by Colin Dann
Badger looked at Mole knowingly. ‘What do you think, Mole?’ he asked.
‘Oh, I shouldn’t think there could be any complaint about that,’ he surmised.
‘Then we’d better leave at once,’ Badger said immediately. They had found the excuse they needed.
‘We’ll collect Weasel on the way,’ he said. ‘And as many of the others as possible.’
Hare voiced doubts about Tawny Owl.
‘Oh no, we can’t leave Owl out,’ Badger said loyally. ‘You leave him to me. He won’t do anything rash, I’m sure.’
Mole took up his old travelling position on Badger’s back and the three animals set off. Weasel made the party four in number and then the ranks were later swelled by Hedgehog, Rabbit and Squirrel. Tawny Owl was soon located and they all had a welcome surprise when Kestrel came swooping down towards them, having spotted the party from the air.
‘I thought something was afoot,’ he remarked when Badger had explained all. ‘I’ll fly on ahead and see if I can find Fox and family.’
The animals felt something of their old spirit of camaraderie returning as they went along, and they recalled their many adventures together on their long journey to the Park. At that time they had been united by a common desire to reach safety in a new home. Now, again, they had joined together in a new crisis. The safety of their old leader, Fox, in the new home was threatened and it was their duty to support him.
They arrived at the spot where Adder had encountered Hare, but the snake was no longer to be seen.
‘He’s probably concealed himself somewhere,’ suggested Weasel. ‘Adder was never one to admit to a community spirit. He always preferred an individual approach.’
‘But he was never one to be found wanting in times of danger,’ Badger asserted. ‘I’ shouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t accompanying Fox and Vixen. They must have passed this way.’
The return of Kestrel brought them further news. ‘Fox and Vixen are on the other side of the stream,’ he told them, ‘with the two other cubs. They’ve seen and heard nothing and they are proceeding very cautiously indeed.’
‘Was Adder with them?’ Mole enquired.
‘No. No sign of him,’ the hawk replied.
‘He’s probably sleeping somewhere like the sensible creature he is,’ Tawny Owl observed and yawned. ‘Best thing to do when the sun’s up.’
‘Adder never really sleeps,’ said Mole. ‘Not like we do. He’s got no eyelids.’ He giggled.
‘We all have our own features, Mole,’ Badger pointed out. ‘Adder might make a joke of your short-sightedness.’
Mole fell silent. He had been touched on a raw spot.
Tawny Owl was still yawning. ‘Dear me,’ he remarked. ‘I didn’t realize I was so tired. Perhaps I should have carried on dozing. I probably won’t be of much use.’
‘I don’t know whether any of us will be of use,’ returned Badger. ‘Fox doesn’t want us to interfere. It’s really only a case of giving moral support.’
They moved on to the stream and swam across in a line, Kestrel and Tawny Owl flying overhead. Once on the other bank they fell silent. The feeling that they were entering hostile territory came over them very strongly.
Rabbit whispered: ‘Do you think there’s a lot of point in our continuing? I mean, this area is patrolled by that hideous scarfaced fox and his family and – well, Hare and I are their natural prey.’
‘You mean there’s no point in your continuing,’ Weasel emphasized dryly. ‘Well, I suppose support that is given so timidly cannot really be called support anyway.’
‘Just a moment, Weasel,’ Hare came to his cousin’s rescue for once. ‘Rabbit has a right to be timid. Hares and rabbits are no match for foxes.’
‘We haven’t seen any foxes yet,’ Weasel reminded him.
‘I can smell them,’ said Rabbit. ‘I feel as if I am walking right into their waiting jaws.’
‘There’s a nice thick bank of nettles there,’ remarked Tawny Owl. ‘Why don’t you animals hide yourselves there for a while, and Kestrel and I will do some reconnoitring?’
The animals concurred, and the two birds left them for the time safely concealed.
An eerie stillness pervaded the air – all the animals felt uneasy. Rabbit, most of all, was unable to settle.
‘It’s like the calm before the storm,’ he whispered to Hare nervously.
Squirrel ran up the trunk of the nearest tree on to a lofty branch to ‘a point of vantage’ as he put it.
