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 and ward so that none can come upon us unawares?"

"I will, chief," answered Finnbane, and rising he ascended to the hill-top, from whence he could watch the paths leading north and south, east and west. He had not been long there, when he saw, coming from the east towards him, a very tall man, more ugly and misshapen than any one he had ever seen before. His two arms were not the same length, and one leg was shorter than the other; even his eyes looked different ways, and, to make his appearance worse, he was as black-looking as though he had been dipped in bog-mud. He was dragging a feeble, miserable-looking grey horse along by a thick, rough rope, and when Finnbane saw the thinness of the animal he felt very sorry for it. Sometimes the horse would stop, then the man would tug at its head and hit its ribs—which were nearly sticking out through its skin—with a big stick, and each time that he struck the horse it sounded like the beating of a drum.

Finnbane watched this strange couple till