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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nuala O'Malley, by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Nuala O'Malley
+
+
+Author: H. Bedford-Jones
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 15, 2010  [eBook #30979]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NUALA O'MALLEY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Steven desJardins and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   This novel was originally serialized in four installments in
+   _All-Story Weekly_ magazine from December 30, 1916, to January
+   20, 1917. The original breaks in the serial have been retained,
+   but summaries of previous events preceding the second, third,
+   and fourth installments have been moved to the end of this
+   e-book. The Table of Contents which follows the introduction
+   was created for this electronic edition.
+
+
+
+
+
+NUALA O'MALLEY
+
+by
+
+H. BEDFORD-JONES
+
+
+
+ALL-STORY WEEKLY
+
+VOL. LXVI   NUMBER 2
+
+SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1916
+
+
+NUALA O'MALLEY
+
+by
+
+H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.
+
+
+
+
+This is a stirring, entrancing story of Erin when Cromwell was
+campaigning, and when the fighting heritage that is every Irishman's
+found vent through sword and ax and fire. You meet Brian Buidh, Brian of
+the Yellow Hair, more thrilling than even your favorite movie hero; and
+as for Nuala herself--well, just wait till you meet her!--THE EDITOR.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+Part I
+
+I.      THE BLACK WOMAN.                     177
+II.     THE BEGINNING OF THE STORM.          179
+III.    THE DARK MASTER.                     182
+IV.     BRIAN LEANS ON HIS SWORD.            186
+V.      YELLOW BRIAN RIDES SOUTH.            191
+VI.     BRIAN TAKES CAPTIVES.                196
+VII.    THE BIRD DAUGHTER.                   201
+
+Part II
+
+VIII.   HOW BRIAN WAS NETTED.                419
+IX.     THE NAILING OF BRIAN.                424
+X.      IN BERTRAGH CASTLE.                  429
+XI.     THE BAITING OF CATHBARR.             434
+XII.    HOW THE DARK MASTER WAS RUINED.      438
+
+Part III
+
+XIII.   BRIAN RIDES TO VENGEANCE.            659
+XIV.    HOW THE STORM FARED NORTH.           664
+XV.     WHAT HAPPENED AT THE TARN.           670
+XVI.    BRIAN GETS HIS SWORD AGAIN.          674
+XVII.   BRIAN GOES A CRUISING.               679
+
+Part IV
+
+XVIII.  BRIAN YIELDS BERTRAGH.               137
+XIX.    BRIAN MEETS THE BLACK WOMAN.         142
+XX.     THE STORM BURSTS.                    147
+XXI.    CATHBARR YIELDS UP HIS AX.           151
+XXII.   THE STORM OF MEN COMES TO REST.      155
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BLACK WOMAN.
+
+
+The horseman reined in as his jaded steed scrambled up the shelving
+bank, and for a space sat there motionless, for which the horse gave
+mute thanks. The moon was struggling to heave through fleecy clouds, as
+it was hard on midnight; in the half obscurity the rider gazed around
+suspiciously.
+
+There was nothing in sight to cause any man fear. Behind him rippled the
+Dee, and all around was desolation. Ardee itself lay a good two miles in
+the rear, burned and laid waste six weeks before, and ten miles to the
+south lay Drogheda. Indeed, as the horseman gazed about, he caught
+sight of a faint glare on the horizon that drew a bitter word from his
+lips.
+
+Dismounting with some difficulty, owing to his cloak and Spanish hat, he
+examined a long, raking gash in his horse's flank; then flung off hat
+and cloak and calmly proceeded to bind up his own naked shoulder
+beneath.
+
+His was a strange figure, indeed, now that he stood revealed. He wore no
+clothing save breeches and high riding-boots; an enormous sword without
+a sheath was girt about his waist, and the caked blood on his shoulder
+and cheek made his fair skin stand out with startling contrast.
+
+About his shoulders fell long hair of ruddy yellow, while his face was
+young and yet very bitter, tortured by both physical and mental
+anguish, as it seemed. He bound up the deep slash in his shoulder with a
+strip of cloth torn from his cloak, felt his wealed cheek tenderly, then
+flung the cloak about him again and drew down his broad-brimmed hat as
+he turned to his weary horse.
+
+"Well, my friend," and his voice sounded whimsical for all its rich
+tone, "you've had a change of masters to-day, eh? I'd like to spare you,
+but man's life is first, though Heaven knows it's worth little in
+Ireland this day!" With that he reeled and caught at the saddle for
+support, put down his head, and sobbed unrestrainedly.
+
+"Oh, my God!" he groaned at length, straightening himself to shake a
+clenched and blood-splashed fist at the sky. "Where were You this day?
+God! God! The blood of men on Thine altars--"
+
+"Faith, you must be new come to Ireland, then!"
+
+At the shrill, mocking voice the man whirled about and his huge blade
+was out like a flash. But only a cackling laugh answered him, as down
+from the bank above slipped a perfect hag of a creature, and he drew
+back in alarm. At that instant the moon flooded out; his sudden motion
+had flung off his wide hat, and he stood staring at the wrinkled
+creature whose scanty garments and thin-shredded gray locks were pierced
+by a pair of weird brown eyes.
+
+Then he quivered indeed, and even the poor horse took a step backward,
+for the old woman had flung up her arms with a shrill cry as she gazed
+on the yellow-haired young man.
+
+"The O'Neill!" The words seemed to burst from her involuntarily. She
+craned forward, her hands twisting at her ragged shawl, and a flood of
+Gaelic poured from her lips as she stared at the awe-struck man.
+
+"Are you, then, the earl, come back from the dead? Ghost of Tyr-owen,
+why stand you here idle in the gap of Ulster, where once Cuculain fought
+against the host of Meave? Do you also stand here to fight as he
+fought--"
+
+"Peace, mad-woman!" exclaimed the young man, stooping after his hat.
+"Peace, and be off out of my way, for I have far to ride."
+
+The Gaelic words came roughly and brokenly from him, but the old hag
+took no heed. Instead, she advanced swiftly and laid her hand on his
+arm, still gazing into his face with a great wonder on her wrinkled
+features.
+
+"Who are you?" she whispered. "Tell the Black Woman your name, if you
+are no ghost! For even as you stand now, once did these eyes see the
+great earl himself."
+
+"I am from Drogheda," answered the man, something very like fear stamped
+on his powerful and bitter-touched young face. "My name is Brian Buidh,
+and I ride to join Owen Ruadh--"
+
+"Liar!" The old woman spat forth the word with a cackle of laughter.
+"Oh, you cannot fool the Black Woman, Yellow Brian! Listen--Brian your
+name is, and Yellow Brian your name shall be indeed, since this is your
+will. Owen Ruadh O'Neill lies at the O'Reilly stead at Lough Oughter,
+but you shall never ride to war behind him, Brian Buidh! No--the Black
+Woman tells you, and the Black Woman knows. Instead, you shall ride into
+the west, and there shall be a storm of men--a storm of men behind you
+and before you--"
+
+"For the love of Heaven, have done!" cried Yellow Brian, shrinking
+before her, and yet with anger in his face. "Are you crazed, woman?
+Drogheda has fallen; O'Neill must join with the royalists, and never
+shall I ride into the west. Be off, for I have no money."
+
+He turned to mount, but again she stopped him. It seemed to him that
+there was strange power in that withered hand which rested so lightly on
+his arm.
+
+"The Black Woman needs no money, Yellow Brian," she cackled merrily.
+"You shall meet me once again, on a black day for you; and when you meet
+with Cathbarr of the Ax you shall remember me, Brian Buidh; and when
+you ride into the west and meet with the Bird Daughter you shall
+remember me.
+
+"So go, Yellow Brian, upon whose heart is stamped the red hand of the
+O'Neills! _Beannacht leath!_"
+
+"_Beannacht leath_," repeated the man thickly.
+
+There was a rustle of bushes, and he was alone, wiping the cold sweat
+from his face.
+
+"Woman or fiend!" he muttered hoarsely. "How did she know that last?
+Yes, she was crazed, no doubt. I suppose that I do look like the
+earl--since he was my grandfather!"
+
+And with a bitter laugh he climbed into the saddle and pushed his horse
+up the bank. The bushes closed behind him, the night closed over him,
+but it was long ere the weird words of the old hag who called herself
+the Black Woman were closed from his mind.
+
+For, after all, Yellow Brian was of right not alone an O'Neill, but The
+O'Neill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE BEGINNING OF THE STORM.
+
+
+The people of every nation--that is, the tillers of the soil, the people
+who form the backbone of their race--are in continual expectancy of a
+Man and a Day. Theirs is always the, perhaps, dumb hope, but still the
+hope, that in their future lie these two things, a Man and a Day.
+Sometimes the Man has come and the Day has failed; sometimes the Day has
+come and there has been no Man to use it; but now all Ireland had swept
+up in a wild roar, knowing that the Man and the Day had come together.
+
+And so, in truth, they had. Owen, the Ruadh, or red, O'Neill, had fought
+a desperate struggle against the royalists. Little by little he had
+cemented his own people together, his personal qualities and his
+splendid generalship had overborne all else, and the victory of Benburb
+had crowned the whole. Then Owen Ruadh was stricken down with sickness,
+Cromwell landed and stormed Drogheda, and Yellow Brian had fought clear
+and fled away to the kinsman he had never seen.
+
+Now, standing on the castle ramparts overlooking Lough Oughter, Yellow
+Brian stared moodily out at the lake. His identity had been revealed to
+none, and the name of Brian Buidh had little meaning to any in Ireland.
+Years since he who was The O'Neill, the same whom the English called
+Earl of Tyr-owen, had fled with his family from the land. His eldest son
+John had settled at the Spanish court.
+
+John was a spineless man, unworthy son of a great father, content to
+idle away his life in ease and quiet. And it was in the court of Spain
+that Brian O'Neill had been born, with only an old Irishwoman to nurse
+him and teach him the tongue and tidings of Ireland which his father
+cared nothing for.
+
+Yellow Brian had written out these things, sending the letter to the
+sick general who lay within the castle. His terrible news of Drogheda
+had created consternation, but already O'Neill's forces had been sent to
+join the royalists against the common foe. All Ireland was distraught by
+war. Royalist, patriot, and Parliament man fought each against the
+other, and the only man who could have faced Cromwell lay sick unto
+death.
+
+The Day was passing, the Man was passing, and shadow lay upon all the
+land.
+
+A man came up and touched Yellow Brian's arm, with word that Owen Ruadh
+would see him at once. Brian nodded, following. He was well garbed now,
+and a steel jack glittered from beneath his dark-red cloak as he strode
+along. Upon his strong-set face brooded bitterness, but his eyes were
+young for all their cold blue, and his ruddy hair shone like spun gold
+in the sunlight; while his firm mouth and chin, his erect figure, and
+his massive shoulders gained him more than one look of appreciation
+from the clustered O'Reillys.
+
+He followed the attendant to a large room, whose huge mantel was carven
+with the red hand and supporting lions of the clan Reilly, and passed
+over to the bed beside the window. He had requested to see O'Neill
+alone, and the attendant withdrew silently. Brian approached the bed,
+and stood looking down at the man who was passing from Ireland.
+
+Sharp and bright were the eyes as ever, but the red beard was grayed and
+the face was waxen; a spark of color came to it, as Owen Ruadh stretched
+forth a hand to take that of his visitor.
+
+"Brian O'Neill!" he exclaimed, in a voice singularly like that of Brian
+himself. "Welcome, kinsman! But why the silence you enjoined in your
+letter?"
+
+"My name is Yellow Brian," answered the younger man somberly. "I have
+none other, general. You know the gist of my story, and here is the
+rest. I broke with my father, for he would hear nothing of my coming to
+Ireland. So I cast off his name and left him to his cursed idleness,
+reaching Drogheda barely in time to take part in the siege. I managed to
+cut through, as you know, and meant to take service with you--"
+
+He paused, for words did not come easily to him, as with all his race. A
+low groan broke from the crippled warrior.
+
+"Too late, kinsman, too late! Cromwell is come, and I will never sit a
+horse again--ah, no protests, lad! How old are you?"
+
+"Twenty-three."
+
+"By my faith, you look thirty! Lad, my heart is sore for you. I am
+wasted and broken. I have no money, and Cromwell will shatter all before
+him; I can do naught save give you advice."
+
+"I want naught," broke in Brian quickly, a little glint as of ice in his
+blue eyes. "Not for that did I cast off my name and come to--"
+
+"Tut, tut, lad!" O'Neill reproved him gently. "I understand, so say no
+more of that matter. You are Brian Buidh, but to me you are my kinsman,
+the rightful head of my house. You can do two things, Yellow
+Brian--either follow my advice, or go down to ruin with all Ireland. Now
+say, which shall it be?"
+
+Brian gazed at him with thoughtful face. What was the meaning of this
+dark speech? As he looked into the keen, death-smitten eyes of the man
+who might have saved Ireland, he smiled a little.
+
+"I see naught but ruin, Owen Ruadh," he replied slowly. "I care little
+for my life, having no ties left on this earth--"
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" broke in the other impatiently. "You are young, lad--the
+bitterness will soon pass, trust me. Now see, here is my advice, such
+advice as I would give no other man alive. I am dying, Yellow Brian.
+Well, I know that Cromwell will break down all I have built up, and I
+can see no brightness for my country. But for you I can see much. You
+are young, powerful, the last of the old race; you look strangely like
+the old earl, Brian!"
+
+The younger man started. For the first time in many days he remembered
+that crazed hag he had met by the Dee water the night of Drogheda.
+
+"Now, harken well. I tell you that our house lies in the dust, Brian;
+there is no hope for it or for any O'Neill. But for Yellow Brian there
+is hope. You must carve out a holding for yourself, for you are a ruler
+of men by your face, lad. Go into Galway, and there, where Cromwell's
+men will have hardest fighting of all, gather a force and make head. I
+have heard strange tales of a man who has done this very thing--they say
+he has seized on a castle somewhere near Bertraghboy Bay, in Galway,
+and-- But I am getting weak, Brian lad. Hearken well--Ireland is lost;
+carve out now for your own hand, for the Red Hand of the old house, lad!
+And take this for my sake."
+
+Almost whispering the last words, Owen Ruadh took from his finger a
+signet graven deeply with the Red Hand of Tyr-owen. Brian accepted it
+gravely, kissed the hand that gave it, and with tears choking his
+throat, left the chamber of the man who was passing from Ireland.
+
+He had been there a brief fifteen minutes, yet it seemed that an age had
+passed. Both he and the sick man had said much in few words, for they
+were both men who spared speech and did much. But Brian had received a
+great wrench.
+
+As he had said, he had cast off his father, for the grandfather's blood
+ran riot within him, and had kindled to burning rage against the
+sluggard who had made his name a thing of reproach in all lands. With
+the overstrong bitterness of youth he had meant to die sword in hand,
+fighting for Ireland. The few burning words of Owen Ruadh had stripped
+all this false heroism from him, however, and had sent a flame of sanity
+into his brain.
+
+Brian returned slowly to the round tower, and stood looking out over the
+waters, for the castle was built on an island in the lake a mile from
+shore. It was nearing sunset, and snow was in the air--the first snow,
+for this was the end of September.
+
+"Ruin--the storm of men!" He repeated unconsciously the words of the hag
+who had stopped him by the Dee water. "What shall I do? Which is the
+part of a man, after all; to fall for Ireland or to hew out new lands
+and found a new house in the west? By my hilt! That old hag told me
+truly after all!"
+
+At that thought he stood silent, his eyes troubled. What was this fate
+which seemed to drive him into the west, instead of leading him to the
+flame of swords as he had so long hoped and dreamed? Death meant little
+to him; honor meant much. All his life he had lived in Spain, yet it had
+been a double life. He had ridden and hunted and learned arms with the
+young nobles of the court, but he had talked and sorrowed and dreamed
+with the old Irishwoman who had nursed him.
+
+After all, it is often the dreams of the youth which determine the
+career of the man, he reflected.
+
+Which path should he take? As he stood there struggling with himself,
+his hand went unconsciously to his long, powerful jaw; it was a gesture
+habitual with him when in deep thought--which he seldom was, however.
+Now the youth in him spoke for death, now the sanity which had flashed
+into his brain from that of the sick man spoke for the life of deeds and
+renown which lay in the west.
+
+An incident might turn him either way--and the incident came in the
+shape of a very tall old man who wore the Irish garb of belted,
+long-sleeved tunic and woolen hose, with iron-soled shoes. The old man's
+face was cunning, but his eyes were bright and keen and deep gray; his
+gray hair hung low to conceal his lopped ears, and there hung about him
+an indescribable air of shrewdness faced with apparent openness of
+heart.
+
+Brian glanced at him, remembered that he had heard him called Turlough
+Wolf, and looked away carelessly, absorbed in his own thought. But the
+old man halted abruptly with an exclamation:
+
+"_Corp na diaoul!_ Where got you that face and that gesture, Drogheda
+man?"
+
+Brian looked at him, frowning.
+
+"What mean you, Turlough Wolf?"
+
+The other stared, his thin jaw fallen.
+
+"Why--why," he stammered, "I thought it had been The O'Neill come to
+life again! When I was a boy I have seen the earl hold his hand to his
+chin--often, often! And--and you look like him, Brian Buidh---"
+
+"Nonsense!" Brian forced a laugh, but as he folded his arms again the
+glitter of O'Neill's ring on his finger caught the sharp gray eyes.
+
+Turlough Wolf started.
+
+"Listen!" he said, coming forward insinuatingly. "Yellow Brian, no man
+knows who you are, nor do I ask. But Turlough Wolf knows a man when he
+sees one, a chieftain among men. I owe no man service; but if you will
+need a swift brain, a cunning hand, and an eye that can read the hearts
+of men, I will serve you."
+
+Brian looked down into the shrewd face in wonder, then waved an
+impatient hand.
+
+"No use, Turlough Wolf. I have no money to pay for service, and to-night
+I must ride out to seek I know not what--nay, whether I ride west or
+east or south, I know not!"
+
+He turned abruptly, wishing to close the matter, but the old man laid a
+restraining hand on his shoulder.
+
+"I seek no money, Yellow Brian. I seek only a master such as yourself; a
+man who is a master among men, and whom I can set higher still if he
+will heed my counsels. I am old, you are young; I know all parts of the
+land by heart, from the Mayo shore to Youghal, and I am skilled at many
+things. Take my service and you will not regret it."
+
+Brian hesitated. After all, he considered, the thing came close to being
+uncanny. The Black Woman by Dee water; Owen Ruadh himself, and now this
+Ulysseslike Turlough Wolf--whither was fate driving him? Was he really
+to meet such persons as the Bird Daughter and Cathbarr of the Ax, or
+were they only the figment of a crazed old woman's brain?
+
+So he hesitated, gazing down into those clear gray eyes. And as he
+looked it seemed to him that he found strange things in them, strange
+urgings that touched the chords of his soul. After all, adventure lay in
+the west, and he was young!
+
+"Good!" he said, gravely extending his hand. "To-night we ride to the
+west, you and I. Come; let us see O'Reilly about horses."
+
+And this was the beginning of the storm of men that came upon the west.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE DARK MASTER.
+
+
+"There are two things, Yellow Brian, for you to mind. First, you must
+have men at your back who know you for their master; second, you must
+stand alone, giving and receiving aid from no man or party in the
+land."
+
+Brian nodded and stored away the words in his heart, for in their three
+weeks of wandering he had learned that Turlough Wolf was better aid than
+many men. It was his doing that, when they had chanced on a party of
+ravagers beyond Carrick, Yellow Brian had been led into strife with
+their leader. The upshot of that matter was that there was a dead rover;
+Yellow Brian had a dozen horsemen behind him and money in his purse, and
+of the dozen none but feared utterly this silent man who fought like a
+fiend.
+
+To the dozen had been added others--four Scotch plunderers strayed from
+Hamilton's horse and half a dozen Breffnians from Ormond's army, who had
+been driven out of Munster by the rising of the Parliament men there.
+They were a sadly mixed score, of all races and creeds, but were
+fighting ruffians to a man, and were bound together by Brian's solemn
+pledge that he himself would slay any who quarreled. The result was
+peace.
+
+So now, with a good score of men behind him, Yellow Brian had ridden
+down into Galway, was past Lough Corrib and Iar Connaught, and was hard
+upon Connemara.
+
+There was a thin snow upon the hills, and the bleak wind presaged more;
+but the score of men sang lustily as they rode. Two days before they had
+come upon a dozen strayed Royalist plunderers, and had gained great
+store of food and drink--particularly drink. So all were well content
+for the time being.
+
+"Turlough," asked Brian suddenly, as they rode side by side, "did you
+ever hear of one called the Black Woman?"
+
+The Wolf crossed himself and grimaced.
+
+"That I have, Yellow Brian, but dimly. They say she deals in magic and
+sorcery, and no good comes of meeting with her. But stop--there are
+horsemen on the road! Scatter the men, and quickly; let us two bide
+here."
+
+There was cunning in the advice, for the two had come to a bend in the
+road and the men were a hundred yards behind them. Brian drew rein at
+sight of a score of men a scant quarter-mile away and riding up the hill
+toward them. He knew that they must also have been seen, but his men
+would still be out of sight, so he turned with a quick word:
+
+"Off into the rocks, men! If I raise my sword, come and strike. Off!"
+
+As he spoke he bared that same huge cut-or-thrust brand he had borne
+from Drogheda and set the point on his boot. Instantly the men scattered
+on either side the road, where black rocks thrust up from the snow, and
+within two minutes they and their horses had disappeared.
+
+The riders below came steadily forward in a clump, and Brian saw old
+Turlough staring with bulging eyes. Then the Wolf half caught at his
+bridle, as if minded to fly, and his hands were trembling.
+
+"What ails you, man?" smiled Brian. "Are they magicians and sorcerers,
+then?"
+
+"No, _fareer gair_--worse luck!" blurted out the other. "Look at the
+little man who rides first, Yellow Brian!"
+
+Brian squinted against the snow-glare, and saw that the leader of the
+approaching party seemed indeed to be a little man with hunched
+shoulders and head that glinted steel.
+
+"A hunchback!" he exclaimed. "Well, who is he?"
+
+"The Dark Master--O'Donnell More himself! It is in my mind that this is
+a black day, Brian Buidh. O'Donnell More is the master of all men at
+craft, and the match of most men at weapons. Beware of him, master,
+beware! I had thought that he was still under siege at Bertragh Castle,
+else I had never taken this road."
+
+"Nonsense!" laughed out Brian joyously, drinking in the clear afternoon
+air. "So much the more honor if we slay him, Turlough Wolf! Let him
+match me at weapons, or you at wits, if he can!"
+
+Turlough muttered something and drew back behind Brian's steed with
+pallid face. Yellow Brian, however, having a sure trust in his own right
+arm and his hidden men, scanned the approaching O'Donnell curiously,
+seeking what had inspired such unwonted fear in the old gray Wolf.
+
+He could find nothing ominous in that hunched figure, save its mail-coat
+and steel helm. Yet the face was peculiar. Over a drooping mustache of
+black flared forth two intense black eyes. Brian noted this, and the
+thin, curved nose and prominent chin, and laughed again.
+
+"Who is this Dark Master, Turlough?"
+
+The other shivered slightly. "He is an O'Donnell from the north, come
+here some ten years since--he seized on Bertragh even as we intend
+seizing on a stead, and has since done evil things in the land. Now
+hush, for they say the wind bears him idle talk."
+
+Brian's thin lips curved a trifle scornfully, but he kept silence,
+watching the approaching men. At fifty yards' distance they halted.
+Their leader eyed the motionless pair for a moment and then slowly rode
+on alone, waving back his followers. And Yellow Brian made a strange
+figure, with his ruddy hair streaming from beneath his steel cap and the
+bright, naked sword rising up from toe to head beside him.
+
+"Well?" O'Donnell More's voice was deep and harsh, though Brian
+afterward found that it could be changed to suit its owner's mood. "Who
+are you thus disputing my passage?"
+
+"I am Brian Buidh," came Brian's curt reply. "As for dispute, that is as
+you will."
+
+"Yellow Brian?" The black brows shot up in surprise. "A strange name.
+Whence come you, and seeking what?"
+
+"I seek men, O'Donnell More." Brian swiftly determined that this was a
+man who might give him aid, a man after his own heart. "Whence I come is
+my affair. Give me men, and I will repay with gold."
+
+"What need have you of men, Yellow Brian," came the sardonic answer,
+"when your own lie hidden among the rocks?"
+
+Now indeed Brian started, whereat the other smiled grimly.
+
+"How knew you that?"
+
+"If you recognized me from afar, you had not stayed to meet me unless
+you had men," stated O'Donnell shrewdly enough.
+
+"True," said Brian, and laughed out. "Well said, O'Donnell. I have a
+score, and want another score. I will match mine against yours, or make
+a pact, as you desire."
+
+The Dark Master sat fingering his sword-hilt and considered. With the
+black brows down and the black eyes fixed on him, Brian suddenly began
+to like the man less.
+
+"I will give you service," returned O'Donnell at last.
+
+Brian smiled. "Men serve me, not I them."
+
+At this curt answer O'Donnell looked black, then fell into thought, his
+shoulders hunched up and his head drawn in like the head of a turtle.
+Brian wished now that he had struck first and talked afterward.
+
+Finally the Dark Master looked up with a slow smile.
+
+"Welcome to you, Brian of the hard eyes and hollow cheeks," he said.
+"_Slaintahut!_ I will not give you men, but I will give you the loan of
+men if you will do me one of two favors. Ten miles to the south of here
+there is an old tower on a cliff, and in the tower dwells a man with
+certain companions who sets me at naught. On an island out near Golam
+Head is a castle where a woman rules, who has also set me at naught. Go,
+reduce either of these twain, and I will lend you twoscore men for three
+months."
+
+Brian sat his great horse and looked at the Dark Master. He would have
+sought advice from Turlough Wolf, save that he did not like to turn his
+back on those burning eyes. After all, the pact was not a bad one.
+
+"These enemies of yours--who are they, and what force have they?"
+
+The Dark Master chuckled, and his head shot out from between his
+shoulders.
+
+"The man is called Cathbarr of the Ax, and he is a hard man to fight,
+for he has ten men like himself, axmen all. The woman cannot fight, but
+she has a swift mind, many men, and her name is Nuala O'Malley, of the
+O'Malleys of Erris."
+
+"I had sooner fight a man than a woman," returned Brian slowly. "Also,
+this Cathbarr of the Ax has fewer men. I will do you this favor,
+O'Donnell Dubh."
+
+He gave no sign of the wonder that had shot into his mind at the name of
+Cathbarr, except that his blue eyes seemed changed suddenly to cold ice.
+The Dark Master saw the change, and his smile withered. Brian, watching
+him, reflected that this malformed freebooter could be venomous-looking
+at times.
+
+"I have passed my word," O'Donnell the Black made curt answer. "Fetch
+either of the twain to Bertragh, dead or alive, and you have the loan of
+twoscore men for three months, free. Is it a pact?"
+
+"It is a pact," answered Brian, and at that the other galloped back to
+his men.
+
+Brian swung his sword and flung it high into the air; before it had
+flashed down to nestle in his palm again, his men were scrambling into
+the road. He sheathed the sword, smiling a little, and turned to
+Turlough.
+
+"Well? To your mind or not, Wolf?"
+
+"My father saw the Brown Geraldine at Dublin," responded that worthy,
+scratching the gray beard which had begun to sprout. "They broke his
+bones with the back of an ax and swung him out in a cage until he died,
+and after. He made pacts too easily."
+
+"Well?" asked Brian again, but a dull flush crossed his cheeks.
+
+"I gave you my rede," said Turlough sullenly. "I said to stand alone,
+receiving aid from neither man nor faction. Now there is mischief to be
+repaired."
+
+"Then my sword shall repair it," said Brian, and ordered the men to
+swing in after him. "Guide us to this tower of Cathbarr's, for my honor
+is in my own keeping."
+
+They swung about and headed to the south and the sea.
+
+The hill-paths, which Turlough Wolf seemed to know perfectly, were
+cruelly hard on the horses; none were as yet trodden down, for the snow
+was fresh, and all the west coast lay desolate. The plague had stricken
+Galway and Mayo heavily that year, smiting the mountains with death.
+Some few parties of Roundhead horse had come through, because they
+feared God and Ireton more than the plague, and some Royalists had fled
+up from the south for much the same reason.
+
+In any case, Yellow Brian found all the land desolate, and liked it. The
+more wasted the land, he reflected, the more chance for that sword of
+his to find swinging-room. As he had ridden, news had come from the
+east--news of the Wexford killing and the curse that was come upon the
+land. Owen Ruadh O'Neill was not yet dead, but Brian knew that he had
+prophesied truly. Ireland's day was gloaming fast.
+
+Despite the dismal tone of Turlough Wolf, Brian told himself that he had
+done a good day's work. O'Donnell Dubh would keep his word beyond any
+question. As for the man he was to slay, the only part of it which
+troubled Brian was the prediction of the Black Woman at the Dee water.
+She had known him, and had prophesied O'Neill's death, and had spoken of
+the west and this Cathbarr of the Ax. After all, however, she might have
+shot a chance shaft which had gone true. Brian had no faith in magic.
+
+All that afternoon he rode on, Turlough Wolf ahead of him, the men
+behind. They feared and hated the old Wolf as much as they feared and
+loved Brian.
+
+Progress was slow, owing to the bad paths, the snow, and sundry changes
+of direction, so that when night fell they had covered but eight miles
+of the ten. Turlough suggested that they push on and finish their
+business at a stroke, but Brian curtly refused. So the men made camp in
+lee of a cliff and proceeded to feast away the last of their provisions
+and wine, in confidence that on the morrow they would have more, or else
+would need none.
+
+Brian and Turlough built a fire apart, and after their repast Brian
+broke silence with a request for information about Cathbarr. It was his
+first speech since the parting with the Dark Master.
+
+"I never heard of him," responded Turlough. "No doubt he is some outlaw
+who has become a thorn in the Dark Master's flesh. With the woman it is
+different."
+
+"Tell me of her," said Brian, gazing into the fire.
+
+"She is an O'Malley, and, like all the clan, makes much of ships and
+seamen and little of horses and riders. When the Dark Master came, ten
+years ago, he slew her father and mother by treachery, and would have
+slain her but that her men carried her off. She was a child then. Now
+she is a woman, very bitter against O'Donnell Dubh, and is allied with
+the Parliament so that her ships may have the run of the seas, it is
+said. O'Donnell takes sides with no faction, but caters to all. He lays
+nets and snares, and men fall into them, and he laughs."
+
+"Why is Nuala O'Malley called the Bird Daughter?" asked Brian quietly.
+
+At this question old Turlough rose on his elbow, and in his wide, gray
+eyes was set mingled fear and wonder.
+
+"_M'anam an diaoul!_" he spat out. "Who are you to know this thing?"
+
+"Answer my question," returned Brian, hiding his own surprise.
+
+"Seven years ago, master, I was at Sligo Bay with O'Dowda when Hamilton
+cut us to pieces. Nuala O'Malley had brought us some powder--she was but
+a slip of a girl then. In the evening I was down at the ship when I saw
+her come from below, a hooded pigeon in her hands. She whispered in the
+bird's ear, set off the hood, and the bird flew into the night. I named
+her Bird Daughter, but no other man knew the name."
+
+"Then a woman did," chuckled Brian dryly. "It was but a carrier pigeon,
+Turlough; I have seen them used in Spain. Now listen to me."
+
+With that he told him of the Black Woman and his weird meeting at Dee
+water. Old Turlough listened in no little amazement, for he was full of
+superstitious fancies, but Brian said nothing of his own name. The
+uncanny prophecies, however, which now seemed on the road to fulfilment
+were enough to give any man pause.
+
+When he had finished, a very subdued Turlough Wolf stated that the Black
+Woman was an old hag who wandered all over the land, that some called
+her crazy and others thought her inspired, and that his own belief was
+that she was a banshee, no less.
+
+At this Brian saw the thing in a more rational light. The old woman knew
+of this nook in the west, and, attracted to him by his resemblance to
+the long-dead earl, she had endeavored to steer him thither. After all,
+it was quite simple.
+
+Of course, old Turlough swore that he had never breathed his name of
+Bird Daughter to a living soul, and that it was but a name he had used
+in his own mind for the slim girl who had fetched powder from the south.
+Brian chuckled, guessing that Turlough was not the only one who had seen
+carrier pigeons used, and who had ascribed the thing to higher powers.
+
+The incident served the purpose of establishing a firmer intimacy
+between Brian and the old man, however, and convinced Turlough that his
+master was destined to fly high. Nor through all the storm of men that
+befell after did Turlough again breathe reproof as he had dared that
+day.
+
+"I begin to see that your advice was good, Turlough Wolf," said Brian
+the next morning, as he rode shivering from camp. "As to making my men
+know me for their master, that troubles me little; but I think it will
+be a hard matter to avoid making pacts, and to stand alone."
+
+"Lean on your sword," grunted old Turlough. "To my notion, such
+friendship as that huge blade of yours can give is better than good.
+Order men ahead."
+
+Brian nodded and sent two of the men ahead as scouts, with the Wolf
+himself. For the better part of an hour they made slow headway among the
+rocks, and then emerged suddenly on the slope leading down to the cliffs
+and sea. Turlough pointed to the left.
+
+"There lies the tower, if I mistake not."
+
+Drawing rein, Brian saw at once why he had been sent on this errand.
+Cathbarr's tower was an old ruin at the end of a long and narrow
+headland--indeed, at high tide most of the headland would be covered,
+for it was low and yet beyond shot of the cliffs. Except from the water,
+it was almost impregnable; cannon might have reached it from shore, but
+two axmen could have held the narrow way against an army.
+
+Brian laughed softly and ordered the men to remain where they were.
+
+"What are you going to do, master?" queried old Turlough anxiously.
+
+"I am going to lean on my sword, as you advised me," chuckled Brian, and
+rode on alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+BRIAN LEANS ON HIS SWORD.
+
+
+As he had foreseen, Brian was allowed to ride across the narrow neck of
+land where his men would have had to battle for progress. It was from no
+mere bravado that he had gone forward alone to the tower, but because
+men were worth saving, and he believed that his own sword was a match
+for any ax. If this ruffian Cathbarr was a freebooting outlaw, he would
+be willing enough to stake his ten men on his prowess, and Yellow Brian
+was very anxious to have those ten axmen behind him.
+
+At the top of the tower men watched and steel glistened, and as Brian
+rode up to the low gateway, it was flung open and a man strode out.
+This man hardly came up to Brian's conception of an outlaw, except as to
+stature.
+
+He was a good six feet four, reflected Brian as he drew rein and waited,
+and was built in proportion--or, rather, out of proportion. His
+shoulders and chest seemed tremendous, and a long mail-shirt reached to
+his knees; his hair was short-clipped and brown, and beneath his curly
+brown beard Brian made out a massive face, wide-set brown eyes, and an
+air not so much ruffianly as of cheerful good-humor.
+
+Brian had no need to ask his name, however, for in one hand he carried a
+weapon such as had seldom seen the light since powder had come to
+Ireland. It was an ax, some five feet from haft to helve; double-bladed,
+each blade eight inches long, curved back slightly, and two inches thick
+by twice as much wide. The edges, which came down sharply from the
+thickness, were not overkeen, and were not meant to be so. When the
+thing struck, that was the end of what stood before it.
+
+"_Cead mile failte!_" cried Cathbarr of the Ax in a deep, rumbling
+voice, his white teeth flashing through his beard in a smile. "A hundred
+thousand welcomes to you, swordsman! Are you come to capture my lordly
+castle?"
+
+"No; your men," laughed Brian, liking this huge, merry giant on the
+instant. "I am come from O'Donnell Dubh to reduce you and fetch you to
+him."
+
+The smile froze on the giant's face.
+
+"I am sorry for that, yellow one! I like your face and your thews, and
+to find that you serve the black traitor of Bertragh is an ill thing."
+
+"I serve no man," answered Brian easily. "I need men. If I conquer you,
+O'Donnell lends me twoscore men for three months; also, by conquering
+you I win your men to me, which makes fifty. With my seventy men, I
+shall fall to work."
+
+"By my faith, a ready reckoner!" and Cathbarr grinned again. "Get down
+and fight."
+
+Brian swung out of the saddle and led his horse to one side. They were
+not so badly matched, he reflected. Cathbarr's head was bared, while he
+had steel cap and jack; but for some reason he felt hesitant at thought
+of killing this merry giant.
+
+"Not so bad," he said, baring his five-foot blade and holding it up
+against the huge ax. "Not so bad, eh?"
+
+Cathbarr burst into a laugh.
+
+"It will grieve me to crush your skull, dear man," he rumbled. "What a
+pair we would make, matched against that Dark Master! But enough.
+Ready?"
+
+Brian nodded slightly, and the long ax flashed up.
