rocky cliffs, with a roar that was thunderous, in the lower world;
although it became a gentle murmur, like the voice of a baby half
asleep, before it reached the ears of Perseus. Just then a voice spoke
in the air close by him. It seemed to be a woman's voice, and was
melodious, though not exactly what might be called sweet, but grave
and mild.

"Perseus," said the voice, "there are the Gorgons."

"Where?" exclaimed Perseus. "I cannot see them."

"On the shore of that island beneath you," replied the voice. "A
pebble, dropped from your hand, would strike in the midst of them."

"I told you she would be the first to discover them," said Quicksilver
to Perseus. "And there they are!"

Straight downward, two or three thousand feet below him, Perseus
perceived a small island, with the sea breaking into white foam all
around its rocky shore, except on one side, where there was a beach of
snowy sand. He descended towards it, and, looking earnestly at a
cluster or heap of brightness, at the foot of a precipice of black
rocks, behold, there were the terrible Gorgons! They lay fast asleep,
soothed by the thunder of the sea; for it required a tumult that would
have deafened everybody else to lull such fierce creatures into
slumber. The moonlight glistened on their steely scales, and on their
golden wings, which drooped idly over the sand. Their brazen claws,
horrible to look at, were thrust out, and clutched the wave-beaten
fragments of rock, while the sleeping Gorgons dreamed of tearing some
poor mortal all to pieces. The snakes that served them instead of hair
seemed likewise to be asleep; although, now and then, one would
writhe, and lift its head, and thrust out its forked tongue, emitting
a drowsy hiss, and then let itself subside among its sister snakes.

The Gorgons were more like an awful, gigantic kind of
insect,--immense, golden-winged beetles, or dragon-flies, or things
of that sort,--at once ugly and beautiful,--than like anything else;
only that they were a thousand and a million times as big. And, with
all this, there was something partly human about them, too. Luckily
for Perseus, their faces were completely hidden from him by the
posture in which they lay; for, had he but looked one instant at them,
he would have fallen heavily out of the air, an image of senseless
stone.

"Now," whispered Quicksilver, as he hovered by the side of
Perseus,--"now is your time to do the deed! Be quick; for, if one of
the Go