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 the frightened creatures that still had power to move fled away from it in terror.

"Take your vicious beast away from our horses," cried Conan; "take that demon away, I say. By the heaven above and the earth beneath I swear, had not Fionn told you to put him there, that nothing would prevent me from splitting his head with my sword and letting his wicked brains loose on the ground. As for you, Fionn," he said, turning to the chief, "out of all the bad people you have picked up at one time and another, you never had, and you never will have, a worse man than this."

"By the heaven above and the earth beneath I swear too," said the Gilla Decair, "that not one hand will I lift to take him away. I am a Fian now, and it would be undignified for me to lead my horse by hand."

Conan mac Morna rose in terrible wrath, and going over to the horse put its halter on, and brought it away from the other horses. All the Fians laughed when they saw Conan holding this animal—which looked so feeble and spiritless, and yet possessed the temper