Thrice he struck at Theseus and made him bend under the blows like a sapling.  And thrice Theseus sprang upright after the blow, and he stabbed at the Club-bearer with his sword, but the loose folds of the bear-skin saved him.

Then Theseus grew angry and closed with him, and caught him by the throat, and they fell and rolled over together.  But when Theseus rose up from the ground the Club-bearer lay still at his feet.

So Theseus took the strange man’s club and his bear-skin and went upon his journey down the glens, till he came to a broad green valley, and he saw flocks and herds sleeping beneath the trees.  And by the side of a pleasant fountain were nymphs and shepherds dancing, but no one piped to them as they danced.

[Illustration:  THEY LEAPT ACROSS THE POOL AND CAME TO HIM.]

When they saw Theseus they shrieked, and the shepherds ran off and drove away their flocks, while the nymphs dived into the fountain and vanished.

Theseus wondered and laughed, “What strange fancies have folks here, who run away from strangers, and have no music when they dance.”  But he was tired and dusty and thirsty, so he thought no more of them, but drank and bathed in the clear pool, and then lay down in the shade under a plane-tree, while the water sang him to sleep as it trickled down from stone to stone.

And when he woke he heard a whispering, and saw the nymphs peeping at him across the fountain from the dark mouth of a cave, where they sat on green cushions of moss.  One said, “Surely he is not the Club-bearer,” and another, “He looks no robber, but a fair and gentle youth.”

Then Theseus smiled and called them.  “Fair nymphs, I am not the Club-bearer.  He sleeps among the kites and crows, but I have brought away his bear-skin and his club.”

They leapt across the pool, and came to him, and called the shepherds back.  And Theseus told them how he had slain the Club-bearer, and the shepherds kissed his feet and sang, “Now we shall feed our flocks in peace, and not be afraid to have music when we dance.  For the cruel Club-bearer has met his match, and he will listen for our pipes no more.”

Then the shepherds brought him kids’ flesh and wine, and the nymphs brought him honey from the rocks.

And Theseus ate and drank with them, and they begged him to stay, but he would not.

“I have a great work to do;” he said, “I must go towards Athens.”

And the shepherds said, “You must look warily about you, lest you meet the robber, called the Pine-bender.  For he bends down two pine-trees and binds all travelers hand and foot between them, and when he lets the trees go their bodies are torn in sunder.”

But Theseus went on swiftly, for his heart burned to meet that cruel robber.  And in a pine-wood at last he met him, where the road ran between high rocks.

There the robber sat upon a stone by the wayside, with a young fir-tree for a club across his knees, and a cord laid ready by his side, and over his head, upon the fir-top, hung the bones of murdered men.