even Sisters," asked the shepherd boy, "how can I do this for you?"

"Secure the secret key," they said. "Open the lid while we are at our
full strength in the night."

"Alas," said the shepherd boy, "that I cannot do. The Keeper has made of
it a magic thing."

"We know his great secret," said the spirits of the Seven Sisters.
"Swear to set us free and we shall tell you the secret of the key."

"And what reward shall I have?" asked the shepherd boy.

"You shall have the hand of the daughter of the Keeper of the Key, the
Lady of your Songs," they said. "Take her back to the hills where you
were so happy. We shall spare you when we are abroad."

"Then," said the shepherd boy, "I swear to release you."

"The Keeper of the Key," said the spirits of the Seven Sisters, "has a
devil lurking behind the fine manners of his body. In secret he laughs
at the people. He has the blood of the five goldsmiths on his hands. It
was by his connivance the curragh sprang a leak, and that they were
drowned. They were true artists, of the spirit of the Gael. But they
alone knew his secret, and he made away with them before they could
speak. His great controversy on the water nymphs was like a spell cast
over the minds of the people to cover his crime."

"What a demon!" cried the shepherd boy.

"The key of the well," said the spirits of the Seven Sisters, "is
concealed in the great golden knob of the oaken door, and upon that has
concentrated the greatest public scrutiny which has ever beaten upon a
door-knob in the story of the whole world. Such has been the craft of
the Keeper of the Key! When he comes out in the morning and evening, and
while drawing the door after him, he puts a finger on the third toe of
the fourth water nymph. This he presses three times, quick as a
pulse-beat, and, lo, a hidden spring is released and shoots the key into
the loose sleeve of his coat. On returning he puts his hand on the
golden knob, presses the second toe of the third water nymph, and the
key slides back into its hidden cavity. This secret was alone known to
the goldsmiths. They went to the bottom of the sea with it. In this way
has the Keeper of the Key held his power and defied his enemies. When
the scholars were making epigrams and the bards warming into great
cadences on the art of the ankle of the water nymph, this Keeper of the
Key would retire to his watch-tower and roll about in secret merriment."

"What a fiend!" cried the shepherd boy