“I have,” answered Dyeermud; “and I had no trouble in bringing them. Here they are before you.”
“Well, am I to have them now?” asked the king.
“You are not,” answered Dyeermud. “If I was bound to bring them, I was not bound to give them to you. The man who reared this whelp has a better right to him than you or I.”
Then Dyeermud went home to the long house, followed by the small chief; and the next morning he asked battle of the king.
“I am not ready for battle to-day,” said the king.
“Am I to get sight of Fin MacCool?” inquired Dyeermud.
“You are not,” said the king, “till you bring me an account of how the Rueful Knight Without-Laughter lost his eye and his laugh.”
“Where can I find that knight?” asked Dyeermud.
“The world is wide,” said the king; “and it is for you alone to make out where that man is.”