Watership Down Part 29

"Well, it looks very stormy, certainly," said Bartsia, "but I shouldn't have thought--"

"Now, Blackavar!" cried Bigwig, and leaped on Bartsia from behind.

Bartsia fell forward out of the hole with Bigwig on top of him. He was not a member of the Owslafa for nothing and was reckoned a good fighter. As they rolled over on the ground, he turned his head and sank his teeth in Bigwig's shoulder. He had been trained to get a grip at once and to hold it at all costs. More than once in the past this had served him well. But in fighting a rabbit of Bigwig's strength and courage it proved a mistake. His best chance would have been to keep clear and use his claws. He retained his hold like a dog, and Bigwig, snarling, brought both his own back legs forward, sank his feet in Bartsia's side and then, ignoring the pain in his shoulder, forced himself upward. He felt Bartsia's closed teeth come tearing out through his flesh and then he was standing above him as he fell back on the ground, kicking helplessly. Bigwig leaped clear. It was plain that Bartsia's haunch was injured. He struggled, but could not get up.

"Think yourself lucky," said Bigwig, bleeding and cursing, "that I don't kill you."

Without waiting to see what Bartsia would do, he jumped back into the hole. He found Blackavar grappling with the other guard. Just beyond them, Hyzenthlay was coming up the run with Thethuthinnang behind her. Bigwig gave the guard a tremendous cuff on the side of the head, which knocked him clear across the run and into the prisoner's alcove. He picked himself up, panting, and stared at Bigwig without a word.

"Don't move," said Bigwig. "There'll be worse to come if you do. Blackavar, are you all right?"

"Yes, sir," said Blackavar, "but what do we do now?"

"Follow me," said Bigwig, "all of you. Come on!"

He led the way out again. There was no sign of Bartsia, but as he looked back to make sure that the others were following, he caught a glimpse of the astonished face of Avens peering out of the other hole.

"Captain Chervil wants you!" he called, and dashed away into the field.

As he reached the clump of thistles where he had spoken to Kehaar that morning, a long roll of thunder sounded from across the valley beyond. A few great, warm drops of rain were falling. Along the western horizon the lower clouds formed a single purple ma.s.s, against which distant trees stood out minute and sharp. The upper edges rose into the light, a far land of wild mountains. Copper-colored, weightless and motionless, they suggested a gla.s.sy fragility like that of frost. Surely, when the thunder struck them again they would vibrate, tremble and shatter, till warm shards, sharp as icicles, fell flashing down from the ruins. Racing through the ocher light, Bigwig was impelled by a frenzy of tension and energy. He did not feel the wound in his shoulder. The storm was his own. The storm would defeat Efrafa.

He was well out into the great field and looking for a sight of the distant arch when he felt along the ground the first stamping thuds of the alarm. He pulled up and looked about him. There did not seem to be any stragglers. The does--however many there were--were well up with him, but scattered to either side. Rabbits in flight tend to keep away from each other, and the does had opened out as they left the hole. If there was a patrol between him and the iron road they would not get past it without loss unless they came closer together. He would have to collect them, despite the delay. Then another thought came to him. If they could get out of sight, their pursuers might be puzzled, for the rain and the failing light would make tracking difficult.

The rain was falling faster now and the wind was rising. Over on the evening side, a hedge ran down the length of the field toward the iron road. He saw Blackavar nearby and ran across to him.

"I want everyone the other side of that hedge," he said. "Can you get hold of some of them and bring them that way?"

Bigwig remembered that Blackavar knew nothing except that they were on the run. There was no time to explain about Hazel and the river.

"Go straight to that ash tree in the hedge," he said, "and take all the does you can pick up on the way. Get through to the other side and I'll be there as soon as you are."

At this moment Hyzenthlay and Thethuthinnang came running toward them, followed by two or three other does. They were plainly confused and uncertain.

"The stamping, Thlayli!" panted Thethuthinnang. "They're coming!"

"Well, run, then," said Bigwig. "Keep near me, all of you."

They were better runners than he had dared to hope. As they made for the ash tree, more does fell in with them and it seemed to him that they ought now to be a match for a patrol, unless it were a very strong one. Once through the hedge he turned south and, keeping close beside it, led them down the slope. There, ahead of him, was the arch in the overgrown embankment. But would Hazel be there? And where was Kehaar?

"Well, and what was to happen after that, Nelthilta?" asked General Woundwort. "Make sure you tell us everything, because we know a good deal already. Let her alone, Vervain," he added. "She can't talk if you keep cuffing her, you fool."

