Show l SON OF KAZAN r JAMES l 1 CuI wo COPYRIGHT L THE BEAVER Synopsis Part Part Part wolf part dog doe when hen two months old Boree Baree has hos his first meeting with on an enemy y o 0 u n G gowl owl Fighting hard hord the on IsIs are suddenly plunged Into a swollen creek Badly buffeted and halt half drowned Baree Is final final- finally finally ly ly flung on the tho bank but the tho water has haa destroyed his hie hi sense of of direction and he Is lost lonel lonely and hungry For many days dl hid hla life Is 19 one of fear tear and distress lie Ho meets various creatures of the wild and goes ROCS through a thunderstorm lIe He Is learning more and more lie Ile strays Into the trapping grounds of Pierrot and wounds Baree with a rifle but he es- es escapes es escapes capes Baree Barco and learns natures nature's secrets rapidly Is determined to catch Baree and tame tl him and tries again a aln Dareo Baree Is strongly drawn to the girl eirl but still fears care man Chapter V 9 Impelled b by the wild willi alarm of the vs v's terrible cries nr aLl aul d the sight or of dashing madly toward to him from the lie dead body of n t aka oo Baree dId not stop top running It seemed os though his lungs s could not draw another breath When hen Ie ie stopped he was well out of the can canyon ln and 1 headed for tor the lie beaver heaver pond Exactly wherein la lay Baree's fears It would be difficult to say but say but surel surely It was not because e of l The Willow had chased him hard She Slie had flung herself upon him lIe He head had felt tile the clutch of her hands nm and the smother el er of her lier soft sort hair hall and yet et of her hI he was not afraid If It he lie stopped now and then lien In his Ills flight light and looked back It was to see If was following lie would not noL have run hard liard from her bel alone alone Her Iler eyes eres and voice olce and hands had something stirring In him lie he was awed with a greater yearning and a n greater loneliness now and now and that night he lie dreamed troubled dreams Baree Harce was glad when the dawn come He lie did not seek for food but went down to the pond There was little hope and anticipation In his Ills man man- manner manner ner now He lIe remembered that as plainly as animal wa ways s 's could talk and his pla playmates mates had told him they the wanted nothing to do with him And yet the fact that the they were there tool took awa away some of his Ills loneliness It was more than loneliness The wolf In h iii him was submerged ed The dog was r And In these passing mo- mo moments mo moments ments when the blood of the wild was almost dormant In him he lie was de de- de- de depressed depressed pressed h by the Instinctive and growing ro ln feeling that he was not of that wild but Il a fugitive In It It menaced on all sides h by strange dangers Deep Deel In the northern forests the beaver does dues ant ot ot work and fird pla play In dark darl darkness darkness ness only but uses da day even en more than night and many of tooth's Heaver peo peo- people people Ille were awake when Barel Baree began dis dis- disconsolately disconsolately to Investigate the shores hores of the lie pond lie Ile did not tr try to hide now and at least halt half a dozen hE beavers ers had a good look at him before he came to the lie point where the thc pond narrowEd down to the width of the stream almost half a n mile from the thed m d km III Then he wandered back Al 11 A t hat morning he lie hovered about th the pond showing himself openly In their big bag stick and strong strong- strongholds strong holds the beavers heavers held a council of war They were distinctly puzzled four enemies which they the ther dreaded r add above e all others The otte otter w who llo destroyed their d dams ln In n the win win- winter winter ter tr time lime and brou brought ht death to them them from cold and und L by lowering the water so Sf the they could not lIot get et to their food supplies th the lynx nc who pr preyed on them all young oung and old alike and the fox and wolf olf who would lie He In for hours liours in order to pounce on rot the very young like III and his Ills play play- playmates mates matei If It Harve Barle had been hen an any one of these four wily why tooth heaver and his hll people would have hove known what to do nut But Baree Ilaree Bar e was surel surely not an 1111 otter and If he lie was a n fox ox or a 11 wolf or a lynx hl t actions OIS were were ere lr very strange e to fn say the least Half unit a dozen times S lie he hall had the opportunity to pounce on his pre prey If he had hall been beon seeking prey pry Hut But at nt po Do notime time had he lie shown the desire to harm them them It may be he that the beavers ers dl discussed cussed the matter fully among themselves It ItIs Itis ItIs Is po possible that anc and his play play- playmates playmates playmates mates told their pai f their ad- ad adventure ad adventure venture and of how Baree made no move to harm burin them when lie lx IH could quite easily have YO cuu caught hl them then How how- however However ever this may b be courageous old er tooth lIeU took It upon himself to end the use suspense p le It was early In the afternoon that for the third third or fourth time Baree out 01 on th the dam This i ilam ilm lm was