144 Badgers. [Sess. | 
and no sounds were audible except those of nature—the loud 
hooting of the owl, the sighing breeze, the tinkling of cascades _ 
in the brook flowing down the glen, and the bleating in the — 
distance of sheep which had evidently been disturbed by the ; 
keepers and terriers, 
The moon disappeared beneath the horizon, and the inky q 
darkness was almost palpable to the touch. I am not 
ashamed to confess that I was terribly frightened, but as time 
wore on I must have become somewhat reconciled to the 
situation, as I fell sound asleep. How long I slept I know 
not, but I awoke shivering with cold. Presently I heard a 
rustle among the grass and leaves, and a low grunting noise. 
1 sprang to my feet and screamed with terror. My doing so 
was the means of frightening a badger, which bolted for the 
hole, and immediately the tugging string gave indications of 
his entanglement in the sack. I have since frequently heard 
badgers emitting that low grunting noise when they happened 
to pass in the darkness, but whether they do so only when 
they suspect danger I am not prepared to state. What was to 
be done? I dared not go near the sack, as I had some idea of 
the terrible teeth of badgers from wounds inflicted on the 
terriers in previous fights. I held on to the string and yelled 
at the pitch of my voice for assistance, but got no response 
except the echo from the opposite side of the glen. To have 
run away would have been arrant cowardice, so I cut the 
string from the branch and rolled it round my arm till I got 
near the sack. I knew the running noose would secure the 
mouth of the sack, and as I got near I found most of the sack 
in the burrow with the mouth kept outwards by the string. 
With considerable difficulty I pulled sack and badger out, 
taking care to tightly twist the sack, till I got the badger in 
the bottom, unable to move. I then threw him over my 
back and made tracks for home, leaving the other sacks in 
the positions we had placed them. On the way home I felt 
like Robinson Crusoe after seeing the footprints in the sand. 
I took every bush I saw for a man or a ghost. As I 
proceeded the clock on the stable tower struck three, and I 
knew that I must have slept for some hours. Where by this 
time were the keepers with the terriers? I had forgotten 
about them in my sleep, and events since I awoke had driven 
