though when they plunged into it they found themselves
chilled and moistened with gray mist. So swift was their flight,
however, that in an instant they emerged from the cloud into the
moonlight again. Once a high-soaring eagle flew right against the
invisible Perseus. The bravest sights were the meteors that gleamed
suddenly out as if a bonfire had been kindled in the sky and made the
moonshine pale for as much as a hundred miles around them.

As the two companions flew onward, Perseus fancied that he could hear
the rustle of a garment close by his side; and it was on the side
opposite to the one where he beheld Quicksilver, yet only Quicksilver
was visible.

"Whose garment is this," inquired Perseus, "that keeps rustling close
beside me in the breeze?"

"Oh, it is my sister's!" answered Quicksilver. "She is coming along with
us, as I told you she would. We could do nothing without the help of my
sister. You have no idea how wise she is. She has such eyes, too! Why,
she can see you at this moment just as distinctly as if you were not
invisible, and I'll venture to say she will be the first to discover the
Gorgons."

By this time, in their swift voyage through the air, they had come
within sight of the great ocean and were soon flying over it. Far
beneath them the waves tossed themselves tumultuously in mid-sea, or
rolled a white surf line upon the long beaches, or foamed against the
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 toward it, and looking earnestly at a cluster
or heap of brightness at the foot of a precipice of black rocks, behold,
there we