The three young hares gave a yell of horror at the ghastly apparition and fled down the crater steps as if a demon were chasing them.

Big Oxeye dropped the two woven reedbags he was carrying and looked down at his sand-crusted body. “Hmph! Suppose if I clapped eyes on me right now I’d be frightened out o’ me wits!”

*   *   *

They gathered around the table in the dining hall as Oxeye related his marvelous escape.

“Hoho, you should’ve seen old Sap, floatin’ off t’ sea like he was born on the briny with not a care in the world. Next thing, here comes a bunch of those vermin yahoos, right nasty lot I can tell you. So I ups spear an’ slays one or three, just t’ let ’em know I mean business, doncha know. Blow me, there must’ve been more than a bally regiment of the stinkers. They stabbed an’ whacked at me with cutlasses an’ whatnot. As for me, did m’ best to give a beastlike account of a Long Patrol scrapper, an’ then I tripped and went under the water. D’you know, I could never swim until that moment, as true as I’m here, I tell you, chaps. I went under an’ right off started swimmin’ like a bloomin’ fish underwater. Just kept goin’, wot! On an’ on I swam until I ran out of jolly old fresh air, so I came up an’ there they were, far away, all arguin’ an’ hackin’ at each other like billyoh. So I took a good deep breath, dived an’ swam some more—must’ve done that a dozen times until I got clear away from Ferahgo’s lot. From there it was quite simple really, I just rolled meself in the dry sand to give me a coat of camouflage and hoofed it back here. Oh, I stopped off an’ gathered a few supplies on the way back—thought you chaps might be gettin’ a bit peckish. I say, where’s His Nibs old Urthstripe?”

Bart Thistledown pointed a paw upward. “Probably in the forge room beatin’ some poor chunk of metal to a powder. He’s got one of his rages boilin’ up. You’d best go an’ report that you’re alive, Ox.”

*   *   *

Oxeye popped his head round the doorway of the forge room and called out in a loud voice, “Big Oxeye, sah! Reportin’ for duty, sah! All present an’ correct an’ quite alive, contrary to popular rumor, sah!”

The forge was cold and the room deserted. Oxeye wandered about until he noticed one of the window apertures had been unblocked. The big hare sighed with despair at the sight that greeted his eyes as he looked out of the window.

Fully clad in badger war armor, Urthstripe was pounding over the shore towards Ferahgo’s encampment. Brandishing his giant battle spear aloft, the badger Lord of Salamandastron hurled out his challenge to the foe: