Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/176

138 and it became a horse fit for a hero to ride. Then, mounting, he galloped back to the Tzardom of Kastchey, to the Wizard's Castle. He found Maria Morevna, and said: "Haste and mount before me, for now I have a horse as good as Kastchey's!" He took her on the saddle and rode off at full speed.

In the evening when the Wizard returned, as he neared his Castle, his horse fell upon one knee. "What! thou dawdling bag of bones!" he said. "Dost stumble again? Art thou weak from emptiness or dost thou smell some mishap?"

"I smell a mishap, master," replied the horse; "Tzarevich Alexis has been here and has ridden away with thy Maria Morevna."

"Canst thou overtake them?" asked Kastchey.

"I cannot tell," the horse answered. "The Tzarevich has now for his steed my youngest brother."

The Wizard put his horse at its best pace and galloped in pursuit. Whether he rode a long way or a short way, by rough roads or smooth, at length he overtook them and lifted his sword to cut Tzarevich Alexis in pieces.

At that moment the horse the Tzarevich rode cried to the other: "O my brother! Why dost thou continue to serve such an unclean monster?