28
27. Hold up the advertisement (4)
28. Ageing lady of the town (4) (6)
29. Tea totallers' bar (5) (4)
30. Frequent malady of rowers (6) (6)
JUDITH BONIFACE
---oOo---
A VIGIL
(Written after the badger watching meeting of the Club
on 10th May, 1980)
As the clucking and bustle of roosting pheasants died down
behind us all our senses became focussed on several dark
areas which, as the clouds moved silently above us,
occasionally resolved into the holes and hillocks of a
badger sett. Birds called softly, gaining reassurance from
each other as the creatures of dusk and night began their
own day.
A nightingale practised a few burberling scales, trilling
in easy competition with a sedentary blackbird. Rabbits
seemed aware of our presence, but accepted us as harmless
smells to be avoided. The twitch of a long ear, the glint
of an eye as they fondled their own harmless faces while
we looked at them through binoculars was just enough to
convince us that the rustle was a rabbit after all.
Wore rustling, heavier, more careless but sotnehowpurposeful
awakened us to the fact that the time was near. Indeed, no
false alarms this time; no fox busy on its unknown way
oblivious to us, but a large powerful badger trotted along
the course of the stream below us. Incredibly sleek and
streamlined, its low, straight body propelled along by its
short, pumping legs.
The night's work was done, we had seen what we had hoped