Page:The omnibus of crime (1929).pdf/50
the great cave, cheated Cacus of his hopes. Then did Hercules' anger blaze out in fierce wrath; he snatched up his arms and his great knobbed club, and rushed to the heights of the towering crag. For the first time then our eyes saw Cacus afraid and in confusion. He fled straightway, swifter than the east wind, to his cave, and fear gave wings to his feet.
"He had scarcely shut himself in, and broken the chains to let down the huge boulder which his father's skill had hung in iron—he had scarcely fortified his entrance with this barrier, when Hercules was on him in his anger, ranging over every approach, facing this way and that, gnashing his teeth. Three times in the heat of his wrath he covered all the Aventine Hill, three times essayed the rocky entrance in vain, three times sank back weary in the valley. Now a sharp crag of flint, cut sheer from the rock on every side, rose high and clear over the ridge of the cavern—a proper nesting-place for birds of ill omen. It sloped from the ridge and leant towards the river on the left. Coming on it from the right, Hercules pushed in the opposite direction, shook it hard, tore it free from its lowest roots, and hurled it violently down. The great space of heaven thundered with the shock, the banks were flung apart, and the water flowed back in terror. But the den and great palace of Cacus were now revealed, and the gloomy caverns lay open to their depths: as if the depths of the earth were forced wide open, unlocking the infernal regions and disclosing those pale kingdoms hated of the gods; as if one gazed down upon the vast abyss with the Shades trembling at the inrush of light.
"On Cacus then, bellowing strangely now that he was caught by the unexpected light of day and pent up in the hollow of the rock, Hercules rained missiles, calling all his weapons into assistance and pressing him hard with branches and great mill-stones. But the giant, who had no other way of escape from his danger, belched great clouds of smoke from his jaws (a wonder, indeed), and wrapped his den in impenetrable obscurity, blinding the sight of the eye. The cavern was filled with a smoky night of flame whirled together with darkness. The great heart of Hercules could not let this be, and he flung himself through the fire in one great leap, where the smoke whirled thickest and the great cave seethed in black cloud. Here, where Cacus was vomiting out his useless fires in the gloom, he caught him and clasped him as if in a knot. Inexorably he choked him till his eyes burst forth and his throat was dry of blood.
"Straightway the doors were tom down and the gloomy den flung open. The stolen oxen and the booty that had been denied on oath were revealed to the light of day, and the hideous corpse was dragged out by its feet. Men could not have their fill of gazing on those terrible eyes, on the face of the monster and his hairy, bristly chest, on the flames that had been dried up in his throat, From that time has this divine honour been paid to Hercules, and a happy posterity celebrates the day."