Columbine began to grow restless as time went on and she remained with Gonflet in the room. Her mind started to explore all the horrifying possibilities of what could go wrong when Gonff found the ship, and of what could happen to herself, Gonflet and Gonff.

There came a knock at the door. It was Snaptooth. Not waiting for the door to be opened for him, he barged in and announced officiously, "Come on, let's go. The cap'n wishes to see you. Bring the little one, too."

Columbine took Gonflet by the paw and reluctantly followed the stoat to the captain's cabin. Snaptooth knocked on the door, this time with respect. "Sir, it's me, Snaptooth. I've brought the prisoners."

There came the gruff reply. "Send them in."

As Columbine and Gonflet entered, the sea rat sat on his throne as usual. He stared at Columbine with his one good eye before speaking. "Your fellow woodlanders, they must know you've been captured by now?"

Columbine sensed the hidden anxiety in his voice. She shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, I don't know. They might have," she made her voice sound innocent. "Or maybe not. They might not notice for a while."

The sea rat started to leap at her, then controlled himself. When he spoke again his voice had a deeper threat than usual. "Don't play games with me, mouse. I can play far better than you could imagine," He grinned. "Many would say that I play rough, too."

Columbine pretended not to notice the threat.

The captain spoke again. "My crewmembers say that you and your son were picking berries when you were captured. Isn't that right, Snaptooth?"

The stoat nodded vigorously. "Oh, aye, cap'n!"

The sea rat continued. "Hmm, from what I know of woodlanders, they often go in large groups when they go berry-picking, or other foolish activities. You were with a nice big group of friends, too, eh?"

Columbine said nothing.

The sea rat kept talking, his one eye fixed on her. "Oh, yes, I see you were." He laughed. "Don't ever think that I can't see things as well as others, my pretty mouse. I may only have one eye, but I can see quite a bit more than some would think." He reached out and stroked her chin again, and she pulled away as before.

Chuckling, the captain continued. "I can see all that a normal eye can, of course. But I can also see more. I can see emotions, such as fear. Perhaps fear of what one might do to a certain mouse once he has the guts to come and find me. Yes, I am picking up quite a bit of that fear right now. I can also see when creatures are lying," he added, his voice dangerously low. "So don't ever lie to me, mouse. I see that there were indeed many creatures with you. No doubt picking berries for some feast. Or maybe," the sea rat said, his voice taking on a new excitement, "You were picking berries to share with a special creature at dinner. Maybe picking berries for your dear sweet Gonff?" he said in a mocking tone.

Columbine turned away, full of fear and anger. She grabbed Gonflet's paw and turned to exit the cabin, expecting to be stopped. No one stopped her, but the sea rat's cold, contented voice made the blood freeze in her veins.

"Yes, my pretty mouse, you can go now. Your Gonff will come, I know. But don't worry, I'll let him go." The sea rat laughed a high evil laugh. "I'll let him go straight to the gates of the Dark Forest!"

Columbine grabbed her son and ran back to the room, where she lay sobbing with fear. Some time later, she lifted up her head. The tears were still wet on her face as she began to try to think of a plan. The sea rat was powerful and intimidating, but he had to have weaknesses. And she would find them.

The trip down the river began uneventful for the four travelers. Martin, Dinny, Mlira and Topra kept their eyes peeled for anything both on the riverbank and in the water, but saw no trace of Gonff, Columbine or Gonflet. It had been a long day, and they were beginning to feel discouraged.

Finally Martin decided they should stop and have some lunch. He wanted to keep going, but thought that the group might be in better spirits after resting on dry land for a short time. He suggested the idea to his companions, and they all agreed. They were looking for a spot to pull the boat ashore when suddenly Mlira saw something interesting. "Look," she cried. "Someone pulled a boat along shore over there!"

Her friends looked where she was pointing, and, sure enough, there was a patch where several plants had been disturbed. As they pulled closer to the riverbank, they saw footprints.

