The hunters sighted him once as he crossed a level opening in the snow.

He seemed less than four inches high as he crawled.

Logs, ridges, trees, or twigs, afforded ample concealment, till his whiskers appeared in a thicket within fifteen feet of the beaver.
All this was painfully exciting to Skookum, who, though he could not see, could get some thrilling whiffs, and he strained forward to improve his opportunities.

The sound of this slight struggle caught the beaver's ear.

It stopped work, wheeled, and made for the water hole.