elight of the Asas.

But then she remembered Loki's deceitful ways, and said: "I believe
thee not. This is one of thy tricks, Red Loki."

"Ho, you think so, do you?" said the crafty one. "Then come and see
them for yourself, and bring your own to compare with them."

"Are they near by?" said Idun, rising doubtfully to her feet, and
still holding fast to the casket of fruit.

"Only just a little way off," replied Loki, and taking hold of her
hand he drew her outside the thicket.

On and on they went, and when she asked where they were going he
always replied that the grove where the apples grew was just a little
farther than he had thought.

At length, without noticing that she had passed the boundaries, Idun
stood outside the walls of Asgard on a dreary region of barren heath,
and then she at last began to suspect mischief.

"Where am I?" she cried, "and where, O Loki, are the golden apples?"

But she only heard the jeering ha! ha! ha! of the Asa as he returned
to Asgard, and that was soon lost in the _whirr-r-r_ of wings as a
mighty eagle, swooping down upon her, fixed his talons in her girdle
and rose with her into the air.

And this, of course, was Thiassi, the Storm Giant, who had been on the
watch for her all the time, and who now carried her off, casket and
all, to the bleak and desolate abode over which he ruled. Well had it
been said that Loki was at the bottom of all the misfortunes that ever
befell in Asgard. And never until the End of All Things would he work
so dire a mischief again.

Poor Idun grew pale and thin and sad in her captivity, but she would
not purchase freedom with a taste of the Apples of Youth, although the
Storm Giant coaxed and begged and threatened by turns.

For a time the Asas took little notice of her absence, for they
thought she was amusing herself somewhere in the sunny groves of
Asgard and had forgotten her daily visit. Then they began to feel old
and weary, and at first scarcely knew what was wrong.

Glancing at each other they saw, with startled eyes, wrinkles and
lines and grey hairs where these things were not wont to be. Their
youth and beauty were disappearing, and then they suddenly awoke to
the need of a thorough search for the missing Idun.

And, when she could nowhere be found, All-Father Odin, mindful of
former tricks, sent for Red Loki and began very closely to question
him. Others had seen Idun in his company on that eventful day when she
had been carried