Tales From Watership Down Part 11

The Epic of Gilgamesh.

In the Sandleford warren, Holly had been a rabbit of consequence. He was greatly relied upon by the Threarah and had more than once carried out difficult orders with a good deal of courage. During the early spring, when a fox had moved into a neighboring copse, Holly, with two or three volunteers, had kept it steadily under observation for several days and reported all its movements, until one evening it left as suddenly as it had come. Although he had decided on his own initiative to arrest Bigwig, he had not the reputation of being vindictive. He was, rather, a stander of no nonsense who knew when duty was done and did it himself. Sound, una.s.suming, conscientious, a bit lacking in the rabbit sense of mischief, he was something of the born second-in-command. There could have been no question of trying to persuade him to leave the warren with Hazel and Fiver. To find him under Waters.h.i.+p Down at all, therefore, was astonis.h.i.+ng enough. But to find him in such a condition was all but incredible.

In the first moments after they had recognized the poor creature under the hemlock, Hazel and Dandelion felt completely stupefied, as though they had come upon a squirrel underground or a stream that flowed uphill. They could not trust their senses. The voice in the dark had proved not to be supernatural, but the reality was frightening enough. How could Captain Holly be here, at the foot of the down? And what could have reduced him--of all rabbits--to this state?

Hazel pulled himself together. Whatever the explanation might be, the immediate need was to take first things first. They were in open country, at night, away from any refuge but an overgrown ditch, with a rabbit who smelled of blood, was crying uncontrollably and looked as though he could not move. There might very well be a stoat on his trail at this moment. If they were going to help him they had better be quick.

"Go and tell Bigwig who it is," he said to Dandelion, "and come back with him. Send Speedwell up the hill to the others and tell him to make it clear that no one is to come down. They couldn't help and it would only add to the risk."

Dandelion had no sooner gone than Hazel became aware that something else was moving in the hedge. But he had no time to wonder what it might be, for almost immediately another rabbit appeared and limped to where Holly was lying.

"You must help us if you can," he said to Hazel. "We've had a very bad time and my master's ill. Can we get underground here?"

Hazel recognized him as one of the rabbits who had come to arrest Bigwig, but he did not know his name.

"Why did you stay in the hedge and leave him to crawl about in the open?" he asked.

"I ran away when I heard you coming," replied the other rabbit. "I couldn't get the captain to move. I thought you were elil and there was no point in staying to be killed. I don't think I could fight a field mouse."

"Do you know me?" said Hazel. But before the other could answer, Dandelion and Bigwig came out of the darkness. Bigwig stared at Holly for a moment and then crouched before him and touched noses.

"Holly, this is Thlayli," he said. "You were calling me."

Holly did not answer, but only stared fixedly back at him. Bigwig looked up. "Who's that who came with him?" he said. "Oh, it's you, Bluebell. How many more of you?"

"No more," said Bluebell. He was about to go on when Holly spoke.

"Thlayli," he said. "So we have have found you." found you."

He sat up with difficulty and looked around at them.

"You're Hazel, aren't you?" he asked. "And that's--oh, I should know, but I'm in very poor shape, I'm afraid."

"It's Dandelion," said Hazel. "Listen--I can see that you're exhausted, but we can't stay here. We're in danger. Can you come with us to our holes?"

"Captain," said Bluebell, "do you know what the first blade of gra.s.s said to the second blade of gra.s.s?"

Hazel looked at him sharply, but Holly replied, "Well?"

"It said, 'Look, there's a rabbit! We're in danger!' "

"This is no time--" began Hazel.

"Don't silence him," said Holly. "We wouldn't be here at all without his blue t.i.t's chatter. Yes, I can go now. Is it far?"

"Not too far," said Hazel, thinking it all too likely that Holly would never get there.

It took a long time to climb the hill. Hazel made them separate, himself remaining with Holly and Bluebell while Bigwig and Dandelion went out to either side. Holly was forced to stop several times and Hazel, full of fear, had hard work to suppress his impatience. Only when the moon began to rise--the edge of its great disc growing brighter and brighter on the skyline below and behind them--did he at last beg Holly to hurry. As he spoke he saw, in the white light, Pipkin coming down to meet them.

