One day, now, Finn was washing himself at the well, and a voice spoke out of the water, and it said:  “You must give back the cauldron, Finn, to the King of the Floods, or you must give him battle in place of it.”

Finn told that to the Lad of the Skins, but the answer he got from him was that his time was up, and that he could not serve on time that was past.  “But if you want me to go with you,” he said, “let you watch my wife, that is Manannan’s daughter, through the night; and in the middle of the night, when she will be combing her hair, any request you make of her, she cannot refuse it.  And the request you will make is that she will let me go with you to the King of the Floods, to bring the cauldron to his house and to bring it back again.”

So Finn watched Manannan’s daughter through the night, and when he saw her combing her hair, he made his request of her.  “I have no power to refuse you,” she said; “but you must promise me one thing, to bring my husband back to me, alive or dead.  And if he is alive,” she said, “put up a grey-green flag on the ship coming back; but if he is dead, put up a red flag.”

So Finn promised to do that, and he himself and the Lad of the Skins set out together for the dun of the King of the Floods, bringing the cauldron with them.

No sooner did the king see them than he gave word to all his armies to make ready.  But the Lad of the Skins made for them and overthrew them, and he went into the king’s dun, and Finn with him, and they overcame him and brought away again the cauldron that was never empty.

But as they were going back to Ireland, they saw a great ship coming towards them.  And when the Lad of the Skins looked at the ship, he said:  “I think it is an old enemy of my own is in that ship, that is trying to bring me to my death, because of my wife that refused him her love.”  And when the ship came alongside, the man that was in it called out:  “I know you well, and it is not by your dress I know you, son of the King of the Hills.”  And with that he made a leap on to the ship, and the two fought a great battle together, and they took every shape; they began young like two little boys, and fought till they were two old men; they fought from being two young pups until they were two old dogs; from being two young horses till they were two old horses.  And then they began to fight in the shape of birds, and it is in that shape they killed one another at the last.  And Finn threw the one bird into the water, but the other, that was the Lad of the Skins, he brought with him in the ship.  And when he came in sight of Ireland, he raised a red flag as he had promised the woman.

And when he came to the strand, she was there before him, and when she saw Finn, she said:  “It is dead you have brought him back to me.”  And Finn gave her the bird, and she asked was that what she was to get in the place of her husband.  And she was crying over the bird, and she brought it into a little boat with her, and she bade Finn to push out the boat to sea.