Bevis: The Story of a Boy
Page 53
were, in fact,streaked and smudged with charcoal. Loo instantly ran for a bowl ofwater for them to wash, and held the towel ready. She watched them downthe hill, and wished they had kicked her or pulled her hair. Other boysdid; why did not they touch her? They might have done so. Next timeshe thought she would put her naked foot so that they would step on it;then if she cried out perhaps they would stroke her.
In the afternoon they took two spades up to the boat. The wind hadfallen as usual, but they rowed to New Formosa. The Pinta being deep inthe water and heavy with ballast, moved slowly, and it was a long row.Mark cut two sticks, and these were driven into the face of the sandcliff, to show the outline of the proposed cave. It was to be five feetsquare, and as deep as they could dig it.
They cleared away the loose sand and earth at the foot in a few minutes,and began the excavation. The sand at the outside was soft andcrumbled, but an inch deep it became harder, and the work was notanything like so easy as they had supposed. After pecking with thespades for a whole hour, each had only cut out a shallow hole.
"This is no good," said Mark; "we shall never do it like this."
"Pickaxes," said Bevis.
"Yes; and hatchets," said Mark. "We could chop this sand best."
"So we could," said Bevis. "There are some old hatchets in the shed;we'll sharpen them; they'll do."
They worked on another half-hour, and then desisted, and cutting somemore sticks stuck them in the ground in a semicircle before the cliff,to mark where the palisade was to be fixed. The New Sea was still calm,and they had to row through the Mozambique all the way to the harbour.
In the evening they ground two old hatchets, which, being much worn andchipped, had been thrown aside, and then searched among the quantitiesof stored and seasoned wood and poles for a piece to make the stock ofthe matchlock. There was beech, oak, elm, ash, fir--all sorts of woodlying about in the shed and workshop. Finally, they selected a curvedpiece of ash, hard and well seasoned. The curve was nearly what waswanted, and being natural it would be much stronger. This was carriedup into the armoury to be shaved and planed into shape.
At night they went for the barrel. Loo brought it, and Bevis, as hethought, accidentally stepped on her naked foot, crushing it between hisheel and the stones at the door. Loo cried out.
"O dear!" said he, "I am so sorry. Here--here's sixpence, and I'll sendyou some pears."
She put the sixpence in her mouth and bit it, and said nothing. Sheindented the silver with her teeth, disappointed because he had notstroked her, while she stood and watched them away.
They smuggled the barrel up into the armoury, which was now kept morecarefully locked than ever, and they even put it where no one could seeit through the keyhole. In the morning, as there was a breeze from thewestward, they put the hatchets on board the Pinta, and sailed away forNew Formosa. The wind was partly favourable, and they reached theisland in three tacks. The hatchets answered much better, cutting outthe sand well, so that there soon began to be two holes in the cliff.
They worked a little way apart, each drilling a hole straight in, andintending to cut away the intervening wall afterwards, else they couldnot both work at once. By dinner-time there was a heap of excavatedsand and two large holes. The afternoon and evening they spent at workon the gun. Mark shaved at the stock; Bevis filed a touch-hole to thebarrel; he would have liked to have drilled the touch-hole, but that hecould not do without borrowing the blacksmith's tools, and they did notwant him to know what they were about.
For four days they worked with their digging at the cave in the morning,and making the matchlock all the rest of the day. The stock was nowready--it was simply curved and smoothed with sand-paper, they intendedafterwards to rub it with oil, till it took a little polish like thehandles of axes. The stock was almost as long as the barrel, whichfitted into a groove in it, and was to be fastened in with copper wirewhen all was ready.
Bevis at first thought to cut a mortise in the handle of the stock toinsert the lock, but on consideration he feared it would weaken thestock, so he chiselled a place on the right side where the lock could becounter-sunk. The right side of the stock had been purposely leftsomewhat thicker for the pan. The pan was a shallow piece of tinscrewed on the stock and sunk in the wood, one end closed, the other tobe in contact with the barrel under the touch-hole. In this pan thepriming was to be placed. Another piece of tin working on a pivotformed of a wire nail (these nails are round) was to cover the pan likea slide or lid, and keep the priming from dropping out or being blownoff by the wind.
