Umisk and his brothers were like dummies.

And then, of a sudden, someone saw Baree. It was a huge beaver swimmingdown the pond with a sapling timber for the new dam that was under way.Instantly he loosed his hold and faced the shore. And then, like thereport of a rifle, there came the crack of his huge flat tail on thewater--the beaver's signal of danger that on a quiet evening can be heardhalf a mile away.

"DANGER," it warned. "DANGER--DANGER-- DANGER!"

Scarcely had the signal gone forth when tails were cracking in alldirections--in the pond, in the hidden canals, in the thick willows andalders. To Umisk and his companions they exclaimed: