He went consenting, or else he was no king.... It was no one's place to say tohim, "It is time to make the offering."Mary Renault, The King Must DieAs things turned out, Hazel and Pipkin did not come back to the Honeycombuntil the evening. They were still feeding in the field when it came on to rain, witha cold wind, and they took shelter first in the nearby ditch and then -- since theditch was on a slope and had a fair flow of rainwater in about ten minutes --among some sheds halfway down the lane. They burrowed into a thick pile ofstraw and for some time remained listening for rats. But all was quiet and theygrew drowsy and fell asleep, while outside the rain settled in for the morning.
When they woke it was mid-afternoon and still drizzling. It seemed to Hazel thatthere was no particular hurry. The going would be troublesome in the wet, andanyway no self-respecting rabbit could leave without a forage round the sheds. Apile of mangels and swedes occupied them for some time and they set out onlywhen the light was beginning to fade. They took their time and reached thehanger a little before dark, with nothing worse to trouble them than thediscomfort of soaking-wet fur. Only two or three of the rabbits were out to arather subdued silflay in the wet. No one remarked on their absence and Hazelwent underground at once, telling Pipkin to say nothing about their adventure forthe time being. He found his burrow empty, lay down and fell asleep.
Waking, he found Fiver beside him as usual. It was some time before dawn.
The earth floor felt pleasantly dry and snug and he was about to go back to sleepwhen Fiver spoke.
"You've been wet through, Hazel.""Well, what about it? The grass is wet, you know.""You didn't get so wet on silflay. You were soaked. You weren't here at allyesterday, were you?""Oh, I went foraging down the hill.""Eating swedes: and your feet smell of farmyard -- hens' droppings and bran.
But there's some other funny thing besides -- something I can't smell. Whathappened?""Well, I had a bit of a brush with a cat, but why worry?""Because you're concealing something, Hazel. Something dangerous.""It's Holly that's in danger, not I. Why bother about me?""Holly?" replied Fiver in surprise. "But Holly and the others reached the bigwarren early yesterday evening. Kehaar told us. Do you mean to say you didn'tknow?"Hazel felt fairly caught out. "Well, I know now," he replied. "I'm glad to hearit.""So it comes to this," said Fiver. "You went to a farm yesterday and escapedfrom a cat. And whatever you were up to, it was so much on your mind that youforgot to ask about Holly last night.""Well, all right, Fiver -- I'll tell you all about it. I took Pipkin and went to thatfarm that Kehaar told us about where there are rabbits in a hutch. I found therabbits and talked to them and I've taken a notion to go back one night and getthem out, to come and join us here.""What for?""Well, two of them are does, that's what for.""But if Holly's successful we shall soon have plenty of does: and from all I'veever heard of hutch rabbits, they don't take easily to wild life. The truth is, you'rejust a silly show-off.""A silly show-off?" said Hazel. "Well, we'll just see whether Bigwig andBlackberry think so.""Risking your life and other rabbits' lives for something that's of little or novalue to us," said Fiver. "Oh, yes, of course the others will go with you. You'retheir Chief Rabbit. You're supposed to decide what's sensible and they trust you.
Persuading them will prove nothing, but three or four dead rabbits will proveyou're a fool, when it's too late.""Oh, be quiet," answered Hazel. "I'm going to sleep."During silflay next morning, with Pipkin for a respectful chorus, he told theothers about his visit to the farm. As he had expected, Bigwig jumped at the ideaof a raid to free the hutch rabbits.
"It can't go wrong," he said. "It's a splendid idea, Hazel! I don't know how youopen a hutch, but Blackberry will see to that. What annoys me is to think you ranfrom that cat. A good rabbit's a match for a cat, any day. My mother went for oneonce and she fairly gave it something to remember, I can tell you: scratched itsfur out like willow herb in autumn! Just leave the farm cats to me and one or twoof the others!"Blackberry took a little more convincing, but he, like Bigwig and Hazel himself,was secretly disappointed not to have gone on the expedition with Holly; andwhen the other two pointed out that they were relying on him to tell them how toget the hutch open, he agreed to come.
