It is not surprising that so important a personage as the Gray Man should be the central figure of many legends, and indeed over him the story-makers seem to have had vigorous competition, for thirty or forty narratives are current in the neighborhood concerning him and the principal events of his life. So great a collection of legendary lore on one topic rendered the choice of a single tradition which should fairly cover the subject a matter of no little difficulty. As sometimes happens in grave undertakings, the issue was determined by accident. A chance boat excursion led to the acquaintance of Mr. Barney O’Toole, a fisherman, and conversation developed the fact that this gentleman was thoroughly posted in the local legends, and was also the possessor of a critical faculty which enabled him to differentiate between the probable and the improbable, and thus to settle the historical value of a tradition. In his way, he was also a philosopher, having evidently given much thought to social issues, and expressing his conclusions thereupon with the ease and freedom of a master mind. Upon being informed of the variety and amount of legendary material collected about the Gray Man and his doings, Barney unhesitatingly pronounced the entire assortment worthless, and condemned all the gathered treasures as the creations of petty intellects, which could not get out of the beaten track, but sought in the supernatural a reason for and explanation of every fact that seemed at variance with the routine of daily experience. In his opinion, the Gray Man is never seen at all in our day and generation, having been gathered to his fathers ages ago; nor is there any enchanted island; to use his own language, "all thim shtories bein’ made be thim blaggârd guides that set up av a night shtringin’ out laigends for to enthertain the quol’ty." "Now, av yer Anner wants to hear it, I can tell ye the thrue shtory av the Gray Man, no more is there anny thing wondherful in it, but it’s just as I had it from me grandfather, that towld it to the childher for to entertain thim. "It’s very well beknownst that in thim owld days there were gionts in plinty hereabouts, but they didn’t make the Causeway at all, for that’s a work o’ nacher, axceptin’ the Gray Man’s Path, that I’m goin’ to tell ye av. But ivery wan knows that there were gionts, bekase if there wasn’t, how cud we know o’ thim at all, but wan thing’s sartain, they were just like us, axceptin’ in the matther o’ size, for wan ov thim ’ud make a dozen like the men that live now.