"What are you doing?" he said sternly. "I told Speedwell no one was to come down."

"It isn't Speedwell's fault," said Pipkin. "You stood by me at the river, so I thought I'd come and look for you, Hazel. Anyway, the holes are just here. Is it really Captain Holly you've found?"

Bigwig and Dandelion approached.

"I'll tell you what," said Bigwig. "These two will need to rest for a good long time. Suppose Pipkin here and Dandelion take them to an empty burrow and stay with them as long as they want? The rest of us had better keep away until they feel better."

"Yes, that's best," said Hazel. "I'll go up with you now."

They ran the short distance to the thorn trees. All the other rabbits were above ground, waiting and whispering together.

"Shut up," said Bigwig, before anyone had asked a question. "Yes, it is Holly, and Bluebell is with him--no one else. They're in a bad way and they're not to be troubled. We'll leave this hole empty for them. Now I'm going underground myself and so will you if you've got any sense."

But before he went, Bigwig turned to Hazel and said, "You got yourself out of that ditch down there instead of me, didn't you, Hazel? I shan't forget that."

Hazel remembered Buckthorn's leg and took him down with him. Speedwell and Silver followed them.

"I say, what's happened, Hazel?" asked Silver. "It must be something very bad. Holly would never leave the Threarah."

"I don't know," replied Hazel, "and neither does anyone else yet. We'll have to wait until tomorow. Holly may stop running, but I don't think Bluebell will. Now let me alone to do this leg of Buckthorn's."

The wound was a great deal better and soon Hazel fell asleep.

The next day was as hot and cloudless as the last. Neither Pipkin nor Dandelion was at morning silflay; and Hazel relentlessly took the others up to the beech hanger to go on with the digging. He questioned Strawberry about the great burrow and learned that its ceiling, as well as being vaulted with a tangle of fibers, was strengthened by roots going vertically down into the floor. He remarked that he had not noticed these.

"There aren't many, but they're important," said Strawberry. "They take a lot of the load. If it weren't for those roots the ceiling would fall after heavy rain. On stormy nights you could sense the extra weight in the earth above, but there was no danger."

Hazel and Bigwig went underground with him. The beginnings of the new warren had been hollowed out among the roots of one of the beech trees. It was still no more than a small, irregular cave with one entrance. They set to work to enlarge it, digging between the roots and tunneling upward to make a second run that would emerge inside the wood. After a time Strawberry stopped digging and began moving about between the roots, sniffing, biting and scuffling in the soil with his front paws. Hazel supposed that he was tired and pretending to be busy while he had a rest, but at length he came back to them and said that he had some suggestions.

"It's this way," he explained. "There isn't a big spread of fine roots above here. That was a lucky chance in the great burrow and I don't think you can expect to find it again. But, all the same, we can do pretty well with what we've got."

"And what have have we got?" asked Blackberry, who had come down the run while he was talking. we got?" asked Blackberry, who had come down the run while he was talking.

"Well, we've got several thick roots that go straight down--more than there were in the great burrow. The best thing will be to dig round them and leave them. They shouldn't be gnawed through and taken out. We shall need them if we're going to have a hall of any size."

"Then our hall will be full of these thick, vertical roots?" asked Hazel. He felt disappointed.

"Yes, it will," said Strawberry, "but I can't see that it's going to be any the worse for that. We can go in and out among them and they won't hinder anyone who's talking or telling a story. They'll make the place warmer and they'll help to conduct sound from above, which might be useful some time or other."

The excavation of the hall (which came to be known among them as the Honeycomb) turned out to be something of a triumph for Strawberry. Hazel contented himself with organizing the diggers and left it to Strawberry to say what was actually to be done. The work went on in s.h.i.+fts and the rabbits took it in turns to feed, play and lie in the sun above ground. Throughout the day the solitude remained unbroken by noise, men, tractors, or even cattle, and they began to feel still more deeply what they owed to Fiver's insight. By the late afternoon the big burrow was beginning to take shape. At the north end, the beech roots formed a kind of irregular colonnade. This gave way to a more open central s.p.a.ce: and beyond, where there were no supporting roots, Strawberry left blocks of the earth untouched, so that the south end consisted of three or four separate bays. These narrowed into low-roofed runs that led away into sleeping burrows.

