"I shall have the honors and something else beside," said Mell. Then
he struck at the red plume that was on his enemy's cap. He cut it
off as the Red Champion sprang into the boat that moved of itself. As
the sun was sinking the Champion in the boat went over the sea.

Now the Cook's son had been watching the whole fight from the cave.
When he saw the Red Champion going off in his boat he came running
down to the shore. The Hen wife's son was lying with his hands and his
face in the water trying to cool himself after the combat and the red
plume that he had struck off the Champion's cap was lying near him.
The Cook's son took up the plume.

"Let me keep this as a remembrance of your fight, brave warrior," said
he to the Hen-wife's son.

"You may keep it," said Mell. Then with the red plume in his hands the
Cook's son ran back towards the Castle.

IV

Mell the Hen-wife's son put on his best garments and he went to the
Castle that evening and he was received by the King as a champion
from foreign parts. And the King invited him to supper for three
nights.

Princess Bright Brow was at the supper and Mell watched and watched
her. He saw that she was pale and that she kept sighing. And of the
damsel who came to sit beside him at the table Mell asked "Why is the
King's daughter so sad and troubled-looking?"

"She has reason for being sad and troubled," said the damsel who was
called Sea Swan, "for she thinks she may have to marry one whom she
thinks little of."

"Why should that be?" said Mell.

"Because her father has promised to give her and half his Kingdom to
the one who will defeat the Red Champion who has come from across the
sea and who demands that the King give him tribute from the land. And
the only one who has gone forth against the Champion is the Cook's
son--a gray-faced fellow that only a kitchen-maid would marry. And if
it happens that the Cook's son overcomes the Red Champion, well then
Princess Bright Brow will have to marry him."

And later on Sea Swan said to Mell "The King's daughter is so troubled
that she would go away to the Island of the Shadow of the Stars if she
had the jewel that would bring her there. She had it once, but a Fairy
Woman came out of the green rath and made Bright Brow give it to her."

When the feast was at its height the King stood up and bade the Cook's
son come near the High Chair and tell how he had fought with the Red
Champion that day. And the Cook's son came