'He blundered into a stone in the dark, for he was shivering and feverish and in any case he could feel little or nothing without his whiskers. At that moment a quiet voice said, "El-ahrairah, where are you going?" He had heard nothing, but he knew that the Black Rabbit was beside him.
' "I am going home, my lord," he replied. "You said that I might go when I wished."
' "You have some purpose, El-ahrairah," said the Black Rabbit. "What is it?"
' "I have been in the pit, my lord," answered El-ahrairah. "I am infected with the white blindness and I am going to save my people by destroying the enemy."
' "El-ahrairah," said the Black Rabbit, "do you know how the white blindness is carried?"
'A sudden misgiving seized upon El-ahrairah. He said nothing.
' "It is carried by the fleas in rabbits' ears," said the Black Rabbit. "They pass from the ears of a sick rabbit to those of his companions. But El-ahrairah, you have no ears and fleas will not go to dock-leaves. You can neither catch nor carry the white blindness."
'Then at last El-ahrairah felt that his strength and courage were gone. He fell to the ground. He tried to move, but his back legs dragged along the rock and he could not get up. He scuffled and then lay still in the silence.
' "El-ahrairah," said the Black Rabbit at last, "this is a cold warren: a bad place for the living and no place at all for warm hearts and brave spirits. You are a nuisance to me. Go home. I myself will save your people. Do not have the impertinence to ask me when. There is no time here. They are already saved."
'In that moment, while King Darzin and his soldiers were still jeering down the holes of the warren, confusion and terror came upon them in the falling darkness. The fields seemed full of huge rabbits with red eyes, stalking among the thistles. They turned and fled. They vanished in the night; and that is why no rabbit who tells the tales of El-ahrairah can say what kind of creatures they were or what they looked like. Not one of them has ever been seen, from that day to this.
'When at last El-ahrairah was able to rise to his feet, the Black Rabbit was gone and Rabscuttle was coming down the run, looking for him. Together they went out to the mountainside and made their way down the stone-rattling gully in the mist. They did not know where they were going, except that they were going away from the Black Rabbit's warren. But after a time it became plain that El-ahrairah was ill from shock and exhaustion. Rabscuttle dug a sc
rape and there they stayed for several days.
'Later, when El-ahrairah began to get better, they wandered on, but they could not find their way back. They were confused in their wits and had to beg help and shelter of other animals whom they met. Their journey home lasted three months and many adventures they had. Some of these, as you know, are stories in themselves. Once they lived with a lendri and found pheasants' eggs for him in the wood. And once they barely escaped from the middle of a hay-field when the hay was cutting. All the time, Rabscuttle looked after El-ahrairah, brought him fresh dock-leaves and kept the flies from his wounds until they healed.
'At last, one day, they came back to the warren. It was evening, and as the sun stretched out all the hills, they could see any number of rabbits at silflay, nibbling in the grass and playing over the ant-heaps. They stopped at the top of the field, sniffing the gorse and herb-robert on the wind.
' "Well, they look all right," said El-ahrairah. "A healthy lot, really. Let's just slip in quietly and see whether we can find one or two of the Owsla captains underground. We don't want a lot of fuss."
'They made their way along the hedgerow, but could not altogether get their bearings, because apparently the warren had grown bigger and there were more holes than before, both in the bank and in the field. They stopped to speak to a group of smart young bucks and does sitting under the elder bloom.
' "We want to find Loosestrife," said Rabscuttle. "Can you tell us where his burrow is?"
' "I never heard of him," answered one of the bucks. "Are you sure he's in this warren?"
' "Unless he's dead," said Rabscuttle. "But surely you must have heard of Captain Loosestrife? He was an officer of the Owsla in the fighting."
' "What fighting?" asked another buck.
' "The fighting against King Darzin," replied Rabscuttle.
' "Here, do me a favour, old fellow, will you?" said the buck. "That fighting - I wasn't born when it finished."
' "But surely you know the Owsla captains who were?" said Rabscuttle.
' "I wouldn't be seen dead with them," said the buck. "What, that white-whiskered old bunch? What do we want to know about them?"
' "What they did," said Rabscuttle.
' "That war lark, old fellow?" said the first buck. "That's all finished now. That's got nothing to do with us."
' "If this Loosestrife fought King What's-His-Name, that's his business," said one of the does. "It's not our business, is it?"
' "It was all a very wicked thing," said another doe. "Shameful, really. If nobody fought in wars there wouldn't be any, would there? But you can't get old rabbits to see that."
' "My father was in it," said the second buck. "He gets on about it sometimes. I always go out quick. 'They did this and then we did that' and all that caper. "Makes you curl up, honest. Poor old geezer, you'd think he'd want to forget about it. I reckon he makes half of it up. And where did it get him, tell me that?"
' "If you don't mind waiting a little while, sir," said a third buck to El-ahrairah, "I'll go and see if I can find Captain Loosestrife for you. I don't actually know him myself, but then it's rather a big warren."