“You were, indeed,” said King Conal; “and even if you were not, I would not put you in the pot, for if you had not been in the house of the three giants that day there would be no sign of me now in this castle. I was that child. Look here at my left little finger. My father searched for you, and so did I when I grew up, but we could not find you. We made out only one thing, that it was the Black Thief who saved me. Men told me that the Black Thief was dead, and I never hoped to see you. A hundred thousand welcomes! Now we’ll have a feast. The three young men will get the three horses for your sake, and take them home after we have feasted together. You will stay with me now for the rest of your life.”
“I must go with the young men as far as my own house,” said the Black Thief; “then I’ll come back to you.”
King Conal made a feast the like of which had never been in his kingdom. When the feast was over, he gave the three horses to the young men, and said at parting, “When you have done the work with the horses, let them go, and they will run home to me; no man could stop them.”
“We will do that,” said the brothers.
They set out then with them, stopped one night with the Black Thief at his house, and after that travelled home to their father, and stood in front of the castle. The stepmother was above, watching for them. She was glad when she saw them, and said, “Ye brought the horses, and I am to have them.”
“If we were bound to bring the horses,” said the elder brother, “we were not bound to give them to you.”
With that, he turned the horses’ heads from the castle, and let them go. They ran home to King Conal.
“I will go down now,” said the queen, “and it is time for me.”
“You will not go yet,” said the youngest; “I have a sentence which I had no time to give when we were going. I put you under sentence to stay where you are till you find three sons of a king to go again to King Conal for the horses.”