Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/370

320 an egg, and the egg fell into the sea, but while the Tzarevich was bemoaning its loss with tears, there came swimming to the shore the pike-fish whose life he had saved, bringing the egg in its mouth. Then Tzarevich Petr put the egg in his belt, mounted his horse, which swam back with him across the sea-ocean, and having rested, set out again for the mountain of Kastchey.

The telling is easy but the labor is hard. Whether he rode a week or a month, he came at length to the mountain, left his horse to graze on the steppe, and binding the iron claws to his hands and feet, climbed to the summit and hastened to the Palace of pearl. Again he burned some of the drowsy herb, climbed over the serpent, entered and embraced his mother and showed her the egg.

Before long there arose the sound of the whistling wind and in came Kastchey. He ground his teeth when he saw the Tzarevich, and would have rushed at once upon him, but Tzarevich Petr squeezed the egg in his hand, ever so slightly, and as he did so the fierce light grew dim in the Wizard's eyes. The Tzarevich tossed the egg from the right hand to the left, and Kastchey was hurled violently from one corner of the room to the other. With a last effort the wicked Wizard strove to reach