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now,” said his big son, the Prince of Cairns, “in the four brown fourths of the wheel of the world would dare to disgrace you before your people, your sons, your warriors, your lads and your great gentles?”
    â€œAre you not silly?” said the king. “He could come, the one who should put a disgrace on me. And if he did, you would not pluck the worst hair in his beard.”
    They saw then the shadow of a shower coming from the west and going to the east, and a warrior in a wet cloak and on a black horse was in it.
    As a hero on the mountain,
    As a star over sparklings,
    As a great sea over little pools,
    So would seem he beside other men
    In figure, in face, in form and in riding.
    He reached over his fist and he struck the kingbetween the mouth and the nose, and he drove out three teeth, and caught them and put them in his pouch, and he went away.
    â€œDid I not tell you,” said the king, “that one might come who should put a disgrace on me, and that you would not pluck the worst hair of his beard?”
    The king’s big son, the Prince of Cairns, said, “I shall not eat and I shall not drink and I shall not hear music till I take off the head of the Warrior in the Wet Cloak.”
    â€œWell,” said the small son, the Prince of Blades, “the very same is for me, until I take off the fist of the Warrior in the Wet Cloak.”
    The Lad of the Gad was there on the green hill that day, and he said, “The very same is for me, until I take out the heart of the Warrior in the Wet Cloak.”
    â€œYou?” said the Prince of Cairns. “What should bring you with us? You? Why, you, when we go to glory, you will go to weakness and find death in a bog, or in rifts of rock, or in a land of holes or the shadow of a wall.”
    â€œThat may be,” said the Lad of the Gad, “but I will go.”
    The king’s two sons went away.
    The Prince of Cairns looked behind him and saw the Lad of the Gad following.
    â€œWhat shall we do to him?” said the Prince of Cairns.
    â€œSweep his head off,” said the Prince of Blades.
    â€œWe shall not do that,” said the Prince of Cairns. “But there is a crag of stone up here, and we can bind him to it.”
    They bound the Lad of the Gad to the crag of stone and left him. But when the Prince of Cairns looked behind him he saw the Lad of the Gad following, with the crag on his back.
    â€œWhat shall we do to him?” said the Prince of Cairns.
    â€œSweep his head off,” said the Prince of Blades.
    â€œWe shall not do that,” said the Prince of Cairns, and he turned and loosed the crag from the back of the Lad of the Gad.
    â€œTwo full heroes,” said the Prince of Cairns, “need a lad to polish their shields or to blow a fire heap or something.”
    So they let him come with them, and they went to their ship and put her out.
    Prow to the sea and
    Stern to the shore,
    Hoisting the speckled flapping bare-topped sail
    In a wind that would bring the heather from the hill,
    Leaf from the wood,
    Willow from the root,
    Using it, taking it, as it might come
    Through plunging and surging, lashing
    The red sea the blue sea
    Fiulpande fiullande
    About the sandy ocean
    The ship that would split
    A hard oat seed on the water
    With her steering.
    And for three days they drove her.
    After the three days, “I,” said the Prince of Cairns, “am tired of this. It is time for news from the mast.”
    â€œYou are yourself the most greatly loved here,” said the Lad of the Gad, “and the honour of going up shall be yours: and the laughter, if you don’t, shall be ours.”
    The Prince of Cairns ran at a rush to the mast, and he fell down clatter on the deck in a faint with the lurch of the ship.
    â€œThat was no good,” said the Prince of Blades.
    â€œLet us see you,” said the Prince of Cairns. “You show us better: and the laughter, if you don’t,