(if it was a gun) made no roar such as was made by the guns Brownie
had sometimes heard at a distance in the woods. He wished that old
Grandaddy Beaver was there. For he did not doubt that the old
gentleman could tell him exactly what had happened.




XV

JASPER JAY'S STORY


After the blinding flash of light and the queer click had sent Brownie
Beaver hurrying home from his partly gnawed tree, he stayed in his
house for a long time before he ventured out again.

Indeed, the night was half gone when he at last he stole forth to find
Grandaddy Beaver and tell him about his awful fright.

Brownie found the old gentleman resting after several hours' work upon
the big dam. And when young Brownie told Grandaddy what had happened,
the old gentleman didn't know just what to think.

"It couldn't have been a moonbeam," he said, "because there's no moon
to-night. And I don't see how it could have been a gun, because there
was no roar.... Did you hear a sort of whistle?" he asked. "Anything
that sounded like a bullet passing over your head?"

Brownie Beaver shuddered at the mere mention of a bullet.