The Farthing Wood Collection 1 (23 page)

Badger looked away, a little shamefaced, at this pointed rejoinder. But he would not turn back. ‘I wish you all well,’ he said, ‘but when the solution to your problems was offered it was refused.
I
can’t be blamed.’

Kestrel directed one of his piercing glares at Badger and flew away resignedly. But later that day, he and Badger were due to meet again in very different circumstances.

Ginger Cat was sitting by the Warden’s fence, blinking dozily in a few brief moments of sunlight that had managed to penetrate the clouds. Badger called him as he saw him. He expected the cat to come towards him, but he did not move. He called again. ‘Hallo – it’s me – Badger!’

Ginger Cat looked at him enigmatically. ‘So I see,’ he said coolly.

Badger stopped in his tracks, completely taken aback by this most unexpected lack of enthusiasm. ‘Whatever’s the matter?’ he asked. ‘I thought you would be pleased to see me.’

‘I’m surprised to see you again at all so soon,’ murmured Ginger Cat, yawning widely.

‘But I’ve come back,’ Badger explained. ‘You know – for good.’

The cat looked at him long and steadily. ‘What do you mean – for good?’

‘I’ve made my decision, and I’m going to live with you.’

‘What
are
you talking about? You live underground, you told me.’

‘No, no, not any more. I’m finished with all that. I don’t want that sort of existence. I’ve left my old friends because they wouldn’t come with me.’

‘Of course they wouldn’t,’ Ginger Cat said. ‘I never expected them to. I thought all those pie-in-the-sky ideas of yours would be forgotten once you’d got back to your real home.’

These last words really jarred on Badger’s sensibility. ‘But I have a new home now … or I thought I had,’ he faltered. ‘Don’t you remember, we talked about the Warden looking after Fox and Mole and everyone?’

‘Indeed I do,’ the cat answered. ‘But I would have been astonished in the extreme if your wild friends chose of their own accord to leave their homes. Would
you
have come here if you hadn’t been brought?’

‘Er – no, I suppose not,’ Badger admitted. ‘But that doesn’t matter.
I’ve
chosen this way of life.’

‘How convenient for you,’ Ginger Cat observed bitingly.

‘
Aren’t
you pleased to see me?’ the bewildered Badger cried. ‘I thought we were friends.’

‘Oh yes,’ the cat shrugged. ‘But we were forced into each other’s company, after all. One makes the most of a situation.’

‘Well – er – aren’t you going to invite me in?’ Badger asked hesitantly.

‘You’re too bulky to go through my cat flap,’ Ginger Cat pointed out. ‘You’ll have to wait for the man to find you. But I don’t think you’ll get the reaction you want from him. He looked after you until you were well again and, in his view, you should now be living in your natural state.’

‘We’ll see about that,’ Badger answered hotly, but he was beginning to feel he had made a fool of himself. He went and sat by the front door and, as luck would have it, the Warden appeared soon after. A cry of amazement escaped him as he saw his old charge looking hopefully up at him. He bent down, examined the healed leg, patted Badger, and looked at him in a puzzled way for a moment. Then he seemed to think of something and turned back inside. Badger immediately tried to follow him, but the Warden kindly, but firmly, pushed him back and shut the door. Badger was heart-broken.

‘You see,’ Ginger Cat’s soft voice purred at him. ‘He doesn’t want you any more. Oh, he’ll probably bring you a bowl of food in a minute or two. He imagines you’ve come for that. But your home is not his cottage any more.’

The realization of his stupidity flashed into Badger’s mind in a blinding flood of light. What a miscalculation he had made!
He
was not a domestic animal. How could he have thought he understood human ways? Both the cat and the human were on another plane of existence, in a world he could never comprehend. He had humiliated himself, and in the process he had lost the respect of the cat and, what was worse – far worse! – spurned
his real friends.

The bowl of food predicted by Ginger Cat was brought out, and a dish of warm milk with it. More to save the Warden a disappointment than because of any feeling of appetite, Badger ate and drank. Then, with a wry look at the cat, he turned back without a further word – back to his waiting set.

