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20 - Kazan by James Oliver Curwood · Kazan

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty, A feud in the wilderness. A soft wind
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: blowing from the south and east brought the scent of
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the invaders to gray wolf snows. When they were still
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: half a mile away. She gave the warning to Kazan,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and he too found the strange scent in the air.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: It grew stronger as they advanced. When two hundred yards
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: from the windfall, they heard the sudden crash of a
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: falling tree and stopped for a full minute. They stood
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: tense and listening. Then the silence was broken by a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: squeaking cry followed by a splash. Gray Wolf's alert ears
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: fell back, and she turned her blind face understandingly toward Kazan.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: They trotted a head slowly, approaching the windfall from behind.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Not until they had reached the top of the knoll
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: on which it was situated did Kazan begin to see
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the wonderful change that had taken place during their ec abstance. Astounded,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: they stood while he stared. There was no longer a
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: little creek below them. Where it had been was a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: pond that reached almost to the foot of the knoll.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: It was fully a hundred feet in width, and the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: backwater had flooded the trees and bush for five or
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: six times. At distance toward the burn. They had come
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: up quietly, and Broken Tooth's dull scented workers were unaware
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: of their presence. Not fifty feet away, Broken Tooth himself
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: was gnawing at the butt of a tree an equal
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: distance to the right of him. Four or five of
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the baby beavers were at play, building a miniature dam
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: of mud and tiny twigs. On the opposite side of
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the pond was a steep back six or seven feet high,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and here a few of the older children, two years
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: old but still not workmen, were having great fun climbing
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the bank and using it as a toboggan slide. It
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: was there splashing that Kazan and Gray Wolf had heard
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: in a dozen different places the older beavers were at work.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: A few weeks before, Kazan had looked upon a similar
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: scene when he had returned into the north from Broken
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  Speaker 1: Tooth's old home. It had not interested him then, but
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a quick and thrilling chain swept through him. Now the
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: beavers had ceased to be mere water animals, uneatable and
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: with an odor that displeased him. They were invaders and
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: enemies his fangs bared silently, his crest stiffened like the
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: hair of a brush, and the muscles of his forelegs
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and shoulders stood out like what cords. Not a sound
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: came from him as he rushed down upon Broken Tooth.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: The old beaver was oblivious of danger until Kazan was
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  Speaker 1: within twenty feet of him. Naturally slow of movement, online
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: he stood for an instant stupefied. Then he swung down
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: from the tree as Kazan leaped upon him. Over and over,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: they rolled to the edge of the bank, tarried on
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: by the dog's momentum. In another moment, the thick, heavy
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: body of the beaver had slipped like oil from under Kazan,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and Broken Tooth was safe in his element. Two holes
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: bitten clean through his fleshy tail. Baffled in his effort
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: to get a death hold on Broken Tooth, Kazan swung
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: like a flash to the right. The young beavers had
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: not moved. Astonished and frightened at what they had seen,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: they stood as if stupefied. Not until they saw Kazan
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: tearing toward them did they awaken to action. Three of
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: them reached the water, The fourth and fifth baby beavers
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: not more than three months old, were too late. With
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a single snap of his jaw, Kazan broke the back
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  Speaker 1: of one. The other he pinned down by the throat
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  Speaker 1: and shook as a terrier shakes a rat. When gray
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Wolf trotted down to him, both of the little beavers
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  Speaker 1: were dead. She sniffed at their soft little bodies and whined.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps the baby creatures reminded her of Runaway Barrie, her
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: own baby, for there was a note of longing in
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  Speaker 1: her wine. As she knows them, it was the mother whine.
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  Speaker 1: But if gray Wolf had visions of her own, Kazan
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: understood nothing of them. He had killed two of the
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: creatures that had dared to invade their home. To the
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: little beavers, he had been as merciless as the gray
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: lynx that had murdered gray Wolf's first children on the
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: top of the sun Rock. Now that he had sunk
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  Speaker 1: his teeth into the flesh of his enemies, his blood
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  Speaker 1: was filled with a frenzied desire to kill. He raved
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  Speaker 1: along the edge of the pond, snarling at the uneasy
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  Speaker 1: water under which broken Tooth had disappeared. All all of
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the beavers had taken refuge in the pond, and its
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  Speaker 1: surface was heaving with the passing of many bodies beneath.