+
+Now, Brian O'Neill had served a stiff apprenticeship at weapons, and had
+faced many men whose eyes boded him death, but here, for the first time
+in all his life, he felt the self-confidence stricken out of him.
+
+As Cathbarr heaved up his ax, he became a different man. All the good
+cheer fled out of his face; his curly brown beard seemed to stand out
+about his head like snakes, and the massiveness of his body was
+reflected in the battle-fury of his face. He needed no blows to rouse
+him into madness; but with the ax swinging like a reed about him, he
+came rushing at Brian, a giant come to earth from of old time. His men
+on the tower set up a wild yell of encouragement.
+
+Brian leaped swiftly aside and, thinking to end the fight at a blow,
+brought down his sword against the descending ax-haft. Sparks flew--the
+haft was bound with iron; Brian only saved himself from falling by a
+miracle.
+
+Then began a strange battle of feet against brawn, for Cathbarr rushed
+and rushed again, but ever Brian slipped away from the falling ax, nor
+was he able to strike back. The play of that ax was a marvel to behold;
+it was shield and weapon in one, and it seemed no heavier than a thing
+of wood as it whirled. Twice Brian got in his point against the
+mail-coat without effect, and twice the ax brushed his shoulder, so that
+he gave over thrusting. He knew that he was fighting for his life
+indeed.
+
+An instant later he discovered that fact anew as a glancing touch of the
+ax drove off his steel cap and sent him staggering back a dozen paces,
+reeling and clutching at the air. To his amazement Cathbarr did not
+follow him, but stood waiting for him to recover; he had not looked for
+such courtesy on the west coast.
+
+He sprang back into his defense, desperate now. Again the ax whirled,
+seeming a part of the giant himself, and Brian knew that he was lost if
+he waited for it. So, instead of waiting, he leaped under the blow,
+dropped his sword, and drove up his fist into the bearded chin, now
+flecked with foam.
+
+It was a cruel blow. Cathbarr grunted, his head rocked back, and he
+swayed on his feet. Before he could recover, Brian had set his thigh
+against him, caught his arm, and sent him whirling to the ground, ax and
+all. Then he picked up his sword and stood leaning on it, panting.
+
+Cathbarr sat up and gazed around blankly, until his gaze fell on the
+waiting figure. Brian looked at him, smiling slightly, and the eyes of
+the two men met and clinched. As if he had been a child caught doing
+wrong, the giant grinned and wiped the foam from his beard.
+
+"Was that fair fighting, yellow man?" he asked.
+
+"No," laughed Brian. "It was unfair, Cathbarr; but I think my fists can
+best your ax yet."
+
+Slowly the giant got to his feet. To Brian's surprise he left his ax
+where it lay and came forward with extended hand.
+
+"Had you claimed that blow as fair," he rumbled, "I would have slain
+you. Now I love you, yellow man. Let us make a pact together. What is
+your name?"
+
+They struck hands, and Brian felt a great thrill of admiration for this
+man whose terrible strength enclosed the simple heart of a child. But
+he shook his head.
+
+"I make no pacts, Cathbarr. My name is Brian Buidh. I made pact with the
+Dark Master, and now I am sorry for it; yet it must be held to, for I
+see no way out of it. But wait--I have a cunning man whose wit may help
+us here."
+
+He turned and flung up his sword in the air. His men rode down to the
+narrow causeway, while from the tower came shouts warning Cathbarr
+against treachery. But the giant only grinned again, and Brian shouted
+to Turlough Wolf to come on alone.
+
+Old Turlough obeyed in no little wonder. When he came up Brian told him
+what had chanced--that out of enmity had arisen friendship.
+
+"But," he concluded, trouble in his heart, "you must find me a way out,
+Turlough. I have passed my word to O'Donness to reduce Cathbarr; to do
+that I must slay him, or he me. I see little honor either way."
+
+"Few men find honor in their dealings with the Dark Master," grumbled
+Turlough, looking from Cathbarr to Brian. "Yet, if you want a way out,
+it is an easy matter. Cathbarr of the Ax, give service to my master.
+Thus, Brian Buidh, you shall reduce Cathbarr; yet the Dark Master said
+naught of giving up this man to him."
+
+"Good!" cried Brian, eagerness in his blue eyes, and swung on the giant.
+"Will you give me your service, friend, and follow me? There shall be a
+storm of men--" He paused abruptly as the words fell from his lips, but
+he had said enough.
+
+"I give you service, Yellow Brian," rumbled Cathbarr, taking his hand
+again, and his strong, white teeth flashed through his beard. "I will
+follow you, and my men, and there shall be firm friendship between us.
+Is it good?"
+
+"It is good!" exclaimed Brian, his heart singing. But Turlough laughed
+harshly.
+
+"So you have again broken my rede, Brian Buidh, for this man knows you
+not as his master, but names you his friend. I bade you take, not give."
+
+"It was your own advice," retorted Brian, laughing.
+
+"Aye, since you asked it, I found the way out. But you have not
+conquered him."
+
+"He conquered me by not telling a lie," said Cathbarr simply. "I serve
+him."
+
+Turlough eyed them keenly, heard how the fight had gone, and then
+suddenly comprehended what manner of man this huge, bearded fellow was.
+His face cleared, and without a word he clasped Cathbarr's hand, and
+asked Brian for orders.
+
+"How far from here is Bertragh Castle?" questioned Brian.
+
+"It overlooks Bertraghboy Bay," answered the giant. "Bide here till
+noon, while my men bring in their horses from the hills, and with the
+night we can arrive there."
+
+To this Brian assented, well pleased that Cathbarr had horses. Turlough
+went back to bring up his men, and Brian entered the tower that served
+Cathbarr for castle. It was a small place, but strong; the ten men who
+took his hand and gave him service were cut after the pattern of their
+master--huge fellows all, O'Flahertys from the mountains who had
+followed Cathbarr down to loot the coast, with no ill success.
+
+It was a strange tale that he heard, while he and his men ate and drank
+with their new comrades. For some months Cathbarr had maintained himself
+here, raiding O'Donnell's lands chiefly and making his ax feared through
+all the coast. In fact, the giant had attempted his own errand--to set
+himself up in power; but he had gone about it like a child.
+
+The Dark Master had come against him with a hundred men, and after
+losing a score and more at the causeway, had tried to starve him out. At
+that Cathbarr had calmly stolen away by boat, raided O'Donnell's
+choicest farms overnight, and was back with his plunder before the Dark
+Master guessed his absence. After this O'Donnell had kept watch and ward
+upon his lands, with better results; Cathbarr occupied himself with
+raiding against the scattered parties of plunderers in the hills, and
+had won some booty.
+
+Brian discovered many things during the hour or two he waited for the
+horses to be fetched in. Chief of these was that he had set himself a
+difficult nut to crack. The Dark Master held a strong castle, with rich
+farms around it, and could summon at need some three hundred men to his
+standard. In short, Brian found that O'Donnell held the very position he
+himself wanted to hold--and was like to keep it.
+
+"Of course," he thought soberly, reflecting on his future course, "if I
+come off clear to-night I can ride with my seventy men to a better
+place. And yet--I don't know! What better place than this? It will be no
+long time before hoofs are in the land, for Royalist and Roundhead and
+Ulsterman will be storming through the hills; Galway will be the last to
+give in to Cromwell, of a certainty. When the hurricane falls, I want a
+roof to shelter me--and whom could I turn out better than this
+O'Donnell?"
+
+Cathbarr's tower was too small to serve him as a fortalice, for it was
+barely large enough to shelter the eleven axmen. Suddenly an idea
+flashed across Brian's mind. Why not a union with this O'Malley woman
+against the Dark Master?
+
+Upon the thought, he rose and went out to the ice-rimmed shore below the
+tower, where he paced up and down, considering the matter. After all, it
+would do no harm, and there were great possibilities in it. He returned
+to the tower at sound of shouts and clattering hoofs, and took Turlough
+aside.
+
+"Turlough Wolf, in your advice you spoke against making pacts with men,
+but you said nothing of women. It is my purpose to send you to this
+O'Malley castle, to propose a pact with Nuala O'Malley against the Dark
+Master. You can tell her that I have a hundred horsemen behind me--for
+I will have them. Will you do this, bearing her word back to me?"
+
+Turlough plucked moodily at his ragged beard.
+
+"I see no harm in such a pact, master," he replied thoughtfully. "As to
+reaching the Bird Daughter, that is another matter. I think that I can
+do it, however. When shall I start, and where shall I find you again?"
+
+Brian reflected a moment.
+
+"Start now, Turlough. Cathbarr and I will have no need of advice this
+night, for we shall either fight our way clear, or else the Dark Master
+will keep to his word. When you return, you will find me here; if I am
+not here, I will leave a man here to give you word of me."
+
+"I am to say that you have a hundred horsemen behind you?" Turlough's
+sharp eyes swept to Brian's half-questioningly.
+
+"Say a hundred and a half," laughed out Brian, "and trust your silver
+tongue for the rest, old Wolf! Never fear, I will have the men. But mind
+this, Turlough. I will make no other pact with her than this, against
+the Dark Master. It may be that when I have driven him forth I may fly
+after other game."
+
+"Men have sought to drive the Dark Master forth," quoth Turlough, "and
+their heads have rotted above his gate. Take heed lest there be an empty
+spike there this night, Yellow Brian!"
+
+But Brian only laughed shortly, and bade the old man affectionate
+farewell, for he knew that Turlough loved him. And when Turlough had
+ridden somberly away, Brian felt a strange sense of desertion, of loss,
+that was no whit inspired by Turlough's gloomy last words. He shook it
+off, however, at gripping hands again with Cathbarr. The axmen had
+gathered most of their loot and buried what was of value, for Brian had
+determined to return here from Bertragh and make use of the tower until
+he had heard from Turlough's errand.
+
+So now, at the head of thirty men, he rode across the narrow causeway
+with Cathbarr of the Ax at his side for friend and guide. The giant did
+not yet quite comprehend exactly what plan had flashed across the brain
+of old Turlough, so as they rode Brian made the thing clearer to him.
+When the simple and straightforward Cathbarr grasped the matter, he
+smote his horse's neck with a bellow of laughter.
+
+"Ho! So you bring me before the Dark Master ax in hand, reduced to
+_your_ service instead of his, my men added to yours--oh, it is a jest,
+brother, a jest! I think that O'Donnell will slay us both on the spot!"
+
+"Not if your axmen are true," retorted Brian.
+
+Cathbarr laughed again. "They fear me and they love me, brother," he
+cried, gazing back at the file of horsemen. "Your own men fear you and
+love you also. Therefore we are men alike."
+
+Brian began to love the man for his utter simplicity, save where there
+was killing in hand. Cathbarr seemed in reality to have the heart of a
+child, impulsive and passionate to an extreme, and there was always a
+certain rugged power in his bearing which bespoke him a true Flaherty of
+the mountains. His men were like himself in this respect, and after they
+had fraternized with Brian's men they began to feel the same unbounded
+surety in Yellow Brian as Cathbarr expressed. Their axes were the usual
+splay-bladed affairs that their grandfathers had used under Red Hugh at
+the Yellow Ford, nor indeed in all his life had Brian ever seen another
+ax like to that of Cathbarr's.
+
+They rode through the afternoon while a light snow fell and a keen east
+wind cut down from the peaks of the Twelve Pins, until the shaggy horses
+slithered along with tails tucked tight beneath them. But there was good
+cheer in the company, for the news had spread of how Yellow Brian would
+have seventy men behind him that night. When the darkness began to fall,
+Bertragh Castle came in sight far below--a gray crag jutting up from
+the plain, scarped and embattled, the sea behind it and the watch-fires
+of men twinkling from its keep. All about lay farms and steads, and the
+lowing of byred cattle rose on the evening air when the snow ceased.
+
+"Be careful not to drink or eat in that hall," warned Cathbarr blackly.
+"Ill comes of it to all who accept hospitality there."
+
+Brian nodded and rode on in silence, for there were parties of horsemen
+and pikemen down below and the blare of horns shrilled up. Evidently the
+riders on the hills had been seen from afar.
+
+As they reached the lower ground Brian was aware of a band of men riding
+to meet them, and halted. Through the dusk came a score of armed
+horsemen, and their leader inquired their business, shouting from a safe
+distance. Brian returned the shout.
+
+"I am Yellow Brian, and I seek O'Donnell Dubh according to a pact made
+with him yesterday. I have reduced Cathbarr of the Ax, and am come in
+peace."
+
+"You are expected," called the other, riding up with his men. "The Dark
+Master is waiting for you."
+
+And Brian rode on to Bertragh, not without some forebodings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+YELLOW BRIAN RIDES SOUTH.
+
+
+Outside the castle gates, where cressets flared over the snow, an old
+seneschal appeared and ordered Brian to leave his men outside. To this
+the men made some objection, but Brian laughed softly.
+
+"Bide where you are," he said. "You shall not be slain unless I am slain
+inside."
+
+The O'Donnells watched him and Cathbarr with no little wonder, and the
+two men made a fine pair as they marched across the creaking drawbridge.
+Though Cathbarr topped Brian by half a head, there was no doubt as to
+which was the nobler man; the giant gazed around him with amazed eyes,
+but Brian held his head high and strode in with a smile flickering on
+his lips. But his blue eyes were very sharp that night.
+
+He saw the crowded men in the courtyard, many of them armed with
+muskets, their matches burning, and noted also that the Dark Master
+possessed some half-dozen bastards--immense, nine-foot pieces mounted on
+huge carriages, with their eight-pound balls piled beside them. In those
+days it was no small thing to own such cannon in the west of Ireland,
+and Brian eyed them approvingly as he passed through the courtyard. He
+was beginning to count them as his own.
+
+Cathbarr had told him that the Dark Master had brought many O'Donnells
+down from the north to settle the farms and lands beyond the castle, but
+Brian saw that these were not all. The garrison was a riffraff of all
+the armies that had wasted Ireland, and they were fighting men fit for
+their work.
+
+Brian entered the hall, with Cathbarr muttering oaths a pace behind him.
+The hall was high, lit with cressets, and beside a huge fireplace sat
+the Dark Master in a carved chair of black wood, an old harper sitting
+opposite. Behind Brian and Cathbarr flocked in men until the hall was
+well filled.
+
+Brian found the penetrating eyes fixed on him as he advanced, but in
+them was no surprise or fear, and O'Donnell calmly stroked his drooping
+mustache as he watched. Cathbarr still followed behind, bearing that
+great ax of his, and Brian stopped a few paces from the hearth as the
+Dark Master spoke.
+
+"Welcome to Bertragh, Yellow Brian. I had not looked for you so soon."
+
+"No." Brian's voice rang out richly in the stillness. "But I am here,
+O'Donnell Dubh, to claim my two-score men. I have reduced Cathbarr of
+the Ax."
+
+For the first time the hunched O'Donnell seemed to notice Cathbarr. His
+black eyes flickered curiously to the giant, then he smiled sourly.
+
+"If he is reduced, why does he not kneel, Brian of the hard eyes?"
+
+"Kneel," ordered Brian.
+
+Cathbarr flushed and his beard began to stand out, but he obeyed. There
+was no great love in his face as he knelt, holding to his ax, and gazed
+at O'Donnell.
+
+"Throw your ax into the fire," said the Dark Master, his voice smooth as
+silk.
+
+"Do not," exclaimed Brian, and his eyes grew bitterly cold as they
+clinched with those of the Dark Master. Over the latter's pallid face
+crept a slow red fire, and his head drew back between his shoulders. Men
+held their breaths.
+
+"O'Donnell," went on Brian slowly, "I have fulfilled my pact. I have
+reduced Cathbarr of the Ax--but he serves me and not you. Since I have
+conquered him as you bade, I call on you to carry out the pact and lend
+me two-score men for three months, scat-free."
+
+If Brian had wanted any testimony as to O'Donnell's iron hand, he had
+it. His words, with all they implied, would have drawn a howl of rage
+from the retainers of any other chief in the land, but the men behind
+and around him only grew more silent.
+
+As for the Dark Master, the red hue died slowly from his face, though
+his head remained drawn in, and still his eyes held those of Brian. When
+he spoke, it was as if he were musing aloud.
+
+"So, Brian of the hard eyes, you have some courage, eh? _Duar na
+Criosd!_ Little did I ever think that a man would come to me and borrow
+my own men that he might make war upon me! Is this your thought, Yellow
+Brian?"
+
+"You have sharp ears, Dark Master," said Brian dryly, and a chuckle
+passed through the crowd. "In time I might take this castle, it is true.
+Just now I have other things in mind, however, and I shall not fall upon
+you until there has passed gage of battle between us."
+
+"Thanks for so much," smiled the other slowly, though the red crept up
+to his cheek-bones faintly. Brian seemed perfectly at his ease, as
+indeed he was. "And what if I fell upon you first?"
+
+"I am liker to offer battle than accept it, O'Donnell."
+
+"Now, that is a good answer," said the Dark Master, while a whisper
+floated around the hall. "I would be glad to have you at my back, Yellow
+Brian, for men who ride behind me are like to win much."
+
+Brian laughed a little.
+
+"Some day I may be at your back, O'Donnell Dubh, and in that day I may
+win all that you have, from life to goods."
+
+To his blank amazement, O'Donnell only threw out his head and chuckled;
+but it was an evil chuckle, and there was venom gleaming in his black
+eyes.
+
+"I think that it were best for me to slay you here, Brian of the hard
+eyes, to slay you and this Cathbarr of the Ax. It seems to my mind that
+it is anything but good to turn you loose upon the land, for I hear a
+storm of hoofs in the air, and dead men are riding on the wind, and
+there is a whisper--"
+
+He paused, drew his cloak about him, and gazed down at his foot. That
+pause was more dreadful than speech, for the crowded men moved not a
+finger, so that Brian all but thought that he and the Dark Master were
+alone. Then his face blanched a trifle. For, whether it were some
+uncanny play of mind or very truth, it seemed to him that from the wide
+fireplace there did indeed come a faint ring of hoofs and clash of
+steel; the long cressets over them suddenly flickered smokingly, though
+no draft crossed their faces.
+
+Then indeed Brian knew that his fate hung upon the Dark Master's
+thoughts, and he drew himself up a little straighter, and his blue eyes
+glinted colder than any ice as his hand closed upon his sword-hilt. But
+at the slight motion O'Donnell looked up keenly.
+
+"You have ridden hard, Brian. Pause and sup with me--"
+
+"I did not come to eat or drink," said Brian sternly. "Also, I am weary
+of this talking. Now fulfil your pact, Dark Master, or be shamed before
+all your men."
+
+"Are you for Royalist or Parliament?" asked O'Donnell, as if he had not
+heard.
+
+"I am for Brian Buidh."
+
+"Take two-score men and begone," and the other rose. To his surprise,
+Brian found that, despite the hunched back, O'Donnell was as tall as
+himself. The black eyes flamed out at him for an instant. "I will keep
+my honor, though I regret it later, Yellow Brian. Go, with your men.
+When next we meet your head shall grin over my gates."
+
+"Thanks for so much," retorted Brian mockingly, though he drew a swift
+breath of relief. "My head serves me too well to render it easily. _Slan
+leat_, O'Donnell!"
+
+"_Slan leat_," repeated the Dark Master and turned his back, gazing down
+at the fire.
+
+Brian turned and strode down the hall, Cathbarr at his heels. When they
+reached the courtyard he found men saddling in haste, and an officer
+saluted him gravely.
+
+"Two-score men are at your orders, Yellow Brian."
+
+"Let them follow me," said Brian curtly. "And who quarrels with my men,
+dies."
+
+To that there was no dispute. The drawbridge clanked down once more,
+Brian and Cathbarr mounted and rode out to where the thirty waited
+grimly, and after them came the forty men from the garrison. Cathbarr,
+who trusted the Dark Master little, set his ten axmen in the van,
+followed with Brian, and the sixty followed them into the night.
+
+"I think we came out of that well, brother," said the giant softly.
+"Where do we ride?"
+
+"To your tower, for the night. After that, in search of more men."
+
+"Toward Galway or Slyne Head?"
+
+"Wherever there are men."
+
+After that they rode on in silence, while the men behind fraternized
+freely. All were of the same stamp, and indeed the two-score already
+were as willing to serve Brian as O'Donnell, since they had witnessed
+that scene in the castle hall.
+
+Brian wondered dully what the outcome of all this was to be. The strain
+of facing O'Donnell and bearding him in his own den had been no light
+one, but he knew that Cathbarr had spoken truth in saying that they were
+well out of it. The Dark Master, he thought, was a man well worth
+fighting. To take his castle was not like turning out a chieftain of
+some ancient family, with his clan about him for miles around; O'Donnell
+had seized upon the place himself, his men were reavers and outlaws, and
+the castle was a strong one.
+
+Then there was the O'Malley alliance. Brian had it in mind to beset the
+Dark Master by sea and land at once, for all the O'Malley clan had been
+seamen and rovers from time immemorial, while he himself preferred men
+and horses at his back. In calmer mood now, he reflected that Turlough
+might not return for a week, and there was food and fodder for seventy
+men and horses to be obtained.
+
+If he rode toward Galway he would have to plunder the patriots, which
+went against the grain. But in lower Galway and Clare things were
+different. That winter no army held to winter quarters save that of
+Cromwell, and between Limerick and Galway there was a wild rout of men
+out of half a dozen armies, the plague had swept off all but the
+seafaring folk, and men held only what their swords could guard.
+
+So Brian determined that he would ride toward the south.
+
+He realized well that his men must be drawn together by fighting, that
+they must learn a perfect confidence in him, and that they must earn
+their sustenance for the time being. Cathbarr already knew of old
+Turlough's mission, and of course approved, since in his eyes Brian
+could do no wrong. What was more, reflected Brian, he could not make
+this alliance empty-handed. He must get men and spare horses, stores and
+powder, and some muskets or pistols if possible, for few of his men
+carried more than sword or perhaps a sorry pistolet or ancient
+bombardule out of date a generation since.
+
+"A storm of men!" he muttered as he gazed at the stars. "A storm of men!
+Did that Black Woman speak truly, I wonder? And what dark magic was that
+which passed to-night?"
+
+But no answer came to his questions save that the cold stars chilled him
+to the bone. Since they had no better place to seek, they returned to
+Cathbarr's tower, but it was long past midnight when they reached it,
+and the men were nodding in their saddles. As barely a dozen could crowd
+into the place, the rest were forced to camp outside in the snow, but
+roaring fires and some little food put them in good humor and it was no
+hardship to any of them.
+
+"It has been a strange two days for us twain," said Brian as he and
+Cathbarr divided a scorched bannock one of the Scots had hastily turned
+out over the coals.
+
+"Yes," smiled the giant into his beard, his deep-throated bull's voice
+rumbling through their tiny room. "But it is in my mind that there are
+stranger days ahead of us, Brian Buidh. A witch-woman once told me that
+I would meet my death from water and fire together, brother, in a cause
+not mine own."
+
+"You are not bound to my service," replied Brian.
+
+"But I am bound to you, for I like you," answered Cathbarr, and his hand
+crushed down on Brian's. That night they slept together beneath the same
+blanket, and though after that they spoke few words of love or
+friendship, the two men drew ever closer each to the other in all
+things.
+
+It had indeed been a strange two days for him, thought Brian as he
+roused up the camp late the next morning and set out sentries in the
+hills. He had met the Dark Master on the first, and on the second he had
+met Cathbarr, then had forced the Dark Master into lending him men
+against his will. Now, after a scant three days beyond Lough Corrib, he
+had twined his fate with that of other men, had set his heart upon
+winning Bertragh Castle, and had won both a stout friend and a stout
+enemy.
+
+For he counted O'Donnell as a foe, in which he was not far wrong.
+
+However, there was no time to be wasted, for fodder was exceeding
+scanty, and Brian himself had no heart for idleness. As he had resolved
+on his course during that return ride the night before, he gathered his
+men together and briefly ordered them to be ready to ride at noon, and
+to Cathbarr alone he outlined his plan. Then he picked two of the axmen
+who knew the country roundabout, and ten from among those O'Donnell had
+loaned him, and took them aside and told them of Turlough Wolf, who
+would come before long.
+
+"You will bide here," he concluded, "and bid him wait for me. I shall
+return this side of ten days. And mind you, if there is feud or
+treachery among you so that one man's blood is let, then I will exact a
+tenfold vengeance from both men."
+
+The twelve, who were sturdy ruffians and well able to hold the place
+against any sudden attack by the Dark Master, looked into the ice-blue
+eyes for an instant, and straightway vowed that there would be neither
+treachery nor quarreling among them. And Brian guessed shrewdly that he
+had inspired some little fear in their hearts.
+
+So that at high noon they rode away to the east, threescore strong, with
+Brian and Cathbarr and the remaining eight axmen in the van. Brian did
+not spare either man or horse that day, for there was little food left
+them; when midnight came they had slipped past Galway and were ready to
+ride south, though they all went to rest supperless.
+
+With the morning Brian found that two of the men had slipped off and
+were busy plundering a hill-farm a mile away, where an old woman lived
+alone. He promptly had them brought before him, and bade them take up
+their weapons.
+
+"I am no executioner," he said as he bared his huge sword. "I am a
+teacher of lessons, and my lessons must be learned."
+
+When they rode away from that place, leaving the two men buried under
+cairns, Brian was well assured that there would be no more ravaging by
+his men, though they died of hunger.
+
+However, it proved that there was no great chance of this, for Brian
+drove such a storm past Slieve Aughty as had not been heard of in
+generations. Of all that chanced in those seven days ere he set his face
+to the north again, not much has survived, for there were greater storms
+to come afterward, and more talked-of fighting. But certain things were
+done which had a sequel.
+
+By the fifth day Brian had swept past Gort toward Lough Graney, and
+turned west by Crusheen, which he passed through with a hundred horsemen
+at his heels. Two days before he had struck upon fifty Ulstermen who
+were working north from Munster, and what were left of them after the
+meeting took service with him. From them he learned that O'Neill was
+dying or dead, and that the Royalists and Confederacy men were paralyzed
+through the south.
+
+They had left Crusheen ten miles behind them on the fifth day, when
+Cathbarr laid his hand on Brian's knee and pointed to the left, where a
+hill rose against the sky.
+
+"Look there, _boucal_--when the birds fly from the _ceanabhan_, seek for
+snakes!"
+
+Brian drew rein. Gazing at the long slopes of moor-grass that rose
+across the hill, he saw a sudden flight of blackbirds from over the
+crest; they flew toward him, then swerved swiftly and darted to the
+right. Brian called up two of his men who knew the country, and asked
+them what lay over the hill.
+
+"The Ennis road to Mal Bay," they replied, and he sent them ahead to
+scout.
+
+Before he reached the hill-crest they were back with word that an
+"army" was on the road, and Brian pushed forward with Cathbarr to see
+for himself. Slipping from their horses, they gained the hilltop and
+looked over on the winding road beyond. Neither of them spoke, but
+Brian's eyes glinted suddenly, for he beheld a train of four wagons
+convoyed by some two hundred troopers. He touched Cathbarr and they
+returned.
+
+"A party of Ormond's Scottish troopers," he said quietly when they had
+rejoined the men. "Cathbarr, take thirty men and work around them. When
+you strike, I will lead over the hill and flank them."
+
+The giant nodded, picked his men, and rode away. Brian led his seventy
+closer to the rise of ground, and as they waited they could hear the
+creaking of wagons and the snap of whips. It was a Royalist convoy, and
+since there was no love between the Scots and the Irish of any party,
+Brian's men were hungry for the fight.
+
+They got their fill that day.
+
+A rippling shout, a scattering of shots, and Brian spurred forward. The
+road wound a hundred yards below, and Cathbarr had already fallen on the
+vanguard. The Scots were riding forward to whelm him when Brian's men
+drove down with a wild yell and smote the length of their flank.
+
+Brian hewed his way to the side of Cathbarr, and then the sword and ax
+flashed side by side. The captain in command of the troopers pistoled
+Cathbarr's horse, but the huge ax met his steel cap and Cathbarr was
+mounted again. Meanwhile, Brian was engaged with a cornet who had great
+skill at fencing, and his huge Spanish blade touched the young officer
+lightly until the Scot pulled forth a pistol, and at that Brian smote
+with the edge.
+
+The muskets and pistols of the troopers worked sad havoc among Brian's
+men at first, but there was no chance to reload, and when the officers
+had gone down the Scots lost heart. They would have trusted to no Gaelic
+oaths, for men got no quarter in the west, but when Brian shouted at
+them in English they listened to him right willingly. A score broke away
+and galloped breakneck for the south again, and perhaps fifty had gone
+down; the rest gathered about the wagons stared at Brian and Cathbarr in
+superstitious awe as the two lowered bloody ax and sword and offered
+terms.
+
+"I offer service to you," said Brian. "I am Brian Buidh, and if you will
+ride with me you shall find war. Those who wish may return to Ennis."
+
+Now, at the most Brian had some seventy-five men left, and those
+clustered at the wagons were over a hundred and a score, with muskets.
+But their officers were down, they had received no pay for a year and
+more, and they were for the most part Macdonalds of the Isles, who loved
+freebooting better than army work. So out of them all only ten men chose
+to ride to Ennis again, and Cathbarr shook his head as they departed.
+
+"It seems to me that ill shall come of this," he said, and wiped his ax
+clean.
+
+Brian laughed shortly and dismounted. He found that the wagons contained
+powder, stores, and muskets; so after placing the wounded in them, he
+rode north to Corrofin that day with close to two hundred men at his
+back. Staying that night at Corrofin, he hanged ten of the Scots for
+plundering, rested his horses for two days, and set his face homeward
+with the surety that his men knew him for master.
+
+The storm of men was gathering fast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+BRIAN TAKES CAPTIVES.
+
+
+"_Failte abhaile!_ Welcome, Yellow Brian!"
+
+"So you won back before me, eh?" Brian swung down from his horse and
+gripped hands with old Turlough Wolf. "Get the men camped, Cathbarr,
+then join us."
+
+Turlough's cunning eyes rested on the wagons and weary horsemen, and he
+nodded approvingly as Brian told him of what had chanced.
+
+"Said I not that you were a master of men?" he chuckled quietly, as he
+turned to follow into Cathbarr's tower. "But it is easier to master men
+than women, Brian. I bear you a bitter rede from the Bird Daughter,
+master."
+
+"Hard words fare ill on empty stomachs," quoth Brian. "Keep it till I
+have eaten."
+
+When Cathbarr had joined them and they had dined well on Royalist stores
+and wine, Turlough made report on his mission. It seemed that he had met
+with a party of the O'Malleys at the head of Kilkieran Bay at the close
+of his first day's ride, and after hearing his errand they had taken him
+in their ship out to Gorumna Isle, where stood the hold of Nuala, the
+Bird Daughter. And somewhat to his own amazement, Turlough had found
+that by this same name she was known along the whole coast.
+
+He reported that it was a strong place, for the castle had been built by
+her father; that she had two large ships and five small ones, and that
+both ships and castle were defended by all manner of "shot"--meaning
+cannon. She had just returned from Kinsale, where she had been aiding
+Blake hold Prince Rupert's fleet in the bay. Now Rupert had slipped
+away, and after plundering a French ship with wines, she had come home
+again.
+
+"She seems a woman of heart," smiled Brian. "What of her looks?"
+
+"I did not see her." Turlough shook his head. "She ordered my message
+written out, so she has some clerkly learning. She took an hour to
+ponder it, master, then set me ashore with this message.
+
+"'Tell Yellow Brian,' she ordered, 'that I claim tribute from Golam Head
+to Slyne. I will make no pact with him until he pay me tribute; and if I
+find him on my land I will set him in chains above my water-gate.'"
+
+Brian felt no little dismay at this, for he had counted strongly on
+alliance with this Bird Daughter.
+
+However, Turlough proceeded to set forth the reasons for such a message,
+as he had conceived them within his shrewd mind. First, it seemed that
+the pestilence had visited Gorumna in the absence of its mistress, and
+that the Dark Master had caught a score of the O'Malleys who had been
+wrecked in Bertraghboy Bay, promptly hanging them all. Between the
+plague and the hanging Nuala had a bare fourscore men left within the
+castle, and she counted Brian's offer as a ruse on the part of
+O'Donnell, for she was strongly afraid of treachery.
+
+"There is more pride than power in that message," commented Cathbarr
+easily. "The Dark Master has stripped away all her lands along the
+coast, and save for Kilkieran Bay she has little left. Let us fall on
+her, brother, and take what _is_ left."
+
+Brian laughed at this naive counsel, looking at Turlough. But the old
+Wolf said nothing, brooding over the fire, and Brian reflected within
+himself.
+
+He had come into a merciless feud, that he knew well. If he was to enter
+upon it he must banish all pity from his heart, which was no easy thing
+for him; but Turlough related things he had heard which speedily changed
+his mind. There were tales of O'Donnell's ridings through the land, of
+men slaughtered and women carried off to people his castle; of
+treachery, and worse.
+
+It was also whispered that the Dark Master had made alliance with
+certain pirates from the north coast.
+
+However, Brian knew that he must reach some decision regarding his own
+men, and that speedily. The three talked long that night, setting aside
+the question of the O'Malley alliance for the time being. Brian had some
+two hundred men to house and horses to feed; he had good store of
+provision and powder, but Cathbarr's little tower was utterly useless to
+house the tenth of them all, while the stores would have to be
+sheltered. Then O'Donnell might fling his men on them at any moment,
+which would mean disaster in their present position.
+
+Cathbarr suggested an attack on Bertragh castle, but Turlough dissented.
+
+"When we strike, we must strike to win," he said shrewdly. "The Dark
+Master has more men than we, and the sea is at his back, and they say he
+is a warlock to boot."
+
+The giant stared and crossed himself at talk of warlocks, but Brian
+laughed out.
+
+"I have a plan," he said, fingering his sword. "O'Donnell watches all
+the hill-paths like a hawk, even now in winter. Those wagons are of no
+great use to us, and we can store the goods here in the tower for the
+present. Get it done to-night, Cathbarr, and get the accouterments from
+two of those largest Scots for yourself and me."
+
+Turlough Wolf chuckled suddenly, and Brian knew that the old man had
+pierced to something of his plan. But not all.
+
+"Turlough," he went on as the scheme came to him more clearly, "at dawn
+ride out with a hundred men to that hill-road where first we met the
+Dark Master. Hide the men in the hills, and be ready to ride hard when
+the time comes. Cathbarr, before the dawn breaks have the wagons start
+out with twenty of the Scots troopers as escort. Bid as many more as can
+lie down in the wagons and cover up close with their muskets. Send a man
+or two with them to guide to that hill-road of which I spoke. We will
+ride after and catch them up shortly after sunrise."
+
+"Good!" roared out the giant, whose brains lay all in his ax. "And the
+Dark Master will swoop down to the feast, eh?"
+
+"He will not," returned Brian dryly. "He will send two or threescore men
+upon us, and it is my purpose to take as many of these prisoner as may
+be."
+
+Cathbarr stared, and Turlough's gray eyes squinted up at Brian.
+
+"How is this, master?" he asked inquiringly. "It is too good a trap to
+waste on prisoners--"
+
+"My plan is my plan," said Brian briefly. "I am not making war on
+O'Donnell, but I intend to pay tribute to the Bird Daughter, and that
+right soon. While we are gone have a score of men remain here and build
+huts on the cliffs, Cathbarr."
+
+Turlough fell to staring into the fire, divining the plan at length, and
+Cathbarr went out to fulfil his orders. Brian knew well that there was
+danger in the scheme, but he determined to deal with one thing at a
+time, and thoroughly. Just at present he was intent on forming an
+alliance with Nuala O'Malley, for ships and cannon were needful before
+he could nip the Dark Master in his hold. It was going to cost the lives
+of men, and he made up his mind not to pause for that. If he was to live
+and make head it must be by the strong hand alone--the Red Hand of
+Tyr-owen; and he looked down at the ring of Owen Ruadh and took it for a
+symbol, as his ancestors had taken it.
+
+Before they went to rest Turlough pointed out that if the hills were
+watched he and his hundred would be noted, so Brian bade him hit back
+toward Lough Corrib and then to come straight down upon the main road.
+It might be that he could overcome the Dark Master's men of himself, and
+if not, he would hold them until Turlough came up.
+
+With this plan arranged, then, the four wagons set forth under the cold
+stars, with thirty Scots lying hidden and twenty riding before and
+behind. With the first gleam of dawn Turlough and his hundred cantered
+off to the northeast, and an hour later Brian and Cathbarr put on the
+buff coats and steel jacks of the troopers, with the wide morions; took
+a pair of loaded pistols, and galloped after the slow-moving wagons.
+Brian wore his Spanish blade, but Cathbarr had sent his ax ahead with
+the troopers.
