Part 33 (1/2)

”Rowsby Woof went bounding away in the moonlight and El-ahrairah watched him out of sight.

” 'Are we to go into the house now, master?' asked Rabscuttle. 'We shall have to be quick.'

” 'Certainly not,' said El-ahrairah. 'How could you suggest such double-dealing? For shame, Rabscuttle! We will guard the house.'

”They waited silently and after a while Rowsby Woof returned, licking his lips and grinning. He came sniffing up to the fence.

” 'I perceive, honest friend,' said El-ahrairah, 'that you found the meat as swiftly as though it had been a rat. The house is safe and all is well. Now hark. I shall return to the Queen and tell her of all that has pa.s.sed. It was her gracious purpose that if you showed yourself worthy tonight, by trusting her messenger, she would herself send for you and honor you. Tomorrow night she will be pa.s.sing through this land on her way to the Wolf Festival of the North and she means to break her journey in order that you may appear before her. Be ready, Rowsby Woof!'

” 'Oh, Fairy Wogdog!' cried Rowsby Woof. 'What joy it will be to grovel and abase myself before the Queen! How humbly I shall roll upon the ground! How utterly shall I make myself her slave! What menial cringing will be mine! I will show myself a true dog!'

” 'I do not doubt it,' said El-ahrairah. 'And now, farewell. Be patient and await my return!'

”He withdrew the rubber nose and very quietly they crept away.

”The following night was, if anything, still colder. Even El-ahrairah had to pull himself together before he could set out over the fields. They had hidden the rubber nose outside the garden and it took them some time to get it ready for Rowsby Woof. When they had made sure that the man had gone out, they went cautiously into the front garden and up to the fence. Rowsby Woof was padding up and down outside the back door, his breath steaming in the frosty air. When El-ahrairah spoke, he put his head on the ground between his front paws and whined for joy.

” 'The Queen is coming, Rowsby Woof,' said El-ahrairah from behind the nose, 'with her n.o.ble attendants, the fairies Postwiddle and Sniffbottom. And this is her wish. You know the crossroads in the village, do you not?'

” 'Yes, yes!' whined Rowsby Woof. 'Yes, yes! Oh, let me show how abject I can be, dear Fairy Wogdog. I will--'

” 'Very well,' said El-ahrairah. 'Now, O fortunate dog, go to the crossroads and await the Queen. She is coming on the wings of night. It is far that she must come, but wait patiently. Only wait. Do not fail her and great blessing will be yours,'

” 'Fail her? No, no!' cried Rowsby Woof. 'I will wait like a worm upon the road. Her beggar am I, Fairy Wogdog! Her mendicant, her idiot, her--'

” 'Quite right, most excellent,' said El-ahrairah. 'Only make haste.'

”As soon as Rowsby Woof had gone, El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle went quickly through the laurels, round the end of the fence and along to the back door. El-ahrairah pulled the cloth out of the hole above the drain with his teeth and led the way into the kitchen.

”The kitchen was as warm as this bank and at one end was a great pile of vegetables ready for the hrududu in the morning--cabbages, brussels sprouts and parsnips. They were thawed out and the delicious smell was quite overpowering. El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle began at once to make amends for the past days of frozen gra.s.s and tree bark.

” 'Good, faithful fellow,' said El-ahrairah with his mouth full. 'How grateful he will be to the Queen for keeping him waiting. He will be able to show her the full extent of his loyalty, won't he? Have another parsnip, Rabscuttle.'

”Meanwhile, down at the crossroads, Rowsby Woof waited eagerly in the frost, listening for the coming of Queen Drips...o...b..r. After a long time he heard footsteps. They were not the steps of a dog but of a man. As they came near, he realized that they were the steps of his own master. He was too stupid to run away or hide, but merely remained where he was until his master--who was returning home--came up to the crossroads.

” 'Why, Rowsby Woof,' said his master, 'what are you doing here?'

”Rowsby Woof looked foolish and nosed about. His master was puzzled. Then a thought came to him.

” 'Why, good old chap,' he said, 'you came to meet me, did you? Good fellow, then! Come on, we'll go home together.'

”Rowsby Woof tried to slip away, but his master grabbed him by the collar, tied him by a bit of string he had in his pocket and led him home.

”Their arrival took El-ahrairah by surprise. It fact, he was so busy stuffing cabbage that he heard nothing until the doorhandle rattled. He and Rabscuttle had only just time to slip behind a pile of baskets before the man came in, leading Rowsby Woof. Rowsby Woof was quiet and dejected and did not even notice the smell of rabbit, which anyway was all mixed up with the smell of the fire and the larder. He lay on the mat while the man made some sort of drink for himself.

”El-ahrairah was watching his chance to dash out of the hole in the wall. But the man, as he sat drinking and puffing away at a white stick, suddenly looked round and got up. He had noticed the draft coming in through the open hole. To the rabbits' horror, he picked up a sack and plugged the hole up very tightly indeed. Then he finished his drink, made up the fire and went away to sleep, leaving Rowsby Woof shut in the kitchen. Evidently he thought it too cold to turn him out for the night.

