'Frith never meant us to go on fighting in the high summer, either, if that comes to that,' said Silver. 'Everything that's happened is unnatural - the fighting, the breeding - and all on account of Woundwort. If he wasn't unnatural, who was?'
'Bigwig was right when he said he wasn't like a rabbit at all,' said Holly. 'He was a fighting animal - fierce as a rat or a dog. He fought because he actually felt safer fighting than running. He was brave all right. But it wasn't natural; and that's why it was bound to finish him in the end. He was trying to do something that Frith never meant any rabbit to do. I believe he'd have hunted like the elil if he could.'
'He isn't dead, you know,' broke in Groundsel.
The others were silent.
'He hasn't stopped running,' said Groundsel passionately. 'Did you see his body? No. Did anyone? No. Nothing could kill him. He made rabbits bigger than they've ever been - braver, more skilful, more cunning. I know we paid for it. Some gave their lives. It was worth it, to feel we were Efrafans. For the first time ever, rabbits didn't go scurrying away. The elil feared us. And that was on account of Woundwort - him and no one but him. We weren't good enough for the General. Depend upon it, he's gone to start another warren somewhere else. But no Efrafan officer will ever forget him.'
'Well, now I'll tell you something,' began Silver. But Hazel cut him short.
'You mustn't say you weren't good enough,' he said. 'You did everything for him that rabbits could do and a great deal more. And what a lot we learnt from you! As for Efrafa, I've heard it's doing well under Campion, even if some things aren't quite the same as they used to be. And listen - by next spring, if I'm right, we shall have too many rabbits here for comfort. I'm going to encourage some of the youngsters to start a new warren between here and Efrafa: and I think you'll find Campion will be ready to send some of his rabbits to join them. You'd be just the right fellow to start that scheme off.'
'Won't it be difficult to arrange?' asked Holly.
'Not when Kehaar comes,' said Hazel, as they began to hop easily back towards the holes at the north-east corner of the hanger. 'He'll turn up one of these days, when the storms begin on that Big Water of his. He can take a message to Campion as quickly as you'd run to the iron tree and back.'
'By Frith in the leaves, and I know someone who'll be glad to see him!' said Silver. 'Someone not so very far away.'
They had reached the eastern end of the trees and here, well out in the open where it was still sunny, a little group of three young rabbits - bigger than Hyzenthlay's - were squatting in the long grass, listening to a hulking veteran, lop-eared and scarred from nose to haunch - none other than Bigwig, captain of a very free-and-easy Owsla. These were the bucks of Clover's litter and a likely lot they looked.
'Oh no, no, no, no,' Bigwig was saying. 'Oh, my wings and beak, that won't do! You - what's your name - Scabious - look, I'm a cat and I see you down at the bottom of my garden chewing up the lettuces. Now, what do I do? Do I come walking up the middle of the path waving my tail? Well, do I?'
'Please, sir, I've never seen a cat,' sai
d the young rabbit.
'No, you haven't yet,' admitted the gallant captain. 'Well, a cat is a horrible thing with a long tail. It's covered with fur and has bristling whiskers and when it fights it makes fierce, spiteful noises. It's cunning, see?'
'Oh yes, sir,' answered the young rabbit. After a pause, he said politely, 'Er - you lost your tail?'
'Will you tell us about the fight in the storm, sir?' asked one of the other rabbits, 'and the tunnel of water?'
'Yes, later on,' said the relentless trainer. 'Now look, I'm a cat, right? I'm asleep in the sun, right? And you're going to get past me, right? Now then -'
'They pull his leg, you know,' said Silver, 'but they'd do anything for him.' Holly and Groundsel had gone underground and Silver and Hazel moved out once more into the sun.
'I think we all would,' replied Hazel. 'If it hadn't been for him that day, the dog would have come too late. Woundwort and his lot wouldn't have been above ground. They'd have been down below, finishing what they'd come to do.'
'He beat Woundwort, you know,' said Silver. 'He had him beat before the dog came. That was what I was going to say just now, but it was as well I didn't, I suppose.'
'I wonder how they're getting on with that winter burrow down the hill,' said Hazel. 'We're going to need it when the hard weather comes. That hole in the roof of the Honeycomb doesn't help at all. It'll close up naturally one day, I suppose, but meanwhile it's a confounded nuisance.'
'Here come the burrow-diggers, anyway,' said Silver.
Pipkin and Bluebell came over the crest, together with three or four of the does.
'Ah ha, ah ha, O Hazel-rah,' said Bluebell. 'The burrow's snug, it hath been dug, 'tis free from beetle, worm and slug. And in the snow, when down we go -'
'Then what a lot to you we'll owe,' said Hazel. 'I mean it, too. The holes are concealed, are they?'
'Just like Efrafa, I should think,' said Bluebell. 'As a matter of fact, I brought one up with me to show you. You can't see it, can you? No - well, there you are. I say, just look at old Bigwig with those youngsters over there. You know, if he went back to Efrafa now they couldn't decide which Mark to put him in, could they? He's got them all.'
'Come over to the evening side of the wood with us, Hazel-rah?' said Pipkin. 'We came up early on purpose to have a bit of sunshine before it gets dark.'
'All right,' answered Hazel good-naturedly. 'We've just come back from there, Silver and I, but I don't mind slipping over again for a bit.'
'Let's go out to that little hollow where we found Kehaar that morning,' said Silver. 'It'll be out of the wind. D'you remember how he cursed at us and tried to peck us?'