Loge smiled contemptuously.

"Doubtless thou wouldst be safe enough--if such magic could be," he answered, incredulously, "but----"

"You doubt?" Alberich shouted, his vanity all aroused.

"Well, if it be true--show us," the cunning Flame Spirit returned.

Immediately Alberich set the Tarnhelm upon his head.

"What would ye that I become?"

"Oh, it matters not--so that you become something that you are not,"

Loge answered carelessly.

"Then behold!" Alberich cried, and instantly he turned into a great writhing serpent which coiled and uncoiled at Wotan's feet.

"Oh, swallow me not," Loge cried, as if in mortal fear. Then Alberich, becoming himself again shouted, "Now will you doubt?"

"That was very well done," Loge a.s.sured him, "and I grant you frightened me; but as for your safety--if you could have turned yourself into some small thing--a toad or mouse for example--it would be safer for you."

"Then behold!" Alberich shouted again, losing all caution in his pique. He turned himself into a slimy crippled toad, which crawled upon the rock, near Wotan's foot. Instantly Wotan set his heel upon the creature and pinned him to the earth, while Loge grasped the Tarnhelm. Then Alberich becoming himself again squirmed and shouted, beneath Wotan's feet.

"Something to bind the imp, quickly," Wotan called to Loge, and in a trice the dwarf was bound, and borne upward by the G.o.d and Loge. Again they pa.s.sed by the smithy lights, heard the ring of the anvils, and soon they were back at the trysting place. The Nibelung, still shrieking and cursing at his own folly, was placed upon a rock, while Loge and Wotan stood looking down at him.

_Scene IV_

"There, imp, the G.o.ds have conquered thee and thy magic. Thus they conquer the powers of evil and darkness. Thou art henceforth our slave unless you see fit to ransom yourself with the Rhein treasure."

At this, Alberich set up a great howling, but Wotan was impatient.

"Slavery for thee--worse than that of thy Mimes--or else give me the Rheingold quickly." Alberich remembered his ring--the Tarnhelm hung at Loge's girdle--and thought he might safely give up the gold.

"With my ring, I can win it back and more too," he thought; so he said to Loge:

"Well, then, rascal, unbind my arm that I may summon the Nibelungen."

Loge loosened one arm for him, Alberich raised the ring to his lips and called upon his host of imps. Instantly they poured from the creva.s.ses of the rocks, laden with the Rheingold, which they dumped in a great heap before Wotan.

"Ah, thou rogues," Alberich shrieked to Loge and the War-G.o.d; "wait till my time comes!--I'll make you dance." The awful little fellow roared from his small throat with rage.

"Never mind that: we shall be able to take care of ourselves," the G.o.d answered, while Alberich lifted the ring and the Nibelungen rushed pell-mell into the rocks again.

"Being a G.o.d, you think you can take what you desire without pay; but even the G.o.ds must pay. The gold was stolen and you need not think to profit by another's roguery."

"We shall chance it," Wotan replied, with a smile--"so take off that ring of thine--" At this Alberich gave a frightful scream.

"Never! I will give my life, but never this ring. Oh, you wretches!

Rascals! Villains!" He stopped shouting for sheer lack of breath. He saw before him the loss of that which was to win him back his gold and power. Wotan made a motion to Loge, who laughed and dragged the ring from the dwarf's hand, Wotan put the magic ring upon his own finger, and Alberich nearly fainted with despair. Gathering his scattered senses, he began to utter a frightful curse upon the ring. He swore that whoever had it should meet ruin and death instead of power and happiness, and cursing thus in a way to curdle even the blood of the G.o.ds, he spat at Wotan.

"Have done, thou groundling," Loge said. "Go to thy hole." Alberich fled, still crying curses on the gold.

When Wotan and Loge first returned to earth with the imp, it had been twilight, but now, just before night, the light grew stronger, and when the mist that had hung lightly over all cleared away, Fricka, Donner, and Froh could be seen hurrying to the tryst.

"Thou hast brought Frea's ransom," Fricka cried, joyously, looking at the great golden heap. "Already, she must be near, because see! Do we not all grow younger?" she asked tremblingly, looking at the others.

"It is true; we were dying and now I feel strength in all my limbs,"

Donner answered, looking in amazement at his brother G.o.ds.

"Yes--here comes Frea with Fafner and Fasolt." Frea would have rushed into Fricka's arms, but the Giants still held her fast.

"She is not thine till we have the gold," they declared; and thrusting his staff into the earth, Fafner said:

"Thou shalt heap the Rheingold as high as my staff--which is as high as the G.o.ddess, and the heap shall be made as thick and as broad as she. When this is done, she is thine." Wotan called out impatiently:

"Heap up the gold; make haste and be rid of them." So Loge and Froh fell to heaping the gold about the staff, while the Giants stood by and watched. When it all was piled, Fafner peered through the heap to see if there was an unfilled c.h.i.n.k.

"Not enough," he cried; "I can still see the gleam of Frea's hair--which is finer than gold. Throw on that trinket at thy belt," he signified the Tarnhelm which hung at the girdle of Loge. Loge threw it contemptuously upon the heap. Then Fafner peeped again. "Ah! I still can see her bright eyes--more gleaming than gold. Until every c.h.i.n.k is closed so that I may no longer see the G.o.ddess and thus behold what I have sacrificed for the treasure, it will not do. Throw on that ring thou wearest on thy finger," he called to Wotan.

At that Wotan became furious.

"The ring. Thou shalt never have the ring--not if thou shouldst carry away the Eternals, themselves." Fafner seized Frea as if to make off with her.

"What, thou cruel G.o.d! Thou art going to let them have our sister,"

Fricka screamed, mingling her shrieks with Frea's. Donner and Froh added their rage to hers, and a.s.sailed Wotan.

"I'll keep my ring," Wotan shouted, being overcome with the power it would give to him, and determined rather to lose his life.

"Thou wretched G.o.d! Thy wickedness means the doom of the Eternals,"

Fricka again screamed, beside herself with the shrieks of Frea. As the G.o.ds were about to curse Wotan, a bluish light glowed from a fissure in the earth.

"Look," cried Loge, and all turned to see, while Fafner, certain of one treasure or the other, looked and waited.

The bluish light grew and grew, and slowly from the ground rose a frost-covered woman, her glittering icy hair flowing to her waist, the blue light about her causing her garments of frost to glance and shimmer and radiate sparkles all about her.

"Wotan," she spoke, "give up thy ring." All were silent, the G.o.ds and Giants dumb with amazement.

Again she spoke: "It is Erda, she who knows the past, present, and the future. Thy ring is accursed. Ruin and disaster follow its possession.

Give up thy ring!"

"Who art thou?" Wotan asked in amazement.

"I am mother of the three Fates--of her who weaves--her who watches--and her who cuts the cord of life. They are my daughters. Thy fate is spread out before me; give up thy ring." The G.o.ds trembled before one who knew both good and evil. Erda had sunk into the earth as far as her breast.

"Give up thy ring," she sighed again, and disappeared in the earth, as Wotan rushed toward her. Donner and Froh held him back.

"Touch her not--to touch her would mean death!" they cried. Wotan stood thoughtfully, looking at the spot where Erda had been, till presently, with a quick movement, he threw the ring upon the Rheingold.

"Frea!" he cried, "give us back our youth and life, and thou, Giants, take thy treasure." As Frea sprung toward her sister Fricka to embrace her, the Giants fell to quarrelling over the gold.

"Here, thou! give me my share," Fafner roared, as Fasolt was trying to possess himself of all the h.o.a.rd. Thus they fought while the G.o.ds looked on.