+
+They caught up with the wagons when the latter were entering upon the
+road proper out of the hill-track they had followed. The first snows had
+vanished for the most part, leaving bleak, gaunt hills and rugged crags
+that twisted with soft fog. The sun struck the fog away, however, and as
+Brian rode on he gazed up at the purple mountains on his right, and down
+at the purple bog to his left, and caught the gleam of the Bertraghboy
+water out beyond. He laughed as he drank in the keen air of morning.
+
+"Best get your edge ready, Cathbarr of the Ax!"
+
+Cathbarr grunted, and slung the heavy hammer-ax at his saddlebow. One of
+the guides, who were from the Dark Master's twoscore men, pointed to a
+twisted peak on their right, whence an almost invisible spiral of gray
+smoke wound up.
+
+"The signal, Yellow Brian," he grinned, cheerfully giving away his
+secrets. In fact, all those twoscore men rather hoped that their old
+master would be crushed by Brian, for so long as there was booty in
+sight they cared not whom they served.
+
+Half an hour later Brian saw ahead of him that same bend of road where
+first he and Turlough had met O'Donnell Dubh. But there was no sign of
+Turlough, and he cantered ahead to see if the O'Donnell men were below.
+As he did so a bullet sang past his ear, and he whirled to see half a
+dozen of his men go down beneath a storm of lead from the hillsides; at
+the same instant some three-score men came scrambling down from among
+the rocks--those same rocks where he had first laid ambush for the Dark
+Master.
+
+And riders were coming up on the road below!
+
+He was caught very neatly, and caught by more men than he had looked
+for. The remainder of the twenty gathered behind him and Cathbarr, and
+the thirty rose among the wagons and for a moment stopped the assault
+with their musketry; but before the smoke had cleared away two-score
+horsemen came thundering up the road from behind the curve, and struck.
+
+"Albanach! Albanach!"
+
+The wild yells shrilled up, and the Scots troopers knew that they were
+fighting without quarter in sight, for the "Albanach," as they were
+termed in Gaelic, gave and got little mercy in Ireland. The saddles of
+the fallen were filled from the men in the wagons, and leaving the
+musketeers to hold off the unmounted men, Brian plunged into the swirl
+of fighting horsemen and joined Cathbarr.
+
+The odds were heavy, but the big claymores of the Scots were heavier
+still. Side by side, Brian and Cathbarr plunged through the ranks, sword
+biting and ax smiting, until they stood almost alone among the
+O'Donnells, for their men had been borne back. Then the giant bellowed
+and his ax crushed down a man stabbing at Brian's horse; Brian pistoled
+one who struck at Cathbarr's back, and pressing their horses head to
+tail they faced the circle of men, while behind them roared the battle.
+
+For a moment the O'Donnells held off, recognizing the pair, then one of
+them spurred forward with a howl of delight.
+
+"_Dhar mo lamh_, Yellow Brian--your head to our gates!"
+
+Brian thrust unexpectedly, and the man went over his horse's tail as the
+ring closed in. So far Cathbarr had forgotten his pistols, but now he
+used them, and took a bullet-crease across his neck in return; then the
+ax and sword heaved up together, and the ring surged back. A skean went
+home in Cathbarr's horse, however, and the giant plunged down, but with
+that Brian spurred and went at the O'Donnells with the point of his
+blade. This sort of fighting was new to them, and when Brian had spitted
+three of them he heard Cathbarr's ax crunch down once more.
+
+They were still cut off from the wagons, but there came a wild drumming
+of hoofs, and wilder yells from the men on the hillside. Like a
+thunder-burst, Turlough and his hundred broke on the battle. The
+O'Donnells were swallowed up, stamped flat; the unmounted men fled among
+the rocks, Turlough's men after them, and a dozen horsemen went
+streaming down the road.
+
+It was hard to make the maddened Scots take prisoners, but Brian did it,
+and when Turlough's men came back he found that they had in all thirty
+captives. Some forty of the attackers had fallen and the rest had fled.
+
+Since all his captives expected no less than a quick death, Brian
+ordered ten of them bound on spare horses, of which there were plenty.
+He himself had lost twenty-three of his Scots, and the remaining score
+of captives cheerfully took service under him. Then, picking out one of
+them, he gave the man a horse and told him to ride home.
+
+"Tell your master, O'Donnell Dubh," he said, "that his men made this
+attack on me, and therefore there is war between us."
+
+The man grinned and departed at a gallop, and word passed through the
+men that the Dark Master had found his match at last. As to this,
+however, they were fated to change their opinion later.
+
+"Now," said Brian to old Turlough, as between them they bound up a slash
+in Cathbarr's thigh, "do you put the wounded in the wagons and begone
+home again. Set out sentries against an attack from O'Donnell, and
+scatter a score of men out along the roads to watch for other parties.
+You might pick up another score of recruits, Turlough Wolf."
+
+Turlough shook his head and tugged at his beard.
+
+"Best take me with you, master, instead of this overgrown ox. You may
+need brains in dealing with the Bird Daughter, and he has no more brains
+than strew his ax-edge. Also he is wounded."
+
+Brian pondered this, while Cathbarr furtively shook a fist at Turlough.
+There was wisdom in the advice, but on the other hand Brian did not like
+to leave his precious two hundred men in care of Cathbarr. If the Dark
+Master attacked suddenly, as he was like to do, brains would be more
+needed than brawn.
+
+On the other hand, he counted on Cathbarr's open face removing the
+evident suspicion that the smooth-tongued Turlough had raised in Gorumna
+Isle. It had been a mistake, he saw plainly, to send such an emissary on
+his mission. Picturing this woman who led her own ships to war, he
+limned her in his mind as a large-boned, flat-breasted, wide-hipped
+creature--and with good reason. He had seen women fighting at Drogheda
+and he had seen them in other places as he rode to the rest, for in
+those days many a woman took her slain lord's _skean fada_ and drew
+blood for Ireland before she was cut down. And when women rode to battle
+there was no mercy asked or given, from Royalist or Confederate or
+Parliament man.
+
+Nuala O'Malley was a woman of blood, said Brian to himself, and he would
+give her blood for her help.
+
+So he curtly refused Turlough's advice, saw that the ten bridles of his
+bound and mounted captives were lined together, and beckoned to
+Cathbarr. Before they rode off, however, they doffed their Scot
+accouterments and took back their own garments, after which Cathbarr led
+the way over the hills to Kilkieran Bay, and Turlough took command of
+the force in sullen ill-humor.
+
+The morning was still young, for the attack had taken place a short two
+hours after sunrise and had soon been quelled. Beyond a slashed thigh
+and a red-creased neck, Cathbarr of the Ax was unhurt, and Brian had
+received no scratch. If the ten captives wondered why they were bound
+and their comrades freed, they said nothing of it.
+
+Even after seeing what he had of the merciless war in Ireland, Brian had
+much ado in making up his mind to hold to the plan he had formed on the
+previous evening. These ten ruffians were scoundrels enough, to judge by
+looks, and yet they were men; and he had been raised in no such school
+of war as this, where surrender meant slaughter without pity. However,
+he determined to do what he could for them, and he would have held to
+this determination had it not been for what chanced when they rode down
+to the little fishing village where Turlough had met the O'Malley men.
+
+They arrived just as the evening was darkling, after a hard day's ride.
+
+As they came within sight of the place, which lay at the head of
+Kilkieran water, Brian made out that a small galley was pulled up on
+shore, and there were a number of men about the huts. Upon the approach
+of the two chiefs with their file of captives there was an instant
+scurry of figures; women ran to the huts, and a dozen or more roughly
+clad men appeared with pikes and muskets. Brian held up his hand in sign
+of peace and rode slowly onward, Cathbarr at his side, to within a dozen
+paces of the huts.
+
+"Who are you?" cried out one of the musketeers. "Be off!"
+
+"Bark less, dog," said Brian, scorn in his eye. "We seek Nuala O'Malley.
+Take us out to Gorumna Isle in your boat."
+
+"What seek ye with the Bird Daughter?" queried the other suspiciously.
+
+"Her business, not yours."
+
+The seamen gazed at them doubtfully, then a number of other men came
+from the huts, well-armed. One of these set up a cry, pointing at the
+captives, and a burst of yells answered him from the rest. Next instant
+Brian and Cathbarr had their weapons out and were facing an excited
+crowd of men.
+
+"Be silent, dogs!" bellowed Cathbarr, and his voice quelled the uproar.
+"What means this attack? Would you have the Bird Daughter strip you with
+whips, fools?"
+
+The spokesman stood out, his dark face quivering with fury as he
+pointed.
+
+"That is as it may be, axman, but first those bound men shall die. One
+is the man who slew my brother, nailing him to his own door till he
+died; another is he who burned Lame Art's wife and child last
+Whit-Sunday--"
+
+"There is he who lopped my husband's hands and nose! Slay him!" shrieked
+out a hag as she burst forward. Brian held out his sword and she drew
+back, but instantly others had taken up the cry.
+
+"And the devil who hung Blind Ulick!"
+
+"There is he who--"
+
+In that brief moment Brian heard things too horrible for speech. The ten
+bound men had grouped together, some pale as death, others laughing
+defiantly. But as the crowd surged forward Brian held up his sword, and
+they paused to listen; he knew now that there was no more pity in his
+heart for these black ruffians of O'Donnell's.
+
+"Let the Bird Daughter render judgment upon them," he shouted. "Friends,
+take us to the Bird Daughter and let her do as she will, for I bear
+these men to her alone."
+
+At that the crowd fell silent, but their leader gave a rapid order, and
+half a dozen men ran down to the strand. Another order, and the maddened
+villagers gave back as the seamen closed about Brian and Cathbarr and
+their captives.
+
+"Come," said the leader roughly. "You shall go to Gorumna Isle with us,
+strange men, but I do not think that you shall ever come back again."
+
+"Nor do I," grinned Cathbarr in the ear of Brian, as they left their
+horses to the fishermen, unbound the prisoners from their steeds, and
+made their way down to the galley. Brian looked at his friend, and they
+both smiled grimly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE BIRD DAUGHTER.
+
+
+"Now, _there_ is a castle worth the taking, Yellow Brian!" said
+Cathbarr.
+
+Brian nodded, his eyes shining in the starlight. After a pull of a long
+seven miles down the bay, the galley had rounded into the northern end
+of Gorumna Isle, guided by a high beacon set among the stars. As they
+drew nearer Brian made out that this beacon was set on the tower of a
+high pile of masonry black against the sky, lit here and there by
+cressets, and it was plain that the Bird Daughter kept good watch since
+they had more than once been hailed in passing the islands.
+
+Once turned into the harbor, Brian found suddenly that they were among
+ships, many of them small galleys, but two of good size which bore
+riding-lights. Again they responded to hails, and without warning a few
+torches blazed out ahead of them. Then it was seen that the castle was
+built with its lower part close on the water, and its upper part rising
+on the crag. In reality, as he found later, it was two castles in one,
+as of necessity it had to be. Were the opposite isles held by an enemy,
+and hostile ships in the little harbor, the higher towers running up the
+crag could dominate all, and the lower castle could be abandoned without
+danger.
+
+Even in the starlight Brian's trained soldier's eye made out something
+of this. Then the leader of the seamen came and stood beside them, for
+during the two-hours' trip he had talked somewhat with Cathbarr and had
+come to look with more respect on Brian himself. That was only natural,
+for seamen ever like those men who talk least.
+
+"Strangers," he said with rough courtesy, "a word in your ear. If you
+would gain speech with the Lady Nuala, deal not with her as with me.
+Send in your names and your business, and you may perchance get to see
+her in the morning, or a week hence, as she may choose."
+
+"Thanks," answered Brian. "But my will is not like to hang upon hers."
+
+The seaman shrugged his shoulders, the oars were put in, and they
+floated up to where the torches flared. Here there was a landing-place
+of hewn stone, with a gate lying open beyond it, and armed men waiting.
+One of these, from his bunch of huge keys and air of authority, Brian
+knew for the seneschal.
+
+"_M'anam go'n Dhia!_" he growled, peering down into the boat as it
+ground on the stone, "what fish have you there?"
+
+"Two salmon and ten herring, Muiertach," laughed one of the men. Brian
+and his friend stepped out while the ten prisoners were prodded after
+them, and Brian found the seneschal looking him over with some wonder,
+hands on hips.
+
+"Well! A giant with a devil's ax, and Cuculain, the Royal Hound, come to
+life again! Who are you, yellow man, and who is this axman, and who are
+these ten bound men?"
+
+Brian was minded to answer curtly enough, but he looked at the seneschal
+and remembered the seaman's kindly warning. Under his eye the laugh
+withered suddenly on the seneschal's lips.
+
+"These ten men belong to me, Muiertach. Go, tell the Bird Daughter that
+Brian Buidh and Cathbarr of the Ax have come to her, bringing tribute as
+she demanded."
+
+Now it was that Cathbarr, who had asked no questions all that day,
+perceived for the first time the reason of their fighting and hard
+riding, and what the manner of that tribute was. He broke into a great
+bellow of laughter so that the rough-clad seamen stared at him in
+wonder, but at a word from Brian he quieted instantly.
+
+"In the morning the message shall be delivered, Brian Buidh," returned
+burly Muiertach with a glimmer of respect in his voice. "And now render
+up your weapons, so that we may treat you as guests--"
+
+"So you sea-rovers are afraid of two men, lest they capture your hold?"
+
+Brian's biting words brought a deep flush to Muiertach's face.
+
+"No weapons do we render," he went on, his voice cold as his eyes. "We
+come as guests, seneschal, and our business is not with you. Take these
+ten men to your dungeons, take us to guest chambers and give us to eat,
+and see that we have speech with the Bird Daughter before to-morrow's
+sun is high."
+
+At this Muiertach growled something into his beard, but turned with a
+gesture of assent. His men closed around the captives, while Brian and
+Cathbarr followed him into the castle, the giant still chuckling to
+himself with great rumbles of laughter.
+
+"Let strict watch be kept over these two," said Muiertach in English to
+one of the torchmen who accompanied them, thinking he would not be
+understood.
+
+"You may yet get a touch of the whip for that order," said Brian in the
+same tongue.
+
+Stricken with amazement, Muiertach turned and stared at him, jaw
+dropping, while Cathbarr glanced from one to the other in perplexity.
+Brian smiled.
+
+"Lead on, and talk less."
+
+With tenfold respect, the seneschal obeyed. Now Brian saw that this
+castle was indeed a stronghold, and might easily be defended by fewer
+men than it had. The inner walls of the lower castle were well lined
+with falcons and falconets, while on the towers above peered out heavier
+cannon, which he took for culverins from their length of nose. Crossing
+the courtyard, they entered the building itself, and Muiertach led them
+through upward-winding corridors, studded with cressets and with here
+and there a recessed _prie-dieu_ in the wall.
+
+From the snatches of talk behind the doors they passed, Brian guessed
+that this lower castle was occupied by the garrison. In this he was
+right, for with torchmen before and behind them they emerged into the
+cold night air again and climbed upward, coming to a gate in the wall of
+the upper castle. This stood open, but it clanged shut behind them, and
+after crossing a steep courtyard they entered a second and broader
+corridor.
+
+Muiertach led them up a long flight of stairs, then another, and finally
+flung open a heavy door. It was evident that they were lodged in one of
+the towers.
+
+"Rest sound and fear not to eat our food," said the seneschal.
+"_Beannacht leath!_"
+
+"Blessing on you," responded Brian and Cathbarr together, and entered.
+
+For a wonder, Brian found that the chamber was lighted with candles,
+which Cathbarr examined with no little awe. Also, it contained a very
+good bed, on which the giant looked with suspicion. The hard stone walls
+were hung with tattered tapestries, and before they had settled well
+into their chairs two men entered with food and wine of the best.
+
+"Not so bad," smiled Brian as they ate. "How come your wounds, brother?"
+
+"Those scratches? Bah!" And the giant gurgled down half a quart of
+Canary at a stretch. "You are not going to sleep on that bed of cloths?"
+
+"That I am," laughed Brian, "and soon, for I am overweary with riding.
+Try it, Cathbarr, and you will be glad of it."
+
+"Not I! Since there is no bracken here the floor is good enough for me.
+Eh, but this sea-woman will have a thought in her mind over your
+message, brother!"
+
+Brian chuckled, but he was too weary with that day's work to talk or
+think, and when the remnants of their meal had been removed and their
+door shut, he gratefully sought the first bed he had known for weeks.
+After some laughing persuasion he prevailed on the suspicious Cathbarr
+to blow out the candles, and upon that he fell asleep.
+
+When he wakened it was broad daylight, and Cathbarr was still snoring
+with his ax looped about his wrist as usual. Brian, feeling like a new
+man, went to the open casement and looked out.
+
+He found himself gazing through a three-foot stone wall, and as he was
+doubtless in one of the towers, this argued that the lower walls were
+twelve feet thick or more. The lower castle was hid from him, but his
+view was toward the upper bay and included the harbor. The two larger
+ships, which were small caracks, but large for the west coast in that
+day, bore six guns on a side, and Brian saw that they were being
+scrubbed and made shipshape. The Bird Daughter must be a woman of some
+scrupulousness, he reflected. Beyond the brown sails of two
+fishing-boats, and low, storm-boding clouds over the farther hills,
+there was nothing more in sight.
+
+As Cathbarr still wore his long mail-shirt, Brian kicked him awake, and
+after his first bellowing yawn their door opened and men brought in jars
+of water. When the giant's wounds had been dressed, under protest, and
+they had broken their fast, the seneschal appeared.
+
+"Chieftains," he said respectfully, "the Lady Nuala has received your
+message and will have speech with you this afternoon. Until then she
+wishes that you keep your chamber, since she knows not your mind in this
+visit."
+
+"That is but fair," assented Brian.
+
+Cathbarr grumbled, but there was no help for it, since they were
+virtually prisoners. The day passed slowly, and toward noon storm drew
+down on the harbor and snow eddied in their casement. With that, they
+fell to polishing their weapons; Brian procured a razor and a
+much-needed shave, and Cathbarr furbished up his huge ax until it glowed
+like silver.
+
+Finally Muiertach appeared. Brian slung the great sword across his back,
+and they followed the seneschal down to the courtyard. Here they were
+joined by the captive O'Donnells and the seamen who had brought them to
+the castle, and Muiertach led them to the great hall.
+
+The father of this O'Malley woman must have been a man of parts, thought
+Brian as he gazed around. The hall was scantily filled with, perhaps,
+three-score men ranged along the walls, and at the farther end was a low
+dais where a huge log fire roared high. The beams were hung with a few
+pennons and ship-ensigns, and on the dais were placed a half-dozen
+chairs. Behind one of these stood two women, and in the chair, calmly
+facing the hall, sat the Bird Daughter.
+
+Brian caught his breath sharply, and his blue eyes flickered flame as he
+saw her. Never in his life had his gaze met such a woman--not in all the
+land of Spain or elsewhere in Ireland.
+
+At this time Nuala O'Malley was twenty years old, and ten of those years
+had been passed either on shipboard or here in Gorumna Isle. As one
+chronicler describes her, "She was not tall, but neither was she small
+of stature, and when she stood on a ship's deck there was no tossing
+could cause her to stumble. Her hair was not blue, but neither was it
+black, and her eyes were very deep and bright, violet in color, and set
+wide in her head. Her nose was neither small nor large, her cheeks were
+ever red with the wind off the sea, her mouth was finely curved, but
+tight-set withal, and she had more chin than women are wont to have. She
+was very lissom in body, but her head never drooped."
+
+And that is a most excellent description of the Bird Daughter, in fewer
+words than most men might use to-day.
+
+But of all this Brian noted at the moment only that before him sat a
+girl-woman whose calm poise and confident power struck out at him like a
+vibrant presence. Like himself, she wore a cloak of dark red, but no
+steel jack glittered beneath it; there was a torque of ancient gold
+about her neck, and her hair was caught up and hidden beneath a small
+cap of red.
+
+Brian thought of the woman he had painted in his mind, then laughed
+softly. She caught the laugh on his face, and comprehended it, and was
+pleased; then as she watched him very calmly, it seemed to Brian that
+her sheer beauty was a thing of deception. It must be, for she was
+surely a woman of blood. He had known enough of beautiful women, who
+played the parts of men, to know that on the far side of their beauty
+was neither mercy nor love nor compassion, that their lovers were many
+steps to ambition, and that they were venomous. So his smile died away,
+and his blue eyes glittered cold and dark, and this the Bird Daughter
+saw also.
+
+Now, there was no man on the dais save Muiertach, who mounted the two
+steps with his keys jangling. As Brian would have gone after him, two
+pikemen stepped forward to intervene. Brian looked into their eyes and
+they drew back again. He and Cathbarr mounted to the dais, and he bowed
+a low, courtly, Spanish bow, of which the Bird Daughter took no note.
+Instead he heard her voice, very low and penetrating, and she was
+speaking to the two pikemen.
+
+"Go out into the courtyard," she said, "and give each other five lashes.
+This is because you dared insult a guest, and because you drew back
+after insulting him. Go!"
+
+The two pikemen, rather pale under their beards, handed over their pikes
+to comrades and strode out of the hall. She turned to Brian, speaking
+still in Gaelic:
+
+"Welcome, Brian Buidh. You have come to bring me tribute?"
+
+"Yes, Lady Nuala, and the tribute is these ten men of the Dark
+Master's."
+
+She looked at Cathbarr; her eyes swept over his ax. Then she looked
+again at Brian, and spoke to Muiertach in English.
+
+"Truly, I have seldom seen such a man as this--"
+
+A swift look of warning flashed over the seneschal's face, and Brian
+laughed.
+
+"Lady," he said in the same tongue, "he is Cathbarr of the Ax, and he
+will be a good man to stand with us against the Dark Master."
+
+She betrayed no surprise, except that a little tinge of red crept to her
+temples.
+
+"I did not know you spoke English, Brian Buidh. Still, it was not to
+Cathbarr that I referred."
+
+At that it was Brian's turn to redden, and mentally he cursed himself.
+There was no evil in this woman's heart, he saw at once. For an instant
+he was confused and taken aback. Then she smiled, slowly rose, and
+tendered him her hand. Going to one knee, he put her fingers to his
+lips.
+
+"Now sit, Yellow Brian," she said, "and let us talk. First, these
+captives of yours. Do you in truth bring them as a tribute? How do I
+know they are O'Donnell's men?"
+
+"Ask these seamen of yours," laughed Brian, seating himself beside her.
+Cathbarr remained standing and leaning on his ax, looking like some
+giant of the old times.
+
+She took him at his word, and when she had heard from the seamen certain
+tales of what cruelties the ten prisoners had done, her violet eyes
+suddenly turned black and an angry pallor drove across her face.
+
+"That is enough," she interrupted curtly. "Take them out and hang them."
+
+The men were led away, and Brian saw that her hands were tightly
+clenched, but whether in fury or in fear of herself he could not tell.
+Then she turned to him, looking straightly into his face, and on the
+instant Brian knew that if this girl-woman bade him go to his death, he
+would go, laughing.
+
+"Tell me of yourself, Brian Buidh. Of what family are you? By the ring
+on your finger you are an O'Neill; yet I have heard nothing of such a
+man as yourself leading that sept. When your messenger came to me, I
+read cunning in his face, and took it for a trap set by the Dark Master;
+but now that I have seen you and Cathbarr of the Ax, I will take fealty
+from you if you wish to serve me."
+
+Brian smiled a little.
+
+"Serve you I would, lady, but not in fealty. I take fealty and do not
+give it. My name is indeed Brian Buidh, and as for that ring, it was a
+gift from Owen Ruadh."
+
+"Owen Ruadh died two days since," she said softly, watching his face. "I
+had word of it this morning."
+
+At that he started, and Cathbarr's eyes widened in fear of magic. Owen
+Ruadh had lain on the other side of Ireland, and three months would have
+been fast for such news to travel. But Brian nodded sadly.
+
+"Carrier pigeons, eh?" he said in English and paused. He knew not why,
+but his loneliness seemed stricken into his heart on a sudden; he who
+neither explained nor asked for explanation from any man, felt impelled
+to open his life to this girl-woman. He crushed down the impulse, yet
+not entirely.
+
+"Perhaps, Lady Nuala, there shall be greater confidence between us in
+time, and so I truly desire. But know this much--I am better born than
+any man in Ireland--aye, than Clanrickard himself; and I am here in the
+west to seek a new name and a new power. It is in my mind to take
+O'Donnell's castle from him, lady. I have some two hundred men, of whom
+the Dark Master himself lent me twoscore, and in alliance with your
+ships we could reduce him."
+
+"How is this, Brian? You say he _lent_ you twoscore men?"
+
+He laughed and explained the fashion of that loan; and when he had
+finished a great laugh ran down the hall, and the Bird Daughter herself
+was chuckling. Then he waited for her answer, and it was not long in
+coming.
+
+"There is some reason in your plan, Brian Buidh, but more reason against
+it. The castle that O'Donnell holds was formerly my father's. If you
+held it, there would be no peace between us, unless you gave fealty to
+me, which I see plainly you will not do. I claim that castle, and shall
+always claim it."
+
+"Then it seems that I am held in a cleft stick," smiled Brian easily,
+"since I will give fealty to none save the king, or Parliament. You are
+allied with the Roundheads, I understand?"
+
+She nodded, watching him gravely.
+
+"Yes. Cromwell is master of the country, and I am not minded to butt my
+head against a wall, Brian Buidh. If I am to hold to the little that is
+left me, I shall need all my strength."
+
+"And that is not much, lady. Your coasts are plague-smitten, your men
+reduced, and Cromwell has not yet won all the country. Galway will be
+the last to fall, indeed. But as to Bertragh Castle, why should you not
+sell your rights in it to me?"
+
+At his first words a helpless anger flashed into her face, succeeded by
+a still more helpless pride.
+
+"No, I will not sell what I have been unable to conquer back, Brian
+Buidh. If there were any way out of this difficulty with honor, I would
+take it; for I tell you frankly that I would make alliance with you if I
+could."
+
+Brian gazed at her, reading her heart, and fighting vainly against the
+impulse that rose within him. Twice he tried to speak and could not,
+while she watched the conflict in his face and wondered. He wished
+vainly that he had Turlough's cunning brain to aid him now.
+
+"Lady," he said at last, biting his lips, "I will do this. I will give
+you fealty for the holding of Bertragh Castle, keeping it ever at your
+service, but for this alone. When we have taken it, it may be that I
+shall render it back after I have won a better for myself; yet, because
+I would sit at your side and have equal honor with you, and because we
+have need of each other, I will give you the service that I would grant
+to no man alive. Is it good?"
+
+For an instant he thought that she was about to break forth in eager
+assent, then she sank back in her chair, while breathless silence filled
+the hall. She gazed down at the floor, her face flushing deeply, and
+finally looked up again, sadly.
+
+"I do not desire pity or compassion, Brian Buidh," she said simply, and
+her eyes held tears of helpless anger.
+
+Then Brian saw that she had pierced his mind, for which he was both
+sorry and glad. He knew well there were other castles to be had for the
+taking, and there was nothing to prevent his riding on past Slyne Head
+and winning them--except for his meeting with this girl-woman. Therefore
+he lied, and if she knew it, she gave no sign.
+
+"You mistake me, lady," he said earnestly, his blue eyes softening
+darkly.
+
+"I propose this only as a stepping-stone to my own ambition. Soon there
+will be a sweep of war through the coasts, and I would have a roof over
+my head. Is it good?"
+
+She rose and held out her hands to him.
+
+"It is good, Brian Buidh. Give me fealty-oath, for Bertragh Castle
+alone."
+
+And he gave it, and his words were drowned in a roar of cheers that
+stormed down the hall, for the O'Malleys had heard all that passed.
+
+An hour later Cathbarr of the Ax was despatched in a swift galley to
+bear the tidings to Turlough, and bid him make ready for a swift and
+sharp campaign.
+
+Through the remainder of that afternoon and evening Brian sat beside the
+Bird Daughter, and he found his tongue loosened most astonishingly, for
+him. He told her some part of his story, though not his name, while in
+turn he learned of her life, and of how her father and mother had been
+slain by O'Donnell through blackest treachery.
+
+The more he saw of her, the more clearly he read her heart and the more
+he gave her deeper fealty than had passed his lips in the oath of
+service. As for her, she had met Blake and others of the Roundhead
+captains on her cruises, deadly earnest men all; but in the earnestness
+of Brian she found somewhat more besides, though she said nothing of it
+then. It was arranged between them that in three days they would meet
+before Bertragh Castle, by sea and land, and the Dark Master would be
+speedily wiped out.
+
+With the morning Brian set forth to join his men in the largest sailing
+galley, for a wild gale was sweeping down from Iar Connaught. But the
+O'Malleys were skilled seamen who laughed at wind and waves, and Brian
+kissed the hand of the Bird Daughter as he stepped aboard, with never a
+thought of the storm of men that was coming down upon them both, and of
+the blacker storm which the Dark Master was brewing in his heart.
+
+
+TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly,
+and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a
+month.
+
+
+
+
+Nuala O'Malley
+
+by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.
+
+
+This story began in the All-Story Weekly for December 30.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+HOW BRIAN WAS NETTED.
+
+
+The Dark Master sat in his dark hall, brooding.
+
+It was a bad morning, for there was a sweep of wind and black cloud
+mingled with snow bearing out of the north; and since the great hall,
+with its huge fireplace, was the warmest part of the castle, as many of
+the men as could do so had drifted thither, but without making any undue
+disturbance over it.
+
+For that matter, they might have passed unseen, since the hall was black
+as night save for a single cresset above the fireplace. Here sat the
+Dark Master, a little oaken table before him on which his breakfast had
+rested, and at his side crouched a long, lean wolfhound that nuzzled him
+unheeded. On the other side the table sat the old _seanachie_, who was
+blind, and who fingered the strings of his harp with odd twangings and
+mutterings, but without coherence, for O'Donnell had bade him keep
+silence.
+
+"Go and see what the weather is," commanded the Dark Master. A man rose
+and ran outside, while other men came in with wood. Their master
+motioned them away, although the fire had sunk down into embers.
+
+"A gale from the north, which is turning to the eastward, with snow,
+master."
+
+"Remain outside, and bring me word what changes hap, and of all that you
+see or hear. Waste no time about it."
+
+The Dark Master drew his cloak about his humped shoulders, and in the
+flickering dim light from overhead his face stood out in all its ghastly
+pallor, accentuated by the dead black hair and mustache. But his eyes
+were burning strangely, and when they saw it the men drew back, and more
+than one sought the outer chill in preference to staying.
+
+Now O'Donnell Dubh stared into the embers and muttered below his breath,
+while, as if in response, a little flickering whirlwind of gray ash rose
+up and fell back again, so that it blew over the embers and deadened
+them. The muscles of the Dark Master's face contracted until his teeth
+flashed out in a silent snarl.
+
+"I could have slain, and I did not," he whispered as if to himself. "But
+there is still time, and I will not be a fool again!"
+
+The watching men shivered, for it seemed that the wind scurried down the
+wide chimney and again blew up the gray ash until the embers glowed
+through a white coating. But the wind wrought more than this, for it
+brought down from the gray clouds a whispering murmur that drifted
+through the hall, and in that murmur were mingled the sounds of beating
+hoofs and ringing steel and shrieking men.
+
+"Are watchers posted over the hills and the paths and the Galway roads?"
+spoke out the Dark Master as he gazed into the ashes.
+
+"They are watching, master," answered a deep voice from the darkness.
+
+Suddenly the wolfhound raised its head and stared into the ashes also,
+as if it saw something there that no man saw, for the bristles lifted on
+its neck, and it whined a little. O'Donnell dropped his hand to the thin
+muzzle, and the dog was quiet again. But after that the men stared at
+the fireplace with frightened eyes.
+
+"There is still time, though one has escaped me," said the Dark Master,
+looking up suddenly at his sightless harper, who seemed to fall
+atrembling beneath the look. "The one who has escaped matters not, for
+his bane comes not at my hands. It is the other whom I shall slay--Brian
+Buidh of the hard eyes. Then the Bird Daughter. But it seems to me that
+one stands in my path of whom I do not know."
+
+He brooded over the ashes as his head sank between his shoulders like a
+turtle's head. Then once again the wind swooped down on the castle, and
+whistled down the chimney, and filled the great hall with a thin noise
+like the death-rattle of men. The cresset wavered and fell to smoking
+overhead.
+
+The Dark Master reached his hand across the table and caught the hand of
+the blind harper and spread it out on the oak. A little shudder shook
+the old man, and as if against his will he spread out his other hand
+likewise, his two hands lying between those of the Dark Master. Then
+there fell a terrible and awestruck silence on the hall.
+
+The stillness was perfect, and continued for a long while. Slowly
+occurred a weird and strange thing, for, although no blast whimpered
+down the chimney, the ashes fell away from the embers, which began to
+glow more redly and set out the forms of the Dark Master and the blind
+harper in a ruddy light. Suddenly a man pointed to the feet of the Dark
+Master, and would have cried out but that another man struck him back.
+
+For the ashes had drifted out from the fireplace, flake after flake, and
+were settling about the feet of the Dark Master beneath the table. They
+rose slowly into a little gray pile; then one of the men shrieked in
+horror at the sight, and the Dark Master threw out his head.
+
+"Slay him," he said quietly and drew in his head once more, staring at
+the table.
+
+There was a thudding blow and a groan, then the stillness of death. The
+ashes were quiet; the fire glowed ruddily. After a little there came a
+soft whirl of soot down the chimney, blackening the embers. The soot
+rose and fell, rose and fell, again and again; it was as if an eddying
+draft of wind were trying to raise it. Finally it was lifted, but it
+only whirled about and about over the embers, like a shape drawn
+together by some uncanny force.
+
+The Dark Master raised his head as a clash of steel and the voice of the
+watcher came from the outer doorway.
+
+"Master, the blast thickens with black fog!"
+
+"Remain on watch," said O'Donnell, and his head fell.
+
+But through the hall men's hands went out to one another in the
+darkness. For storm-driven fog was not a thing that many men had seen
+even on the west coast, and when it did happen men said that a warlock
+was at work. There was not far to seek for the warlock in this case,
+muttered the O'Donnells.
+
+Now the Dark Master looked into the fireplace and that whirling figure
+of soot raised itself anew and began its unearthly dance over the
+embers. After no long time men saw that the pile of gray ashes under the
+table was lifting also, lifting and whirling as though the wind spun it;
+but there was no wind.
+
+"There is a man to be blinded," said the Dark Master. "Let him be
+blinded with fog and snow, and the men with him, and let the wind come
+out of the east and drive him to this place."
+
+Slowly, so slowly that no man could afterward say where there was
+beginning or end, the whirling figure of soot dissipated; and little by
+little the dancing stream of gray ashes drifted back into the fireplace;
+then it also dissipated, seeming to pass up the chimney, so that the
+embers glowed red and naked.
+
+"_Seanachie_," said the Dark Master in a terribly piercing voice, "who
+is this standing in my way, standing between me and Brian of the hard
+eyes?"
+
+The blind harper began to tremble, but again came the clash and the
+watcher's voice from the doorway.
+
+"Master, there is snow mingled with the fog, and the wind is shifting to
+the eastward."
+
+"Light the beacon and remain on watch," said the Dark Master. But at the
+watcher's word new terror seized on the men in the hall.
+
+"_Seanachie_, who stands in my way? Speak!"
+
+The beard of the blind harper quivered and rose as if the wind lifted
+it, but men felt no wind through the hall. Then the old man began to
+writhe in his chair, and twisted to take his hands from the table, but
+he could not, although only he alone held them there. Suddenly his
+mouth opened, and a voice that was not his voice made answer:
+
+"Master, two people stand in your way."
+
+"Describe them," said the Dark Master, and those near by saw that sweat
+was running down his face, despite the coldness of the hall. After a
+moment's silence the old harper spoke again; he had lost his eyes twenty
+years since, yet he spoke of seeing.
+
+"Master, I see two people but dimly. One is a man, huge of stature and
+standing like Laeg the hero, the friend of the hero Cuculain, leaning
+upon an ax--"
+
+"That is Cathbarr of the Ax," broke in the Dark Master. "His bane comes
+not at my hands. Who is the other?"
+
+Again the old harper seemed to struggle, and his voice came more
+faintly:
+
+"I cannot see, master. I think it is a woman--"
+
+"That is the Bird Daughter," quoth the Dark Master.
+
+"Nay, it is an old woman, but she blinds me--"
+
+And the harper fell silent, writhing, until horror gripped those who
+looked on. O'Donnell leaned forward, his head sticking straight out and
+his eyes blazing.
+
+"What do you see, _seanachie_? Speak!"
+
+"I see men," and the old harper's voice rose in a great shriek. "A storm
+of men and of hoofs, and red snow on the ground, and fire over the snow,
+and the man of the ax laughing terribly. And I see other men riding
+hard; men with long hair and the flag of England in their midst--and
+Cuculain smites them--Cuculain of the yellow hair--the Royal Hound of
+Ulster smites them and scatters them--"
+
+"_Liar!_"
+
+With the hoarse word the Dark Master leaned forward and smote the blind
+harper with his fist, so that the old man slid from his chair senseless.
