188 STUBBS THE BADGER 
watched the light fade from the surrounding bushes. 
The bats hawked to and fro, and a blackbird ' chink- 
chinked ' in notes like the dripping of water. A 
rabbit came out of a hole hard by with his scut 
buttoned down, and slid away to feed, so softly that 
his footsteps never stirred the leaves ; but he did 
not see Paddy Magragh, who, in his tattered coat 
and broken boots, looked as shapeless and as 
knotted as the old stump against which he leaned. 
The woods were quite quiet but for the trickling 
of the little stream near at hand, and even the 
nibbling of the rabbit in the brambles was plainly 
audible. 
When it was so dark that the shrews could only 
be located by their voices as they squabbled in the 
dead leaves, there came a rustle at the ' earth ' 
mouth, and a striped snout was poked out. After 
the snout slid a long grey body a shadow among 
the shadows humped and clumsy, yet so silent 
that not a twig snapped under the heavy pads. 
Magragh sat with his hands clasped over his ' ash- 
plant.' The badger snuffed suspiciously, then 
waddled off by a little, well-worn path. A minute 
or two afterwards, from the stream, could be heard 
the sound of water lapped down a thirsty throat. 
Paddy was wise. He sat for another ten minutes. 
The silence grew more tense and the darkness 
