The Fox Cub Bold by Colin Dann Read Free Book Online Page A

little beast’s tail as it leapt for safety. His grip was not good enough and his lunge forward from three legs tilted him off balance. He went sprawling at the hedge bottom and the vole escaped with no more than a painful nip and a fright. Bold rose and shook himself, ashamed of his indignity. Once again, as in the incident with the dormouse, his ability to catch even small prey had been found lacking. The resulting loss of confidence made him unwilling to test his technique again. To be bested by such tiny creatures! It was mortifying to him. He stared across at the field of young swedes. That was to be the limit of his expectations now, For, with a bitterness born of his incapacity, Bold knew he could never again hunt live prey.
    He limped out of the hedgerow towards the root crop sown by Man. It was simple to scratch up the ripening tubers and then to fill his belly with the sweetest of them. The added satisfaction that arose from raiding a food supply of the humans made them taste the sweeter. It was Man that had brought him to this low point and he would avenge himself where he could. Suddenly Bold stopped munching and stood motionless. Yes! That was his future now! The humans would be made to pay for his injury. Wherever they stored food or left edibles lying around he, the fox cub Bold, would capitalize upon it. Men would provide him with the food they had deprived him of catching himself.
    Sustained by this promising and daring idea, Bold finished his supper and retired to the earth in the hedgerow to mull it over. It was an excellent plan that would require a mixture of caution and courage, he decided. He was no longer in a position to challenge Man by daylight for he had no turn of speed. His movements must therefore be strictly during the dark hours. So when night fell on his meditations, he issued forth for a second raid on the vegetable field.
    As he went about his task, feeling more light-hearted now in the new role he had assumed for himself, he became aware of a ghostly shape moving about on the far side of the field. He hobbled hopefully towards it. To his delight he found Shadow the she-badger enjoying the same tasty roots. As he approached she looked up in alarm and prepared for flight.
    ‘Wait!’ he called to her. ‘It’s Bold! Your friend!’
    Shadow paused and waited for the fox to come up. ‘Alas,’ she said, ‘we badgers don’t have your keen sight, otherwise . . . But I’m glad to see you!’ she finished enthusiastically. ‘We’d given you up for lost.’
    Bold explained the reason for his disappearance.
    ‘I understand you,’ she said quietly. ‘But you’re too particular. We really wanted to help.’
    ‘I know,’ Bold answered. ‘But, for me, it’s better this way.’
    ‘Then I can’t persuade you to come back with me to the set now?’
    ‘No. But thank you. I have another plan.’
    Shadow regarded him with interest. ‘Do enlighten me,’ she urged.
    ‘I’m going to live off the humans,’ Bold answered simply.
    Shadow’s jaws dropped open. ‘You mean –’
    ‘I mean whenever and however I can,’ he finished for her.
    ‘Well!’ Her eyes held admiration. ‘So you still intend to live up to your name?’
    Bold was pleased with that remark. ‘I shall try,’ he replied. ‘But I shan’t take stupid risks.’
    ‘Won’t that restrict you?’
    ‘Of course it will,’ he said. ‘But what does that matter? A beast in my condition can’t afford risks except minor ones. From what my father told me of human behaviour, wherever they are in evidence food is there for the picking.’
    ‘But a different sort of food from your preference?’ queried Shadow.
    ‘I’m already getting used to that,’ he assured her. ‘I may have to adapt further still . . .’
    ‘What about your den?’ she asked next.
    ‘I already have one base,’ said Bold, looking over his shoulder. ‘Over there – in the hedgerow.’
    ‘Underground?’
    ‘Exactly. A very lucky find.’
    ‘You