This time the giant was so nimble in his movements that he had nearly reached home before Little Shell could overtake him; but making his best speed, he was just in time to clip another beaver's tail before the sled slipped into the lodge.
The giant would have been a patient giant, indeed, if his anger had not been violent at these constant tricks played upon him. What vexed him most, was, that he could not get sight of his enemy. Sharp eyes he would have needed to do so, inasmuch as He of the Little Shell had the gift of making himself invisible whenever he chose.
The giant, giving vent to his feelings with many loud rumbling words, looked sharply around to see whether he could discover any tracks. He could find none. The unknown had stepped too lightly to leave the slightest mark behind.
The next day the giant resolved to disappoint his mysterious follower by going to the beaver-dam very early; and accordingly, when Dais-Imid came to the place, he found the fresh traces of his work, but the giant had already gone away. He followed hard upon his tracks but failed to overtake him. When He of the Little Shell came in sight of the lodge, the stranger was in front of it, employed in skinning his beavers.
As Dais-Imid stood looking at him—he had been all this time invisible—he thought:
"I will let him have a view of me."
Presently the man, who proved to be no less a personage than the celebrated giant, Manabozho, looked up and saw him. After regarding him with attention, he said:
"Who are you, little man? I have a mind to kill you."
The little hero of the shell replied:
"If you were to try to kill me you could not do it."