19: Chapter 21. ‘For El-ahrairah to Cry’ 

The chapter is the first in the book to open with two quotes.  

Holly begins his account by saying what happened in the immediate aftermath of the group leaving Sandleford. The search was quickly called off. 

The following day there were a lot of rumours about Fiver saying something bad was coming. On the next day he saw a group of men approach the Warren. They looked at all the holes. 

The next day was very different. He noticed a hrududu in a lane near the Warren. A lot of men were getting out of it, as well as a boy with a gun. 

The men carried long heavy objects into the field. After a while one of them started filling in the entrances of all the holes he could find. 

He continues that another man fetched some things like lengths of bramble. One of these was attached to each of the long heavy objects. There was a hissing sound and the air started to "turn bad". 

The heavy objects were clearly gas cannisters. The brambles were hoses. 

The men put one of the hoses in each of the holes they had not blocked up. 

After a while Holly saw a rabbit called Scabious come out of a hole the men had missed. The boy shot him.  

Bluebell, who was underground, takes over the story. 

He says the does seemed to be affected by the gas first. They tried to get out, apart from the ones with kittens, who started attacking anyone who came near them. The runs started to fill up with rabbits trying to claw and clamber over eachother to use ways out that no longer existed. 

Bluebell explains how lucky he was in being able to escape. The gas wasn't working in the open run he was in and he managed to keep his senses and run back down to an old deep run called the "Slack Run". Terrible sounds were coming down shafts from above.  

Bluebell found himself with another rabbit called Pimpernel, who knew the way out. Bluebell was terrified Pimpernel would die and block the run ahead. Eventually they smelled fresher air and emerged from a hole in the woods. 

Holly takes up the story again. 

Eventually the men took the hoses out of the holes and the boy put all the dead rabbits on a stick. This detail is too much for Holly, who stops for a moment. 

Holly then describes what is clearly a JCB having come into the field and dug it up. In describing this it is clear that among the earth it dug up were the bodies of rabbits. 

Holly was joined by Bluebell, Pimpernel and Toadflax, the Owsla member who bullied Fiver out of eating a cowslip in Chapter One. 

All Holly could think about was finding Bigwig so he could apologise to him. During the night Toadflax died. The remaining three rabbits found the place where Hazel's group had crossed the Enbourne. He describes crossing the road and coming to the Common. Pimpernel was feverish and Holly was afraid he would die too. 

They fell asleep, exhausted, and woke up the next day to find themselves surrounded by rabbits from the Warren of the Snares. As soon as Holly mentioned the names of the rabbits they were looking for, Cowslip ordered them torn to pieces. 

Holly got his ear ripped badly in the fighting, but he and Bluebell got away quite easily. But Pimpernel was left behind and must have been killed. 

Holly decided to take on Cowslip, who saved his skin by telling Holly where Hazel's group had headed. Holly's ripped ear was painful and Bluebell kept him going by joking with him the whole time. All he could think about was finding Bigwig to tell him he had been right to leave. When they reached the foot of WD and Bigwig was not there to greet him, his mind finally went. 

It was a happy coincidence that Bigwig was, indeed, close by to hear him. 

He closes by saying how grateful he is to be here with them all and tells Bigwig that the rabbit who tried to arrest him was another rabbit a long time ago. 

19.3 Next Episode  

The rabbits react to Holly's account, Hazel explains making friends with mice and Bluebell tells a story of El-ahrairah