i^ pudden."
$
t"Mara and Pikkle dashed off as Sapwood shot away in the % opposite direction. Ferahgo and Klitch headed the band that JS ;had come over the hill. They had lost the element of surprise.
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breaking into a charge when they heard Goffa shout.
The Assassin sized up the situation quickly as he breasted the hill. Immediately he called to his followers, "After the hare, get the spythe other two are cut off!"
Running southward over the dunes, Mara and Pikkle saw to their dismay two ferrets and a fox circling in on them. Ferahgo had sent them in behind on a wide sweep to take Sapwood from the back, and now they were heading straight for the two young ones.
As they closed in, Mara felt a. fury rise within her; they had been deceived by false friends. Hurriedly she breathed to Pikkle, passing him the javelin, "Leave the fox to me. You take one of the ferrets, and we'll deal with the other one together!"
The fox carried a pike. He snarled at Mara and came straight for her. Recalling Sapwood's action, she jumped to one side, swept the pike away and struck out hard with both paws. The fox was not expecting such aggression from a young female badger, and there was a resounding crack as both of Mara's forepaws met solidly along the side of his jaw. His eyes expressed surprise for a moment, then turned up until only the whites were showing, and the fox buckled and fell in a limp heap.
Meanwhile, Pikkle ran straight for the two ferrets and laid the first one low by thwacking him hard between the ears with the javelin. It did the trick wonderfully, but the force of the blow snapped the weapon in two halves.
Mara dashed in. Grabbing a pointed half, she brandished it wildly, growling in a dangerous manner, "Come on, Pikkle. Let's see if this vermin can die like a warrior!"
The ferret, who was wielding a dagger, lost his nerve completelytwo angry creatures with a broken javelin were closing in on him, their eyes alight with battlefire. With a shriek of fear he dropped the dagger and ran for his life.
Mara picked up the dagger. She was breathing heavily and snarling to herself. "Try to stop me, eh? Just let's see them try!"
Pikkle's ears drooped in amazement. "Good grief, old gel. I never realized you were such a swashbucklin' warrioress!"
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The young badger was trembling all over after her first experience of warlike action. "Nor did I, Pikkle, nor did I. It's a frightening thing to have the fighting blood of a badger running through your veins!"
A burst of whooping and shouting from across the dunes announced that many more of Ferahgo's army were coming.
"No time for gossipin' now, chum." Pikkle grabbed Mara's paw. "Come on, we'd best make a run for itthere's too many for us to cope with, by the sounds of that lot!"
Together they dashed off willy-nilly across the sandhills.
Sapwood had run off in the opposite direction, with the main pack hard on his heels. The hare Sergeant was an experienced campaigner, and he put on a turn of speed that could not be equaled by his pursuers, knowing that he could not keep running at that rate for any length of time. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that three front-runners, all weasels, had broken away from the pack and were trying hard to catch up. Smiling grimly to himself, Sapwood dropped out of sight behind a dune, mentally gauging their approach. At exactly the right moment he sprang out in front of them, paws at the ready. Before they could stop, he had laid two of them flat, one with a superb double frontpaw volley to the nose, the other by lashing out with his long hindlegs and catching the weasel square under the chin. The third he mistimed and dealt a glancing blow to the stomach. As he turned to finish the job with a hooking leftpaw, the winded creature swung out with his curved sword and gashed Sapwood's paw heavily. The rest of the hunters were too close now, so Sapwood gave a grunt of pain and took off swiftly, ducking, bobbing and dodging as he ran.
Ferahgo and Klitch stopped running and stood together on top of a dune, Ferahgo watching the main band chasing after Sap-wood.
He spat angrily into the sand. "Hellteeth! They're no match for a running harehe could run and dodge at half that speed
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and those oafs would never catch him. How are the others doing?"
Klitch stood on tip-paw, scouring the dunes in the other direction. "I can't see them anywhere. They should be able to catch *em. There's enough of ours chasing those two."
Ferahgo slumped down and began thrusting his skinning knife into the ground in high bad temper. "It's like I've always said, if you want anything doing then do it yourself, don't rely on others. Fools and clods!"
Klitch curled his lip scornfully. "I did all the spying, me and Goffa. We brought them hereall you had to do was surround them."
"You young whelp!" Ferahgo stood up, leveling his knife meaningly. "Are you saying that it was me who let them escape?"
Klitch's sword appeared swiftly; his eyes were hard as blue ice. "I'm just stating the facts, old one!"
The Assassin quivered with rage. He twirled his knife so that he was holding it in a throwing position. "Old one, eh!"
Klitch moved forward, closing in so that the chance of a knife-throw was ruined, his sword point virtually touching Ferahgo's throat. "Aye, old oneand you won't live to be much older if you try anything with that frog-sticker!"
Two pairs of angry challenging blue eyes faced each other for a moment, then Ferahgo snarled and sheathed his blade. "Aaah, what's the use of fighting between ourselves? Where's the profit in that? All our hiding and spying is blown now, so we'll muster the whole horder and march on Sala-mandastron tonight!"
10
The Redwallers had deserted the feasting table, leaving the two gluttonous stoats, who were loath to leave food uneaten.
"Wahoo, I'm burstin', mucker. Toss me another cob o' that Great Wall cake!"
A half-finished apple turnover fell from Dingeye's mouth as he shoved the remnants of the Great Hall cake in Thura's direction. He belched loudly and poured October ale into his mouth from an oversized jug. "Huh, you're burstin'? Lookit me, stoat! Aaaawww me stummick's like a big bass drum. 'Ow we're goin' ter manage all this scoff atween us is a mystery!"
Cramming the cake into his mouth, Thura reached for a flagon of old blackcurrant wine. "It's our pore upbringin', I 'tell yer. I can't stop eatin'. 'Ere, I wonder wot Ferahgo'd say if 'e c'd see us now, mucker!"
Dingeye choked on his drink, spraying October ale across the table as he seized another vegetable pastie. "Dontchew . dare mention that name! Waddya wanna do, bring bad luck on the pair of us? Don't even think of that blue-eyed villain. Any'ow, stop gabbin' an keep scoffin', mucker. We gotta finish all this lot yet!"
Thura massaged his swollen stomach as he thrust a ladle
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into a bowl of meadowcream. "Waaaaw, it's torture, mucker, plain ol* torture!" Sloshing the meadowcream over several redcurrant muffins, he dug his paws into the mixture and continued eating.
"Yer right, it's orful, wicked an' orful." Dingeye dunked the pastie into a bowl of trifle. "Ooever our mothers was, they shouldn't never 'ave brought us up in starvation an' poverty. Life's crool when yer can't stop scoffin', ain't it."
Equipment for the evening games was being set up on the west lawn. Targets, poles, ropes, hoops and other sporting paraphernalia were laid on the pitches where the games would take place. Arula and Samkim were helping Tudd Spinney to knock quoit pegs into the ground when Mrs. Faith Spinney came bustling over, shaking her head with worry and concern. "Mercy me, they two stoats is still eatin'. You should see 'em, the dreadful gluttons. I've tried stoppin' 'em twice, but they just ignores me. Do somethin', Tudd, afore they kills themselves wi' overfeedin'!"