"Hyzenthlay said--oh! oh!--she said a big bird would attack the Owsla sentries," gasped Nelthilta, "and we would run away in the confusion. And then--"

"She said a bird bird would attack the sentries?" interrupted Woundwort, puzzled. "Are you telling the truth? What sort of a bird?" would attack the sentries?" interrupted Woundwort, puzzled. "Are you telling the truth? What sort of a bird?"

"I don't--I don't know," panted Nelthilta. "The new officer--she said he had told the bird--"

"What do you you know about a bird?" said Woundwort, turning to Chervil. know about a bird?" said Woundwort, turning to Chervil.

"I reported it, sir," replied Chervil. "You'll not forget, sir, that I reported the bird--"

There was a scuffling outside the crowded Council burrow and Avens came pushing his way in.

"The new officer, sir!" he cried. "He's gone! Taken a crowd of the Mark does with him. Jumped on Bartsia and broke his leg, sir! Blackavar's cut and run, too. We never had a chance to stop them. Goodness knows how many have joined him. Thlayli--it's Thlayli's doing!"

"Thlayli?" cried Woundwort. "Embleer Frith, I'll blind blind him when I catch him! Chervil, Vervain, Avens--yes and you two as well--come with me. Which way has he gone?" him when I catch him! Chervil, Vervain, Avens--yes and you two as well--come with me. Which way has he gone?"

"He was going downhill, sir," answered Avens.

"Lead the way you saw him take," said Woundwort.

As they came out from the Crixa, two or three of the Efrafan officers checked at the sight of the murky light and increasing rain. But the sight of the General was more alarming still. Pausing only to stamp the escape alarm, they set out behind him toward the iron road.

Very soon they came upon traces of blood which the rain had not yet washed away, and these they followed toward the ash tree in the hedge to the west of the warren.

Bigwig came out from the further side of the railway arch, sat up and looked round him. There was no sign either of Hazel or of Kehaar. For the first time since he had attacked Bartsia he began to feel uncertain and troubled. Perhaps, after all, Kehaar had not understood his cryptic message that morning? Or had some disaster overtaken Hazel and the rest? If they were dead--scattered--if there was no one left alive to meet him? He and his does would wander about the fields until the patrols hunted them down.

"No, it shan't come to that," said Bigwig to himself. "At the worst we can cross the river and try to hide in the woodland. Confound this shoulder! It's going to be more nuisance than I thought. Well, I'll try to get them down to the plank bridge at least. If we're not overtaken soon, perhaps the rain will discourage whoever's after us; but I doubt it."

He turned back to the does waiting under the arch. Most of them looked bewildered. Hyzenthlay had promised that they were to be protected by a great bird and that the new officer was going to work a secret trick to evade the pursuit--a trick which would defeat even the General. These things had not happened. They were wet through. Runnels of water were trickling through the arch from the uphill side, and the bare earth was beginning to turn into mud. Ahead of them there was nothing to be seen but a track leading through the nettles into another wide and empty field.

"Come on," said Bigwig. "It's not far now and then we'll all be safe. This way."

All the rabbits obeyed him at once. There was something to be said for Efrafan discipline, thought Bigwig grimly, as they left the arch and met the force of the rain.

Along one side of the field, beside the elms, farm tractors had pounded a broad, flat path downhill toward the water meadow below--that same path up which he had run three nights before, after he had left Hazel by the boat. It was turning muddy now--unpleasant going for rabbits--but at least it led straight to the river and was open enough for Kehaar to spot them if he should turn up.

He had just begun to run once more when a rabbit overtook him.

''Stop, Thlayli! What are you doing here? Where are you going?"

Bigwig had been half expecting Campion to appear and had made up his mind to kill him if necessary. But now that he actually saw him at his side, disregarding the storm and the mud, self-possessed as he led his patrol, no more than four strong, into the thick of a pack of desperate runaways, he could feel only what a pity it was that the two of them should be enemies and how much he would have liked to have taken Campion with him out of Efrafa.

"Go away," he said. "Don't try to stop us, Campion. I don't want to hurt you."

He glanced to his other side. "Blackavar, get the does to close up. If there are any stragglers the patrol will jump on them."

"You'd do better to give in now," said Campion, still running beside him. "I shan't let you out of my sight, wherever you go. There's an escape patrol on the way--I heard the signal. When they get here you won't stand a chance. You're bleeding badly now."

"Curse you!" cried Bigwig, striking at him. "You'll bleed too, before I've done."

"Can I fight him, sir?" said Blackavar. "He won't beat me a second time."

"No," answered Bigwig, "he's only trying to delay us. Keep running."

"Thlayli!" cried Thethuthinnang suddenly, from behind him. "The General! The General! Oh, what shall we do?"

