'I don't know what we should have done without you just now, Bigwig,' he said. 'What was that animal? Would it have killed us?'
'A lendri,' said Bigwig. 'I've heard about them in the Owsla. They're not really dangerous. They can't catch a rabbit that runs, and nearly always you can smell them coming. They're funny things: I've heard of rabbits living almost on top of them and coming to no harm. But they're best avoided, all the same. They'll dig out rabbit kittens and they'll kill an injured rabbit if they find one. They're one of the Thousand, all right. I ought to have guessed from the smell, but it was new to me.'
'It had killed before it met us,' said Blackberry with a shudder. 'I saw the blood on its lips.'
'A rat, perhaps, or pheasant chicks. Lucky for us it had killed, otherwise it might have been quicker. Still, fortunately we did the right thing. We really came out of it very well,' said Bigwig.
Fiver came limping down the path with Pipkin. They, too, checked and stared at the sight of the river.
'What do you think we ought to do now, Fiver?' asked Hazel.
Fiver looked down at the water and twitched his ears.
'We shall have to cross it,' he said. 'But I don't think I can swim, Hazel. I'm worn out, and Pipkin's a good deal worse than I am.'
'Cross it?' cried Bigwig. 'Cross it? Who's going to cross 11? What do you want to cross it for? I never heard such nonsense.'
Like all wild animals, rabbits can swim if they have to: and some even swim when it suits them. Rabbits have been known to live on the edge of a wood and regularly swim a brook to feed in the fields beyond. But most rabbits avoid swimming and certainly an exhausted rabbit could not swim the Enborne.
'I don't want to jump in there,' said Speedwell.
'Why not just go along the bank?' asked Hawkbit.
Hazel suspected that if Fiver felt they ought to cross the river, it might be dangerous not to. But how were the others to be persuaded? At this moment, as he was still wondering what to say to them, he suddenly realized that something had lightened his spirits. What could it be? A smell? A sound? Then he knew. Near-by, across the river, a lark had begun to twitter and climb. It was morning. A blackbird called one or two deep, slow notes and was followed by a wood-pigeon. Soon they were in grey twilight and could see that the stream bordered the farther edge of the wood. On the other side lay open fields.
8. The Crossing
The centurion ... commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to land. And the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.
The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 27
The top of the sandy bank was a good six feet above the water. From where they sat, the rabbits could look straight ahead upstream, and downstream to their left. Evidently there were nesting holes in the sheer face below them, for as the light grew they saw three or four martins dart out over the stream and away into the fields beyond. In a short time one returned with his beak full, and they could hear the nestlings squeaking as he flew out of sight beneath their feet. The bank did not extend far in either direction. Upstream, it sloped down to a grassy path between the trees and the water. This followed the line of the river, which ran straight from almost as far away as they could see, flowing smoothly without fords, gravel shallows or plank bridges. Immediately below them lay a wide pool and here the water was almost still. Away to their left, the bank sloped down again into clumps of alder, among which the stream could be heard chattering over gravel. There was a glimpse of barbed wire stretched across the water and they guessed that this must surround a cattle-wade, like the one in the little brook near the home warren.
Hazel looked at the path upstream. 'There's grass down there,' he said. 'Let's go and feed.'
They scrambled down the bank and set to nibbling beside the water. Between them and the stream itself stood half-grown clumps of purple loosestrife and fleabane, which would not flower for nearly two months yet. The only blooms were a few early meadow-sweet and a patch of pink butter-bur. Looking back at the face of the bank, they could see that it was in fact dotted thickly with martins' holes. There was a narrow foreshore at the foot of the little cliff and this was littered with the rubbish of the colony - sticks, droppings, feathers, a broken egg and a dead nestling or two. The martins were now coming and going in numbers over the water.
Hazel moved close to Fiver and quietly edged him away from the others, feeding as he went. When they were a little way off, and half-concealed by a patch of reeds, he said, 'Are you sure we've got to cross the river, Fiver? What about going along the bank one way or the other?'
'No, we need to cross the river, Hazel, so that we can get into those fields - and on beyond them too. I know what we ought to be looking for - a high, lonely place with dry soil, where rabbits can see and hear all round and men hardly ever come. Wouldn't that be worth a journey?'
'Yes, of course it would. But is there such a place?'
'Not near a river - I needn't tell you that. But if you cross a river you start going up again, don't you? We ought to be on the top - on the top and in the open.'
'But, Fiver, I think they may refuse to go much further. And then again, you say all this and yet you say you're too tired to swim?'
'I can rest, Hazel, but Pipkin's in a pretty bad way. I think he's injured. We may have to stay here half the day.'
'Well, let's go and talk to the others. They may not mind staying. It's crossing they're not going to fancy, unless something frightens them into it.'
As soon as they had made their way back, Bigwig came across to them from the bushes at the edge of the path.
'I was wondering where you'd got to,' he said to Hazel. 'Are you ready to move on?'
'No, I'm not,' answered Hazel firmly. 'I think we ought to stay here until ni-Frith. That'll give everyone a chance to rest and then we can swim across to those fields.'
Bigwig was about to reply, but Blackberry spoke first.