+Upon that the Dark Master swung around with his teeth bared and his head
+drawn in like the head of a snake about to strike.
+
+"Lights!" he roared. "Lights! Bear the _seanachie_ to his chamber, and
+send men to ring in the harbor and build beacons on the headlands.
+Hasten, you dogs, or I'll strip the flesh from you with whips!"
+
+Under his voice and his flaming eyes the hall sprang into life, while
+the men carried out the blind harper and one of their own number who had
+been stricken with madness at what he had seen. Then the hall blazed up
+with cressets, logs were flung on the fire, and parties of men set out
+to build beacons and guard the bay as the Dark Master had given command.
+And when word was spread abroad among the others of what had chanced in
+the hall that morning, Red Murrough, the Dark Master's lieutenant, swore
+a great oath.
+
+"If that Cuculain of whom the _seanachie_ spoke be not the man Brian
+Buidh, then may I go down to hell alive!"
+
+And the men, who feared Red Murrough's heavy hand and hated him,
+muttered that he would be like to travel that same road whether living
+or dead, in which there was some truth.
+
+While these things took place in the hall at Bertragh--and they were
+told later to Brian by many who had seen them and heard them, all
+telling the same tale--Brian and his sailing galley was making hard
+weather of it. Six of the O'Malleys had been sent with him to manage the
+galley, for he was no seaman and had placed himself in their hands; and
+after rounding into Kilkieran Bay from the castle harbor and reaching
+out across the mouth of the bay toward Carna, intending to reach
+Cathbarr's tower direct, the blast came down on them, and even the
+O'Malleys looked stern.
+
+Sterner yet they looked when Brian cried that Golam Head was veiling in
+fog behind them, and with that the wind swerved almost in a moment and
+swept down out of the east, bearing fog and snow with it. Nor was this
+all, for the shift of wind bore against the seas and swept down
+currents and whirlpools out of the bay, and after the snow and black fog
+shrieked down upon them, the seamen straightway fell to praying.
+
+"Get up and bail!" shouted Brian, kicking them to their feet, for the
+seas were sweeping over the counter. The helmsman groaned and bade him
+desist, and almost at the same instant their mast crashed over the bow,
+breaking the back of one seaman, and the galley broached to.
+
+With that the O'Malleys ceased praying and fell to work with a will,
+getting out the sweeps and bailing. The mingling of snow, shrieking
+wind, and black fog had been too much for their superstitious natures,
+but made no impression on Brian, for the simple reason that he did not
+see why fog and wind should not come together. After he understood their
+fears better he shamed them into savage energy by his laughter, and
+since the broken-backed man had gone overboard, took his sweep and set
+his muscles to work.
+
+They made shift to keep the craft before the wind, but presently Brian
+found that half the men's fear sprang from the fact that the fog and
+snow blinded them, shutting out the land, and that the shifting wind had
+completely bewildered them. When he asked for their compass, their
+leader grunted:
+
+"No need have we for a compass on this boat, Brian Buidh, save when
+warlocks turn the fog and wind upon us. I warrant that were it not for
+the fog, we would be safe in port ere now. As it is, the Virgin alone
+knows where we are or whither going."
+
+"This is some of the Dark Master's wizardry," growled out another.
+"Before we hung those men of his last night, they said that the winds
+would bear word of it to the dark one, _cead mile mollaght_ on him!"
+
+"Add another thousand curses for me," ordered Brian, "but keep to the
+bailing, or I'll give you a taste of my foot! And no more talk of
+warlocks."
+
+The five men fell silent, and indeed they needed all their breath, for
+the struggle was a desperate one. Instead of lessening, the fog only
+increased with time, and even Brian began to perceive the marvel in it
+as swirl after swirl of darkness swept over them. Yet, since the wind
+was from the east, he reasoned, it would naturally blow out the fog from
+the bogs and low lands. But this explanation was received in dour
+silence by the men, so he said no more.
+
+There was no doubt that Cathbarr had reached home safely, since the
+night had been fair enough for the winter season. An hour passed, and
+then another, still without a lessening of the eery storm; and the nerve
+of the seamen was beginning to give way under the strain, when the
+helmsman let out a wild yell:
+
+"A light ahead! A beacon!"
+
+The rowers twisted about with shouts of joy, and Brian perceived a
+faint, ruddy light against the sky. Also, the fog began to lessen
+somewhat; and upon making out that the beacon undoubtedly came from a
+high tower or crag, the shout passed around that they had headed back to
+Gorumna with the shifting wind.
+
+This heartened them all greatly, the more so since the gale drove them
+straight onward toward the beacon. The fog closed down again, but the
+ruddy glare pierced through it; and of a sudden there was no more fog
+about them--only a blinding thick snow, which made all things grotesque.
+Then two more beacons were made out, lower than the first, and the men
+yelled joyously that fires had been lighted on either side the harbor to
+guide them in. And so they had been, but otherwise than the men thought.
+
+Half frozen with the cold, they drove on through the snow and spray
+until at length they swept in between the guiding fires and scanned the
+shores for landing. Then the snow ceased, though the hurricane howled
+down behind them with redoubled fury; and as they floated in against a
+low, rocky shore, silence of wild consternation fell on them all. For
+they had come to Bertragh Castle, and fifty feet away a score of men
+were waiting, while others were running down with torches.
+
+Even in that moment of terrible dismay, Brian noted their muskets, and
+how the lighted matches flared like fireflies in the wind.
+
+"Trapped!" groaned one of the men, and they would have rowed out again
+into the teeth of the storm had not Brian stayed them.
+
+"No use, comrades. They have muskets, and there are cannon up above. Row
+in, and if we must die, then let us die like men and not cowards."
+
+Seeing no help for it, the men growled assent, and they drifted slowly
+in, all standing ready with drawn swords, while Brian's Spanish blade
+flared in the prow. Then in the midst of the gathered men he saw a dark
+figure with hunched shoulders, sword in hand. As he turned to the seamen
+behind him, there was a glitter in his blue eyes colder than the icy
+blast behind them.
+
+"There is the Dark Master, comrades! Let him be first to fall."
+
+They drove up on the shore, and Brian leaped out, with the men behind
+him. Still the group above stood silent until the voice of O'Donnell
+sheared through the gale. "Fire, and drop Yellow Brian first."
+
+So there was to be no word of quarter! As the thought shot like fire
+through Brian's mind, he leaped forward with a shout. A ragged stream of
+musketry broke out from the men gathered on the higher rocks, and he
+heard the bullets whistle. He paid no heed to the seamen who followed
+him, however. His eyes were fixed on the Dark Master's figure, and with
+only one thought in his mind he plunged ahead.
+
+More and more muskets spattered out; a bullet splashed against his jack,
+and another; something caught his steel cap and tore it away, and a hot
+stab shot through his neck. But the group of men was only a dozen paces
+from him now, and a wild yell broke from his lips as he saw O'Donnell
+step forward to meet him.
+
+Then only did he remember Turlough's speech on the day of that first
+meeting with the Dark Master--"The master of all men at craft and the
+match of most men at weapons"--and he knew that, despite the hunched
+shoulders, this O'Donnell must be no mean fighter. But the next instant
+he was gazing into the evil eyes, and their blades had crossed.
+
+Flaming with his anger, Brian forced the attack savagely; then a sharp
+thrust against his jack showed him that O'Donnell was armed with a
+rapier, and he fell to the point with some caution. With the first
+moment of play, he knew that he faced a master of fence; yet almost upon
+the thought his blade ripped into the Dark Master's arm.
+
+Involuntarily he drew back, but O'Donnell caught the falling sword in
+his left hand and lunged forward viciously. Just as the blades met
+again, Brian saw a match go to a musket barely six paces away. He
+whirled aside, but too late, for the musket roared out, and a drift of
+stars poured into his brain. Then he fell.
+
+Like a flash the Dark Master leaped at the man who had fired and spitted
+him through the throat; the others drew back in swift terror, for
+O'Donnell was frothing at the mouth, and his face was the face of a
+madman. With a bitter laugh he turned and rolled Brian over with his
+foot. The five seamen had gone down under the bullets.
+
+"He is only stunned," said Red Murrough. "Shall I finish it?"
+
+"If you want to die with him, yes. Carry him in, and we will nail him up
+to the gates to-morrow."
+
+And the clouds fell asunder, and the stars came out, cold and beautiful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE NAILING OF BRIAN.
+
+
+Brian woke in darkness, with pain tearing at his head and heaviness upon
+his hands and feet. When he tried to put his hand to his head, that
+heaviness was explained; for he could not, and thick iron struck dull
+against stone.
+
+He lay there, and thought leaped into his brain, and he felt very bitter
+of spirit, but chiefly for those men who had come with him, and because
+he had failed before the Dark Master's hand.
+
+It was cold, bitterly cold, and thin snow lay around him, so that he
+knew that he was in some tower or prison that faced to the east. It was
+from that direction that the snow had driven, as he had sore cause to
+know, and he wondered if the Dark Master had had any hand in that
+driving. But this he was not to know for many days.
+
+It was the cold which had awakened him from his unconsciousness, he
+guessed. By dint of shifting his position somewhat, he managed to get
+his back against a wall, and so got his hands to his head. In such
+fashion he made out that his hair was matted and frozen with blood, and
+his neck also, where a bullet had plowed through the muscles on the
+right side. His head-wound was no more than a jagged tear which had
+split half his scalp, but had not hurt the bone, as he found after some
+feeling. Then he dropped his hands again, for the chains that bound him
+to the wall were very heavy. It must be night, for light would come
+where snow had come, and there was no light.
+
+Now, having found that he was not like to die, at least from his wounds,
+he set about stretching to lie down again, and found some straw on the
+floor. He drew it up with his feet and gathered it about him; it was
+dank and smelled vilely, but at the least it gave his frozen body some
+warmth, so that he fell asleep after a time.
+
+When he wakened again, it was to find men around him and a narrow strip
+of cold sunlight coming through a high slit in the wall of his prison.
+From the sound of breakers that seemed to roar from below him, he
+conjectured that he was in a sea-facing tower of the castle, in which he
+was right.
+
+The men, who were led by Red Murrough, gave him bread and meat and
+wine, but they offered no word and would answer no questions. So he ate
+and drank, and felt life and strength creeping back into his bones. He
+concluded that it must be the day after his arrival.
+
+Now Red Murrough beckoned to the hoary old seneschal, whose red-rimmed
+eyes glittered evilly. The old man shook his keys and stooped over
+Brian, unlocking the hasp which bound him to the wall-ring. The
+oppressive silence of these men struck a chill through Brian, but he
+came to his feet readily enough as Murrough jerked his shoulder.
+
+He followed out into a corridor, and the men closed around him, going
+with him down-stairs and along other passageways. Brian wondered as to
+his fate and what manner of death he was going to die; yet it seemed to
+him that death was an impossible and far-off thing where he was
+concerned.
+
+He expected no less than death from the Dark Master, but at the same
+time it was very hard to believe that he was going to that fate. He was
+by no means afraid to die, but he felt that he would like to see the
+Bird Daughter once more. Also, he had always thought of fate as coming
+to him suddenly and swiftly in battle or foray; and to be deliberately
+done to death in cold blood by hanging or otherwise was not as he would
+have wished.
+
+"At least," he thought without any great comfort, "Cathbarr and Turlough
+will avenge me on the Dark Master--though I had liefer be living when
+that was done!"
+
+In one of the larger and lower corridors they came on two men bearing a
+body, sewed for burial. Murrough stopped his party and growled out
+something.
+
+"It is the _seanachie_," answered one of the bearers. "Since the Dark
+Master struck him yester-morn he has not spoken, and he died last
+night."
+
+Upon this Red Murrough crossed himself, as did the rest, muttered into
+his tangle of red beard, and motioned Brian forward.
+
+This wider passage gave through a doorway upon the great hall. There was
+no dais, but the Dark Master was seated before the huge fireplace, his
+wolf-hound crouched down at his side. The hall was pierced near the roof
+with openings, and lower down with loopholes, so that when the sun shone
+outside it was bright enough.
+
+Red Murrough led Brian forward, the clank of the heavy chain-links
+echoing hollowly through the place, but O'Donnell Dubh did not look up
+until the two men stood a scant four paces from him. Then his head came
+out from between his rounded shoulders and his eyes spat fire at Brian.
+
+"A poor ending to proud talk, Brian Buidh!"
+
+Brian tried to smile, but with ill success, for he was chilled to the
+bone and there was blood on his face.
+
+"I am not yet dead, O'Donnell."
+
+"You will be soon enough," the Dark Master chuckled, and the hall
+thrilled with evil laughter. In the eyes of all Brian had proven himself
+the weaker man and therefore deserved his fate. "What of this O'Malley
+journey of yours, eh?"
+
+Brian made no answer, save that his strong lips clamped shut, and his
+blue eyes narrowed a little. O'Donnell laughed and began to stroke his
+wolf-hound.
+
+"I have many messengers and many servants, Yellow Brian, and there is
+little my enemies do which is not told me. Even now men are riding hard
+and fast to trap Cathbarr of the Ax and your following."
+
+At that Brian laughed, remembering Turlough Wolf and his cunning.
+
+"I think this trapping will prove a hard matter, Dark Master."
+
+"That is as it may be. Now, Brian Buidh, death is hard upon you, and
+neither an easy nor a swift one. Before you die there are two things
+which I would know from your lips."
+
+Brian looked at him, but without speaking. The Dark Master had thrust
+out his head, his hand still lingering on the wolfhound's neck, and his
+pallid face, drooping mustache, and high brow were very evil to gaze
+upon. Brian, eying that thin-nostriled, cruel nose, and the undershot
+jaw of the man, read no mercy there.
+
+"First, who _are_ you, Brian Buidh? Are you an O'Neill, as that ring of
+yours would testify, or are you an O'Malley come down from the western
+isles?"
+
+At that Brian laughed out harshly. "Ask those servants of which you
+boast, Dark Master. Poor they must be if they cannot tell you even the
+names of your enemies!"
+
+"Well answered!" grinned the other, and chuckled again to himself as
+though the reply had indeed pleased him hugely. "I would that you served
+me, Brian of the hard eyes; I suppose that you are some left-hand scion
+of the Tyr-owens by some woman overseas, and the O'Neill bastards were
+ever as strong in arm as the true sons. Yet you might have made pact
+with me, whereas now your head shall sit on my gates, after your bones
+are broken and you have been nailed to a door."
+
+"Fools talk over-much of killing, but wise men smite first and talk
+after," Brian said contemptuously. He saw that the Dark Master was
+somewhat in doubt over slaying him, since if he were indeed an O'Neill
+there might be bitter vengeance looked for, or if he belonged to any
+other of the great families.
+
+"Quite true," countered the Dark Master mockingly, and with much relish.
+"Therein you were a fool, not to slay when first we met, instead of
+making pacts. Who will repay me my two-score men, Brian of the hollow
+cheeks?"
+
+"The Bird Daughter, perhaps," smiled Brian, "since two days ago she hung
+ten of those men I took in my ambuscade."
+
+This stung O'Donnell, and his men with him. One low, deep growl swirled
+down the hall, and the Dark Master snarled as his lips bared back from
+his teeth. Brian laughed out again, standing very tall and straight, and
+his chains clanked a little and stilled the murmur. He saw that
+O'Donnell wore his own Spanish blade, and the sight angered him.
+
+"There is another thing I would know," said the Dark Master slowly.
+"Tell me this thing, Brian Buidh, and I will turn you out of my gates a
+free man."
+
+Brian looked keenly at him and saw that the promise was given in
+earnest. He wondered what the thing might be, and was not long in
+learning.
+
+"You came hither from Gorumna Castle," went on O'Donnell, fixing him
+with his black flaming eyes. "Tell me what force of men is in that
+place, Brian of the hard eyes, and for this service you shall be set
+free."
+
+"Now I know that you are a fool, O'Donnell Dubh," and Brian's voice rang
+out merrily. "I have heard many tales of your wizardry and your servants
+and your watchers, but when an unknown man comes to you, his name is
+hidden from you; and all your black art cannot so much as tell you the
+number of your enemies! Now slay me and have done, for you have wasted
+much breath this day, and so have I, and it goes ill in my mind to waste
+speech on fools."
+
+"You refuse then?" O'Donnell peered up at him, but Brian set his face
+hard and made no reply. With a little sigh the Dark Master leaned back
+in his chair and motioned to Red Murrough to come forward.
+
+"Strip him," he said evenly, and at the word a great howl rang out from
+all the watching men, like the howl of wolves when they scent blood in
+the air.
+
+Murrough in turn signed to two of his men. These came forward and
+stripped off what clothes had been left to Brian, so that he stood naked
+before them. In that moment he was minded to spring on the Dark Master
+and crush him with his chains, but he saw that Red Murrough held a
+flint-lock pistolet cocked, and knew it would be useless. Also, if he
+had to die, he was minded to do it like a man and not to shame the blood
+of Tyr-owen, either by seeking death or by shrinking at its face.
+
+Now there passed a murmur through the hall, and even the Dark Master's
+evil features glowed a little; for Brian's body was very fair and slim
+and white, yet these judges of men saw that he was like a thing of
+steel, and that beneath the satin skin his body was all rippling sinew.
+Red Murrough drew out a hasp, brought his chained hands together, and
+caught the chain close to his wrists, so that his hands were bound
+close.
+
+"Now," said the Dark Master, settling back and stroking his wolfhound as
+if he were watching some curious spectacle, "do with him as we did with
+Con O'More last Candlemas. But let us work slowly, for there is no
+haste, and we must break his will. In the end we will nail him to the
+door, and finish by breaking all his bones. It will be very interesting,
+eh?"
+
+A fierce howl and clash of steel answered him from the men. At another
+sign from Red Murrough, Brian felt himself jerked to the floor suddenly,
+and his hands were drawn up over his head. His wrist-chains were
+fastened to an iron ring set in the floor, and his ankles to another,
+and he stared up at the ceiling-rafters of the hall, watching the motes
+drift past overhead in the reaching sunbeams. It all seemed very unreal
+to him.
+
+"First that long hair of his," said the Dark Master quietly.
+
+Murrough went to the fire and returned with a blazing stick. Brian's
+gold-red hair had flung back from his head, along the floor, and
+presently he felt it burning, until his head was scorched and his brain
+began to roast and there was the smell of burnt hair rising from him.
+Then Murrough's rough hand brushed over his torn scalp, quelling the
+fire, but it did not quell the agony that wrenched Brian.
+
+"Paint him," ordered O'Donnell.
+
+Again Murrough went to the fireplace, and returned with a long white-hot
+iron which had lain among the embers. This he touched to Brian's right
+shoulder, so that the stench of scorched flesh sizzled up in a thin
+stream, and followed the iron down across the white breast and thigh,
+until it stopped at the knee, and there was a swath of red and blackened
+flesh down Brian's body. Yet he had not moved or flinched.
+
+Then Murrough touched the iron to his left shoulder and drew it very
+slowly down his left side. One of the watching men went sick with the
+smell and went out vomiting. A second swath of red and black rose on the
+white flesh, and beneath it all Brian felt his senses swirling. Try as
+he would he could not repress one long shudder, at which a wild yell of
+delight shrilled up--and then he fainted.
+
+"Take him away," said the Dark Master, smiling a little, as he leaned
+forward and saw that Brian had indeed swooned with the pain. "To-morrow
+we will paint his back with the whip."
+
+So they loosened him from the iron rings, and four men lifted him and
+carried him out. As they passed across the courtyard another came by
+with a pail of sea-water, which they flung over him; the salt entered
+into his wounds, washing away the blackness from his scalp, and slowly
+the life came back to him after he had been chained again in his
+tower-room and left alone.
+
+He was sorry for this, because he thought that he had died under the
+iron. He found a pitcher of water beside him, and after drinking a
+little he spent the rest in washing out the salt from his flesh, though
+every motion was terrible in its torture. So great was the pain that
+gasping sobs shook him, though he stared up dry-eyed at the stones, and
+a great desire for death came upon him.
+
+"Slay me, oh God!" he groaned, shuddering again in his anguish. "Slay
+me, for I am helpless and cannot slay myself!"
+
+As if in answer, there came a soft laugh from somewhere overhead, and
+the voice of the Dark Master.
+
+"There is no God in Bertragh Castle save O'Donnell, Brian Buidh!"
+
+The blasphemy shocked him into his senses, which had wandered. Now he
+knew that from some hidden place the Dark Master was watching him and
+listening for his ravings, and upon that Brian sternly caught his lips
+together and said no more, though he prayed hard within himself. A cloak
+had been laid near-by him, and when he had covered himself somewhat
+against the cold, though with great pain in the doing, he lay quiet.
+
+The cold crept into him and for a space he was seized with chills that
+sent new thrills of pain through his burned body, for he could not
+repress them. After a time he relapsed slowly into numbed
+unconsciousness, waking from time to time, and so the hours dragged away
+until the night came.
+
+Then men brought him more food and wine and straw, and he managed to
+sleep a bit during the darkness, in utmost misery. But after the day had
+come, and more wine had stirred his blood redly, Murrough fetched him to
+his feet and bade him follow. Brian did it, though walking was agony,
+for his pride was stronger even than his torture.
+
+He was halted in the courtyard, found the Dark Master and his men
+gathered there, and knew that more torture was to come upon him. After a
+single scornful glance the Dark Master ordered him triced up to a post,
+which was done. Brian saw a man standing by with a long whip, but gained
+a brief respite as the drawbridge was lowered to admit a messenger
+mounted on a shaggy hill-pony. O'Donnell bade him make haste with his
+errand.
+
+"The word has come, master, that five hundred of Lord Burke's pikemen
+are on the road from Galway and will be close by within a day or so."
+
+"And what of Cathbarr of the Ax?" queried the Dark Master. Brian's
+heart caught at the words, then his head fell again at the response.
+
+"They have scattered in the mountains, it is said, master."
+
+"Murrough, have men sent to meet these royalists with food and wines,
+and if they are bound hither we will entreat them softly and send them
+home again empty. Now let us enjoy Brian Buidh a while--though he has
+stood up but poorly. It is in my mind that we will nail him up
+to-morrow."
+
+With that Brian felt the whip stroking across his naked back. His
+muscles corded and heaved up in horrible contraction, but no sound broke
+from him; again and again the hide whip licked about him until he felt
+the warm blood running down his legs, and then with merciful suddenness
+all things went black, and he hung limp against the post.
+
+"Take him back," ordered the Dark Master in disgust. "Why, that boy we
+cut up the other side of Clifden had more strength than this fool!"
+
+"His strength went out of him with his hair," grinned Red Murrough, and
+they carried Brian to his prison.
+
+The Dark Master had spoken truly, however. Brian's strength lay not so
+much in brute muscles, though he had enough of them, as in his nervous
+energy; and the slow horror of his burning hair and of that iron which
+had twice raked the length of his body had come close to destroying his
+whole nervous system. Other men might have endured the same thing and
+laughed the next day, but Brian was high-strung and tense, and while his
+will was still strong, his physical endurance was shattered.
+
+With the next morning, this fact had become quite evident to the general
+disgust of all within Bertragh Castle. The Dark Master himself visited
+the cell, and upon finding that Brian was lost in a half stupor and
+muttering words in Spanish which no one understood, he angrily ordered
+that he be revived and finished with that afternoon.
+
+Red Murrough set about the task with savage determination. By dint of
+sea water externally and mingled wine and uisquebagh internally he had
+Brian wakened to a semblance of himself before midday. Then food, oil,
+and bandages about his wounds, and in another hour Brian was feeling
+like a new man.
+
+He was under no misapprehension as to the cause of this kindness, but
+cared little. So keenly had he suffered that he was glad to reach the
+end, and he walked out behind Red Murrough that afternoon with a ghastly
+face, but with firm mouth and firmer stride, though he was very weak and
+half-drunk with the liquors he had swallowed.
+
+His fetters were unlocked and he was led to the doorway of the great
+hall, with the Dark Master and his men watching eagerly. Red Murrough,
+with an evil grin, pressed his back to the door and held up his left arm
+against the heavy wood. Brian was half-conscious of another man who bore
+a heavy mallet and spikes, and whose breath came foul on his face as he
+pressed something cold against the extended left hand.
+
+Then Brian saw the mallet swing back, heard a sickening crunch, and with
+a terrible pain shooting to his soul, fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+IN BERTRAGH CASTLE.
+
+
+Now, of what befell after that nail had been driven through his hand,
+Brian learned afterward; though at the time he was unconscious and
+seemed like to remain so. Hardly had he sagged forward limply when two
+men came riding up to the gates demanding instant admittance. One of
+these was of the Dark Master's band, the other was a certain Colonel
+James Vere, of the garrison which held Galway for the king.
+
+O'Donnell, who suddenly found himself with greater things on hand than
+the nailing of a prisoner, ordered Brian left where he lay for the
+present, and had the drawbridge lowered in all haste. Colonel Vere, who
+had late been in rebellion against his gracious majesty, was now joined
+with Ormond's men against the common enemy, and was in command of that
+force of five hundred pikemen which had been marching to the west.
+
+Knowing this, the Dark Master made ready to set his house in order,
+since it was known that Vere's men were only a few hours away. Hardly
+had the garrison gone to their posts, leaving Brian in the center of a
+little group about the hall doorway, when Colonel Vere rode in and was
+received in as stately fashion as possible by the Dark Master. It was
+not for nothing that O'Donnell had trimmed his sails to the blast, since
+he was on very good terms with all in Galway.
+
+"Welcome," he exclaimed with a low bow as Vere swung down from his
+saddle. "Your men received the provision I sent off yesterday?"
+
+"Aye, and thankful we were!" cried the other cheerily, for he was a
+red-faced man of forty, a Munsterman and half-English, and loved his
+bottle. "Hearing certain news from one of your men I made bold to ride
+ahead in all haste, O'Donnell."
+
+"News?" repeated the Dark Master softly. "And of what nature, Colonel
+Vere?"
+
+"Why, of one Brian Buidh, or Yellow Brian." At this the Dark Master
+began to finger the Spanish blade he had taken from Brian, and for a
+second Vere was very near to death, had he known it.
+
+"What of him, Colonel Vere?"
+
+"Why, the rogue had the impudence to come down on a convoy of powder and
+stores, last week, going from the Archbishop at Ennis to Malbay, for our
+use. Not only this, but a hundred of our rascally Scots deserted to him,
+he slipped past us at Galway, and I was in hopes you could give me word
+of him when I hit over this way. You're something of a ravager yourself,
+sink me if you aren't!" and he dug the Dark Master jovially in the
+ribs.
+
+"Yes," murmured O'Donnell thoughtfully, "so they say, Colonel Vere. But
+only when Parliament men come past, you understand. So you heard that
+this Yellow Brian was here?"
+
+"Aye, and that you were doing him to death," coolly responded Vere, and
+his eyes flickered to the white form on the stones. "Zounds! What's
+this?"
+
+"Yellow Brian," responded the Dark Master dryly. "What do you want with
+him?"
+
+"Eh? Why, I'll take him back to Galway and hang him! I've a dozen of the
+Scots he was fool enough to let loose, and when my men come up they'll
+identify him readily enough."
+
+"Unless he's dead," chuckled O'Donnell. "Well, if you want him you may
+have him and welcome. So now come in and sample some prime sack I took
+from the O'Malleys last year."
+
+"With all the honors," responded Vere gallantly, and as they strode past
+Brian the Dark Master hastily directed that he be washed and tended and
+brought back to his right mind as soon as might be.
+
+This order, and the conversation preceding it, gave Red Murrough some
+cause for thought. So it was that when Brian wakened once more in his
+cell, as evening was falling, he found the fetters on him indeed, but
+Red Murrough had bound up his wounds, dressed his sundered hand-bones,
+and was sitting watching him reflectively. It had occurred to the Dark
+Master's lieutenant that there might be something made out of this man,
+who seemed wanted in several places at once.
+
+Therefore it was that while Brian made an excellent meal for a man
+swathed from crown to knees in bandages, Red Murrough poured into his
+ear the tale of what had chanced in the courtyard, and why it was that
+he was not at this moment nailed to the castle door. Brian collected his
+energy with some effort.
+
+"Well, what of it?" he asked weakly.
+
+"Just this, Yellow Brian," and Murrough stroked his matted red beard
+easily. "O'Donnell will make a good thing out of handing you over to the
+royalists, who mean to hang you in style, it seems. Now, it is in my
+mind that it might advantage you somewhat if you were not moved thence
+for a few days--indeed, you might even escape, for I think you are not
+without friends."
+
+"Eh?" Brian stared up at him wonderingly. "What does it matter to you?"
+
+"Nothing, whether you live or die. But you are in my care, and if I
+report that you are in too bad shape to be moved--which you are
+not--then this Colonel Vere will camp outside our castle until you are
+handed over to him. You will gain a few days in which to get your wits
+back, and the rest is in your hands."
+
+"I had not thought you loved me so much," and despite his agony Brian
+forced out a bitter laugh.
+
+"Not I! Faith, I had liefer see you nailed--but a service may be paid
+for."
+
+"I have no money," Brian closed his eyes wearily.
+
+"No, but you have friends," and Murrough leaned forward. "Promise me a
+clerkly writing to the Bird Daughter's men, or to your own men, ordering
+that I be paid ten English pounds, and it is done."
+
+"With pleasure," smiled Brian wryly. "Also, if I escape, I will spare
+your life one day, Red Murrough."
+
+"Good. Then play your part." And Murrough departed well pleased with his
+acumen.
+
+And indeed, the man carried out his bargain more than faithfully. One
+visit assured the Dark Master that this broken, burned, cloth-swathed
+man was helpless to harm him further, and after that he gave Brian
+little thought.
+
+As Murrough had reckoned Brian's swoop on the convoy had given him some
+notoriety, and more than once Brian himself remembered Cathbarr's dark
+presage after he had let the ten Scots go free to Ennis; Colonel Vere
+was anxious to carry him back to Galway for an example to other
+freebooters, and he was quite content to bide at Bertragh Castle until
+his prisoner could travel.
+
+For that matter the other officers of his command were quite as content
+as he himself, since all were men from the south-country who loved good
+wines, and the Dark Master had better store of these than the empty
+royalist commissariat.
+
+As for the Dark Master, Murrough reported to Brian that he also was well
+content. Cromwell was sweeping like an avenging flame from Kilkenny to
+Mallow and Ormond was helpless before him; both king's men and Irish
+Confederacy men were pouring out of the South in despair, but the two
+had finally joined forces and the final stand would take place in the
+West. In fact, it seemed that things were dark for Parliament, despite
+Cromwell's activity, and the Dark Master was only one of many such who
+counted strongly on the rumors that the new king, Charles II, was on his
+way to Ireland with aid from France.
+
+And indeed he was at that time; but Charles, then and later, was more
+apt at starting a thing than at finishing it.
+
+Red Murrough lost no time in getting his "clerkly writing," luckily for
+himself. On the morning after his agreement he brought Brian a quill,
+and blood for lack of ink, and sheepskin. Brian wrote the order for ten
+pounds, promising to honor it himself if he escaped.
+
+This, however, did not seem likely, and even Murrough frankly stated
+that it was impossible. But Brian was tended well, and his perfect
+health was a strong asset. His head had been little more than scorched,
+and the scalp-wound stayed clean; after the first day there came a
+festering in his broken hand, but Murrough washed it out with vinegar
+which ate out the wound and cleansed it, after which he bound it firmly
+in wooden splints and it promised well.
+
+More than once Brian laughed grimly at the care he was getting, to the
+simple end that he should hang over Galway gates as a warning to the
+City of the Tribes and to all who entered the ancient Connacian town.
+For in that day Galway was a second Venice, and its commerce made rich
+plundering for the O'Malley's both of Gorumna and of Erris in the North,
+though the war had somewhat dimmed the glory of the fourteen great
+merchant families.
+
+Brian wondered often what had become of Cathbarr and his two hundred
+men, and Murrough could give him little satisfaction. It was known that
+the force had slipped away from Cathbarr's tower and had vanished; Brian
+guessed that Turlough had either led them north, or else into the
+western mountains where the O'Flahertys held savage rule. However, it
+was certain that neither the Dark Master nor the royalists had scattered
+them as yet.
+
+So Brian lay in his tower four days and might have lain there four-score
+more by dint of Red Murrough's lies, had it not been that on the fourth
+evening Colonel Vere managed to stay unexpectedly sober. Being thus
+sober, it occurred to him that he had best make sure he had the right
+man by the heels. So he ordered his ten Scots troopers in from the camp
+outside the walls, and the Dark Master sent for Brian to be identified.
+
+"I'll have you carried down," said Red Murrough on coming for him. "Play
+the part, _ma boucal_, and when these royalists get into their cups
+again they'll forget all that is in their heads. Here's a cup of wine
+before ye go, and another for myself. _Slainte!_"
+
+"_Slainte_," repeated Brian, and went forth to play his part.
+
+When the four men, with Red Murrough at their head, carried him down
+into the great hall, Brian found it no little changed. Tables were set
+along the walls, each of them being some ten feet in length by two wide,
+of massive oak, and in the center was another at which sat O'Donnell,
+Colonel Vere, and one or two other officers. Besides these there were a
+score more of the royalist officers mingled with the Dark Master's men,
+and it seemed that there would be few sober men in that hall by
+midnight, from the appearance of things. Only the ten Scots stood calm
+and dour before the fireplace.
+
+After that first quick glance around, Brian lay with his head back and
+his eyes closed, careful not to excite O'Donnell's suspicion that he was
+stronger than he seemed. He was set down in front of the ten Scots, and
+there was an eager craning forward of men to look at him, for his name
+was better known than himself.
+
+"Zounds!" swore Vere thickly. "The man has a strong and clean-cut face,
+O'Donnell! Strike me dead if he does not look like that painting of
+O'Neill, the Tyrone Earl, that hangs in the castle at Dublin! Though for
+that matter there is little enough of his face to be seen. You must have
+borne hardly on him with your cursed tortures."
+
+"I fancy he is an O'Neill bastard," returned the Dark Master lightly.
+Brian felt the red creep into his face, but he knew that he was helpless
+in his chains, and he lay quiet. "Is he your man, Vere?"
+
+"How the devil should I know?" Vere turned to the troopers and spoke in
+English. "Well, boys, is this the fellow we're after? Speak up now!"
+
+"It's no' sae easy tae ken," returned one cautiously. "Yon man has the
+look o' Brian Buidh, aye."
+
+"Devil take you!" cried Vere irritably. "Do you mean to say yes or no?
+Speak out, one of you!"
+
+"Weel, Colonel," answered another cannily, "Jock here has the right of
+it. I wouldna swear tae the pawky carl, but I'd ken the een o' him full
+weel. An I had a peep in his een, sir. I'm thinkin' I'd ken their
+de'il's look. Eh, lads?"
+
+Since it seemed agreed that they would know Brian better by his hard
+blue eyes than by what they could see of his face, the exasperated Vere
+commanded that he be made open them if he were unconscious.
+
+"Run your hand down his body, Murrough," ordered the Dark Master
+cynically.
+
+Red Murrough leaned over Brian, and the latter opened his eyes without
+waiting for the rough command to be obeyed. Instantly the Scots broke
+into a chorus of recognition as Brian's gaze fell on them. Vere looked
+at him with an admiring laugh.
+
+"Sink me, but the man has eyes! Well, so much the better for the ladies,
+eh? Now that this is over, give the lad a rouse and send him back to his
+cell."
+
+He waved the Scots to begone, and rose cup in hand. Smiling evilly, the
+Dark Master joined him in the toast to Brian, and a yell of delight
+broke from the crowd as they caught the jest and joined in. O'Donnell
+was just motioning Murrough to have Brian taken away, when there came a
+sudden interruption, as a man hastened up the hall. It was one of Vere's
+pikemen.
+
+"There is a party of four horsemen just outside our camp, colonel. One
+of them bade us get safe-conduct for him from O'Donnell Dubh, upon his
+honor."
+
+"Eh?" the Dark Master snarled suddenly. "What was his name, fool?"
+
+"Cathbarr of the Ax, lord."
+
+A thrill shot through Brian, and he tried feebly to sit up. The Dark
+Master flashed him a glance. The hall had fallen silent.
+
+"His business?"
+
+"He bears word from one called the Bird Daughter, he said."
+
+While the royalists stared, wondering what all this boded, O'Donnell bit
+his lips in thought. Finally he nodded.
+
+"Let the man enter, and tell him that he has my honor for his
+safe-conduct."
+
+Vere nodded, and the pikeman departed. Instantly the hall broke into
+uproar, but leaving the table, the Dark Master crossed swiftly to
+Brian, and bent over him.
+
+"Either swear to keep silence, or I have you gagged."
+
+"I promise," mumbled Brian as if he were very weak. The Dark Master
+ordered him carried behind one of the tables close by, and a cloak flung
+over him. When it had been done, Brian found that he could see without
+being seen, which was the intent of O'Donnell.
