eats the flies? Come hither and let
me feast upon you. It is of no use to run away, for these glens in the
mountain make so cunning a web, that through it no man can find his
way home."

Still Theseus came steadily on, and he asked, "And what is your name,
bold spider, and where are your spider's fangs?"

The strange man laughed again. "Men call me the Club-bearer, and here
is my spider's fang," and he lifted off from the stones at his side a
mighty club of bronze. "With this I pound all proud flies," he said.
"So give me up that gay sword of yours, and your mantle, and your
golden sandals, lest I pound you and by ill-luck you die!"

But Theseus wrapped his mantle round his left arm quickly, in hard
folds, and drew his sword, and rushed upon the Club-bearer, and the
Club-bearer rushed on him.

Thrice he struck at Theseus and made him bend under the blows like
a sapling. And thrice Theseus sprang upright after the blow, and he
stabbed at the Club-bearer with his sword, but the loose folds of the
bear-skin saved him.

Then Theseus grew angry and closed with him, and caught him by the
throat, and they fell and rolled over together. But when Theseus rose
up from the ground the Club-bearer lay still at his feet.

So Theseus took the strange man's club and his bear-skin and went upon
his journey down the glens, till he came to a broad green valley, and
he saw flocks and herds sleeping beneath the trees. And by the side
of a pleasant fountain were nymphs and shepherds dancing, but no one
piped to them as they danced.

[Illustration: THEY LEAPT ACROSS THE POOL AND CAME TO HIM.]

When they saw Theseus they shrieked, and the shepherds ran off and
drove away their flocks, while the nymphs dived into the fountain and
vanished.

Theseus wondered and laughed, "What strange fancies have folks here,
who run away from strangers, and have no music when they dance." But
he was tired and dusty and thirsty, so he thought no more of them,
but drank and bathed in the clear pool, and then lay down in the shade
under a plane-tree, while the water sang him to sleep as it trickled
down from stone to stone.

And when he woke he heard a whispering, and saw the nymphs peeping at
him across the fountain from the dark mouth of a cave, where they
sat on green cushions of moss. One said, "Surely he is not the
Club-bearer," and another, "He looks no robber, but a fair and gentle
youth."

Then Theseus smiled and called them. "Fair nymphs, I