Pan put his fore-paws on Bevis’s knee, and looked up as if he had done something very clever.
“Pooh! Get away,” said Bevis, “you’re a false old rascal. Mark, cut him some of that piece of bacon presently.”
“So I will—and I’ll put the things higher up,” said Mark. “I’ll drive some nails into the posts and make a shelf, then you’ll be done, sir.”
Pan, finding there was nothing more for him to eat, walked slowly back to the fence and let himself fall down.
“Too lazy to lie down properly,” said Bevis.
After breakfast they put up the shelf, and placed the eatables on it out of Pan’s reach, and then taking their towels started for their bath.
“It might have been a rat,” said Mark; “that looks gnawn.” He kicked the jack’s head which had been cut off, being shattered with the shot, and thrown down outside the gate. “But Pan’s very full, else he would come,” for the spaniel did not follow as usual. So soon as they had gone the robin returned to the table, took what he liked, ventured into the hut for a minute, and then perched on the fence above Pan before returning to the wood.
Bevis and Mark swam and waded to Serendib again. There was a light ripple this morning from the south-east, and a gentle breeze which cooled the day. They said they would hasten to construct the raft, so as to be able to shoot the water-fowl, but Bevis wanted first to try the matchlock with ball now he had fitted it with a sight. He fired three times at the teak-tree, to which Mark pinned a small piece of paper as a bull’s-eye, and at thirty yards he hit the tree very well, but not the paper. The bullets were all below, the nearest about four inches from the bull’s-eye. Still it was much better shooting.
He then loaded the gun with shot, and took it and a hatchet—the two were a good load—intending to look in the wood for suitable timber, and keep the gun by him for a possible shot at something. But just as he had got ready, and Pan shaking himself together began to drag his idle body after him, he thought Mark looked dull. It was Mark’s turn to cook, and he had already got the fire alight under the teak.
“I won’t go,” he said; “I’ll stop and help you. Things are stupid by yourself.”