Suddenly the sound of running footsteps was heard, approaching quickly. The animals peered out from the undergrowth and were amazed to see none other than Bold racing from the rear of the position they had reached, towards the stream.
Badger hailed him, and the cub halted on the bank. The animals ran towards him in a group.
‘I escaped,’ he panted. ‘I’m too fast for them.’ His shoulder was a little bloody. Bold discounted it. ‘There was a bit of a scuffle,’ he explained. ‘Things really looked dangerous for a time. I’ve run hard – I must have a rest.’
Badger and Weasel led him to the nettle-patch.
‘I’ll just take a breather,’ said the cub, ‘and then I’ll tell you what happened.’
After a minute or two, Bold was more composed. He explained how he had become surrounded by Scarface and his tribe the previous night, and had fully expected they were going to kill him.
Mole gasped. ‘How dreadful! What have you ever done to them?’
‘Nothing,’ replied Bold, ‘except humiliate their leader on one occasion. But he has my sister’s death on his conscience. He must have thought I had come for revenge.’
‘What, against so many?’ Badger asked incredulously.
‘No, against himself.’
‘I hardly think . . .’ began Badger. ‘I mean, if your father didn’t . . .’
‘Oh, my father is too cautious,’ said Bold.
‘In the wild,’ Weasel pointed out, ‘caution is the essence of survival. In the meantime your father and the whole of your family are out looking for you in the alien territory from which you have just escaped.’
‘But we must stop them – get them back,’ urged the cub.
‘How do you propose we do that? Follow them?’ Hedgehog enquired. ‘We’re too small and too few.’
‘But I was on my own and I outwitted them,’ Bold reminded him, a trifle boastfully.
‘Well, tell us how,’ said Hare. ‘We’re still waiting to hear.’
‘Yes. Well, as I told you, I was surrounded. I was lucky it was night-time, for it was also hunting time, and it seemed that hunting was the foxes’ priority. Scarface told his henchmen to escort me to an unoccupied earth, which they did. I was then forced inside, while some of the group stood guard at each of the exits.’
‘And then?’
‘They stayed behind while the others went after their prey.’
‘How long were they gone?’ Mole asked. ‘You must have been terrified.’
‘I don’t know how long they were gone, because I knew that if I was still in that earth when they got back I would never get out alive. So their hunting was my breathing space. I started to talk to one of the animals left on guard, and managed to persuade him inside. He was not as big as I, and I made a rush at him, baring my fangs. As he sidestepped, I altered my direction in mid-career and bolted out of the exit. Once outside I skipped past the other guards and then I simply ran and ran and ran, knowing my life depended on it.’
‘How does your shoulder come to be injured?’ Badger wanted to know.
‘There was a tussle on my way back. As I was running quite blindly, as fast as I could, I ran across two foxes busy stalking their quarry. One of them made a half-hearted lunge and grazed my shoulder. I don’t think I was even recognized. I was just looked upon as a rival for their food supply.’
‘Well, you are a remarkably lucky young fellow,’ Badger observed, ‘to have reached safety again.’
‘I think my cunn
ing and fleetness of foot had something to do with it,’ Bold retorted.
Not for the first time Badger detected the note of boastfulness in Bold’s remarks.
‘Perhaps so, perhaps so,’ he conceded. ‘But because of your rashness in coming to this area in the first place you have put the lives of your family in danger and, to a lesser extent, ours also.’
‘I’m sure my father will see everyone is quite safe,’ Bold maintained.
‘But he is groping in the dark, so to speak, isn’t he?’ Badger remarked. ‘He doesn’t know where you are, and until he does he will continue to search for you.’
Bold’s face dropped a little. ‘Can’t we send word to him?’ he suggested.
‘But, you see, we don’t know where he is. Kestrel and Tawny Owl have gone to find him. But when they do, they still won’t know about you, will they?’
‘Oh dear,’ said Bold. ‘I do seem to have caused rather a lot of bother.’
‘You must learn to think before you act,’ Badger continued sternly. ‘That is the caution Weasel was talking about earlier.’
