hangs, and that whoever approaches him runs the risk
of being devoured at a mouthful."

"True," said the king, with a smile that did not look particularly
good-natured. "Very true, young man. But there are other things as hard,
or perhaps a little harder, to be done before you can even have the
privilege of being devoured by the dragon. For example, you must first
tame my two brazen-footed and brazen-lunged bulls, which Vulcan, the
wonderful blacksmith, made for me. There is a furnace in each of their
stomachs, and they breathe such hot fire out of their mouths and
nostrils that nobody has hitherto gone nigh them without being instantly
burned to a small, black cinder. What do you think of this, my brave
Jason?"

"I must encounter the peril," answered Jason composedly, "since it
stands in the way of my purpose."

"After taming the fiery bulls," continued King AEetes, who was determined
to scare Jason if possible, "you must yoke them to a plow and must plow
the sacred earth in the grove of Mars and sow some of the same dragon's
teeth from which Cadmus raised a crop of armed men. They are an unruly
set of reprobates, those sons of the dragon's teeth, and unless you
treat them suitably, they will fall upon you sword in hand. You and your
forty-nine Argonauts, my bold Jason, are hardly numerous or strong
enough to fight with such a host as will spring up."

"My master Chiron," replied Jason, "taught me long ago the story of
Cadmus. Perhaps I can manage the quarrelsome sons of the dragon's teeth
as well as Cadmus did."

"I wish the dragon had him," muttered King AEetes to himself, "and the
four-footed pedant, his schoolmaster, into the bargain. Why, what a
foolhardy, self-conceited coxcomb he is! We'll see what my
fire-breathing bulls will do for him. Well, Prince Jason," he continued
aloud, and as complacently as he could, "make yourself comfortable for
today, and tomorrow morning, since you insist upon it, you shall try
your skill at the plow."

While the king talked with Jason a beautiful young woman was standing
behind the throne. She fixed her eyes earnestly upon the youthful
stranger and listened attentively to every word that was spoken, and
when Jason withdrew from the king's presence this young woman followed
him out of the room.

"I am the king's daughter," she said to him, "and my name is Medea. I
know a great deal of which other young princesses are ignorant and can
do many things which they would be af