headland, and uplifting his club to such a height
that its but-end was hidden in a cloud, he stood
in that formidable posture, with the sun gleam-
ing all over his metallic surface. There seemed
nothing else to be expected but that, the nexi
moment, he would fetch his great club down,
slam bang, and smash the vessel into a thousand
pieces, without heeding how many innocent
people he might destroy; for there is seldom any
mercy in a giant, you know, and quite as little
in a piece of brass clockwork. But just when
Theseus and his companions thought the blow
was coming, the brazen lips unclosed themselves,
and the figure spoke.

"Whence come you, strangers?"

And when the ringing voice ceased, there was
just such a reverberation as you may have heard
within a great church bell, for a moment or two
after the stroke of the hammer.

"From Athens!" shouted the master in reply.

"On what errand?" thundered the Man of
Brass.

And he whirled his club aloft more threaten-
ingly than ever, as if he were about to smite
them with a thunderstroke right amidships, be-

[[50]]

p049 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p050w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p051

v?