At last, growing confidential, he said that I would soon possess a zabatana of my own, with arrows in plenty.

He was going to make the arrows himself, and his uncle Otawinki, who had a straight eye, would make the tube.

I treated it all as a joke, but he solemnly assured me that he meant it.
Next morning he asked me if I was going to the forest of evil fame, and when I replied in the negative, seemed surprised and, very much to my surprise, evidently disappointed.

He even tried to persuade me to go, where before I had been earnestly recommended not to go, until, finding that I would not, he took me with him to hunt in the woods.

By and by he returned to the same subject: he could not understand why I would not go to that wood, and asked me if I had begun to grow afraid.
"No, not afraid," I replied; "but I know the place well, and am getting tired of it." I had seen everything in it--birds and beasts--and had heard all its strange noises.
"Yes, heard," he said, nodding his head knowingly; "but you have seen nothing strange; your eyes are not good enough yet." I laughed contemptuously and answered that I had seen everything strange the wood contained, including a strange young girl; and I went on to describe her appearance, and finished by asking if he thought a white man was frightened at the sight of a young girl.
What I said astonished him; then he seemed greatly pleased, and, growing still more confidential and generous than on the previous day, he said that I would soon be a most important personage among them, and greatly distinguish myself.