ill be a
long time before I finally permit you to die."

"That's all right," said Trot cheerfully. "The longer you take, the
better I'll be satisfied."

"That's how I feel about it," added Cap'n Bill. "Don't get in a
hurry to kill us Zog. It'll be such a wear an' tear on your nerves.
Jes' take it easy an' let us live as long as we can."

"Don't you care to die?" asked the magician.

"It's a thing I never longed for," the sailor replied. "You see, we
had no business to go on a trip with the mermaids to begin with.
I've allus heard tell that mermaids is dangerous, an' no one as met
'em ever lived to tell the tale. Eh, Trot?"

"That's what you said, Cap'n Bill."

"So I guess we're done for, one way 'r 'nother, an' it don't matter
much which. But Trot's a good child, an' mighty young an' tender. It
don't seem like her time has come to die. I'd like to have her sent
safe home to her mother. So I've got this 'ere proposition to make,
Zog. If your magic could make ME die twice, or even THREE times fer
good measure, why you go ahead an' do it an' I won't complain. All I
ask is fer you to send this little girl safe back to dry land
again."

"Don't you do it, Zog!" cried Trot indignantly, and turning to Cap'n
Bill, she added, "I'm not goin' to leave you down here in all this
mess, Cap'n, and don't you think it. If one of us gets out of the
muddle we're in, we'll both get out, so don't you make any bargains
with Zog to die twice."

Zog listened to this conversation very carefully. "The dying does
not amount to much," he said. "It is the thinking about it that
hurts you mortals most. I've watched many a shipwreck at sea, and
the people would howl and scream for hours before the ship broke up.
Their terror was very enjoyable. But when the end came, they all
drowned as peacefully as if they were going to sleep, so it didn't
amuse me at all."

"I'm not worrying," said Trot.

"Ner me," said Cap'n Bill. "You'll find we can take what comes jes'
as easy as anybody."

"I do not expect to get much from you poor mortals," said Zog
carelessly. "You are merely a side show to my circus, a sort of
dessert to my feast of vengeance. When the time comes, I can find a
hundred ways to kill you. My most interesting prisoners are these
pretty mermaids, who claim that none of their race has ever yet died
or been destroyed. The first mermaid ever created is living yet, and
I am told she is none other than Queen Aquareine. So I have a pret