"Do we need to take everyone?" he asked. "You say the dog's tied up and Isuppose there can't be more than three cats. Too many rabbits will only be anuisance in the dark: someone will get lost and we shall have to spend timelooking for him.""Well, Dandelion, Speedwell and Hawkbit, then," said Bigwig, "and leave theothers behind. Do you mean to go tonight, Hazel-rah?""Yes, the sooner the better," said Hazel. "Get hold of those three and tell them.
Pity it's going to be dark -- we could have taken Kehaar: he'd have enjoyed it."However, their hopes for that night were disappointed, for the rain returnedbefore dusk, settling in on a northwest wind and carrying up the hill the sweet-sour smell of flowering privet from cottage hedges below. Hazel sat on the bankuntil the light had quite faded. At last, when it was clear that the rain was going tostay for the night, he joined the others in the Honeycomb. They had persuadedKehaar to come down out of the wind and wet, and one of Dandelion's tales of El-ahrairah was followed by an extraordinary story that left everyone mystified butfascinated, about a time when Frith had to go away on a journey, leaving thewhole world to be covered with rain. But a man built a great floating hutch thatheld all the animals and birds until Frith returned and let them out.
"It won't happen tonight, will it, Hazel-rah?" asked Pipkin, listening to the rainin the beech leaves outside. "There's no hutch here.""Kehaar'll fly you up to the moon, Hlao-roo," said Bluebell, "and you can comedown on Bigwig's head like a birch branch in the frost. But there's time to go tosleep first."Before Fiver slept, however, he talked again to Hazel about the raid.
"I suppose it's no good asking you not to go?" he said.
"Look here," answered Hazel, "have you got one of your bad turns about thefarm? If you have, why not say so straight out? Then we'd all know where wewere.""I've no feelings about the farm one way or the other," said Fiver. "But thatdoesn't necessarily mean it's all right. The feelings come when they will -- theydon't always come. Not for the lendri, not for the crow. If it comes to that, I've noidea what's happening to Holly and the others. It might be good or bad. Butthere's something that frightens me about you yourself, Hazel: just you, not anyof the others. You're all alone, sharp and clear, like a dead branch against thesky.""Well, if you mean you can see trouble for me and not for any of the others, tellthem and I'll leave it to them to decide whether I ought to keep out of it. Butthat's giving up a lot, Fiver, you know. Even with your word for it, someone'sbound to think I'm afraid.""Well, I say it's not worth the risk, Hazel. Why not wait for Holly to come back?
That's all we have to do.""I'll be snared if I wait for Holly. Can't you see that the very thing I want is tohave these does here when he comes back? But look, Fiver, I'll tell you what. I'vecome to trust you so much that I'll take the greatest care. In fact, I won't even gointo the farmyard myself. I'll stay outside, at the top of the lane: and if that's notmeeting your fears halfway, then I don't know what is."Fiver said no more and Hazel turned his thoughts to the raid and the difficultyhe foresaw of getting the hutch rabbits to go the distance back to the warren.
The next day was bright and dry, with a fresh wind that cleared up whatremained of the wet. The clouds came racing over the ridge from the south as theyhad on the May evening when Hazel first climbed the down. But now they werehigher and smaller, settling at last into a mackerel sky like a beach at low tide.
Hazel took Bigwig and Blackberry to the edge of the escarpment, whence theycould look across to Nuthanger on its little hill. He described the approach andwent on to explain how the rabbit hutch was to be found. Bigwig was in highspirits. The wind and the prospect of action excited him and he spent some timewith Dandelion, Hawkbit and Speedwell, pretending to be a cat and encouragingthem to attack him as realistically as they could. Hazel, whose talk with Fiver hadsomewhat clouded him, recovered as he watched them tussling over the grass andended by joining in himself, first as an attacker and then as the cat, staring andquivering for all the world like the Nuthanger tabby.
"I shall be disappointed if we don't meet a cat after all this," said Dandelion, ashe waited for his turn to run at a fallen beech branch from one side, claw it twiceand dash out again. "I feel a really dangerous animal.""You vatch heem, Meester Dando," said Kehaar, who was hunting for snails inthe grass nearby, "Meester Pigvig, 'e vant you t'ink all vun peeg yoke; make youprave. Cat 'e no yoke. You no see 'im, you no 'ear 'im. Den yomp! 'E come.""But we're not going there to eat, Kehaar," said Bigwig. "That makes all thedifference. We shan't stop watching for cats the whole time.""Why not eat the cat?" said Bluebell. "Or bring one back here for breeding?