+
+Meanwhile the Dark Master was telling Vere and the other officers of
+Cathbarr, it seemed, and Vere hastily collected his wine-stricken
+senses.
+
+"Nuala O'Malley, eh?" he exclaimed when the Dark Master had finished.
+"She is the one who has held Gorumna Castle and would make no treaty
+with us, though she has more than once sent us powder, I understand."
+
+"I will talk with you later concerning her," returned O'Donnell. "She is
+allied with Parliament, they say, and it might be well for all of us if
+ships were sent against her place from Galway, and she were reduced."
+
+Brian saw that things were going badly. The Dark Master seemed to be
+playing his cards well, and was doubtless thinking of throwing off the
+cloak and openly allying himself with the royalist cause. In this way he
+could secure help against Gorumna in the shape of Galway ships and men,
+and it was like to go hard with the Bird Daughter in such case.
+
+However, Vere had no power to treat of such things, as Brian well knew.
+Also, Nuala had told him herself that her ships had not preyed on the
+commerce of Galway's merchants, but only on certain foreign caracks
+which free-traded along the coast. Therefore the Galwegians were not apt
+to make a troublesome enemy in haste, even if she were proved to be in
+alliance with Cromwell.
+
+None the less, the Dark Master was plainly thinking of making an effort
+in this direction, and Brian knew that the Bird Daughter was in no shape
+to carry things with a high hand in Galway town.
+
+He saw Vere and the Dark Master talking earnestly together across the
+table, but could not hear their words--and it was well, indeed, for him
+that he could not. As he was to find shortly, O'Donnell's quick brain
+had already grasped at what lay behind Cathbarr's coming, or something
+of it, and he had formed the devilish scheme on the instant--that scheme
+which was to result in many things then undreamed of.
+
+"If I had followed Turlough's rede, there when I first met this devil,"
+thought Brian bitterly, "I had slain him upon the road, and that would
+have been an end of it. Well, I think that I shall heed Turlough Wolf
+next time--if there is a next time."
+
+Brian looked out from his shelter with troubled eyes, for there was
+something in the wind of which he had no inkling. He saw Vere break into
+a sudden coarse laugh, and a great light of evil triumph shot across
+O'Donnell's face. Then the Dark Master gained his feet, gathered his
+cloak about his hunched shoulders, and sent Murrough to stand guard over
+Brian with a pistol and to shoot if he spoke out.
+
+"Surely he cannot be going back on his word, passed before so many men?"
+thought Brian bitterly. "No, that would shame him before all Galway, and
+he is proud in his way. But what the devil can be forward?"
+
+To that he obtained no answer. The Dark Master shoved his table back
+toward the fireplace, and placed his chair in front of it beside that of
+Colonel Vere. It seemed to Brian that the stage was being set for some
+grim scene, and a great fear seized on him lest harm was in truth meant
+toward Cathbarr.
+
+No doubt the giant had been in communication with the Bird Daughter, and
+it had been ascertained that the galley had come to grief at Bertragh
+Castle. A sudden thrill of hope darted through Brian. Was it possible
+that Cathbarr had led down his men and placed them in readiness to
+attack? Yet such a thing would have been madness--to set a scant two
+hundred against Vere's pikemen and the Dark Master's force combined!
+
+But Brian knew that Turlough Wolf was at large, and Turlough's brain was
+more cunning than most.
+
+If he could only get free, he thought, he might still be able to do
+something. He could ride, though it would mean bitter pain, and his
+sword-arm was still good--but he had got no farther than this when there
+came a tramping of feet, and in the doorway appeared Cathbarr, his
+mighty ax in hand, with the O'Donnells around him as jackals surround a
+lion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE BAITING OF CATHBARR.
+
+
+The bearded giant still wore the long mail-shirt that reached to his
+knees, and he paused at the doorway with his eyes roving about the hall.
+Well did Brian know whom he sought, but it was vain, for Cathbarr could
+not see him where he lay.
+
+Then Brian saw that the ax had been changed, and wondered at it. One of
+the long, back-curving blades had been rubbed down with files, so that
+it was very tapering and thin like an ordinary ax-blade, while the other
+was still the blunt, heavy thing it had always been. Brian read the
+cunning of Turlough Wolf in that handiwork, and in fact the great ax was
+thus rendered tenfold more deadly.
+
+The Dark Master waited quietly until Cathbarr began a slow advance up
+the hall, all eyes fixed on him in no little wonder. Then O'Donnell
+raised a hand, stopping him.
+
+"Let us have your message, Cathbarr."
+
+The giant halted and dropped the ax-head, leaning on the haft of the
+weapon. He took his time about replying, however, and his eyes still
+roved about the hall ceaselessly and uneasily. Then of a sudden he gave
+over the search, and gazed straight at the Dark Master with a swift
+word:
+
+"Have you slain him?"
+
+"Slain who, Cathbarr?" queried O'Donnell, with a thin smile.
+
+"_Duar na Criosd!_" bellowed Cathbarr with sudden fury. "Who but my
+friend Brian?"
+
+"Oh!" The Dark Master laughed and eased back in his chair. "No, he's
+still alive, Cathbarr? Is your message from the Bird Daughter in his
+regard?"
+
+"Yes." Cathbarr fought for self-control, the breast of his mail shirt
+rising and falling, his bloodshot eyes beginning to circle about the
+place once more in a helpless and angry wonder.
+
+"O'Donnell Dubh," he went on at last, "Nuala O'Malley sends you this
+word. Give Brian Buidh over to her, and she will pay you what ransom you
+demand."
+
+"What alliance is there between Brian and her?" asked O'Donnell softly.
+
+"Brian has given her service, and I have," Cathbarr flung up his head.
+"Our men lie in Gorumna Castle, there are ships coming from Erris and
+the isles, and if Brian be slain we shall bear on this hold and give no
+quarter. We have four hundred men now, and five ships are coming from
+the North."
+
+The Dark Master gazed quietly at the giant, Vere taking no part in the
+talk. But Brian, watching also, saw that which brought a mocking smile
+to O'Donnell's pallid face. Cathbarr had no fear of any man, and lies
+did not come easily to his lips; when he spoke of the force lying in
+Gorumna, and of help from Erris, his face gave him away. Brian saw
+Turlough behind that tale, but Cathbarr was no man to carry it off with
+success.
+
+"Well," laughed the Dark Master, "none the less shall Brian be slain.
+Carry back that word to Nuala O'Malley."
+
+Cathbarr's mighty chest heaved like a barrel near to bursting. Brian was
+minded to break his promise, but Murrough's pistol was at his head, and
+he could but lie quietly and watch. The giant's face flushed somewhat.
+
+"I have not finished," said he. "My business for the Bird Daughter is
+done in truth, but now I have to speak a word of my own."
+
+"Let us hear it," returned O'Donnell.
+
+"It is this." Cathbarr drew himself up. "I am more your enemy than is
+Brian. Let him go, O'Donnell Dubh, and take me in his place, for I love
+him."
+
+A sudden amazed silence fell on every man there, and but for Murrough's
+warning hand Brian would have sat up. O'Donnell's jaw fell for an
+instant, then his head drew in between his shoulders, he put a hand to
+Vere's arm, and whispered something. The royalist nodded, a grin on his
+coarse face, and the Dark Master settled back easily. Cathbarr still
+stood waiting, the ax held out before him, and a glory in his wide eyes.
+
+"I would sooner hold you than Brian," and O'Donnell spoke softly. "If
+you will to take his place and die in his stead, Cathbarr, then loose
+that ax of yours."
+
+Brian saw that Cathbarr was lost indeed, for the Dark Master was not
+likely to give over his pact with the royalists so easily. Cathbarr
+heaved up his ax with a great laugh, like a child; he brought it down on
+the stones, but if he had meant to break it the effort was vain. The
+huge weapon clanged down and bounded high out of his two hands, so that
+men drew back in awe; but the ax whirled twice in the cresset-light,
+then fell and slithered over the flagging beneath a table, and no man
+touched it.
+
+"Take me," said Cathbarr simply.
+
+"Nay," answered the Dark Master calmly, though his eyes flamed, "kneel
+down."
+
+Cathbarr stood breathing heavily for an instant, then slowly obeyed.
+Brian saw that his curly beard was beginning to stand out from his face,
+but no word came from him as he went to his knees.
+
+"Now," went on the Dark Master, "pray me for Brian's life, mighty one."
+
+The giant struggled with himself, for humiliation came hard to him. Then
+his voice fell curiously low, terrible in its self-restraint.
+
+"I pray you for the life of Yellow Brian, O'Donnell."
+
+Brian forced himself up, thinking to cry out a warning before it was too
+late; but Murrough's hand closed over his mouth and forced him back
+relentlessly.
+
+"Bring ropes," said the Dark Master, and ordered Cathbarr to his feet.
+
+Men hastened out, and returned with a length of rope, binding the
+giant's arms behind his back, from elbow to wrist. Then the Dark Master
+laughed harshly, but Vere leaned toward him, his face troubled.
+
+"Do not carry this thing farther, O'Donnell," said the royalist
+hoarsely. "This man is a fool, but he has a great heart. Let be."
+
+For answer the Dark Master whirled on him with such fury in his snarl
+that Vere drew back hastily, and no more words passed between them at
+that time. O'Donnell rose and walked down the hall toward Cathbarr, in
+his hand a little switch that he used upon that wolfhound of his.
+
+"Now," he said softly, yet his voice pierced hard through the dead
+stillness, "in token that your humility in this affair is without guile,
+Cathbarr of the Ax, bow your head to me."
+
+The giant obeyed, closing his eyes. The Dark Master lifted his hand and
+cut him twice across the head with his switch, while Brian gasped in
+amazement and looked for Cathbarr to strike out with his foot. But
+although the giant shuddered, he made no move, and the Dark Master
+strode back to his seat with a laugh. Then Cathbarr raised his face, and
+Brian saw that it was terribly convulsed.
+
+"Do with me as you wish," he said, still in that low voice. "But now let
+Brian be freed in my presence."
+
+The Dark Master flung back his head in a laugh, and when the men saw his
+jest, a great howl of derision rang up to the rafters. Only Vere's
+officers looked on with black faces, for it was plain that this affair
+was none of their liking. A look of simple wonder came into Cathbarr's
+wide-set eyes.
+
+"Why do you not loose him?" he asked quietly.
+
+"Fetch the man out, Murrough," ordered the Dark Master. "Shoot him if he
+speaks."
+
+Now, whether through some shred of mercy--for he knew well that Brian
+would cry out--or for some other reason, Murrough leaned down swiftly to
+Brian's ear.
+
+"Careful," he whispered as he motioned his men forward. "Play the part,
+and mind that this thing is not yet finished."
+
+The warning came in good time, and cooled Brian's raging impulse. He was
+lifted from behind the table, his chains clanking, and laid upon it;
+Cathbarr gave a great start and bellowed out one furious word:
+
+"Dead!"
+
+"Nay," smiled the Dark Master. "His eyes are open, and he is but weak
+with his wounds, Cathbarr. Now say--would you sooner that we cut off
+that right hand of his, or blinded him? One of these things I shall do
+before I loose him, for I said only that I would take your life for
+his."
+
+Brian saw that the Dark Master was only playing with the giant, for well
+he knew that Vere wanted to take him back to Galway whole and sound. But
+Cathbarr knew nothing of this, and as the whole terrible trickery
+flashed over his simple mind he lifted a face that was dark with blood
+and passion.
+
+"Do not play with me!" he cried out, his voice deep and angry. "Loose
+him!"
+
+Then O'Donnell leaned back in his chair, laughing with his men, and
+waved a careless hand toward Vere.
+
+"He is not mine," he grinned. "I have given him to the royalists, for
+hanging at Galway. You, however, are now mine to slay."
+
+Whether the Dark Master indeed meant to break his plighted faith, Brian
+never knew. Cathbarr took a single step forward, his curly beard
+writhing and standing out, and his whole face so terrible to look on
+that all laughter was stricken dead in the hall.
+
+"You lied to me!" he cried hoarsely. "You lied to me!"
+
+O'Donnell laughed.
+
+"Aye, Cathbarr. Your master goes back to Galway to be hung--he is out of
+my hands, but you are in them. However, since I have passed my word on
+your safe-conduct, I think that I may hold to it."
+
+But the giant had not heard him. Throwing back his head, he gave one
+deep groan of anguish, and his shoulders began to move very slowly as
+his chest heaved up. All the while his eyes were fixed on the Dark
+Master, while the whole hall watched him in awe; not even Brian or
+O'Donnell himself guessed what that slow movement of Cathbarr's body
+boded.
+
+"Best put chains upon him, Murrough," said the Dark Master, his teeth
+shining under his drooping mustache.
+
+Vere cried out in sudden wonder.
+
+"'Fore Gad! Look!"
+
+Then indeed the Dark Master looked, and sprang to his feet, and one
+great shout of alarm and fear shrilled up from those watching. For as
+Cathbarr stood there, the veins had suddenly come out on his face and
+neck, and with a dull sound the ropes had broken on his arms, and he was
+free.
+
+Murrough rushed forward, and his pistol spat fire. Cathbarr, with his
+eyes still on the Dark Master, put out a hand and Murrough went whirling
+away with a dull groan. Then the giant rushed.
+
+O'Donnell did not stay for that meeting, but slipped away like a shadow
+into his surging men, yelling at them to fire. There were few muskets in
+the hall, however, and an instant later Cathbarr had reached the table
+where Vere still sat astounded. He brought down a fist on the royalist's
+steel cap, and Vere coughed horribly and fell out of his chair with his
+skull crushed.
+
+Now a musket roared out, and another. But Cathbarr caught up the oaken
+table and faced around on the men who were surging forward at him;
+lifting the ten-foot table as though it were paper, he bellowed
+something and rushed at them, casting the table in a great heave. It
+fell squarely on the front rank, and then indeed fear came upon the
+hall. For Cathbarr's foot had struck against his ax, and he rose with it
+in his hand.
+
+There was a din of screams and shouts, for half the men were struggling
+to get out of the hall and the rest were rushing to get at Cathbarr.
+Another musket crashed, and in the smoke Brian saw the giant stagger,
+recover, and go bellowing into the crowd.
+
+Brian struggled from the table, groaned with pain, and then stood
+watching. He could walk, but his weakness and the chains on his wrists
+and ankles hindered him from being of any advantage to Cathbarr, though
+he lifted his voice in a shout of encouragement.
+
+Cathbarr heard the shout, and roared out with delight. A musket-ball had
+cut across his forehead, and with the blood dripping from his beard he
+looked more like a demon than a man. The huge ax flashed in the smoky
+light, and before it men groaned and shrieked and gave back; it cleaved
+steel and flesh, or smashed helms and heads together, and the Dark
+Master had slipped from the place, so that his men had no leader.
+
+Over the roar of fear-mad men, over the storm of shrieks and shouts,
+over the dust and smoke, rose the mighty bellow of Cathbarr and the
+thudding blows of his ax. The royalist officers were fighting around the
+doorway, while O'Donnell's men were trying to make head against the
+giant, but he swept through them like a whirlwind, awing them more by
+his ferocious aspect and his mad rage than by the half-seen effect of
+his terrific strength.
+
+Little by little they eddied out from the door. Men lay all about,
+tables were overturned, and through the crowd swirled the terrible ax,
+leaving a path of dead in its wake. Brian staggered to the motionless
+form of Colonel Vere, and reaching down drew a pistol from the dead
+man's belt. His strength was flooding back to him, and in spite of the
+agony caused by every movement, he clanked slowly down toward the door.
+At sight of his chained and bandage-swathed figure a wild shriek welled
+up, and when he laughed and fired into the midst of them all opposition
+ceased.
+
+Cathbarr still sought the Dark Master, raging back and forth, smiting
+and smiting with never a pause in the flaillike sweep of his long arms.
+He saw Brian standing there, and emitted a wild bellow of joy, but never
+ceased from his smiting. Out through the door poured a stream of
+maddened figures, for blind panic had come on every man there, and
+Cathbarr's was not the only weapon that drew blood as the men fought for
+exit.
+
+Brian laughed again, for now he knew that he would die in no long time,
+but it would not be under the torturers. Cathbarr cleared the hall, sent
+the last man flying out with an arm lopped from him, and swung to the
+huge doors after kicking two or three bodies from his way. When the beam
+had dropped into place and they were alone with the dead and dying, he
+turned to Brian and flung out his arms.
+
+"Careful!" exclaimed Brian, seizing his hand. "None of your bear-hugs,
+old friend," and he swiftly told of his tortures. Tears ran down the
+giant's blood-strewn face as he listened, and with the tenderness of a
+woman he picked up Brian and carried him back to a table, setting him on
+it.
+
+"First for these chains, brother," he cried, going back for his ax. "We
+may yet win out against these devils."
+
+"Small chance," smiled Brian grimly. "I cannot swing a blade, and we
+cannot hold this hall for long. Besides, you have some wounds."
+
+Cathbarr roared out a laugh, exuberantly as a boy, and carefully spread
+Brian's legs open on the table.
+
+"Hold quiet!" he cautioned, and swung up the ax. Down it flashed, the
+thinner blade sheared through the chain an inch from Brian's ankle and
+split the oak beneath, and Cathbarr drew back for a second blow.
+
+Four times he struck, and the blows smote off the chains from each wrist
+and ankle, although the locked rings still remained. But Brian was free,
+and when he gained his feet he found the exercise had somewhat loosened
+his muscles, and he picked up a sword.
+
+"We can at least die fighting, Cathbarr," he said, and looked into the
+giant's eyes. "And, brother, I thank you."
+
+"Nonsense!" blurted out Cathbarr, wiping the blood from his eyes and
+grinning through his beard. "Turlough Wolf has our men hidden around
+this royalist camp, and the Bird Daughter has a boat outside the castle.
+We cannot get through the royalists, but there is a chance that we can
+get to the shore. Besides, she has ships and men coming from her kinsmen
+in the North. Now, how shall we get away?"
+
+Brian shook his head. "I can hardly walk, Cathbarr, to say nothing of
+swimming or fighting. There is a rear door out of the hall, yonder, but
+no use trying it."
+
+"Perchance I have still some strength," grinned Cathbarr, picking up his
+ax. "Let us have a look at that rear door, before they come at us with
+muskets."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+HOW THE DARK MASTER WAS RUINED.
+
+
+The fear that had come upon the O'Donnells was so great that not until
+pikemen entered the castle from the camp could the Dark Master get men
+at the doors of the hall. And this proved the salvation of Brian and
+Cathbarr, for when they left the hall by the rear door and slipped
+through the corridors, they came out upon the rear or seaward
+battlements of the castle.
+
+These they found denuded of men, while from the courtyard and front of
+the keep were rising shouts and batterings, whereat Cathbarr chuckled.
+
+"They are all drawn around to the front, brother. Now, how to get down
+from here?"
+
+Brian looked around in the starlight, but saw that there was no gate or
+other opening in the walls. He began to lose hope again; once the Dark
+Master had burst into the great hall he would scatter men over the whole
+castle, and their shrift would be short. At this point the walls were
+some thirty feet high, and pointing out to the sea stood four of the
+bastards, with balls piled beside them.
+
+"Now if we had a rope," he said, "the matter would not be hard. Is that
+boat near the shore?"
+
+"Not so far that I cannot make them hear," grinned Cathbarr, opening his
+mouth to shout, but Brian stopped him.
+
+"Be careful--do you want to draw down the O'Donnells likewise? Now, cut
+the ropes from these cannon, and if we have time we shall yet get down
+safe."
+
+Cathbarr rushed off in delight, and began hewing at the recoil-ropes
+which bound the bastards and their carriages to their places. Brian
+followed him, seizing the ropes and trying to knot the strands hastily
+and with no little pain to himself; but now the hope of escape began to
+thrill through him, and for the first time since sighting the Dark
+Master's stronghold he began to think that he might yet get away.
+However, he could do little knotting with one hand, and not until
+Cathbarr impatiently took over the task was it finished. At the same
+instant a great burst of yells rose over the castle.
+
+"Hasten!" cried Brian, as the other began fastening the line to a
+cannon. "I can use one hand--"
+
+"Save your strength," grunted Cathbarr, lifting him after swinging the
+loop of his ax around his neck. "Catch me about the neck with your good
+arm, and trust me for the rest, brother."
+
+Brian did as he was ordered, since there was no time for lowering him
+down. The giant scrambled over the edge, gripping the twisting rope, and
+Brian tightened his lips to keep down his groans, for the agony was
+cruel to him. He was forced against the body of Cathbarr, and swirl
+after swirl of pain went over him at each touch on his burns.
+
+The giant grunted once or twice, for he had many slight wounds also, but
+with the rope gripped in hands and feet, he lowered away steadily. At
+length they reached the ground, and the scattered rocks along the shore
+were but a few yards away.
+
+Cathbarr sent his bull-like voice roaring out at the stars, while Brian
+clung weakly to him and searched the waters. He could see nothing, but
+suddenly there drifted in a faint shout, and Cathbarr bellowed once
+more.
+
+"Swim for it," said Brian, as torches began to move along the walls
+above. "If those cannon are not loaded, we're safe."
+
+Cathbarr nodded, and caught up the body of Brian tenderly enough in one
+arm, as he splashed out. The icy water shocked Brian's brain awake and
+drove the pain out of him momentarily, and before Cathbarr was
+waist-deep he heard a hail and saw the dark shape of a galley
+approaching.
+
+Muskets flashed out from the walls, and their bullets whistled overhead,
+but five minutes later Brian was on the galley, Cathbarr was clambering
+over the side, and the light boat was being rowed out again.
+
+Brian thought his senses were slipping away when he found Nuala O'Malley
+herself holding his head as he lay in the stern, while men flung cloaks
+around him; but warm tears dripped on his face, and she patted his arm
+soothingly.
+
+"Lie quiet," she said, but Brian would not, for already his brain was
+leaping ahead, and he knew that there was work to be done.
+
+"Tell me," he asked eagerly, "are my men camped around the royalists?
+Is help indeed coming to you from the North?"
+
+"Yes," she replied, trying to quiet him. "A pigeon came in from Erris
+to-day, with word that two ships with men were on the way to help me.
+When I returned from the South and found that the plague had been at
+Gorumna, I sent off asking for help, and now it is coming."
+
+"Then send word to Turlough!" cried Brian eagerly. "Tell him to throw my
+men on the royalist camp _to-night_ and drive the pikemen into the
+castle! Colonel Vere is dead, and there is such confusion that all will
+think we have more than two hundred men. If we can leaguer them there
+until your ships come, we may win all at a blow!"
+
+Nuala found instantly that there was meat in the plan, and as they were
+rowing out to meet one of her caracks, promised to send in the galley
+with word to Turlough when they got aboard the larger ship.
+
+This they were no great while in doing. Brian knew nothing of it, for
+upon the Bird Daughter's word he had dropped away into a faint once
+more. With this Nuala O'Malley was quite content, so that when Brian
+wakened he was greatly refreshed and found himself lying bandaged on a
+bunk with the sunlight coming through a stern-port beside him, and the
+Bird Daughter watching him with food and drink ready.
+
+"Take of this first," she smiled; "then we will talk."
+
+Brian obeyed, being very thirsty and ravenously hungered. He had little
+pain except when he tried to move, and so he ate as he lay, propped up
+with folded garments, and watched the Bird Daughter. She refused to
+speak until he had eaten the meat and cakes she had fetched, but when he
+smiled and asked for a razor her grave face rippled with frank laughter,
+and her deep violet eyes danced as they looked into his.
+
+"I am sorry I have none," she said mockingly. "So you must wait till we
+come to port again. Just at present we are off Slyne Head and bearing
+northward."
+
+"What!" Brian stared at her. "Are you in jest?"
+
+It appeared that she was not, for she was sailing north to meet those
+ships of her kinsmen, and to hasten them back with her. Meantime
+Cathbarr had been sent ashore to meet Turlough and hold the Dark Master
+and his royalists in check. Nuala had sent fifty of her men to join
+Turlough, left twenty to hold her castle, and had ten with her upon the
+carack. It seemed likely that Turlough and Cathbarr could hold the Dark
+Master penned up for a few days at least, even with fewer men; if they
+could not, said Nuala shortly, they had best sit at spinning-wheels for
+the rest of their lives.
+
+"You are a wonderful girl!" said Brian, and fell asleep again.
+
+He remembered little of that voyage, for they met two caracks crowded
+with men off Innishark that afternoon, found they were the expected
+O'Malleys from the North, and turned back with them at once. Brian
+wakened again that same evening, but Nuala refused to let him go on deck
+until the following morning, when they sighted Bertraghboy Bay. Then
+Brian discarded most of his bandages, dressed, and, with his left arm in
+a sling, joined the Bird Daughter on the quarterdeck. He found that his
+burns were well on toward healing, for he could walk slowly without
+great pain, and had every confidence that he could sit a horse if need
+be.
+
+Sailing past Bertragh Castle, the three ships went on up the bay and
+cast anchor. It was not hard to see that Turlough and Cathbarr had done
+their work well, for in passing the castle they had made out that the
+royalist pikemen had been driven inside, and there was some musketry to
+be heard at times. No sooner had the anchor-cables roared out, indeed,
+than a band of men came riding toward the shore, and Nuala sent off a
+boat for them. She had known nothing of Cathbarr's deeds at the castle
+until Brian had told her of them, and on seeing that the giant was among
+those coming off, she smiled at Brian.
+
+"Now you shall see how a girl can conquer a giant, Yellow Brian!"
+
+Brian laughed and waved a hand to Turlough, who was beside Cathbarr in
+the boat. As the men came over the rail, Nuala quietly pushed him aside
+and faced the giant, sharply bidding him kneel. Cathbarr had been all
+for rushing forward to Brian, and obeyed with an ill grace, when Nuala
+quickly leaned forward and kissed him on the brow.
+
+"That is for bravery and faith," she said. "Truly, I would that you
+served me!"
+
+Poor Cathbarr grew redder than the Bird Daughter's cloak. He started to
+his feet, gazed around sheepishly, found all men laughing at him--and
+did the best thing he could have done, which was to go to his knees
+again and put Nuala's hand to his lips.
+
+"While my master serves you, I serve you," he blurted out, and this
+answer must have pleased Nuala mightily, for she flushed, laughed, and
+bade all down into the cabin.
+
+Brian greeted Turlough with no little joy, but beyond assurances that
+all went well, gained no knowledge of what had happened. Nuala had sent
+for the O'Malley chieftains, and proposed to hold a conference at once.
+
+The O'Malleys arrived from the other ships in a scant five
+minutes--dark, silent men who spoke little, but spoke to the point. Art
+Bocagh, or the Lame, had had one leg hamstrung in his youth, but Brian
+took him for a dangerous man in battle; while his cousin Shaun the
+Little was a very short man with tremendous shoulders.
+
+Nuala took her seat at the head of the stern-cabin table, and the
+position of affairs was gone over carefully.
+
+It seemed that no sooner had Turlough learned from Cathbarr of what had
+taken place in the castle, and that Brian was safe on shipboard, than
+he drove his men down pell-mell on the camp, just before dawn. Any other
+man would have been exhausted by the events of that night, but Cathbarr
+had led them in the assault. The result had been that, with hardly any
+resistance, they had slain some four-score of the pikemen, and would
+have captured or slain them all had it not been for the Dark Master's
+cannon which drove them back.
+
+The better part of the royalist officers had fallen, either then or
+under the ax of Cathbarr in the hall of the castle. In fact, after
+learning that he had slain some nineteen persons on that occasion,
+Cathbarr had taken no few airs upon himself. Vanity was to him as
+natural as to a child, and Brian hugely enjoyed watching the giant
+strut. However, what remained of Vere's five hundred pikemen were in the
+castle, joined to the Dark Master's men; and Turlough's advice was that
+since there must be some seven hundred mouths to feed, the safest plan
+was to bide close and force the fight to come to them, rather than to
+take it to O'Donnell.
+
+"There is reason against that, Turlough Wolf," said Brian quickly. "The
+Dark Master has men on the hills, and if news is borne to Galway of what
+has happened, we are like to have a larger army on our heels than we can
+cope with."
+
+"I have attended to O'Donnell's watchers," said Turlough grimly. "When
+Cathbarr bore word of the pact from Gorumna Castle, I sent out horsemen
+and we swept the hills bare of men. O'Donnell has no more than are in
+the castle, and a score of our own men are on the roads, watching for
+any ill."
+
+"How many men have we in all?" spoke up Lame Art O'Malley. "In our ships
+there are sixty men we can spare for land battle."
+
+"That gives us three hundred in all," replied Turlough to Nuala's
+questioning glance. "If we take a strong position we should sweep most
+of O'Donnell's men away at the first charge."
+
+"There you are wrong," said Brian, shaking his head. "Those pikemen are
+bad foes for cavalry, and our two hundred horsemen would shatter on them
+if they stood firm."
+
+"Not if we choose our ground," said the Bird Daughter, her eyes
+flashing. "Nay, _I_ am master here, my friends! Now this is my rede. We
+shall not waste men by attacking the castle, unless forced to it by an
+army from Galway. Instead, we will wait until the Dark Master is driven
+out by hunger; then we will fall on him and destroy him utterly.
+
+"Yellow Brian, you have some knowledge of war, and you shall take this
+matter in charge. Cathbarr, do you command fifty horse, with the men
+from our ships here, and keep the Dark Master in play. With the
+remainder, we shall wait in whatever spot Brian shall choose, and before
+many days are sped I think that Bertragh will be mine again."
+
+The Bird Daughter had her way, since none could find much against her
+plan; and that afternoon Brian went ashore with her and the O'Malleys,
+leaving the three ships at anchor under a small guard. Turlough had made
+camp a short mile from the castle, on a little hill among the farms;
+both Nuala and the O'Malley men were somewhat surprised at finding the
+O'Donnell women and children safe and untouched in their own steads.
+
+"I saw to that," laughed Turlough, slanting his crafty eyes at Brian. "I
+had but to threaten them in Brian's name, and the men only were slain."
+
+"I think that you are a hard master," laughed Nuala, but Brian smiled
+and pointed to his men, who were pouring out to meet him with shouts of
+joy.
+
+"All men do not rule by fear alone, Bird Daughter," he said quietly. She
+gave him a quick glance. "I found these men riffraff of the wars, and
+while they have no such love for me as Cathbarr here, I think they had
+liefer follow me than any other leader."
+
+After that Nuala said little concerning Brian's discipline.
+
+That night Nuala and Brian took up headquarters at one of the larger
+farms, and while Cathbarr went before the castle to keep the Dark Master
+in check and allow none to leave the place, they called in a number of
+those men O'Donnell had loaned to Brian, and questioned them about the
+provisioning of the castle.
+
+From these they found that there was good store of all things for the
+usual garrison, but with seven hundred men to feed the Dark Master would
+be forced out speedily. So with the dawn Brian and Turlough rode forth
+to select a battleground, and while Brian was very sore and riding
+caused him great pain at first, he soon found himself in better shape.
+
+Turlough picked a hollow in the road a mile farther from the castle,
+flanked on either hand by woods and hillsides where men might lie
+hidden. Brian found it good, and that afternoon a part of their horsemen
+were shifted thither in readiness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For the next three days there was little done. Twice the Dark Master
+attempted sallies with what few horsemen he had left, but on each
+occasion Cathbarr's horse smote his men and drove them back. To be sure,
+O'Donnell thundered with his bastards, but the guns only burned up good
+powder, for Brian would allow no assault made.
+
+By Turlough's advice, however, they brought about the Dark Master's fall
+through certain prisoners made in the two sallies.
+
+These captives were led through the depleted central camp, though they
+knew nothing of that picked place farther back. Having been allowed to
+see what men Brian had here, Turlough slyly drove Cathbarr into parading
+his vanity before them; and in all innocence the giant told how he could
+put the Dark Master's men to flight single-handed, and of his anxiety
+lest the O'Donnells should fear to fight in the open. What was more,
+Brian affected to be utterly shattered by his wounds, and with that the
+prisoners were sent back with a message offering quarter to all within
+the castle save the Dark Master himself.
+
+Early the next morning a horseman came riding fast from Cathbarr with
+word that the garrison was stirring. Without delay, Brian donned a
+mail-shirt, bound his useless left arm to his side, and mounted. The
+Bird Daughter insisted on accompanying him, and stilled his dismayed
+protests by asserting her feudal superiority; in the end she had her
+way.
+
+Leaving her kinsmen and a hundred more men to dispute O'Donnell's
+passage and give back slowly before him with Cathbarr, she and Brian
+rode to their men among the trees on the hillsides over the hollow in
+the road. Here they had a hundred and fifty men, composed of the Scots
+troopers and the pick of the others, and Nuala took one side of the road
+while Brian took the other. Then, being well hidden, they waited.
+
+Brian was savagely determined to slay the Dark Master that day, and came
+near to doing it. Presently a man galloped up to say that O'Donnell and
+six hundred men were on the road, having left the rest to hold the
+castle. A little later Cathbarr's retreating force came in sight, and
+after them marched O'Donnell. He had deployed his muskets in front and
+rear, and rode in the midst of his pikemen, whose banner of England blew
+out bravely in the morning wind.
+
+At the edge of the dip in the road Cathbarr led his men in full flight
+down the hollow and up the farther rise, where he halted as if to
+dispute the Dark Master further. There were barely a dozen mounted men
+with O'Donnell, and he made no pursuit, but marched steadily along with
+his muskets pecking at Cathbarr's men. When he had come between the
+wooded hillsides, however, Cathbarr came charging down the road; the
+pikemen settled their pikes three deep to receive him, and with that
+Brian led out his men among the trees and swooped down with an ax
+swinging in his right hand.
+
+Alive to his danger, the Dark Master tried to receive his charge, but
+at that instant Nuala's men burst down on the other flank. Brian headed
+his men, and at sight of him a yell of dismay went up from the
+O'Donnells. A moment later the pikemen's array was broken and the fight
+disintegrated into a wild affray wherein the horsemen had much the
+better of it.
+
+Brian tried to cut his way to the Dark Master, but when O'Donnell saw
+the pikemen shattered he knew that the day was lost. He gathered his
+dozen horsemen and went at Cathbarr viciously; Brian saw the two meet,
+saw O'Donnell's blade slip under the ax and Cathbarr go from the saddle,
+then the Dark Master had broken through the ring and was riding hard for
+the North.
+
+Brian wheeled his horse instantly, found the Bird Daughter at his side,
+and with a score of men behind them they rode out of the battle in
+pursuit. It proved useless, however, for the Dark Master had the better
+horseflesh; after half an hour he was gaining rapidly, and with a bitter
+groan Brian drew rein at last.
+
+"No use, Nuala," he said. "I must wait until my strength has come back
+to me, for I have done too much and can go no farther."
+
+The girl reined in beside him, and her hand went out to his, and he
+found himself gazing deep into her eyes.
+
+"For what you have done, Brian," she said simply, "thanks. Now let us
+ride back, for I think there is work before us, and we shall see the
+Dark Master soon enough."
+
+"I am not minded to wait his coming," quoth Yellow Brian darkly, and
+they returned.
+
+
+TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly,
+and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a
+month.
+
+
+
+
+Nuala O'Malley
+
+by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.
+
+
+This story began in the All-Story Weekly for December 30.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+BRIAN RIDES TO VENGEANCE.
+
+
+"Then you are intent on this vengeance, master?" asked Turlough
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes," answered Brian. "I here take oath that I will never cut hair nor
+beard again until I have seen the Dark Master dead."
+
+"You are not like to have a chance at your hair very soon," laughed out
+Lame Art O'Malley. "But that is a good oath, Yellow Brian."
+
+"Then I think this is a better plan," spoke up Turlough Wolf. "Give me
+ten men, Brian, and I will go to Galway. I will soon get traces of
+O'Donnell; and if he goes into the north to get men of his own sept"
+(tribe or family), "as I think most likely, I will send back word, and
+we can follow him."
+
+"Do it," said Brian, and Turlough was gone that night.
+
+This discussion took place in the hollow, where the fight was soon over
+after the flight of the Dark Master. Out of the six hundred who had left
+the castle, two hundred had been O'Donnell's men. Half of these remained
+and took service with Brian at once. Of the four hundred pikemen, three
+hundred had gone down fighting like the stubborn south-country men they
+were, and the rest took service with Nuala O'Malley. They were most of
+them Kerry men, and well disposed toward ships and piracy.
+
+Brian had lost in all fifty men in that battle, while the Dark Master
+had given Cathbarr a goodly thrust through the shoulder, which had let
+out most of the giant's vanity and promised to give the huge ax some
+time to rest and rust. So, then, Brian found himself heading two hundred
+and fifty men of his own, with Nuala's hundred O'Malleys, when they rode
+down again to Bertragh Castle.
