THE BADGER 65 



be pulled tight by the force of his rush, and there he 

 will be like a pig in a poke. The string of the bag is 

 secured, of course, to a peg. Having arranged all this 

 to his own satisfaction, Jim picks up the large sack 

 he had two, a large and a small walks out of the 

 hollow on to the moonlit greensward, and hoots like 

 a brown owl, three times. After this musical effort 

 he stands quite still, and listens intently, but for some 

 time the humming jar of the fern-owl, chur-chur-er-er- 

 er-er-chur, is the only sound that reaches his ear. 

 Suddenly he places his empty sack on the ground 

 beside him, and is on the alert, for a sound of quickly 

 moving feet at a distance makes itself heard. He 

 knows what that means : Ginger and Nipper are close 

 on the badger's track ; and like the well-bred, well- 

 trained little fox terriers that they are, they run him 

 mute, save for the mere ghost of a whimper now and 

 again, just enough to show they are eager to close 

 with the poor beast. 



That, however, is far from the keeper's intention ; 

 he would not let his two little beauties, game though 

 they are, close with such a desperate antagonist as an 

 old dog badger, if he could help it ; for he knows well 

 enough that dogs and badger would fight to the death. 

 His plan is that they shall drive him to his burrow, 

 and into the sack. 



F 



