Nevertheless, as Silver guided them southwards along higher ground to the west of the farm, almost all, now that they were actually committed to the adventure, felt dread and apprehension. They had heard enough about Efrafa to daunt the stoutest heart. But before reaching it - or where-ever they were going - they had to expect two days on the open down. Foxes, stoats, weasels - any of these might be encountered, and the only recourse would be flight above ground. Their progress was straggling and broken, slower than that which Holly had made with his picked band of three. Rabbits strayed, took alarm, stopped to rest. After a time Hazel divided them into groups, led by Silver, Bigwig and himself. Yet still they moved slowly, like climbers on a rock-face, first some and then others taking their turn to cross the same piece of ground.
But at least the cover was good. June was moving towards July and high summer. Hedgerows and verges were at their rankest and thickest. The rabbits sheltered in dim-green, sun-flecked caves of grass, flowering marjoram and cow-parsley: peered round spotted hairy-stemmed clumps of viper's bugloss, blooming red and blue above their heads: pushed between towering stalks of yellow mullein. Sometimes they scuttled along open turf, coloured like a tapestry meadow with self-heal, centaury and tormentil. Because of their anxiety about elil and because they were nose-to-ground and unable to see far ahead, the way seemed long.
Had their journey been made in years gone by, they would have found the downs far more open, without standing crops, grazed close by sheep; and they could hardly have hoped to go far unobserved by enemies. But the sheep were long gone and the tractors had ploughed great expanses for wheat and barley. The smell of the green, standing corn was round them all day. The mice were numerous and so were the kestrels. The kestrels were disturbing, but Hazel had been right when he guessed that a healthy, full-grown rabbit was too large a quarry for them. At all events, no one was attacked from above.
Some time before ni-Frith, in the heat of the day, Silver paused in a little patch of thorn. There was no breeze and the air was full of the sweet, chrysanthemum-like smell of the flowering compositae of dry uplands - corn-chamomile, yarrow and tansy. As Hazel and Fiver came up and squatted beside him, he looked out across the open ground ahead.
'There, Hazel-rah,' he said, 'that's the wood that Holly didn't like.'
Two or three hundred yards away and directly across their line, a belt of trees ran straight across the down, stretching in each direction as far as they could see. They had come to the line of the Portway - only intermittently a road - which runs from north of Andover, through St Mary Bourne with its bells and streams and watercress beds, through Bradley Wood, on across the downs and so to Tadley and at last to Sil-chester - the Romans' Calleva Atrebatum. Where it crosses the downs, the line is marked by Caesar's Belt, a strip of woodland as straight as the road, narrow indeed but more than three miles long. In this hot noon-day the trees of the Belt were looped and netted with darkest shadow. The sun lay outside, the shadows inside the trees. All was still, save for the grasshoppers and the falling finch-song of the yellow-hammer on the thorn. Hazel looked steadily for a long time, listening with raised ears and wrinkling his nose in the unmoving air.
'I can't see anything wrong with it,' he said at last. 'Can you, Fiver?'
'No,' replied Fiver. 'Holly thought it was a strange kind of wood and so it is, but there don't seem to be any men there. All the same, someone ought to go and make sure, I suppose. Shall I?'
The third group had come up while Hazel had been gazing at the Belt, and now all the rabbits were either nibbling quietly or resting, with ears laid flat, in the light green sun-and-shade of the thorn thicket.
'Is Bigwig there?' asked Hazel.
Throughout the morning Bigwig had seemed unlike himself - silent and preoccupied, with little attention for what was going on around him. If his courage had not been beyond question, it might have been thought that he was feeling nervous. During one long halt Bluebell had overheard him talking with Hazel, Fiver and Blackberry and later had told Pipkin that it sounded for all the world as though Bigwig were being reassured. 'Fighting, yes, anywhere,' he had heard him say, 'but I still reckon that this game is more in someone else's line than mine.' 'No,' replied Hazel, 'you're the only one that can do it: and remember, this isn't sport, if the farm raid was. Everything depends on it.' Then, realizing that Bluebell could hear him, he added, 'Anyway, keep on thinking about it and try to get used to the idea. We must get on now.' Bigwig had gone moodily down the hedgerow to collect his group.
Now, he came out of a near-by clump of mugwort and flowering thistle and joined Hazel under the thorn.
'What do you want?' he asked abruptly.
'King of cats,' (pfeffa-rah) answered Hazel, 'would you like to go and have a look in those trees: and if you find any cats or men or anything like that, just chase them off, would you, and then come and tell us it's all right?'
When Bigwig had slipped away, Hazel said to Silver, 'Have you any idea how far the Wide Patrols go out? Are we inside their range yet?'
'I don't know, but I'd guess that we are,' said Silver. 'As I understand it, the range is up to the patrol. Under a pushing sort of captain, a patrol may go out a long way, I believe.'
'I see,' said Hazel. 'Well, I don't want to meet a patrol if it can possibly be helped, and if we do, not one of them must get back to Efrafa. That's one reason why I brought so many of us. But by way of avoiding them, I'm going to try to make use of this wood. Perhaps they don't fancy it any more than Holly did.'