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  Speaker 1: Kazan came to the end of the dam. This was new. Instinctively,
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  Speaker 1: he knew that it was the work of Broken Tooth
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  Speaker 1: and his tribe, and for a few moments he tore
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: fiercely at the matted sticks and limbs. Suddenly there was
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: an upheaval of water close to the dam, fifty feet
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  Speaker 1: out from the bank, and Broken Tooth's big gray head appeared.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: For a tense half minute, Broken Tooth and Kazan measured
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: each other at that distance. Then Broken Tooth drew his wet,
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  Speaker 1: shining body out of the water to the top of
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  Speaker 1: the dam and squatted flat facing Kazan. The old patriarch
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: was alone. Not another beaver had shown himself. The surface
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: of the pond had now become quiet. Vainly, Kazan tried
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  Speaker 1: to discover a footing that would allow him to reach
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the watchful invader, but between the solid wall of the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: dam and the bank there was a tangled framework through
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: which the water rushed with some violence. Three times Kazan
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: fought to work his way through that tangle, and three
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: times his efforts ended in sudden plunges into the water.
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  Speaker 1: All this time, Broken Tooth did not move. When at
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  Speaker 1: last Kazan gave up the attack, the old engineer slipped
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  Speaker 1: over the edge of the dam and disappeared under the water.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: He had learned that Kazan, like the Lynx, could not
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  Speaker 1: fight water, and he spread the news among the members
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  Speaker 1: of his colony. Gray Wolf and Kazan returned to the
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: windfall and lay down in the warm sun. Half an
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: hour later, Broken Tooth drew himself out on the opposite
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  Speaker 1: shore of the pond. He was followed by other beavers
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  Speaker 1: across the water. They resumed their work as if nothing
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  Speaker 1: had happened. The tree cutters returned to their trees. Half
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  Speaker 1: a dozen worked in the water, carrying loads of cement
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and twigs. The middle of the pond was their dead line.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Across this not one of them passed. A dozen times
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: during the hour that followed. One of the beavers swam
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  Speaker 1: up to the dead line and rested there, looking at
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  Speaker 1: the shining little bodies of the babies that Kazan had killed.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps it was the mother, and perhaps some finer instinct
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  Speaker 1: unknown to Kazan told as to gray Wolf. For Gray
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  Speaker 1: Wolf went down twice to sniff at the dead bodies,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and each time, without seeing she went. When the mother
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  Speaker 1: beaver had come to the dead line, the first fierce
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: animus had worn itself from Kazan's blood, and he now
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: watched the beavers closely. He had learned that they were
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: not fighters. They were many to one, and yet they
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  Speaker 1: ran from him like a lot of rabbits broken tooth,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: had not even struck at him, and slowly it grew
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: upon him that these invading creatures that used both the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: water and land would have to be hunted. As he
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: stalked the rabbit and the partridge early in the afternoon,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: he slipped off into the bush, followed by Gray Wolf.
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  Speaker 1: He had often begun the stalking of a rabbit by
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: moving away from it, and he employed this wolf creek. Now,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: with the beavers beyond the windfall, he turned and began
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: trotting up the creek with the wind for a quarter
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  Speaker 1: of a mile. The creek was deeper than it had
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: ever been. One of their old fording places was completely submerged,
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  Speaker 1: and at last Kazan plunged in and swam across, leaving
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  Speaker 1: gray Wolf to wait for him on the windfall side
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  Speaker 1: of the stream alone. He made his way quickly in
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  Speaker 1: the direction of the dam, traveling two hundred yards back
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  Speaker 1: from the creek. Twenty yards below the dam, a dense
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  Speaker 1: thicket of alder and willow grew close to the creek,
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  Speaker 1: and Kazan took advantage of this. He approached within a
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  Speaker 1: leap or two of the dam without being seen, and
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  Speaker 1: crouched close to the ground, ready to spring forth. When
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity came. Most of the beavers were now working
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: in the water. The four or five still on shore
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  Speaker 1: were close to the water and some distance up stream.
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  Speaker 1: After a wait of several minutes, Kazan was almost on
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  Speaker 1: the point of staking everything on a wild rush upon
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  Speaker 1: his enemies, when a movement of the dam attracted his attention.
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  Speaker 1: Half way out, two or three beavers were at work
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  Speaker 1: strengthening the central structure with cement. Swift as a flash,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Kazan darted from his cover to the shelter behind the dam.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Here the water was very shallow the main portion of
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  Speaker 1: the stream, finding a passage close to the opposite shore.