That ought to improve the warren stock no end."Hazel and Bigwig had decided that the raid should be carried out as soon afterdark as the farm was quiet. This meant that they would cover the half mile to theoutlying sheds at sunset, instead of risking the confusion of a night journey overground that only Hazel knew. They could steal a meal among the swedes, halt tilldarkness and cover the short distance to the farm after a good rest. Then --provided they could cope with the cats -- there would be plenty of time to tacklethe hutch; whereas if they were to arrive at dawn they would be working againsttime before men came on the scene. Finally, the hutch rabbits would not bemissed until the following morning.
"And remember," said Hazel, "it'll probably take these rabbits a long time toget to the down. We shall have to be patient with them. I'd rather do that indarkness, elil or no elil. We don't want to be messing about in broad daylight.""If it comes to the worst," said Bigwig, "we can leave the hutch rabbits and bolt.
Elil take the hindmost, don't they? I know it's tough, but if there's real trouble weought to save our own rabbits first. Let's hope that doesn't happen, though."When they came to set out, Fiver was nowhere to be seen. Hazel felt relieved,for he had been afraid that Fiver might say something that would lower theirspirits. But there was nothing worse to contend with than Pipkin'sdisappointment at being left behind; and this was dispelled when Hazel assuredhim that the only reason was that he had already done his bit. Bluebell, Acorn andPipkin came with them to the foot of the hill and watched them down thehedgerow.
They reached the sheds in the twilight after sunset The summer nightfall wasunbroken by owls and so quiet that they could plainly hear the intermittent,monotonous "Chug chug chug" of a nightingale in the distant woods. Two ratsamong the swedes showed their teeth, thought better of it and left them alone.
When they had foraged, they rested comfortably in the straw until the westernlight was quite gone.
Rabbits do not name the stars, but nevertheless Hazel was familiar with thesight of Capella rising; and he watched it now until it stood gold and bright in thedark northeastern horizon to the right of the farm. When it reached a certainpoint which he had fixed, beside a bare branch, he roused the others and led themup the slope toward the elms. Near the top he slipped through the hedge andbrought them down into the lane.
Hazel had already told Bigwig of his promise to Fiver to keep out of danger;and Bigwig, who had changed much since the early days, had no fault to find.
"If that's what Fiver says, you'd better do it, Hazel," he said. "Anyhow it'll suitus. You stay outside the farm in a safe place and we'll bring the rabbits out to you:
then you can take over and get us all away." What Hazel had not said was that theidea that he should remain in the lane was his own suggestion, and that Fiver hadacquiesced only because he could not persuade him to give up the idea of the raidaltogether.
Crouching under a fallen branch on the verge of the lane, Hazel watched theothers as they followed Bigwig down toward the farmyard. They went slowly,rabbit fashion, hop, step and pause. The night was dark and they were soon out ofsight, though he could hear them moving down the side of the long barn. Hesettled down to wait.
Bigwig's hopes of action were fulfilled almost at once. The cat that he met as hereached the far end of the barn was not Hazel's tabby, but another; ginger, blackand white (and therefore a female); one of those slim, trotting, quick-moving,tail-twitching cats that sit on farm windowsills in the rain or keep watch from thetops of sacks on sunny afternoons. It came briskly round the corner of the barn,saw the rabbits and stopped dead.
Without an instant's hesitation Bigwig went straight for it, as though it hadbeen the beech branch on the down. But quicker even than he Dandelion ranforward, scratched it and leaped clear. As it turned, Bigwig threw his full weightupon it from the other side. The cat closed with him, biting and scratching, andBigwig rolled over on the ground. The others could hear him swearing like a cathimself and struggling for a hold. Then he sank one back leg into the cat's sideand kicked backward rapidly, several times.
