'With a bit of luck, they might each have a litter before the winter,' said Hazel. 'I know the breeding season's over, but everything's so topsy-turvy with us here that there's no saying.'
'Well, you ask me what I think,' said Holly. 'I'll tell you. I think they're precious little to be the only thing between us and the end of everything we've managed to do so far. I think they may very well not have any kittens for some time, partly because this isn't the season and partly because the life's so strange to them. And when they do, the kittens will very likely have a lot of this man-bred hutch-stock in them. But what else is there to hope for? We must do the best we can with what we've got.'
'Has anyone mated with them yet?' asked Hazel.
'No, neither of them has been ready so far. But I can see some fine old fights breaking out when they are.'
'That's another problem. We can't go on with nothing but these two does.'
'But what else can we do?'
'I know what we've got to do,' said Hazel, 'but I still can't see how. We've got to go back and get some does out of Efrafa.'
'You might as well say you were going to get them out of Inle, Hazel-rah. I'm afraid I can't have given you a very clear description of Efrafa.'
'Oh yes, you have - the whole idea scares me stiff. But we're going to do it.'
'It can't be done.'
'It can't be done by fighting or fair words, no. So it will have to be done by means of a trick.'
'There's no trick will get the better of that lot, believe me. There are far more of them than there are of us: they're very highly organized: and I'm only telling the truth when I say that they can fight, run and follow a trail every bit as well as we can and a lot of them, much better.'
'The trick,' said Hazel, turning to Blackberry, who all this time had been nibbling and listening in silence, 'the trick will have to do three things. First, it will have to get the does out of Efrafa and secondly it will have to put paid to the pursuit. For a pursuit there's bound to be and we can't expect another miracle. But that's not all. Once we're clear of the place, we've got to become impossible to find - beyond the reach of any Wide Patrol.'
'Yes,' said Blackberry doubtfully. 'Yes, I agree. To succeed we should have to manage all those things.'
'Yes. And this trick, Blackberry, is going to be devised by you.'
The sweet, carrion scent of dogwood filled the air; in the evening sunshine the insects hummed around the dense, white cymes hanging low above the grass. A pair of brown and orange beetles, disturbed by the feeding rabbits, took off from a grass-stem and flew away, still coupled together.
'They mate: we don't,' said Hazel, watching them go. 'A trick, Blackberry: a trick to put us right once and for all.'
'I can see how to do the first thing,' said Blackberry. 'At least, I think I can. But it's dangerous. The other two I can't see at all yet and I'd like to talk it over with Fiver.'
'The sooner Fiver and I get back to the warren the better,' said Hazel. 'My leg's good enough now, but all the same I think we'll leave it for tonight. Good old Holly, will you tell them that Fiver and I will come early tomorrow morning? It worries me to think that Bigwig and Silver may start fighting about Clover at any moment.'
'Hazel,' said Holly, 'listen. I don't like this idea of yours at all. I've been in Efrafa and you haven't. You're making a bad mistake and you might very well get us all killed.'
It was Fiver who replied. 'It ought to feel like that, I know,' he said, 'but somehow it doesn't: not to me. I believe we can do it. Anyway, I'm sure Hazel's right when he says it's the only chance we've got. Suppose we go on talking about it for a bit?'
'Not now,' said Hazel. 'Time for underground down here - come on. But if you two race up the hill, you'll probably be in time for some more sunshine at the top. Good night.'
29. Return and Departure
He which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart, his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse.
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship, to die with us.
Shakespeare Henry V
The following morning all the rabbits were out at silflay by dawn and there was a good deal of excitement as they waited for Hazel. During the previous few days Blackberry had had to repeat several times the story of the journey to the farm and the finding of Hazel in the drain. One or two had suggested that Kehaar must have found Hazel and told Fiver secretly. But Kehaar denied this and, when pressed, replied cryptically that Fiver was one who had travelled a good deal farther than he had himself. As for Hazel, he had acquired, in everyone's eyes, a kind of magical quality. Of all the warren, Dandelion was the last rabbit to fail to do justice to a good story and he made the most of Hazel's heroic dash out of the ditch to save his friends from the farmers. No one had even suggested that Hazel might have been reckless in going to the farm. Against all odds he had got them two does: and now he was bringing their luck back to the warren.