‘I take your point, Badger, and I apologize. Can I do anything?’
‘I don’t see that you can, any more than the rest of us until we’re more sure of the situation. We shall just have to wait here until the birds return.’
‘I bet there were some recriminations when Scarface returned from hunting and found you gone,’ said Mole. ‘It’s surprising they haven’t come searching for you.’
‘They must have been diverted by the sudden appearance of Bold’s family,’ Weasel remarked. ‘In any case, they’ll probably presume that by now he’s safe back in his own territory.’
‘I feel so guilty now,’ Bold said contritely, ‘leading you all into trouble like this.’
‘Well, well,’ said Badger kindly, ‘as long as you learn your lesson from it.’
Squirrel came racing back down the tree-trunk. ‘Kestrel’s coming!’ he called to them as his small body leapt jerkily over the ground. He had scarcely rejoined the party when Kestrel landed beside them. He uttered a cry of amazement when he spotted the fox cub. ‘Goodness gracious! How are you come here?’
Badger related Bold’s story.
Kestrel glared at the cub angrily. ‘There’s your father confronting your enemy and demanding your return and all the time you’re lying here in safety,’ he screeched.
‘Where is my father?’ Bold asked the hawk hastily. ‘Is he in difficulties?’
‘You could put it that way,’ Kestrel returned scathingly. ‘Why, is he to have the good fortune of being rescued by you?’
The bird’s sarcasm was lost on Bold, who was more concerned with his family’s whereabouts. ‘Please tell me, Kestrel,’ he begged, ‘where he is – and the others, too.’
Kestrel relented a little as he recognized the real concern in the cub’s voice. ‘Your mother and sister are quite safe. They’re lying low a little way ahead. Apparently your father went ahead on his own to the enemy camp, but your brother followed him.’
‘You must get Vixen and Charmer back here with us straight away,’ said Badger. ‘Tell them Bold is safe. But surely, Scarface will have told Fox his cub is no longer with them?’ he added on a thought.
‘I don’t know what they’ve told him, but Fox and Friendly are in real peril. They’re completely surrounded by hostile animals.’
Bold gulped. ‘I must help them. I caused the trouble,’ he muttered woefully.
‘You’ll stay here with us,’ Badger said sharply. ‘When your mother and sister return, you must all go back to your den. Fox will find a way out of his predicament, I know.’ But his words belied his true feelings, and he feared for his friend’s safety.
Kestrel flew off again and soon Vixen and Charmer could be seen on the path back. Bold greeted them lavishly.
‘I told Kestrel to pass on the news to Fox,’ said Vixen. She looked at Badger worriedly. ‘How will he ever get away?’ she whispered.
‘By superior cunning,’ Mole answered confidently. ‘Scarface is not in the same league.’
Vixen smiled thinly at Mole’s attempt at cheerfulness. ‘I believe he has Owl with him,’ she said. ‘Perhaps the two of them – ’ She broke off lamely. A miserable silence followed.
Bold became more and more restless. Then, suddenly, he cried out: ‘Here’s my brother coming!’
Friendly was indeed coming, but a more woeful, dejected beast would have been hard to find. He crept up to his mother and licked her muzzle forlornly. Then he looked at Bold. ‘I’m glad to see you safe and unhurt,’ he said. ‘But we cubs and our mother are only allowed to be so at the expense of our father.’
All the animals began talking at once. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘What’s happened?’ ‘Is he dead?’ ‘What have they done to him?’ came the cries.
Friendly looked at them all expressionlessly. ‘So that I might go free, Fox has offered himself to the enemy to do with him what they will.’
‘What will they do? Oh, this is too awful,’ cried the anguished Vixen in despair. ‘Friendly, you should have stayed with your father,’ she moaned.
‘I wanted to,’ muttered her offspring, ‘but he insisted-he ordered me away.’
‘And Owl? Kestrel? Are they with him?’ Vixen wailed.
‘Oh yes,’ he replied. ‘The birds will stay with him. But what can they do amongst a dozen or so hostile foxes?’