Bigwig looked back. It was indeed a sight to strike terror into the bravest heart. Woundwort had come through the arch ahead of his followers and was running toward them by himself, snarling with fury. Behind him came the patrol. In one quick glance Bigwig recognized Chervil, Avens and Groundsel. With them were several more, including a heavy, savage-looking rabbit whom he guessed to be Vervain, the head of the Council police. It crossed his mind that if he were to run, immediately and alone, they would probably let him go as he had come, and feel glad to be so easily rid of him. Certainly the alternative was to be killed. At this moment Blackavar spoke.

"Never mind, sir," he said. "You did your very best and it nearly came off. We may even be able to kill one or two of them before it's finished. Some of these does can fight well when they're put to it."

Bigwig rubbed his nose quickly against Blackavar's mutilated ear and sat back on his haunches as Woundwort came up to them.

"You dirty little beast," said Woundwort. "I hear you've attacked one of the Council police and broken his leg. We'll settle with you here. There's no need to take you back to Efrafa."

"You crack-brained slave-driver," answered Bigwig. "I'd like to see you try."

"All right," said Woundwort, "that's enough. Who have we got? Vervain, Campion, put him down. The rest of you, start getting these does back to the warren. The prisoner you can leave to me."

"Frith sees you!" cried Bigwig. "You're not fit to be called a rabbit! May Frith blast you and your foul Owsla full of bullies!"

At that instant a dazzling claw of lightning streaked down the length of the sky. The hedge and the distant trees seemed to leap forward in the brilliance of the flash. Immediately upon it came the thunder: a high, tearing noise, as though some huge thing were being ripped to pieces close above, which deepened and turned to enormous blows of dissolution. Then the rain fell like a waterfall. In a few seconds the ground was covered with water and over it, to a height of inches, rose a haze formed of a myriad minute splashes. Stupefied with the shock, unable even to move, the sodden rabbits crouched inert, almost pinned to the earth by the rain.

A small voice spoke in Bigwig's mind.

"Your storm, Thlayli-rah. Use it."

Gasping, he struggled up and pushed Blackavar with his foot.

"Come on," he said, "get hold of Hyzenthlay. We're going."

He shook his head, trying to blink the rain out of his eyes. Then it was no longer Blackavar who was crouching in front of him but Woundwort, drenched in mud and rain, glaring and scrabbling in the silt with his great claws.

"I'll kill you myself," said Woundwort.

His long front teeth were bared like the fangs of a rat. Afraid, Bigwig watched him closely. He knew that Woundwort, with all the advantage of weight, would jump and try to close with him. He must try to avoid him and rely on his claws. He shifted his ground uneasily and felt himself slipping in the mud. Why did Woundwort not jump? Then he realized that Woundwort was no longer looking at him, but staring over his head at something beyond, something that he himself could not see. Suddenly, Woundwort leaped backward and in the same moment, through the all-enveloping sound of the rain, there sounded a raucous clamor.

"Yark! Yark! Yark!"

Some big white thing was striking at Woundwort, who was cowering and guarding his head as best he could. Then it was gone, sailing upward and turning in the rain.

"Meester Pigvig, ees rabbits come!"

Sights and feelings swirled through Bigwig as though in a dream. The things that were happening no longer seemed connected by anything except his own dazed senses. He heard Kehaar screaming as he dived again to attack Vervain. He felt the rain pouring cold into the open gash in his shoulder. Through the curtain of rain he glimpsed Woundwort dodging among his officers and urging them back into the ditch on the edge of the field. He saw Blackavar striking at Campion and Campion turning to run. Then someone beside him was saying, "Hullo, Bigwig. Bigwig! Bigwig! What do you want us to do?" It was Silver.

"Where's Hazel?" he said.

"Waiting at the boat. I say, you're wounded! What--"

"Then get these does down there," said Bigwig.

All was confusion. In ones and twos the does, utterly bemused and scarcely able to move or to understand what was said to them, were urged into getting up and stumbling their way down the field. Other rabbits began to appear through the rain: Acorn, clearly frightened, but determined not to run; Dandelion encouraging Pipkin; Speedwell and Hawkbit making toward Kehaar--the only creature visible above the ground haze. Bigwig and Silver brought them together as best they could and made them understand that they were to help to get the does away.

"Go back to Blackberry, go back to Blackberry," Silver kept repeating. "I left three of our rabbits in different places to mark the way back," he explained to Bigwig. "Blackberry's first, then Bluebell, then Fiver--he's quite near the river."

"And there is is Blackberry," said Bigwig. Blackberry," said Bigwig.

"You did it, then, Bigwig," said Blackberry, shivering. "Was it very bad? Good heavens, your shoulder--"

"It's not finished yet," said Bigwig. "Has everyone pa.s.sed you?"

