answered Snap. "They love to eat certain roots, so Jed Sanborn told
me, and sometimes they travel a long distance to get them."

After a little more talk the journey was resumed, and nothing out of
the ordinary came to their notice until late in the afternoon. Then
Shep, who was in the bow looking forward, held up his hand for silence.

"What is it?" whispered Giant, who was next to him.

"Some small animals squatting on yonder rocks," replied the doctor's
son. "I don't know what they are."

The young hunters stopped rowing and took up their shotguns with care.
They allowed the boat to drift behind a screen of bushes on the side
of the watercourse. Then they looked through the bushes with care.

"I know what they are---muskrats," whispered Giant.

"I see two of them," added Shep. He raised his gun and Giant did the
same. Bang! bang! went both pieces, one directly after the other.
The muskrats gave a leap upward and fell with a splash into the stream.

"We hit them, that's certain," said the doctor's son. "But they may
get away."

Eagerly the boys rowed up to the spot where the muskrats had sat.
Around the rocks the clear water was churned up into mud. But on
the surface floated the two bodies of the creatures.

"I don't know what we are going to do with them," said Snap. "The