“If I go on your side, some may say that I fear your men; and if I go with your younger brother, you and your elder brother may say that I fear your strong brother’s forces. Bring all the men of the three islands. I will play against them.”
“Well,” asked the stranger, “what wager will you lay?”
“I’ll wager,” said Conal, “those two islands out there on the ocean side.”
“They are ours already,” said the man.
“Bad luck to you! Why claim everything?” said Conal. “Well, I’ll lay another wager. If I lose, I’ll stand in the middle of the strand, and every man of the three islands may give me a blow of the hurley; and if I win, I am to have a blow on every man who played against me. But first, I must have my choice of the hurleys; all must be thrown in a heap. I will take the one I like best.”
This was done, and Conal took the largest and strongest hurley he could find. The ball was struck about the middle of the strand; and there was a goal at each end of it, and these goals were fourteen miles apart. Conal took the ball with hurley, hand and foot, and never let it touch ground till he put it through the goal. “Is that a fair inning?” asked he of the other side.
Some said it was foul, for he kept the ball in the air all the time.
“Well, I’ll make a second trial; I will put it through the opposite goal.” He struck the ball in the middle of the strand, and sent it toward the other goal with such force that whoever tipped it never drew breath again, and every man whom it passed was driven sixty feet to one side or the other. Conal was always within a few yards of the ball, and he put it through the goal seven miles distant from the middle of the strand with two blows.
“Is that a fair inning?” asked Conal.