Page:The land of enchantment (1907, Cassell).djvu/147

 house ran a swift river, and at one point it dashed over shelving rocks, and rushed down as a foaming waterfall. Beyond lay the blue sea. Now, Loki’s mind was ever haunted by fear, and as he sat in his hut watching, he thought to himself what the gods would do to effect his capture, for well he knew that their vengeance was only delayed, and his punishment was sure if they found him. Sometimes he would assume the form of a salmon, and swimming about in the cool, clear river, he would wonder how they could easiest catch him in that shape. One day it chanced that a new idea came into his head. He took some flaxen thread and began to fashion it into a net, such as men use now to catch fish; but ever as he wrought, he looked with fear from side to side. Suddenly he saw that the gods had at last found his hiding-place, and were crossing the mountains to attack him. He flung his net into the fire that burnt brightly before him, and changing to a salmon plunged into the stream. The gods entered the house whence he had fled, but because they were gods, they divined what had happened, and that the salmon placidly swimming in the stream was the enemy they were in search of. As they looked about, they saw the fragments of the net that were not wholly consumed. They carefully studied it, for till then no such thing had been seen, and soon perceived its use. They took the flaxen thread, and set to work, and in a little space they had fashioned a large net, with which they went to the river, and so it chanced that Loki wrought his own undoing. Thor held one end of the net, his comrades held the other. But Loki fought hard for his freedom. He lay flat beneath two stones, so that the net swept over him, but did not enclose him. The keen-eyed gods saw that some living thing lay beneath the net, and they weighted it with heavy stones ere they cast it in again. This time Loki swam in front of the net, and the gods pursued him; but when they came near the sea he turned, cleared the net at a spring, and sprang into the waterfall. But now his pursuers knew where he was. They divided into two parties; one stood on the one bank, and one on the other, and each held a part of the net which was thus stretched across the river from shore to shore. Thor waded into the water, and followed close behind the net, and so they slowly drove Loki back to the sea. Now was he placed between two dangers, for in the sea he could not live. He turned, and leaped again across the net. Thor was watching for this, and caught hold of him, but he was so slippery that he would yet have escaped had not his enemy grasped him by the tail. And,