing up as straight as a bolt. "This is _my_ raft."
"But you always have everything, and you floated down, and I have not; you have everything, and--"
"You are a great story," said Bevis, stamping so that the raft shook and the ripples rushed from under it. "I don"t have everything, and you have more than half; and I gave you my engine and that box of gun-caps yesterday; and I hate you, and you are a big story."
Out he scrambled, and seizing Mark by the shoulders, thrust him towards the raft with such force that it was with difficulty Mark saved himself from falling into the brook. He clung to the willow--the bark gave way under his fingers--but as he slipped, he slung himself over the raft and dropped on it.
"Take the pole," said Bevis, still very angry, and looking black as thunder. "Take the pole, and steer so as not to run in the mud, and not to hit against the bank. Now then," and putting the cord over his shoulder, off he started.
Mark had as much as ever he could do to keep the raft from striking one side or the other.
"Please don"t go so fast," he said.
Bevis went slower, and towed steadily in silence. After they had pa.s.sed the hawthorn under the may-bloom, Mark said, "Bevis," but Bevis did not answer.
"Bevis," repeated Mark, "I have had enough now; stop, and you get in."
"I shall not," said Bevis. "You are a great story."
In another minute Mark spoke again:--
"Let me get out and tow you now." Bevis did not reply. "I say--I say-- I say, Bevis."
No use. Bevis towed him the whole way, till the raft touched the shallow sh.o.r.e of the drinking-place. Then Mark got out and helped him drag the vessel well up on the ground, so that it should not float away.
"Now," said Bevis, after it was quite done. "Will you be a story any more?"
"No," said Mark, "I will not be a story again."
So they walked back side by side to the willow tree; Mark, who was really in the right, feeling in the wrong. At the tree Bevis picked up the auger, and told him to bore the hole. Mark began, but suddenly stopped.
"What"s the good of boring the hole when we have not got any gunpowder,"
said he.
"No more we have," said Bevis. "This is very stupid, and they will not let me have any, though I have got some money, and I have a great mind to buy some and hide it. Just as if we did not know how to use powder, and as if we did not know how to shoot! Oh, I know! We will go and cut a bough of alder--there"s ever so many alders by the Longpond--and burn it and make charcoal; it makes the best charcoal, you know, and they always--use it for gunpowder, and then we can get some saltpetre. Let me see--"
"The Bailiff had some saltpetre the other day," said Mark.
"So he did: it is in the dairy. Oh yes, and I know where some sulphur is. It is in the garden-house, where the tools are, in the orchard; it"s what they use to smother the bees with--"
"That"s on brown paper," said Mark; "that won"t do."
"No it"s not. You have to melt it to put it on paper, and dip the paper in. This is in a piece, it is like a short bar, and we will pound it up and mix; them all together and make capital gunpowder."
"Hurrah!" cried Mark, throwing down the auger. "Let"s go and cut the alder. Come on!"
"Stop," said Bevis. "Lean on me, and walk slow. Don"t you know you have caught a dreadful fever, from being in the swamps by the river, and you can hardly walk, and you are very thin and weak? Lean on my arm and hang your head."
Mark hung his head, turning his rosy cheeks down to the b.u.t.tercups, and dragged his st.u.r.dy fever-stricken limbs along with an effort.
"Humph!" said a gruff voice.
"It"s the Indians!" cried Bevis, startled; for they were so absorbed they had not heard the Bailiff come up behind them. They quite jumped, as if about to be scalped.
"What be you doing to that tree?" said the Bailiff.
"Find out," said Bevis. "It"s not your tree: and why don"t you say when you"re coming?"
"I saw you from the hedge," said the Bailiff. "I was telling John where to cut the bushes from for the new harrow." That caused the rustling in the forest. "You"ll never chop he down."
"That we shall, if we want to."
"No, you won"t--he stops your ship."
"It isn"t a ship: it"s a raft."
"Well, you can"t get by."
"That we can."
"I thinks you be stopped," said the Bailiff, having now looked at the tree more carefully. "He be main thick,"--with a certain sympathy for stolid, inanimate obstruction.
"I tell you, people like us are never stopped by anything," said Bevis.
"We go through forests, and we float down rivers, and we shoot tigers, and move the biggest trees ever seen--don"t we, Mark?"
"Yes, that we do: nothing is anything to us."
"Of course not," said Bevis. "And if we can"t chop it down or blow it up, as we mean to, then we dig round it. O, Mark, I say! I forgot!
Let"s dig a ca.n.a.l round it."
"How silly we were never to think of that!" said Mark. "A ca.n.a.l is the very thing--from here to the creek."
He meant where the stream curved to enclose the Peninsula: the proposed ca.n.a.l would make the voyage shorter.
"Cut some sticks--quick!" said Bevis. "We must plug out our ca.n.a.l--that is what they always do first, whether it is a ca.n.a.l, or a railway, or a drain, or anything. And I must draw a plan. I must get my pocket-book and pencil. Come on, Mark, and get the spade while I get my pencil."
Off they ran. The Bailiff leaned on his hazel staff, one hand against the willow, and looked down into the water, as calmly as the sun itself reflected there. When he had looked awhile he shook his head and grunted: then he stumped away; and after a dozen yards or so, glanced back, grunted, and shook his head again. It could not be done. The tree was thick, the earth hard--no such thing: his sympathy, in a dull unspoken way, was with the immovable.