Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/192

168 "Go not. Here at this shore is an ooze as deep as the height of many men. Whoever does not know how to manage will be drowned surely."

"But how shall we get him?"

"He will be in Bogdanets this evening. Let not thy head ache over that; but for us it is time to go."

"But thou hast shot him well!"

"Oh, he is not my first beaver."

"Other girls are afraid to look at a crossbow, but with such as thou one might hunt through the forests for a lifetime."

Yagenka, on hearing this praise, smiled with pleasure, but said nothing, and they returned by the same road through the willows. Zbyshko inquired about the beaver dam, and she told him how many beavers there were in Mochydoly, how many in Zgorzelitse, and how they waded along the paths and mounds.

On a sudden she struck her hip with her hand.

"Oh," cried she, "I have forgotten my arrows on the willow! Wait here."

And before he could answer that he would go himself for them, she had sprung away like a deer, and vanished from his sight in a moment.

Zbyshko waited and waited; at last he began to wonder why she was gone so long.

"She must have lost her arrows, and is looking for them," said he to himself; "I will go to see if anything has happened."

He had gone barely a few steps when the girl stood before him with the crossbow in her hand, the beaver on her shoulder, her face ruddy and smiling.

"For God's sake!" cried Zbyshko, "but how didst thou get him?"

"How? I went into the water! It is not the first time for me; I would not let you go, for if a man does not know how to swim there the ooze will swallow him."

"But I have been waiting here, like an idiot! Thou art a cunning girl!"

"Well, and what? Was I to undress before thee, or how?"

"So thou hadst not forgotten the arrows?"

"No, I only wanted to lead thee away from the water."

"Well! but if I had followed thee, I should have seen a wonder. There would have been something to wonder at! Would there not?"