"Those must be Gonff's," Martin exclaimed, looking at a set of large mouse prints. The prints went up the bank, along with two other sets of footprints Mlira and Topra identified as otter prints.

Dinny was excited. "Hurr, usn's shood go up derr an' see where they'm prints be's a goin'!"

Martin held up a paw. "Wait, look. They go back down the bank to where they left off. It must have been Gonff and the two otters who went with him, but they've moved on since them."

Topra smiled. "Well, then, let's follow them, mateys!" Excitedly the four friends sailed on down the river. Everyone was in much better spirits after seeing that they were on the right track. The excitement began to die down when they had traveled for several hours and had no further sign of the other boat. Martin sighed and gazed upstream into the sunset. He saw a blurry shape and rubbed at his eyes. When the blur did not go away, he stared intently at it. Then he let out a shout. "It's them!" he cried. "I see them. Look!"

They all focused hard in the direction he was pointing in, and then began to cheer in triumph.

"Stan' en moi tunnel, et's them all roight!"

"We found them! We found them!"

"They're not too far away, either! Row faster!"

"Come on, row, row, row! We can catch 'em if we hurry!"

The four companions rowed furiously to catch up to the boat now clearly visible on the horizon. Martin turned to the others with a smile. "Let's go nice and quiet now. I want to surprise them. Mlira and Topra, you're the best rowers. Can you catch up to them while not letting them know?"

"Can we? Just watch us!"

"We are otters, you know, mate!"

The ottermaid twins took over the oars, rowing quickly and silently with a skill mastered only by otters. Soon they could clearly see Gonff and two otters, rowing more slowly and with their backs to the new boat. As the boat came to a point where Martin could easily swim over to the other craft, the mouse warrior stood up and yelled, "Gonff, you rascal, turn around and greet your friends. Where are your manners?"

Gonff turned around and stared incredulously at the figure standing in the boat behind him. With a mixture of disbelief and joy on his face, he managed a wink and called back, "I must have left 'em on the windowsill when I was scoffing the last pie I pinched, mate!" With that he turned and swam to the other boat, jumped aboard, and promptly knocked Martin over with him. The two wrestled playfully in the water, splashing and dunking each other. Dinny splashed water on them both from where he remained firmly in the boat. Gonff and Martin winked at each other, and promptly grabbed the mole and pulled him in with them, oblivious to Dinny's shouts of protest.

"Burr, you'm be's a leavin' moi alone, ee youn' rascols!"

"Gonff, do you hear a noise?"

"I certainly do, matey, it's my stomach! Let's go have lunch and if there's any creatures in these here waters, we'll just leave 'em in peace." Mlira and Topra took pity on the mole, then tried to scold Martin and Gonff while keeping straight faces.

Meanwhile, Drakk and Wyst had pulled the other boat along shore and joined Mlira and Topra in hauling the second one onto the bank, enjoying themselves at the same time.

"Well, it's certainly nice to see a few pretty faces at last. I was getting pretty tired of just Gonff to look at!"

"It was worse for me, mate. I had to put up with Gonff and you, too, Drakk!"

"It's quite nice for us too, to see some otter faces at last, eh, Topra?"

"It sure is, but it'd be even nicer if these two charming otters would help us get together some lunch!"

Gonff released Martin's head from the water long enough to shout out, "That's a great idea, Topra. Some poor creatures such as myself are just dying from hunger over here!"

Martin pulled free, remarking, "Gonff, the only food-related way you'd die would be if you ate so much you burst!" Gonff paused thoughtfully. "That wouldn't be such a bad way to go..." The riverbank was full of laughter as the group pitched in to fix a lunch.

Everyone was content to lie back on the banks after the large, delicious lunch. Gonff turned to Martin, who was lying beside him, and asked the question he had been too happy to ask before.

"Why did you follow me, mate? Didn't you get the note?"