+
+This had been left in charge of a hundred men under Red Murrough, who
+had not been slain, but only wounded by Cathbarr's fist, that night in
+the great hall. Having left a party to bring in the wounded in wagons
+from the farms, they arrived before the castle shortly after noon.
+Cathbarr was left in charge of the camp, and Brian rode up to the gates
+with Nuala and her two kinsmen, with a flag of truce.
+
+Murrough and his men were put into consternation by the news Brian gave
+them. After much stroking of his matted beard, Murrough proposed to
+surrender the castle on condition that he hold his post of lieutenant.
+Brian laughed, for he had other views on the subject.
+
+"You sold your master, and you will have no chance to sell me, Murrough.
+I will give you the ten pounds I owe you and a good horse. Refuse, and I
+slay you when we storm the castle."
+
+The end of that matter was that Murrough assented. An hour later he
+opened the gates, his men taking service with the rest under Brian.
+Then, having obtained his ten English pounds and a horse, he waved
+farewell to his men and rode away; and what became of him after that is
+not set forth in the chronicle, so he comes no more into this tale.
+
+Nuala loaded her fifty men into her carack, and sent them home that
+night to Gorumna in case of need, proposing to follow later with Lame
+Art, Shaun the Little, and her Kerry recruits. The O'Malley cousins
+intended going south, since their affair had been so unexpectedly
+ended, and picking up a Spanish ship or two before returning home.
+
+"And now, what of your plans?" asked Nuala, as she and Brian sat
+together that night before the huge fireplace in the hall, where Brian
+had been burned and where Cathbarr had fought so well. "Of course, we
+can settle rents later on."
+
+"When there are farms to gather rents from," laughed Brian, stretching
+out easily. He lifted his bandaged left hand, gazing at it. "First, I am
+minded to rest here and wait for news from Galway. The bones in this
+hand of mine are not broken, from what I can make out, and it will soon
+knit. As soon as may be, I shall ride after the Dark Master; when I have
+paid my debts, I will then be in shape to look for a castle for myself."
+
+"Then you are determined to kill O'Donnell?" and she looked at him
+sidewise.
+
+"He has my Spanish blade," said Brian. "It is good Toledo steel, and I
+want it back again."
+
+"You have three hundred and fifty men here," she observed. "Can you feed
+them?"
+
+"You have food in Gorumna--send me some. When I am well again I shall
+ride with most of them, which will lessen the burden. With the spring I
+will take lands between here and Slyne Head, for now I am strong enough
+to defend what I take."
+
+"I shall also send you some of my pigeons, Brian. They are born and bred
+on Gorumna Isle, and if you tie a message to them they will--"
+
+"I know," nodded Brian. "I have seen them used in Spain."
+
+With that she described how she used these pigeons, and Brian saw that
+it was not by strength alone that this girl had maintained her position.
+She kept men in Galway, Kinvarra, and elsewhere, as far south as the
+Shannon and as far north as Erris, with others at Limerick and Tuam and
+Castlebar. In this wise she got news of what was passing in Connaught
+and Munster before most men had it, and more than one foreign ship had
+found her caracks waiting for it through the same means, since she held
+a privateer commission given her by Blake to legalize her sea-roving.
+Also, she had pigeons which carried return messages, chiefly to her
+kinsmen in Erris.
+
+"And what is your goal, Bird Daughter?" Brian turned to her, his blue
+eyes clinching on her violet ones. "What will the end of all this wild
+life of yours be?"
+
+"I do not know," she answered him, and turned away from his eyes to
+stare down into the fire. "In the end I may be forced into marriage,
+though I think not, for I have some will of my own in that regard." She
+laughed out suddenly and looked up. "Two years ago Stephen Lynch sent me
+a fair screed in all the glory of his chevron and three shamrocks and
+wolf crest, saying that he was coming in one of his ships to marry me."
+
+"And did he ever come?" smiled Brian.
+
+"Yes; but I took his ship from him and sent him home again by road, tied
+to a horse," she rippled out merrily. "Poor Stephen! The Bodkins never
+let the Lynches hear the last of it until Stephen fell fighting against
+Coote, and there was an end of it and him, too. When are you going to
+tell me your name, Brian?"
+
+At the sudden question Brian was tempted, but forbore.
+
+"When I have slain the Dark Master," he laughed.
+
+"Then you are likely to be bearded worse than Cathbarr," she mocked him
+gaily. "Unless, indeed, you break that oath you swore this morning."
+
+"Not I," returned Brian shortly. "I am not given to light oaths or light
+pacts, Bird Daughter. I think I shall get me a ship and go cruising some
+day."
+
+"Come with me," she said, rising, "and you may win food and wine without
+begging from your overlord. Well, now for that chamber Cathbarr fixed up
+for me. _Beannacht leath!_"
+
+Somewhat to his surprise, the next morning Brian found that Nuala was
+extremely businesslike and even curt. Knowing little of women, he tried
+to find wherein he had offended; failed utterly, and gave over the
+attempt on seeing that Nuala preferred the company of Cathbarr.
+
+Then, remembering that kiss she had given the giant aboard ship, he
+concluded that the Bird Daughter was drawn by the physical magnificence
+of the man, which gave him a little bitterness. So he merely set his jaw
+the harder and said nothing of the thing that lay in his heart to any
+one. For that matter, he was not quite sure himself what the thing was;
+but he knew that he had never seen a woman such as the Bird Daughter in
+all his life, and was not apt to find another.
+
+Turlough having departed on his mission, Brian fell back on Cathbarr to
+act as lieutenant; with Nuala herself, the work of getting the castle in
+shape proceeded apace. The Bertragh hold was built on a cliff that rose
+from the plain on the one hand, and sloped down to the water on the
+other; had the Dark Master not fallen into Turlough's trap, he might
+have turned out the pikemen to shift for themselves and have held the
+castle with his own men for as long as he wished.
+
+Indeed, Brian found that the removal of danger and the taking of the
+castle had somewhat puffed up his men, lessening their fear of him. So,
+on the second day, he quelled a free fight that rose among them, hanged
+ten of the worst, and after this the others became as lambs before him.
+
+Upon exploring the castle, Brian was delighted to find it well equipped
+in all things except prisoners. The Dark Master had had little use for
+captives, it seemed, and his dungeons were in sad disrepair. However,
+there was good store of powder, provisions in moderation, a well within
+the castle, and no lack of arms and munitions of war. Brian promptly
+took the chamber of O'Donnell for his own use--a large tower-room well
+furnished in English style, and having the luxury of a fireplace
+besides.
+
+The construction of the building was simple--a large stone structure
+with embattled walls, running down close to the sea behind and rising
+above the plain in front. Save for the courtyard, the walls were not
+separated from the building proper, and there was one high tower, on
+which the flagstaff had been shattered since O'Donnell had taken the
+place, for he was not given to flags and display. Besides a dozen of the
+large bastards, there were five falcons, with plenty of ball.
+
+Therefore, Brian had good reason to be satisfied with his new home. The
+only thing that rankled was that he held it not for himself, but for the
+Bird Daughter; and he was determined that when he had settled scores
+with the Dark Master he would only remain here until he had secured a
+hold for himself, free of all service.
+
+But settling with O'Donnell Dubh was the first duty he had. Brian
+recalled his torture and the agony of Cathbarr every time he entered the
+hall. The iron rings that had been in the floor he had already torn out,
+while Nuala had taken for her own the lonely wolfhound, which had been
+left behind by the Dark Master. But Brian, who put all his desire for
+vengeance in the wish to "get back his Spanish blade," could hardly turn
+around without having some phase of his sufferings brought back to him.
+
+The men who had been thrown out along the roads had fetched in word that
+the Dark Master had ridden for Galway, so Brian had great hopes that
+Turlough would bring back some definite news. If O'Donnell settled in
+the city, he was determined to go in at all risks and seek out his enemy
+face to face; the O'Malleys were on good terms with the Bodkins, who in
+old Galway played _Capulet_ to the _Montague_ of the Lynch family, and
+he would be able to command some help in that quarter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the fifth day after the castle had been taken, a galley came over
+from Gorumna Castle bearing news. Cromwell had failed before Duncannon,
+and promised to fail again at Waterford, and hope was rising high among
+the royalists, while O'Neill's Ulster army was biding its time in the
+north until a new leader was chosen by the Confederacy to make head with
+Ormond against the Parliament armies.
+
+Upon this the O'Malley rovers were impatient to revictual at Gorumna and
+be off to the south after plunder, so Nuala decided to leave Bertragh
+the next morning. That night, after Cathbarr had drunk himself asleep
+and the O'Malleys had sought their ships, the Bird Daughter unexpectedly
+became very cordial toward Brian once more, and they sat up late before
+the fireplace.
+
+Brian did not understand it, but he was quite willing to accept it, and
+when the talk turned on personal matters he was careful to ask no
+questions concerning Nuala's plans for the future. Instead, he told her
+tales of his life at the Spanish court, which interested her vastly,
+until in the end she broke forth with a passionate outburst.
+
+"Oh, I wish I were a man!" she cried softly and eagerly, looking into
+the red embers. "All my life I have been among men, and yet not of them;
+I have had to do with guns and ships and powder, and I think I have not
+done so ill, yet I have had dreams of other things--things which I
+hardly know myself."
+
+Astonished though he was at her sudden unfolding of herself, Brian
+looked at her gravely, his blue eyes very soft as he pierced to her
+thought.
+
+"Yes," he said gently, "you are a woman, Bird Daughter--and if you were
+a man I think that you might have gain, but others would have great
+loss."
+
+"Eh?" She looked straightly at him, unfearing his half-expressed
+thought. "I do not seek idle compliments, Yellow Brian, from those who
+serve me."
+
+Brian flushed a little.
+
+"It is hard to receive compliments gracefully," he said, and at that she
+also colored, but laughed, her eyes still on his.
+
+"There, give grace to my rude tongue, Brian! Of course you meant it--but
+why?"
+
+"Because there is no woman like you, Nuala--so able to weld men into
+union, so vibrant with inner power, and yet so womanly withal. It is no
+little honor to have known you, to have--"
+
+"I wish you would tell me your name, Yellow Brian!"
+
+There was woman's cunning in the placing of that answer, and it took
+Brian all aback. For a moment he was near to blurting out his whole
+story; then he took shame for letting a girl's face so run away with
+him. None the less, he knew well that it was her heart as well as her
+face, and her spirit as well as her heart, that had captured him; yet,
+because he had had no dealings with women since leaving Spain some
+months before, he told himself that if the Bird Daughter had other women
+near by to compare herself with, less attraction might be found in her.
+
+But he did not pause long upon that thought, sweeping his blue eyes to
+hers in a smile.
+
+"If you had been a man, Nuala, you had never had fealty from me."
+
+"So--then it _was_ pity?" and swift anger leaped into her face.
+
+"Was it pity that drove Cathbarr to proffer his life for mine?" parried
+Brian, his eyes grave. He felt a great impulse to speak out all that was
+in him, but crushed it down. Her eyes met his, and held there for a long
+moment. Then she spoke very calmly:
+
+"When will you take that cruise with me, Yellow Brian?"
+
+"When I have won my Spanish blade again," he smiled, and after that they
+talked no more of intimate things, yet Brian's heart was glad within
+him.
+
+With the next morning the Bird Daughter said farewell and went aboard
+Lame Art's carack. Sorry was Brian to see her go, for he had come to
+count much on her fine backing and inspiring courage, and knew not if he
+would ever see her again. As the ships raised anchor, Cathbarr suddenly
+let off the bastards with a great roar and raised on the shattered
+flag-pole an ensign he had secretly obtained from Shaun the Little. The
+ship-cannon barked out in brave answer and hoisted ensigns likewise; but
+as Brian looked up at the flag overhead, his despondent mood was not
+heartened. The three-masted ship of the O'Malleys flew above him, where
+he had much rather flown the red hand of his own house.
+
+"When I have slain the Dark Master," he thought, watching from those
+same sea-facing battlements where he and Cathbarr had descended, as the
+two caracks leaped off to the south, "and when I have established myself
+in some hold, be it never so small, then I shall take back my name again
+and let the red hand hold what it has gripped. But not until these
+things have been done, for Brian O'Neill will give fealty to none--no,
+not even to the Bird Daughter herself."
+
+Thus he thought in his proud bitterness, reckoning not on what the
+future was to bring forth. However, he had lost his idea that Nuala
+might love Cathbarr, and had great gladness of it.
+
+Now there was work to be done, and Brian soon found himself too busy to
+bother his mind with thoughts of bitterness. Cathbarr had done no little
+drinking, so that his wound was turning bad, and in no little alarm
+Brian banished all liquors from him and tended him carefully. Taking a
+lesson from Red Murrough, he washed out the wound with vinegar, and
+found that this had its effect.
+
+Since Brian was irked at having to rely on others for his supplies, he
+rode to all the outlying farms and sent off the families there under
+escort, with sufficient money to keep them and take them to their homes
+in the north. Many of them chose to remain, and certain of his men knew
+of women-folk they wished to bring hither, so that Brian saw he would
+not lack for farmers and settlers. Enough fodder was obtained to keep
+his horses for a time; but as this did not satisfy him, he set forth
+after four days on a cattle-raid to the northeast, riding past the
+Manturks toward Ashford with ninety men.
+
+He was gone on that raid five days; found to his great joy that his
+strength had returned to him, and also found a small party of Royalist
+horse near Lough Corrib. These had been buying up cattle for the Galway
+garrison, and had collected fifty head; but on Brian's approach they did
+not stay for dispute, but fled.
+
+So Brian cheerfully sent the fifty head of cattle home with as many men,
+and with the others swept around through the mountains. With him were
+two of Cathbarr's axmen, and they led him to the hold occupied by
+Murrough O'Flaherty of the Kine, where Brian stayed half a day. He
+concluded a friendship with the mountaineers, promising them powder in
+exchange for cattle, and they promised, in turn, that within three weeks
+they would fetch a hundred kine down to Castle Bertragh.
+
+Having thus assured himself of both food and stock for his farms, he
+rode home again, to find great news awaiting him.
+
+First, there had come a galley from Gorumna with wine and stores. Nuala
+sent word that her men in Galway had informed her the Dark Master was
+there, but in no high favor with Lord Burke and the other commanders.
+Second, one of Turlough Wolf's men had come in with news which had
+caused Cathbarr to have the men in all readiness against Brian's return.
+
+The Dark Master was indeed in Galway town, and had made small head with
+his suit for men, having related that Vere and his pikemen were lost.
+However, he had been promised some help, provided he could gather any
+force of his own and would hold Bertragh for the Royalists. Cromwell had
+been driven back at Waterford, but Cork had risen for him, and his men
+had entered there.
+
+So the Dark Master was going to the north to get him men in Sligo, as
+Turlough had predicted he would do, and his plan was to raise a force,
+bring down those Donegal pirates with whom he was in alliance, and set
+on Bertragh by sea and land, as Brian himself had aimed at doing.
+Turlough said that he was following, but would leave men at Swineford
+and Tobercurry with further news of what happed.
+
+"Good!" cried Brian joyfully. "Cathbarr, have a hundred and fifty men
+saddled at dawn--what is this?"
+
+Turlough's messenger handed him a paper. It was a safe-conduct issued by
+the Confederacy and Royalist leaders in the name of one Stephen Burke,
+and where the wily Wolf had gotten it the messenger did not know. But it
+might come in useful, since there were few parliament men in Sligo and
+Mayo, and Brian tucked it away with a laugh.
+
+"Then to the north at dawn--and O'Donnell shall not escape me this
+time!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+HOW THE STORM FARED NORTH.
+
+
+Now, it was no easy matter for a band of horsemen to ride from Galway to
+Sligo in that day, unless they were known men and rode for the king or
+the Confederacy. Scattered bands of men had come into the west from
+Ulster and Leinster, and these had driven out what Parliament men had
+landed; through the early years of the war Owen Ruadh's men had swept
+all the west country, and now the land was resting, waiting for the
+storm that was fated to come upon it when the rest of Ireland had been
+crushed under the heel of Ireton. Enniskillen alone, in Fermanagh, held
+out for Parliament.
+
+So, while the larger towns were all under Irish authority, the
+hill-country was full of seething parties from all armies, most of them
+being ravagers and outlaws who would fear to lay hand on so large a
+party as Brian's. But little Brian cared for them, and without let or
+pause he drove north to Ashford and so into the lowlands.
+
+Knowing that he must return again by the same way, he avoided the larger
+towns and pushed hard for Swineford, where he would find word from
+Turlough. More than once he met parties of men on the road, but these
+were not anxious to question him, and it was not until he was riding
+around Claremorris that men began to feel his heavy hand.
+
+With Lough Garra falling behind on the left, and Claremorris at safe
+distance on the right, Brian was clattering along on the third morning.
+His men carried muskets slung at their saddles, with bandoliers of
+cartridges at their waists ready for quick action; and well it was that
+they were so prepared. Searching ahead with narrowed eyes, Brian caught
+a quick glint of steel on the road, and in no long time he made out a
+party of a hundred men riding toward him. Brian got ready both his ax
+and his safe-conduct, and rode forward without pause.
+
+Now, he had brought with him most of those Scots troopers he had taken
+into service, and as the other party drew near he heard a swift yell of
+"Albanach!" that boded no good. But Brian shouted to them and asked who
+they were.
+
+"None of your affair!" answered their leader, a huge, dark man. "Who are
+you?"
+
+"Stephen Burke from Galway," answered Brian; but before the words left
+him he saw a musket flash, and one of his men fell.
+
+Upon that, no more words were wasted. Brian threw up his ax and dug in
+his spurs, with his men behind; and when they loosed their muskets they
+rode on the hundred with butts swinging. This was a new kind of warfare
+in Connaught, and before Brian's ax had struck twice the field was won.
+From two prisoners he found that the band was composed of a levy of the
+O'Connors out of the Storm Mountains.
+
+"That is not well for our return," said one of his lieutenants. "We will
+have the whole country up after this battle, and we have lost ten men."
+
+"Then we shall have the more need of recruits," quoth Brian, and let his
+prisoners go free, since they would take no service, but only cursed
+him.
+
+However, Brian was not ill pleased, since he found that he was nearly
+sped of his wounds, though his left hand gave him some trouble at times.
+His pleasure was speedily cured, for when they camped that night on the
+hither side of Kiltarnagh there came a rush of men toward dawn, and
+before they were beaten off twenty of Brian's men were dead. Five
+prisoners were taken, and when two of these had been hung, the other
+three confessed that the attack had been made by certain O'Connors from
+the southern end of Lough Conn, to whose villages fugitives had come
+from the affray of the previous morning.
+
+With that, Brian took counsel with some of his men who knew the country,
+and it was their advice that he give up the ride and return home.
+
+"I will not," said Brian shortly. "This war was not of my seeking, but
+thirty of my men have been slain. Guide me to these villages, and I will
+take blood-fine."
+
+This he did because he needs must. His men did no ravaging, and were in
+need of provisions, while he was minded to fill up his ranks. Also, by
+taking sharp vengeance, he knew that on his return he was not like to be
+molested.
+
+So he turned aside and rode fast for Lough Conn, which he reached the
+next evening, and there came a storm of men on all that country. Twice
+through the days that followed Brian had to fight hard--once against a
+muster of the O'Connors, and once against a large force of ravaging
+hillsmen under one Fitzgerald. Him Brian slew with a blow of his ax that
+went from shoulder to saddle.
+
+From his men he gained fifty recruits and no small booty, both of money
+and horses; and from the O'Connors he took bitter blood-fine for his
+slain men in spare horses and provisions.
+
+These doings are set down briefly in the chronicle; but when Brian
+turned east again, with Swineford a hard day's ride away, he once more
+had a hundred and fifty men at his back, with a good store of all
+things, while his name was one that spread fear. He left his men camped
+two miles out of Swineford, on the Moy, and rode next morning into the
+town with a dozen horsemen only.
+
+In the town was quartered a small force of Maguires from Fermanagh, and
+as he rode in Brian was halted by their leader, who gave him the sele of
+the day and asked his name. Brian held out his passport, and after
+Maguire had fumbled over it and pretended that he could read, he gave it
+back with a grin and Brian passed on with another.
+
+The seal of the Confederacy on the safe-conduct was quite enough for any
+man in these parts, however.
+
+Brian had not ridden a hundred paces farther before he saw one of
+Turlough's men beckoning to him from the door of an inn, so he left his
+troopers to drink outside and passed within. Turlough's man joined him
+at a table, and there Brian gained news of the most cheering.
+
+Six days before this the Dark Master had arrived at Swineford, with
+Turlough an hour behind him. The old Wolf, whose cunning made up for his
+lack of courage, had made shift to get two of O'Donnell's dozen men
+embroiled with the Maguires. The upshot of that had been a fight,
+followed by a delay of two days for investigation; finally the Dark
+Master had slipped away, his two men had promptly been hung, and
+Turlough had meantime gone ahead to prepare fresh delays at Bellahy and
+Tobercurry. He had four men left with him, though he had left Bertragh
+with ten.
+
+"Then O'Donnell has four days' start of me," reflected Brian. "If
+Turlough can hold him, we will catch him at Sligo at latest."
+
+He left the inn and rode back to his camp, where he had the men on the
+road in ten minutes. Tobercurry was only fifteen miles north, and
+putting his horses to a gallop, Brian rode hard and fast until that
+afternoon he came into the place. He found no garrison, but, instead,
+was met by old Turlough himself, with a bandaged head and two wounded
+men.
+
+"_Mile failte!_" cried Turlough joyously, running forward to kiss
+Brian's hand in wild delight. "You are well come, master! Is all well
+down below?"
+
+"All well, old friend," laughed Brian, swinging down to clasp the old
+man in his arms. "Where is the Dark Master?"
+
+"Where we shall catch him in a forked stick presently," chuckled
+Turlough, wagging his beard. "Get these wild men of yours out of the
+town, and come into the inn with me to talk. I have all the Dark
+Master's plans, master, and we have only to strike."
+
+Brian ordered his men to camp a mile outside town and to do no
+plundering, so they clattered off, to the great relief of the townfolk.
+
+"Now," said Brian, when they two were sitting across a table, "what has
+passed that you are bound up? Have you been fighting?"
+
+"Well, after a fashion," grimaced Turlough disgustedly. "I was here
+ahead of the Dark Master, and raised the townpeople against him for a
+plunderer. When he came up the road was full of men; but the devil slew
+two and wounded two of my own men, cut his way through the rest, and as
+I fled north my horse flung me and bruised my head. Has the castle
+fallen?"
+
+"Yes," laughed Brian, and related what had happed at Bertragh. "Have I
+time to bide here and eat?"
+
+Turlough yeasaid this and sent the inn-master bustling for food and
+wine. When this was set before them, Turlough Wolf told his tale,
+beginning with the statement that two of O'Donnell's men had been
+captured when he cut through the townfolk and rode off.
+
+"Where are they?" asked Brian quickly, his eyes narrowing.
+
+"Hanged," chuckled the old man succinctly. "At Galway I could make out
+nothing more than the word I sent you by messenger, so I came north
+after O'Donnell Dubh, taking very good care that he saw nothing of me."
+
+"I'll warrant that," laughed Brian. "We met your man at Swineford."
+
+"Then no need to tell what passed there. Well, I said that we caught two
+of his men here, and I got back into the town just in time to keep the
+folk from hanging them to the church steeple."
+
+"Eh?" Brian stared, with his mouth full. "Why, I thought you said--"
+
+"_Dhar mo lamh_, give me time to finish, master!" Turlough hesitated a
+little, evidently in some fear. "We took them into the churchyard and
+burned them a little, and so got out of them all the Dark Master's
+plans. Then the priest shrived them, and I let the townfolk hang them."
+
+Brian looked across the table, his blue eyes like ice and his nostrils
+quivering with anger; the old man slanted up his gray eyes and turned
+uneasily in his seat, for well he knew what Brian would say to this.
+
+"That was ill done, Turlough Wolf. If you had not served me so well, you
+would repent that work. By my faith, I am minded to hang you at their
+side!"
+
+Brian meant it, for the torture of men made him furious.
+
+"I am no fool to spare mad dogs," muttered Turlough sullenly. "It was
+the Dark Master who lopped these ears of mine eight years gone."
+
+"Tell your tale," said Brian curtly and fell to eating again.
+
+"I found tidings both good and bad, master. From Galway the Dark Master
+had sent messengers to his kin in Donegal, bidding them send aid south;
+also, he sent to certain pirates north of Sligo Bay. From Sligo to the
+Erne all that land is desolate, and has been so these six years, and the
+O'Donnells from Lough Swilly have set up a pirate hold near Millhaven.
+It was to these that the Dark Master sent also.
+
+"He has appointed a meeting-place in the hills beyond Drumcliff, at a
+certain mountain named Clochaun, or the Stone. Now, whether you think
+my craft evil or good, master, it is yet gainful to us."
+
+This much Brian was forced to acknowledge, though for many days
+afterward he was still angry at Turlough for torturing and hanging those
+men. He had no scruples about a downright hanging, but torturing was a
+very different matter, and one of which he had tasted himself.
+
+"Well, what is your advice in this?"
+
+"We can do one of two things, master. The one is to ride on to Sligo and
+fall on him when he comes south again with his men; the other is to ride
+hard after him and catch him, then fall on the Millhaven men, then meet
+the O'Donnells who are coming south to join him at the Stone Mountain
+with the rest."
+
+"The first plan is more cautious," said Brian thoughtfully; "but to
+strike him when he has his men around him would be to repeat what we
+have done. I like the other way the better."
+
+"It is both safer and yet more dangerous, master. Safer in that we smite
+him and his men separately, and more dangerous because we shall be in
+the heart of a wild country, without supplies, and with no aid in case
+we are defeated."
+
+"It is more to my mind to talk of winning than losing," grunted Brian.
+"I have spare horses and money with which to buy provisions. Also, I
+think that I shall stamp flat that pirate nest at Millhaven, and set up
+my own banner there."
+
+"Then you have a banner of your own, master?" Turlough squinted up
+slyly, for it was the first hint Brian had given him of what lay behind
+his nickname.
+
+"Aye!" laughed Brian as the wine warmed him. "And it shall bear the Red
+Hand of Tyr-owen, old Wolf; but first to catch the Dark Master. Now let
+us go, for we shall ride to the Stone Mountain and see what haps there."
+
+Upon that they rode forth from the town, and all the townfolk bade the
+crafty Turlough farewell, and gave him gifts for warning them against
+the "plunderers." Turlough looked up at the two bodies swinging in the
+wind as they passed the church-tower, and put his tongue in his cheek,
+but Brian said no more on the subject.
+
+That night they camped outside the town, and Brian bought all the
+provision that the people would sell. This he loaded on the spare
+horses, and the next morning they set off for the north.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, in that fighting by Lough Conn, Brian had taken a shrewd clip which
+had reopened the bullet-tear over his scalp. Added to this, he was not
+yet in all of his former strength, and the hard ride to Tobercurry had
+set his blood to heating; wherefore it was that before coming to Sligo
+Brian was heavy with fever and was shaken with chill. A hard snow was
+driving through the night, and Turlough sent most of the men around the
+city to wait for them on the other side the Garravogue to avoid danger.
+
+There was no garrison in Sligo, however. The old castle which Red Hugh
+O'Donnell had fought over in the old days was ruined; the grand
+monastery, built by Brian of Tyr-erril, had been burned by Hamilton's
+men, together with the town itself, and Sligo was well-nigh desolate.
+Turlough got shelter in a hovel, however; managed to put Brian into a
+miserable bed, and gave him a brew to drink. With the morning Brian
+found his fever gone, but weakness was on him.
+
+They stayed in Sligo town all that day and the next night, and upon
+dawn, Brian insisted on riding north once more, against Turlough's
+protests. However, no ill came of it, for Brian was well used to riding,
+and the exercise gave him strength, though they made but a short march
+that day past the round tower of Drumcliff, halting in the hills.
+
+As Turlough Wolf knew where the Stone Mountain was they had no use for
+guides. It lay only another day's march ahead of them, and there was
+some danger that their quarry would descry their coming and flee away to
+Millhaven.
+
+"This is my rede, master;" said Turlough, "that you and I ride ahead
+with a few men to see how things go, and leave our men to follow. The
+hills are empty of rovers, for there is naught to plunder; but it were
+well to know if the Dark Master has joined with those friends of his."
+
+"That seems good advice," said Brian, and, taking a dozen men, they rode
+forward warily, sending out other parties to scout also.
+
+Over them towered the whiteness of the Stone Mountain, for snow lay
+thickly on all things. Brian gazed up at the gray-jutted crags, but his
+thoughts were not all with the Dark Master. Him he already accounted
+slain, and he was thinking of that Millhaven stronghold.
+
+One day his own banner should fly there, he told himself. There must be
+a good harbor, else the northern pirates had never settled down to hold
+the place; and since all the country roundabout lay bleak and unsettled
+of men, the vision came to him of first taking the place, and then
+fetching O'Neills from the east and north to settle the lands around.
+They would flock to him when his condition was made known, and that
+Cromwell's men would shatter the royalists and confederacy Brian saw
+clearly, as Owen Ruadh had foretold him.
+
+Already the house of Tyr-owen was scattered and fallen, as the greater
+house of Tyr-connall had been before it, for when the last earl had fled
+from the land, there had been only the younger branch to hold the sept
+together. Owen Ruadh was the final glory of that branch, and now Brian
+entertained the vision of transplanting the Red Hand and of making his
+rule strong in the west.
+
+But other men had entertained the same vision before him, and it had
+remained a vision, and no more; and the high hopes of Brian himself were
+fated to be driven upon the rocks of destiny before many days had passed
+over.
+
+With the afternoon the little party stood on the lower slopes of the
+Stone Mountain itself, and Turlough drew the shape of the place in the
+snow with his pike-haft.
+
+"Here are we," he explained, "on the southern slopes. A half-mile ahead
+of us is a valley with a small and fast-rushing water, where we shall
+make camp this night if the Dark Master be not before us. And if he is
+not, then he will be on the northern side, where there are two
+well-sheltered valleys with water running, fit for the meeting-place and
+camp of men. Here is the easternmost, but, as I remember it, the snow
+fills the valley somewhat in winter. The other holds a small lake called
+the Dubh Linn, or Black Tarn, and in one of these we shall find the Dark
+Master, unless he is here before us."
+
+"Well, let us ride on and see to that," said Brian, and they did so.
+
+However, they found the valley deserted and empty, and picked a place
+for camp, sending back a horseman to bring up the force. They could make
+out no smoke rising from the mountain, nor dared they light fires until
+after dark for fear of alarming O'Donnell; but when the force came up,
+Brian sent out scouts to bring in what word might be had.
+
+"Where got you such knowledge of this wilderness?" he asked Turlough
+that night when the fires were blazing and the men were warmed and fed.
+The old man narrowed his gray eyes and chuckled a little.
+
+"I have been in many armies, master, though I have fought not; and I
+have been outlawed twice by the English, in the old days. This was
+always a good place to flee to."
+
+Brian laughed and said no more. That night the men rested well, and
+Brian himself got sleep which sent strength into him and served him well
+in the days to come, for it was long before he was to sleep again, save
+as he rode, nodding in the saddle.
+
+Not until nearly dawn did the last of the scouts straggle in. None of
+these bore any news, and all agreed that no signs could they find of any
+large band of men, nor of any men at all. Turlough heard their reports,
+letting Brian sleep, and only when the last man came in were any tidings
+brought. This man bore a strip of sheepskin, which, he said, an old
+woman had given him to bear to his master.
+
+"A woman!" exclaimed Turlough, scanning the written words on the
+sheepskin, but unable to read them. "What is she like? It is a strange
+thing if women bide on Slieve Clochaun! Was there any stead near by?"
+
+"None," replied the man, who trembled with something more than cold.
+"_M'anam go'n Dhia!_ She was a witch woman, or worse, Turlough Wolf. She
+leaped out of the snow in my path, told me to bear that skin to Yellow
+Brian, and vanished in a burst of fire. How could she not have been a
+devil?"
+
+"Nonsense!" grunted Turlough, though he suddenly laid the strip of skin
+down. "You are overwarm with _uisquebagh_, man. What was this woman
+like? Was she clad all in black?"
+
+"Faith, I did not stop to see," grinned the man sheepishly.
+
+Turlough stroked his beard, while the men went off to eat and sleep. He
+gazed at the strip of skin, and twice stretched out his hand toward it,
+with his eye on the fire, but each time drew back. Then he glanced
+around craftily, found he was alone, and took from under his cloak a
+small, brass crucifix. With this he touched the skin, found that nothing
+happened, and rose with a nod. The dawn was just breaking in the east.
+
+"There is no sorcery in it, at least," he muttered; "but I think it
+bodes no great good to us. Ho, Brian!"
+
+Brian woke and sprang up. Turlough handed him the strip of skin, saying
+no word, and when Brian had held it to the light of the embers, he
+looked up suddenly.
+
+"Whence came this?"
+
+"What does it say first?" returned Turlough uneasily.
+
+"News!" cried Brian, his blue eyes aflame with eagerness. "It says that
+O'Donnell bides alone by the Black Tarn, and that his horsemen from the
+north are camped two miles beyond the mountain, waiting for him, and
+that he has made pact with the Millhaven pirates and they have left for
+their stronghold. Answer me--whence came this? It is written in good
+English writing, man!"
+
+Then Turlough told of what had chanced, and when he had done, Brian
+stared into his gray eyes with a great wonder. Twice he tried to speak,
+but his lips were dry.
+
+"The Black Woman!" he muttered thickly. "Can it be, Turlough? Who is
+she?"
+
+"That was my thought, master," said Turlough. "Who she is none know save
+herself; but she deals with no good. This may be a trap; let us ride
+south again, and at once, lest evil come upon us."
+
+"South? Not I," laughed Brian, though his face was pale. "To horse,
+men!"
+
+And at his ringing shout the camp awoke, and Brian saw his vengeance
+drawing near.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+WHAT HAPPENED AT THE TARN.
+
+
+It had been long, indeed, since Brian had given thought to his meeting
+with the Black Woman on the other side of Ireland. In that brief
+meeting, the Black Woman had spoken of seeing the old earl, his
+grandfather, in his youth. Yet it was forty years since the two earls,
+O'Donnell and O'Neill, had fled together from Ireland, and even then
+Tyr-owen had been an old man. Unless this Black Woman was close on a
+hundred years of age, Brian could not see how she had known Hugh O'Neill
+in his youth.
+
+The mere fact that she had recognized him there in the moonlight was
+proof of her true speaking, however. Brian could no longer hide from
+himself that her words had some strange prophecy in them. She had
+foretold his meeting with Cathbarr and with the Bird Daughter, though,
+indeed, she might have been attempting only to guide him on the path
+which he had afterward followed.
+
+While the men were saddling, Brian called Turlough and told of the hag's
+word that she would meet him again "on a black day for him."
+
+"Now, what think you she meant by that, Turlough? Is this the meeting?"
+
+"No, master, for it is no meeting. It may be as you think, and that she
+was but trying to lead you into the west; yet, for my part, I call it
+sorcery," and the old man crossed himself, for, like better men than
+himself, Turlough ascribed all he could not fathom to magic. "It seems
+to me that she is some witch who is hanging on your tracks, and that
+when--"
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" laughed Brian, flinging the matter from his mind. "At
+any rate, she has served me well this time. Now, what rede shall we
+follow in this matter, and shall we capture and slay the Dark Master
+first, or fall on his men first, or both together?"
+
+"It is ill to sunder a force of men, master," quoth Turlough. "If those
+horsemen of O'Donnell's are encamped in a valley two miles to the north,
+it is a vale of which I know well. But we must mind this--if O'Donnell
+gets safe into Galway again with either these horsemen or those
+Millhaven pirates of his clan, he will drive hard against Bertragh."
+
+"The Dark Master shall come no more to Galway," said Brian grimly,
+fingering his ax. "Now finish, and quickly."
+
+"I have a plan in my mind, master; but unless we slay the Dark Master,
+it is like to fail us. Let us send a hundred of the men around to the
+north, for I will tell them how to ride, so that by this night they can
+fall upon those men of his and scatter them in the darkness, and drive
+them south where we can slay them utterly at our wills. If we drove them
+back whence they came, there would be little craft in it, and it is to
+my liking to do a thing well or not at all."
+
+"A true word there," nodded Brian, his eyes gleaming. "I think those men
+are as good as dead now, Turlough. Speak on."
+
+"With fifty men, master, you and I can reach the valley of the Dubh
+Linn. We cannot do it with horses, unless we ride around to the north,
+and in that there would be danger of striking on the Dark Master's
+scouts. But while our hundred are circling far around, we with fifty can
+go over the mountain by valleys and paths I know of, so that by this
+evening we will come to the Black Tarn and strike the Dark Master as our
+hundred men fall on his camp. That is my--"
+
+"Good!" cried Brian, leaping up eagerly. "Then we--"
+
+"Hold, master!" And Turlough caught his arm, quickly staying him. When
+Brian looked down he read a sudden fear in the old man's gray eyes.