fully fully two hundred feet In length hut but at aL no point did lid the water run over o It the o overflow finding Its Ita a way narrow A week Or fir two tw ago Ilaree could cold have crossed crowed to the lie he opp- opp I all alim ir I I r r tho rho ho pond on this tills dam but now now-at now at the far end Beaver end tooth Beaver and his engineers were adding ad a new sec sec- section sec sec- section section tion of dam and in order to accomplish accomplish accomplish their work more easily they had hod flooded fully fifty yards of the low lowground lowground ground round on which they were working The dam held a fascination for Ilaree Baree The top of It was high and dry and there were dozens of smoothly worn little hollows In the heavers bel had taken their sun baths In one of these hollows Baree stretched himself out out with his Ills e eyes eves es on the pond ponti Not a ripple stirred Its velvety Int smoothness Not ot a sound broke the drowsy stillness of the afternoon The beavers heavers might have been dead or asleep for all the stir they made And yet et they knew that Baree was on the lie dam Where lie he lay the sun fell In a warm flood and It was so comfortable that after n a time he lie had culty In keeping his hise e eyes es open to watch the pond Then lie he fell asleep Just how liow tooth Beaver sensed this fact Is a mystery Five FI minutes later Inter he came up quietly without a splash or a n sound within l fifty lifty ft yards of Barel Barce For a n few moments he lie scarcely moved In the water Then Ihen he swam vcr very slowly parallel with the loaf dam across the pond At the other side lie he drew himself ashore and for another minute Slit silt as motionless as ns a n stone with his has hise e eyes es on that part of time the dam where Ilaree Baree was 1 lying ln Not Not another bea beaver er was moving It was very vcr soon ap- ap apparent apparent ap apparent parent that tooth Beaver had hind but one object In getting mind-getting mind getting a closer observation observation allon of Baree Ilaree When lie he entered the water again he lie swam alon along close to I the darn dam Ten feet felt beyond ond Baree Ilaree lie he hc began an to climb out He lie did this with Ith great slowness and caution At lat last lathe the la-the he reached reache the tOI top of the dam A few yards ards away Baree Barel was nl- nl al nl almost most hidden in his hollow only the top of his Ills shiny black body appearing to tooth's heaver scrutiny To get n a better hetter look the old beaver er spread his f r e In an Instant His HI Feet Shot Out From Under Him flat fiat tall out beyond him him and rose to a posture on his Ills hint hind quarters his two front font paws held squirrel squirrel like e over Ills his breast In this tills pose Ilose he was fully three feet tall tull lIe He probably HI weighed fort forty pounds and In some lie he resembled one of those thoc fat natured goud looking silly dogs go 0 largely to stomach But lint his brain was working with amazing celerity Suddenly he lie gave the lie hard mud of the than a single slap with his Ills tall and tall sat at up Imp 11 Instantly he lie saw Denver Beaver Beaver looth and stan stared 1 tooth Beaver stared For a n full minute half neither moved time the thousandth part hurt of an 1111 Inch Then Buree stood up and ant wa wagged ed his Ills tall nil flint t way was enough Dropping to his has forefeet Beaver B er w l 11 ly I ly to the edge of the lie dam damn mind and 11 otter r lie He was neither nor norIn norin norIn In very vory great huste haste now lie ale made a aI I great reat In the water vater and swain I boldly back and anil foetal foth under Baree When he lie hind lind done Jone lI il this s severn several I II he cut straight up Ita tb pond to toI tolie I the largest of the three houses les and disappeared d FIve YI minutes after tooth's Bf Beaver tooth's tooth's er exploit word was ns pass pass- passIng passing In ing quickly among the colony The Tite Baree was stranger Baree was not a lynx 1 lynx 1 lie was not a n fox fux He Ill was owns not a n wolf Moreover I he lie was very young and young oung o harmless Work could be Play flag could be r resumed There was nt no danger Such was C Beu Beaver tooth's tooth's r-tooth's f rem rem- 1 diet If It some ome one had shouted these facts In ben beaver language th through a mega mega- megaphone megaphone phone th the response coul l not have lIwe been t quicker r All at once It seemed to Ilaree Barce who was still on the edge of oe the I ho dam that that the lIon pond was all alive with beavers He lie had never neter seen I so 10 many at one time thou before They seenI I were rue popping up everywhere e and some of them swam warn up within A dozen feet teet re of him ham and looked him over In a leis lela- leisurely leisurely and curious way For perhaps five fi minutes they seemed to have ha no particular object In 10 view Then Denv Beav- tooth BeaT tooth er-tooth himself struck straight for the shore and climbed out Others fol- fol followed fol followed lowed him halt Half a dozen workers dis disappeared appeared In the tile canals As S many mony more waddled out the he alders and willows Eagerly Baree watched for anil and his has chums chum At last he saw sn them swimming forth from one of the thc smaller houses