Anyone who is familiar with cats knows that they do not care for a determinedassailant. A dog that tries to make itself pleasant to a cat may very well getscratched for its pains. But let that same dog rush in to the attack and many a catwill not wait to meet it. The farm cat was bewildered by the speed and fury ofBigwig's charge. It was no weakling and a good ratter, but it had the bad luck tobe up against a dedicated fighter who was spoiling for action. As it scrabbled outof Bigwig's reach, Speedwell cuffed it across the face. This was the last blowstruck, for the wounded cat made off across the yard and disappeared under thefence of the cow byre.
Bigwig was bleeding from three deep, parallel scratches on the inside of onehind leg. The others gathered round, praising him, but he cut them short, lookinground the dark yard as he tried to get his bearings.
"Come on," he said. "Quickly, too, while the dog's still quiet. The shed: thehutch -- where do we go?"It was Hawkbit who found the little yard. Hazel had been anxious in case theshed door might be shut; but it stood just ajar and the five of them slipped in oneafter the other. In the thick gloom they could not make out the hutch, but theycould both smell and hear the rabbits.
"Blackberry," said Bigwig quickly, "you come with me and get the hutch open.
You other three, keep watching. If another cat comes, you'll have to take it onyourselves.""Fine," said Dandelion. "Just leave it to us."Bigwig and Blackberry found the straw bale and climbed on the planks. As theydid so, Boxwood spoke from the hutch.
"Who's that? Hazel-rah, have you come back?""Hazel-rah has sent us," answered Blackberry. "We've come to let you out. Willyou come with us?"There was a pause and some movement in the hay and then Clover replied,"Yes, let us out."Blackberry sniffed his way round to the wire door and sat up, nosing over theframe, the hasp and the staple. It took him some time to realize that the leatherhinges were soft enough to bite. Then he found that they lay so smooth and flushwith the frame that he could not get his teeth to them. Several times he tried tofind a grip and at last sat back on his haunches, at a loss.
"I don't think this door's going to be any good," he said. "I wonder whetherthere's some other way?"At that moment it happened that Boxwood stood on his hind legs and put hisfront paws high on the wire. Beneath his weight the top of the door was pressedslightly outward and the upper of the two leather hinges gave slightly where theouter nail held it to the body of the hutch itself. As Boxwood dropped back on allfours, Blackberry saw that the hinge had buckled and risen just clear of the wood.
"Try it now," he said to Bigwig.
Bigwig got his teeth to the hinge and pulled. It tore a very little.
"By Frith, that'll do," said Blackberry, for all the world like the Duke ofWellington at Salamanca. "We just need time, that's all."The hinge had been well made and did not give way until they had put it to agreat deal more tugging and biting. Dandelion grew nervous and twice gave afalse alarm. Bigwig, realizing that the sentries were on the jump from watchingand waiting with nothing to do, changed places with him and sent Speedwell upto take over from Blackberry. When at last Dandelion and Speedwell had pulledthe leather strip off the nail, Bigwig came back to the hutch himself. But they didnot seem much nearer to success. Whenever one of the rabbits inside stood upand rested its forepaws on the upper part of the wire, the door pivoted lightly onthe axis of the staple and the lower hinge. But the lower hinge did not tear.
Blowing through his whiskers with impatience, Bigwig brought Blackberry backfrom the threshold. "What's to be done?" he said. "We need some magic, like thatlump of wood you shoved into the river."Blackberry looked at the door as Boxwood, inside, pushed it again. The uprightof the frame pressed tight against the lower strip of leather, but it held smoothand firm, offering no purchase for teeth.
"Push it the other way -- push from this side," he said, "You push, Bigwig. Tellthat rabbit inside to get down."When Bigwig stood up and pushed the top of the door inward, the frameimmediately pivoted much further than before, because there was no sill alongthe bottom of the outer side to stop it. The leather hinge twisted and Bigwignearly lost his balance. If it had not been for the metal staple arresting thepivoting, he might actually have fallen inside the hutch. Startled, he jumped back,growling.
"Well, you said magic, didn't you?" said Blackberry with satisfaction. "Do itagain."No strip of leather held by only one broad-headed nail at each end can standup for long to repeated twisting. Soon one of the nailheads was almost out ofsight under the frayed edges.
"Careful now,&qu............