fury, he turned round upon the hunters and charged down towards them as they came up from behind, and great would have been the havoc he had wrought among them but for Meleager. As the brute bore down, he leaped lightly to one side, and, gathering together all his strength, buried the spear deep into the beast’s black shoulder, and felled him to the earth with the force of his blow. Immediately the others gathered round, and helped to finish the work that Meleager had begun, and soon the monster lay dead upon the ground. Then Meleager, with his foot upon the boar’s head, spoke to the hunters. “My friends,” he said, “I thank you all for the courage and devotion you have shown this day. My land can once more raise her head in joy, for the monster that wrought such havoc in her fields lies dead here at my feet. Yet the price of his death has not been light, my friends.” And they bowed their heads in silence, as they remembered the two whom the boar had struck in his rush, one of whom was now dead. “Yet those who have suffered, have suffered gloriously, giving up themselves, as brave men must, for the sake of others, and their names shall surely not be unremembered by us all. Once more, my trusty comrades, I thank you, every man of you. As for thee, lady,” he continued, turning to Atalanta, “while all have played their part, yet the glory of the hunt is thine. But for thy sure hand and eye the beast might yet be lurking in the forest. Wherefore, as a token of our gratitude, I will give to thee the boar’s head as a trophy to do with as thou wilt.” At his words a murmur of applause went round the ring of them that listened. Only the voices of Toxeus and Plexippus were not heard, for they were mad with jealousy and wrath, and as soon as there was silence they spoke. “By what right,” asked Toxeus, “shall one bear off the trophy of a hunt in which each one of us has played his part?” The insolence of his words and looks roused the anger of Meleager to boiling-point. All through the hunt the brothers had shown scant courtesy to Atalanta, and now their rudeness was past bearing. “By the same right as the best man bears off the prize in any contest,” he answered quietly, though he was pale with rage. “Happy is that one who has first won the heart of the judge, then,” said Plexippus with a sneer, as he looked at Atalanta.