ain this Minotaur, and put an end to the terrors of my land."

"And will you kill the Minotaur? How then will you do it?" asked
Ariadne in wonder.

"I know not, nor do I care, but he must be strong if he be too strong
for me," said Theseus.

Then she loved him all the more and said, "But when you have killed
him, how will you find your way out of the labyrinth?"

"I know not, neither do I care, but it must be a strange road if I do
not find it out before I have eaten up the monster's carcass."

Then Ariadne loved him yet more, and said, "Fair youth, you are too
bold, but I can help you, weak as I am. I will give you a sword, and
with that perhaps you may slay the monster, and a clue of thread, and
by that perhaps you may find your way out again. Only promise me that
if you escape you will take me home with you."

Then Theseus laughed and said, "Am I not safe enough now?" And he hid
his sword, and rolled up the clue in his hand, and then he fell down
before Ariadne and kissed her hands and her feet, while she wept over
him a long while. Then the Princess went away, and Theseus lay down
and slept sweetly.

When evening came the guards led him away to the labyrinth. And he
went down into that doleful gulf, and he turned on the left hand and
on the right hand, and went up and down till his head was dizzy, but
all the while he held the clue. For when he went in he fastened it to
a stone and left it to unroll out of his hand as he went on, and
it lasted till he met the Minotaur in a narrow chasm between black
cliffs.

And when he saw the Minotaur, he stopped a while, for he had never
seen so strange a monster. His body was a man's, but his head was the
head of a bull, and his teeth were the teeth of a lion. When he saw
Theseus, he roared and put his head down and rushed right at him.

But Theseus stepped aside nimbly, and as the monster passed by, cut
him in the knee, and ere he could turn in the narrow path, he followed
him, and stabbed him again and again from behind, till the monster
fled, bellowing wildly.

Theseus followed him, holding the clue of thread in his left hand, and
at last he came up with him, where he lay panting, and caught him by
the horns, and forced his head back, and drove the keen sword through
his throat.

Then Theseus turned and went back, limping and weary, feeling his
way by the clue of thread, till he came to the mouth of that doleful
place, and saw waiting for him--whom but Ariadne?