The Willows and Beyond (23 page)

In very short order the constables guarding the entrance to the Meeting Hall were displaced, and three of the mounted policemen rapidly dispossessed of their horses, and Toad, Master Toad and the reluctant Mole put in their saddles instead. The other mounted policemen immediately attempted to put right this gross indignity by chasing after the miscreants all about the Town, which led to other horses bolting, vegetable carts being overturned and shop windows being broken.

Worse still, the old familiar madness quite overtook Mr Toad, who foolishly stole a police-man’s helmet and put it on, while Master Toad, not to be outdone it seemed, rode up the Cathedral steps and uttered words which if not quite blasphemies, certainly lacked the grace of good divinity.

As for poor Mole, a less able horseman than these two, he was left suspended from the ladder rest of a street light, whence he was rescued and promptly arrested by a posse of constables.

A great deal was said in the Magistrate’s Court the following morning: of how the Public Hearing had broken up in disarray, the Very Senior Bishop temporarily de-frocked, the Police Commissioner handcuffed back to back with the Chief Constable, and the Very High Judge summarily tried and found wanting by the unruly Lathbury Mob.

There
were
mitigating circumstances, however, the most substantial of which was the extraordinary horsemanship and skill displayed by Toad, the policeman’s helmet now firmly stuck on his head and quite obscuring his view, who as chance and good fortune would have it, galloped back through the crowd so that the High Judge was able to grasp the reins of his horse and so be dragged off to safety even as he was about to be strung up on a hastily erected gibbet in the marketplace.

“All in all,” said the High Judge in his summing-up, his bruises still showing, “I am inclined to take a lenient view of those unseemly proceedings, if only because your leader, Mr Toad, showed himself at the last moment to be contrite and sensible and to put the upholding of life and liberty of the law before all else!

“A month in gaol for the lot of you, and a fine of ten shillings each to you leaders, Mr Toad, Master Toad and Mr Mole, and Mr Badger. I will only add this to you, Mr Mole and Mr Badger, who have not been in my court before and whom I had understood to be upright and sober citizens. Do not commit another crime within my jurisdiction or your fine will be much larger, and your custodial sentence eternal!”

“Yes, m’lud’ said the chastened Mole.

“I won’t!” growled the Badger.

“Case dismissed!”

“Another triumph!” crowed Toad as they went below to begin their sentence, for he had readied himself for the death sentence and felt that a month in gaol (with time off for good behaviour) at someone else’s expense was not so bad considering what fun they had all had.

“Triumph?” growled the Badger as the doors of his cell were opened to admit him. “We went to protest against the felling of the Wild Wood, not to be put in gaol for a month! I greatly fear that the Town Authority will take advantage of our enforced absence from the River Bank to cut down the whole of the Wild Wood! This is not a triumph, Toad, but the beginning of the end of all we have known and loved!”

X

Farewell to the

Wild Wood

The Badger was not far wrong in his predictions, though the Wild Wood was still standing, and in the full glory of its summer colours, by the time the four of them returned to the River Bank.

Waiting for each of them this time, however, was formal Notice of a second Hearing with special dispensation for only the Badger and the Mole to attend, which in the Badger’s view was a wise proceeding.

But of that infamous Second Hearing, upon whose outcome the lives and happiness of so many depended, the Badger did not afterwards care to dwell. Naturally he and the Mole attended it, but the popular voice was made mute by procedure and fine print, and numbers were much down on the earlier Hearing, owing to various farmers and other landowners affected having been made certain offers they found it imprudent to refuse.

After a desultory debate, in which bewigged lawyers were more in evidence than ordinary people, the matter was decided in favour of the original proposals, with a few changes to accommodate the needs of those who had dropped their opposition and accepted whatever offers they had been made.

With respect to the Wild Wood the opposition of existing residents, principally the Badger and a few diehard weasels and stoats, was discounted in favour of the many it was deemed would benefit, and it was decided to proceed with the destruction of the Wild Wood “within thirty days”.

It was also decided that with respect to the Toad Hall estate, Toad should be instructed that if he did not stop obstructing the scheme and sell his land and the Hall as well for development he would be held in contempt of the Court of Common Council — an ancient court over which, as it happened, the presiding officials were the High Judge, the Commissioner of Police and the Very Senior Bishop — and arraigned before it.

Only one part of the River Bank remained safe, and that was the part on the east side occupied by the fields surrounding that sunny, happy nook popularly known as Mole End. This remained within the jurisdiction of the Village, whose council, realizing the danger, had arranged for Mr Mole, and the rabbits who lived in the fields thereabouts, to claim squatters’ rights, and gave them all Deeds of Ownership and Protection to prove it.

