whether it were that they hustled him forward,
or that Jason, of his own accord, thrust a pas-
sage through the crowd, it so happened that he
soon found himself close to the smoking altar,
where King Pelias was sacrificing the black bull.
The murmur and hum of the multitude, in their
surprise at the spectacle of Jason with his one bare
foot, grew so loud that it disturbed the ceremo-
nies; and the king, holding the great knife with
which he was just going to cut the bull's throat,
turned angrily about, and fixed his eyes on
Jason. The people had now withdrawn from
around him, so that the youth stood in an open
space, near the smoking altar, front to front with
the angry King Pelias.

"Who are you?" cried the king, with a ter-
rible frown. "And how dare you make this dis-
turbance, while I am sacrificing a black bull to
my father Neptune?"

"It is no fault of mine," answered Jason.
"Your majesty must blame the rudeness of your
subjects, who have raised all this tumult becaase
one of my feet happens to be bare."

When Jason said this, the king gave a quick,
startled glance down at his feet.

[[285]]

p284 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p285w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p286

v?