Part 95 (1/2)

There never was greater temerity than this searching the island for the tiger. Neither the bullet nor their arrows would have stayed the advance of that terrible beast for a moment. Inside their stockade and cage they might withstand him; in the open he would have swept them down just as a lady's sleeve might sweep down the chessmen on the board.

Thus in his native haunts he overthrows a crowd of spear-armed savages.

”He can't be on the island,” said Mark.

”It's curious we did not see any sign,” said Bevis. ”There are no marks or footprints anywhere.”

”If there was some clay now--wet clay,” said Mark, ”but it's all sandy; his claws would show in clay like Pan's.”

”Like a crab.” Pan's footprint in moist clay was somewhat crab-shaped.

”Is there no place where he would leave a mark?”

”Just at the edge of the water the moorhens leave footprints.”

”That would be the place, only we can't look very close to the edge everywhere.”

”There's the raft; we could on the raft.”

”Shall we go on the raft?”

”Suppose we go all round the island?” said Bevis, ”on the raft.”

”We never have been,” said Mark. ”Not close to the sh.o.r.e.”

”No; let us pole round close to the sh.o.r.e--all round, and see if we can find any spoor in the shallows.”

They went to the raft and embarked. As they started a crimson glow shot along under the clouds, the sun was sinking and the sky beamed. The wind had risen and the wavelets came splash, splash against the edge of the raft. Some of the yellow leaves of the willows floated along and fell on the deck. They poled slowly and constantly grounded or struck the sh.o.r.e, so that it occupied some time to get round, especially as at the southern extremity it was so shallow they were obliged to go a long way out.

In about an hour they reached the thick bed of reed-gra.s.s into which Bevis had shot his arrow, and as the raft slowly glided by Mark suddenly exclaimed, ”There it is!”

There it was--a path through the reed-gra.s.s down to the water's edge-- the trail of some creature. Bevis stuck his pole into the ground to check the onward movement of the raft. The impetus of the heavy vessel was so great though moving slowly that it required all his strength to stay it. Mark came with his pole, and together they pushed the raft back, and it ran right up into the reed-gra.s.s and grounded. Pan instantly leapt off into the path, and ran along it wagging his tail; he had the scent, though it seemed faint as he did not give tongue. They stood at the bulwark of the raft and looked at the trail.

Volume Three, Chapter XII.

NEW FORMOSA--THE TRAIL.

At the water's edge some flags were bent, and then the tall gra.s.s, as high as their chests, was thrust aside, forming a path which had evidently been frequently trodden. There was now no longer the least doubt that the creature, whatever it was, was of large size, and as the trail was so distinct the thought occurred to them both at once that perhaps it had been used by more than one. From the raft they could see along it five or six yards, then it turned to avoid an alder. While they stood looking Pan came back, he had run right through and returned, so that there was nothing in the reed-bed at present.

Bevis stepped over the bulwark into the trail with the matchlock; Mark picked up the axe and followed. As they walked their elbows touched the gra.s.s each side, which showed that the creature was rather high than broad, lean like the whole feline tribe, long, lean, and stealthy. The reed-gra.s.s had flowered and would soon begin to stiffen and rustle dry under the winds. By the alder a bryony vine that had grown there was broken and had withered, it had been snapped long since by the creature pus.h.i.+ng through.

The trail turned to the right, then to the left round a willow stole, and just there Pan, who trotted before Bevis, picked up a bone. He had picked it up before and dropped it; he took it again from habit, though he knew it was sapless and of no use to him. Bevis took it from his mouth, and they knew it at once as a duck's drumstick. It was polished and smooth, as if the creature had licked it, or what was more probable carried it some distance, and then left it as useless. They had no doubt it was a drumstick of the wild duck Mark shot.

The trail went straight through sedges next, these were trampled flat; then as the sedges grew wider apart they gradually lost it in the thin, short gra.s.s. This was why they had not seen it from the land, there the path began by degrees; at the water's edge, where the gra.s.ses were thick and high, it was seen at once. Try how they would, they could not follow the trail inland, they thought they knew how to read ”sign,” but found themselves at fault. On the dry, hard ground the creature's pads left no trail that they could trace. Mark cut off a stick with the axe and stuck it up in the ground so that they could find the spot where the path faded when walking on sh.o.r.e, and they then returned to the raft.

On the way they caught sight of Bevis's arrow sticking in the trunk of the alder, and withdrew it.

At the water's edge they looked to see if there was any spoor. In pa.s.sing through the reed-gra.s.s the creature had trampled it down, and so walked on a carpet of vegetation which prevented any footprints being left on the ground though it was moist there. At the water's edge perhaps they might have found some, but in pus.h.i.+ng the raft up the beams had rubbed over the mud and obliterated everything. When they got on the raft they looked over the other bulwark, and a few yards from the sh.o.r.e noticed that the surface of the weeds growing there appeared disturbed.

The raft was moved out, and they found that the weeds had been trampled; the water was very shallow, so that the creature in approaching the sh.o.r.e had probably plunged up and down as the spaniel did in shallow water. Like the reed-gra.s.s the trampled weeds had prevented any footprints in the ooze. They traced the course the creature had come out for fully thirty yards, and the track pointed straight to the sh.o.r.e of the mainland so that it seemed as if it started at no great distance from where they used to land.