In every direction they scanned the clearing.  They saw no living things but the trees.  “It’s queer,” commented Charley.  “Let’s look at that nearest tree that’s down.  Maybe we can learn something from it.”

They walked over to the tree, then studied it in amazement.  “I never saw anything like that before,” cried Lew.  “I don’t believe that was ever cut with an axe.  It looks as though it had been gnawed off.”

“It has,” cried Charley with sudden excitement.  “I understand the whole thing now.  We’ve found a colony of beavers.  I never saw a live beaver, but I’ve read about them and seen pictures of their huts and their work, and that looks exactly like the pictures.  And those noises like rifle-shots were their alarm signals.  They slap the water with their tails when they are frightened and dive under water.  I suppose they’re all in their lodges now, and we’ll never get a peep at them.  Gee whiz!  Just think of finding beavers, Lew, real beavers.  I didn’t know there were any in Pennsylvania.”

“It seems to me that I read something about the game commission stocking the state with them a few years ago.  I think they put a number of them in the state forests.  Doubtless they have multiplied in numbers and started new colonies.”

“That explains it,” said Charley.  “Gee!  I’m glad we found these fellows.  And I’m just as glad that they aren’t timber thieves.  You know, Lew, it made me feel kind of queer to think of facing real timber thieves.  I didn’t like the idea a bit.  But I kept thinking about Mr. Morton and what he said about his being blamed if I fell down, and I made up my mind I’d do it, no matter what happened.”

They now turned their attention to the felled tree once more, studying the innumerable teeth marks, like so many tiny chisel cuts, on stump and butt.  Then they noticed the great chips lying about the stump, some of them half as big as dinner plates.

“It gets me to understand how they can bite out such huge chunks,” said Lew, “when their teeth are evidently so small.  Why, you’d think an animal would have to have a mouth as big as a hippopotamus to take bites like these.”

Charley laughed.  “Looks that way, doesn’t it?” he said.  “But as I remember it, what I read said that the beaver gnaws out parallel rings around the trunk and wrenches out the wood between.  It’s like sawing two cuts in a board and chiseling out the board between them.”

“I see,” said Lew.  “But I should think they’d break their teeth all to pieces.”

“So should I. But they have very strong teeth that grow out as fast as they wear away, and that are as sharp as a chisel.  I wouldn’t want a beaver to bite me.  I’ll bet he could bite right through a bone.”

“I suppose,” said Lew, “they cut these trees to use in making their dam; but what gets me is how they are going to get the trees over to the dam.  It would take a team of horses to drag this trunk.  It’s fifteen inches in diameter.”