-he
was a Professor in some university--and he said it would take us a
thousand years before we even caught up with them. Do you think that I'm
superstitious? Well, listen to this, now; here's one that he told me,
and it comes from a famous Greek play. There was a woman back in Greece
that was like Mother Trigedgo, and she prophesied, before a man was
born, that he'd kill his own father and marry his own mother. What do
you think of that, now? His father was a king and didn't want to kill
him, so when he was born he pierced his feet and put him out on a cliff
to die. But a shepherd came along and found this baby and named him
Edipus, which means swelled feet; and when the kid grew up he was
walking along a narrow pass when he met his father in disguise. They got
into a quarrel over who should turn out and Epidus killed his father.
Then he went on to the city where his mother was queen and there was a
big bird, the Sphinx, that used to come there regular and ask those
folks a riddle: What is it that is four-footed, three-footed and
two-footed? And every time when they failed to give the answer the
Sphinx would take one of them to eat. Well, the queen had said that
whoever guessed that riddle could be king and have her for his wife, and
Epidus guessed the answer. It's a _man_, you see, that crawls when
he is a baby, stands on two legs when he's grown and walks with a cane
when he is old. Epidus married the queen, but when he found out what
he'd done he went mad and put his own eyes out. But don't you see he
couldn't escape it."

"No, but listen," she smiled, "that was just a legend, and the Greeks
made it into a play. It was just like the German stories of Thor and the
Norse gods that Wagner used in his operas. They're wonderful, and all
that, but folks don't take them seriously. They're just--why, they're
fairy tales."

"Well, all right," grumbled Denver, "I expect you think I am crazy, but
what about Mother Trigedgo? Didn't she send me over here to find this
mine? And wasn't it right where she told me? Doesn't it lie within the
shadow of a place of death, and wasn't the gold added to it?"

"Why, no!" exclaimed Drusilla, "did you find the gold, too? I
thought----"

"That referred to the copper," answered Denver soberly. "It was your
father that gave me the tip. When I first came over here I was inquiring
for gold, because I knew I had to make a choice; but he pointed out to
me that these horoscopes are symbolical an