230 STUBBS THE BADGER 
But the master, who was young and very foolish, 
said : ' This is too far away to join the big " earth." ' 
' Them badgers would dig down to hell itself/ 
said Magragh. But the master would have none 
of it, and called again for a dog. 
Now Rip, the kennel terrier of the Carkenny 
pack, was as game and eke as disreputable a little 
cur as ever ran with hounds. His rough coat was 
pepper and salt, and his right ear was pricked, but 
the left had drooped down ever since it had been 
torn in a great fight which he had with an old dog- 
fox in Kiltorkan rocks. But he was a bold little 
terrier and went straight into the ' earth ' after 
Greybrush. 
Stubbs was awakened by a smell of fox. Smells 
do not awaken human beings as a rule, but a badger's 
nose is exquisite, and is always alert, even when its 
owner is asleep. Since the fox had come to the ' earth ' 
this was not an uncommon occurrence ; as a rule 
Stubbs growled in his dreams and lay still, but 
to-day his ear caught the sound of scuffling close 
at hand, and he stood up. The burrow was pitch 
dark, and the narrow passages carried sound like a 
telephone, but overhead Stubbs heard or rather 
felt mysterious thuds. Grunter, quick to take 
alarm, cowered down at the back of the chamber with 
the moss heaped over her back, but the hair along 
Stubbs' spine rose, and he went out to investigate. 
