Part 12 (2/2)

”I cannot! Oh, I cannot!” groaned Mimi; and he gasped out the rest of what the voice had told him:--

”Only he who knows no fear can mend the sword.”

Siegfried took the broken pieces to the forge and began filing them to dust.

”Stop, Siegfried, stop!” cried Mimi. ”You will ruin that blade!”

But Siegfried kept on filing.

He sang as he worked, until the pieces were filed to dust.

Then he melted the dust and poured the hot liquid into a mould the shape of a blade.

When it had hardened, he took it out and sharpened it.

Then he welded the blade to its hilt.

”Ha! ha!” chuckled Mimi. ”At last the sword is mended.

”Now I will show Siegfried the dragon. He will not know a ring is in the dragon's cave.

”When the dragon is dead, the ring shall be Mimi's.

”Mimi, you are no longer the despised little Nibelung. You are the king of the earth.”

Joyously Siegfried waved the bright blade above his head.

He brought it down with all his strength upon the forge, and with a mighty crash the huge rock fell in pieces.

Mimi sank in terror to the ground.

SIEGFRIED GOES TO FIGHT THE DRAGON

”Get up, you coward!” cried Siegfried.

”Now tell me what that thing is that I do not know. Fear? What is fear?

Why did you not teach it to me?”

The wicked dwarf slipped to Siegfried's side.

”I will teach you. Come with me. I will show you a horrible serpent, lying at the door of Hate Cavern.

”There you will learn what fear is, if you can learn it any place in this world.

”Have you never seen anything that made you s.h.i.+ver from head to foot and made your heart beat fast?”

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