Hazel, much better pleased now that he could see for himself how the business was going to turn out, was sitting with Silver in the mouth of the run when suddenly there was a stamping of "Hawk! Hawk!" and a dash for cover by the rabbits outside. Hazel, safe where he was, remained looking out past the shadow of the wood to the open, sunlit gra.s.s beyond. The kestrel sailed into view and took up station, the black-edged f.l.a.n.g.e of its tail bent down and its pointed wings beating rapidly as it searched the down below.

"But do you think it would would attack us?" asked Hazel, watching it drop lower and recommence its poised fluttering. "Surely it's too small?" attack us?" asked Hazel, watching it drop lower and recommence its poised fluttering. "Surely it's too small?"

"You're probably right," replied Silver. "All the same, would you care to go out there and start feeding?"

"I'd like to try standing up to some of these elil," said Bigwig, who had come up the run behind them. "We're afraid of too many. But a bird from the air would be awkward, especially if it came fast. It might get the better of even a big rabbit if it took him by surprise."

"See the mouse?" said Silver suddenly. "There, look. Poor little beast."

They could all see the field mouse, which was exposed in a patch of smooth gra.s.s. It had evidently strayed too far from its hole and now could not tell what to do. The kestrel's shadow had not pa.s.sed over it, but the rabbits' sudden disappearance had made it uneasy and it was pressed to the ground, looking uncertainly this way and that. The kestrel had not yet seen it, but could hardly fail to do so as soon as it moved.

"Any moment now," said Bigwig callously.

On an impulse, Hazel hopped down the bank and went a little way into the open gra.s.s. Mice do not speak Lapine, but there is a very simple, limited lingua franca lingua franca of the hedgerow and woodland. Hazel used it now. of the hedgerow and woodland. Hazel used it now.

"Run," he said. "Here; quick."

The mouse looked at him, but did not move. Hazel spoke again and the mouse began suddenly to run toward him as the kestrel turned and slid sideways and downward. Hazel hastened back to the hole. Looking out, he saw the mouse following him. When it had almost reached the foot of the bank it scuttered over a fallen twig with two or three green leaves. The twig turned, one of the leaves caught the sunlight slanting through the trees and Hazel saw it flash for an instant. Immediately the kestrel came lower in an oblique glide, closed its wings and dropped.

Before Hazel could spring back from the mouth of the hole, the mouse had dashed between his front paws and was pressed to the ground between his back legs. At the same moment the kestrel, all beak and talons, hit the loose earth immediately outside like a missile thrown from the tree above. It scuffled savagely and for an instant the three rabbits saw its round, dark eyes looking straight down the run. Then it was gone. The speed and force of the pounce, not a length away, were terrifying and Hazel leaped backward, knocking Silver off his balance. They picked themselves up in silence.

"Like to try standing up to that one?" said Silver, looking round at Bigwig. "Let me know when. I"ll come and watch."

"Hazel," said Bigwig, "I know you're not stupid, but what did we get out of that? Are you going in for protecting every mole and shrew that can't get underground?"

The mouse had not moved. It was still crouching a little inside the run, on a level with their heads and outlined against the light. Hazel could see it watching him.

"Perhaps hawk not gone," he said. "You stay now. Go later."

Bigwig was about to speak again when Dandelion appeared in the mouth of the hole. He looked at the mouse, pushed it gently aside and came down the run.

"Hazel," he said, "I thought I ought to come and tell you about Holly. He's much better this evening, but he had a very bad night and so did we. Every time he seemed to be going to sleep, he kept starting up and crying. I thought he was going out of his mind. Pipkin kept talking to him--he was first-rate--and he seems to set a lot of store by Bluebell. Bluebell kept on making jokes. He was worn out before the morning and so were the lot of us--we've been sleeping all day. Holly's been more or less himself since he woke up this afternoon, and he's been up to silflay. He asked where you and the others would be tonight and, as I didn't know, I came to ask."

"Is he fit to talk to us, then?" asked Bigwig.

"I think so. It would be the best thing for him, if I'm any judge: and if he was with all of us together he'd be less likely to have another bad night."

"Well, where are are we going to sleep?" said Silver. we going to sleep?" said Silver.

