All at once the hare sat up--he had sniffed Bevis, and the same minute the flash rushed from the muzzle. Bevis ran directly and found the hare struggling; almost as soon as he had lifted him up Pan was there. Then Mark came leaping from ant-hill to ant-hill, and crushing through the thistles in his haste. As Mark had come direct from the shore he knew the general direction, and they hurried back to the raft, fearing some of the savages might come to see who was shooting on the mainland. Once on the island, as the perch were cooking, the game was spread out on the table--three moorhens, a coot, a dab-chick, a wood-pigeon, a hare, and the jack Mark had caught. Of all the hare, or rather leveret, for it was a young one, was the finest. His black-tipped ears, his clean pads, his fur--every separate hair with three shades of colour--it was a pleasure to smooth his fur down with the hand. “This is the jolliest day we’ve had,” said Mark. “All shooting and killing and real hunting--real island--and no work and no cooking, except just what we like. It’s splendid.” “If only Val and Cecil could see,” said Bevis, handling the ears of his hare for the twentieth time. “Won’t they go on when we tell them?” “Don’t talk about that,” said Mark; “don’t say anything about going home; that’s the Other Side, you know.” “So it is. No, we won’t say anything about it. Isn’t he a beauty!” “A real beauty,” said Mark. “Now let’s see how we can shoot a lot more to-morrow; it’s your turn; will you let me shoot once?” “Of course; twice.” “Hurrah! First let’s get up very early and see if a kangaroo is out; then let’s go round Serendib; and, I say, let’s go nearly up to Sweet River Falls--not quite, not near enough for the savages--and, I say! there must be heaps of things in all those sedges we tried to walk through once!” “We could pole across to them.” “Of course; and then get in ambush on the mainland in the evening, and shoot another parrot, and fish--no, fishing is slow, rather. Suppose we make a fish-spear and stick them! and stick it into the mud for eels. Could you think how to make a fish-spear, not my bone harpoon, an iron one--sharp?” “I’ll try.” “O! you can do it; and let’s put up some more wires, and--I do declare, I forgot to put in some more trimmers; we might put twenty trimmers and night-lines--” “And build a hut on Serendib to wait in in winter when the ducks come-- don’t you remember last winter--hundreds of them?” “First-rate! But now to-morrow. How stupid we never brought any nets!” “Well, that was stupid,” said Bevis, still stroking his hare; he loved the creature he had slain. “I can’t think how we forgot the nets.” “There’s thousands of fish; we could haul out a boatful. Let’s see, isn’t there anything else we could do? Wish we had some ferrets! It’s not the right time, but still it doesn’t matter.”