Watership Down (50 page)

       
"I'll be jiggered if I leave him," muttered Bigwig to himself. "I know Blackberry would say I was a fool. Still, he's not here and I'm doing this myself. But suppose I wreck the whole thing because of Blackavar? Oh, Frith in a barn! What a business!"

       
He thought until he realized that he was thinking in circles. After a time, he fell asleep. When he woke, he could tell that it was moonlight outside, fine and still. It occurred to him that perhaps he might start his venture from the other end--by persuading some of the does to join him and working out a plan afterward, perhaps with their help. He went down the run until he came upon a young rabbit sleeping as best he could outside an overcrowded burrow. He woke him.

       
"Do you know Hyzenthlay?" he asked.

       
"Oh, yes, sir," replied the rabbit, with a rather pathetic attempt to sound brisk and ready.

       
"Go and find her and tell her to come to my burrow," said Bigwig. "No one else is to come with her. Do you understand?"

       
"Yes, sir."

       
When the youngster had scurried off, Bigwig returned to his burrow, wondering whether there would be any suspicion. It seemed unlikely. From what Chervil had said, it was common enough for Efrafan officers to send for does. If he were questioned he had only to play up. He lay down and waited.

       
In the dark, a rabbit came slowly up the run and stopped at the entrance to the burrow. There was a pause.

       
"Hyzenthlay?" said Bigwig.

       
"I am Hyzenthlay."

       
"I want to talk to you," said Bigwig.

       
"I am in the Mark, sir, and under your orders. But you have made a mistake."

       
"No, I haven't," replied Bigwig. "You needn't be afraid. Come in here, close beside me."

       
Hyzenthlay obeyed. He could feel her fast pulse. Her body was tense: her eyes were closed and her claws dug into the floor.

       
"Hyzenthlay," whispered Bigwig in her ear, "listen carefully. You remember that many days ago now, four rabbits came to Efrafa in the evening. One had very pale gray fur and one had a healed rat bite in his foreleg. You talked with their leader--his name was Holly. I know what he told you."

       
She turned her head in fear. "How do you know?"

       
"Never mind. Only listen to me."

       
Then Bigwig spoke of Hazel and Fiver; of the destruction of the Sandleford warren and the journey to Watership Down. Hyzenthlay neither moved nor interrupted.

       
"The rabbits who talked to you that evening," said Bigwig, "who told you about the warren that was destroyed and of how they had come to ask for does from Efrafa--do you know what became of them?"

       
Hyzenthlay's reply was no more than the faintest murmur in his ear.

       
"I know what I heard. They escaped the next evening. Captain Charlock was killed pursuing them."

       
"And was any other patrol sent after them, Hyzenthlay? The next day, I mean?"

       
"We heard that there was no officer to spare, with Bugloss under arrest and Charlock dead."

       
"Those rabbits returned to us safely. One of them is not far away now, with our Chief Rabbit and several more. They are cunning and resourceful. They are waiting for me to bring does out of Efrafa--as many as I can get to come. I shall be able to send them a message tomorrow morning."

       
"How?"

       
"By a bird--if all goes well." Bigwig told her about Kehaar. When he had finished, Hyzenthlay made no reply and he could not tell whether she was considering all that he had said or whether fear and disbelief had so troubled her that she did not know what to say. Did she think he was a spy trying to trap her? Did she perhaps wish only that he would let her go away? At last he said,

       
"Do you believe me?"

       
"Yes, I believe you."

       
"Might I not be a spy sent by the Council?"

       
"You are not. I can tell."

       
"How?"

       
"You spoke of your friend--the one who knew that that warren was a bad place. He is not the only such rabbit. Sometimes I can tell these things, too: but not often now, for my heart is in the frost."

       
"Then will you join me--and persuade your friends as well? We need you: Efrafa doesn't need you."

       
Again she was silent. Bigwig could hear a worm moving in the earth nearby and faintly down the tunnel came the sound of some small creature pattering through the grass outside. He waited quietly, knowing that it was vital that he should not upset her.

       
At last she spoke again, so low in his ear that the words seemed barely more than broken cadences of breathing.

       
"We can escape from Efrafa. The danger is very great, but in that we can succeed. It is beyond that I cannot see. Confusion and fear at nightfall--and then men, men, it is all things of men! A dog--a rope that snaps like a dry branch. A rabbit--no, it is not possible!--a rabbit that rides in a hrududu! Oh, I have become foolish--tales for kittens on a summer evening. No, I cannot see as I did once: it is like the shapes of trees beyond a field of rain."

       
"Well, you'd better come and meet this friend of mine," said Bigwig. "He talks just like that, and I've come to trust him, so I trust you, too. If you feel we're going to succeed, that's fine. But what I'm asking is whether you'll bring your friends to join us."

       
After another silence, Hyzenthlay said, "My courage--my spirit: it's so much less than it was. I'm afraid to let you rely on me."

       
"I can tell that. What is it that's worn you down? Weren't you the leader of the does who went to the Council?"

       
"There was myself and Thethuthinnang. I don't know what's happened to the other does who were with us. We were all in the Right Fore Mark then, you know. I've still got the Right Fore mark, but I've been marked again since. Blackavar--you saw him?"

