“Here they come,” the doctor whispered excitedly. “Keep quiet.”
The approaching beaver evidently wanted to investigate the leak, but had no idea of being drawn into an ambush. He circled cautiously around at a distance, diving nervously at short intervals, till, finally assured that there was no danger, he swam boldly up to the breach and nosed around it. They could see the faint glimmer from the little roll of water he pushed along in front of him and once he passed so close to them that they could hear his heavy breathing. Then he swam quietly away.
“That must be the watchman sent to reconnoiter,” the Doctor explained. “He has gone back to report on the break.”
He must have made a very lengthy report or had some trouble in convincing the others, for it was a full hour before they heard anything from him. Then once more they heard the distant “plunks.” Much to their disappointment he came alone. He repeated the same performance as before and disappeared once more.
“He must have forgotten some of the details,” Scott muttered.
Another hour of waiting and he came again. He seemed worried over the escaping water but showed no inclination to repair the dam.
The next hour it was the same thing. “He must patrol this place all night,” Scott suggested. “Do you notice that he strikes the hour almost to the dot?”
“Yes,” the doctor murmured, a little sleepily. “They must come to repair that dam pretty soon. We ought to have made the hole deeper.”
It grew cold in the swamp and each hour seemed colder than the preceding one. The dismal squawk of a night hawk or the honk of a passing blue heron sounded occasionally above the monotonous flowing of the water. An owl seemed to be hooting fun at them from a neighboring tree—for he always started up just after the sentinel had made his round, and along toward morning the occasional scream of a coon just returning from his night’s marauding, pierced the stillness. The crowded quarters on the little mound of moss were very hard on cramped muscles and the lack of industry on the part of the proverbially busy beavers was thoroughly disappointing. Scott was beginning to feel his enthusiasm in the beavers oozing away.
The dawn, that chilling interval between night and morning, was stealing upon them and soon the streaks of light began appearing in the eastern sky.