"Mend it for me, Mimi! Mend it! Now is your chance to prove your skill!"
"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.