'Go and find her and tell her to come to my burrow,' said Bigwig. 'No one else is to come with her. Do you understand?'
'Yes, sir.'
When the youngster had scurried off, Bigwig returned to his burrow, wondering whether there would be any suspicion. It seemed unlikely. From what Chervil had said, it was common enough for Efrafan officers to send for does. If he were questioned he had only to play up. He lay down and waited.
In the dark, a rabbit came slowly up the run and stopped at the entrance to the burrow. There was a pause.
'Hyzenthlay?' said Bigwig.
'I am Hyzenthlay.'
'I want to talk to you,' said Bigwig.
'I am in the Mark, sir, and under your orders. But you have made a mistake.'
'No, I haven't,' replied Bigwig. 'You needn't be afraid. Come in here, close beside me.'
Hyzenthlay obeyed. He could feel her fast pulse. Her body was tense: her eyes were closed and her claws dug into the floor.
'Hyzenthlay,' whispered Bigwig in her ear, 'listen carefully. You remember that many days ago now, four rabbits came to Efrafa in the evening. One had very pale grey fur and one had a healed rat-bite in his foreleg. You talked with their leader - his name was Holly. I know what he told you.'
She turned her head in fear. 'How do you know?'
'Never mind. Only listen to me.'
Then Bigwig spoke of Hazel and Fiver; of the destruction of the Sandleford warren and the journey to Watership Down. Hyzenthlay neither moved nor interrupted.
'The rabbits who talked to you that evening,' said Bigwig, 'who told you about the warren that was destroyed and of how they had come to ask for does from Efrafa - do you know what became of them?'
Hyzenthlay's reply was no more than the faintest murmur in his ear.
'I know what I heard. They escaped the next evening. Captain Charlock was killed pursuing them.'
'And was any other patrol sent after them, Hyzenthlay? The next day, I mean?'
'We heard that there was no officer to spare, with Bugloss under arrest and Charlock dead.'
'Those rabbits returned to us safely. One of them is not far away now, with Hazel and Fiver and several more. They are cunning and resourceful. They are waiting for me to bring does out of Efrafa - as many as I can get to come. I shall be able to send them a message tomorrow morning.'
'How?'
'By a bird - if all goes well.' Bigwig told her about Kehaar. When he had finished, Hyzenthlay made no reply and he could not tell whether she was considering all that he had said or whether fear and disbelief had so troubled her that she did not know what to say. Did she think he was a spy trying to trap her? Did she perhaps wish only that he would let her go away? At last he said,
'Do you believe me?'
'Yes, I believe you.'
'Might I not be a spy sent by the Council?'
'You are not. I can tell.'
'How?'
'You spoke of your friend - the one who knew that that warren was a bad place. He is not the only such rabbit. Sometimes I can tell these things too: but not often now, for my heart is in the frost.'
'Then will you join me - and persuade your friends as well? We need you: Efrafa doesn't need you.'
Again she was silent. Bigwig could hear a worm moving in the earth nearby and faintly down the tunnel came the sound of some small creature pattering through the grass outside. He waited quietly, knowing that it was vital that he should not upset her.