louses The They climbed out on their the playground y pl playground the the smooth bar above c the shore thore of mud Baree wagged his Ills tall so o hard that his whole bd body shook and hurried along the dam dalU When he came out on the level le strip of shore was there alone nib nib- nib hing In supper from a long fre freshly hl cut widow tow The rhe other oilier little beaters hea had gone gont Into a thick clump of youn young nl- nl alders ai ders dels This Tills time Unmask did not run lie looked up Ul from his stick Baree Barce squatted himself wiggling in a n most friendly and Ingratiating manner rem rema Fora n a few seconds regarded him Then very ery coolly he resumed his supper upper a e Just as In the life lite of every man there Is one ont big controlling influence either for tor good or for bad so In the life of Baree Ilaree time the beaver pond was largely larely an nn arbiter of destiny Where he might have gone If It he had not this dis discovered covered it and what might have hap Imp happened happened pen cd to him are matters of or conjecture conjecture ture lure But It held him It be began lm to take the place of the old windfall and andin andIn In time the lie beavers ers themselves he lie found n a which made up in a awn away away wn way for for the lie loss of the protection and friendship of Kazan and Gray Wolf This Tills companionship If it could be called that went just so far and no farther With each day that passed the tame older ohler b beavers avers became more accustomed accustomed accustomed tomed to seeing Baree aree At the end of two too t 0 weeks If It Baree aree had gone away the they would have haye missed but him him but not In the lie same way that Baree naree would have ha missed the beavers ers It was a n matter mattel of ot natured good toleration on their part palt With Baree Barel it was differ differ- different different ent He lIe was stilt still as would have aye said he still wanted moth moth- mothering mothering ering he lie was still moved mo b by the lie pup pup- puppyish pup yearnings which lie he had not yet had the time to outgrow and when night came to came to speak that yearning I quite plainly plainly-he plainly he had the desire to go Into the lie big beaver house with and his claims chums and sleep During time the fortnight that followed tooth's Ben Beaver exploit on the dam Ba- Ba Ba n ree ate ae his Ills meals a mile up the creek where there were plenty of crawfish But the time pond was home Night always found him there and a large part of his day lIe He slept at the time end of the dam or on top of it on particularly clear nights and the beavers heavers accepted him as ns a permanent guest They worked in his presence pr presence sence as ns If It he did not exist He lIe still could not Induce and time the other young oung beavers to join him him In pla play and after the first week weel or so he gave up his Ills efforts In fact their play pIny puzzled him almost as ns much as the thelam building lam operations of the older beavers for Instance was fond of playing in the mud at the edge of the pond lIe He was like a very small boy Where his has elders floated ers from three inches to a foot In diame diame- diameter diameter diameter ter to the time big dam brought sticks and twigs no larger around than a n lead pencil to his play play- playground playground ground and built a make-believe make dam of his Ills own would work an hour nt at I a atine time tine on this play dam as ns Indu Industriously ly lyas as his father and mother were working on the big dam dum and Baree Barel would lie Ill flat on his Ills belly a few feet R away a watching him and wondering mightily ml lIe could coull see some same reason for fol nibbling at sticks sticks-he sticks he liked to sharpen his teeth on sticks himself but it puzzled him to explain wh why so painstakingly stripped the bark from the sticks and swallowed It Another method of play piny still further discouraged Baree's naree's advances ances A short distance from the spot where he had first seen there was a shelving bank that rose Iose ten or twelve feet from the water and this bank was used by bythe bythe the young oung hea beavers er as a slide It was worn smooth and hard liard would climb up the bank hank at nt a point where It was not so steep At the top of the slide he lie would tall out flat fint be be- behind be behind hind him and give ghe himself a It shove shooting down the toboggan an and land landIng landIng In Ing in the water with Ith a bl big splash One afternoon when hn the toboggan I particularly wet nn and slippery slipper fro root III recent reent use farce went up time the path path heaver to the top of the Hie bank and began Investigating In Nowhere 1 had he found the lie smell beaver so stroll strong as on time the slide lie He began sniffing and Incautiously went too far farIn ii fr fn en his hi feet shot out from un under er into hl wed vu o a single Ie wild yelp elp he lie went shooting Clown the toboggan gen gan For the second time In his life he found himself struggling under underwater underwater water waler and when a It minute or two later he dragged himself UI up through the soft oft mud to the firmer footing of the shore he lie hind had at last lust a n er very well well-de de- de fined floed opinion |