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 than the Pygmies (who stood pricking up their ears, and looking and listening to what was going forward), the stranger could not have been less afraid of him.

'Who are you, I say?' roared Antæus again. 'What's your name? Why do you come hither? Speak, you vagabond, or I'll try the thickness of your skull with my walking-stick.'

'You are a very discourteous Giant,' answered the stranger quietly, 'and I shall probably have to teach you a little civility before we part. As for my name, it is Hercules. I have come hither because this is my most convenient road to the garden of the Hesperides, whither I am going to get three of the golden apples for King Eurystheus.'

'Caitiff, you shall go no farther!' bellowed Antæus, putting on a grimmer look than before; for he had heard of the mighty Hercules, and hated him because he was said to be so strong. 'Neither shall you go back whence you came!'

'How will you prevent me,' asked Hercules, 'from going whither I please?'

'By hitting you a rap with this pine tree here,' shouted Antæus, scowling so that he made himself the ugliest monster in Africa. 'I am fifty times stronger than you; and, now that I stamp my foot upon the ground, I am five hundred times stronger! I am ashamed to kill such a puny little dwarf as you seem to be. I will make a slave of you, and you shall likewise be the slave of my brethren, here, the Pygmies. So throw down your club and your other 61