His face was that of one who has undergone a long journey.
The Epic of GilgameshIn the Sandleford warren, Holly had been a rabbit of consequence. He wasgreatly relied upon by the Threarah and had more than once carried out difficultorders with a good deal of courage. During the early spring, when a fox hadmoved into a neighboring copse, Holly, with two or three volunteers, had kept itsteadily under observation for several days and reported all its movements, untilone evening it left as suddenly as it had come. Although he had decided on hisown initiative to arrest Bigwig, he had not the reputation of being vindictive. Hewas, rather, a stander of no nonsense who knew when duty was done and did ithimself. Sound, unassuming, conscientious, a bit lacking in the rabbit sense ofmischief, he was something of the born second-in-command. There could havebeen no question of trying to persuade him to leave the warren with Hazel andFiver. To find him under Watership Down at all, therefore, was astonishingenough. But to find him in such a condition was all but incredible.
In the first moments after they had recognized the poor creature under thehemlock, Hazel and Dandelion felt completely stupefied, as though they hadcome upon a squirrel underground or a stream that flowed uphill. They could nottrust their senses. The voice in the dark had proved not to be supernatural, butthe reality was frightening enough. How could Captain Holly be here, at the footof the down? And what could have reduced him -- of all rabbits -- to this state?
Hazel pulled himself together. Whatever the explanation might be, theimmediate 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 mightvery well be a stoat on his trail at this moment. If they were going to help himthey 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 oneis 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 elsewas moving in the hedge. But he had no time to wonder what it might be, foralmost immediately another rabbit appeared and limped to where Holly waslying.
"You must help us if you can," he said to Hazel. "We've had a very bad time andmy master's ill. Can we get underground here?"Hazel recognized him as one of the rabbits who had come to arrest Bigwig, buthe did not know his name.
"Why did you stay in the hedge and leave him to crawl about in the open?" heasked.
"I ran away when I heard you coming," replied the other rabbit. "I couldn't getthe captain to move. I thought you were elil and there was no point in staying tobe killed. I don't think I could fight a field mouse.""Do you know me?" said Hazel. But before the other could answer, Dandelionand Bigwig came out of the darkness. Bigwig stared at Holly for a moment andthen 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 manymore of you?""No more," said Bluebell. He was about to go on when Holly spoke.
"Thlayli," he said. "So we have 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'min very poor shape, I'm afraid.""It's Dandelion," said Hazel. "Listen -- I can see that you're exhausted, but wecan'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 grass said to thesecond blade of grass?"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 bluetit's chatter. Yes, I can go now. Is it far?""Not too far," said Hazel, thinking it all too likely that Holly would never getthere.
It took a long time to climb the hill. Hazel made them separate, himselfremaining with Holly and Bluebell while Bigwig and Dandelion went out to eitherside. Holly was forced to stop several times and Hazel, full of fear, had hard workto suppress his impatience. Only when the moon began to rise -- the edge of itsgreat 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, Pipkincoming down to meet them.
"What are you doing?" he said sternly. "I told Speedwell no one was to comedown.""It isn't Speedwell's fault," said Pipkin. "You stood by me at the river, so Ithought I'd come and look for you, Hazel. Anyway, the holes are just here. Is itreally 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 longtime. Suppose Pipkin here and Dandelion take them to an empty burrow and staywith them as long as they want? The rest of us had better keep away until theyfeel 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 aboveground, 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 betroubled. We'll leave this hole empty for them. Now I'm going undergroundmyself and so will you if you've got any sense."But before he went, Bigwig turned to Hazel and said, "You got yourself out ofthat 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. Speedwelland 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 towait until tomorow. Holly may stop running, but I don't think Bluebell will. Nowlet 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 norDandelion was at morning silflay; and Hazel relentlessly took the others up to thebeech hanger to go on with the digging. He questioned Strawberry about the greatburrow and learned that its ceiling, as well as being vaulted with a tangle offibers, was strengthened by roots going vertically down into the floor. Heremarked that he had not noticed these.
"There aren't many, but they're important," said Strawberry. "They take a lot ofthe load. If it weren't for those roots the ceiling would fall after heavy rain. Onstormy nights you could sense the extra weight in the earth above, but there wasno danger."Hazel and Bigwig went underground with him. The beginnings of the newwarren had been hollowed out among the roots of one of the beech trees. It wasstill no more than a small, irregular cave with one entrance. They set to work toenlarge it, digging between the roots and tunneling upward to make a second runthat would emerge inside the wood. After a time Strawberry stopped digging andbegan moving about between the roots, sniffing, biting and scuffling in the soilwith his front paws. Hazel supposed that he was tired and pretending to be busywhile he had a rest, but at length he came back to them and said that he had somesuggestions.
"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 tofind it again. But, all the same, we can do pretty well with what we've got.""And what have we got?" asked Blackberry, who had come down the run whilehe was talking.
"Well, we've got several thick roots that go straight down -- more than therewere in the great burrow. The best thing will be to dig round them and leavethem. They shouldn't be gnawed through and taken out. We shall need them ifwe're going to have a hall of any size.""Then our hall will be full of these thick, vertical roots?" asked Hazel. He feltdisappointed.
"Yes, it will," said Strawberry, "but I can't see that it's going to be any the worsefor that. We can go in and out among them and they won't hinder anyone who'stalking or telling a story. They'll make the place warmer and they'll help toconduct sound from above, which might be useful some time or other."The excavation of the hall (which came to be known among them as theHoneycomb) turned out to be something of a triumph for Strawberry. Hazelcontented himself with organizing the diggers and left it to Strawberry to saywhat was actually to be done. The work went on in shifts and the rabbits took it inturns to feed, play and lie in the sun above ground. Throughout the day thesolitude remained unbroken by noise, men, tractors, or even cattle, and theybegan to feel still more deeply what they owed to Fiver's insight. By the lateafternoon the big burrow was beginning to take shape. At the north end, thebeech roots formed a kind of irregular colonnade. This gave way to a more opencentral space: and beyond, where there were no supporting roots, Strawberry leftblocks of the earth untouched, so that the south end consisted of three or fourseparate bays. These narrowed into low-roofed runs that led away into sleepingburrows.
Hazel, much better pleased now that he could see for himself how the businesswas going to turn out, was sitting with Silver in the mouth of the run whensuddenly there was a stamping of "Hawk! Hawk!" and a dash for cover by therabbits outside. Hazel, safe where he was, remained looking out past the shadowof the wood to the open, sunlit grass beyond. The kestrel sailed into view and tookup station, the black-edged flange of its tail bent down and its pointed wingsbeating rapidly as it searched the down below.
"But do you think it would attack us?" asked Hazel, watching it drop lower andrecommence its poised............