onster;" and he thanked the kind man who had warned him, and
hastened onward, whistling merrily as he went down towards the grove of
pines.

Soon he came in sight of the robber's house, built near the foot of a
jutting cliff. Behind it was a rocky gorge and a roaring mountain
stream; and in front of it was a garden wherein grew all kinds of rare
plants and beautiful flowers. But the tops of the pine trees below it
were laden with the bones of unlucky travelers, which hung bleaching
white in the sun and wind.

On a stone by the roadside sat Sinis himself; and when he saw Theseus
coming, he ran to meet him, twirling a long rope in his hands and crying
out:

"Welcome, welcome, dear prince! Welcome to our inn--the true Traveler's
Rest!"

"What kind of entertainment have you?" asked Theseus. "Have you a pine
tree bent down to the ground and ready for me?"

"Ay; two of them!" said the robber. "I knew that you were coming, and I
bent two of them for you."

As he spoke he threw his rope towards Theseus and tried to entangle him
in its coils. But the young man leaped aside, and when the robber rushed
upon him, he dodged beneath his hands and seized his legs, as he had
seized Club-carrier's, and threw him heavily to the ground. Then the two
wrestled together among the trees, but not long, for Sinis was no match
for his lithe young foe; and Theseus knelt upon the robber's back as he
lay prone among the leaves, and tied him with his own cord to the two
pine trees which were already bent down. "As you would have done unto
me, so will I do unto you," he said.

Then Pine-bender wept and prayed and made many a fair promise; but
Theseus would not hear him. He turned away, the trees sprang up, and the
robber's body was left dangling from their branches.

Now this old Pine-bender had a daughter named Perigune, who was no more
like him than a fair and tender violet is like the gnarled old oak at
whose feet it nestles; and it was she who cared for the flowers and the
rare plants which grew in the garden by the robber's house. When she saw
how Theseus had dealt with her father, she was afraid and ran to hide
herself from him.

"Oh, save me, dear plants!" she cried, for she often talked to the
flowers as though they could understand her. "Dear plants, save me; and
I will never pluck your leaves nor harm you in any way so long as I
live."

There was one of the plants which up to that time had had no leaves, but
came up out of the