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shall be ours.”
    Up went the Prince of Blades, and before he had half the mast he began squealing and squalling, and he could go neither up and neither down.
    â€œNow you can’t go up, and you can’t go down,” said the Lad of the Gad. “No hero warrior was I, nor half a warrior, and the esteem of a warrior was not mine. I was to find death in a bog, or in rifts of rock, or in a land of holes or the shadow of a wall. But it would be easy for me now to bring news from the mast.”
    â€œYou great hero,” said the Prince of Cairns.“Try it.”
    â€œI am a great hero today,” said the Lad of the Gad, “though I was not when leaving the town.”
    He measured a spring from the end of his spear to the points of his toes, and he ran up the mast to the crosstrees.
    â€œWhat can you see?” said the Prince of Cairns.
    â€œIt is too big for a crow, and too little for land,” said the Lad of the Gad.
    â€œKeep watching,” the princes said. And, after a while, “What is it now?”
    â€œWe have raised an island,” said the Lad of the Gad, “and a hoop of fire around it, flaming. And I think that there is not one warrior in the great world that will go over such a fire.”
    â€œUnless two heroes go over it such as we,” said the Prince of Cairns and the Prince of Blades.
    â€œI think it was easier for you to bring news from the mast than to go in there,” said the Lad of the Gad.
    â€œIt is no reproach,” said the Prince of Cairns.
    â€œIt is not,” said the Lad of the Gad. “It is truth.”
    They reached the windward side of the fire, and they went on shore, and they drew up the painted ship, the proud woman, her own seven lengths on grey grass, with her mouth under her. Then they blew a fire heap, and they gave three days and nights to resting their weariness.
    At the end of three days and nights they began at sharpening their weapons.
    â€œI,” said the Prince of Cairns, “am tired of this. It is time for news from the island.”
    â€œYou are yourself the most greatly loved here,” said the Lad of the Gad. “Go the first, and try what is the best news you can bring to us.”
    The Prince of Cairns went and he reached the fire, and he tried to jump over it, and he went down into it to the knees, and he turned back, and there was not a slender hair or skin between the knees and the ankles that was not in a crumpled fold about the mouth of the shoes.
    â€œHe is bad, he is bad,” said the Prince of Blades.
    â€œLet us see if you are better yourself,” said the Lad of the Gad. “Show that you shall have the greater honour: or we the laughter of it.”
    The Prince of Blades went and he reached the fire, and he tried to jump over it, and he went down into it to the thick end of the thigh, and he turned back, and there was not a slender hair or skin between the thick end of the thigh and the ankles that was not in a crumpled fold about the mouth of the shoes.
    â€œWell,” said the Lad of the Gad, “no warrior was I, nor half a warrior, and the esteem of a warrior was not mine. I was to find death in a bog, or in rifts of rock, or in a land of holes or the shadow of a wall. But if I had my choice of arms and armour of all that there is in the great world, it would be easy for me now to bring news from the island.”
    â€œIf we had that arms and armour,” said thePrince of Cairns, “you should have them.”
    â€œYour own arms and armour are the second that I would rather be mine in the great world,” said the Lad of the Gad, “though you yourself are not the second best warrior in it.”
    â€œBut my own arms and armour are the easiest for you to get,” said the Prince of Cairns, “and you shall have them. Now tell me what arms and armour are better than mine.”
    â€œThe arms and armour of the Big Son of the Son of All are