conciler for the Gods,"
said the man.

Then the two youths came swiftly up to them, and the King's Son greeted
the middle-aged man, and Flann kissed the hands of the old woman.

"What of your search, King's Son?" said the Gobaun Saor.

"I have found the Unique Tale, but not what went before nor what comes
after it," said the King's Son.

"I will clear the Sword of Light of its stain when you bring me the
whole of the Unique Tale," said the Gobaun Saor.

"I would search the whole world for it," said the King's Son. "But now
the time is becoming short for me." "Be quick and active," said the
Gobaun Saor. "I have set up my forge," said he, "outside the town
between two high stones. When you bring the whole of the Tale to me I
shall clear your sword."

"Will you not tell him, Gobaun Saor," said the Spae-Woman, "where he may
find the one who will tell him the rest of the story?"

"If he sees one he knows in this town," said the Gobaun Saor, "let him
mount a horse he has mounted before and pursue that one and force him to
tell what went before and what comes after the Unique Tale."

Saying this the Gobaun Saor turned away and walked along the road that
went out of the town.

The Spae-Woman had brought besoms to the town to sell. She showed the
two youths the little house she lived in while she was there. It was
filled with the heather-stalks which she bound together for besoms.

They left the Spae-Woman and went through the town, the King of
Ireland's Son searching every place for a man he knew or a horse he had
mounted before, while Flann thought about the Princess Flame-of-Wine,
and how little she considered him beside the King's Son and Dermott
and Downal. They came to where a crowd was standing before a conjurer's
booth. They halted and stood waiting for the conjurer to appear. He came
out and put a ladder standing upright with nothing to lean against and
began climbing up. Up, up, up, he went, and the ladder grew higher and
higher as he climbed. Flann thought he would climb into the sky. Then
the ladder got smaller and smaller and Flann saw the conjurer coming
down on the other side. "He has come here to take that horse," said a
voice behind the King of Ireland's Son.

The King's Son looked round, and on the outskirts of the crowd he saw a
man with a hare-skin cap and a protruding eye who was holding a reddish
horse, while he watched the conjuror. The King of Ireland's Son knew the
horse--it was the Slight R