, and called to him, and
bade him tell why the maiden was chained to the rock. The king told
Perseus of the sacrifice that he had been forced to make. Then Perseus
came near the maiden, and he saw how she looked at him with pleading
eyes.

Then Perseus made her father promise that he would give Andromeda to
him for his wife if he should slay the sea monster. Gladly Cepheus
promised this. Then Perseus once again drew his sickle-sword; by the
rock to which Andromeda was still chained he waited for sight of the
sea monster.

It came rolling in from the open sea, a shapeless and unsightly thing.
With the shoes of flight upon his feet Perseus rose above it. The
monster saw his shadow upon the water, and savagely it went to attack
the shadow. Perseus swooped down as an eagle swoops down; with his
sickle-sword he attacked it, and he struck the hook through the
monster's shoulder. Terribly it reared up from the sea. Perseus rose
over it, escaping its wide-opened mouth with its treble rows of fangs.
Again he swooped and struck at it. Its hide was covered all over with
hard scales and with the shells of sea things, but Perseus's sword
struck through it. It reared up again, spouting water mixed with blood.
On a rock near the rock that Andromeda was chained to Perseus alighted.
The monster, seeing him, bellowed and rushed swiftly through the water
to overwhelm him. As it reared up he plunged the sword again and again
into its body. Down into the water the monster sank, and water mixed
with blood was spouted up from the depths into which it sank.

Then was Andromeda loosed from her chains. Perseus, the conqueror,
lifted up the fainting maiden and carried her back to the king's
palace. And Cepheus there renewed his promise to give her in marriage
to her deliverer.

Perseus went on his way. He came to the hidden valley where the nymphs
had their dwelling place, and he restored to them the three magic
treasures that they had given him--the cap of darkness, the shoes of
flight, and the magic pouch. And these treasures are still there, and
the hero who can win his way to the nymphs may have them as Perseus had
them.

Again he returned to the place where he had found Andromeda chained.
With face averted he drew forth the Gorgon's head from where he had
hidden it between the rocks. He made a bag for it out of the horny skin
of the monster he had slain. Then, carrying his tremendous trophy, he
went to the palace of King Cepheus to cl