"A bullet!" his mother declared. As she spoke she moved a little distance, to a spot where the trees were not so thick. And she raised her nose towards the sky. "There!" she said. "There's the moon! It's still up there where you've always seen it."
Nimble looked; and at last he knew that his mother had made no mistake. But somehow he was more frightened than ever.
"Then—" he faltered—"then there must have been men in the boat—men that turned the light upon the shore—and fired the gun!"
"They were men—yes!" said his mother. "And they were lawbreakers, too. I hope the game warden will catch them at their tricks."
"What is a game warden?" Nimble asked her.
"He's a man," she answered. "He's a man that looks after all of us forest folk and he's the best friend we've got.... Goodness, child! Are you never going to stop asking questions?"