”At first Rowsby Woof whined and scratched at the door, but after a time he came back to the mat by the fire and lay down. El-ahrairah moved very quietly along the wall until he was behind a big metal box in the corner under the sink. There were sacks and old papers here, too, and he felt fairly sure that Rowsby Woof could not manage to see behind it. As soon as Rabscuttle had joined him, he spoke.

” 'O Rowsby Woof!' whispered El-ahrairah.

”Rowsby Woof was up in a flash.

” 'Fairy Wogdog!' he cried. 'Is that you I hear?'

” 'It is indeed,' said El-ahrairah. 'I am sorry for your disappointment, Rowsby Woof. You did not meet the Queen.'

” 'Alas, no,' said Rowsby Woof: and he told what had happened at the crossroads.

” 'Never mind,' said El-ahrairah. Do not be downhearted, Rowsby Woof. There was good reason why the Queen did not come. She received news of danger--ah, great danger, Rowsby Woof!--and avoided it in time. I myself am here at the risk of my own safety to warn you. You are lucky indeed that I am your friend, for otherwise your good master must have been stricken with mortal plague.'

” 'With plague?' cried Rowsby Woof. 'Oh, how, good fairy?'

” 'Many fairies and spirits there are in the animal kingdoms of the East,' said El-ahrairah. 'Some are friends and there are those--may misfortune strike them down--who are our deadly enemies. Worst of them all, Rowsby Woof, is the great rat spirit, the giant of Sumatra, the curse of Hamelin. He dares not openly fight our n.o.ble Queen, but he works by stealth, by poison, by disease. Soon after you left me, I learned that he has sent his hateful rat goblins through the clouds, carrying sickness. I warned the Queen; but still I remained here, Rowsby Woof, to warn you. If the sickness falls--and the goblins are very near--it will harm not you, but your master it will slay--and me, too, I fear. You can save him, and you alone. I cannot.'

” 'Oh, horror!' cried Rowsby Woof. 'There is no time to be lost! What must I do, Fairy Wogdog?'

” 'The sickness works by a spell,' said El-ahrairah. 'But if a real dog of flesh and blood could run four times round the house, barking as loudly as he could, then the spell would be broken and the sickness would have no power. But alas! I forgot! You are shut in, Rowsby Woof. What is to be done? I fear that all is lost!'

” 'No, no!' said Rowsby Woof. 'I will save you, Fairy Wogdog, and my dear master, too. Leave it to me!'

”Rowsby Woof began to bark. He barked to raise the dead. The windows shook. The coal fell in the grate. The noise was terrifying. They could hear the man upstairs, shouting and cursing. Still Rowsby Woof barked. The man came stamping down. He flung open the window and listened for thieves, but he could hear nothing, partly because there was nothing to hear and partly because of the ceaseless barking. At last he picked up his gun, flung open the door and went cautiously out to see what was the matter. Out shot Rowsby Woof, bellowing like a bull, land tore around the house. The man followed him at a run, leaving the door wide.

” 'Quick!' said El-ahrairah. 'Quicker than Wogdog from the Tartar's bow! Come on!'

”El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle dashed into the garden and disappeared through the laurels. In the field beyond they paused for a moment. From behind came the sounds of yelping and woofing, mixed with shouts and angry cries of 'Come 'ere, d.a.m.n you!'

” 'n.o.ble fellow,' said El-ahrairah. 'He has saved his master, Rabscuttle. He has saved us all. Let us go home and sleep sound in our burrow.'

”For the rest of his life Rowsby Woof never forgot the night when he had waited for the great Dog Queen. True, it was a disappointment, but this, he felt, was a small matter, compared with the recollection of his own n.o.ble conduct and of how he had saved both his master and the good fairy Wogdog from the wicked rat spirit.”

42.News at Sunset

You will be sure to prove that the act is unjust and hateful to the G.o.ds?

Yes, indeed, Socrates; at least, if they will listen to me.

Plato, Euthyphro Euthyphro As he came to the end of his story, Dandelion remembered that he was supposed to be relieving Acorn as sentry. The post was a little way away, near the eastern corner of the wood, and Hazel--who wanted to see how Boxwood and Speedwell were getting on with a hole they were digging--went with Dandelion along the foot of the bank. He was just going down the new hole when he noticed that some small creature was pattering about in the gra.s.s. It was the mouse that he had saved from the kestrel. Pleased to see that he was still safe and sound, Hazel turned back to have a word with him. The mouse recognized him and sat up, was.h.i.+ng his face with his front paws and chattering effusively.

”Is a good a days, a hot a days. You like? Plenty for eata, keepa warm is a no trouble. Down in a bottom a hill is a harvest. I go for a corn a, but is a long a way. I tink a you go away, is a not a long a you come a back, yes?”

”Yes,” said Hazel, ”a lot of us went away, but we found what we were looking for and now we've come back for good.”

”Is a good. Is a lots of rabbits a now, keepa gra.s.s a short.”

”What difference does it make to him if the gra.s.s is short?” said Bigwig, who, with Blackavar, was lolloping and nibbling close by. ”He doesn't eat it.”