CHAPTER XVIII Old Man Coyote Tries Another Plan.

For three nights Old Man Coyote had stolen up through the green
Forest with the coming of the Black Shadows and had hidden among
the aspen trees where Paddy the Beaver cut his food, and for
three nights Paddy had failed to come ashore. Each night he had
seemed to have enough food logs in the water to keep him busy
without cutting more. Old Man Coyote lay there, and the hungry
look in his eyes changed to one of doubt and then to suspicion.
Could it be that Paddy the Beaver was smarter than he thought? It
began to look very much as if Paddy knew perfectly well that he
was hiding there each night. Yes, Sir, that's the way it looked.
For three nights Paddy hadn't cut a single tree, and yet each
night he had plenty of food logs ready to take to his storehouse
in the pond.

"That means that he comes ashore in the daytime and cuts his
trees," thought Old Man Coyote as, tired and with black anger in
his heart, he trotted home the third night. "He couldn't have
found out about me himself; he isn't smart enough. It must be
that someone has told him. And nobody knows that I have been over
there but Sammy Jay. It must be he who has been the tattletale. I
think I'll visit Paddy by daylight tomorrow, and then we'll see!"

Now the trouble with some smart people is that they are never
able to believe that others may be as smart as they. Old Man
Coyote didn't know that the first time he had visited Paddy's