Page:The Land of Wonders - O Conaire.pdf/25

 Rh there were large lumps on them as big as potatoes and they were gnarled and the colour of the roots of an old oak tree.

The owner of the feet came down slowly with his back towards them. Maire Bán was frightened when she saw his knees. She was within a yard of him, and it seemed to her that the knees were bigger than a man's head. He came down another few steps. He wore a short white trousers which did not reach to the knee. Maire Bán thought that the short trousers did not reach to within a foot of his ugly, black knees. This strange spectre stood in their midst. He pulled his forelock and saluted the Captain politely. The little girl was astounded that such a person should be aboard her father's ship.

He had on a red shirt and wore a blue three-cornered cap on his head. But the belt he wore! It was bigger and broader than the saddle-girth of a horse. Maire tried to count the knives that were stuck in it, but she gave it up. There were long knives and short knives, sharp knives and blunt knives, notched knives, and knives as keen as razors. And the variety of daggers that he carried! Maire counted four, but how did she know there were not a couple more behind his back, or maybe three? There were pouches in the belt also, and Maire wondered what was in them. And