cave. Thus all your foes will die in torments like those in Pot-baking Hell."
At this Cloudy was delighted and said: "Father, tell me your adventures. It is long since we met." "No, my son," said Live-Strong. "This is no time for talk. Some enemy spy might possibly report my journey hither. And our blind enemy, thus informed, might make his escape. Make haste, make haste. For the proverb says:
When speed is needful, ne'er permit
Delay, but do it pat;
Else, wrathful gods are sure to strike
The undertaking flat.
And again:
Whatever deed you have in mind
(Especially when fate is kind),
Do quickly. If you wait a bit,
Then time will suck the juice of it.
"Later, when your enemies are slain, and you have returned to your home, I will tell the whole story in carefree humor."
So Cloudy and his followers, taking Live-Strong's advice, seized one lighted fagot apiece in their bills, flew to the gate of the cave, and threw their fagots upon Live-Strong's nest. Then all the owls (being blind in the daytime) remembered Red-Eye's counsels as they suffered the torments of Pot-baking Hell. In this fashion Cloudy exterminated his foes and returned to his old fortress in the banyan tree.
There he mounted the lion-throne and, his heart
