Bevis Part 98

"On our island!"

"Don't you--don't you!" repeated Loo. "You!"

"You!" One word but such intense wrath. "O!" cried Loo, beginning to sob. "You!"

"You!"

"O! Don't! He were so hungry." Sob, sob.

"Pooh!"

"Yah!"

"Yow--wow!" barked Pan. "He--he," sobbed Loo. "He--he--"

"He--what?"

"He were so hungry." Sob, sob. "Who?"

"Samson."

"Who's Samson?"

"My--y--lit--tle--brother."

"Then you took our things?" said Mark. "He--he--kept on crying."

"You had the damper--"

"And the potatoes--"

"And the bacon--"

"You didn't--didn't care for it," sobbed Loo. "Did you take the rabbit-skin?" said Mark. "Yes--es."

"But Samson didn't eat that; did he?"

"I--I--sold it."

"What for?"

"Ha'-penny of jumbles for Samson." Jumbles are sweets.

"How did you get here?"

"I come."

"How?"

"I come."

"It's disgusting," said Bevis, turning to Mark; "spoiling our island."

"Not a tiger," said Mark. "Only a girl."

"It's not proper," said Bevis in a towering rage. "Tigers are proper, girls are not proper."

"No; that they're not."

"Girls are--Foo!--"

"Very--foo!" Contemptuous puffing. "It's not the stealing."

"No; it's the coming--"

"Where you're not wanted--"

"Horrible!"

"Hateful!"

"What shall we do?"

"Can't kill her."

"Nor torture her."

"Nor scalp her."

"Thing!"

"Creature!"

"Yow--wow!"

"Tie her up."

"If we were savages we'd cook you!"

"Limb at a time."

"What _can_ we do with her?"

"Let me stop," said Loo pleadingly. "Let _you_ stop! You!"

"I can cook and make tea and wash things."

"Stop a minute," said Mark. "Perhaps she's a native."