Martin sat up and looked at his friend seriously. "Gonff, did you really think for one second that I or anyone else at Redwall was going to let you go wandering off all by yourself?"

Gonff was surprised. "Martin, you know I can take care of myself. I've always done all right before. I'm always wandering, and I'm still here."

Martin spoke solemnly. "You might have done all right before by yourself, but I think we both know you're changing into a mouse that does better around others. I think others are noticing, too."

Gonff was quiet for a moment. "You mean Columbine."

Martin nodded. "And I know how much you care about her and Gonflet. I know you care so much that you would let anything happen to yourself to get them back safe and sound. And that's why we followed you. They're important to you, but you're important to them, my friend. They don't want you rushing off into danger."

Gonff looked up. "But I have to save them."

Martin smiled at his friend. "I know. And you will. But you won't be alone. We'll all be there with you." He patted his friend on the back. "You can't get rid of us that easy, especially not me."

Gonff grinned. "Thanks, matey."

That night Delpa came to her friend's room expecting Columbine to be in a state of fear and horror. The hogwife had heard the whole conversation in which the captain had threatened Columbine, Gonflet and Gonff. However, when she entered the room, the mouse was sitting calmly on the bed, staring thoughtfully into space. Columbine turned her attention to Delpa as the kindhearted hedgehog stared at her in surprise. "What is it?" she asked, curious why Delpa looked so shocked.

"Well...I just thought..." Delpa looked uncomfortable, then blurted out, "Oh, Columbine, I heard the whole thing. I heard what the captain said to you. That rat is the most evil vermin ever to...You must have been so horrified. Well, that's what I thought. But you seem..."

"Fine?" Columbine finished for her. "I know, it was horrible listening to that evil piece of vermin, taunting me and making death plans for my husband. I was so afraid! But then when I got back here, I guess I just regained control somehow. I'm not really sure how or why. All I know is that I'm not going to let that rat harm anyone, especially not my Gonff, or my little Gonflet. I've been sitting here for a while, trying to think of a plan," she sighed.

"I'm just not sure what to do. I know my Gonff is coming, but I almost don't want him to. He doesn't know what the sea rat is planning..." Columbine shuddered, then lifted her head. "I've been thinking, and I think I have a few ideas," she paused and looked around the room, and then back at Delpa. The mouse walked over and whispered what she had been thinking into the hogwife's ear. Then she straightened up and spoke out loud. "It could get dangerous, but I have to do something. What do you think, Delpa?"

The hedgehog nodded. "It certainly could get dangerous, but if you feel that you have to do something, I'll do everything I can to help you."

Columbine smiled at her friend. "Thank you. Now first, what I think we should do is..."

Later that night, Delpa crept carefully to Columbine's door. Knocking very lightly, she heard a whisper at the door.

"Who is it?"

Delpa answered, "It's me, Delpa. I've got what we need."

Columbine silently opened the door, ushered her friend in, and closed it again just as quietly. Speaking softly, she gestured to her sleeping son. "We must try not to wake Gonflet. I think the less he knows about this the better, at least for now. You said you brought what we need?"

Delpa nodded and opened her cloak, revealing several knives and a few other kitchen utensils. "I'm not sure how much help these will be, and I wasn't sure exactly what to bring. I just grabbed anything that was sharp or good for digging, or both."

Columbine patted her friend reassuringly. "You did well, my friend. We won't actually start tonight, because someone might hear us. I'll start tomorrow. When the crew is moving and talking, there'll be more noise and less of a chance of someone hearing." She glanced at her friend. "It's late. You should go back and get some sleep. Try to drop by tomorrow whenever you can, but don't do anything that could put you in any danger. Be careful."

Delpa laughed nervously. "Me? You're the one who's doing the dangerous work. I'll try to stop by any chance I get. And Columbine," she looked seriously at her friend, "Please be careful, for all of our sakes."

Columbine nodded back just as seriously. "We both have to be careful."