HOW I BECAME AN OUTLAW 317 



barking on a rocky bank not thirty yards away. I 

 naturally went to the spot, and found the little bitch 

 and my own two dogs at the mouth of a badger-earth. 

 Whether the animal was surprised in making a new 

 abode or not I cannot say, but the fact is it was not 

 a foot from the surface, and in its rushes upon the 

 dogs it exposed its head to view every minute. I 

 left the dogs there and made for the chateau, then 

 about a mile away. As soon as I had reached it 

 I took my gun and two cartridges (one buckshot and 

 one ball) and returned to the scene of action. I 

 found matters there, as I had expected, unchanged. 

 The next time the grey-and-white stripped head 

 appeared, I let drive with the buckshot. Contrary to 

 my expectation, the badger at once bolted, and, going 

 to the left, made for a second earth higher up, with 

 the dogs in hot pursuit. As it crossed a very steep 

 bank its powers failed it, and it rolled to the bottom. 

 A terrific worry ensued. At last the badger broke 

 away and passed me, giving me an opportunity to 

 make a bad miss at five yards' range with a ball. The 

 dogs soon closed again, but the difficulty now was to 

 despatch the brute. Finally it succumbed. It was 

 an enormous and very old female, almost toothless. 

 To this last circumstance I attribute the dogs escap- 

 ing with as little injury as they did. I secured its 

 legs with my gun-sling and started for home, but 

 before I had gone very far I found the weight in- 

 tolerable, so at one of the first cottages I reached 

 I chartered a man wnth a barrow, and we proceeded 

 triumphantly through the town. I made no secret of 

 the matter in any way, and even sent for a local 

 butcher to skin the beast. Herewith I supposed the 

 matter to be at an end. 



