which the
forest furtiveness seems to develop in its creatures. However, it came,
it came. Dropping forward as if shot, the sentinel beaver brought his
flat tail down upon the surface of the water with a smack that rang all
up and around the borders of the pond, startling the quiet of the night.
In a fraction of a second every beaver had vanished beneath the shining
surface.

At the same moment, or an eye-wink later, a strange thing happened--one
of those violent surprises with which the vast repression of the forest
sometimes betrays itself. Maddened to see his prey escaping, the bear
made his rush, launching himself, a black and uncouth mass, right down
to the water's edge. Simultaneously the two lynxes shot into the air
from higher up the bank, frantic with disappointed hunger. With a
screech of fury, and a harsh spitting and snarling, they landed a few
feet distant from the bear, and crouched flat, their stub tails
twitching, their eyes staring, their tufted ears laid back upon their
skulls.

Like a flash the bear wheeled, confronting the two great cats with
uplifted paw and mouth wide open. Half-sitting back upon his haunches,
he was ready for attack or defence. His little eyes glowed red with
rage. To him it was clearly the lynxes who had frightened off the
beavers and spoiled his hunting; and interference of this kind is what
the wild kindreds will not tolerate. To the lynxes, on the other hand,
it was obvious that the bear had caused the whole trouble. He was the
clumsy interloper who had come between them and their quarry. They were
on the verge of that blindness of fury which might hurl them, at any
instant, tooth and claw, upon their formidable foe. For the moment,
however, they had not quite lost sight of prudence. The bear was master
of the forest, and they knew that even together they two were hardly a
match for him.

[Illustration: "CONFRONTING THE TWO GREAT CATS WITH UPLIFTED PAW AND
MOUTH WIDE OPEN."]

The bear, on the other hand, was not quite sure that he was willing to
pay the price of vengeance. His blood surging in the swollen veins, he
growled with heavy menace, and rocking forward upon his haunches he
seemed on the point of rushing in. But he knew how those powerful
knife-edged claws of the lynxes could rend. He knew that their light
bodies were strong and swift and elusive, their teeth almost as
punishing as his own. He felt himself the master; nevertheless he
realized that it would cost