Just before sunrise Pipkin and Speedwell saw Fiver coming through the wet grass near the summit of the down. They ran out to meet him and waited with him until Hazel came up to them. Hazel was limping and had evidently found the climb a strain, but after resting and feeding for a short time he was able to run down to the warren almost as fast as the others. The rabbits crowded round. Everyone wanted to touch him. He was sniffed and tussled with and rolled over in the grass until he felt almost as though he were being attacked. Human beings, on occasions of this kind, are usually full of questions, but the rabbits expressed their delight simply by proving to themselves through their senses that this was really Hazel-rah. It was all he could do to stand up to the rough play.' I wonder what would happen if I lay down under it?' he thought. 'They'd kick me out, I dare say. They wouldn't have a crippled Chief Rabbit. This is a test as well as a welcome, even though they don't know it themselves. I'll test them, the rascals, before I'm done.'
He pushed Buckthorn and Speedwell off his back and broke away to the edge of the wood. Strawberry and Boxwood were on the bank and he joined them and sat washing and combing himself in the sunrise.
'We can do with a few well-behaved fellows like you,' he said to Boxwood. 'Look at that rough lot out there - they nearly finished me off! What on earth do you make of us and how are you settling down?'
'Well, of course we find it strange,' said Boxwood, 'but we're learning. Strawberry here has been helping me a great deal. We were just seeing how many smells I could tell on the wind, but that's something that'll only come slowly. The smells are awfully strong on a farm, you know, and they don't mean much when you live behind wire. As far as I can make out, you all live by smell.'
'Don't take too m
any risks to begin with,' said Hazel. 'Keep near the burrows - don't go out alone - all that sort of thing. And how about you, Strawberry? Are you better?'
'More or less,' answered Strawberry, 'as long as I sleep a lot and sit in the sun, Hazel-rah. I've been terrified half out of my wits - that's the bottom of it. I've had the shivers and the horrors for days. I kept thinking I was back in Efrafa.'
'What was it like in Efrafa?' asked Hazel.
'I'd rather die than go back to Efrafa,' said Strawberry, 'or risk going anywhere near it. I don't know which was worse, the boredom or the fear. All the same,' he added after a few moments,' there are rabbits there who'd be the same as we are if they could only live naturally, like us. Several would be glad to leave the place if they only could.'
Before they went underground Hazel talked to almost all the rabbits. As he expected, they were disappointed over the failure at Efrafa and full of indignation at the ill-treatment of Holly and his companions. More than one thought, like Holly, that the two does were likely to give rise to trouble.
'There should have been more, Hazel,' said Bigwig. 'We shall all be at each other's throats, you know - I don't see how it's to be helped.'
Late in the afternoon Hazel called everyone into the Honeycomb.
'I've been thinking things over,' he said. 'I know you must all have been really disappointed not to have got rid of me at Nuthanger Farm the other day, so I've decided to go a bit further next time.'
'Where?' asked Bluebell.
'To Efrafa,' replied Hazel, 'if I can get anyone to come with me: and we shall bring back as many does as the warren needs.'
There were murmurs of astonishment, and then Speedwell asked, 'How?'
'Blackberry and I have got a plan,' said Hazel, 'but I'm not going to explain it now, for this reason. You all know that this is going to be a dangerous business. If any of you get caught and taken into Efrafa, they'll make you talk all right. But those who don't know a plan can't give it away. I'll explain it later on, at the proper time.'
'Are you going to need many rabbits, Hazel-rah?' asked Dandelion. 'From all I hear, the whole lot of us wouldn't be enough to fight the Efrafans.'
'I hope we shan't have to fight at all,' replied Hazel, 'but there's always the possibility. Anyway, it'll be a long journey home with the does, and if by any chance we meet a Wide Patrol on the way, there have got to be enough of us to deal with them.'
'Would we have to go into Efrafa?' asked Pipkin timidly.
'No,' said Hazel, 'we shall -'
'I never thought, Hazel,' interrupted Holly, 'I never thought that the time would come when I should feel obliged to speak against you. But I can only say again that this is likely to be a complete disaster. I know what you think - you're counting on General Woundwort not having anyone as clever as Blackberry and Fiver. You're quite right - I don't think he has. But the fact remains that no one can get a bunch of does away from that place. You all know that I've spent my life patrolling and tracking in the open. Well, there are rabbits in the Efrafan Owsla who are better at it than I am - I'm admitting it: and they'll hunt you down with your does and kill you. Great Frith! We all have to meet our match some time or other! I know you want only to help us all, but do be sensible and give this scheme up. Believe me, the best thing to do with a place like Efrafa is to stay as far away from it as possible.'
Talk broke out all over the Honeycomb. 'That must be right!' 'Who wants to be torn to pieces?' 'That rabbit with the mutilated ears -' 'Well, but Hazel-rah must know what he's doing.' 'It's too far.' 'I don't want to go.'
Hazel waited patiently for quiet. At last he said, 'It's like this. We can stay here and try to make the best of things as they are: or we can put them right once and for all. Of course there's a risk: anyone knows that who's heard what happened to Holly and the others. But haven't we faced one risk after another, all the way from the warren we left? What do you mean to do? Stay here and scratch each other's eyes out over two does, when there are plenty in Efrafa that you're afraid to go and get, even though they'd be only too glad to come and join us?'
Someone called out, 'What does Fiver think?'
'I'm certainly going,' said Fiver quietly. 'Hazel's perfectly right and there's nothing the matter with his plan. But I promise you this, all of you. If I do come, later on, to feel any kind of misgiving, I shan't keep it to myself.'
'And if that happens, I shan't ignore it,' said Hazel.
There was silence. Then Bigwig spoke.
'You may as well all know that I'm going,' he said, 'and we shall have Kehaar with us, if that appeals to you at all.'
There was a buzz of surprise.