'Bigwig,' he said, 'why don't you swim over now, and then go out into the field and have a look round? The'wood may not stretch very far one way or the other. You could see from there; and then we might know which would be the best way to go.'
'Oh well,' said Bigwig rather grudgingly, 'I suppose there's some sense in that. I'll swim the embleer* river as many times as you like. Always glad to oblige.'
Without the slightest hesitation, he took two hops to the water, waded in and swam across the deep, still pool. They watched him pull himself out beside a flowering clump of figwort, gripping one of the tough stems in his teeth, shake a shower of drops out of his fur and scutter into the alder bushes. A moment later, between the nut-trees, they saw him running off into the field.
'I'm glad he's with us,' said Hazel to Silver. Again he thought wryly of the Threarah. 'He's the fellow to find out all we need to know. Oh, I say, look, he's coming back already.'
Bigwig was racing back across the field, looking more agitated than he had at any time since the encounter with Captain Holly. He ran into the water almost headlong and paddled over fast, leaving an arrow-head ripple on the calm, brown surface. He was speaking as he jerked himself out on the sandy foreshore.
'Well, Hazel, if I were you I shouldn't wait until ni-Frith. I should go now. In fact, I think you'll have to.'
'Why?'asked Hazel.
'There's a large dog loose in the wood.'
Hazel started. 'What?' he said. 'How do you know?'
'When you get into the field you can see the wood sloping down to the river. Parts of it are open. I saw the dog crossing a clearing. It was trailing a chain, so it must have broken loose. It may be on the lendri's scent, but the lendri will be underground by now. What do you think will happen when it picks up our scent, running from one side of the wood to the other, with dew on it? Come on, let's get over quickly.'
Hazel felt at a loss. In front of him stood Bigwig, sodden wet, undaunted, single-minded - the very picture of decision. At his shoulder was Fiver, silent and twitching. He saw Blackberry watching him intently, waiting for his lead and disregarding Bigwig's. Then he looked at Pipkin, huddled into a fold of sand, more panic-stricken and helpless than any rabbit he had ever seen. At this moment, up in the wood, there broke out an excited yelping and a jay began to scold.
Hazel spoke through a kind of light-headed trance. 'Well, you'd better get on, then,' he said, 'and anyone else who wants to. Personally, I'm going to wait until Fiver and Pipkin are fit to tackle it.'
'You silly blockhead!' cried Bigwig.' We'll all be finished! We'll -'
'Don't stamp about,' said Hazel. 'You may be heard. What do you suggest then?'
'Suggest? There's no suggesting to be done. Those who can swim, swim. The others will have to stay here and hope for the best. The dog may not come.'
'I'm afraid that won't do for me. I got Pipkin into this and I'm going to get him out.'
'Well, you didn't get Fiver into it, did you? He got you into it.'
Hazel could not help noticing, with reluctant admiration, that although Bigwig had lost his temper, he was apparently in no hurry on his own account and seemed less frightened than any of them. Looking round for Blackberry, he saw that he had left them and was up at the top of the pool, where the narrow beach tailed away into a gravel spit. His paws were half-buried in the wet gravel and he was nosing at something large and flat on the water-line. It looked like a piece of wood.
'Blackberry,' he said, 'can you come back here a moment?'
Blackberry looked up, tugged out his paws and ran back.
'Hazel,' he said quickly, 'that's a piece of flat wood - like that piece that closed the gap by the Green Loose above the warren - you remember? It must have drifted down the river. So it floats. We could put Fiver and Pipkin on it and make it float again. It might go across the river. Can you understand?'
Hazel had no idea what he meant. Blackberry's flood of apparent nonsense only seemed to draw tighter the mesh of danger and bewilderment. As though Bigwig's angry impatience, Pipkin's terror and the approaching dog were not enough to contend with, the cleverest rabbit among them had evidently gone out of his mind. He felt close to despair.
'Frithrah, yes, I see!' said an excited voice at his ear. It was Fiver. 'Quick, Hazel, don't wait! Come on, and bring Pipkin!'
It was Blackberry who bullied the stupefied Pipkin to his feet and forced him to limp the few yards to the gravel spit. The piece of wood, hardly bigger than a large rhubarb leaf, was lightly aground. Blackberry almost drove Pipkin on to it with his claws. Pipkin crouched shivering and Fiver followed him aboard.
'Who's strong?' said Blackberry. 'Bigwig! Silver! Push it out!'
No one obeyed him. All squatted, puzzled and uncertain. Blackberry buried his nose in the gravel under the landward edge of the board and raised it, pushing. The board tipped. Pipkin squealed and Fiver lowered his head and splayed his claws. Then the board righted itself and drifted out a few feet into the pool with the two rabbits hunched upon it, rigid and motionless. It rotated slowly and they found themselves staring back at their comrades.
'Frith and Inle!' said Dandelion. "They're sitting on the water! Why don't they sink?'
'They're sitting on the wood and the wood floats, can't you see?' said Blackberry. 'Now we swim over ourselves. Can we start, Hazel?'
During the last few minutes Hazel had been as near to losing his head as he was ever to come. He had been at his wits' end, with no reply to Bigwig's scornful impatience except his readiness to risk his own life in company with Fiver and Pipkin. He still could not understand what had happened, but at least he realized that Blackberry wanted him to show authority. His head cleared.
'Swim,' he said. 'Everybody swim.'