the passages. But I will give you the clue so
that you may look upon the Minotaur and then come back to me. Theseus,
now I put into your hand the thread that will guide you through all the
windings of the labyrinth. And outside the place where the Minotaur is
you will find another thread to guide you back."

A cone was on the ground and it had a thread fastened to it. Ariadne
gave Theseus the thread and the cone to wind it around. The thread as
he held it and wound it around the cone would bring him through all the
windings and turnings of the labyrinth.

She left him, and Theseus went on. Winding the thread around the cone
he went along a wide passage in the vault. He turned and came into a
passage that was very long. He came to a place in this passage where a
door seemed to be, but within the frame of the doorway there was only a
blank wall. But below that doorway there was a flight of six steps, and
down these steps the thread led him. On he went, and he crossed the
marks that he himself had made in the dust, and he thought he must have
come back to the place where he had parted from Ariadne. He went on,
and he saw before him a flight of steps. The thread did not lead up the
steps; it led into the most winding of passages. So sudden were the
turnings in it that one could not see three steps before one. He was
dazed by the turnings of this passage, but still he went on. He went up
winding steps and then along a narrow wall. The wall overhung a broad
flight of steps, and Theseus had to jump to them. Down the steps he
went and into a wide, empty hall that had doorways to the right hand
and to the left hand. Here the thread had its end. It was fastened to a
cone that lay on the ground, and beside this cone was another--the clue
that was to bring him back.

Now Theseus, knowing he was in the very center of the labyrinth, looked
all around for sight of the Minotaur. There was no sight of the monster
here. He went to all the doors and pushed at them, and some opened and
some remained fast. The middle door opened. As it did Theseus felt
around him a chilling draft of air.

That chilling draft was from the breathing of the monster. Theseus then
saw the Minotaur. It lay on the ground, a strange, bull-faced thing.

When the thought came to Theseus that he would have to fight that
monster alone and in that hidden and empty place all delight left him;
he grew like a stone; he groaned, and it seemed to him that he heard
the v