Fox's Feud (6 page)

‘I bet there were some recriminations when Scarface returned from hunting and found you gone,’ said Mole. ‘It’s surprising they haven’t come searching for you.’

‘They must have been diverted by the sudden appearance of Bold’s family,’ Weasel remarked. ‘In any case, they’ll probably presume that by now he’s safe back in his own territory.’

‘I feel so guilty now,’ Bold said contritely, ‘leading you all into trouble like this.’

‘Well, well,’ said Badger kindly, ‘as long as you learn your lesson from it.’

Squirrel came racing back down the tree-trunk. ‘Kestrel’s coming!’ he called to them as his small body leapt jerkily over the ground. He had scarcely rejoined the party when Kestrel landed beside them. He uttered a cry of amazement when he spotted the fox cub. ‘Goodness gracious! How are you come here?’

Badger related Bold’s story.

Kestrel glared at the cub angrily. ‘There’s your father confronting your enemy and demanding your return and all the time you’re lying here in safety,’ he screeched.

‘Where
is
my father?’ Bold asked the hawk hastily. ‘Is he in difficulties?’

‘You could put it that way,’ Kestrel returned scathingly. ‘Why, is he to have the good fortune of being rescued by you?’

The bird’s sarcasm was lost on Bold, who was more concerned with his family’s whereabouts. ‘Please tell me, Kestrel,’ he begged, ‘where he is – and the others, too.’

Kestrel relented a little as he recognized the real concern in the cub’s voice. ‘Your mother and sister are quite safe. They’re lying low a little way ahead. Apparently your father went ahead on his own to the enemy camp, but your brother followed him.’

‘You must get Vixen and Charmer back here with us straight away,’ said Badger. ‘Tell them Bold is safe. But surely, Scarface will have told Fox his cub is no longer with them?’ he added on a thought.

‘I don’t know what they’ve told him, but Fox and Friendly are in real peril. They’re completely surrounded by hostile animals.’

Bold gulped. ‘I
must
help them. I caused the trouble,’ he muttered woefully.

‘You’ll stay here with us,’ Badger said sharply. ‘When your mother and sister return, you must all go back to your den. Fox will find a way out of his predicament, I know.’ But his words belied his true feelings, and he feared for his friend’s safety.

Kestrel flew off again and soon Vixen and Charmer could be seen on the path back. Bold greeted them lavishly.

‘I told Kestrel to pass on the news to Fox,’ said Vixen. She looked at Badger worriedly. ‘How will he ever get away?’ she whispered.

‘By superior cunning,’ Mole answered confidently. ‘Scarface is not in the same league.’

Vixen smiled thinly at Mole’s attempt at cheerfulness. ‘I believe he has Owl with him,’ she said. ‘Perhaps the two of them – ’ She broke off lamely. A miserable silence followed.

Bold became more and more restless. Then, suddenly, he cried out: ‘Here’s my brother coming!’

Friendly was indeed coming, but a more woeful, dejected beast would have been hard to find. He crept up
to his mother and licked her muzzle forlornly. Then he looked at Bold. ‘I’m glad to see you safe and unhurt,’ he said. ‘But we cubs and our mother are only allowed to be so at the expense of our father.’

All the animals began talking at once. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘What’s happened?’ ‘Is he dead?’ ‘What have they done to him?’ came the cries.

Friendly looked at them all expressionlessly. ‘So that I might go free, Fox has offered himself to the enemy to do with him what they will.’

‘What
will
they do? Oh, this is too awful,’ cried the anguished Vixen in despair. ‘Friendly, you should have stayed with your father,’ she moaned.

‘I wanted to,’ muttered her offspring, ‘but he insisted-he ordered me away.’

‘And Owl? Kestrel? Are they with him?’ Vixen wailed.

‘Oh yes,’ he replied. ‘The birds will stay with him. But what can they do amongst a dozen or so hostile foxes?’