'But surely it doesn't run the way we want to go?' said Silver.
'We're not going to Efrafa, though,' said Hazel. 'We're going to find somewhere to hide, as near to it as we can safely get. Any ideas?'
'Only that it's terribly dangerous, Hazel-rah,' said Silver. 'You can't get near Efrafa safely and I don't know how you can begin to look for somewhere to hide. And then the patrol - if there is one - they'll be cunning brutes. They might very well spot us and not show themselves at all - simply go and report.'
'Well, here comes Bigwig back again,' said Hazel. 'Is it all right, Bigwig? Good - let's get them into the wood and go down the length of it a little way. Then we must slip out on the other side and make sure that Kehaar finds us. He's coming to look for us this afternoon and at all costs we mustn't miss him.'
Less than half a mile to the west, they came upon a spinney adjoining the southern edge of Caesar's Belt. To the west again was a shallow, dry downland combe, perhaps four hundred yards across and overgrown with weeds and rough, yellowing summer tussocks. There, well before sunset, Kehaar, flying westwards down the Belt, spotted the rabbits lying up, all among the nettles and goose-grass. He sailed down and alighted near Hazel and Fiver.
'How's Holly?' asked Hazel.
' 'E sad,' said Kehaar. ' 'E say you no come back.' Then he added, 'Mees Clover, she ready for mudder.'
'That's good,' said Hazel. 'Is anyone doing anything about it?'
'Ya, ya, ees all to fight.'
'Oh well, I suppose it'll sort itself out.'
'Vat you do now, Meester 'Azel?'
'This is where you start helping, Kehaar. We need a place to hide, as near the big warren as we can safely get - somewhere where those other rabbits won't find us. If you know the country well enough, perhaps you can suggest something.'
'Meester 'Azel, 'ow close you vant?'
'Well, no further away than Nuthanger Farm is from the Honeycomb. In fact, that's really about the limit.'
'Ees only von t'ing, Meester 'Azel. You go udder side river, den dey not find you.'
'Over the river? You mean we swim across?'
'Na, na, rabbit no sveem dis river. Ees peeg, ees deep, go queek. But ees pridge, den udder side plenty place for hide. Ees close to varren, like you say.'
'And you think that's the best we can do?'
'Ees plenty trees und ees river. Udder rabbits no find you.'
'What do you think?' said Hazel to Fiver.
'It sounds better than I'd
hoped for,' said Fiver. 'I hate to say it, but I think we ought to go straight there as fast as we can, even if it makes everyone exhausted. We're in danger all the time we're on the down, but once we get off it we can rest.'
'Well, I suppose we'd better go on by night, if they'll do it - we've done it before - but they must feed and rest first. Start fu Inle? There'll be a moon.'
'Oh, how I've come to loathe those words "start" and "fu Inle",' said Blackberry.
However, the evening feed was peaceful and cool and after a time everyone felt refreshed. As the sun was sinking, Hazel brought them all together, under close cover, to chew pellets and rest. Although he did his best to appear confident and cheerful, he could feel that they were on edge, and after parrying one or two questions about the plan, he began to wonder how he could distract their thoughts and get them to relax until they were ready to set off again. He remembered the time, on the first night of his leadership, when they had been forced to rest in the wood above the Enborne. At least it was good to see that no one was exhausted now: they were as tough a bunch of hlessil as ever raided a garden. Not a blade of grass to choose between them, thought Hazel: Pipkin and Fiver looked as fresh as Silver and Bigwig. Still, a little entertainment would be all to the good and raise their spirits. He was just going to speak up when Acorn saved him the trouble.
'Will you tell us a story, Dandelion?' he asked.
'Yes! yes!' said several others. 'Come on! Make it a stunner while you're at it!'
'All right,' said Dandelion. 'How about "El-ahrairah and the Fox in the Water"?'
'Let's have "The Hole in the Sky",' said Hawkbit.
'No, not that,' said Bigwig suddenly. He had spoken very little all the evening and everyone looked round. 'If you're going to tell a story, there's only one I want,' he went on. ' "El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inle." '
'Perhaps not that one,' said Hazel. Bigwig rounded on him, snarling.
'If there's going to be a story, don't you think I've got as good a right as anyone to choose it?' he asked.
Hazel did not reply and after a pause, during which no one else spoke, Dandelion, with a rather subdued manner, began.
31. The Story of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inle
The power of the night, the press of the storm,
The post of the foe;
Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
Yet the strong man must go.
Robert Browning Prospice
'Sooner or later, everything leaks out and animals get to hear what others think about them. Some say that it was Hufsa who told King Darzin the truth about the trick with the lettuces. Others say that Yona the hedgehog went gossiping in the copses. But however it was, King Darzin got to know that he had been made a fool when he delivered his lettuces to the marshes of Kelfazin. He did not call his soldiers out to fight - not yet. But he made up his mind that he would find an opportunity to get his own back on El-ahrairah. El-ahrairah knew this and he warned all his people to be careful, especially when they went about alone.
