WatershipDown

Acorn and two does with him. That's everyone. Come on, quick as you can."

It was only a short distance now to the river, but among the sodden patches of rushes, the bushes and sedge and deep puddles, they found it next to impossible to tell their direction. Expecting to be attacked at any moment, they scuttered and floundered through the undergrowth, finding here a doe and there one of their own rabbits and forcing them on. Without Kehaar they would certainly have lost all touch with each other and perhaps never reached the river. The gull kept flying backward and forward along the direct line to the bank, only alighting now and then to guide Bigwig toward some straggling doe whom he had spotted going the wrong way.

"Kehaar," said Bigwig, as they waited for Thethuthinnang to struggle up to them through a half-flattened clump of nettles, "will you go and see whether you can spot the Efrafans? They can't be far away. But why haven't they attacked us?

We're all so scattered that they could easily do us a lot of harm. I wonder what they're up to?"

Kehaar was back in a very short time.

"Dey hiding at pridge," he said, "all under pushes. I come down, dat peeg fella 'e make for fight me."

"Did he?" said Bigwig. "The brute's got courage, I'll give him that."

"Dey t'ink you got to cross river dere or else go all along pank. Dey not know heem poat. You near poat now."

Fiver came running through the undergrowth.

"We've been able to get some of them on the boat, Bigwig," he said, "but most of them won't trust me. They just keep asking where you are."

Bigwig ran behind him and came out on the green path by the bank. All the surface of the river was winking and plopping in the rain. The level did not appear to have risen much as yet. The boat was just as he remembered it -- one end against the bank, the other a little way out in the stream. On the raised part at the near end Hazel was crouching, his ears drooping on either side of his head and his flattened fur completely black with rain. He was holding the taut rope in his teeth. Acorn, Hyzenthlay and two more were crouching near him on the wood, but the rest were huddled here and there along the bank. Blackberry was trying unsuccessfully to persuade them to get out on the boat.

"Hazel's afraid to leave the rope," he said to Bigwig. "Apparently he's bitten it very thin already. All these does will say is that you're their officer."

Bigwig turned to Thethuthinnang.

"This is the magic trick now," he said. "Get them over there, where Hyzenthlay's sitting, do you see? All of them -- quickly."

Before she could reply, another doe gave a squeal of fear. A little way downstream, Campion and his patrol had emerged from the bushes and were coming up the path. From the opposite direction Vervain, Chervil and Groundsel were approaching. The doe turned and darted for the undergrowth immediately behind her. Just as she reached it, Woundwort himself appeared in her way, reared up and dealt her a great, raking blow across the face. The doe turned once more and ran blindly across the path and onto the boat.

Bigwig realized that since the moment when Kehaar had attacked him in the field, Woundwort had not only retained control over his officers but had actually