“Don’t you do it, Zog!” cried Trot indignantly, and turning to Cap’n Bill, she added, “I’m not goin’ to leave you down here in all this mess, Cap’n, and don’t you think it.  If one of us gets out of the muddle we’re in, we’ll both get out, so don’t you make any bargains with Zog to die twice.”

Zog listened to this conversation very carefully.  “The dying does not amount to much,” he said.  “It is the thinking about it that hurts you mortals most.  I’ve watched many a shipwreck at sea, and the people would howl and scream for hours before the ship broke up.  Their terror was very enjoyable.  But when the end came, they all drowned as peacefully as if they were going to sleep, so it didn’t amuse me at all.”

“I’m not worrying,” said Trot.

“Ner me,” said Cap’n Bill.  “You’ll find we can take what comes jes’ as easy as anybody.”

“I do not expect to get much from you poor mortals,” said Zog carelessly.  “You are merely a side show to my circus, a sort of dessert to my feast of vengeance.  When the time comes, I can find a hundred ways to kill you.  My most interesting prisoners are these pretty mermaids, who claim that none of their race has ever yet died or been destroyed.  The first mermaid ever created is living yet, and I am told she is none other than Queen Aquareine.  So I have a pretty problem before me to invent some way to destroy the mermaids or put them out of existence.  And it will require some thought.”

“Also, it will require some power you do not possess,” suggested the Queen.

“That may be,” replied Zog softly.  “But I am going to experiment, and I believe I shall be able to cause you a lot of pain and sorrow before I finally make an end of you.  I have not lived twenty-seven thousand years, Aquareine, without getting a certain amount of wisdom, and I am more powerful than you suspect.”

“You are a monster and a wicked magician,” said the Mermaid Queen.

“I am,” agreed Zog, “but I cannot help it.  I was created part man, part bird, part fish, part beast and part reptile, and such a monstrosity could not be otherwise than wicked.  Everybody hates me, and I hate everybody.”

“Why don’t you kill yourself?” asked Trot.

“I’ve tried that and failed,” he answered.  “Only one being in the world has power to destroy me, and that is King Anko, the sea serpent.”

“Then you’d better let him do it,” advised the little girl.

“No.  Much as I long to die, I cannot allow King Anko the pleasure of killing me.  He has always been my worst enemy, and it would be such a joy to him to kill me that I really cannot allow him.  Indeed, I have always hoped to kill Anko.  I have now been three thousand six hundred and forty-two years, eleven months and nine days figuring out a plan to destroy old Anko, and as yet I have not discovered a way.”

“I’d give it up, if I were you,” advised Trot.  “Don’t you think you could get some fun out of trying to be good?”