Toad Triumphant by William Horwood Read Free Book Online

from where we are, please tell us what happened yesterday and what concerns you so much now”
    The Mole told them first of that afternoon in Toad’s garden and described how at the end of it a madness had come to Toad’s eyes and how, looking back from the gate, he had observed Toad by the light of the setting sun reaching for the skies even as he attempted to stand on one leg.
    They listened, and were naturally quite as baffled as the Mole had been, and certainly as concerned.
    “You should have come to see me right away Mole,” scolded the Badger, not unkindly “for we might have saved ourselves a good deal of worry and trouble both on your own account, and Toad’s.”
    “I was overwrought with my own problems,” said the Mole apologetically “and in the days that followed I heard no ill news from Toad Hall, so really —”
    “Be that as it may” said the Badger judiciously “you had better tell us of this new development which is the cause of today’s delay and your present concerns.”
    It seemed that the previous evening the Mole had been on his way to the Rat’s to check a few last details concerning their expedition when — most unfortunately as he now realized — he met Toad.
    Or rather, as he now reluctantly began to suspect, Toad had met him.

    “Just the chap I was hoping to see!” Toad had boomed at him from the top of the Iron Bridge which the Mole had just crossed on the way to the Rat’s house. Quite where Toad had appeared from he did not know, and it was only as he told the story to his friends that the thought occurred to him that Toad might have been lying in wait.
    “I can’t easily stop now I am in rather a hurry” the Mole explained, trying to stride on. Talking to Toad could sometimes take a very long time, for Toad liked to talk, and he liked to know that others were listening.
    “A hurry? On an afternoon like this? My dear fellow, whatever you are hurrying to do must be very important indeed for you not to wish to pause for a moment or two and contemplate the joys of summer and of life just as I am doing. To think of past accomplishments and coming pleasures, to revel in the —”
    “Well, I —” began the Mole, sensing that Toad was about to launch into some speech that might prove difficult to stop once it had started.
    “But certainly” said Toad magnanimously greeting the Mole’s attempted interruption with a warm and disarming smile. “I would very much like to know what business could possibly be more important than enjoying a moment of peace and quiet before — well, shall we say before an important personage arrives here tomorrow who might, had you not been hurrying off, have immortalized you, just as this personage will undoubtedly soon immortalize me.”
    “Immortalize?” said the Mole worriedly for he instantly remembered that part of their encounter in May when Toad had mentioned immortality, and saw that the matter had not gone from his friend’s mind as he had hoped.
    Toad quite misunderstood the query in the Mole’s voice, thinking that so great a word and so grand a concept as immortality was perhaps beyond his quiet friend’s comprehension.
    “Which is to say —” continued Toad, moving to the very highest point of the bridge, and puffing himself as if to embody the splendid concept he wished to explain. “By which I mean — made permanent; indestructible; known for all time; the object of respect and glory throughout the world from now till eternity. That is the meaning of ‘immortalize’, and that is what is going to happen to me tomorrow and the day after that if need be till the process is complete.” Toad sighed deeply and added with seeming sadness, “And it might have happened to you, had you not been hurrying off on such an important errand!”
    “It was not quite an errand,” protested the Mole, beginning to fall into Toad’s trap. “You see, Ratty and I have been discussing for some time now, with Mr Badger and Otter to