Farther on the boys saw what they believed to be a pair of ducks on the water. They asked Ben to turn the canoe so they might get a shot. He promptly did so, and Ed handed the shotgun to George. He took careful aim and pulled the trigger, and at the same instant, as it seemed, the birds vanished under water. Ben laughed heartily while they watched for the “ducks” to come up.
After some moments they reappeared, and Ben worked the canoe carefully toward them, that Ed might try a shot. He, too, took deliberate aim; but again the uncanny birds disappeared before the shot reached them. The guide, unable to control himself, shrieked with laughter.
The shooters, somewhat bewildered, asked what was the matter. He said they had been shooting at “hell-divers” or grebes, and declared they might shoot all day without hitting them. Ben told the boys that these little birds had deceived the best of shots.
The young marksmen were surprised to learn that grebes sometimes swim with only the tip of the bill above water. Also, they were told that the surest way to get one was to paddle after it when it came to the surface and force it to dive again. By repeatedly doing this they might finally “wind” the swimmer and get an easy shot. The guide added that it was not worth the trouble, as the flesh of the grebes was unfit to eat, being strongly impregnated with fish, which formed their sole diet. Consequently, the boys went on their way and left the grebes swimming serenely about in bold defiance of their marksmanship.
Ben later offered to show them an otter-slide, and turned the bow of the canoe toward land. He paddled silently along the near shore, which at this point rose to form a steep, moss-grown bank. Finally he stopped and pointed to a shallow gully, or chute, which extended from the top of the bank to the edge of the water. Close beside it, and parallel to it, was a narrow, winding trail. Ben explained that the larger depression was an otter-slide, which the makers used like a toboggan-run. The otters, lying on their stomachs, slid head foremost down the chute and into the water. The boys were told that the path at the side had been made by otters emerging from the lake and climbing the bank for another “header.”
Ed and George decided to get out and investigate. Ben beached the canoe and accompanied them. While they were examining the slide, he called, and they made their way to him, a short distance back in the woods.
“There’s a bear track, and a big one,” he said, pointing to a huge paw-mark in the soft ground.
It looked as though some giant had walked there barefooted.
“We’ll just keep tab on that fellow till he dens up, and then we ought to be able to get him,” said Ben, following the trail into the woods.
“Do you think he is around now?” inquired Ed, anxiously.