What Violet never revealed, however, was that the real reason for their delay was her incredible slowness and her inability to understand the danger they were in. At moments when they were close to being sighted by pursuing henchmoles, or when Bracken was despairing of ever keeping her alive, or when the cold of January seemed certain to freeze them both to death, she would ask some irrelevant question like ‘Who is that stonemole, then?’ or ‘Do you really know where we’re going because I’m getting bored’ or ‘If he was Mandrake, who was that big mole?’ Or she would declare in a loud voice that would shatter the silence they were trying to sneak through: ‘I’m hungry!’
But while she may have driven Bracken mad, perhaps her continual puppish ebullience kept his spirits up as well.
They were under pressure from henchmoles from the moment they started down the slopes towards the Eastside. On their flanks, behind, sometimes in front, henchmoles chased them, cutting back and forth in numbers across the wood’s floor to find their scent and track them down. Bracken avoided them, partly by sticking to the surface the whole time—except for once, when he had to use a tunnel to escape several henchmoles coming at them from different directions—but mainly by his extraordinary ability, developed in his long period of solo exploration in the Ancient System, to foresee route alternatives and take the one that would confound his enemies. He himself later pinned his success on the fact that thawing snow created temporary rivulets, particularly just below the slopes, which masked their scent tracks.
However, they avoided rather than lost their pursuers and by the third day, when they were nearing Curlew’s burrows, they were being very hard-pressed. The more so because, unknown to Bracken, the pressure to find them had been increased by Rune’s decision to join the search and abandon Mandrake to the central part of the Ancient System, where he seemed content to stay. Henchmoles only remained up there to monitor his movements while Rune rapidly went down the slopes to find out who these two moles were who had escaped so mysteriously from the Ancient System.
By the time Bracken realised in horror that his own arrival might lead to the discovery of Rebecca and Comfrey and Curlew by directing the henchmoles to their tunnels, it was too late—henchmoles seemed to have cut off any other route. All he could do was to make a final dash ahead and hope he would be in time to warn Rebecca.
On the afternoon of the third day, when the weather was turning bitterly cold again and the light in the wood was gloomy and dark, Bracken finally reached the entrance to Curlew’s tunnel. Henchmoles were not far behind and so he pushed Violet down it, with an instruction (which he had scant hope would be carried out) that she should warn them that he was there, and turned round to ward off any henchmole who might come and surprise them.
Violet tottered complainingly down into the tunnels, saying she was hungry and she hoped there was some nice mole around who would do the proper thing and produce a worm or two, or three, and that Bracken never answered any of her questions, and ‘Aren’t there any moles here at all? She found herself face to face with Mekkins, who had advanced warily up the tunnel to see what the fuss was about.
‘Hullo,’ said Mekkins, ‘and who are you, then?’
‘Violet. I’m hungry.’
‘Yes, so I heard. I expect Rebecca’ll find you something.’
‘He’s up there,’ said Violet, looking back up the tunnel. ‘He said to warn you.’
When Mekkins saw Bracken, he was relieved to find him safe but shocked at how terribly weary he was. But a moment’s account of what had happened soon explained why.
‘I’ve come ’ere myself to take them away,’ said Mekkins, ‘’cos I could see the way things are goin’. There’s only one place where they’ll be safe, and that’s out of the system.’
‘But where?’ asked Bracken.
‘With Rose, on the pastures. It’ll be risky getting them there and might even be risky once they’re there, because Rose’s protection may not be enough. But anywhere else… well…’
Bracken was almost falling off his paws with tiredness. But still he snouted into the gloom for signs of henchmoles.
‘They’ll not come this far yet, surely?’ said Mekkins.
‘Yes, they will,’ sighed Bracken. ‘There seem to be so many of them and they’re so determined to find us that they keep on and on. They nearly caught us several times. You’ve got to get out of here, Mekkins. I’m sorry…’
‘Listen, chum. You’ve worked a bloody marvel. The more I know about you and Rebecca, the less I understand. But don’t you say you’re sorry. Now look, there’s no sign of them at the moment, and it would take them a while to find these tunnels anyway, so you go down and rest for a bit and I’ll keep a watch out and come down later to work out what to do. You send Curlew up as well, ’cos there’s something she can do…’
