he burden on his back. And the old man blessed him,
and then looked earnestly upon him, and said:

"Who are you, fair youth, and wherefore travel you this doleful road?"

"Who I am my parents know; but I travel this doleful road because I have
been invited by a hospitable man, who promises to feast me and to make
me sleep upon I know not what wondrous bed."

Then the old man clapped his hands together and cried:

"Know, fair youth, that you are going to torment and to death, for he
who met you (I will requite your kindness by another) is a robber and a
murderer of men. Whatsoever stranger he meets he entices him hither to
death; and as for this bed of which he speaks, truly it fits all comers,
yet none ever rose alive off it save me."

"Why?" asked Theseus, astonished.

"Because, if a man be too tall for it, he lops his limbs till they be
short enough, and if he be too short, he stretches his limbs till they
be long enough; but me only he spared, seven weary years agone; for I
alone of all fitted his bed exactly, so he spared me, and made me his
slave. And once I was a wealthy merchant, and dwelt in a great city; but
now I hew wood and draw water for him, the torment of all mortal men."

Then Theseus said nothing; but he ground his teeth together.

"Escape, then," said the old man, "for he will have no pity on thy
youth. But yesterday he brought up hither a young man and a maiden, and
fitted them upon his bed; and the young man's hands and feet he cut off,
but the maiden's limbs he stretched until she died, and so both perished
miserably--but I am tired of weeping over the slain. And therefore he is
called Procrustes, the stretcher. Flee from him: yet whither will you
flee? The cliffs are steep, and who can climb them? and there is no
other road."

But Theseus laid his hand upon the old man's mouth, and said: "There is
no need to flee;" and he turned to go down the pass.

"Do not tell him that I have warned you, or he will kill me by some evil
death;" and the old man screamed after him down the glen; but Theseus
strode on in his wrath.

And he said to himself: "This is an ill-ruled land; when shall I have
done ridding it of monsters?" And, as he spoke, Procrustes came up the
hill, and all the merchants with him, smiling and talking gaily. And
when he saw Theseus, he cried: "Ah, fair young guest, have I kept you
too long waiting?"

But Theseus answered: "The man who stretches his guests upon a bed and
hews