creature's face. I had never before seen a badger
under similar conditions; and I had often wondered what purpose those
boldly contrasted markings could serve. Now, as their purpose was
revealed, I was startled by the manifestation of Nature's protective
mimicry. Even when, a little later, the animal ventured out from the
oak, and stood alert for the least sight or sound or scent of danger,
the moonlight and the shadow blended so harmoniously with the white and
the black of his face markings, and with the soft blue-grey of his body,
that he seemed completely at one with his surroundings, and likely to
elude the most observant enemy. Fully a half hour went by before he
decided to cross the glade. Then, as if irritated by a sense of his own
timidity, he abandoned his excessive caution, and hastened along his
run-way through the clearing; and, as he passed, I noted his queer,
rolling gait, and heard his squeaks and grunts as if he were angrily
complaining to himself of some recent wrong, and vowing vengeance; I
heard, also, the snapping of leaves and twigs beneath his clumsy feet,
and I smelt the sure and certain smell of a badger.

Soon, the fisherman and I turned homewards, and left the poacher to less
innocent sport. As we gained the crest of the hill, the melancholy cry
of the brown owl came to our ears; and Ianto said, "Philip is a big
vagabond--bigger than me, I think. No doubt he's fetched his nets from
the cave beneath the Crag, and is down at the river by now. Promise me,
sir, as you'll never go nigh that cave when he's alive. It's his secret
place, as only him and me knows anything about. He told me to ask you
that favour."

Long after both Ianto and Philip were dead, I happened one day, while in
the woods, to remember the incidents I have just related, and I made my
way to the foot of the Crag. I found no opening in the face of the rock,
except one--apparently a rabbit hole--near a rent in the boulder.
Climbing around the rock, however, I noticed that a large, flat stone
lay in a rather unexpected position on a narrow cleft. I removed it, and
saw that it covered the entrance to a dark hollow. At the same moment I
heard a slight rustle behind me, as some animal darted from the hole I
had previously examined. I scrambled down into the chamber, and there,
when my eyes had become accustomed to the darkness, I saw three tiny
fox-cubs huddled on the damp, mossy ground. As I knelt to stroke them
gently, and my hand re