Watership Down

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 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 passed 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 damn 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 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.

Bigwig began to understand why Woundwort's officers followed him and fought for him as they did.