Such anger filled him that he really preferred at that moment to die, rather than to let the beast go. Finally his foot caught in the root of a tree; he tottered and would have fallen, if at that moment a dark figure had not appeared before him, and another fork "underpropped" the beast; and in the meanwhile, a voice shouted near his ear: "Use your axe!" Zbyszko, being excited by the fight, did not wonder even for a moment from whence came the unexpected help; but he seized the axe and cut with all his might. The fork cracked, broken by the weight and by the last convulsion of the beast, as it fell. There was a long silence broken only by Zbyszko's loud respirations. But after a while, he lifted his head, looked at the form standing beside him and was afraid, thinking that it might not be a man. "Who are you?" asked he, with uneasiness. "Jagienka!" answered a thin, womanly voice. Zbyszko became dumb from astonishment; he could not believe his own eyes. But his doubts did not last long, because Jagienka's voice again resounded: "I will build a fire." Immediately the clatter of a fire steel against a flint sounded and the sparks began to fall; by their glittering light, Zbyszko beheld the white forehead, the dark eyebrows and the red lips of the girl who was blowing on the tinder which began to burn. Not until then did he realize that she had come to the forest to help him, and that without her aid, he would have perished. He felt such gratitude toward her, that he impulsively seized her around the waist and kissed her on both cheeks. The tinder and the steel fell to the ground. "Let me be!" she began to repeat in a muffled voice; but she allowed him to kiss her and even, as if by accident, touched Zbyszko's lips with her mouth. He released her and said: "May God reward you. I do not know what would have happened without your help." Then Jagienka, while searching for the tinder and fire steel, began to excuse herself: "I was worried about you, because Bezduch also went with a fork and an axe, but the bear tore him to pieces. If you met with such a misfortune, Macko would be very desolate, and he hardly breathes now. So I took a fork and came." "Then it was you whom I heard there behind the pines?" "Yes." "And I thought it was an evil spirit." "I was very much frightened, because it is dangerous to be without fire here around the Radzikowski marshes." "Then why did you not speak to me?" "Because I was afraid you would send me away." Having said this, she again began to strike sparks from the steel, and put on the tinder a bundle of hemp which began to burn. "I have two resinous pieces of wood," said she; "you bring some dried branches quickly, and we will soon have a fire." In fact, after a while a bright fire was burning, and lighted the enormous, brown body of the bear which was lying in a pool of blood. "Hej, a dreadful beast!" said Zbyszko, boastfully. "You split his head entirely open! O, Jesus!"