Old Cathbadh came stumping up with his stick. «Mac Shea,» he said, «the Little Hound is after telling me that you also are a druid, who came here by magical arts from a distant place, and can summon lightning from the skies.»

«It’s true enough,» said Shea. «Doubtless you know those spells.»

«Doubtless I do,» said Cathbadh, looking sly. «We must hold converse on matters of our craft. We will be teaching each other some new spells, I am thinking.»

Shea frowned. The only spell he was really interested in was one that would take Belphebe and himself — and Pete — back toGaraden, Ohio, and Cathbadh probably didn’t know that one. It would be a question of getting at the basic assumptions, and more or less working outhis own method of putting them to use.

Aloud he said, «I think we can be quite useful to each other. InAmerica, where I come from, we have worked out some of the general principles of magic, so that it is only necessary to learn the procedures in various places.»

Cathbadh shook his head. «You do be telling me — and it is the word of a druid, so I must believe you — but ‘tis hard to credit that a druid could travel among the Scythians of Greece or the Scots of Egypt, with all the strange gods they do be having, and still be protected by his spells as well as at home.»

Shea got a picture of violently confused geography. But then, he reflected, the correspondence between this world and his own would only be rough, anyway. There might be Scots inEgypt here.

Just then Cuchulainn came out of his private room and sat down without ceremony at the head of the table. The others gathered round. Laeg took the place at one side of the hero and Cathbadh at the other. Shea and Belphebe were nodded to the next places, opposite each other. A good-looking serf woman with hair bound back from her forehead filled a large golden goblet at Cuchulainn’s place with wine from a golden ewer, then smaller silver cups at the places of Laeg and Cathbadh, and copper mugs for Shea and Belphebe. Down the table the rest of the company had leather jacks and barley beer.