‘A dozen!’ all the animals cried, looking from one to the other in horror, each one hoping another would make some sort of suggestion. Bold looked sicker and sicker with each passing minute. His sturdy form seemed to wilt as he felt the full impact of his recklessness.

Badger, as nominal leader, knew that it must be he who should make a decision. Yet what could he decide? The little band of friends was outnumbered and outmatched to a hopeless degree by a dozen foxes. He pondered miserably. The other animals found themselves, one by one, looking towards him for guidance.

Badger stood up and shook himself, trying to assume an expression of resolve. ‘Well, my friends, we seem to be in a pretty pickle,’ he said. ‘We can’t go forward and attack in the hope of freeing Fox, because we’d simply be hastening our own ends. Rabbits and squirrels and moles are not much of a test for an army of foxes. No, we can’t
risk anything like that. So I don’t see any point in our remaining here; it would be far better to return to our homes while we can.’

The other animals looked at him in astonishment. ‘We can’t just abandon him, Badger,’ said Weasel.

‘No, no.
I
shall go to them. A supposed show of force would only antagonize. They must know me as a reasonable sort of fellow and I shall go along with the argument that they owe Fox something for his efforts last winter in ridding the Park of poachers.’

‘That could be more of a hindrance than a help,’ warned Weasel. ‘Don’t you remember how the poachers shot some foxes in the hope that one of them might be our Fox – because he caused so much annoyance? Scarface might argue that Fox had been responsible for these deaths rather than doing anyone a service.’

But Badger was not to be put off. ‘At any rate,’ he insisted, ‘he
was
responsible for the capture of the poachers in the end by the Warden – and that was certainly a serviceable act for all the Park creatures. And, you see, I’m getting on in years now, and if anything should go wrong it’s far better that it fall on my head rather than any of yours. You’ve got families or are still young and – ’

‘Oh, Badger!’ cried Mole. ‘Let me come! Don’t go alone. Foxes won’t bother with me. I’m of no account. I can’t bear to think that anything might happen to you!’

Badger smiled at his adoring friend. ‘No, Mole, old fellow, it wouldn’t do. I’m very touched, but – well, I should be worrying about you all the time and that would be a bit of a hindrance, really, wouldn’t it?’

Mole knew there was no answer to that argument.

‘Now, everyone,’ Badger went on. ‘Please, all of you, go back home. Fox and I
will
come back all right – you’ll see. Friendly, you’d better give me directions.’

This done, the brave old creature smiled shyly at them all and shambled away, leaving them to watch his disappearance almost before they had begun to accept it. It was in all their minds that, now both of their accepted leaders had placed themselves at risk, who in future would speak for the animals of Farthing Wood should anything untoward occur?

Such was Badger’s faith in Fox’s abilities that he became more confident as he trotted along, thinking his thoughts. He had no doubts that Fox could outwit his opponent, given the opportunity. He also found it difficult to imagine even the unpleasant Scarface exhorting his clan to tear Fox to shreds in cold blood. His methods were usually of a secretive nature – a surprise attack, catching the victim unawares. He recalled how he himself with Tawny Owl had thwarted Scarface at Fox’s earth when the cubs had been much younger, and so had probably been blessed with his enmity ever since. But he was not afraid. Like all the animals of Farthing Wood, Badger was used to being on his guard – a habit induced by the greater dangers that had prevailed in their old
home. So he was quite unprepared for the scene he found before him when he arrived at the spot.

Under a solitary Scots Pine, on which perched Tawny Owl and Kestrel, sat a very calm looking Fox. Facing him, and some yard or two away, stood Scarface and his assorted dependents. They were standing quite still. The space in the middle, between the two groups, was occupied by none other than the Great Stag, the leader of the White Deer herd which gave the Park its name. He seemed to be addressing all of them. No one noticed Badger coming along, so he too sat down a little way off, but near enough to hear what the Stag was saying . . .

‘In my view all the inhabitants of the Reserve owe something to the animals who came here from Farthing Wood. The humans who came poaching last winter amongst my herd were a danger to all creatures, not just us deer, and it was due to Fox’s bravery and resourcefulness, more than anything else, that the Park was finally rid of them.’

