Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/175

Rh abyss, but hosts of crayfish came creeping from the whole sea-ocean, and with their claws pinched the flesh from our bones, so that to escape them we gladly would have run to the end of the white world."

The old witch waited and waited for the Tzarevich's return, but at length she fell asleep. At midnight he saddled the shabby colt, led it from the stable and made his way to the River of Fire. He waved the Wizard's handkerchief three times to his right side and a strong high bridge sprang from bank to bank. He led his colt across it, and waving the handkerchief twice to his left side, the bridge shrank and became thin and narrow, till it was but one-third as high and one-third as strong.

Now at daybreak the Baba-Yaga woke and missed the colt from the stable. She at once sprang into her iron mortar and started in pursuit, driving with her iron pestle and sweeping away her trail behind her with her kitchen broom. She came to the River of Fire, and seeing the bridge, started to cross it. But she had scarce come to the middle when it gave way, and the old witch, falling into the flaming stream beneath, met her instant death.

As for Tzarevich Alexis, he grazed his colt twelve mornings at sunrise on the green meadow