Finally the string of the crossbow twanged and at the same moment Jagienka cried: "I hit him! I hit him!"
Zbyszko instantly climbed higher and looked through the thicket toward the water; the beaver plunged into the water, then reappeared on the surface, turning somersets.
"I hit him hard! He will soon be quiet!" said Jagienka.
The movements of the animal grew slower, and then before one had time sufficient to recite one "Ave Maria," he was floating on his back on the surface of the water.
"I will go and get him," said Zbyszko.
"No, do not go. Here, near the shore, there is, deep slime. Anyone who does not know how to manage, will surely drown."
"Then how will we get him?"
"He will be in Bogdaniec this evening, do not worry about that; now we must go home."
"You hit him hard!"
"Bah! It is not the first one!"
"Other girls are afraid to even look at a crossbow; but with you, one can go to the forest all his life."
Jagienka smiled at such praise, but she did not answer; they returned the same way they came. Zbyszko asked her about the beavers and she told him how many of them there were in Moczydoly, and how many in Zgorzelice.
Suddenly she struck her hip with her hand and exclaimed: "Well, I left my arrows on the willow. Wait!"
Before he could say that he would return for them, she jumped back like a roe and disappeared. Zbyszko waited and waited; at last he began to wonder what detained her so long.
"She must have lost the arrows and is searching for them," he said to himself; "but I will go and see whether anything has happened to her."
He had hardly started to return before the girl appeared with her bow in her hand, her face smiling and blushing, and with the beaver on her shoulders.
"For God's sake!" cried Zbyszko, "how did you get him?"
"How? I went into the water, that is all! It is nothing new for me; but I did not want you to go, because the mud drags anyone down who does not know how to swim in it."
"And I waited here like a fool! You are a sly girl."
"Well, could I undress before you?"
"Bah! If I had followed you, then I would have seen a wonder!"
"Be silent!"