In a flash the otters disappeared.

For several minutes the water in the pool continued to rock and heave--and that was all.

After a little, Baree drew himself back into the bushes and went on.
It was about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun should still have been well up in the sky.

But it was growing darker steadily, and the strangeness and fear of it all lent greater speed to Baree's legs.
He stopped every little while to listen, and at one of these intervals he heard a sound that drew from him a responsive and joyous whine.

It was a distant howl--a wolf's howl--straight ahead of him.