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  Speaker 1: Nowhere did it reach to his belly. As he waded out,
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  Speaker 1: he was completely hidden from the beavers, and the wind
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  Speaker 1: was in his face. The noise of running water drowned,
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  Speaker 1: but little sound he made. Soon he heard the beaver
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  Speaker 1: workmen over him. The branches of the fallen birch gave
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  Speaker 1: him a footing, and he clambered up. A moment later,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: his head and shoulders appeared above the top of the dam,
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  Speaker 1: scarce and arm's length away. Broken Tooth was forcing into
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  Speaker 1: place a three foot length of poplar, as big around
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  Speaker 1: as a man's arm. He was so busy that he
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: did not hear or see Kazan. Another beaver gave the warning.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: As he plunged into the pond. Broken Tooth looked up
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  Speaker 1: and his eyes met Kazan's bared fangs. There was no
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  Speaker 1: time to turn. He threw himself back, but it was
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  Speaker 1: a moment too late. Kazan was upon him. His long
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  Speaker 1: fang sank deep into Broken Tooth's neck, but the old
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  Speaker 1: beaver had thrown himself enough back to make Kazan lose
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  Speaker 1: his footing. At the same moment, his chisel like teeth
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: got a firm hold of the goose skin at Kazan's throat,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Thus clenched with Kazan's long teeth buried almost to the
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  Speaker 1: beaver's jugular they plunged down into the deep water of
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  Speaker 1: the pond. Broken Tooth weighed sixty pounds. The instant he
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: struck the water, he was in his element and holding
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  Speaker 1: tenaciously to the grip he had obtained on Kazan's neck.
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  Speaker 1: He sank like a chunk of iron. Kazan was pulled
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  Speaker 1: completely under. The water rushed into his mouth, his ears, eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and nose. He was blinded, and his senses were a
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: roaring tumult. But instead of struggling to free himself, he
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: held his breath and buried his teeth deeper. They touched
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the soft bottom, and for a moment floundered in the mud.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Then Kazan loosened his hold. He was fighting for his
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: own life now and not for broken tooths. With all
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: of the strength of his powerful limbs, he struggled to
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  Speaker 1: break loose, to rise to the surface, to fresh air,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to life. He clamped his jaws shut, knowing that to
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: breathe was to die. On land, he could have freed
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: himself from broken Tooth's hold without an effort, But under water,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the old beaver's grip was more deadly than would have
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: been the fangs of a lynx ashore. There was a
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: sudden swirl of water as a second beaver circled close
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: about the struggling pear. Had he closed in with broken tooth,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Kazan's struggles would quickly have ceased. But nature had not
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: foreseen the day when broken tooth would be fighting with fang.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: The old patriarch had no particular reason now for holding
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  Speaker 1: Kazan down. He was not vengeful, He did not thirst
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: for blood or death. Finding that he was free, and
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: that this strange enemy that had twice leaped upon him
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: could do him no harm, he loosed his hold. It
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: was not a moment too soon for Kazan. He was
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: struggling weakly when he rose to the surface of the water,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: three quarters drowned, he succeeded in raising his fore paws
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: over a slender branch that projected from the dam. This
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: gave him time to fill his lungs with air and
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: to cough forth the water that had almost ended his existence.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: For ten minutes, he clung to the branch before he
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: dared attempt the short swim ashore. When he reached the bank,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: he dragged himself up weakly. All the strength was gone
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: from his body. His limbs shook, his jaws hung loose.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: He was beaten, completely beaten. A creature without a fang
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: had worsted him. He felt the abasement of it. Drenched
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: and slinking, he went to the windfall, lay down in
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the sun, and waited for Gray Wolf. Days followed, in
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: which Kazan's desire to destroy his beaver enemies became the
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: consuming passion of his life. Each day the dam became
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: more formidable. Cement work in the water was carried on
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: by the beavers swiftly and safely. The water in the
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: pond rose higher each twenty four hours, and the pond
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: grew steadily wider. The water had now been turned into
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the depression that encircled the windfall, and in another week
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: or two, if the beavers continued their work, Kazan's and
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: gray Wolf's home would be nothing more than a small
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: island in the center of a wide area of submerged swamp.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Kazan hunted only for food now, and not for pleasure. Ceaselessly,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: he watched his opportunity to leap upon incautious members of
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Broken Tooth's tribe. The third day after the struggle under
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: the water, he killed a big beaver that approached too
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: close to the willow thicket. The fifth day, two of
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: the young beavers wandered into the flooded depression back of
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the windfall, and Kazan caught them in shallow water and
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: tore them into peace. After these successful assaults, the beavers
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: began to work mostly at night. This was to Kazan's advantage,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: for he was a knight hunter. On each of two
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: consecutive nights he killed a beaver. Counting the young, he
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: had killed seven. When the Otter came. Never had broken
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: tooth been placed between two deadlier or more ferocious enemies
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: than the two that now assailed him. On shore, Kazan