       
"Yes, of course."

       
"He was in that Mark. He was our friend and encouraged us. Only a night or two after the does went up to speak to the Council, he tried to run away, but he was caught. You've seen what they did to him. That was the same evening that your friends came: and the next night they escaped. After that, the Council sent for us does once more. The General said that no one else would have the chance to run away. We were to be split up among the Marks, no more than two to each Mark. I don't know why they left Thethuthinnang and me together. Perhaps they didn't stop to think. Efrafa's like that, you know. The order was 'Two to each Mark,' so as long as the order was carried out it didn't particularly matter which two. Now I'm frightened and I feel the Council are always watching."

       
"Yes, but
I'm
here now," said Bigwig.

       
"The Council are very cunning."

       
"They'll need to be. We've got some rabbits who are far more cunning, believe me. El-ahrairah's Owsla, no less. But tell me--was Nelthilta with you when you went to the Council?"

       
"Oh, no, she was born here, in the Near Hind. She's got spirit, you know, but she's young and silly. It excites her to let everyone see that she's a friend of rabbits who are thought of as rebels. She doesn't realize what she's doing or what the Council are really like. It's all a kind of game to her--to cheek the officers and so on. One day she'll go too far and get us into trouble again. She couldn't be trusted with a secret, on any account."

       
"How many does in this Mark would be ready to join an escape?"

       
"Hrair. There's a great deal of discontent, you know. But, Thlayli, they mustn't be told until a very short time before we run--not just Nelthilta, but all of them. No one can keep a secret in a warren and there are spies everywhere. You and I must make a plan ourselves and tell no one but Thethuthinnang. She and I will get enough does to come with us when the time comes."

       
Bigwig realized that he had stumbled, quite unexpectedly, upon what he needed most of all: a strong, sensible friend who would think on her own account and help to bear his burden.

       
"I'll leave it to you to pick the does," he said. "I can make the chance to run if you'll have them ready to take it."

       
"When?"

       
"Sunset will be best, and the sooner the better. Hazel and the others will meet us and fight any patrol that follows. But the main thing is that the bird will fight for us. Even Woundwort won't be expecting that."

       
Hyzenthlay was silent again and Bigwig realized with admiration that she was going over what he had said and searching for flaws.

       
"But how many can the bird fight?" she said at last. "Can he drive them
all
away? This is going to be a big break-out and, make no mistake, Thlayli, the General himself will be after us with the best rabbits he has. We can't go on running away forever. They won't lose track of us and sooner or later they'll overtake us."

       
"I told you our rabbits were more cunning than the Council. I don't think you'd really understand this part, however carefully I explained. Have you ever seen a river?"

       
"What is a river?"

       
"Well, there you are. I can't explain. But I promise you we shan't have to run far. We shall actually disappear before the Owsla's eyes--if they're there to see. I must say I'm looking forward to that."

       
She said nothing and he added, "You must trust me, Hyzenthlay. Upon my life, we're going to vanish. I'm not deceiving you."

       
"If you were wrong, those who died quickly would be the lucky ones."

       
"No one's going to die. My friends have prepared a trick that El-ahrairah himself would be proud of."

       
"If it is to be at sunset," she said, "it must be tomorrow or the next night. In two days the Mark loses the evening silflay. You know that?"

       
"Yes, I'd heard. Tomorrow, then. Why wait longer? But there is one other thing. We're going to take Blackavar."
   
"Blackavar? How? He is guarded by Council police."

       
"I know. It adds very much to the risk, but I've decided that I can't leave him behind. What I mean to do is this. Tomorrow evening, when the Mark silflay, you and Thethuthinnang must keep the does near you--as many as you've got together--ready to run. I shall meet the bird a little way out in the meadow and tell him to attack the sentries as soon as he sees me go back into the hole. Then I shall come back and deal with Blackavar's guards myself. They won't be expecting anything of the sort. I'll have him out in a moment and join you. There'll be complete confusion and in that confusion we'll run. The bird will attack anyone who tries to follow us. Remember, we go straight down to the great arch in the iron road. My friends will be waiting there. You've only to follow me--I'll lead the way."

       
"Captain Campion may be on patrol."

       
"Oh, I do hope he is," said Bigwig. "I really do."

       
"Blackavar may not run at once. He will be as startled as the guards."

       
"Is it possible to warn him?"

       
"No. His guards never leave him and they take him out to silflay alone."

       
"For how long will he have to live like that?"

       
"When he has been to every Mark in turn, the Council will kill him. We all feel sure of that."

       
"Then that settles it. I
won't
go without him."

       
"Thlayli, you are very brave. Are you cunning, too? All our lives will depend on you tomorrow."

       
"Well, can you see anything wrong with the plan?"

       
"No, but I am only a doe who has never been out of Efrafa. Suppose something unexpected happens?"

       
"Risk is risk. Don't you want to get out and come and live on the high downs with us? Think of it!"

       
"Oh, Thlayli! Shall we mate with whom we choose and dig our own burrows and bear our litters alive?"

       
"You shall: and tell stories in the Honeycomb and silflay whenever you feel like it. It's a fine life, I promise you."