CHAPTER X
A TROUBLESOME FELLOW
The first time that Shaggycoat saw the brown fisherman, he came slidingover the surface of the beavers' pond, and the manner of his coming bothastonished and angered Shaggycoat.
The thing that astonished him was to see the otter slide, and he wasangry, because the stranger acted just as though the pond belonged tohim and Shaggycoat knew that it was his own. Had he not spent days andweeks searching in the wilderness for a spot where he could make hishome and had not he and Brighteyes built the dam that flowed the meadow?It was all his and the manner of this merry stranger made him furious.
He would show him who was master here, so the beaver began swimmingrapidly about under the ice, trying vainly to find an escape to theouter air. But Jack Frost had shut down a transparent ice window overthe pond the night before, and, although Shaggycoat could still see thesky and the trees along the shore, yet the outer world would not be hisagain until spring. He could find an airhole by going up-stream two orthree miles to some rapids, but the return trip overland was notinviting, for he, like other beavers, was a poor pedestrian and wouldnot go any long distance except by water. So true is this of the beaver,that one naturalist says he may be kept a prisoner in a certain portionof a stream, simply by placing wire netting across the current andrunning it inland for a hundred feet in either direction. A beaver soheld between two wire fences at right angles to the stream, will spendseveral days in captivity before he will venture around the end of thefence to freedom.
It was out of the question for Shaggycoat to go two miles up-stream andthink of returning overland merely to fight, so he gave up the plan andamused himself by watching the otter.
He had never seen any one so agile before and he would have been amusedat the otter's pranks, had it not been upon his own particular pond.
The otter would go up the bank where it was steep and give three or fourgreat jumps. When he struck the surface ice, he would double his forelegs up so that they lay along his sides, and slide across the ice onhis breast, trailing his hind legs.
Then he would scramble up the opposite bank and repeat the performance,carrying him nearly back to the other side. Shaggycoat thought he hadnever seen anything quite so interesting in his life and he swam aboutunder the ice watching his visitor.
Finally in one of his slides the otter passed over the spot whereShaggycoat was and saw him for the first time.
He could not stop in his slide in time to pay his compliments to thebeaver, but he soon came slipping and sliding back and glared down atthe owner of the pond showing a set of teeth, almost as good as thebeaver's own.
Shaggycoat glared back at him and they both knew the fight would comesome other day.
The otter seemed to say by his looks, "Come up here and I will shake youout of that drab coat," and the beaver's countenance replied, "You justcome down here and I'll drown you and then tear you to pieces just tosee what your brown coat is made of."
Shaggycoat saw a great deal of the otter on these crisp, clear days,before the ice became clouded, and his coming and going always made thebeaver uneasy.
Sometimes this playful coaster would slide the entire length of thepond, going half a mile in two or three minutes. He would stick hissharp claws into the ice and give two or three bounds, then he wouldslide a long distance.
The momentum that he got from the springs would usually carry himseventy-five or a hundred yards.
Shaggycoat thought it must be great sport, but the coaster should playupon his own pond, if he had one, and leave other people's undisturbed.
Finally a great fall of snow spread a soft, white, impenetrable blanketover the ice, and the beaver saw no more of his enemy until spring.
At last with their golden key the sun-beams unlocked the ice door overthe lake and the denizens of beaver city were again free to go and comein the outer world. Then Shaggycoat swam a mile or so up-stream to lookfor elderberry wood. There was something in the pungent acid sap of theelderberry that he craved after the inactive life of winter. This washis spring medicine, a tonic that the beaver always seeks if he can findit, when the first great thaw opens the ice in the river.
He also was fond of the sweet maple sap and stopped to girdle a smallsoft maple on the way. He would remember that maple and come again. Thesap would run freely during the day and freeze at night and in themorning the ice would be covered with syrup, white, transparent, andsweet as honey. This was a primitive sugar-making in which the beaverindulged.
He had satisfied his spring craving for both sweet and sour with mapleand elder sap and was swimming leisurely down-stream toward his lakewhen he heard a sound on shore. Something was coming through the woods,for he heard the snow crackling. Shaggycoat kept very still and watchedand listened. Nearer and nearer the sounds came and presently he saw theotter coming with long jumps, breaking the crust at every spring. Theydiscovered each other almost at the same instant and the otter was allfight in a second. The fur stood up on his neck, his eyes snapped, andhis lips parted showing a white, gleaming set of teeth.
He made straight for the beaver, covering the snow with great jumps andShaggycoat saw that his best course was to meet his enemy in the water.On land he would be no match for so agile a foe. So he swam inmid-stream and clambered upon a low rock and waited for the attack. Thiswas the hour for which he had longed all through the winter months, butnow that it was at hand, he almost wished that he was back in his snughouse on the lake. The otter was a third larger than he, and he swam soeasily and his every motion was so quick and strong that the beaverfeared him even before he had found how good a fighter he was.
He began by swimming about the rock several times, snapping at hisadversary at every chance. This necessitated Shaggycoat's turning veryfast and as he was not as quick as his foe, he got his tail nipped twicealmost before he knew it. Then he concluded the rock was no place forhim so made a clumsy spring for the otter's back. But when he fell inthe water with a great splash, the otter was not where he had been asecond before, but was glaring at the beaver from the rock which he hadreached in some unaccountable manner.