+"That was my first rede, Yellow Brian, and you would do well to hear my
+second also."
+
+"Say it," said Brian, and glanced at the brightening sky.
+
+"My second rede is this. That message might be a trap to ensnare us,
+though I have two minds about this Black Woman. But if we fail to slay
+the Dark Master at the Black Tarn, we are like to have an ill time."
+
+"Why so?" asked Brian, for he could see no likelihood of that. "I said
+that we would slay him."
+
+"Master, do you hold the lives of men in your keeping?" In the gray eyes
+leaped a swift horror that amazed Brian. "I tell you that if the Dark
+Master escapes from our hand, and his men are driven past our fifty into
+the south, he will ride hard before us into Galway. I see evil in that
+first rede of mine, Yellow Brian. I see evil in it--"
+
+He broke off, staring past Brian with fixed and unseeing eyes, his face
+rigid.
+
+"Turlough, are you mad?" Brian seized the other's shoulder, shaking him
+harshly. The old man shivered a little, and sanity came back into his
+eyes as they met the icy blue of Brian's. "What daftness is upon you,
+man?"
+
+"I know not, master," whimpered old Turlough feebly. "Do as you will."
+
+"Then I will to follow your rede, divide my men as you say, and when we
+have slain the Dark Master, we will cut off the last of these O'Donnells
+of his, ride to Millhaven and take that hold, and send word to the Bird
+Daughter that she may keep Bertragh Castle and send Cathbarr north to
+me. Now go, and tell a hundred of the men how to ride around this
+mountain; then be ready to guide me over it to the Black Tarn."
+
+"You are a hard man, Yellow Brian," said Turlough, and turned him about
+and did as Brian had ordered.
+
+None the less, Brian gave some thought to that second rede of
+Turlough's. He saw clearly enough that with the northern horsemen driven
+past, scattered though they might be, they could be cut off to a man if
+the Dark Master were slain. But if O'Donnell should escape by some trick
+of fate, he could gather up his men and drive south.
+
+"If he does that, there will be slaying between Sligo and Galway," swore
+Brian quickly. "But I cannot see that he will escape me here. When
+another day breaks, I shall have won my Spanish blade again--and then
+ho! for the Red Hand of Tyr-owen!"
+
+So Brian laughed and donned his jack and back-piece, while Turlough drew
+plans in the snow and showed the leaders of the hundred how to sweep
+around without discovery so that they might fall on the northern
+horsemen at eve.
+
+Brian had grown into an older and grimmer man since the day he had stood
+beside the bed of Owen Ruadh O'Neill, short though the time had been.
+Youth was still in his face when he smiled out, but suffering had
+deepened his eyes and sunk his cheeks and drawn the skin tighter over
+that powerful jaw of his. When he had armed, he stood in thought for a
+little, with hand on jaw in his instinctive gesture, and wakened
+suddenly to find old Turlough bending the knee before him.
+
+"Now I know of what blood you come, Yellow Brian," said the old man
+softly. "I saw Hugh O'Neill, the great earl, standing even as you stand
+now, on the morning when we slew the English at the Yellow Ford."
+
+"Man, man!" exclaimed Brian in wonder; "that battle was fought fifty
+years ago, and yet you say that you were there?"
+
+"I was the earl's horse-boy, master." And Brian saw tears on the old
+man's beard. "I loved him, and I was at the flight of the earls ten
+years after, going with Tyr-owen to Italy, and it was these hands laid
+him in his grave, master; master, have faith in me--"
+
+Brian put down his hands to those of Turlough, his heart strangely
+softened.
+
+"He was my grandfather," he said simply, and Turlough broke down and
+wept like a child.
+
+When they left their horses and the camp behind, Brian followed
+Turlough, feeling like a new man. He had lightened his heart of a great
+load, and he wished that he had talked of these things with Turlough
+Wolf long before this. Now he understood why the old man had offered him
+service as he stood in that attitude on the battlements of O'Reilly's
+castle after leaving Owen Ruadh, and he understood the love that
+Turlough bore him, and the silence the old man had kept on the matter,
+though it must have ever been deep in his heart to speak out.
+
+No more words passed between them, nor did Brian tell Turlough more of
+his story until long after; but of this there was no need. As they
+climbed higher on the mountain they could see the hundred horsemen
+filing off to the eastward; but soon these were lost sight of as
+Turlough led Brian and the fifty through the valleys and deep openings,
+which were drifted deep in snow, making progress slow and wearisome.
+
+Indeed, Brian thought afterward that this hard traveling might have been
+responsible for what chanced on the other side of the mountain.
+
+On the higher crests and ridges there was little snow, however, and
+Turlough seemed to know every inch of the place by heart, though more
+than once Brian gave himself up for lost in the maze of smaller peaks
+and the twisted paths they followed. Most of the fifty Turlough had
+chosen from those hillmen who had joined Brian by Lough Conn, so that
+they were not unused to such climbing, and remained with spirits
+unshaken by the vast loneliness that surrounded them, and to which other
+men might have succumbed somewhat.
+
+Brian himself was no little awed by the desolate grandeur of the Stone
+Mountain, but he only wrapped his cloak more closely about him, and
+swore that the Dark Master should yield up the Spanish blade before many
+more hours.
+
+And so indeed it was done, though not as Brian looked for.
+
+Until long after noon the band wended their way with great toil and pain
+over the flanks of the mountain, until Turlough led Brian out to a point
+of black rock and motioned toward the valleys below them.
+
+"There to the left," he said, "is the valley of the Black Tarn. Do you
+see that smoke, Brian, and that dark spot between the trees and the
+lake?"
+
+Brian looked, squinting because of the snow-glare. Leading down from the
+side of the mountain itself was a valley--long, and widening gradually
+to the plain, where a dark wood swallowed it up. Almost under his feet,
+as it were, was a small, round lake deep in the rock, with a small,
+frozen-over outlet that was lost in the snow.
+
+But farther down the valley-slopes there were trees, and among them
+horses tethered and a fire strewing smoke on the air close beside.
+Between this little wood and the tarn itself there stood a low house of
+thatch with smoke also rising from it, and from the other fire among the
+trees came a sheen of steel caps and jacks, where were men.
+
+But to Brian all these things were very small and hard to make out
+distinctly, as if he were looking at some carven mimicry, such as
+children are wont to use in play.
+
+"Now come," said Turlough Wolf. "It is no easy task getting there
+without being discovered, and the way is long."
+
+Brian found, indeed, that to avoid being seen from below they must
+needs take a roundabout way; but when the afternoon was far spent they
+had come to a snow-filled hollow among the rocks which Turlough declared
+was just over the edge of that valley-slope where stood the low house.
+Turlough said that in his day that house had not stood there, and he
+knew nothing of it.
+
+Since there could be no talk of lighting a fire, Brian's men huddled
+together in the hollow, and ate and drank cheerlessly. Brian was minded
+to meet the Dark Master and win his Spanish blade with his own hand, so
+he ordered that his men pass on after dark and make ready to fall upon
+those men who were camped at the wood, but to hold off until he and
+Turlough had smitten the Dark Master in that little thatched house,
+where he was most like to be found. Turlough yeasaid this plan, for he
+trusted greatly to Brian's strength.
+
+At length they set out under the cold stars, and Brian's men were very
+weary, but promised to do all as he had commanded. He and Turlough set
+off alone over the hill, and when they had come to the hill-crest after
+much toiling through the snow they looked down and found the house a
+hundred yards below them.
+
+"Let us go down cautiously," said Turlough, "for I think we can peer
+through the thatch and plan our stroke well."
+
+So they struck down openly across the hill-slope, and found that there
+was none on guard. The door of the house was fast shut, but Turlough
+strode cautiously in the trampled snow around the house, where, at the
+side, a spark of firelight glittered through the loose thatch. To this
+he led Brian, and Brian stooped down and looked through the cranny,
+while Turlough went farther and fared as well.
+
+There was but one room in the hut, and it was well lighted by the fire
+that glittered merrily on the hearth. Sitting not far away, but with his
+back to Brian, was a man; he sat on a stool, and there seemed to be a
+wide earthenware bowl of water or some dark liquid on the floor between
+his feet into which he was staring. In his bent-down position his
+rounded shoulders stood up stark against the fire, and Brian knew this
+was the Dark Master.
+
+His hand went to the pistol in his belt, but since there was no other
+man in the hut, he thought it shame to murder O'Donnell as he sat, and
+made up his mind to go around to the door and burst in. He saw his own
+great sword slung across the Dark Master's back, but even as he stirred
+to rise, O'Donnell's voice came to him, low and vibrant, so that he bode
+where he was and listened.
+
+"I cannot make out the figures," muttered the Dark Master, still staring
+down into the bowl of dark water. "The man has the face of Yellow Brian,
+yet he is swart; the woman I sure never saw before. _Corp na diaoul!_
+What is the meaning of this? Who stands in my way?"
+
+Brian paused in no little astonishment, and stole a glance aside to see
+old Turlough crossing himself fervently. It struck his mind that he had
+chanced on some sorcery here, and, remembering the tales he had heard of
+the Dark Master's work, he laughed a little and settled down. He was
+minded to see what this thing might be; but he made his pistol ready in
+case the magic told O'Donnell of his danger.
+
+"It is some great man," came the Dark Master's voice again. "There is
+something broidered on his-- By my soul, it is the Red Hand of Tyr-owen!
+It is The O'Neill himself--the earl-- Is Yellow Brian of his blood,
+then?"
+
+At hearing this Brian crouched closer, in some fear and more wonder. Was
+the Dark Master in reality seeing such figures in that water-bowl? Then
+the man must be either mad or--or figures were there. Now O'Donnell's
+voice rose stronger:
+
+"Which of these twain stands now in my way? It is not Yellow Brian. Ah,
+the earl is slipping away, and the woman is smiling. One of his loves,
+belike, for he had many; she is fair, wondrous fair! Ah, what's this?"
+
+Brian saw the dark figure crouch lower, as if in astonishment.
+
+"Changing, changing! Is it this woman who stands in my way, then?
+Toothless and grinning, crouched low over a stick, rags and tatters and
+wisps of gray hair--"
+
+The Dark Master paused in his jerky speech, stiffened as if in wild
+amazement at that which he beheld, and a sudden cry broke from him,
+sharp and awestruck:
+
+"The Black Woman!"
+
+Then Brian straightened up, feeling Turlough's hand touch his; but for a
+space he stood silent while his mind cast out for what the Dark Master's
+words meant.
+
+In a flash it came to him. Through some black dealings O'Donnell had in
+truth pictured The O'Neill in that bowl, and with him a woman he had
+loved and who loved him; and this was no other than she whom Brian had
+known as the Black Woman, now become an old hag indeed, with only the
+memories of her fair youth and her love behind her. And this was why she
+had recognized him and why she had evidently watched over him since that
+first meeting, out of the love she had borne the earl, his grandsire, in
+days now buried under many bitter years.
+
+The two men looked into each other's eyes, and Brian saw that Turlough's
+jaw had dropped loosely, and that fright had stricken the old man almost
+out of his senses. With that Brian felt his own fear take wings. He
+laughed a little as his grip closed on the haft of his ax, and the cold
+star-glint seemed to shine back again from his eyes.
+
+"Bide here if you will," he smiled quietly. "I have my work to do."
+
+And, turning with the word, he strode quickly to the door, just as there
+came a great cry from within the place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+BRIAN GETS HIS SWORD AGAIN.
+
+
+Brian pushed the door open, and it gave easily to his fist. Gazing
+within he saw the Dark Master standing over the shattered bowl, whose
+liquid flowed down toward the hearth and hissed on the embers; plainly,
+the Dark Master had seen nothing good in that water, for he had
+shattered the bowl with his foot, and his teeth were snarling under his
+drooping mustache.
+
+"I am come," said Brian, laughing grimly as he stood in the doorway.
+
+O'Donnell whirled, gripping at his sword.
+
+Now, whether there was magic on the place, as Turlough ever swore, or
+whether the opening of the door had made a draft, as Brian thought more
+likely, a strange thing happened.
+
+Brian had raised his pistol in his left hand, meaning to kill the Dark
+Master without pity in that first moment. Out of the hearth came a great
+swirl of ashes and red embers, flying toward the door and closing around
+O'Donnell; as Brian pressed the trigger the ashes smote him in a
+blinding swirl, and a harsh laugh answered the roar of the pistol.
+
+With a curse Brian cleared his eyes of the light ash and reached with
+his ax at the dim figure of the Dark Master, nigh hid with ashes and
+powder-smoke. From down the vale came other shots and cries, and he knew
+his men had struck on that small camp lying there; but at this O'Donnell
+gave him other things to think of.
+
+That was a great fight, for Brian was little used to ax-play and had
+much ado to parry the keen thrusts of his own Spanish blade; the roof
+was too low to give room for a swing, and when the Dark Master had
+lunged him back to the door again, he knew that he had done ill. So with
+another bitter curse Brian flung the ax from his hand and ripped out the
+long, Irish dagger that hung at his girdle.
+
+For all his wrath he had taken good heed to fling the ax aright, and the
+broad flat of it took the Dark Master full in the chest and bore him
+back, reeling and shouting for his men. Before he could recover Brian
+leaped at him, caught O'Donnell's sword wrist in his left hand, and
+aimed a deadly stroke with his _skean_.
+
+The blow went true, but the steel turned aside from the Dark Master's
+mail-shirt; O'Donnell caught his wrist in turn, and there the two stood
+heaving each at the other for a long minute. Brian's eyes struck cold
+and hard into the evil features of the Dark Master; the other's breath
+came hot on his cheeks, and so beastlike was the man's face that Brian
+half expected those snarling teeth to close snapping at his throat. But
+the Dark Master was strong, for all his hunched shoulders.
+
+Then a great flame of vengeance seemed to cleave Brian's soul, and with
+a curt laugh he threw out his strength and flung the Dark Master back
+bodily so that he fell into the hearth and burst the mud chimney and the
+thatched wall behind. Before he could rise again Brian had whipped out
+his other pistol and fired; he saw the man's figure writhe aside, then
+up through the powder-smoke rose a burning brand that smote him over the
+brow heavily. At the same instant the scattered sparks caught the
+thatch, and the whole house broke into flame.
+
+Brian's eyes found the dark figure once more and he rushed forward. At
+the broken heap of mud from the chimney his feet struck on the sword,
+which had fallen from the Dark Master's hand, and he caught it up with a
+cry of joy and bore forward.
+
+That brief instant of delay lost him his quarry, however. Brian flung
+through the shattered wall, with the whole structure flaming up behind
+him; he saw a dark figure on the snow and ran at it, only to find
+himself striking at Turlough Wolf, and stayed his hand barely in time.
+
+"Where is he?" he panted hoarsely, looking around with fierce eyes.
+
+Then he caught the Dark Master's figure running across the snow toward
+that camp amid the trees, where fighting was still forward and men were
+shouting and firing. Brian rushed off, with Turlough staggering after
+him; but with a sob of despairing anger he saw the Dark Master flit into
+the trees, and heard his voice ringing at his men.
+
+It turned out afterward that Brian's fifty men, weary and chilled, had
+made a somewhat heartless assault on the score of horsemen camped in the
+trees; therefore, instead of carrying O'Donnell's men off their feet and
+cutting them down straightway, they were held off for a little.
+
+The Dark Master knew that he was lost if he stayed long in that place,
+however, and when Brian reached the clump of trees he found that he was
+too late. With two or three men behind him, O'Donnell had cut through
+Brian's men and was galloping away. Brian groaned savagely, leaped at a
+mounted man and dragged him from the saddle, and was just springing up
+when Turlough caught and stayed him.
+
+"Wait, master!" panted the old man in desperate fear of the surging men
+around him, but in more desperate fear for Brian. "This is madness, for
+I ordered our fifty horses fetched around--"
+
+"Bide here for them, then!" said Brian, and swung up into the saddle.
+One of the Dark Master's men barred his way, and Brian's blade went
+through his throat; then he was off after the four figures who by now
+were far distant toward the dark forest that swallowed up the valley
+ahead.
+
+The cold night air cleared his brain, however, and after a moment he
+drew rein with bitterness upon him. Turlough had spoken rightly, for to
+ride after those four men with his naked sword alone was in truth
+madness. So he came back again to where the last of the hemmed-in
+horsemen was being cut out of his saddle, and when his men gathered
+about him with a shout, his tongue gave them little joy.
+
+"You are fools," he said harshly, "for the Dark Master has escaped us.
+Take these horses, fifteen of you, and ride. Let five men go to bring in
+our horses with all speed, and let ten more scatter out in search of our
+hundred men. These are not more than two miles distant, and in an hour I
+must ride from here. See to it that you return with the men and horses
+by then, or shift for yourselves."
+
+"That is too much," spoke out a burly fellow angrily. "We have been
+climbing all day, and have----"
+
+Brian said no word, but leaned down from his saddle and his Spanish
+blade flickered in the light. The man fell and lay quiet, while the
+others drew back in black fear.
+
+"I am master here," said Brian coldly, when a long instant had passed.
+"Go."
+
+There was no more muttering among his recruits, either then or later. He
+dismounted, saw that the O'Donnells had been slain to the last man, and
+joined Turlough at the campfire. Food and drink had been found in the
+camp, and a flagon of wine heartened Brian greatly.
+
+"Now give me your rede, Turlough Wolf," he said. "I have failed in this
+matter, and it seems that ill shall come of it."
+
+"So I foretold, master, but we may still remedy the ill if we catch
+O'Donnell. I think that by now his horsemen are scattered, and this
+burning hut will draw our own men thither. Before midnight they will be
+here, and we can ride forth. I think that the Dark Master will gather
+what men are left him and strike down for Galway."
+
+"Two men may ride the same road," quoth Brian grimly, and set his naked
+blade in his belt. He saw that before him lay some fighting and much
+hard riding, so inside the next hour he had his men full-fed. Before
+this was finished the spare horses and those of his men came in, for
+Turlough had ordered them to start at noon and ride around in case of
+need.
+
+Brian determined to spare neither men nor horseflesh on that riding, and
+when his men were mounted he set out across the night to meet his
+hundred, and to hear what had been done at the camp two miles distant.
+As the moon was rising he met them; and if he was glad at the meeting,
+they were twice glad.
+
+They had found the camp and had lain off it until after dark as
+Turlough had bidden them, the more so since there were two-score over a
+hundred men there. But at length they had ridden down as if they were
+fresh come from the north, and had twice ridden through the camp before
+the O'Donnells were well awake, though it had been sharp work. The
+result had been that a score of Brian's men had fallen, they had slain a
+full half of the O'Donnells, and the rest had been driven and scattered
+southward. Brian's men had plundered their camp and were weary, so that
+when they heard of what had chanced at the Black Tarn they were somewhat
+less than half willing to ride farther.
+
+But Brian speedily persuaded them to that course, and Turlough led them
+all to the south on the way to Sligo.
+
+Bitterness and heaviness of heart dwelt deep in Brian that night, and
+for some time to come. With the escape of the Dark Master, whether it
+had been by magic or craft, all his visions had burst; he must ride away
+from the pirate hold at Millhaven, he saw that he would lose many men on
+his way south, and yet there lay no choice before him. He had scotched
+the snake, and now he must kill it. If the Dark Master reached Galway
+town in safety, those O'Donnells from Millhaven would be around by sea
+to meet him, and the royalists would lend him men and guns to go against
+Bertragh in their cause.
+
+"Is there any likelihood that the Dark Master will miss those scattered
+men of his?" he asked Turlough, who rode on his right hand.
+
+"Little, master. There is but the one road south to Sligo at this
+season, and it is great wonder indeed that the scattered men did not
+fall on us at the Black Tarn in seeking their master. But with only
+seventy-five men or so I do not think they will bide our coming."
+
+"Nor do I," and Brian laughed grimly as he thought of that fight with
+his enemy.
+
+Certain men had been wounded in those frays, and he left them to follow
+after him, so that he turned south with a hundred and a score men at his
+back. He did not think that the Dark Master would face him, but since
+those men were all O'Donnells who would obey him utterly, he looked to
+have some fighting; in which he was not far wrong.
+
+An hour after the day was broken they thundered up to the bridge that
+spanned the Garravogue, and ten wild and silent men were holding that
+bridge behind an overturned cart for barricade. Brian would waste no men
+on a storm, but slew six of the men with musketry and rode over the
+other four; even so, those four brought down three of his men before
+they were done with.
+
+Brian baited the horses in Sligo, remaining there a scant half-hour.
+From the townfolk he learned that the Dark Master was but two hours
+ahead of him, and Brian had great hopes of running him to earth that
+same day. So he set forth again and they rode hard to Ballsadare, at the
+south branch of Sligo Bay, and on to Coolany at the edge of the Storm
+Mountains.
+
+At this latter place they found different work, however, for here was a
+small garrison of Cavan pikemen who stopped them, lined with their pikes
+three deep across the road before the church. Brian was no long time in
+learning that the Dark Master had spread word of him as a plunderer and
+Parliament man.
+
+"I have no time to waste on you," he said shortly to the leader of the
+pikemen. "Here is a safe-conduct, and I am Stephen Burke."
+
+"None the less, you must stay until I have looked into this," said the
+other, pulling out his pistol with some determination.
+
+"Stay I will not, but I think you shall," replied Brian, and thrust as
+the man fired. The bullet glanced from his jack, but the officer fell
+back among his pikes, and Brian spurred after him in great anger. His
+Scots troopers were in the van, or what was left of them, and they came
+down galloping, and rode over the pikemen leaving a sea of smitten men
+in the roadway behind.
+
+Also, ten of Brian's men were left.
+
+By the evening they were back at Tobercurry again, where Turlough had
+hung those two men after torturing them. The Dark Master was something
+over an hour ahead of them, and he had stayed to fire the church and the
+town. Brian's heart was sore for the townfolk, but he could pause no
+longer than to bait horses and men, since he looked for hard riding that
+night; however, he gave what money and plunder he had to the townfolk
+and got a blessing in return, and so rode forth again as the stars
+peeped out.
+
+"There are Maguires in Swineford, master," said old Turlough with a
+cunning, sidelong look.
+
+"I met them coming north," laughed Brian softly. "They will prove good
+men to avoid, so I think that we shall ride around that burg."
+
+Brian thought that he could get through the Maguires, but he intended to
+take no chances. However, they had gained to within five miles of
+Swineford and had halted to blow the horses, when one of the scouts came
+riding back to say that a score of farmers with three carts were
+approaching from the town.
+
+Presently they came on them--a black mass swinging down the road, which
+was very boggy on either hand. Neither Brian nor Turlough smelt any ill
+in this until they were within a hundred paces of the party, when
+suddenly the carts were swung across the road and a score of muskets
+spat death into Brian's men.
+
+"Back!" shouted Brian, when his men would have charged. "We have no time
+and lives to waste on this party--what shall we do, Turlough? The fields
+are all bog."
+
+"We cannot well ride around," said Turlough, when they had ridden back a
+little, leaving dead men on the road. "But a little way back is a path
+that leads out and around Swineford. Put ten men here to keep these
+O'Donnells from following us, and we will make a short cut to the Moy
+near Kiltanmugh. It was a clever trick, this!"
+
+It was indeed, and it had cost Brian a round score of men, so that he
+followed Turlough out into the open land with less than a hundred men
+behind him. His fury abated before dawn, when they had splashed across
+the Moy and came upon the road once more, but he saw that the O'Donnells
+were willing enough to die if the Dark Master might escape, and he
+became more cautious.
+
+When the night fell again they were far south of Claremorris, but a
+score of horses had foundered and he was forced to leave more men
+behind. Until evening Turlough led him at a distance from the main
+roads, then they struck into good riding again and save for one detour
+to avoid Tuam would have a clear road between themselves and Galway,
+which Brian meant to reach before dawn unless his own horse foundered
+with the rest.
+
+Of the Dark Master they heard nothing until they were fording the Clare
+north of Tuam, when two men gave them word that a scant half-hour before
+some two-score horsemen had fled past them toward Tuam.
+
+"Good!" cried Brian. "Now, Turlough, lead us around Tuam, and I think we
+shall finish this thing long before the day comes."
+
+Said Turlough sourly, "Every horse down is a man gone, master," but to
+that Brian only laughed and set in his spurs.
+
+So now they let gallop through the darkness, trusting more to Turlough's
+wits than to their horses' feet; for Brian knew that if his own beasts
+were spent, those of the Dark Master were no better unless he were to
+get mounts at Tuam. That would be hard, however, for there were no
+horses to be had save far in the mountains where the war had not swept
+all things away.
+
+No sooner had they reached the road again beyond Tuam than it seemed to
+Brian that he heard the faint drum of hoofs ahead of him, and at that he
+gave a shout and drove on with such of his men storming behind as might
+come. Many of them had gone down, indeed, but now all wakened from their
+nodding sleep and kept close, though here and there one dropped out.
+Turlough, whose steed had been the best of all save Brian's, kept at his
+master's flank.
+
+They were hard on Claregalway when Brian saw his quarry first--a deep
+mass of men far ahead on an open stretch of road. Then he knew that the
+race was nearly won, and for all that his beast was sobbing under his
+thighs, he raced ahead, and laughed out loud when a little band cut off
+from the main body of the Dark Master's men. There were fifteen or less
+who waited his coming with pistols ready, but Brian rode hardily at
+them, their balls whistled overhead or past, and he was on them.
+
+The shock of the meeting came near to unseating him, and sent one of the
+foe sprawling, horse and man; Brian cut another to the chin and thrust
+the life from a third, and before the first sword had slithered on his
+steel-cap his men had swept aside the devoted fifteen, and he was riding
+on. O'Donnell had straightened his party for nothing.
+
+Now the Dark Master was riding for his life, and knew it. Some few of
+his men fell out with spent beasts, and these Brian's party rode over,
+taking and giving but one blow, or none at all. When Claregalway drew up
+ahead, cold and gray under the stars, Brian was but two hundred yards
+behind with forty men still behind him, while O'Donnell had not half so
+many.
+
+As he thundered down to the river Brian had drawn as much ahead of
+Turlough and the others as he was behind the Dark Master. He shouted
+back to those of his men whose matches were lit to loose off their
+muskets, but before the first pan had flashed out he saw the O'Donnells
+draw rein and wheel at the bridge-head, while two of their number drove
+clattering on into the town.
+
+Now, had Brian chosen to wait for his men things would have fallen out
+differently; but this he would not do, for he thought to break through
+these as he had done with the others. So he went at them with naked
+sword, his heart raging within him and his face set and cold like stone.
+He was still fifty paces from the bridge-head when their pistols
+spattered out; the men behind dared not fire for fear of hitting him, so
+that Brian had all the fight for himself.
+
+He came near to having none, for at that first discharge a pistol-ball
+split his jack and lodged in his buff-coat over his heart, while another
+came between his arm and his side, drawing blood a little from both;
+while a third and worse went into his horse between the fore shoulders.
+Brian felt the poor beast falter shudderingly, and pause; then the
+O'Donnells shouted greatly and closed about him, thinking to slay him
+before his men could come up.
+
+Brian saw a long _skean_ plunge into his horse's neck, and in terrible
+anger he smote with the edge, so that a hand and arm hung down from the
+dagger, a ghastly thing to see. But the poor steed was dead with that
+blow, and Brian had but time to fling himself headlong ere the horse
+rolled over.
+
+The leap saved his life, for the O'Donnells were striking fast at him.
+Brian rose up between two of them, dragged one down with his left hand
+and thrust the other under the arm, and tried to leap up into the
+saddle. But as he did so his own men struck, so that the horses were
+swept together and pinned Brian's legs between them, and he hung
+helpless.
+
+In that instant he saw an ax swinging above him and flung back his head,
+but not enough, for the ax fell, and Brian went down under the horses.
+
+Save for three of his men who saw the thing and stood over him, Brian
+would have been trampled to death on the spot. These O'Donnells were no
+loose fighting-men, and they smote shrewdly against the press of
+Brian's greater numbers, while their wild cry rose high over the shrill
+of steel. When Brian's men knew that he was down, however, they struck
+such blows as they knew not they had in them, and quarter was not asked
+or offered in that battle by the bridge.
+
+The fight was not ended until the last O'Donnell went down in a swirl
+and clash of steel. Then Turlough, who had kept well out of it according
+to his wont, pushed through and fell upon Brian's body. When Brian
+opened his eyes his head was still ringing, while his men were bathing
+him with water. After an instant he sat up and gazed around.
+
+"The Dark Master--did you catch him?"
+
+"Nay, our thought was all for you, master," answered Turlough.
+
+Brian groaned in great bitterness, but said no word. He knew that his
+chance was gone from him for that time, and as he looked around his
+heart sank within him. Half of his men had slipped down and lay sleeping
+among the dead, and the rest could scarce stay in their saddles for
+weariness and lack of sleep. But Turlough sprang up and gazed at the
+graying sky with fear in his face.
+
+"Up, master!" he cried fiercely. "We must still ride hard, for the Dark
+Master will send out a troop of horse from Galway to catch us, and we
+must get past that town before the sun is high!"
+
+So the sleeping were roused in haste, the wounded were put in saddle,
+and with their beasts staggering under them, those that were left of
+Brian's men closed around him and rode over the bridge through
+Claregalway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+BRIAN GOES A CRUISING.
+
+
+Above the head of Bertraghboy Bay there was a swooping curve in the hill
+road. It was at this same curve that Brian Buidh had first met the Dark
+Master, and it was here he had set that trap which had won him tribute
+for the Bird Daughter. When first he had ridden that road Brian had had
+a score of lusty men at his back; on the second occasion he had headed a
+hundred and four-score; but when he drew rein there a week after that
+fight at Claregalway bridge there was with him only old Turlough Wolf,
+and their horses were sorry skeletons like themselves.
+
+"We are somewhat worse than when we twain started out together," laughed
+Brian bitterly. "Then we had full bellies at the least, but now we have
+naught."
+
+"There are men coming, master," said Turlough, hanging weakly to his
+saddle. "I think they are our castle watchers."
+
+Very gaunt was Brian that day, and nigh spent with his wounds and hunger
+and weariness. During the week that had passed since the Dark Master
+slipped away from him, nothing but evil had come upon him.
+
+First they had tried to slip past to the north of the city, and had
+reached the Lough Corrib River, and could even faintly hear the bells of
+St. Nicholas below, when a half-troop of horse fell upon them. Then in
+desperation Brian's men smote for the last time, and put the royalists
+to flight; but there Brian lost the most of his men. However, he got
+fresh horses, and so fled eastward again when more men were seen
+approaching.
+
+What chanced in the six days following is not fully set forth, for Brian
+got little glory from it. One by one he lost his men, and at length was
+forced north again to the shores of Lough Corrib, with men riding hot
+and fast to catch him. With Turlough Wolf alone left to him, he had made
+shift to cross the lake in a leaky fisherman's boat, the horses swimming
+behind, and so came into the O'Flahertys' country.
+
+There word had also gone forth against him, but because of the pact
+between them, Murrough of the Kine sped him in peace through Iar
+Connaught, and at length Brian had won home again with joyless heart.
+
+As Turlough said, men were coming, and they were Brian's own men who
+watched the roads. From them he got food and wine and two fresh horses,
+and with the afternoon they rode down to Bertragh in worse shape than
+they had ridden from it. Brian was the less heartened when he saw two of
+Nuala O'Malley's ships in the bay, and knew that she must be at the
+castle.
+
+Indeed, before they reached the gates the Bird Daughter rode out to meet
+them, with Cathbarr striding before her. When the woman saw Brian's face
+her violet eyes filled with tears, and when he dismounted and kissed her
+hand and would have spoken, she stayed him.
+
+"Nay, we know enough of the story for now, Brian. First rest and eat,
+then talk."
+
+Brian guessed straightway that pigeons had come from her men in Galway
+telling of those ridings about the city, and that she had come over to
+Bertragh in anxiety; and this was the truth indeed.
+
+Turlough Wolf hied him away and slept, but Brian sat about a table in
+the hall with Cathbarr and Nuala. He was very worn and weary, but when
+he had eaten and drunk he refused to sleep yet a while, and told how
+that storm had fared north and what had come of it.
+
+"So I have lost a hundred and fifty hard-won men," he concluded
+gloomily. "I would not grudge them if the Dark Master had fallen, but he
+is in Galway, and the Millhaven pirates will be down to meet him, and
+that means war on Bertragh."
+
+"I will be glad of that," said Cathbarr simply. "I am sound again and
+have been sharpening up this ax of mine."
+
+Nuala smiled and put her hand across the table to lay it on Brian's.
+
+"Success would be of little worth, Yellow Brian," she said softly, and
+her eyes steadied him, "if it were won without reverses. Few men have
+the luck to win always, and a touch of defeat is not an ill thing,
+perhaps. When we had this news of you from Galway, a week since, I sent
+off a galley to find Blake at the Cove of Cork and seek aid of him. Also
+my kinsmen will return to Gorumna before going home to Erris, and we are
+not in hard case here. So now get rested, Brian Buidh, and afterward we
+will see what may be done. Those Millhaven men have not yet passed
+Erris, or I would have word of it by pigeon, so they have doubtless
+delayed to plunder in Sligo or Killala."
+
+Brian looked into her eyes, and from that moment he began to put behind
+him all thoughts of capturing that Millhaven castle for himself or of
+placing himself out of touch with Nuala O'Malley. He went to his chamber
+as she bade, and slept that night and the next day and the night after,
+waking on the second morning still empty of sleep and seeming more weary
+than when he had laid down.
+
+This was but seeming, however, and when he had bathed and eaten he felt
+more like himself than for many a day.
+
+Cathbarr had departed at dawn with a wagon-load of powder to trade for
+kine with his O'Flaherty kinsmen in the hills, and before Brian had
+broken his fast one of the galleys from Gorumna came over with three
+pigeons for Nuala. The cage was brought to her as she sat at meat with
+Brian in the hall, and she opened the tiny messages with all the
+delighted anticipation of a girl.
+
+"This is from that galley I sent to Cork," she exclaimed, laying down
+the first. "It merely reports safe arrival and the delivery of my letter
+to Blake, who is leaving there before long. Now for the--ah!"
+
+"Good news or bad?" smiled Brian easily, as animation flashed into her
+face. She looked up at him with a rippling laugh.
+
+"Both, Brian! This is from Erris, and says that the O'Donnell seamen
+have made a landing at Ballycastle under Downpatrick Head, and will
+likely put to sea again in a day or two. They will give Erris a wide
+berth, never fear, and that means that they will make no pause until
+they come to Galway."
+
+The third message was from Galway itself, and said that the Dark Master
+was biding the coming of those Millhaven men, and had been promised both
+horsemen and shot if they came, so that Bertragh might be taken and held
+for Ireland against the Parliament.
+
+"It is not taken yet," laughed Nuala as old Turlough came shuffling up,
+and they gave him the sele of the day merrily enough. "You had best keep
+these birds, Brian, so that if there is any need you may send me
+messages to Gorumna. Now, shall we bide here until the Dark Master comes
+against us?"
+
+"I thought you were going to take me cruising with you?" smiled Brian,
+but at that Turlough struck in and asked what the messages were. When he
+had heard them he stood pulling at his gray beard for a little, then
+turned to Brian.
+
+"How is your body, master?"
+
+"Well enough," said Brian, feeling his head. "Save for this beard, which
+now I may not cut for a time."
+
+He intended to abide by that oath of his, and so his beard was growing
+out and his hair as well, of which latter he was glad.
+
+Since he had ever kept his face clean shaven, however, the beard was not
+to his liking. He was quite unaware that it built out his face greatly
+and made him grimmer-looking than before, and yet so young were his blue
+eyes except when he was in anger that it was not hard for Nuala to
+believe that he was only two years older than herself.
+
+None the less, she made great sport of his beard, saying that it curled
+at the end like a drake's tail, as indeed it did; and as Brian only
+repaid her laughter with the open wonder and admiration that he held for
+her, there was great good-comradeship between them.
+
+"There is still one chance for stopping the Dark Master," said Turlough
+thoughtfully. "If we cut off those pirate ships on their way south he is
+not like to get much help from Galway."
+
+"Oh--and I never thought of it!" cried Nuala, staring at him.
+
+Turlough chuckled. "That was spoken like a woman, mistress! If the rede
+seems good we could lay aboard men from here for fighting, and sail out
+with those two ships of yours."
+
+Now Brian's heart filled with new hope, and after no long discussion
+they decided to adopt the plan. Nuala was of the opinion that a short
+cruise would do Brian great good, so they decided to set off that
+evening in her two ships, leaving Turlough to keep the castle against
+Cathbarr's return.
+
+Had they taken Turlough Wolf with them or had Brian been less
+close-mouthed on his return from that cruise, the evil that befell might
+have been averted. The old man was cunning and swift at piercing beneath
+the craft of other men and turning it back upon themselves; but as
+Brian's mind lost its bitterness at his own failure it gained joy at
+being with the Bird Daughter, while Nuala had no less friendship and
+liking for him, so that neither of them gave much thought to O'Donnell
+Dubh who lay in Galway and bided his time after his own fashion.