"You're the last," said Blackberry. "Can we go? This storm's terrifying me!"

Kehaar alighted beside them.

"Meester Pigvig," he said, "I fly on does d.a.m.n rabbits, but dey no run, dey get in ditch. I no catch 'em in dere. Dey coming all along beside you."

"They'll never give up," said Bigwig. "I warn you, Silver, they'll be at us before it's done. There's thick cover in the water meadow--they'll use that. Acorn, come back, keep away from that ditch!"

"Go back to Bluebell! Go back to Bluebell!" repeated Silver, running from side to side.

They found Bluebell by the hedge at the bottom of the field. He was white-eyed and ready to bolt.

"Silver," he said, "I saw a bunch of rabbits--strangers, Efrafans, I suppose--come out of the ditch over there and slip across into the water meadow. They're behind us now. One of them was the biggest rabbit I've ever seen."

"Then don't stay here," said Silver. "There goes Speedwell. And who's that? Acorn and two does with him. That's everyone. Come on, quick as you can."

It was only a short distance now to the river, but among the sodden patches of rushes, the bushes and sedge and deep puddles, they found it next to impossible to tell their direction. Expecting to be attacked at any moment, they scuttered and floundered through the undergrowth, finding here a doe and there one of their own rabbits and forcing them on. Without Kehaar they would certainly have lost all touch with each other and perhaps never reached the river. The gull kept flying backward and forward along the direct line to the bank, only alighting now and then to guide Bigwig toward some straggling doe whom he had spotted going the wrong way.

"Kehaar," said Bigwig, as they waited for Thethuthinnang to struggle up to them through a half-flattened clump of nettles, "will you go and see whether you can spot the Efrafans? They can't be far away. But why haven't they attacked us? We're all so scattered that they could easily do us a lot of harm. I wonder what they're up to?"

Kehaar was back in a very short time.

"Dey hiding at pridge," he said, "all under pushes. I come down, dat peeg fella 'e make for fight me."

"Did he?" said Bigwig. "The brute's got courage, I'll give him that."

"Dey t'ink you got to cross river dere or else go all along pank. Dey not know heem poat. You near poat now."

Fiver came running through the undergrowth.

"We've been able to get some of them on the boat, Bigwig," he said, "but most of them won't trust me. They just keep asking where you you are." are."

Bigwig ran behind him and came out on the green path by the bank. All the surface of the river was winking and plopping in the rain. The level did not appear to have risen much as yet. The boat was just as he remembered it--one end against the bank, the other a little way out in the stream. On the raised part at the near end Hazel was crouching, his ears drooping on either side of his head and his flattened fur completely black with rain. He was holding the taut rope in his teeth. Acorn, Hyzenthlay and two more were crouching near him on the wood, but the rest were huddled here and there along the bank. Blackberry was trying unsuccessfully to persuade them to get out on the boat.

"Hazel's afraid to leave the rope," he said to Bigwig. "Apparently he's bitten it very thin already. All these does will say is that you're their officer."

Bigwig turned to Thethuthinnang.

"This is the magic trick now," he said. "Get them over there, where Hyzenthlay's sitting, do you see? All of them --quickly."

Before she could reply, another doe gave a squeal of fear. A little way downstream, Campion and his patrol had emerged from the bushes and were coming up the path. From the opposite direction Vervain, Chervil and Groundsel were approaching. The doe turned and darted for the undergrowth immediately behind her. Just as she reached it, Woundwort himself appeared in her way, reared up and dealt her a great, raking blow across the face. The doe turned once more and ran blindly across the path and onto the boat.

Bigwig realized that since the moment when Kehaar had attacked him in the field, Woundwort had not only retained control over his officers but had actually made a plan and put it into effect. The storm and the difficult going had upset the fugitives and disorganized them. Woundwort, on the other hand, had taken his rabbits into the ditch and then made use of it to get them down to the water meadow, unexposed to further attack from Kehaar. Once there, he must have gone straight for the plank bridge--which he evidently knew about--and set an ambush under cover. But as soon as he had grasped that for some reason the runaways were not making for the bridge after all, he had instantly sent Campion to make his way round through the undergrowth, regain the bank downstream and cut them off; and Campion had done this without error or delay. Now Woundwort meant to fight them, here on the bank. He knew that Kehaar could not be everywhere and that the bushes and undergrowth provided enough cover, at a pinch, to dodge him. It was true that the other side had twice his numbers, but most of them were afraid of him and none was a trained Efrafan officer. Now that he had them pinned against the river, he would split them up and kill as many as possible. The rest could run away and come to grief as they might.