While Shaggycoat was still wondering what to do next, the otter tookmatters into his own hands, by jumping squarely upon the beaver's back,and setting his teeth into his neck. It would have been a sorry day forpoor Shaggycoat had not a projecting rock been near by, under which heplunged, scraping off his enemy, and thus saving his neck from beingbadly chewed, if not broken. He was getting decidedly the worst of it,so when the otter went back to the rock, Shaggycoat swam out from hishiding-place, and started for the lake at his best speed with his foe inhot pursuit.
What a swim that was and how they churned up the water in that runningfight back to the lake. The beaver with his strong hind legs workingdesperately, doubling, twisting, and turning, snapping at his enemywhenever that agile fellow gave him a chance, and the otter gliding withswift, strong strokes, swimming over and under the beaver and punishinghim at every turn. Foam and blood flecked the water and a line ofbubbles marked their progress.
It seemed to Shaggycoat that his stronghold toward which he wasretreating, fighting off his heavy foe so valiantly, was miles away, butat last, to his great joy, it was reached, and there, at the upper endof the lake was Brighteyes, licking at the maple stump that he hadgirdled that morning. Like a faithful helpmate she flew to his relief,and the otter, seeing that he had two beavers to fight instead of one,gave up the chase and swam away.
It is doubtful if he would have fought a female beaver, for there is acertain chivalry shown the sex, even in the woods.
The next otter that Shaggycoat saw was much smaller than his enemy andhe at once concluded that it was a female, which proved to be the case.She was lying upon a rock in mid-stream, watching the water closely.Her intense manner at once attracted the beaver's attention, so he keptquiet and watched just to find out what she was doing.
Presently she sprang from the rock like a flash and swam down-streamwith a rapidity that fai
rly took Shaggycoat's breath away, good swimmerthat he was. But he was still more astonished, when a second later shestruck out for the shore bearing a large fish in her jaws. The fish wasgiving a few last feeble flops with its tail.
What she wanted with the nasty fish, Shaggycoat could not imagine, so hekept still and watched. She lay down upon the sand, and holding the fishdown with one paw, began tearing it to pieces and eating it. She had notbeen long at work when Shaggycoat noticed two otter pups, that hadpreviously escaped his attention, playing in the sand near the oldotter. They were as playful as kittens and were rolling and tumblingabout having a merry time. When the old otter had finished her fish, shecalled the youngsters to her, and lying down upon the sand, gave themtheir own supper, which was neither flesh nor fish.
When they were satisfied, she tried to coax them into the water. Shewould plunge in herself, and then face about and stand pleading withthem, but they were afraid and would not venture in. Finally, one alittle bolder than the other, came to the water's edge, and dipped hispaw in it, but evidently did not like it, for he went back on the bank.Then the old otter resorted to a strange stratagem, and got her way asmothers will.
She lay down upon the sand and romped and rolled with her pups, tumblingthem over and over. Finally at the height of the play, they were coaxedupon her back, when she slipped quickly into the stream, where shetumbled them off, and left them kicking and sputtering. A moment laterthey scrambled out looking like drowned rats. But the lesson that shehad sought to teach them had been learned. They had discovered that thewater did them no harm and before the shades of night had fallen and thestars appeared, they were playing in the stream of their own accord.
All this amused Shaggycoat so much that he forgot to be angry with theold otter, and finally went away to look for his own supper of poplarbark.
Later in the summer, he did really meet his enemy face to face, butunder such strange conditions that the beaver never forgot the incident.
He was swimming rapidly down-stream on the return trip to Brighteyes andhis own forest lake. There were other lakes in the wilderness that hevisited each summer during his long rambles but none quite like his, sohe was hastening in the autumn twilight, for he knew that in two orthree days he would again be at home.
Suddenly, as he rounded a sharp bend in the stream, he came upon hisenemy close at hand. The otter seemed to be engaged in wrestling withsomething in the water. He was near shore and making quite a splash.
All of the old fury came back to Shaggycoat. This was the fellow who hadso punished him on that memorable day, but Shaggycoat was now larger andstronger than he had been the year before. He felt that he was a matchfor the otter. He would punish him now so that he would never dare toslide upon his pond again.
Shaggycoat started forward noiselessly to take his enemy by surprise andhad gotten within twenty yards before the otter saw him and then thatbold fellow seemed greatly frightened. He plunged about frantically andchurned up the water, roiling the stream. Then it was that Shaggycoatnoticed something strange which sent the fur up on his neck and allalong his back and recalled sensations that were anything but pleasant.When the otter reared and plunged, the beaver saw that his forepaw wasfirmly held in the cruel thing that had caught him the year before.
Now was his time. The trap would hold the otter tight and he wouldpunish him. Again the otter reared and plunged, and a new possibilitycame to Shaggycoat. Perhaps there were more traps all about them. Maybethere was one right under his paws this very minute. His fury at hisenemy gave way to fear for his own safety and he fled precipitately noteven waiting to see if his enemy got free. As he fled, the terror oftraps grew upon him, so that for miles he did not dare to touch his pawson the bottom of the stream.
At last, weary and exhausted, he crawled under an overhanging bank andslept, and in sleep forgot the fear that had pursued him all through thenight. But his enemy never troubled him again, either upon the streamsthat he frequented in summer, or on his own forest lake in winter.