CHAPTER XII. 
Braver Reruceres REAPPEAR AT PaintED Woops 
Laxke—A ReEtrROsPECTIVE; T'RIP—SWIFT STORM 
ILLUSTRATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS.—SOME 
Harps anp MisHaps oF THE CoLony. 
N a previous chapter I have made mention of the re- 
appearance of beavers at Painted Woods Lake, 
after an absence of many years—fifteen—-since ‘‘Black’’ 
Belmore killed the remnants of the old colonies that 
had spent such happy days there when the wild Indian 
held the master hand around and among the painted 
trees. 
Where the small colony had come from that appeared 
in the lake inthe summer of 1901, no one outside of 
themselves could tell. It was surmised they came from 
the lower colony on Douglass River, and if so what 
manner of call—telepathic or otherwise that the escaped 
prisoner Nibs then living in solitute at the lake could 
have to members of his own family fifty miles away. 
Perhaps in his solitary brooding, that summer he had 
floated out from his-bachelor quarters on the lake to 
the muddy Missouri again, and breasting the swift cur- 
rent until he reached his old home on the Douglass, 
when after the first greeting was over, told the story of 
his abduction and escape, and of the beautiful clear 
lake he had taken refuge in. There he found neither 
