absorbed did Sam-Chaong become in this thought, and so sombre were
the feelings filling his heart, that he entirely forgot to thank the
hero by his side who had risked his life for him, and but for whose
prowess he would have fallen a victim to the deadly hatred of these
enemies of mankind. Feelings of resentment began to spring up in the
mind of Monkey as he saw that Sam-Chaong seemed to feel more pity for
the dead demons than gratitude for the heroic efforts which had saved
him from a cruel death.

"Are you dissatisfied with the services I have rendered to you to-day?"
he asked him abruptly.

"My heart is deeply moved by what you have done for me," replied
Sam-Chaong. "My only regret is that you could not have delivered me
without causing the death of these poor wretched demons, and thus
depriving them of the gift of life, a thing as dear to them as it is to
you or me."

Now Monkey, who was of a fierce and hasty temper, could not brook such
meagre praise as this, and so in passionate and indignant language he
declared that no longer would he be content to serve so craven a
master, who, though beloved of the Goddess, was not a man for whom he
would care to risk his life again.

With these words he vaulted into the air, and soared away into the
distance, on and on through countless leagues of never-ending sky,
until he came to the verge of a wide-spreading ocean. Plunging into
this as though it had been the home in which he had always lived, he
made his way by paths with which he seemed familiar, until he reached
the palace of the Dragon Prince of the Sea, who received him with the
utmost cordiality and gave him an invitation to remain with him as his
guest as long as he pleased.

For some time he entertained himself with the many marvellous sights
which are hidden away beneath the waters of the great ocean and which
have a life and imagery of their own, stranger and more mysterious
perhaps than those on which men are accustomed to look. But in time he
became restless and dissatisfied with himself. The unpleasant thought
crept slowly into his heart that in a moment of passion he had basely
deserted Sam-Chaong and had left him helpless in a strange and unknown
region; and worse still that he had been unfaithful to the trust which
the Goddess had committed to him. He became uncomfortably conscious,
too, that though he had fled to the depths of the ocean he could never
get beyond the reach of her power, and th