Timorous answered, that they... had got up that difficult place; but, said he, thefurther we go, the more danger we meet with; wherefore we turned, and are goingback again.
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressAfter some time, Hazel woke Buckhorn. Then he scratched a shallow nest inthe earth and slept. One watch succeeded another through the day, though howthe rabbits judged the passing of the time is something that civilized humanbeings have lost the power to feel. Creatures that have neither clocks nor booksare alive to all manner of knowledge about time and the weather; and aboutdirection, too, as we know from their extraordinary migratory and homingjourneys. The changes in the warmth and dampness of the soil, the falling of thesunlight patches, the altering movement of the beans in the light wind, thedirection and strength of the air currents along the ground -- all these wereperceived by the rabbit awake.
The sun was beginning to set when Hazel woke to see Acorn listening andsniffing in the silence, between two white-skinned flints. The light was thicker,the breeze had dropped and the beans were still. Pipkin was stretched out a littleway away. A yellow-and-black burying beetle, crawling across the white fur of hisbelly, stopped, waved its short, curved antennae and then moved on again. Hazelgrew tense with sudden misgiving. He knew that these beetles come to deadbodies, on which they feed and lay their eggs. They will dig away the earth fromunder the bodies of small creatures, such as shrew mice and fallen fledglings, andthen lay their eggs on them before covering them with soil. Surely Pipkin couldnot have died in his sleep? Hazel sat up quickly. Acorn started and turned towardhim and the beetle scurried away over the pebbles as Pipkin moved and woke.
"How's the paw?" said Hazel.
Pipkin put it to the ground. Then he stood on it.
"It feels much better," he said. "I think I shall be able to go as well as the othersnow. They won't leave me behind, will they?"Hazel rubbed his nose behind Pipkin's ear. "No one's going to leave anyoneelse behind," he said. "If you had to stay, I'd stay with you. But don't pick up anymore thorns, Hlao-roo, because we may have to go a long way."The next moment all the rabbits leaped up in panic. From close at hand thesound of a shot tore across the fields. A peewit rose screaming. The echoes cameback in waves, like a pebble rolling round a box, and from the wood across theriver came the clattering of wood pigeons' wings among the branches. In aninstant the rabbits were running in all directions through the bean rows, each onetearing by instinct toward holes that were not there.
Hazel stopped short on the edge of the beans. Looking about him, he could seenone of the others. He waited, trembling, for the next shot: but there was silence.
Then he felt, vibrating along the ground, the steady tread of a man going awaybeyond the crest over which they had come that morning. At that moment Silverappeared, pushing his way through the plants close by.
"I hope it's the crow, don't you?" said Silver.
"I hope no one's been silly enough to bolt out of this field," answered Hazel.
"They're all scattered. How can we find them?""I don't think we can," said Silver. "We'd better go back to where we were.
They'll come in time."It was in fact a long time before all the rabbits had come back to the hollow inthe middle of the field. As he waited, Hazel realized more fully than ever howdangerous was their position, without holes, wandering in country they did notknow. The lendri, the dog, the crow, the marksman -- they had been lucky toescape them. How long would their luck hold? Would they really be able to travelon as far as Fiver's high place -- wherever it might be?
"I'd settle for any decent, dry bank, myself," he thought, "as long as there wassome grass and no men with guns. And the sooner we can find one the better."Hawkbit was the last to return and as he came up Hazel set off at once. Helooked cautiously out from among the beans and then darted into the hedgerow.
The wind, as he stopped to sniff it, was reassuring, carrying only the scents ofevening dew, may and cow dung. He led the way into the next field, a pasture, andhere they all fell to feeding, nibbling their way over the grass as easily as thoughtheir warren were close by.
When he was halfway across the field, Hazel became aware of a hrududuapproaching very fast on the other side of the further hedge. It was small and lessnoisy than the farm tractor which he had sometimes watched from the edge of theprimrose wood at home. It passed in a flash of man-made, unnatural color,glittering here and there and brighter than a winter holly tree. A few momentslater came the smells of petrol and exhaust. Hazel stared, twitching his nose. Hecould not understand how the hrududu could move so quickly and smoothlythrough the fields. Would it return? Would it come through the fields faster thanthey could run, and hunt them down?
As he paused, wondering what was best to be done, Bigwig came up.
"There's a road there, then," he said. "That'll give some of them a surprise,won't it?""A road?" said Hazel, thinking of the lane by the notice board. "How do youknow?""Well, how do you suppose a hrududu can go that fast? Besides, can't you smellit?"The smell of warm tar was now plain on the evening air.
"I've never smelled that in my life," said Hazel with a touch of irritation.
"Ah," said Bigwig, "but then you were never sent out stealing lettuces for theThrearah, were you? If you had been, you'd have learned about roads. There'snothing to them, really, as long as you let them alone by night. They're elil then,all right.""You'd better teach me, I think," said Hazel. "I'll go up with you and we'll letthe others follow."They ran on and crept through the hedge. Hazel looked down at the road inastonishment. For a moment he thought that he was looking at another river --black, smooth and straight between its banks. Then he saw the gravel embeddedin the tar and watched a spider running over the surface.
"But that's not natural," he said, sniffing the strange, strong smells of tar andoil. "What is it? How did it come there?""It's a man thing," said Bigwig. "They put that stuff there and then the hrududilrun on it -- faster than we can; and what else can run faster than we?""It's dangerous, then? They can catch us?""No, that's what's so odd. They don't take any notice of us at all. I'll show you,if you like."The other rabbits were beginning to reach the hedge as Bigwig hopped downthe bank and crouched on the verge of the road. From beyond the bend came thesound of another approaching car. Hazel and Silver watched tensely. The carappeared, flashing green and white, and raced down toward Bigwig. For aninstant it filled the whole world with noise and fear. Then it was gone andBigwig's fur was blowing in the whack of wind that followed it down the hedges.
He jumped back up the bank among the staring rabbits.
"See? They don't hurt you," said Bigwig. "As a matter of fact, I don't thinkthey're alive at all. But I must admit I can't altogether make it out."As on the riverbank, Blackberry had moved away and was already down on theroad on his own account, sniffing out toward the middle, halfway between Hazeland the bend. They saw him start and jump back to the shelter of the bank.
"What is it?" said Hazel.
Blackberry did not answer, and Hazel and Bigwig hopped toward him alongthe verge. He was opening and shutting his mouth and licking his lips, much as acat does when something disgusts it.
"You say they're not dangerous, Bigwig," he said quietly. "But I think they mustbe, for all that."In the middle of the road was a flattened, bloody mass of brown prickles andwhite fur, with small black feet and snout crushed round the edges. The fliescrawled upon it, and here and there the sharp points of gravel pressed up throughthe flesh.
"A yona," said Blackberry. "What harm does a yona do to anything but slugsand beetles? And what can eat a yona?""It must have come at night," said Bigwig.
"Yes, of course. The yonil always hunt by night. If you see them by day, they'redying.""I know. But what I'm trying to explain is that at night the hrududil have greatlights, brighter than Frith himself. They draw creatures toward them, and if theyshine on you, you can't see or think which way to go. Then the hrududu is quitelikely to crush y............