A short distance from the cottage he looked behind him. The Warden was not to be seen, but Ginger Cat was still sitting, watching his retreat. Badger heard a flutter of wings above and Kestrel alighted beside him.

‘Keep going, Badger,’ he told him. ‘You’re going in the right direction this time.’

Badger knew the hawk had guessed what had happened and smiled sadly at him. ‘Yes, Kestrel,’ he whispered, ‘I have indeed been a foolish creature.’

Behind them, unknown to them, Ginger Cat had spotted his enemy. Now, belly flat to the icy ground, he was creeping stealthily forward on his noiseless feet. With a tremendous spurt, he leapt on the unsuspecting hawk, teeth and claws as sharp as razors finding their mark. But Kestrel was no sparrow or blackbird. He was a hunter, a killer himself, and his powerful wings flailed, beating against his assailant, while his lethal beak darted in all directions in an attempt to strike.

Badger looked round in horror. The bird, taken unawares, was struggling desperately against the attack. Badger was hopelessly torn between his affection for the cat, albeit recently somewhat battered, and his loyalty to an old friend. He could see Kestrel’s struggles weakening and, in a trice, it was as if a veil had been lifted from his eyes. The Oath!

Badger rushed into the fray. Bringing all his considerable weight and power into the attack he fell on Ginger Cat, lunging with bared teeth at his throat. The cat let
out a scream and spat at him in fury. But the grip was loosened and Kestrel was able to free himself, flying up into the air instantly.

Now the fight was left to the two animals, and soon Badger’s superior strength began to tell. He knew the cat was at his mercy and that one snap of his jaws could kill him. His instinct told him to do it, but he held back. Although he had made the cat party to the Oath, the animal had forfeited his right to protection by attacking another of its adherents. But Badger recalled the good turn Ginger Cat had done him and now he must repay it. He stepped away, his sides heaving, and, like an arrow, the cat sped away, back to safety.

The significance of Badger’s rescue was not lost on Kestrel. ‘Welcome back to the fold,’ he screeched from the air.

‘It’s quite safe for you now,’ Badger called back. ‘Come down and let me see if you’re injured.’

Kestrel did so and Badger noticed the marks of the cat’s claws. He began to lick at his friend’s body.

‘Most obliged,’ said the hawk. ‘Thanks for your help. For just a moment I wondered if you were going to.’

‘I know,’ said Badger. ‘Oh, what a supreme idiot I’ve been. I’ve entered unknown waters and found myself out of my depth. It’s so absurd. I’d rather die
with
you all than live without you.’

‘We
won’t
die,’ Kestrel insisted. ‘It’s going to be tough, but we are tough creatures.’

‘They’re not deep scratches,’ Badger was saying. ‘They’ll soon heal.’

‘Er – Badger – why did you let the cat go?’

Badger explained.

‘I thought as much. That means I still have him after my blood.’

‘Just stay in the air in this vicinity,’ Badger told him. ‘But the cat will know why I didn’t kill him and that my debt is repaid. He has a fair nature. I don’t think he will be out for revenge any more.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ said Kestrel. ‘Well, if you hurry, you will surprise the rest of them holding forth about you in your set.’

‘I’ll see you there,’ Badger replied.

The meeting of the animals of Farthing Wood to discuss Badger’s strange behaviour and what should be done about it had not long begun when Kestrel arrived. He saw Whistler standing at the entrance to the set.

‘Are you on guard?’ he asked the heron.

‘No. My legs are too long for me to go in there.’ He pointed with his long bill to the entrance tunnel.

‘In that case,’ said Kestrel, ‘you’ll be the first to know that Badger is himself again.’ He went on to describe his rescue from Ginger Cat.

‘That
will
delight everyone,’ Whistler said. ‘You go in and tell them before Tawny Owl runs him down too much.’ He winked elaborately.

Kestrel walked into the set. As he joined the meeting,
it was evident that Tawny Owl was replying to a suggestion from someone that they should bring Badger back by force.

‘What for?’ he hooted. ‘Leave him to his own devices. He turned his back on us. Why should we bother any longer?’

‘You’re beginning to talk just like Adder,’ said Mole. ‘It would be wrong of us to desert him.’

