Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/61

44 he tugged and pushed till his face grew red. At last it gave way, and a great shaft of light came through the darkness, for the door led into another roofless enclosure like the outer court.

The flying open of the door with a loud noise, startled Plum-Blossom, and she uttered a small scream. It was a very small one, but the stranger heard it. He glanced quickly at the left-hand fish, and then, at one stride, was beside it. The next instant he was gazing down its throat, and the next, he had stretched his hand into its depths!

Cherry-Bloom could bear no more. With a scramble and a flop she was outside her dolphin, and down on the floor, with her hands outstretched in supplication.

"O! most honorable Sake-Demon! O Benevolent One!" she wailed, "do not hurt my sister!"

Plum-Blossom now screamed at the top