fill. Then, as quietly as they had come, the 
three deer faded into the night-bound forest. 
Farther up the stream, O-Go and his com¬ 
panion came to a sandbar. There, at the side 
of the creek, sat a large, ring-tailed raccoon, 
busily engaged in washing some bit of food. 
He also ignored the explorers, for they were 
harmless, and were, moreover, far too large for 
him to consider them as a possible prey. He 
finished his task, and then settled to his eating, 
as O-Go and Thwacker passed on upstream. 
All about them, the night was a series of 
silences, studded with sounds that told the story 
of the forest. Now, from a distant hilltop, 
came the querulous complaint of a coyote, 
mourning to the white moon; now, close at 
hand, was heard the startled squeak of a mouse, 
as it was pounced upon by some questing owl; 
or the cry of a rabbit, victim of the blood¬ 
thirsty weasel. Over all brooded the great 
forest, the murmur of its treetops emphasizing, 
rather than breaking, the stillness of the night. 
The moon had hidden her beauty behind 
the western hills, and the creek lay entirely in 
shadow, when O-Go and Thwacker came into 
shallow water. Above them loomed a dam, 
like the one which retained the waters of their 
own pond, but apparently shorter and some¬ 
what higher. Its outer surface was a jumbled 
mass of sticks, tangled together in an inde- 
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