‘That’s just what he’s done to us,’ snorted Owl.

‘Two wrongs don’t make a right,’ Mole replied, rather weakly.

‘You can all save your breath,’ Kestrel informed them. ‘Badger’s on his way back.’

They looked at him dumbfounded. Then he explained again about Badger’s change of heart and his rescue.

‘You see, Mole,’ Vixen said kindly, ‘I knew his real character would win through.’

‘Oh,
I
never lost faith in him,’ Mole declared proudly, while Tawny Owl looked rather abashed. ‘Dear Badger! So he came to help you, Kestrel?’

‘He saved my life,’ Kestrel said honestly. ‘No question about it.’

‘I’m very happy,’ said Fox. ‘I feel that this heralds an improvement in our affairs. Well, Kestrel, should we stay for him?’

‘Oh yes!’ answered Kestrel emphatically. ‘Now we’re all together. He’s depending on seeing us.’

‘So be it,’ said Fox and the animals settled down to wait patiently.

Late in the afternoon Badger greeted Whistler outside his home. He paused at the set entrance nervously, unsure of his other friends’ reception.

‘Oh, you’re a hero again,’ Whistler reassured him. ‘Kestrel has told them all about it.’

Badger smiled and, taking a deep breath, went to meet his fate.

He need not have worried. Most of the animals had not seen him since his accident and received him like a long-lost friend. Mole was in raptures, Fox and Vixen relieved, and even Tawny Owl gave him a gruff, ‘Glad to see you, Badger.’

A tacit understanding seemed to exist on both sides not to mention Badger’s recent aberration, and all was forgotten. But Badger gloomily noticed the depletion in numbers of the little band that had set out the previous spring to look for their new home. Leaving aside the absence of the hibernating hedgehogs, Toad and Adder, there were gaps in the ranks of the squirrels and the rabbits, while Vole was accompanied only by his own mate and Fieldmouse by just two others of his family. Of the rest, lean bodies and hungry eyes told their tale. Only Mole, apart from himself, seemed unchanged.

Fox followed Badger’s gaze. ‘The winter has not left us unscathed,’ he summarised.

‘No.’ Badger shook his head sadly. ‘But perhaps we should turn the meeting towards a more positive course. Unscathed we are not, but we should now plan how we can emerge from the season undefeated.’

‘For many of us that call is too late,’ Vole said bitterly.

‘Then let us resolve to lose no more,’ Badger responded.

‘There’s not a lot that can be done,’ Fox said with untypical pessimism. The winter had taken its toll of spirit, too.

‘Fox has done everything possible for him to do,’ Hare added loyally. ‘But none of us can control the weather conditions. When the entire Park lies buried under two
feet of snow, it needs more than animal ingenuity to cope with the situation.’

‘Let me tell you,’ said Badger quietly, ‘I think we really do need help from another source.’

‘Are you thinking again along the same lines we all think you are thinking?’ asked Weasel cryptically.

‘No.’ Badger replied at once. ‘Not the Warden. But I
am
thinking about human help.’ He looked round at his companions whose faces had, for the most part, dropped.

‘Only it would be help,’ he intoned slowly to emphasize his words, ‘that the humans wouldn’t know they were giving.’

‘Whatever can you mean, Badger?’ Rabbit asked.

‘Well, listen. Now it’s well-known that humans waste as much of their food as they eat. Why, then, shouldn’t we make use of what they don’t want?’

‘I could never bring myself to resort to scavenging,’ Tawny Owl said, rustling his wings importantly.

‘Don’t be pompous, Owl,’ Badger said. ‘When the other choice is starvation you should be ready to resort to anything.’

‘Badger’s quite right,’ agreed Fox. ‘We must consider any plan that will keep us alive. Please explain further, Badger.’

‘You’ll remember that Toad told us the story of his travels. Well, on the other side of the Park, not far from the boundary fence, there are human habitations and gardens. It was from one of those very gardens that he actually began his long journey back to Farthing Wood. And somewhere in those gardens, you can count on it, we will come across some of those tall things they put their unwanted food in.’