There was a pause and some movement in the hay and then Clover replied, 'Yes, let us out.'
Blackberry sniffed his way round to the wire door and sat up, nosing over the frame, the hasp and the staple. It took him some time to realize that the leather hinges were soft enough to bite. Then he found that they lay so smooth and flush with the frame that he could not get his teeth to them. Several times he tried to find a grip and at last sat back on his haunches, at a loss.
'I don't t
hink this door's going to be any good,' he said. 'I wonder whether there's some other way?'
At that moment it happened that Boxwood stood on his hind legs and put his front paws high on the wire. Beneath his weight the top of the door was pressed slightly outwards and the upper of the two leather hinges gave slightly where the outer nail held it to the body of the hutch itself. As Boxwood dropped back on all fours, Blackberry saw that the hinge had buckled and risen just clear of the wood.
'Try it now,' he said to Bigwig.
Bigwig got his teeth to the hinge and pulled. It tore a very little.
'By Frith, that'll do,' said Blackberry, for all the world like the Duke of Wellington at Salamanca. 'We just need time, that's all.'
The hinge had been well made and did not give way until they had put it to a great deal more tugging and biting. Dandelion grew nervous and twice gave a false alarm. Bigwig, realizing that the sentries were on the jump from watching and waiting with nothing to do, changed places with him and sent Speedwell up to take over from Blackberry. When at last Dandelion and Speedwell had pulled the leather strip off the nail, Bigwig came back to the hutch himself. But they did not seem much nearer to success. Whenever one of the rabbits inside stood up and rested its fore-paws on the upper part of the wire, the door pivoted lightly on the axis of the staple and the lower hinge. But the lower hinge did not tear. Blowing through his whiskers with impatience, Bigwig brought Blackberry back from the threshold. 'What's to be done?' he said. 'We need some magic, like that lump of wood you shoved into the river.'
Blackberry looked at the door as Boxwood, inside, pushed it again. The upright of the frame pressed tight against the lower strip of leather, but it held smooth and firm, offering no purchase for teeth.
'Push it the other way - push from this side,' he said. 'You push, Bigwig. Tell that rabbit inside to get down.'
When Bigwig stood up and pushed the top of the door inwards, the frame immediately pivoted much farther than before, because there was no sill along the bottom of the outer side to stop it. The leather hinge twisted and Bigwig nearly lost his balance. If it had not been for the metal water staple arresting the pivoting, he might actually have fallen inside the hutch. Startled, he jumped back, growling.
'Well, you said magic, didn't you?!' said Blackberry with satisfaction. 'Do it again.'
No strip of leather, held by only one broad-headed nail at each end, can stand up for long to repeated twisting. Soon one of the nail-heads was almost out of sight under the frayed edges.
'Careful now,' said Blackberry. 'If it gives way suddenly you'll go flying. Just pull it off with your teeth.'
Two minutes later the door hung sagging on the staple alone. Clover pushed the hinge side open and came out, followed by Boxwood.
When several creatures - men or animals - have worked together to overcome something offering resistance and have at last succeeded there follows often a pause - as though they felt the propriety of paying respect to the adversary who has put up so good a fight. The great tree falls, splitting, cracking, rushing down in leaves to the final, shuddering blow along the ground. Then the foresters are silent, and do not at once sit down. After hours, the deep snowdrift has been cleared and the lorry is ready to take the men home out of the cold. But they stand a while, leaning on their spades and only nodding unsmilingly as the car-drivers go through, waving their thanks. The cunning hutch door had become nothing but a piece of wire netting, tacked to a frame made from four strips of half-by-half; and the rabbits sat on the planks, sniffing and nosing it without talking. After a little while the other two occupants of the hutch, Laurel and Haystack, came hesitantly out and looked about them.
'Where is Hazel-rah?' asked Laurel.
'Not far away,' said Blackberry. 'He's waiting in the lane.'
'What is the lane?'
'The lane?' said Blackberry in surprise. 'Surely -'
He stopped as it came over him that these rabbits knew neither lane nor farmyard. They had not the least idea of their most immediate surroundings. He was reflecting on what this meant when Bigwig spoke.
'We mustn't wait about now,' he said. 'Follow me, all of you.'
'But where?' said Boxwood.
'Well, out of here, of course,' said Bigwig impatiently.
Boxwood looked about him. 'I don't know -' he began.
'Well, I do,' said Bigwig. 'Just come with us. Never mind anything else.'
The hutch rabbits looked at each other in bewilderment. It was plain that they were afraid of the great, bristling buck, with his strange shock of fur and his smell of fresh blood. They did not know what to do or understand what was expected of them. They remembered Hazel; they had been excited by the forcing of the door and curious to come through it once it was open. Otherwise, they had no purpose whatever and no means of forming one. They had no more idea of what was involved than a small child who says he will accompany the climbers up the fell.
Blackberry's heart sank. What was to be done with them? Left to themselves, they would hop slowly about the shed and the yard until the cats got them. Of their own accord they could no more run to the hills than fly to the moon. Was there no simple, plain idea that might get them - or some of them - on the move? He turned to Clover.
'I don't suppose you've ever eaten grass by night,' he said. 'It tastes much better than by day. Let's all go and have some, shall we?'