"What a horrid thing!" said Mark. "She ate the fish alive--cruel wretch! Let's kill her."
"Kill her," said Bevis; and before he could fit an arrow to his bow Mark picked up a stone, and flung it with such a good aim and with such force that although it did not hit the cat, it struck a stone and split into fragments, which flew all about her like a shell. The cat raced up the bank, followed by a second stone, and at the top met Pan, who did not usually chase cats, having been beaten for it, but seeing in an instant that she was in disgrace, he snapped at her and drove her wild with terror up a pine-tree. They called Pan off, for it was no use his yapping at a tree, and walked along the shore, climbing over stones, but the crowds of roach were everywhere; till presently they came to a place where the stones ceased, and there was a shallow bank of sand shelving into the water and forming a point.
There the fish turned round and went back. Thousands kept coming up and returning, and while they stayed here watching, gazing into the clear water, which was still and illuminated to the bottom by the sunlight, they saw two great fish come side by side up from the depths beyond and move slowly, very slowly, just over the sand. They were two huge tench, five or six pounds a-piece, roaming idly away from the muddy holes they lie in. But they do not stay in such holes always, and once now and then you may see them like this as in a glass tank. The pair did not go far; they floated slowly rather than swam, first a few yards one way and then a few yards the other. Bevis and Mark were breathless with eagerness.
"Go and fetch my fishing-rod," whispered Bevis, unable to speak loud; he was so excited.
"No, you go," said Mark; "I'll stay and watch them."
"I shan't," said Bevis sharply, "you ought to go."
Just then the tench, having surveyed the bottom there, turned and faded away into the darker deep water.
"There," said Bevis, "if you had run quick!"
"Then you're no use," said Bevis. "Suppose I was shooting an elephant, and you did not hand me another gun quick, or another arrow; and suppose--"
"But _I_ might be shooting the elephant," interrupted Mark, "and you could hand me the gun."
"Impossible," said Bevis; "I never heard anything so absurd. Of course it's the captain who always does everything; and if there was only one biscuit left, of course you would let me eat it, and lie down and die under a tree, so that I might go on and reach the settlement."