ottom
of that horrible water? He turned away sadly and wandered back into
the streets, hardly knowing where he was going; when a voice behind him
cried: 'Stop, prince, I have caught you at last! It is a thousand years
since I first began to seek you.' And there beside him stood the old,
white-bearded, figure of Death. Swiftly he drew the ring from his
finger, and the king of the eagles, the bald-headed king, and the
mist-veiled queen, hastened to his rescue. In an instant they had seized
upon Death and held him tight, till the prince should have time to reach
the Land of Immortality. But they did not know how quickly Death could
fly, and the prince had only one foot across the border, when he felt
the other grasped from behind, and the voice of Death calling: 'Halt!
now you are mine.'

The Queen of the Immortals was watching from her window, and cried to
Death that he had no power in her kingdom, and that he must seek his
prey elsewhere.

'Quite true,' answered Death; 'but his foot is in my kingdom, and that
belongs to me!'

'At any rate half of him is mine,' replied the Queen, 'and what good can
the other half do you? Half a man is no use, either to you or to me! But
this once I will allow you to cross into my kingdom, and we will decide
by a wager whose he is.'

And so it was settled. Death stepped across the narrow line that
surrounds the Land of Immortality, and the queen proposed the wager
which was to decide the prince's fate. 'I will throw him up into the
sky,' she said, 'right to the back of the morning star, and if he falls
down into this city, then he is mine. But if he should fall outside the
walls, he shall belong to you.'

In the middle of the city was a great open square, and here the queen
wished the wager to take place. When all was ready, she put her foot
under the foot of the prince and swung him into the air. Up, up, he
went, high amongst the stars, and no man's eyes could follow him. Had
she thrown him up straight? the queen wondered anxiously, for, if not,
he would fall outside the walls, and she would lose him for ever. The
moments seemed long while she and Death stood gazing up into the air,
waiting to know whose prize the prince would be. Suddenly they both
caught sight of a tiny speck no bigger than a wasp, right up in the
blue. Was he coming straight? No! Yes! But as he was nearing the city,
a light wind sprang up, and swayed him in the direction of the wall.
Another second and he would