Urthstripe sighed as he covered his eyes with both paws. “Leave me alone now, I must think. Oh, just one thing. Make sure that none of our creatures shows themselves to Ferahgo or his vermin. I want them to think we’re all dead, then we’ll see what his next move will be.”

*   *   *

Sapwood and Oxeye were returning up a flight of spiral stairs hewn into the rock. They were making their way back to the dining hall after laying Shorebuck and Windpaw to their temporary resting place in the lower caves. Bart Thistledown grabbed Oxeye by the paw.

“What was that?”

Oxeye was quick-sighted. He squinted in the direction indicated. “It’s a black shadow like a . . . Wait there!” Oxeye bounded up the stairs with an amazing turn of speed. “Hi! You there. Stop!”

The others arrived within seconds.

“What was it, Ox? Did you spot anything?”

The big hare scratched his eartips. “Funny, at first I thought it was a shadow. But I’d swear on a carrot pie that it was a black fox—long sleek vermin with funny eyes.”

Urthstripe appeared in the corridor outside the dining hall. “Fox, did you say you’d seen a fox inside the mountain, Oxeye?”

Oxeye was still slightly puzzled. “Er, yes an’ no actually.”

The badger Lord was in no mood for jesting or riddles. “Stand up straight, sir—ears up, chin in, chest out, shoulders back, paws at an angle of forty-five degrees to the side legfur! That’s better. Now answer my question as a hare of the Long Patrol. Did you see a fox?”

Standing correctly to attention, Oxeye faced front as he replied. “Sah! Difficult to tell, sah! Could’ve been a trick of the light, sah! Looked remarkably like a black fox with odd eyes, sah! If it was, the blighter went that way, to the left along the corridor. End of report. Sah!” Oxeye threw a smart salute and stood awaiting further orders.

Urthstripe paced up and down, musing aloud. “Hmm, quick, dark and sleek, like a shadow . . . slip in and out unnoticed, a fox too. That doesn’t sound much like a fighter, more like a creature that does things by stealth, a spy, or a poisoner maybe!”

Sergeant Sapwood clenched his paws. “May Hi ask yer permission to find this ’ere creature, sir?”