figure that at first he took to be a statue of
white marble. The figure was but that of a girl, slight and very
youthful, yet more fair even than any of the nymphs of the Hesperides.
Invisible in his Helmet of Darkness, Perseus drew near, and saw that
the fragile white figure was shaken by shivering sobs. The waves,
every few moments, lapped up on her little cold white feet, and he saw
that heavy chains held her imprisoned to that chilly rock in the sea.
A great anger stirred the heart of Perseus, and swiftly he took the
helmet from his head and stood beside her. The maid gave a cry of
terror, but there was no evil thing in the face of Perseus. Naught but
strength and kindness and purity shone out of his steady eyes.

Thus when, very gently, he asked her what was the meaning of her cruel
imprisonment, she told him the piteous story, as a little child tells
the story of its grief to the mother who comforts it. Her mother was
queen of Ethiopia, she said, and very, very beautiful. But when the
queen had boasted that no nymph who played amongst the snow-crested
billows of the sea was as fair as she, a terrible punishment was sent
to her. All along the coast of her father's kingdom a loathsome
sea-monster came to hold its sway, and hideous were its ravages. Men
and women, children and animals, all were equally desirable food for
its insatiate maw, and the whole land of Ethiopia lay in mourning
because of it. At last her father, the king, had consulted an oracle
that he might find help to rid the land of the monster. And the oracle
had told him that only when his fair daughter, Andromeda, had been
sacrificed to the creature that scourged the sea-coast would the
country go free. Thus had she been brought there by her parents that
one life might be given for many, and that her mother's broken heart
might expiate her sin of vanity. Even as Andromeda spoke, the sea was
broken by the track of a creature that cleft the water as does the
forerunning gale of a mighty storm. And Andromeda gave a piteous cry.

"Lo! he comes!" she cried. "Save me! ah, save me! I am so young to
die."

Then Perseus darted high above her and for an instant hung poised like
a hawk that is about to strike. Then, like the hawk that cannot miss
its prey, swiftly did he swoop down and smote with his sword the
devouring monster of the ocean. Not once, but again and again he
smote, until all the water round the rock was churned into slime and
blood-stained fr