After a few minutes, Groundsel came back and said, "General Woundwort will see ye now."
"Who is this general?" Kyle whispered to Stan.
"Guess we'll find out," Stan answered.
"Come on," said Captain Campion. "Foller me."
Campion led Stan and Kyle down a tunnel to another burrow. There was only one rabbit inside this burrow. He was almost as big as a hare and he only had one eye. There was something about his mere presence that frightened Stan, as if blood and fighting and killing were all just part of the day's work to him. He had a white stick in his mouth. Stan had seen sticks of this kind in men's mouths before, but never in the mouth of a rabbit. This was General Woundwort, ruler of the warren Efrafa!
"Wot are yer names?" Woundwort demanded.
"I'm Stan and this is Kyle," said Stan.
Woundwort's eye fixed Stan with a piercing glare. "Tell me, Stan, you ever kill anythin'?"
This question took Stan by surprise. It was not the sort of question rabbits typically asked each other. "I don't think so. Well, I might have accidentally killed a bug or two by stepping on 'em…"
"That's about wot I thought," said Woundwort. "I'm goin' ter explain the rules o' this warren an' the conditions on which ye'll live here. Ye must lissen carefully, because the rules are t'be kept an' any breakin' of 'em will be punished."
"Well, actually, sir," Stan began, "We're already in a…"
"Be silent!" General Woundwort shouted. "Only speak when yer told to. My name is General Woundwort. I'm the Chief Rabbit here. Then under me are the captains, each one in charge of a Mark. Each captain has 'is own officers an' sentries that take orders from them, an' they all take orders from me! There's a Mark captain wid 'is band on duty at every time o' the day an' night. Ye can allus tell which rabbits belong ter which mark, because they all have a scar on a certain part of their body. Fer example, the rabbits in the Right Flank Mark all have scars on their right flanks. No one is permitted ter be above ground when it ain't the appointed time fer their Mark." He paused. "Do either of ye have any questions?"
"I have one," Kyle said. "Have you seen a baby bunny named Ike around here?"
"Yew two are the only outsiders we've spotted in Efrafa today," Campion answered curtly.
"Wait a minute," said Stan. "Why should we have to join your warren? We didn't mean to come here. We just happened to wander in."
"Well, that's too bad fer yew," Woundwort answered. "We have a rule that any stray rabbits we find must be picked up an' brought back here. We've gotta bolster our population somehow, after all." He looked at Stan curiously. "You an' yer friend are the first newcomers we've had in a long time, though. Ye must have come from far away. Wot brought ye here?"
"We had to leave our old warren because men destroyed it," Stan explained, and he told the story of how the humans had sprayed poison gas in the tunnels to kill the rabbits. But he made it sound as if he, Kyle and Ike had been the only survivors, because he didn't want Woundwort knowing about the rest of his friends. Otherwise, the General might try to capture them and bring them to Efrafa. He wouldn't have even mentioned Ike, but Kyle had already brought him up. "Last night, Kyle's brother wandered off while we were sleeping," he concluded. "So, we went looking for him, and that's how we ended up here."
"Well, now yer stuck here fer the rest o' yer natural lives," said Woundwort. "An' if'n we find this brother o' yers, he'll have to come live here too."
"But that's not fair!" Kyle protested.
Woundwort grinned evilly. "Ye might come to find out ye like livin' in Efrafa. Might toughen you up. From the sound o' yer tale, ye need toughenin'. Imagine lettin' a bunch o' dirty humans destroy yer home. If anyone tried t'do that to us, we'd just find out where they kept the gas an' use it on them!" He pretended to take a puff of the cigarette in his mouth. There was a garbage dump near Efrafa, and Woundwort often went there to collect used cigarettes. He couldn't really smoke because he had no way to light them, but he liked putting them in his mouth anyway. It made him feel powerful. "Tomorrow, ye'll be joinin' the Right Flank Mark commanded by Captain Bugloss. Right now, Captain Campion here will show ye to yer sleepin' quarters."