"Stonecrop, come back!" cried Bigwig. "Come back--they'll kill you!"
"I'll be damned if they will," answered Stonecrop, and broke into a run which took him into the very midst of the weasels on the bank.
Hazel saw them turn to pull him down. But what was this? The two nearest to him suddenly recoiled, sniffing, and squeaking to the others in fear. Then all of them took up the squeaking in their nasty, shrill little voices: "Man! Man! Run! Man!"
All together they tumbled down the bank, picked themselves up at the foot and fled in a terrified gaggle into the copse beyond.
"You see?" said Stonecrop, as Hazel and Bigwig, still trembling, rejoined him at the foot of the bank. "Horrible little creatures! I'd soon have put paid to a few of them if they hadn't all run away."
Slowly, and one by one, the other rabbits returned, staring at Stonecrop as though at some
supernatural being. Finally Groundsel returned, together with three or four of his Owsla, all of whom were badly shaken.
"I saw you!" said one of them to Stonecrop. "I saw you with my own eyes, chasing the weasels away! I still can't believe what I saw!"
"Nothing to it," replied Stonecrop. "Anyone could have done it. It's just a matter of standing up to them, that's all."
"No," said Hazel, giving Groundsel the prescribed salute of one Chief Rabbit to another, "not quite all. It strikes me we turned up just in time. Groundsel-rah, may I explain who this rabbit is and how Bigwig and I come to be here with him?"
By this time a few more of the Owsla had come back, and Hazel, sitting down among them, told them everything about Stonecrop, about the trouble at Watership Down and about Fiver's advice that they should bring him here and ask Groundsel to let him join.
"Let him join?" said Groundsel, when Hazel had finished. "Let you join?" he said, turning to Stonecrop. "You've saved the whole warren! You can stay for many, many years if you like! You can have your own personal burrow and choose any doe you fancy! And in return, all I ask is that you walk slowly round all the runs in the warren every morning and evening, to see they smell right."
Hazel and Bigwig stayed a few days, as Groundsel's guests. The weather remained perfect, and they had the satisfaction of seeing Stonecrop not only accepted but treated almost as a celebrity by the other rabbits.
"So Fiver was right," said Bigwig one evening, as they were at silflay under a crimson sky.
"He's always right," replied Hazel. "It's just as well for us, isn't it?"
19
Campion
Though it appear a little out of fashion,
There is much care and valour in this Welshman.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Henry V
The weather remained fine, and Groundsel's rabbits, having more or less got over the bad shock of the weasels' attack, made good progress with their warren, which came to be known by the name of Vleflain. A good number, both from Watership and from Efrafa, were pregnant does, whose natural instinct is to dig burrows. The males busied themselves chiefly with internal runs linking together the various parts of the warren. Any human being who has gone ferreting in an old warren will know to what almost incredible distances internal runs can extend. However, the founders of Vleflain were not disturbed by ferrets or any other mustelidae, and it looked as though Groundsel's anxiety about nearby stoats had been unjustified.
Hazel did not trouble himself to make another journey to Vleflain but rested content with now-and-then reports from Kehaar that all was going well. He had never himself met Avens, the leader of the Efrafan party, but saw no reason to doubt Groundsel's opinion that he was well up to the job.
Hazel's veterans, who felt it a great improvement that numbers in the Watership warren had been reduced to a comfortable level, shared his view. "It's a case of 'no news is good news,' Hazel-rah," said Bigwig. "If they'd met with any kind of danger or trouble, they'd have let us know quick enough. Two or three more of our rabbits here have asked me whether they can go and join them. I ought really to have sent and asked Groundsel first, but I was sure it would be all right, and I just told them to ask Kehaar to show them the way."
Summer was well advanced when, one fine evening, with everyone at silflay, no less a rabbit than Buckthorn turned up, with a message from Groundsel begging Hazel to come and advise him as soon as he could.
"Why? Is there trouble?" asked Hazel.
"Well, not exactly trouble," replied Buckthorn. "At least, you could call it trouble, in a manner of speaking. We're very worried about it, Hazel-rah. But I promised Groundsel that I'd leave it to him to tell you about it when you came. He said that if you needed persuading, I could tell you that it involved Efrafa."
"Efrafa? Oh, confound it all!" said Hazel. "I thought we'd settled all that long ago. Well, I suppose Fiver and I had better go tomorrow, if the weather stays fine. If you don't fancy making the journey back so soon, why don't you stay in my burrow for a few days, see some old friends, and go back when you're ready? By the way," he added, "why have I got to go down there? Why can't Groundsel come up here, if he wants to see me?"
"Well, he's arranging a meeting," replied Buckthorn, "and I rather think Captain Campion's coming."
"Campion? Oh, great Frith, it must be something really awkward," said Hazel. "Wherever he is, there's trouble, or there always used to be. I've learned that, all right."
He and Fiver set out for Vleflain the following morning, with protection, from time to time, from Kehaar. They arrived late in the afternoon and found Groundsel almost too effusively glad to welcome them. "Oh, we'll be all right now you two are here," he said. "Come and have a good rest in the sun and tell me all about friends back at home. How's that wretched Sandwort getting on? Why don't you send him along to us? The change'd do him good."