‘Not without some loss of life to my clan,’ Scarface growled.

‘We too lost some of our numbers,’ the Stag reminded him. ‘And the toll could have been a lot higher on all sides had those men not been stopped.’

Scarface was silent. No animal cared to gainsay the inherent authority of the Great White Stag. The other foxes sat pensively, as if digesting the words they had heard. Badger wandered over to his friends by the pine tree.

‘Er – I think now would be a good time to leave,’ he whispered, and turned to give a greeting to the Stag. Fox nodded, and the two began to walk back along the path without exchanging further words. The two birds waited a little before they followed. The Stag seemed to feel the scene was at a close and made his exit.

Badger turned once as he and Fox proceeded quietly on their way. Scarface had remained motionless, an almost baffled expression on his face. He appeared to be conscious that somehow he had been outwitted, without quite realizing how this had been achieved. His dependents, to the last animal, watched him curiously as if waiting for a reaction. Meanwhile Badger and Fox were putting themselves at a safe distance.

‘Well,’ said Badger finally, ‘the Great Stag’s presence certainly saved the day. How did he come to be involved?’

‘More by luck than judgement,’ replied Fox. ‘It was uncanny in a way. Quite suddenly he just materialized on the scene.’

‘Did Kestrel fetch him perhaps?’

‘No, no. The birds seemed as surprised as everyone else at his arrival.’

‘There’s more to this than meets the eye,’ Badger rejoined, and fell to musing as they went along. No more was spoken on the subject for the time.

Their friends had all moved on from the earlier hiding-place and, as Fox was, naturally, still concerned for his family, Tawny Owl and Kestrel flew on to tell Vixen all were safe. Fox and Badger re-crossed the brook and, once on the other side, began to feel their relief. As they breasted their way through the long grass, a familiar figure reared up in their path. It was Adder.

There was something of a self-satisfied look in his expression that the preoccupied Fox did not at once notice. But Badger recognized it all right. ‘Hallo,’ he said knowingly. ‘Do I detect the missing link in the recent chain of events?’

Fox looked a little puzzled as the snake’s favourite leer was directed at Badger.

‘How pleasant to see you both,’ Adder hissed non-committally.
‘This is developing into quite a parade. I’ve just watched the whole of the Farthing Wood community go past me.’

‘Yes, indeed,’ said Badger. ‘And I know that the deer herd often go up to the stream there to drink. Perhaps you’ve seen
them
today too?’

‘Aha!’ cried Fox who had now got the thread of things. ‘So you’re the culprit, Adder!’

‘Oh, I’m quite innocent in all respects,’ Adder replied with feigned indifference. ‘I often feel we snakes have a quite undeserved reputation for a sort of low cunning.’

‘No, my friend, there is nothing low about you,’ said Fox, ‘apart, of course, from your necessary adaptation to life.’

Badger chuckled at the allusion, while Adder broadened his leer still further.

‘Once again, I believe I am indebted to you,’ Fox told him. ‘But the result of my recent encounter will probably mean we shall all have to be even more cautious in the future.’

‘I think one young creature has learnt his lesson today, at any rate,’ Badger ventured to say.

‘I’m sure he has,’ Fox agreed. ‘When I see him I shan’t feel it necessary to raise the subject any further.’

Adder began to glide away.

‘Before you go, Adder,’ Fox called, ‘where can we find you if we need you again?’

‘I shall be within walking distance,’ said the snake enigmatically. And Fox knew that that was the most he could get out of him.

‘He saw the Stag all right,’ Badger said as they continued on their way, ‘and sent him in the general direction of the Scarface territory.’

‘Yes,’ said Fox. ‘He’d hate to be counted reliable, but that’s exactly what he is.’

From there it was not long before the two animals reached their homes. Badger went to his set, leaving Fox to be re-united with his family. A very humble Bold was the first to welcome him. Fox’s only remark to him was: ‘A little too much too soon, young fellow.’