squarely on the wolverene's hind quarters.

Instantly there arose a hideous screeching, growling, spitting and
snarling, which pierced even to the ears of the beavers and sent them
scurrying wildly to their burrows in the bank. Under ordinary
circumstances the wolverene, with his dauntless courage and tremendous
strength, would have given a good account of himself with any lynx
alive. But this time, caught with head down and very busy, he stood
small chance with his powerful and lightning-swift assailant. In a
very few minutes the lynx's eviscerating claws had fairly torn him to
shreds; and thus came to a sudden close the invasion of the
wolverene.

But meanwhile, from far over the hills, moving up from the lowlands
by the sea, approached a peril which the beavers did not dream of
and could find no ingenuity to evade. Two half-breed trappers,
semi-outlaws from the Northern Peninsula, in search of fresh
hunting-grounds, had come upon this rich region of ponds and dams.

[Illustration: "HE SPRANG WITH A HUGE BOUND THAT LANDED HIM, CLAWS OPEN,
SQUARELY ON THE WOLVERENE'S HIND QUARTERS."]

CHAPTER VIII

The Saving of Boy's Pond

WHEN, early in the winter, the lumbermen moved into these woods which
Jabe had cruised over, establishing their camp about two miles
down-stream from the spot where the Boy and the woodsman had had their
lean-to, Jabe came with them as boss of a gang. He had for the time
grown out of the mood for trapping. Furs were low, and there was a
"sight" more money for him in lumbering that winter. Popular with the
rest of the lumbermen--who most of them knew of the Boy and his
"queer" notions--Jabe had no difficulty in pledging them to respect
the sanctity of Boy's Pond and its inhabitants. In fact, in the
evenings around the red-hot stove, Jabe told such interesting stories
of what he and the Boy had seen together a few months before, that the
reckless, big-hearted, boisterously profane but sentimental woodsmen
were more than half inclined to declare the whole series of ponds
under the special protection of the camp. As for Boy's Pond, that
should be safe at any cost.

Not long after Christmas the Boy, taking advantage of the fact that
some fresh supplies were being sent out from the Settlement by team,
came to visit the camp. The head of the big lumber company which owned
these woods was a friend of the Boy's father, and the Boy himself was
welcome in any of the camps. His special purpose