“Some of those candy chestnuts and a flagon of cold cider. Could you manage that, Blackie?”

“Oho, could I! How about a baby trout grilled in butter with some of that woodland October ale?”

“Very nice. But have you tried blackberry muffins soaked in warm honey with a few beakers of iced strawberry cordial to wash ’em down?”

“Gaw! Stoppit, Splittie. You’re reminding me of that time when old Lord Greeneyes had a plunder feast at Kotir. Those were the days! I had iced strawberry cordial in a big drinking bowl, with mint leaves floating on it and crushed raspberries too. I remember I sucked it all through a cornstraw. Whew, I must have supped enough of it to have a good bath in.”

“Yurghh!” Scratch called out in disgust. “I was enjoying that until I had a vision of you, all covered in mud and muck, sitting in a bath of iced strawberry cordial with two mint leaves stuck up your snout and a pile of crushed raspberries shoved into your ears. Doesn’t bear thinking about. Anyhow, why don’t you two shut your traps and keep your eyes on those three ahead?”

* * *

Dinny was first to gain the low hills. He ran up one side and rolled down the other. Martin and Gonff joined in until all three were dizzy. They ran onward as the shadows began to lengthen. Gonff gradually dropped back. He was breathing heavily. When they turned to look he waved his paws.

“Keep going, mateys. Phew, this is much harder work than thieving.”

Without hurting Gonff’s feelings, they slacked their pace to match his. Martin noticed that the blob on the horizon they had seen earlier that day was not merely a low cloud bank.

“Look, Gonff. It’s a range of mountains. Big ones, too. What d’you think, Din?”

The young mole squinted hard to bring the view into perspective. “Ho boi urr, that they be. Oi reckons that be whurr the teeth o’land reaches up to ate woolen sheeps, wi’ they gurt ’eads in clouds.”

“Clever, Dinny mate,” Gonff nodded admiringly. “Exactly as the poem says: ‘Afar the teeth of land rise up to bite the wool of sheep.’ They look quite close, but don’t let that fool you. We’ve got a fair bit of traveling to do before we reach them.”

Dinny risked a backward glance through a fold in the hills. “Hurr, they vurminbags be none closer oither. ’Spect us’ns be moightier runners.”

* * *

Scratch had taken the lead again. He knew the others were hungry and sure to follow. Trying to keep their quarry in sight was difficult, as they were often hidden by the hills. Descending the first low hill, he stopped to extract a burr from his pad. The other two ran slap bang into him from behind.

“Clodhoppers!” he shouted. “How is it that you have all this open country to run in, yet you both manage to crash into me? What d’you think this is, a game of leapfrog?”