On this far side of the river, undergrowth and a grove of great horse-chestnuts extended almost down to the bridge. The ground was marshy but at least there was plenty of cover. Fiver and Pipkin began at once on some scrapes, while Hazel sat chewing pellets and resting his injured leg. Soon they were joined by Silver and Dandelion, but the other rabbits, more hesitant even than Hazel, remained crouching in the long grass on the right bank. At last, just before darkness fell, Fiver re-crossed the bridge and coaxed them to follow him back. Bigwig, to everyone's surprise, showed considerable reluctance, and only crossed in the end after Kehaar, returning from another flight over Efrafa, had asked whether he would like him to go and fetch a fox.
The night that followed seemed to all of them disorganized and precarious. Hazel, still conscious of being in man-country, was half-expecting either a dog or a cat. But although they heard owls more than once, no elil attacked them and by the morning they were in better spirits.
As soon as they had fed, Hazel set them to exploring the surroundings. It became even more plain that the ground near the river was too wet for rabbits. Indeed, in places it was almost bog. Marsh sedge grew there, pink, sweet-scented valerian and the drooping water-avens. Silver reported that it was drier up in the woodland away from the bank, and at first Hazel had the idea of picking a fresh spot and digging again. But presently the day grew so hot and humid that all activity was quenched. The faint breeze vanished. The sun drew up a torpid moisture from the watery thickets. The smell of water-mint filled all the hydrophanic air. The rabbits crept into the shade, under any cover that offered. Long before ni-Frith, all were drowsing in the undergrowth.
It was not until the dappled afternoon began to grow cool that Hazel woke suddenly, to find Kehaar beside him. The gull was strutting from side to side with short, quick steps and pecking impatiently in the long grass. Hazel sat up quickly.
'What is it, Kehaar? Not a patrol?'
'Na, na. Ees all fine for sleep like bloody owls. Maybe I go for Peeg Vater. Meester 'Azel, you getting mudders now soon? Vat for vait now?'
'No, you're right, Kehaar, we must start now. The trouble is, I can see how to start but not how to finish.'
Hazel made his way through the grass, roused the first rabbit he found - who happened to be Bluebell - and sent him to fetch Bigwig, Blackberry and Fiver. When they came, he took them to join Kehaar on the short grass of the river bank.
'This is the problem, Blackberry,' he said. 'You remember that when we were under the down that evening, I said we should have to do three things: get the does out of Efrafa, break up the pursuit and then get right away so that they wouldn't find us. This plan you've thought up is clever. It'll do the first two things all right, I'm sure of that. But what about the last one? The Efrafan rabbits are fast and savage. They'll find us if we're to be found and I don't believe we can run away faster than they can follow - especially with a lot of does who've never been out of Efrafa. We couldn't possibly stand and fight them to a finish - we're too few. And on top of that, my leg seems to be bad again. So what's to be done?'
'I don't know,' answered Blackberry. 'But obviously, we shall need to disappear. Could we swim the river? No scent then, you know.'
'It's too swift,' said Hazel. 'We'd be carried away. But even if we did swim it, we couldn't count on not being followed. From what I've heard of these Efrafans, they'd certainly swim the river if they thought we had. What it comes to is that with Kehaar to help us, we can break up a pursuit while we're getting the does out, but they'll know which way we've gone and they won't leave it at that. No, you're right, we've got to vanish without a trace, so that they can't even track us. But how?'
'I don't know,' said Blackberry again. 'Shall we go up the river a little way and have a look at it? Perhaps there's something we could use for a hiding-place. Can you manage that with your leg?'
'If we don't go too far,' replied Hazel.
'Can I come, Hazel-rah?' asked Bluebell, who had been waiting about, a little way off.
'Yes, all right,' said Hazel good-naturedly, as he began to limp along the bank upstream.
They soon realized that the woodland on this left bank was lonely, thick and overgrown - denser than the nut copses and bluebell woods of Sandleford. Several times they heard the drumming of a great woodpecker, the shyest of birds. As Blackberry was suggesting that perhaps they might look for a hiding-place somewhere in this jungle, they became aware of another sound - the falling water which they had heard on
their approach the day before. Soon they reached a place where the river curved round in a bend from the east, and here they came upon the broad, shallow fall. It was no more than a foot high - one of those artificial falls, common on the chalk streams, made to attract trout. Several were already rising to the evening hatch of fly. Just above the fall a plank footbridge crossed the river. Kehaar flew up, circled the pool and perched on the hand-rail.
'This is more sheltered and lonely than the bridge we crossed last night,' said Blackberry. 'Perhaps we could make some use of it. You didn't know about this bridge, Kehaar, did you?'
'Na, not know, not see heem. But ees goot pridge - no von come.'
'I'd like to go across, Hazel-rah,' said Blackberry.
'Well, Fiver's the rabbit for that,' replied Hazel. 'He simply loves crossing bridges. You carry on. I'll come behind, with Bigwig and Bluebell here.'
The five rabbits hopped slowly along the planks, their great, sensitive ears full of the sound of the falling water. Hazel, who was not sure of his footing, had to stop several times. When at length he reached the further side, he found that Fiver and Blackberry had already gone a little way downstream below the fall, and were looking at some large object sticking out from the bank. At first he thought that it must be a fallen tree-trunk, but as he came closer he saw that although it was certainly wooden, it was not round, but flat, or nearly flat, with raised edges - some man-thing. He remembered how once, long ago, sniffing over a farm rubbish-heap with Fiver, he had come upon a similar object - large, smooth and flat. (That had, in fact, been an old, discarded door.) It had been of no use to them and they had left it alone. His inclination was to leave this alone too.
One end of the thing was pressed into the bank, but along its length it diverged, sticking out slightly into the stream. There were ripples round it, for under the banks the current was as swift as in mid-stream, on account of weed-cutting and sound camp-sheeting. As Hazel came nearer, he saw that Blackberry had actually scrambled on the thing. His claws made a faint hollow sound on the wood, so there must be water underneath. Whatever it might be, the thing did not extend downwards to the bottom: it was lying on the water.
'What are you after, Blackberry?' he said rather sharply.
'Food,' replied Blackberry. 'Flayrah. Can't you smell it?'
Kehaar had alighted on the middle of the thing, and was snapping away at something white. Blackberry scuttered along the wood towards him and began to nibble at some kind of green-stuff. After a little while Hazel also ventured out on the wood and sat in the sunshine, watching the flies on the warm, varnished surface and sniffing the strange river smells that came up from the water.
'What is this man-thing, Kehaar?' he asked. 'Is it dangerous?'
'Na, no dangerous. You not know? Ees poat. At Peeg Vater is many, many poat. Men make dem, go on vater. Ees no harm.'
Kehaar went on pecking at the broken pieces of stale bread. Blackberry, who had finished the fragments of lettuce he had found, was sitting up and looking over the very low side, watching a stone-coloured, black-spotted trout swim up into the fall. The 'boat' was a miniature punt, used for reed-cutting - little more than a raft, with a single thwart amidships. Even when it was unmanned, as now, there were only a few inches of freeboard.
'You know,' said Fiver from the bank, 'seeing you sitting there reminds me of that other wooden thing you found, when the dog was in the wood and you got Pipkin and me over the river. Do you remember?'