The Badger and the Mole came back from the Town despondent and down-hearted, for there now seemed little they could do. In their absence Toad had been visited by various personages, some mere functionaries and others more important, some acting on behalf of the three eminent gentlemen who stood to gain so much from the scheme, yet all with much the same message: sell your land, accept our offer of extra compensation, or it will be worse for you in the end!

Reporting this to his companions, Toad sighed and said, “I say to them and say again till I am tired of it that I shall do nothing, absolutely nothing, without the agreement of my good friends along the River Bank, and even then only if certain conditions are met.”

“You are very good about this, Toad,” said the Badger, “but you must not —“My dear fellow,” said Toad, “my only regret is that my father did not buy up the Wild Wood when he was offered it, for a song I believe, a good many decades ago, and then we might have been in a position to put up a better
fight.”

“Even then —“

“Even then, Badger, I cannot help noticing that the offers of compensation that these gentlemen keep making are steadily increasing and are now rather more than double in value than when they began. If my informant, namely Master Toad, who knows the sons of those three rascally personages rather well since he is at school with them — what a sensible Toad I was to send him where the education was so to the point! — if he is correct, their offers will go up a good deal more before they come down. Have a glass of champagne, Badger, and you too, Mole, for I can afford it and you look as if you need it!”

“But Toad,” protested the Mole, “you know very well that it does not agree with me.”

“Pooh, Mole! You always say the same. It agrees with you rather too well I think.”

“But —“And you, Badger, you’ll have one too, for in different ways we all need to drown our sorrows.”

“Do you know, Toad,” said the Badger, “I think I shall!” He suddenly felt a good deal more heartened than he had for many months past, for the whole affair had been a very great strain and had begun to affect his health and well-being. Now that it was settled, albeit against his wishes and interests, that wise animal saw that he could at least get on with other things, and begin to ponder the future.

They sat then, those three, and talked as they had not been able to since the Rat’s departure, and while the Badger and the Mole said a good deal more than they were wont to, Toad said a good deal less. He seemed content to listen for once, content to sit with those who through the years had always been there, and though they might disapprove of what he had sometimes done, and the way he had done it, yet never once, not for a moment, made him feel that he was not always welcome in their homes and, he almost felt inclined to add, in their hearts.

Perhaps they felt better able to talk because the youngsters were not there, though the youngsters (as they still called them, though that term now seemed increasingly inappropriate) were very much on their minds.

Toad suddenly sighed, stood up and went to one of the large windows of the conservatory and gazed across his garden down to the River. Then after a moment or two he exclaimed: “You know — I do believe — I think —I say, you fellows, there
might
be a way!”

“A way to what?” enquired the Badger, puzzled by Toad’s sudden animation.

“A way to get out of this mess we find ourselves in,” cried Toad. “Mind you, it is not my idea but Master Toad’s, and when he first mentioned it I was rather dismissive But now that the Wild Wood is certain to be chopped down, I begin to see that he might have been right after all. Yes —
yes!”

He turned to them, hopping about from one foot to another, his face excited in a way it had not been for years, though it cannot be said that the Badger and the Mole looked anything other than dubious. Toad’s schemes so often ended in disaster.

“I know what you fellows are thinking,” said Toad good-humouredly, “but hear me out, and if you can think of a better way for us all to get out of this pickle, I shall be glad to hear it.

“You see, Master Toad has made many useful contacts in the Town, and he is of the opinion that once the Wild Wood is destroyed Toad Hall and its estate will not be worth living in, with all those weasels and stoats taking up bijoux residences so nearby. His view is that it would be best to sell it to the highest bidder and — and here’s the thing — buy some place as yet unspoilt, and this time buy enough of it that it never
can
be spoilt!”

“But where would there be such a place to buy?” said the Badger. “And, though it is not quite my business, would you have the wherewithal to buy it?”

“The offers I have received for Toad Hall and its land are very considerable,” said Toad, “and might perhaps provide us with enough —”

The Badger’s eyes softened, for irritating though Toad could be, his generosity of spirit and his largesse where others were concerned had never been in doubt. Here he was allying himself with them both, and with the River Bank, and seeking a way forward for all of them, not just himself.

“In any case,” said Toad, “I have a fancy to have a new hall built upon virgin land, that I might stretch my wings and have a little more space about me!”

The Badger laughed heartily that Toad should claim to feel cramped in his vast home.

“I told Master Toad that I did not approve of his scheme but of course he ignored me and said he would have his contacts look about for an estate to exchange for this. I shall let him know that I have changed my mind. It was thus that my own father taught me to be radical and bold, and so must I encourage and educate my ward!”