"Mice can run up the leg of a chair," said Bevis.
"That"s only a short way; this is--let me see--why it"s higher than your shoulder."
"If it was not Pan, nor rats, what could it be?" said Bevis.
"Something"s been here," said Mark; "Pan could smell it when he came in."
"Something was up in the oak," said Bevis, "and now he"s gone racing light to the other end of the island."
"Something took the bit of bacon on the ground."
"And gnawed the jack"s head."
"And had the piece of damper."
"And took the potatoes."
"Took the potatoes twice--the cooked ones and the raw ones."
"It"s very curious."
"I don"t believe Pan could have jumped up--he would have shaken the other things off the shelf, too, if he had got his great paws on."
"It must have been something," said Bevis; "things could not go off by themselves."
"There"s something in the island we don"t know," said Mark, nodding his head up and down, as was his way at times when upset or full of an idea.
"Lions!" said Bevis. "Lions could get up."
"We should have heard them roar."
"Tigers?"
"They would have killed Pan."
"But you think there"s one in the reeds."
"Yes, but he did not come here."
"Boas?"
"No."
"Panthers?"
"No."
"Something out of the curious wave you saw?"
"Perhaps. Well, it _is_ curious now, isn"t it?" said Mark. "Just think; first, Pan could not have had it, and then rats could not have had it, but it"s gone."
"Pan, Pan," shouted Bevis sternly, as the spaniel came in at the gateway hesitatingly; "come here." The spaniel crouched, knowing that he should have a thrashing.
"See if anything"s bitten him," said Mark. "What have you been after, sir?"
He examined Pan carefully; there were no signs of a fight on him-- nothing but cleavers or the seeds of goose-gra.s.s clinging to his coat.
Bang--thump--thump! yow! Pan had his thrashing, and crept after them to and fro, not even daring to curl himself up in a corner, but dragging himself along on the ground behind them.
"Think," said Mark, as he turned the mushrooms on the gridiron; "now, what was it?"
"Not a fox?" said Bevis.
"No; foxes would not swim out here; there are plenty of rabbits for them in the jungle on the mainland."
"Nor eagles?"
"No."
"Might be a cat."
"But there are no cats on the island, and, besides, cats would not take bacon when there were the two moorhens on the shelf."
"No; Pan would have had the moorhens too, if it had been him."
"So would anything, and that"s why it"s so curious."
"n.o.body could have come here, could they?" said Bevis. "The punt"s at the bottom, and the Pinta"s chained up--"
"And we must have seen them if they swam off."
"n.o.body can swim," said Bevis, "except you and me and the governor."
"No," said Mark, "no more they can--not even Big Jack."
"n.o.body in all the place but us. It could not have been the governor, because if he found the hut he would have stopped to see who lived in it."
"Of course he would. And besides, he could not have come without our knowing it; we are always about."
"Always about," said Bevis, "and we should have seen footsteps."
"Or heard a splashing."
"And Pan would not bark at him," said Bevis. "No, it could not have been any one; it must have been something."
"Something," repeated Mark.
"And very likely out of your magic wave."
"But what _could_ it be out of the wave?"