'Now late one afternoon in February, Rabscuttle led some of the rabbits out to a rubbish heap on the edge of a garden, some way away from the warren. The evening came on cold and misty and well before twilight a fog came down thick. They set off for home but they got lost: and then they had trouble with an owl and became confused over their direction. Anyway, Rabscuttle got separated from the others and after wandering about for some time, he strayed into the guards' quarters outside King Darzin's city: and they caught him and took him up to the king.
'King Darzin saw his chance to spite El-ahrairah. He put Rabscuttle into a special prison-hole and every day he was brought out and made to work, sometimes in the frost, digging and tunnelling. But El-ahrairah swore he would get him out somehow. And so he did, for he and two of his does spent four days digging a tunnel from the wood into the back of the bank where Rabscuttle had been set to work. And in the end this tunnel came near to the hole in the bank down which Rabscuttle had been sent. He was supposed to be digging to turn the hole into a store-room and the guards were watching outside while he worked. But El-ahrairah reached him, for he could hear him scratching in the dark: and they all slipped away down the tunnel and escaped through the wood.
'When the news reached King Darzin, he became very angry indeed: and he determined that this time he would start a war and finish El-ahrairah once and for all. His soldiers set out in the night and went to the meadows of Fenlo; but they couldn't get down the rabbit-holes. Some tried, to be sure, but they soon came out again, because they met El-ahrairah and the other rabbits. They were not used to fighting in narrow places in the dark and they got bitten and scratched until they were glad to come out tail-first.
'But they didn't go away: they sat outside and waited. Whenever any of the rabbits tried to silflay they found their enemies ready to jump on them. King Darzin and his soldiers couldn't watch all the holes - there were too many - but they were quick enough to dash off wherever they saw a rabbit show his nose. Very soon El-ahrairah's people found that it was all they could do to snatch a mouthful or two of grass - just enought to keep alive - before they had to bolt underground again. El-ahrairah tried every trick he could think of, but he couldn't be rid of King Darzin or get his own people away. The rabbits began to become thin and miserable underground and some of them fell ill.
'At last El-ahrairah felt quite desperate and one night, when he had been risking his life again and again to bring down a few mouthfuls of grass for a doe and her family whose father had been killed the day before, he called out, "Lord Frith! I would do anything to save my people! I would drive a bargain with a stoat or a fox - yes, or with the Black Rabbit of Inle!"
'Now as soon as he had said this, El-ahrairah realized in his heart that if there was one creature anywhere who might have the will and certainly had the power to destroy his enemies, it was the Black Rabbit of Inle. For he was a rabbit and yet more powerful than King Darzin a thousand times over. But the thought made El-ahrairah sweat and shudder, so that he had to crouch down where he was in the run. After a time he went to his own burrow and began to think of what he had said and what it meant.
'Now as you all know, the Black Rabbit of Inle is fear and everlasting darkness. He is a rabbit, but he is that cold, bad dream from which we can only entreat Lord Frith to save us today and tomorrow. When the snare is set in the gap, the Black Rabbit knows where the peg is driven; and when the weasel dances, the Black Rabbit is not far off. You all know how some rabbits seem just to throw their lives away between two jokes and a theft: but the truth is that their foolishness comes from the Black Rabbit, for it is by his will that they do not smell the dog or see the gun. The Black Rabbit brings sickness too. Or again, he will come in the night and call a rabbit by name: and then that rabbit must go out to him, even though he may be young and strong to save himself from any other danger. He goes with the Black Rabbit and leaves no trace behind. Some say that the Black Rabbit hates us and wants our destruction. But the truth is - or so they taught me - that he too serves Lord Frith and does no more than his appointed task - to bring about what must be. We come into the world and we have to go: but we do not go merely to serve the turn of one enemy or another. If that were so, we would all be destroyed in a day. We go by the will of the Black Rabbit of Inle and only by his will. And though that will seems hard and bitter to us all, yet in his way he is our protector, for he knows Frith's promise to the rabbits and he will revenge any rabbit who may chance to be destroyed without the consent of himself. Anyone who has seen a game-keeper's gibbet knows what the Black Rabbit can bring down on elil who think they will do what they will.
'El-ahrairah spent the night alone in his burrow and his thoughts were terrible. As far as he knew, no rabbit had ever tried to do what he had in mind. But the more he thought about it - as well as he could for hunger and fear and the trance that comes upon rabbits face-to-face with death - the more it seemed to him that there was at least a chance of su
ccess. He would seek out the Black Rabbit and offer him his own life in return for the safety of his people. But if, when he offered his life, he did not mean the offer to be accepted, it would be better not to go near the Black Rabbit at all. The Black Rabbit might not accept his life: yet still, perhaps, he might get a chance to try something else. Only, there could be no cheating the Black Rabbit. If his people's safety were to be had, by whatever means, the price would be his life. So unless he failed, he would not return. He would therefore need a companion to bring back whatever it was that was going to overthrow King Darzin and save the warren.