Swords, spears and daggers hacked and slashed at the other five vessels. Mokkan took a braided thong and noosed it about the neck of Fenno, locking off the knot so it could not be removed quickly. He dragged the bewildered and trembling shrew down to the boat he had chosen, bidding him sit in the stern. The Marlfox prized a towing staple from one of the wrecked logboats, knotted the thong end to the staple and drove it into the thick beechwood stern until the curve was embedded level with the wood. Fenno sat with his neck pulled to one side by the short thong. Mokkan smiled.

“If the boat sinks, then so do you. Right, rats, gather up all the supplies and stow that tapestry carefully amidships. High Queen Silth will be happy to see us when we bring Redwall’s treasure to her.”

*

Dann went first along the trail, leading his friends in the direction of the noise.

“Sounds like an army of woodpeckers havin’ a mid-season feast!” Dippler panted as he ran.

Song wielded her greenstone-tipped stick. “Hardly likely, Dipp. Slow down, Dann, we don’t want to rush into the middle of something we can’t back out of!”

Dann slowed until they were traveling abreast. “It’s stopped! Listen, is that a stream I can hear?”

They skirted the wide pool formed by the end of the inlet. Stooping low and taking advantage of the bush cover, the three friends pressed forward along the deserted streambank. Dippler saw the wreckage of his tribe’s logboats first. With a sob of dismay he threw himself down by the shattered prow of the first one.

“Waterfly! ’Tis me ole boat. I paddled that’n many a long day. Wot filthy villain’d wreck a good craft like ’er?”

Song had run ahead to where the main broadstream flowed. She called back to Dippler and Dann. “Hurry, come and see this!” They both dashed up in time to see the surviving logboat speeding out of sight around a distant bend on the fast-flowing current. “A Marlfox and some other beasts, with one bent over in the stern. I’ll wager the tapestry’s aboard that boat!”

Dippler scrambled up a pine tree as far as he could climb. Clinging on with one paw, shading his eyes with the other, he watched until the vessel was lost to sight. Climbing back down, the Guosim shrew stamped his paws angrily. “We jus’ missed the scum. Guess who the otherbeast was? I’d know that stinkin’ bully anywhere. It was Fenno!”

“The one that murdered Log a Log?”

Dippler slashed the air with his rapier. “Aye, the very one!”

Dann undid his sword and pack and flung them down moodily. “Not much we can do about it now, mates. They’ve wrecked the other boats an’ left us stranded ’ere. Besides, who knows where they’re bound? They could be sailin’ anywhere.”