Before firing, the lid would have to be pushed aside by the thumb, andthe outer corner of it was curled over like a knob for the thumb-nail topress against. The lock was most trouble, and they had to make manytrials before they succeeded. In the end it was formed of a piece ofthick iron wire. This was twisted round itself in the centre, so thatit would work on an axle or pivot.
It was then, heated red-hot, and beaten flat or nearly, thisblacksmith's work they could do at home, for no one could have guessedwhat it was for. One end was bent, so that though fixed at the side ofthe stock, it would come underneath for the trigger, for in a matchlocktrigger and hammer are in a single piece. The other end curved over tohold the match, and this caused Bevis some more thought, for he couldnot split it like the match-holders of the Indian matchlocks he had seenin cases.
Bevis drew several sketches to try and got at it, and at last twistedthe end into a spiral of two turns. The match, which is a piece of cordprepared to burn slowly, was to be inserted in the spiral, the burningend slightly projecting, and as at the spiral the iron had been beatenthin, if necessary it could be squeezed with thumb and finger to holdthe cord tighter, but Bevis did not think it would be necessary to dothat.
Next the spring was fixed behind, and just above the trigger end in sucha way as to hold the hammer end up. Pulling the trigger you pulledagainst the spring, and the moment the finger was removed the hammersprang up--this was to keep the lighted match away from the priming tillthe moment of firing. The completed lock was covered with a plate ofbrass screwed on, and polished till it shone brightly. Bevis wasdelighted after so much difficulty to find that it worked perfectly.The brass ramrod had been heated at one end, and enlarged there bystriking it while red-hot, which caused the metal to bulge, and they nowproceeded to prove the barrel before fastening it in the stock.
Volume Two, Chapter XI.
BUILDING THE HUT.
Powder was easily got from Latten; they bought a pound of loose powderat three halfpence the ounce. This is like black dust, and far frompure, for if a little be flashed off on paper or white wood it leaves abroad smudge, but it answered their purpose very well. While Bevis wasfretting and fuming over the lock, for he got white-hot with impatience,though he would and did do it, Mark had made a powder-horn by sawing offthe pointed end of a cow's horn, and fitting a plug of wood into themouth. For their shot they used a bag, and bought a mould for bullets.
The charger to measure the powder was a brass drawn cartridge-case, twoof which Mark had chanced to put in his pocket while they were atJack's. It held more than a charge, so they scratched a line inside toshow how far it was to be filled. At night the barrel was got out ofthe house, and taken up the meadows, three fields away, to a mound theyhad chosen as the best place. Mark brought a lantern, which they didnot light till they arrived, and then put it behind the bushes, so thatthe light should not show at a distance.
The barrel was now charged with three measures of powder and two of shotrammed down firm, and then placed on the ground in front of a tree.From the touch-hole a train of powder was laid along the dry groundround the tree, so that the gun could be fired while the gunner wascompletely protected in case the breech blew out.
A piece of tar-cord was inserted in a long stick split at the end. Markwished to fire the train, and having lit the tar-cord, which burnedwell, he stood back as far as he could and dropped the match on thepowder. Puff--bang! They ran forw
ard, and found the barrel was allright. The shot had scored a groove along the mound and lost itself inthe earth; the barrel had kicked back to the tree, but it had not burstor bulged, so that they felt it would be safe to shoot with. Such athickness of metal, indeed, would have withstood a much greater strain,and their barrel, rude as it was, was far safer than many flimsy guns.
The last thing to be made was the rest. For the staff they found astraight oak rod up in the lumber-room, which had once been used as acurtain-rod to an old-fashioned four-poster. Black with age it was hardand rigid, and still strong; the very thing for their rest. The forkfor the barrel to lie in was a difficulty, till Bevis hit on the plan offorming it of two pieces of thick iron wire. These were beaten flat atone end, a hole was bored in the top of the staff, and the two pieces ofwire driven in side by side, when their flatness prevented them frommoving. The wires were then drawn apart and hammered and bent