The shaking of the high grass told him of the running of animals, what species he could not tell, but from Ring's manifest desire to have a chase they were evidently some kind wilder than rabbits.

Venters approached the willow and cottonwood belt that he had observed from the height of slope.
He penetrated it to find a considerable stream of water and great half-submerged mounds of brush and sticks, and all about him were old and new gnawed circles at the base of the cottonwoods.
"Beaver!" he exclaimed.

"By all that's lucky! The meadow's full of beaver! How did they ever get here ?" Beaver had not found a way into the valley by the trail of the cliff-dwellers, of that he was certain; and he began to have more than curiosity as to the outlet or inlet of the stream.

When he passed some dead water, which he noted was held by a beaver dam, there was a current in the stream, and it flowed west.

Following its course, he soon entered the oak forest again, and passed through to find himself before massed and jumbled ruins of cliff wall.