“Shocking!” exclaimed the fox. “You mustn’t stay a moment longer in this murderer’s den. Come out to me and I will take you to a place where you will have nothing to fear.”
“If I only dared trust you!” said the gosling. “But I have ten sisters. I can’t leave them in the lurch.”
“I don’t think you had better wake them to-night,” said the fox. “Young ladies are so talkative and, if the dog or Two-Legs discovered your flight, it would be all up with us. You would be roasted forthwith and I should come in for a certain unpleasantness too: that goes without saying.”
“That is true,” said the gosling. “But will you promise me to fetch my sisters another time?”
“I give you my word that, from to-day, I will come every night and fetch one of the young ladies, until they are all rescued,” said the fox. “As far as lies in my power. There may be obstacles.”
“How kind you are!” whispered the gosling. “And I who thought that the wild animals were such terrible monsters! That’s what I’ve always been told. They said I must be particularly careful not to go into the forest, lest the worst of evils should befall me.”
“Sheer calumny!” said the fox. “All the animals in the forest are angels. I never heard of any one being roasted there. But come now, before we are perceived.”
She waddled through the hole and, that very instant, felt the fox’s teeth in her throat. She was just able to give a scream and then she was done for. But, the next moment, Trust was there. The fox let go the gosling and struck out with his teeth as best he could. But he was the weaker and the dog gave no quarter. Not until the fox lay dead on the ground did Trust go back through his hole again.
Meanwhile, the animals were lying in the meadow and waiting.
“Of course, he has been caught and is entering Two-Legs’ service like the rest,” said the nightingale.
But, at daybreak, the sparrow came flying up, breathlessly:
“The fox is dead!” she said. “He is lying on the hill outside Two-Legs’ house. I saw him myself. There’s a dead goose lying beside him.”
Then the lioness rose and all the other animals with her:
“The fox went on his own business,” she said. “He fell in his own hunting. We can trust nobody now.”
Then, with bent head, she went sadly home.