The next morning, Martin attended his first Corim meeting.

"We need a good spy to keep us informed," Bella was saying. "If we know our enemies, we will know their weaknesses."

Bugs raised his paw. "I think I know a guy who'd be up for the job."

"And who would that be, yourself?" Lady Amber chuckled.

The hare shook his head. "No, I was actually thinkin' of a friend o' mine who lives in these woods. His name's Tweety Bird. Him an' me used ta be pals back in America. I recently found out he was livin' in Mossflower now. He flies all around the forest an' he can see everything that's goin' on. And he hates cats cause they're always tryin' to eat 'im. I'm sure he'd be glad to help us."

Objections flooded in.

"A bird? Why not one of our own?"

"This Tweety's not one of us; he'll want payment."

"Ah say, ah say, if we hafta use a bird, why not me, or Henry?" Foghorn Leghorn demanded.

"Well, you got wings, Doc, but they don't woik," Bugs said. "And Henry's huge. Tsarmina would see a giant chicken hawk comin' from a mile away. But Tweety's a little guy. He can fit right in the palm of my hand."

"Well, I think it's a good idea," said Martin. "What do you think, Bella?"

"From what you say, Bugs, it sounds as if no one could get closer to Kotir than Tweety. You can go and ask him if he wants to be a spy for us. If he wants payment, then so be it, we'll pay him," said Bella.

Bugs stood up. "Great! Tweety won't need much payment, but he does love candied chestnuts. Maybe we could give him a couple bags o' those."

That afternoon, Bugs went to see Tweety. Gonff and a mole called Billum went with him.

Gonff bounced a bag of chestnuts playfully between his paws. "Ha, candied chestnuts, eh, Billum? What's the good of giving these to some old bird, just for a skinny bit of spyin'? I'll bet me and you could scoff these between us and get their spyin' done for 'em easy enough."

Billum caught the bag in midair as Gonff tossed it. He crinkled his velvet face in a deep chuckle.

"Ho hurr hurr! Liddle wunner they send Oi t'keep watch on ee, you'm a villyen, Maister Gonff. Keepen ee paws outen ee chesknutters, or Oi tells Miz Bell offen ee."

Gonff threw up his paws in mock horror and ran to catch up with Bugs, complaining aloud. "The nerve of Billum! Fancy not trusting honest old Gonff- me, that was sent on this mission specially to keep an eye out for greedy moles. I'll bet I end up getting scragged by you lot, trying to keep those chestnuts safe. There's no room for an honest thief these days."

Bugs grinned, but held up his paw for silence. "Shh. This is Tweety's home." He pointed at a long dead elm covered in ivy. "We don't wanna scare 'im off. Let me do the talkin'."

He rapped on the trunk of the elm and shouted up toward a hole made by a broken branch, "Hey, Tweety Boid! C'mon out. It's me, Bugs Bunny."

There was no response. Bugs tried again. "C'mon, Tweety, we know you're in there. What's up, Doc? Don't ya want some candied chestnuts?"

Billum opened the bag and selected a large nut. "Harr, may'aps you were roight, Gonffen. Us'ns could ate chesknutters an' do ee job ourselfs."

The mole popped the dark sugar glazed nut into his mouth, licked the sweetness from his digging claws and chomped away with an expression of rapture on his homely face. "Umff, gurr, oo arr, mmmmm!"

Bugs and Gonff took chestnuts too and popped them into their own mouths, imitating perfectly the mole speech and gesture. "Hurr, oo arr, Billum, these yurr be furst clarss chesknutters."

"Hoo arr, that they be."

"I taut I taw somebody eating candied chestnuts!" a voice exclaimed from above. They looked up. A yellow bird was sitting in a nearby rowan tree. Tweety hadn't been inside his house at all!

"I did see somebody eating candied chestnuts!"

Gonff spat his nut out into his hand. "You can have this one back if you want."

"Ew, no. Why would I want dat when it's been in your mouth?"

Bugs got right down to business. "Glad ta see ya, Doc. Now listen, I need a favor from ya. I guess you know about all the trouble we've been havin' with Queen Tsarmina over in Kotir. We need to find out what she's up to, if she's makin' plans to attack us or anything like that."

"So ya want me ta go over there an' spy on da puddy tat for ya?" Tweety asked.

"That's right. If ya do it, we'll give ya one bag o' chestnuts now and another one after ya bring back your information. Whaddya say, Doc?"

"Hmm, I dunno. Queen Puddy Tat might eat me. Dat puts a certain amount of wisk on my espionage activities."

Gonff nodded in agreement. "I guess it does. Tell you what. If you get eaten, we'll double your fee. How about that?"

Tweety laughed. "If I got eaten, there'd be no need ta double my fee! But I'll help ya out anyway, cause you're my pal, Bugs."

"So we got a deal?" Bugs asked.

"Yeah, yeah, we got a deal. Gimme my nuts."

Bugs tossed the bag up to Tweety. As the three friends walked away, they could see the bird was already stuffing nuts in his beak.

"Burr, that burd sure loves puttin' nuts in his mouth," Billum observed.