break
from the hurdles of a fold near the distant hedge, and run
panic-stricken straight towards him. Long before he had time to regain
the cover, they swept by, separating into two groups as they came where
he stood. Immediately afterwards, he saw that one of the sheep was lying
on her back, struggling frantically, while a big, white-ruffed collie
worried her to death. The dog was so engrossed with his victim that the
badger remained unnoticed. Having killed the sheep, the dog sat by,
panting because of his exertions, and licking the blood from his lips.
Suddenly, raising his head, he listened intently, his ears turned in the
direction of the fold. Then, growling savagely, he slunk away, with his
tail between his legs, and disappeared within the wood.

He had scarcely gone from sight, when the farmer and his boy climbed
over the hedge near the field and hastened across the pasture. They saw
the sheep lying dead, and, not far from the spot, the badger lumbering
off to the covert. Instantly believing that Brock was the cause of their
trouble, they called excitedly for help from the farm, and dashed in
pursuit. As Brock gained the gap by the wood, he felt a sharp, stinging
blow on his ribs. On the other side of the hedge, he reached an opening
in the furze, and the sticks and stones aimed at him by his pursuers, as
he turned downwards through the wood, fell harmlessly against the trees
and bushes. The noise he made when crashing through the thickets was,
however, such a guide to his movements, that he failed to baffle the
chase till he reached a well worn trail through the open glades. Luckily
for him, as he emerged from cover a cloud obscured the moon, and he was
able to make good his escape by crossing a deep dingle to the lonely
fields along his homeward route, where, in the shadows of the hedges,
though now the moon again was bright, he could not easily be seen.

It was fortunate for the badger, not only that the moon was hidden by a
cloud as he crossed the dingle when fleeing from the wood, but also that
his home was distant from the scene of the tragedy in the upland pasture
near the farm. A hue-and-cry was raised, and for days the farmer's boy
searched the wood around the spot where Brock had disappeared, hoping
there to find the earth-pig's home. Other sheep were mysteriously killed
on farms still further from the badger's "earth"; then watchers, armed
with guns, lay out among the cold, damp fields to guard the s