will
surely be annihilated if the charge of yonder mouse is not halted."

For the father of the gods, looking down, saw a warrior mouse coming on
in the most dreadful onslaught of the whole battle. Slice Snatcher was
the name of this warrior. He had come late into the field. He waited to
split a chestnut in two and to put the halves upon his paws. Then,
furiously dashing amongst the frogs, he cried out that he would not
leave the ground until he had destroyed the race, leaving the bank of
the pond a playground for the mice and for the mice alone.

To stop the charge of Slice Snatcher there was nothing for Zeus to do
but to hurl the thunderbolt that is the terror of gods and men.

Frogs and mice were awed by the thunder and the flame. But still the
mice, urged on by Slice Snatcher, did not hold back from their
onslaught upon the frogs.

Now would the frogs have been utterly destroyed; but, as they dashed
on, the mice encountered a new and a dreadful army. The warriors in
these ranks had mailed backs and curving claws. They had bandy legs and
long-stretching arms. They had eyes that looked behind them. They came
on sideways. These were the crabs, creatures until now unknown to the
mice. And the crabs had been sent by Zeus to save the race of the frogs
from utter destruction.

Coming upon the mice they nipped their paws. The mice turned around and
they nipped their tails. In vain the boldest of the mice struck at the
crabs with their sharpened spears. Not upon the hard shells on the
backs of the crabs did the spears of the mice make any dint. On and on,
on their queer feet and with their terrible nippers, the crabs went.
Bread Nibbler could not rally them any more, and Slice Snatcher ceased
to speak of the monument of victory that the mice would erect upon the
bank of the pond. With their heads out of the water they had retreated
to, the frogs watched the finish of the battle. The mice threw down
their spears and shields and fled from the battleground. On went the
crabs as if they cared nothing for their victory, and the frogs came
out of the water and sat upon the bank and watched them in awe.

Heracles had laughed at the diverting tale that the robbers had told
him; he could not bring them then to a place where they would meet with
captivity or death. He let them loose upon the highway, and the robbers
thanked him with high-flowing speeches, and they declared that if they
should ever find him sleeping by the roadwa