Watership Down

'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?'