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: was his master because of his swiftness, keener scent, and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: fighting trickery. In the water, the Otter was a still
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: greater menace. He was swifter than the fish that he
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: caught for food. His teeth were like steel needles. He
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: was so sleek and slippery that it would have been
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: impossible for them to hold him with their chessel like teeth.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Could they have caught him. The Otter, like the beaver,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: possessed no hunger for blood. Yet in all the Northland
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: he was the greatest destroyer of their kind, an even
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: greater destroyer than man. He came and passed like a plague,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: and it was in the coldest days of winter that
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: greatest destruction came with him. In those days, he did
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: not assault the beavers in their snug houses. He did
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: what man could do only with dynamite, made an embrasure
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: through their dam. Swiftly the water would fall, the surface
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: ice would crash down, and the beaver houses would be
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: left out of water. Then followed death for the beavers,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: starvation and cold, with the protecting water gone from about
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: their houses, the drained pond a chaotic mass of broken ice,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: and the temperature forty or fifty degrees below zero, they
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: would die within a few hours. For the beaver, with
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: his thick coat of fur, can stand less cold than
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: man through all the long winter. The water about his
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: home is as necessary to him as fire to a child.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: But it was summer now and broken tooth, and his
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: colony had no very great fear of the otter. It
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: would cost them some labor to repair the damage he did,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: but there was plenty of food and it was warm.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: For two days, the otter frisked about the dam, and
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the deep water of the pond Kazan took him for
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: a beaver and tried vainly to stalk him. The otter
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: regarded Kazan suspiciously and kept well out of his way.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Neither knew that the other was an ally. Meanwhile, the
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: beavers continued their work with greater caution. The water in
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the pond had now risen to a point where the
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: engineers had begun the construction of three lodges. On the
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: third day, the destructive instinct of the otter began its work.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: He began to examine the dam close down to the foundation.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: It was not long before he found a weak spot
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: to begin work on, and with his sharp teeth and
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: small bullet like head, he commenced his drilling operations. Inch
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: by inch, he worked his way through the dam, burrowing
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: and gnawing over and under the timbers, and always through
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: the cement. The round hole he made was fully seven
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: inches in diameter. In six hours he had cut it
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: through the five foot base of the dam. A torrent
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: of water began to rush from the pond, as if
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: forced out by a hydraulic pump. Kazan and gray Wolf
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: were hiding in the willows on the south side of
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the pond. When this happened, they heard the roar of
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the stream tearing through the embrasure, and Kazan saw the
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: otter call up to the top of the dam and
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: shake himself like a huge water rat. Within thirty minutes,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: the water in the pond had fallen perceptibly, and the
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: force of the water pouring through the hole was constantly
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: increasing the outlet. In another half hour, the foundations of
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the three lodges, which had been laid in about ten
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: inches of water, stood on mud. Not until Broken Tooth
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: discovered that the water was receding from the houses did
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: he take alarm. He was thrown into a panic, and
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: very soon every beaver in the colony was tearing excitedly
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: about the pond. They swam swiftly from shore to shore,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: paying no attention to the deadline. Now Broken Tooth and
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the older workmen made for the dam, and with a
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: starling cry, the otter plunged down among them and out
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: like a flash for the creek above the pond. Swiftly,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the water continued to fall, and as it fell, the
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: excitement of the beavers increased. They forgot Kazan and Gray Wolf,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: several of the younger members of the colony drew themselves
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: ashore on the windfall side of the pond and whining softly.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Kazan was about to slip back through the willows when
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: one of the older beavers waddled up through the deepening
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: mud close on his ambush. In two Leapskasan was upon him,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: with gray Wolf a leap behind him. The short, fierce
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: struggle in the mud was seen by the other beavers,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: and they crossed swiftly to the opposite side of the pond.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: The water had receded to a half of its greatest
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: width before broken Tooth and his workmen discovered the breach
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: in the wall of the dam. The work of repair
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: was begun at once. For this work, sticks and brush
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: of considerable size were necessary, and to reach this material,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: the beavers were compelled to drag their heavy bodies through
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: the ten or fifteen yards of soft mud left by
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the falling water. Peril of fang no longer kept them back.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Instinct told them that they were fighting for their existence,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: that if the embrasure were not filled up and the
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: water kept in the pond, they would very soon be
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: completely exposed to their enemies. It was a day of
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: slaughter for Gray Wolf and Kazan. They killed two more
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: beavers in the mud close to the willows. Then they
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: crossed the creek below the dam and cut off three