‘A dozen!’ all the animals cried, looking from one to the other in horror, each one hoping another would make some sort of suggestion. Bold looked sicker and sicker with each passing minute. His sturdy form seemed to wilt as he felt the full impact of his recklessness.
Badger, as nominal leader, knew that it must be he who should make a decision. Yet what could he decide? The little band of friends was outnumbered and outmatched to a hopeless degree by a dozen foxes. He pondered miserably. The other animals found themselves, one by one, looking towards him for guidance.
Badger stood up and shook himself, trying to assume an expression of resolve. ‘Well, my friends, we seem to be in a pretty pickle,’ he said. ‘We can’t go forward and attack in the hope of freeing Fox, because we’d simply be hastening our own ends. Rabbits and squirrels and moles are not much of a test for an army of foxes. No, we can’t risk anything like that. So I don’t see any point in our remaining here; it would be far better to return to our homes while we can.’
The other animals looked at him in astonishment. ‘We can’t just abandon him, Badger,’ said Weasel.
‘No, no. I shall go to them. A supposed show of force would only antagonize. They must know me as a reasonable sort of fellow and I shall go along with the argument that they owe Fox something for his efforts last winter in ridding the Park of poachers.’
‘That could be more of a hindrance than a help,’ warned Weasel. ‘Don’t you remember how the poachers shot some foxes in the hope that one of them might be our Fox – because he caused so much annoyance? Scarface might argue that Fox had been responsible for these deaths rather than doing anyone a service.’
But Badger was not to be put off. ‘At any rate,’ he insisted, ‘he was responsible for the capture of the poachers in the end by the Warden – and that was certainly a serviceable act for all the Park creatures. And, you see, I’m getting on in years now, and if anything should go wrong it’s far better that it fall on my head rather than any of yours. You’ve got families or are still young and – ’
‘Oh, Badger!’ cried Mole. ‘Let me come! Don’t go alone. Foxes won’t bother with me. I’m of no account. I can’t bear to think that anything might happen to you!’
Badger smiled at his adoring friend. ‘No, Mole, old fellow, it wouldn’t do. I’m very touched, but – well, I should be worrying about you all the time and that would be a bit of a hindrance, really, wouldn’t it?’
Mole knew there was no answer to that argument.
‘Now, everyone,’ Badger went on. ‘Please, all of you, go back home. Fox and I will
come back all right – you’ll see. Friendly, you’d better give me directions.’
This done, the brave old creature smiled shyly at them all and shambled away, leaving them to watch his disappearance almost before they had begun to accept it. It was in all their minds that, now both of their accepted leaders had placed themselves at risk, who in future would speak for the animals of Farthing Wood should anything untoward occur?
Such was Badger’s faith in Fox’s abilities that he became more confident as he trotted along, thinking his thoughts. He had no doubts that Fox could outwit his opponent, given the opportunity. He also found it difficult to imagine even the unpleasant Scarface exhorting his clan to tear Fox to shreds in cold blood. His methods were usually of a secretive nature – a surprise attack, catching the victim unawares. He recalled how he himself with Tawny Owl had thwarted Scarface at Fox’s earth when the cubs had been much younger, and so had probably been blessed with his enmity ever since. But he was not afraid. Like all the animals of Farthing Wood, Badger was used to being on his guard – a habit induced by the greater dangers that had prevailed in their old home. So he was quite unprepared for the scene he found before him when he arrived at the spot.
Under a solitary Scots Pine, on which perched Tawny Owl and Kestrel, sat a very calm looking Fox. Facing him, and some yard or two away, stood Scarface and his assorted dependents. They were standing quite still. The space in the middle, between the two groups, was occupied by none other than the Great Stag, the leader of the White Deer herd which gave the Park its name. He seemed to be addressing all of them. No one noticed Badger coming along, so he too sat down a little way off, but near enough to hear what the Stag was saying . . .
‘In my view all the inhabitants of the Reserve owe something to the animals who came here from Farthing Wood. The humans who came poaching last winter amongst my herd were a danger to all creatures, not just us deer, and it was due to Fox’s bravery and resourcefulness, more than anything else, that the Park was finally rid of them.’
