l go about my business," he said to the
waves, "and I will let those beings and monsters and the people of the
Dog Heads go about their business."

CHAPTER X

He went forward in his light bark, and at some moment found that he
had parted from those seas and was adrift on vaster and more turbulent
billows. From those dark-green surges there gaped at him monstrous
and cavernous jaws; and round, wicked, red-rimmed, bulging eyes stared
fixedly at the boat. A ridge of inky water rushed foaming mountainously
on his board, and behind that ridge came a vast warty head that gurgled
and groaned. But at these vile creatures he thrust with his lengthy
spear or stabbed at closer reach with a dagger.

He was not spared one of the terrors which had been foretold. Thus, in
the dark thick oak forest he slew the seven hags and buried them in the
molten lead which they had heated for him. He climbed an icy mountain,
the cold breath of which seemed to slip into his body and chip off
inside of his bones, and there, until he mastered the sort of climbing
on ice, for each step that he took upwards he slipped back ten steps.
Almost his heart gave way before he learned to climb that venomous hill.
In a forked glen into which he slipped at night-fall he was surrounded
by giant toads, who spat poison, and were icy as the land they lived
in, and were cold and foul and savage. At Sliav Saev he encountered the
long-maned lions who lie in wait for the beasts of the world, growling
woefully as they squat above their prey and crunch those terrified
bones. He came on Ailill of the Black Teeth sitting on the bridge that
spanned a torrent, and the grim giant was grinding his teeth on a pillar
stone. Art drew nigh unobserved and brought him low.

It was not for nothing that these difficulties and dangers were in his
path. These things and creatures were the invention of Dog Head, the
wife of Morgan, for it had become known to her that she would die on the
day her daughter was wooed. Therefore none of the dangers encountered
by Art were real, but were magical chimeras conjured against him by the
great witch.

Affronting all, conquering all, he came in time to Morgan's dun, a place
so lovely that after the miseries through which he had struggled he
almost wept to see beauty again.

Delvcaem knew that he was coming. She was waiting for him, yearning for
him. To her mind Art was not only love, he was freedom, for the poor
girl was a captive in her f