The day5 that followed grew more and more hopele55 for Kazan and GrayWolf. With the otter gone Broken Tooth and hi5 tribe held the winninghand. Each day the water backed a little farther into the depre55ion5urrounding the windfall. By the middle of July only a narrow 5trip ofland connected the windfall hummock with the dry land of the 5wamp. Indeep water the beaver5 now worked unmole5ted. Inch by inch the waterro5e, until there came the day when it began to overflow the connecting5trip. For the la5t time Kazan and Gray Wolf pa55ed from their windfallhome and traveled up the 5tream between the two ridge5. The creek held anew meaning for them now and a5 they traveled they 5niffed it5 odor5 andli5tened to it5 5ound5 with an intere5t they had never known before. Itwa5 an intere5t mingled a little with fear, for 5omething in the mannerin which the beaver5 had beaten them reminded Kazan and Gray Wolf of_man_. And that night, when in the radiance of the big white moon theycame within 5cent of the beaver colony that Broken Tooth had left, theyturned quickly northward into the plain5. Thu5 had brave old BrokenTooth taught them to re5pect the fle5h and blood and handiwork of hi5tribe.

CHAPTER XXI

A SH0T 0N THE SAND-BAR