d up to where the bird sat, but
Kingfisher-all-Blue only said "I am done with you now," and then he
flew back along the stream like a streak of blue fire.

The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said stayed near the stone until the
dark was coming on. Then he thought he would go home and in the
morning he would speak to Pracaun the Crow and ask her about the stone
that Kingfisher-all-Blue had brought him to and what good luck there
was at the other side of it.

Pracaun the Crow came to the standing stone in the morning and ate the
boiled potato that the Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said brought her,
and then the Boy spoke to her about the stone that Kingfisher-all-Blue
had brought him to, and he asked what good luck there was at the other
side of it.

"Kingfisher-all-Blue has brought you to good luck that none of the
rest of us could have shown you," said Pracaun the Crow. "Under that
round stone is the treasure of King Labraid Lorc."

"Who was King Labraid Lorc and what was his treasure?" said the Boy
Who Knew What the Birds Said.

"I will tell you first about King Labraid Lorc," said Pracaun the
Crow. "He was King of this part of the country and of two lovely
Islands that are now sunken deep in the sea. Mananaun Mac Lir who is
Lord of the Sea was his friend and Labraid Lorc would have been a
happy King only for--well, I'll tell you in a while what troubles he
had.

"No one knew where the King had come from. He was not born King of
this part of the country nor of the lovely Islands that are now deep
sunken under the sea. Mananaun who is Lord of the Sea had given him
the Islands, or rather he had given him the two keys that had brought
the Islands up from the bottom of the sea. Two silver keys they were,
O lad. And when they were brought together they struck each other and
rang like bells. And 'Labraid Lorc is King, King of the two Fair
Islands' is what they chimed out. As long as he held the keys the
Islands would remain above the water. But if he put the keys away the
Islands would sink back into the sea.

"Once in every month the King had a man killed. This is how it was. He
would have a man to shave his beard and to trim his hair. This man
never came alive out of the King's Castle. As soon as the poor barber
left the King's chamber and passed down the hall soldiers would fall
upon him and kill him with their swords. Every time when the King's
beard was shaved and his hair was trimmed a man was killed--twelve men
i