Watership Down

'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.'

'I'll come! I'll run any risk.'

'What a stroke of luck that you should be in this Mark,' said Bigwig. 'Before this talk with you tonight, I was at my wits' end, wondering whatever I was going to do.'

'I'll go back to the lower burrows now, Thlayli. Some of the other rabbits are bound to wonder why you sent for me. It's not mating time with me, you see. If I go now, we can say you made a mistake and were disappointed. Don't forget to say that.'

'I won't. Yes, go now, and have them ready at silflay tomorrow evening, I shan't fail you.'

When she had gone, Bigwig felt desperately tired and lonely. He tried to hold in his mind that his friends were not far off and that he would see them again in less than a day. But he knew that all Efrafa lay between himself and Hazel. His thoughts broke up into the dismal fancies of anxiety. He fell into a half-dream, in which Captain Campion turned into a seagull and flew screaming over the river, until he woke in panic: and dozed again, to see Captain Chervil driving Blackavar before him toward a shining wire in the grass. And over all, as big as a horse in a field, aware of all that passed from one end of the world to the other, brooded the gigantic figure of General Woundwort. At last, worn out with his apprehensions, he passed into a deep sleep where even his fear could not follow, and lay without sound or movement in the solitary burrow.

36. Approaching Thunder

We was just goin' ter scarper
When along comes Bill 'Arper,
So we never done nuffin' at all

Music Hall Song

Bigwig wavered gradually up from sleep, like a bubble of marsh gas from the bed of a still stream. There was another rabbit beside him in the burrow-a buck. He started up at once and said, 'Who is it?'

'Avens,' replied the other. 'Time for silflay, Thlayli. Larks have gone up. You're a sound sleeper.'

'I dare say,' said Bigwig. 'Well, I'm ready.' He was about to lead the way down the run, but Avens' next words brought him to a halt.

'Who's Fiver?' said Avens.

Bigwig grew tense. 'What did you say?'

'I said, who's Fiver?'

'How should I know?'

'Well, you were talking in your sleep. You kept saying, 'Ask Fiver, ask Fiver. I wondered who he was.'

'Oh, I see. A rabbit I knew once. He used to foretell the weather and so on.'

'Well, he could do it now, then. Can you smell the thunder?'

Bigwig sniffed. Mixed with the scents of grass and cattle came the warm, thick smell of a heavy cloud mass, still far off. He perceived it uneasily. Almost all animals are disturbed by the approach of thunder, which oppresses them with its mounting tension and breaks the natural rhythm by which they live. Bigwig's inclination was to go back to his burrow, but he had little doubt that no mere trifle like a thundery morning would be allowed to interfere with the timetable of an Efrafan Mark.

He was right. Chervil was already at the entrance, squatting opposite Blackavar and his escort. He looked round as his officers came up the run.

'Come on, Thlayli,' he said. 'Sentries are out already. Does the thunder worry you?'

'It does rather,' replied Bigwig.

'It won't break today,' said Chervil. 'It's a long way off yet. I'd give it until tomorrow evening. Anyway, don't let the Mark see it affects you. Nothing's to be altered unless the General says so.'

'Couldn't wake him up,' said Avens, with a touch of malice. 'There was a doe in your burrow last night, Thlayli, wasn't there?'

'Oh, was there?' said Chervil. 'Which one?'

'Hyzenthlay,' replied Bigwig.

'Oh, the marli tharn,[15]' said Chervil. 'Funny, I didn't think she was ready.'

'She wasn't,' said Bigwig. 'I made a mistake. But if you remember, you asked me to do what I could to get to know the awkward squad and bring them a bit more under control, so I kept her talking for a time, just the same.'

'Get anywhere?'

'Hard to say, really,' said Bigwig, 'but I'll keep at it.'

He spent the time while the Mark went out in deciding upon the best and quickest way to enter the hole and attack Blackavar's escort. He would have to put one of them out of action in no time at all and then go straight for the other, who would be that much less unprepared. If he had to fight him, it would be better to avoid doing it between Blackavar and the mouth of the hole, for Blackavar would be as bewildered as the rest and might bolt back down the run. If he was going to bolt anywhere he must bolt outward. Of course, with any luck, the second guard might make off underground without fighting at all, but one could not count on that. Efrafan Owslafa were not given to running away.

As he went out into the field, he wondered whether he would be spotted by Kehaar. The arrangement had been that Kehaar would find him whenever he might come above ground on the second day.