Gruntan crooked a grimy claw at him. "Come over 'ere!" He watched the unfortunate approach on shaking paws. "Move yoreself, I said come over 'ere, stan' there!"
The rat stood close to his leader, right on the spot he had indicated. He tried one last plea. "It wasn't me wot laughed, Boss, honest!"
Gruntan bent his head close to the rat. "Well, let's 'ear ye laugh now. Go on, laugh!"
The rat made a feeble attempt. "Er, haha."
Without warning Gruntan seized the cauldron of cold dip and upended it over his victim's head, leaving him
162
wearing it, like a monstrous helmet with mixture dripping from it. Gruntan dusted his paws off. "Now let's see ye laugh that off! Hahaharrr!"
The rest of the Brownrats laughed dutifully along with their boss, until he turned on them, bellowing, "Wot are you lot laughin' at? I never told ye t'laugh! Now get movin', double-quick, afore I really give ye somethin' to laugh about!"
Officers roared out orders as the ranks marched off at a rapid pace. Gruntan Kurdly was jounced up and down on his litter, pierced deeper by hidden thorns. However, he gritted his teeth and endured the pain, concentrating on a prize of six logboats.
163
17
Once the logboats rounded the bend, they were out of sight from the rats. Maudie marvelled at their speed, they were going so fast that they were sending up bow waves. The shrewmum Frenna had covered up the babes with quilts and blankets; they slept on, blissfully unaware of everything.
Maudie was first to see the tree, she nudged Osbil. "Aha, one white willow straight ahead on the right!"
The Guosim shrew patted Maudie's back. "We'll make a prowspotter out of ye yet, miss!"
Barbowla came streaking through the water like an arrow. "There's thick bush the other side o' that willow. If'n ye look careful there's a hidden stream there, too. I'll go an' mark the entrance, we needs t'be in that cutoff, behind those bushes, afore Kurdly's crew arrives!"
A dismaying thought struck Maudie. "Er, a moment old chap, are you sure you've thought this plan through, right?"
The big otter forestalled her objection. "I knows wot yore goin' t'say, miz. If'n the rats comes along the bank on that side, they'll be bound t'see us, 'cos they've got to cross the very cutoff water that we're hidin' in. Is that wot you was
164
goin' to say?" As Maudie nodded, Barbowla held up a paw. "Don't fret yore pretty, long ears, Miz Maudie, 'tis already taken care of. Now trust me an' git movin'."
Gasping for breath, and exhausted by their efforts, the Guosim paddled their final logboat behind the bushy screen. Luglug, Rigril and Teagle slid in with the coracle. The shrew chieftain had the same misgivings as Maudie. However, before he could speak, Barbowla silenced him.
"Let's 'ave every able-bodied beast out 'ere on the bank with me. Come on, we've got to provide a bridge for the vermin to cross. Luglug, get yore strongest shrews, mate. Aye, an' tell 'em to bring their paddles along, we needs all the muscle we kin get!"
Barbowla led his contingent of Guosim and otters to where a large, fallen tree trunk lay covered by fern and shrubbery. Suddenly the plan became clear to Maudie, she winked at the big otter.
"I say, well done, sah! If we bridge the sidestream with that trunk, then scoot away double-quick in the jolly old logboats, we could fool 'em. Old Kurdlywotsit an' his foul mob should cross the bridge, thinkin' we've carried on along the mainstream. What a super wheeze, they'll go right past us, wot!"
Barbowla began clearing away shrubbery. "No time for gossipin' now, miz, those villains'H be here soon. There's a good growth o' rush an' bush up yon sidestream, we can lay low there until they pass. Ahoy, let's git this ole log a-rollin', you Guosim, use yore paddles to move it. We need t'be quick!"
Everybeast bent their backs to the task. Shrews dug their paddles under the trunk and levered away with them. Maudie joined Barbowla's brawny family, hauling on three stout ropes.
At first nothing happened, then Luglug took over. "On my command, crews ... One, two, heave!" The trunk began to slide across the ferns and damp moss.
165
Maudie gave a whoop. "That's the stuff, chaps, keep the blighter movin'!"
Beetles, worms and all manner of crawling insects fled for fresh cover as they were exposed to the daylight by the shifting of their shelter. An old Guosim shrew, who was watching the bankside, whispered hoarsely, "Keep yore voices down now, an' git a move on. I think I can see 'em in the distance!" His urgent entreaty lent power and speed to their limbs, the trunk moved rapidly along, until they were at the sidestream.
Barbowla and his otters leapt into the water, helping to shift the huge log, as the shrews put their paddles to the broken tree's base. Once it was bridging the water firmly, everybeast swiftly trampled the area surrounding both sides. This was to make it look as though the trunk was often used as a crossing. Without taking breath, the shrews were back into their logboats, paddling furiously off down the sidestream, with the otters towing and pushing each craft.
Maudie crouched at the stern of the last boat, alongside Osbil the Spotter, whose keen eyes picked up movement back along the bankside.
"I can see the painted scum, they'll be at that trunk afore long. I wouldn't be surprised if'n they spotted us!"
Maudie glanced upstream, to where the coracle, and the leading logboat, were slipping into the shelter of overhanging trees and rushes. "Not to worry, bucko, we should just about flippin' well make it. Duck your head, old lad, an' hope for the best!"
Barbowla and Kachooch thrust the stern of the last log-boat under cover, just as the leading score of Brownrats arrived at the decoy bridge. Kachooch slipped silently along the line of boats, whispering a caution. "Don't paddle, stay still! If'n they look up this way an' see any movement of boats or trees, they're bound to see us. Lay low now, an' not a sound out of anybeast!"
At the tree-trunk bridge, a dispute appeared to have
166
arisen. Kurdly's leading rat, Stringle, was calling across the mainstream to the scout Noggo, who was with a large contingent on the far bank. "Can ye see any sign of 'em upstream?"
Noggo shrugged as he shouted back, "I can't see 'em from 'ere, wot'll we do?"
Stringle sat down in the centre of the log. He looked this way and that, then scratched his head. "Best wait 'ere 'til the Boss arrives!"
Noggo could see the sidestream from the opposite bank. "D'ye think they've gone up there?"
Stringle spat contemptuously into the water. "Yew thick-'eaded dolt, 'ow could they sail through this log I'm sittin' on? Huh, if'n brains was vittles you woulda starved to death when ye was born!"
More rats began arriving on either side of the stream, until both banks were crowded. Everybeast waiting on the arrival of their leader's stretcher.
Peering from beneath the leafy foliage, Luglug grunted. "I can't see a thing, wot's goin' on back there?"
Maudie and Osbil had the best view. Through a screen of rushes the haremaid gave her assessment of the situation. "Looks like there's some sort of confounded conflab goin' on. Wish they'd jolly well move on an' pick someplace else t'do their jabberin'."
Osbil commented, "Somethin' should be happenin' shortly, here comes ole fat-bottom Kurdly on his litter."
One of the shrews clanked his paddle against the log-boat's side. Luglug cautioned him in a severe undertone, "Belay there, mate, d'ye want the vermin to know we're here?"
The shrew apologised. "Sorry, Chief, I swiped at a wasp wot was buzzin' round me snout, huh, I missed it!"
The shrew chieftain glared savagely at him. "I won't miss you if'n you makes any more noise, I'll splinter that
167
paddle atwixt yore ears. All of ye, keep yore heads down, an' not a murmur out of anybeast!"
Gruntan Kurdly was on the same bankside as Stringle, grunting with pain he sat up straight on the litter, staring at his officer. "Well, wot are ye waitin' for, next season?"