Bigwig grew tense. 'What did you say?'
'I said, Who's Fiver?'
'How should I know?'
'Well, you were talking in your sleep. You kept saying, "Ask Fiver, ask Fiver." I wondered who he was.'
'Oh, I see. A rabbit I knew once. He used to foretell the weather and so on.'
'Well, he could do it now, then. Can you smell the thunder?'
Bigwig sniffed. Mixed with the scents of grass and cattle came the warm, thick smell of a heavy cloud-mass, still far off. He perceived it uneasily. Almost all animals are disturbed by the approach of thunder, which oppresses them with its mounting tension and breaks the natural rhythm by which they live. Bigwig's inclination was to go back to his burrow, but he had little doubt that no mere trifle like a thundery morning would be allowed to interfere with the time-table of an Efrafan Mark.
He was right. Chervil was already at the entrance, squatting opposite Blackavar and his escort. He looked round as his officers came up the run.
'Come on, Thlayli,' he said. 'Sentries are out already. Does the thunder worry you?'
'It does rather,' replied Bigwig.
'It won't break today,' said Chervil. 'It's a long way off yet. I'd give it until tomorrow evening. Anyway, don't let the Mark see it affects you. Nothing's to be altered unless the General says so.'
' 'Couldn't wake him up,' said Avens, with a touch of malice. 'There was a doe in your burrow last night, Thlayli, wasn't there?'
'Oh, was there?' said Chervil. 'Which one?'
'Hyzenthlay,' replied Bigwig.
'Oh, the marli tharn,'* said Chervil. 'Funny, I didn't think she was ready.'
'She wasn't,' said Bigwig. 'I made a mistake. But if you remember, you asked me to do what I could to get to know the awkward squad and bring them a bit more under control, so I kept her talking for a time, just the same.'
'Get anywhere?'
'Hard to say, really,' said Bigwig, 'but I'll keep at it.'
He spent the time while the Mark went out in deciding upon the best and quickest way to enter the hole and attack Blackavar's escort. He would have to put one of them out of action in no time at all and then go straight for the other, who would be that much less unprepared. If he had to fight him, it would be better to avoid doing it between Blackavar and the mouth of the hole, for Blackavar would be as bewildered as the rest and might bolt back down the run. If he was going to bolt anywhere he must bolt outwards. Of course, with any luck, the second guard might make off underground without fighting at all, but one could not count on that. Efrafan Owslafa were not given to running away.
As he went out into the field, he wondered whether he would be spotted by Kehaar. The arrangement had been that Kehaar would find him whenever he might come above ground on the second day.
He need not have worried. Kehaar had been over Efrafa since before dawn. As soon as he saw the Mark come up, he alighted a little way out in the field, half-way between the undergrowth and the sentry-line, and began pecking about in the grass. Bigwig nibbled his way slowly towards him and then settled down to feed without a glance in his direction. After a while, he sensed that Kehaar was behind him, a little to one side.
'Meester Pigvig, I t'ink ees not goot ve talk much. Meester 'Azel, 'e say vat you do? Vat you vant?'
'I want two things, Kehaar - both at sunset tonight. First, our rabbits must be down by the big arch. I shall come through that arch with the does. If we're pursued, you and Hazel and the rest must be ready to fight. The boat-thing, is it still there?'
'Ya, ya, men no take heem. I tell Meester 'Azd vat you say.'
'Good. Now listen, Kehaar, this is the second thing; and it's terribly important. You see those rabbits out beyond us, in the field? They're the sentries. At sunset, you meet me here. Then I shall run back to those trees and go down a hole. As soon as you see me go in, attack the sentries - terrify them, drive them away. If they won't run, hurt them. They must be driven off. You'll see me come out again almost at once and then the does - the mothers - will start running with me and we'll go straight down to the arch. But we may very well be attacked on the way. If that happens, can you pile in again?'
'Ya, ya. I fly at dem - dey no stop you.'
'Splendid. That's it, then. Hazel and the others - are they all right?'
'Fine - fine. Dey say you dam' good fella. Meester Pluebell, 'e say to pring one mudder for everyone else and two for 'im.'
Bigwig was trying to think of some appropriate reply to this when he saw Chervil running across the grass towards him. At once, without speaking again to Kehaar, he took a few hops in Chervil's direction and began biting busily at a patch of clover. As Chervil came up, Kehaar flew low above their heads and disappeared over the trees.
Chervil looked after the flying gull and then turned to Bigwig.