"Listen," said Mark presently, putting his hand on Bevis's shoulder, and stopping him.
Bevis listened. "I can't hear anything," he said, "except the midsummer hum."
The hum was loud in the air above them, almost shrill, but there was not another sound. Now Mark had called attention to it the noonday silence in that wild deserted place was strange.
"Where are all the things?" said Mark, looking round. "All the birds have gone."
Certainly they could hear none, even the brook-sparrows in the sedges by the New Sea were quiet. There was nothing in sight alive but a few swifts at an immense height above them. Neither wood-pigeon, nor dove, nor thrush called; not even a yellow-hammer.
"I know," whispered Bevis. "I know--they are afraid."
"Yes; can't you see Pan does not hunt about?"
"What is it?" asked Mark in an undertone, grasping his spear tightly. "There are no mummies here?"
"No," said Bevis. "It's the serpent, you know; he's a hundred feet long; he's come over from the Unknown Island, and he's waiting in these sedges somewhere to catch something; the birds are afraid to sing."
"Swallow a man," with curling lip. "Swallow a buffalo easily."
"Hush! what's that?" A puff of wind rustled the grasses.
"It's the snake," said Mark, and off he tore. Bevis close behind him, Pan at his heels. In this wild panic they dashed quickly through the grasses, which just before had been so wearisome an obstacle. But the heat pulled them up in ten minutes, panting.
"Just a little bit of him--I think," said Mark.
"Let's tie Pan up, and let him swallow Pan."
"Where's a rope? Have you any string? Give me your handkerchief."
They were hastily tying their handkerchiefs together, when Mark, looking round to see if the monstrous serpent was approaching, shouted,--
There was a large hollow willow or pollard in the hedge. They rushed to it, they clasped it as shipwrecked men a beam. Mark was first, he got inside on the "touchwood," and scrambled up a little way, then he worked up, his back against one side, and his knees the other. Bevis got underneath, and "bunted" him up. Bunting is shoving with shoulder or hands. There were brambles on the top; Mark crushed through, and in a minute was firmly planted on the top.