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: beavers in the depression behind the windfall. There was no
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: escape for these three. They were torn into pieces. Farther
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: up the creek, Kazan caught a young beaver and killed it.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Late in the afternoon, the slaughter ended. Broken Tooth and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: his courageous engineers had at last repaired the breach, and
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the water in the pond began to rise. Half a
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: mile up the creek, the big Otter was squatted on
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: a log, basking in the last glow of the setting sun.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow he would go and do over again his work
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: of destruction. That was his method. For him, it was play.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: But that strange and unseen arbiter of the forests, called
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: o e Ki, the spirit by those who speak the
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: wild tongue, looked down at last with mercy upon Broken
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Tooth and his death stricken tribe. For in that last
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: glow of sunset, Kazan and Gray Wolf slipped stealthily up
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the creek to find the Otter basting half asleep on
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: the log. The day's work, a full stomach, and the
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: pool of warm sunlight in which he lay had all
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: combined to make the otters sleepy. He was as motionless
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: as the log on which he had stretched himself. He
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: was big, and gray and old. For ten years he
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: had lived to prove his cunning superior to that of man.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Vainly traps had been set for him. Wily trappers had
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: built narrow sluice ways of rock and tree in small
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: streams for him. But the old otter had foiled their
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: cunning and escaped the steel jaws waiting at the lower
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: end of vich sluice. The trail he left in soft
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: mud told of his size. A few trappers had seen him.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: His soft pell would long ago have found his way
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: to London, Paris, or Berlin. Had it not been for
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: his cunning. He was fit for a princess, a duke,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: or an emperor. For ten years he had lived and
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: escaped the demands of the rich. But this was summer.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: No trapper would have killed him now, for his pelt
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: was worthless. Nature and instinct both told him this. At
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: this season, he did not dread man, for there was
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: no man to dread. So he lay asleep on the log,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: oblivious to everything but the comfort of sleep and the
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: warmth of the sun. Soft footed, searching still for signs
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: of the furry enemies who had invaded their domain. Kazan
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: slipped along the creek. Gray Wolf ran close at his shoulder.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: They made no sound, and the wind was in their favor,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: bringing sense toward them. It brought the otter smell to
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Kazan and gray Wolf. It was the scent of a
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: water animal, rank and fishy, and they took it for
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: the beaver. They advanced still more cautiously. Then Kazan saw
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the big otter asleep on the log, and he gave
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the warning to gray Wolf. She stopped standing with her
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: head thrown up. While Kazan made his stealthy advance. The
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: otter stirred uneasily. It was growing dusk. The golden pool
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of sunlight had faded away. Back in the darkening timber
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: and owl greeted night with its first low call. The
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: otter breathed deeply, His whispered buzzle twiched. He was awakening, stirring.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: When Kazan leaped upon him, face to face in fair fight.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: The old otter could have given a good account of himself.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: But there was no chance. Now the wild itself had,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: for the first time in his life, become his deadliest enemy.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: It was not man now but oe Quai, the spirit
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: that had laid its hand upon him, and from the
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: spirit there was no escape. Kazan's fangs sank into his
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: soft jugular. Perhaps he died without knowing what it was
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: that had leaped upon him, for he died quickly, and
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Kazan and Gray Wolf went on their way, hunting still
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: for enemies to slaughter, and not knowing that in the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Otter they had killed the one ally who would have
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: driven the beavers from their swamp home. The days that
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: followed grew more and more hopeless for Kazan and Gray Wolf,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: with the Otter gone broken tooth and his tribe held
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the winning hand. Each day, the water backed a little
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: farther into the depression surrounding the windfall. By the middle
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: of July, only a narrow strip of land connected the
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: windfall Hummuck with the dry land of the swamp. In
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: deep water, the beavers now worked unmolested. Inch by inch,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: the water rose, until there came the day when it
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: began to overflow the connecting strip for the last time.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Tazan and Gray Wolf passed from their Windfall home and
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: traveled up the stream between the two ridges. The creek
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: held a new meaning for them now, and as they
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: traveled they sniffed its odors and listened to its sounds
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: with an interest they had never known before. It was
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: an interest mingled a little with fear, for something in
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the manner in which the beavers had beaten them reminded
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Kazan and Gray Wolf of man. And that night, when
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: in the radiance of the big white moon, they came
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: within scent of the beaver colony that Broken Tooth had left,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: they turned quickly northward into the plains. Thus had brave
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: old Broken Tooth taught them to respect the flesh and
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: blood and handywork of his tribe. End of Chapter twenty
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: of Kazan by James Oliver Kirkwood. Recording by Leonard Wilson
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: of Springfield, Ohio.