The words were frozen on his lips, for just then he saw the wolf looking, looking straight at him. The other rabbits did not see the wolf, but Cock-Eye did and he didn't dare to breathe.
Then happened the most extraordinary thing. Through sheer fear, the Boaster jumped up like a rubber ball, fell on the wide forehead of the wolf, rolled over his back, turned a somersault in the air, landed on his feet, and ran as if he were trying to run out of his skin.
Long, long did the unfortunate rabbit run. It seemed to him the wolf was right behind him and that in another moment he would feel the wolf's fangs. The poor limp rabbit ran on until he had no strength left and finally he closed his eyes and fell under a bush, dead with weariness.
Meanwhile, the wolf was running in another direction. When the rabbit fell on his forehead, the wolf thought he had been hit by a gun shot and he ran away as fast as he could, saying to himself, "There are plenty of other rabbits in the forest. This one seems quite crazy anyway and not fit to eat."
Now for a long time the other rabbits did not realize what had happened. Some ran into the bushes, some hid behind stumps, others crawled into their holes. After a while they grew tired of hiding and little by little, they crept out and looked around.
Then said one, "Our rabbit certainly scared that wolf. If it had not been for him, few of us would have escaped alive. But where is he, our Fearless One?"
And everyone began looking for him. They looked everywhere, but Cock-Eye was nowhere to be found. They began to think the Gray Wolf had eaten him up, when they discovered him, lying in a hole under a bush, almost dead from fear.