Hazel considered. The Honeycomb was still rough-dug and half finished, but it would probably be as comfortable as the holes under the thorn trees. Besides, if it proved otherwise, they would have all the more inducement to improve it. To know that they were actually making use of their day's hard work would please everybody and they were likely to prefer this to a third night in the chalk holes.

"I should think here," he said. "But we'll see how the others feel."

"What's this mouse doing in here?" asked Dandelion.

Hazel explained. Dandelion was as puzzled as Bigwig had been.

"Well, I'll admit I hadn't any particular idea when I went out to help it," said Hazel. "I have now, though, and I'll explain later what it is. But, first of all, Bigwig and I ought to go and talk to Holly. And, Dandelion, you go and tell the rest what you told me, will you, and see what they want to do tonight?"

They found Holly with Bluebell and Pipkin, on the turf by the anthill where Dandelion had first looked over the down. Holly was sniffing at a purple orchis. The head of mauve blooms rocked gently on its stem as he pushed his nose against it.

"Don't frighten it, master," said Bluebell. "It might fly away. After all, it's got a lot of spots to choose from. Look at them all over the leaves."

"Oh, get along with you, Bluebell," answered Holly, good-humoredly. "We need to learn about the ground here. Half the plants are strange to me. This isn't one to eat, but at least there's plenty of burnet and that's always good." A fly settled on his wounded ear and he winced and shook his head.

Hazel was glad to see that Holly was evidently in better spirits. He began to say that he hoped he felt well enough to join the others, but Holly soon interrupted him with questions.

"Are there many of you?" he asked.

"Hrair," said Bigwig.

"All that left the warren with you?"

"Every one," replied Hazel proudly.

"No one hurt?"

"Oh, several have been hurt, one way and another."

"Never a dull moment, really," said Bigwig.

"Who's this coming? I don't know him."

Strawberry came running down from the hanger and as he joined them began to make the same curious dancing gesture of head and forepaws which they had first seen in the rainy meadow before they entered the great burrow. He checked himself in some confusion and, to forestall Bigwig's rebuke, spoke to Hazel at once.

"Hazel-rah," he said (Holly looked startled, but said nothing), "everyone wants to stay in the new warren tonight: and they're all hoping that Captain Holly will feel able to tell them what's happened and how he came here."

"Well, naturally, we all want to know," said Hazel to Holly. "This is Strawberry. He joined us on our journey and we've been glad to have him. But do you think you can manage it?"

"I can manage it," said Holly. "But I must warn you that it will strike the frost into the heart of every rabbit that hears it."

He himself looked so sad and dark as he spoke that no one made any reply, and after a few moments all six rabbits made their way up the slope in silence. When they reached the corner of the wood, they found the others feeding or basking in the evening sun on the north side of the beech trees. After a glance round among them Holly went up to Silver, who was feeding with Fiver in a patch of yellow trefoil.

"I'm glad to see you here, Silver," he said. "I hear you've had a rough time."

"It hasn't been easy," answered Silver. "Hazel's done wonders and we owe a lot to Fiver here as well."

"I've heard of you," said Holly, turning to Fiver. "You're the rabbit who saw it all coming. You talked to the Threarah, didn't you?"

"He talked to me," said Fiver.

"If only he'd listened to you! Well, it can't be changed now, till acorns grow on thistles. Silver, there's something I want to say and I can say it more easily to you than to Hazel or Bigwig. I'm not out to make any trouble here--trouble for Hazel, I mean. He's your Chief Rabbit now, that's plain. I hardly know him, but he must be good or you'd all be dead; and this is no time to be squabbling. If any of the other rabbits are wondering whether I might want to alter things, will you let them know that I shan't?"

"Yes, I will," said Silver.

Bigwig came up. "I know it's not owl time yet," he said, "but everyone's so eager to hear you, Holly, that they want to go underground at once. Will that suit you?"

"Underground?" replied Holly. "But how can you all hear me underground? I was expecting to talk here."

"Come and see," said Bigwig.

Holly and Bluebell were impressed by the Honeycomb.

"This is something quite new," said Holly. "What keeps the roof up?"

"It doesn't need to be kept up," said Bluebell. "It's right up the hill already."