8 The Foxes Begin to Starve
That evening three tents were put up in the crater¹ on the hill – one for Boggis, one for Bunce and onefor Bean. The tents surrounded Mr Fox’s hole. And the three farmers sat outside their tents eatingtheir supper. Boggis had three boiled chickens smothered² in dumplings, Bunce had six doughnutsfilled with disgusting goose-liver paste, and Bean had two gallons of cider. All three of them kepttheir guns beside them.
Boggis picked up a steaming chicken and held it close to the fox’s hole. ‘Can you smell this, MrFox?’ he shouted. ‘Lovely tender chicken! Why don’t you come up and get it?’
The rich scent³ of chicken wafted⁴ down the tunnel to where the foxes were crouching⁵.
‘Oh, Dad,’ said one of the Small Foxes, ‘couldn’t we just sneak⁶ up and snatch it out of his hand?’
‘Don’t you dare!’ said Mrs Fox. ‘That’s just what they want you to do.’
‘But we’re so hungry!’ they cried. ‘How long will it be till we get something to eat?’
Their mother didn’t answer them. Nor did their father. There was no answer to give.
As darkness fell, Bunce and Bean switched on the powerful headlamps of the two tractors andshone them on to the hole. ‘Now,’ said Bean, ‘we’ll take it in turn to keep watch. One watches whiletwo sleep, and so on all through the night.’
Boggis said, ‘What if the fox digs a hole right through the hill and comes out on the other side?
You didn’t think of that one, did you?’
‘Of course I did,’ said Bean, pretending he had.
‘Go on, then, tell us the answer,’ said Boggis.
Bean picked something small and black out of his ear and flicked⁷ it away. ‘How many men haveyou got working on your farm?’ he asked.
‘Thirty-five,’ Boggis said.

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