+
+Once having reached their decision, they hastened it somewhat and sent
+men and muskets aboard the two ships at noon. Nuala wished to sail first
+to Gorumna Castle and make all safe there, then reach back for Slyne
+Head. She proposed that Brian take one carack and she the other, but at
+this Brian laughed.
+
+"No, lady--I am no seaman, and I am your guest on this cruise, so I go
+with you."
+
+"Well, you shall have good guesting," she answered, flushing a little,
+but her eyes not flinching from his, and so they went aboard her ship
+together.
+
+Having two hundred men still, Brian had put fifty on each ship in case
+they met with those pirates, who were like to give good battle. Also
+Turlough had hopes that many of Brian's men would win home from that
+riding of his yet, since a large part of them had dropped out by the way
+or had been left behind with wounds. And in the end, indeed, fifty or
+less did find their way back.
+
+Before night they made Gorumna Castle, and Brian found why they had come
+here first. With her Kerry recruits, Nuala had a hundred and eighty men,
+so she had set to work to build a tower and small keep on the opposite
+island, that Gorumna itself might be more easily defended. Also she had
+taken some falconets and two bastards out of a large French ship, and
+had set about building a battery outside the castle that would overlook
+the harbor.
+
+"That will be better than good when it is done," said Brian approvingly.
+"But you had best get it done speedily. When we come back from this
+cruise you shall take this hundred men of mine, for I will not need them
+until the Dark Master comes, and of that we shall have good warning."
+
+This she was glad of, and she was glad because Brian had found her work
+well planned; nor did either of them suspect what grief that loan of a
+hundred men was to bring upon Brian.
+
+They paused only to sup at Gorumna, then set forth again, and by dawn
+were off Slyne Head with a light breeze behind them. Nuala would take no
+chance of missing those Millhaven men, so instead of going north among
+the islands she turned her ships and beat off Slyne all that day, seeing
+no sail save fishing-craft.
+
+Those were pleasant hours for Brian, for the sea was fair and he had
+naught to do but sit with the Bird Daughter. He found himself drawn ever
+closer to her, admiring her wit and fairness as he did, and he fancied
+that she was by no means unwilling to talk with him and open her mind
+as she did to few men. Yet he remembered that he was no more than her
+vassal, a landless man in truth.
+
+That night the two caracks separated, standing well off the land and
+keeping good watch, but no sign did they catch of the O'Donnell pirates.
+Toward morning a stiff wind came upon them from the west, and Brian's
+men, being all landsmen, got no great joy out of that cruise.
+
+"This wind is like to hold," said Nuala, laughing as she stood on the
+poop with Brian that morning and watched the decks. "I am afraid that we
+might as well give over this attempt, Brian. Your men will be in no
+shape to fight. What think you?"
+
+"Right," nodded Brian slowly, for he saw that those men of his were
+worse than useless with their sickness.
+
+So they turned about and drove before the wind, but before ever they had
+got past Slyne Head the men aloft descried a sail to the south that
+seemed like a large galley. Nuala signaled the other carack to bear down
+with her, and presently they made out that it was a large sailing
+galley, which headed straight for them.
+
+"That is none of my ships," exclaimed Nuala, watching. "It seems strange
+that she does not flee before us, Brian. She bears no ensign, yet she
+must be from these parts, and would naturally have some fear of
+pirates."
+
+Brian looked at her rather than the ship, and thought her a fine
+picture, with her body swinging a little to the sway of the deck and the
+wind blowing her red cloak around her. The galley came straight for them
+as if seeking speech, however, and when a falconet was fired from the
+carack without charge, she lowered her sail and put out her sweeps,
+coming straight for them.
+
+Nuala sped a word to her sailing-master, and the men let down the sails
+with shouting and great creaking of ropes. The Bird Daughter stood under
+the high poop bulwark, and now she turned to Brian.
+
+"Do you speak with them and find their business, for it seems to me that
+all is not as it should be, and they would likely know me too well."
+
+Brian nodded, and when the galley had come under their lee he saw that
+she was well laden, and had for crew a dozen rough-looking men. One of
+these replied to his hail.
+
+"We are come from Galway, lord, with a gift of stores and wines from
+O'Donnell Dubh to certain friends of his whom we came to meet. Are you
+those friends, as we think?"
+
+Brian started in surprise, but needed no word from Nuala. He saw that
+the Dark Master must have sent this galley out to meet the Millhaven
+men, and that the crew had taken the two caracks for those pirate ships.
+
+"We are the O'Donnells from Millhaven," he shouted, and ordered the
+seaman to cast down ropes to the galley. Her master, a stout man with
+bushy black beard, waved a hand in reply, and after another moment the
+two craft ground together. The master of the galley got aboard over the
+low waist of the carack, and Brian ordered a dozen of his own
+green-faced men down into the smaller ship. At this the galley's master
+stared somewhat, but came up to the poop.
+
+"Lord, O'Donnell sends you these stores with a message. I am Con Teague
+of Galway."
+
+"Let us have it," ordered Brian, liking the looks of the man not at all.
+
+"He bade us say that he was leaving Galway to-morrow at dawn with a
+force of men, and that you should meet him at Bertragh Castle and fall
+on that place to take it."
+
+"That is good," laughed Brian. "Now learn that you have found the wrong
+ships, my man. We are not the Millhaven pirates, but I am Brian Buidh,
+who holds Bertragh; and here is the Lady Nuala, for whom I hold it."
+
+At that Nuala came forward, and Teague looked greatly astonished, as
+well he might, and all the Bird Daughter's men fell roaring with
+laughter. But he could make no resistance, and stood chapfallen while
+Brian talked with Nuala.
+
+"I must back to the Castle," he said, "and see if this news be true. Do
+you go on to Gorumna with my men, and I will let loose a pigeon to you.
+If the Dark Master is indeed on the way, then come with all the men you
+can spare, and it will go hard if we do not best his royalists, and the
+pirates later when the latter come."
+
+This was clearly the best plan, so Brian sent Teague down into the
+galley and followed him, as the light ship was faster than the caracks.
+Replacing half of Teague's men with O'Malleys, he had the ropes cast
+off, waved his hand at Nuala, and they drove to the eastward and
+Bertragh Castle.
+
+Teague made so much moan over losing his ship that Brian promised it
+back to him when they had reached the castle; the stores and wine,
+however, he accounted good spoils of war. This put the seaman in better
+mood, and by noon the fast galley had covered the twenty miles to
+Bertragh, and cast down her anchor in the little bay beyond the castle,
+that same bay where Brian had come to grief through O'Donnell's sorcery.
+
+The men crowded down to meet him joyfully, and Brian found that Cathbarr
+had come home safe with his beeves and was hungry for fight. No sign had
+been heard of the Dark Master along the roads, however, so Brian set
+Turlough in charge of getting the stores and wine-casks off the galley,
+and fell to work putting the castle in shape for defense.
+
+Since there was no need of loosing a pigeon until word came that the
+Dark Master was actually on the way, he sent out men to have a beacon
+built on the hills at the bay's head as soon as the enemy was sighted.
+What with seeing that the bastards and other shot were cleaned and
+loaded, and stationing his hundred men to the best advantage, he found
+that the afternoon soon wore away.
+
+"Those are good wines," said Turlough when they sat at meat that
+evening, the men eating below in the courtyard around fires. "But I do
+not like that ship-master."
+
+So far Brian had said nothing of how the galley had been taken, save
+that they had chanced on it at sea and had heard from Teague that the
+Dark Master might be on them in another day. As for the O'Malleys, they
+kept to themselves and talked not at all, so that neither Turlough nor
+Cathbarr had heard the way of that capture.
+
+"Is she unladen?" asked Brian.
+
+"All save a few barrels. That ship-master was so eager to be off,"
+grunted old Turlough spitefully, "that I stayed the work and put a guard
+on the galley until morning."
+
+"Give the men a cask of the best wine," ordered Brian shortly.
+
+Having taken upon himself the duties of seneschal, Turlough departed
+grumbling. While he was gone, Brian's tongue was a little loosened with
+wine, so that he told Cathbarr of how he had taken the galley, at which
+the giant bellowed with laughter. Presently from the courtyard came
+shouting and singing, and Turlough appeared with a beaker of wine.
+
+"The men like it well enough," he said, "yet to me it seems soured.
+Taste it, Brian; if it be so, then you have made a poor haul on that
+cruise."
+
+Brian sipped the wine, and in truth it seemed to have soured. Cathbarr
+made little of that, and would have drunken it except that his clumsy
+hand knocked it from the table and emptied it all. But as it happened,
+that mischance saved his life.
+
+A little after, Brian pulled out a Spanish pipe he had got that day from
+one of the O'Malleys, with some tobacco, and began puffing in great
+good-humor, for it was long since he had tasted tobacco. Cathbarr
+watched in awe, never having seen this done before, so that Brian and
+Turlough had great fun with him. All his life the giant had lived in the
+mountains and he knew no more than his ax had taught him; though he had
+seen men smoke before, he had ever accounted it sorcery of some kind,
+nor could Brian get him to as much as touch the pipe with his finger.
+
+Brian was sorry that the wine had proved sour; the butts were huge ones,
+and he had counted on their lasting him and his men all the winter
+through. However, he dismissed the matter from his mind and fell to
+talking with Turlough and Cathbarr over their arrangements in case of an
+attack. In the midst, one of the men who had been watching from the
+tower ran in to say that he had caught sight of a beacon on the hills,
+which meant that the arch-enemy was on the road.
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Brian, springing up. "Turlough, go fetch me that cage
+of pigeons. Cathbarr, see that the men are set on the walls--"
+
+He had got no further than this when there came a strange noise from the
+doorway. Turning, he saw a man staggering forward, choking as he came,
+and recognized him as one of the Bird Daughter's seamen. The fellow held
+a bloody sword in his hand.
+
+"What's this?" cried Brian angrily, noting that there was silence upon
+the court-yard. "Has there been wrangling again--"
+
+"Death!" coughed the O'Malley, staring at him with starting, terrible
+eyes. "Con Teague--I slew him--too--too late--"
+
+"Man, what is forward?" Brian leaped out and caught the seaman in his
+arms, for the fellow's head was rolling on his shoulders.
+
+"Death!" whispered the man again. "They are--all dead--"
+
+His head fell back in death, and the sword fell from his hand with a
+clatter. But from Cathbarr, who had gone to the doorway, came one
+terrible shout of grief and rage.
+
+"Brian! Our men lie dead--"
+
+"I think the Dark Master has sent us a kindly gift," quoth Turlough
+Wolf, as Brian rose with horror in his face and let the seaman's body
+fall. "Now I know why that wine was sour, master!"
+
+
+TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly,
+and that you will get the conclusion of this story without waiting a
+month.
+
+
+
+
+Nuala O'Malley
+
+by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.
+
+
+This story began in the All-Story Weekly for December 30.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+BRIAN YIELDS BERTRAGH.
+
+
+"I dare not trust birds alone in this strait, Cathbarr. Go to that
+galley with the two O'Malleys and hasten to Gorumna. Bid the Bird
+Daughter stay and wait further word from me; but take those hundred men
+of mine with her galleys, and hasten back. If the beacon on the tower is
+burning, I will be here; if not, and if I can make terms, I will meet
+you at that tower of yours. Now hasten!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"For God's love go, or my heart will burst!"
+
+Brian sank down on the horse-stone with a groan, and Cathbarr, catching
+up his ax, fled through the open gates and was gone into the night.
+Brian gazed up after him, and on the hills he saw that dim beacon-fire
+heralding the Dark Master.
+
+The six men guarding the galley, two of them being O'Malleys, and three
+men who had watched on the tower, were all that remained alive in
+Bertragh besides Turlough and Brian. The men had drunk deep of that
+poisoned wine; when Con Teague and his men tried to get away after a few
+had died, they were slain. But so swift was the poison that only one of
+the O'Malleys had lived to reach Brian.
+
+The fires still burned brightly, and before some of them meat was
+burning. Sitting in blank despair on a horse-block, Brian saw the dead
+bodies of a few less than a hundred men lying there. Turlough Wolf and
+his six gave over trying to put life into any of them, and now the old
+man came and put his hand on Brian's shoulder.
+
+"Where has Cathbarr of the Ax gone, master?"
+
+Brian told him dully, and Turlough nodded approval, having at length
+learned all the story of how that galley had been taken.
+
+"Master, there was deep cunning in this. O'Donnell sent that galley to
+you, or, rather, to the Bird Daughter, and he had spies watching. Had
+the Gorumna men drunk of that brew, he would have fallen on there; but
+here came the galley, and now he comes over the hills. And we are few to
+meet him."
+
+"We will be more when the men come in from the hill-roads before him,"
+and Brian rose up with heavy heart, forcing himself to the task. "Send
+out a man to haste them in and to warn what men there be at the farms.
+Also let him send a wagon or two, that these dead may be carried out
+before the Dark Master falls on us. Send two men to the tower to build a
+beacon, for Cathbarr will not be back before to-morrow night."
+
+Brian went to the stables where the three carrier-pigeons were caged,
+and fetched the cage to the great hall. Here he wrote what had happened,
+with his plan, in small space, fastened it under the wing of a bird, and
+let loose the pigeon from the courtyard.
+
+Stunned though he was by the sudden and terrible blow, Brian had seized
+on the only course left him. If he could make shift to hold the castle
+at all, he would do so; if not, he must make terms and get off to
+Gorumna that he might take vengeance for this dastardly stroke that had
+been dealt him.
+
+Nuala had nigh three hundred men in her castle, and he felt that all was
+not yet lost, even should he have to yield Bertragh. The Dark Master
+would hardly have a large force with him, and he would know nothing of
+those hundred men Brian had loaned Nuala; so Brian reckoned that if he
+could get away, O'Donnell would think him a broken man who could do no
+further against him.
+
+"Well, that's looking too far ahead," thought Brian very wearily.
+"Perchance I am broken, indeed, since I have lost two hundred and a half
+of men without gain."
+
+An hour later rode in a score of men with wagons, and fell to work
+getting the dead out of the castle, though for burying there was no
+time. This score, and two more who came in later, were all the men left
+to Brian; they reported that the Dark Master would be on them by
+daybreak, with two hundred Scots troopers and one horse cannon.
+
+"His friends proved niggardly, then," laughed Brian drearily. "We have
+but to hold the place till to-morrow night, friends, and the O'Malleys
+will relieve us. Now, one man to watch and the rest of us to rest, for
+there is work ahead."
+
+Brian, indeed, got some sleep that night, but it was shot through with
+visions of those poisoned men of his, and their twisted faces gibbered
+at him, and he thought they shrieked and howled for revenge. When he was
+roused at dawn, he found the meaning of those noises, since a great
+storm was sweeping down out of the west, and the farther wore the day,
+the worse grew the storm.
+
+"Is Heaven itself fighting against us?" he thought bitterly, watching
+the sea from the battlements. "Against this blast Nuala cannot reach me,
+if she will."
+
+He got little time to brood, however. Before he had broken his fast the
+Dark Master's horsemen came in sight--two hundred braw Scots, with
+wagons and a cannon following after. It was no large force, but Brian
+found afterward that it was the best the Dark Master could get, since
+the Galway Irish cared nothing whether the Scots lived or died.
+
+They halted and spread out, half a mile from the castle, and Brian saw
+that the men were being quartered on the farms round about. Bitterly he
+wished that he had his lost men, for with them he could have sent those
+Scots flying home again; but now he was helpless.
+
+With the gates shut and the bastards loaded with bullets to sweep the
+approach, Brian sent his twenty men to the battlements and watched, with
+Turlough beside him. It was plain that no offensive operations were
+under way as yet, and an hour passed quietly; then ten men rode down to
+the castle under a white flag, and foremost of them was the Dark Master.
+
+"Now, if I were in your place, master," said Turlough, slanting his eyes
+up at Brian in his shrewd way, "I would loose those bastards and sweep
+the road bare."
+
+"You are not in my place," said Brian, and the Wolf held his peace.
+
+The Dark Master looked at those bodies piled between the castle and the
+shore, and it was easy to see that he was laughing and pointing them out
+to the Scots. At that Brian heard his men mutter no little, and he
+himself clenched his nails into his palms and cursed bitterly; but he
+forbade his men to fire and they durst not disobey him. The party rode
+up under the walls, and the Dark Master grinned at Brian standing above.
+
+"You have great drunkards, Yellow Brian," he called mockingly. "Have all
+your men drunk themselves to death?"
+
+Brian answered him not, but fingered his hilt; even at that distance the
+Dark Master seemed to feel the icy blue eyes upon him, for his leer
+vanished.
+
+"Yield to us, Yellow Brian," he continued, shooting up his head from
+betwixt his shoulders. "I do not think you have many men in that
+castle."
+
+"I have enough to hold you till more come," answered Brian.
+
+"Mayhap, and mayhap not," and O'Donnell laughed again. "Keep a watch to
+seaward, Yellow Brian, and when you see four sail turning the headland,
+judge if those two caracks of the Bird Daughter's are like to help you."
+
+"If you have no more to say, get you gone," said Brian, feeling the
+anger in him rising beyond endurance. The Dark Master looked along the
+walls for a moment, then signed to his men, and they rode off through
+the driving snow again.
+
+Turlough looked at Brian and Brian at him, and the same thought was in
+the minds of both. If those Millhaven men had four ships driving down
+before that storm, as seemed probable enough, the Bird Daughter's two
+little caracks would never land men under the guns of Bertragh.
+
+About noon the snow fell less thickly, though the storm had risen to
+great power, and Brian made out that the Scots were bringing forward
+that cannon of theirs. Having some little knowledge of artillery
+himself, he drew the charge of bullets from a bastard and put in more
+powder, then put the bullets back, a full bag of them. He did the same
+with two more of the bastards on that wall, and when the Scots had
+halted aimed all three very carefully, and set men by them to fire at
+his order. The Scots were turning their cannon about, a score of men
+being in their party, and Brian judged that they were eight hundred
+paces away--just within range of his bastards.
+
+"The Dark Master lost this hold because he had too many men," he said to
+Turlough, "and we shall lose it because we have too few; but we will
+make better use of these shot than did he. Fire, men!"
+
+The three men brought down their linstocks and ran for it, having seen
+that extra charge of powder set in the cannon. But none of the pieces
+burst, though they roared loud enough and leaped at their recoil-ropes
+like mad things. When the white smoke shredded down the wind, Brian's
+men yelled in great delight, for those Scots and horses about the cannon
+were stricken down or fleeing, and the piece had not yet been loaded.
+
+"They will get little joy of that cannon," said Brian grimly, and went
+in to meat.
+
+During the rest of the day the cannon stood there silent, dead horses
+and men around it; nor was any further attack made. Brian knew well that
+having found him prepared, the Dark Master would now attack at night and
+hard did Brian pray that the storm might abate from the west, or at
+least shift around, so that Nuala's ships could come to his aid.
+
+Instead, the gale only swooped down the wilder, and seemed like to hold
+a day or more, as indeed it did. About mid-afternoon Turlough came and
+beckoned him silently out to the rear or seaward battlement and pointed
+out.
+
+No words passed between the two men, nor were any needed; beating around
+the southern headland were four flecks of white that Brian knew for
+ships coming from the west with the storm, and he saw that for once the
+Dark Master had told the truth.
+
+"I have some skill at war," he said to Turlough that afternoon when they
+had seen the four ships weather past them and anchor a mile up the bay;
+"and since the Dark Master's troopers are also skilled at that game,
+they will fall to work without waste of time or men. We may look to have
+the dry moat filled with fascines to-night and our gates blown in with
+petards. At the worst, we can hold that tower, where the powder is
+stored."
+
+If he had had more men, Brian would have slung the bastards down from
+the high walls and set them in the courtyard where they could sweep the
+gates when these had been blown in. But they weighed a ton and half
+each, and there was no time to build shears to let them down, even had
+they had spars and ropes at hand. So Brian set them to cover the
+approach, and had the smaller falcons brought down to the courtyard, all
+five, where he trained them on the gates and loaded them with bullets
+heavily.
+
+"Turlough and I will fire these ourselves," he told his men that evening
+as they made supper together, the men looking forward to the night's
+work with great joy. "Do the rest of you gather on either hand by the
+stables, with spare muskets and pistols."
+
+So this was done as he said. Because of the storm Brian did not light
+his beacon after all, but he stocked the tower with food and wine, and
+told his men to get there, if they could, when the rest was taken. That
+tower had Brian's chamber in the lower part and a ladder in the upper
+part, where was great store of powder.
+
+The five falcons were set in front of the hall doorway, where once Brian
+had come near to being nailed. Brian loosed another of the pigeons,
+telling Nuala how things chanced, and of the four pirate ships, and set
+the last bird in the tower in case of need, which proved a lucky thing
+for him in the end.
+
+Brian and his men slept after meat, while Turlough Wolf remained
+watching. It was wearing well on to midnight when the old man woke them
+all, and Brian went to the walls to hear a thud of hoofs and a murmur of
+men coming across the wind to him. He sent off men to loose the loaded
+guns on the outer walls at random, and then suddenly flung lighted
+cressets over the gates.
+
+A wild yell answered this, and bullets from the men who were filling the
+dry moat, while others scrambled across it and charged up to the gates
+with small powder-kegs and petards ready. This was not done without
+scathe, however; Brian's men loosed their muskets, and one by one the
+heavy bastards thundered out across the snow, though the result was hard
+to see in the darkness.
+
+There came a ragged flash of musketry in reply, and that abandoned
+cannon roared out lustily, though its ball passed far overhead. Brian
+stood on a demi-bastion that half flanked the gates, and after firing
+his pistol into the men below, he leaped down the steps into the
+courtyard and joined Turlough behind the falcons.
+
+"One at a time, Turlough. They'll have the gates down in a minute."
+
+While he waited for the storm to fall, Brian saw that two or three of
+his men had been hit. He wondered dully that the Dark Master had not
+made a general assault, and concluded that he must wish to save men. It
+was a long moment that dragged down on him; then a splash of light burst
+up, the gates were driven inward and shattered, and with a great roar
+there fell a rain of riven beams and stones and dirt.
+
+Sheltering in the hall doorway, Brian and Turlough stayed unmoving
+through an instant of black silence. Out of it broke a wild Scots yell,
+and in the light of the courtyard cressets a wave of men surged up in
+the breach. Brian's linstock fell on a falcon, and the little gun barked
+a hail of bullets across the Scots; Turlough's gun followed suit, and
+the first lines of men went down in a struggling mass.
+
+The Dark Master was not to be beaten this time, however. Another wave of
+Scots swept up, with a mass of men behind them. While some of Brian's
+men tried to get the two falcons reloaded, a storm of bullets swept
+across the courtyard, and Brian saw Turlough turn and run for it through
+the doorway, while two of the men fell over a falcon.
+
+But as the first line of men broke into the courtyard, Brian fired the
+remaining three cannon as fast as he could touch linstock to powder. The
+bullet-hail tore the front ranks to shreds, but through the darkling
+smoke-cloud he saw other men come leaping, and knew that the game was
+up.
+
+On the next instant his men had closed around him, muskets were stabbing
+the powder-smoke, and Brian fell to work with his Spanish blade.
+O'Donnells and Scots together heaved up against them, but Brian's point
+weaved out between cutlas and claymore and bit out men's lives until
+the mass of men surged back again like the backleash of a wave that
+comes against a wall.
+
+Brian heard the Dark Master's voice from somewhere, and with that
+muskets spat from the gloom and bullets thudded around him. One slapped
+his steel cap away and another nicked his ear, and a third came so close
+across his eyes that he felt the hot breath of it; but his men fared in
+worse case than that, for they were clutching and reeling and fallen,
+and Brian leaped across the last of them into the hall with bullets
+driving at his back-piece.
+
+As he ran through the hall he knew that his falcons had punished
+O'Donnell's men heavily, and that his twenty men had not fallen without
+some payment for their lives. None the less, Bertragh Castle was now
+lost to him and to the Bird Daughter; but he thought it likely that he
+would yet make a play that might nip O'Donnell in the midst of his
+success.
+
+In this Brian was a true O'Neill and the true luck of the Red Hand had
+seemed to dog him, for he had lost all his men without suffering a
+defeat, and now that he was beaten down, he was planning to strike
+heaviest.
+
+He gained the tower well enough, and found Turlough there to receive
+him, with food and wine and loaded pistols. They soon had the door of
+the lower chamber fast barred and clamped, and Brian flung himself down
+on his bed, panting, but unwounded to speak of.
+
+"Now sleep, master," said the old man. "They will search elsewhere, and
+finding this door closed will do naught here until the morning."
+
+Brian laughed a little.
+
+"It is not easy to sleep after fighting, Turlough. I think that now I
+will send off that last pigeon, so give me that quill yonder."
+
+With great care Brian wrote his message, telling what had passed, and
+saying that he hoped to ride free from the castle next morning. In that
+case he would be at Cathbarr's tower before evening came, and he told
+Nuala to have all her men landed there at once, since she could hope to
+do nothing by sea against the pirate ships.
+
+When the writing was bound to the pigeon's wing he loosed the bird
+through the seaward casement, and bade Turlough blow out their
+flickering oil-light.
+
+After eating and drinking a little, they lay down to sleep. Men came and
+pounded at the door, then departed growling; but Turlough had guessed
+aright. The Dark Master was plainly speeding the search for Brian
+elsewhere, and since there was no sign of life from the powder-tower, he
+did not molest this until close to dawn. Then Brian was wakened by a
+shock at the door, and he heard the Dark Master's voice outside
+directing his men. Still he seemed to have no thought that Brian was
+there, but wanted to get at the powder and into his own chamber again.
+
+Brian took up his pistols and went to a loophole opening on the
+battlements, while Turlough still crouched on the bed in no little fear.
+Finding that the Dark Master stood out of his sight, Brian fired at two
+of the men under the door, and they fell; then he raised his voice above
+the shouting that came from outside.
+
+"O'Donnell, are you there?"
+
+The uproar died away, and the other's voice came to him.
+
+"So you are trapped at last, Brian Buidh! Now yield and I promise you a
+swift hanging."
+
+"Not I," laughed Brian curtly. "There is no lack of powder here,
+O'Donnell Dubh, and one of my men holds a pistol ready for it."
+
+At this he glanced at Turlough, who grimaced. But from outside came a
+sudden yell of alarm, and Brian saw a few fleeing figures, while
+O'Donnell shouted at his men in furious rage. Brian called out to him
+again:
+
+"Give me a horse and let me go free with the one man left me, or else I
+will blow up both tower and castle, and you will have little gain for my
+death."
+
+"Would you trust my word in this?" cried the Dark Master. Brian smiled.
+
+"Yes, as you must trust mine to leave no fuse in the powder when I am
+gone."
+
+Then fell silence. Brian hated O'Donnell, as he knew he was hated in
+return; and so great was the hatred between them that he felt
+instinctively he could trust the Dark Master to send him out free. It
+seemed to him that the other would sooner have him go broken and crushed
+than do him to death, for that would be a greater revenge. Moreover, the
+Dark Master could know nothing of those men at Gorumna and would have
+little fear of the Bird Daughter.
+
+And it befell exactly as Brian thought.
+
+"I agree," cried the Dark Master, stepping out in the dawn-light boldly.
+"You shall go forth empty as you came, Yellow Brian. What of those
+two-score men you owe me?"
+
+"The time is not yet up," returned Brian, beginning to unbar the door,
+and he laughed at the mocking voice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+BRIAN MEETS THE BLACK WOMAN.
+
+
+"The storm is over, master, or will be by this night."
+
+"Too late now, Turlough."
+
+Brian and the old man stood in the courtyard, while the Dark Master was
+seeing to horses being made ready for them. Drawing his cloak farther
+about his hunched shoulders, the latter turned to Brian with a mocking
+sneer.
+
+"Now farewell, Brian Buidh, and forget not to repay that loan, if you
+can gather enough men together. When you come again, you will find me
+here. A merry riding to you. _Beannacht leath!_"
+
+Brian looked at him grimly.
+
+"Your curse would make better company than your blessing, O'Donnell," he
+said, and turned to his horse with no more words.
+
+The Scots who were standing around gave vent to a murmur of approval,
+and Brian saw the black looks passing between them and the wild
+O'Donnells. The Highlanders had done murdering enough in Ireland since
+Hamilton brought them over, but they were outspoken men, who had little
+love for poisoners; and as Brian settled into the saddle with his huge
+sword slung across his back, he caught more than one word of muttered
+approval, which the Dark Master was powerless to check.
+
+So Yellow Brian rode out from the castle he had lost, with Turlough Wolf
+at his heels, and his heart was very sore. Once across the filled-in
+moat and he saw fifty men at work by the shore, loading the dead into
+boats to be buried in the bay, for the ground was hard-frozen.
+
+Parties of Scots troopers and the horseless O'Donnells were scattered
+over the farmlands and country ahead, but these offered no menace as the
+two horsemen rode slowly through them. For all his bitterness, Brian
+noted that the four pirate ships had been brought around into the bay
+before the castle, into which the Scots had moved, while a great number
+of the O'Donnells had landed and were hastily throwing up brush huts on
+the height above the shore, evidently intending to camp there for the
+present.
+
+That was a dark leave-taking for Brian, since he had lost so many men
+and his castle to boot. Yet more than once he looked back on Bertragh,
+and when they came to the last rise of ground before the track wound
+into the hills and woods, he drew rein and pointed back with a curt
+laugh.
+
+"This night I shall return, Turlough, and I think we shall catch the
+Dark Master off his guard at last. If we throw part of our men on that
+camp at dawn and the rest upon the castle, the tables may yet be
+turned."
+
+"A good rede, Brian O'Neill," nodded the old Wolf approvingly. At thus
+hearing his name Brian flung Turlough one lightning-swift glance, then
+pulled out his Spanish sword and threw it high, and caught it again with
+a great shout.
+
+"Tyr-owen! _Slainte!_"
+
+With that he put spurs to his horse and rode on with better heart,
+striving to forget his troubles in thinking of the stroke he would deal
+that night. If those three pigeons had won clear to Gorumna, he would
+find Nuala and her men waiting at Cathbarr's tower, and before the dawn
+they would be back again and over the hills.
+
+So they rode onward, and presently came to a stretch of forest, dark
+against the snow. Suddenly Turlough drew up with a frightened glance
+around.
+
+"Master--what is that wail? If I ever heard a banshee, that is the cry!
+Beware of the Little People, master--"
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Brian, drawing rein also and listening. He heard a
+faint, sobbing cry come from ahead, and so mournful was it, so charged
+with wild grief, that for an instant his heart stood still, and the
+color fled from his face.
+
+"It is some woman wailing her dead, Turlough," he said at length,
+although doubtfully. "Yet I have never heard a _caoine_ like it; but
+onward, and let us see."
+
+"Wait, master!" implored the old man. "Let us cut over the hills and go
+by another path--"
+
+"Go, if you are afraid," returned Brian, and spurred forward. The other
+hesitated, but followed unwillingly, and a moment later Brian came upon
+the cause of that mournful wailing, as the trees closed about them and
+the road wound into a hollow.
+
+The dingle was so sheltered by the brooding pines that there was little
+snow, except on the track itself, and no wind. Under the spreading
+splay-boughs to the right was what seemed to be a heap of rags and
+tatters, though the wailing cry ceased as the two riders clattered down,
+with Turlough keeping well behind Brian.
+
+The latter drew rein, seeing that the creature under the pine-boughs was
+some old crone whose grief seemed more bitter still than his own.
+
+"What is wrong, mother?" he cried cheerily. "Are you from one of the
+Bertragh farms?"
+
+The tattered heap moved slightly, and a wrinkled, withered face peered
+up at him.
+
+"Nay, I come from farther than that," and to his surprise there was a
+mocking note in her voice, though it was weak. "That is a good horse of
+yours, _ma boucal_; he must trot sixteen miles to the hour, eh?"
+
+"All of that, mother," returned Brian, wondering if the old crone was
+out of her senses. "Was it you whom I heard wailing a moment ago? Where
+is your home?"
+
+The old woman broke into a cackle of hideous laughter.
+
+"My home, is it? Once I had a home, Yellow Brian--and it was in
+Dungannon, with Tyr-owen and Cormac and Art and the noblest of the
+chiefs of Ulster to do me honor! Have you forgotten me, Brian O'Neill,
+since we met at the Dee Water?"
+
+Then Brian gave a great cry, and swung down to earth, for now he
+recognized the Black Woman. But as he strode toward her she tried to
+rise and failed, and forth from the midst of her rags came a quick gush
+of red blood. Brian leaped forward and caught her in his arms, pitying
+her.
+
+"I knew you," she gasped out weakly, clutching at his shoulder. "I knew
+you, son of Tyr-owen! You had yellow hair, but your face was the face I
+once loved, the face of the great Hugh--"
+
+She stopped abruptly, and her words were lost in a choking gasp as blood
+came from her mouth. Brian swore.
+
+"_Mile Mollaght!_ What has happened here, woman? Are you wounded?"
+
+"Aye, those dogs of O'Donnells," she moaned feebly. Then new strength
+came to her, and she peered up with another cackle. "But did I not tell
+wisely, son? Have you not found Cathbarr of the Ax and the Bird Daughter
+even as I foretold?"
+
+"Yes, yes," returned Brian impatiently. "Where are you wounded, mother?
+We can take you--"
+
+"Peace, avic," she cried. "They came on me last night, and my life is
+gone. You shall take vengeance for the old _calliagh_, Brian--but first
+I must talk. Do you know who I am, avic--or who I was, rather?"
+
+"How should I know that, mother?" answered Brian. "Old Turlough Wolf,
+yonder, swears you are some witch--"
+
+"Turlough!" The hag raised herself on his arm, cackling. "So the old
+Wolf is still living! Do _you_ know me, Turlough? Do you remember the
+sorrowful day of the earl's flight?"
+
+Old Turlough, who had ridden closer, bent over and looked down, fear in
+his face. Suddenly he straightened up again with a wild cry.
+
+"Noreen of Breffny! By my hand, it is the earl's love!"
+
+"Aye, the earl's love!" she gasped out, falling back. "I was his love in
+truth, Yellow Brian, and he loved me above all the rest, though
+another's hand closed his eyes and laid him to earth in Rome. I knew you
+would come, Brian--I saw you at Drogheda, though you saw me not, and I
+bade you come here into the West, and I have watched over you--"
+
+She coughed horribly, clutching at Brian's arm. He stared down at her in
+amazement, for the incredible story seemed true enough. This old hag had
+been that Noreen of Breffny of whom he had heard much--the fairest maid
+of the North, whom the great earl had loved to the last, though the
+church had not blessed their union.
+
+Brian's old Irish nurse had often told him of the "Breffny lily," and it
+was bitter and hard to realize that this ancient hag, withered and
+shrunk and done to death by the Dark Master's men, had been the fairest
+maid in Ulster. She gasped out a little more of her story, and Brian
+found that his wild surmises had been true; after seeing him and
+recognizing him for one of the earl's house, she had instantly led his
+mind to this part of the country, being aware of the strife between
+O'Donnell and Nuala O'Malley. It had been a crazed notion enough, and
+since then she had kept as near to him as possible in the half-sane idea
+that she might help him.
+
+How she had managed to do it ever remained a mystery to Brian, since his
+marches had been none of the slowest, but she had done so.
+
+"Where are--your men?" she exclaimed after a little. Brian told her what
+had chanced at the castle, and she broke out in a last wild cackling
+laugh.
+
+"Tyr-owen's luck!" she cried. "Betrayed and blasted, betrayed and
+blasted--but the root of the tree is still strong, Yellow Brian--give me
+your blessing, master--give Noreen your blessing before you go to Rome,
+Hugh _mo mhuirnin_--"
+
+Brian's face blanched and his hands trembled, for he saw that her
+wandering mind took him for his grandsire.
+
+"_Dhia agus mhuire orth_," he murmured, and with a little sob the Black
+Woman died.
+
+Silence fell upon the dingle, as Brian gazed down at the woman his
+grandfather had loved, and whose love had been no less. Then Turlough
+pushed his horse closer, looking down with a shrewd leer.
+
+"Said she not that it would be a black day when you met her again,
+master?" he queried with awe in his voice. "I think--"
+
+"Keep silence!" commanded Brian shortly. "Get down from that horse and
+dig a grave."
+
+"But the ground is frozen--" began old Turlough in dismay. Brian gave
+him one look, and the old man hastily dismounted, crossing himself and
+mumbling.
+
+Brian joined him, and they managed to scoop out a shallow grave with
+knife and sword, laid the old woman in it, and covered her up again. It
+was a sorry burial for the love of the great earl, but it was the best
+they could do.
+
+Shaken more than he cared to admit, Brian mounted and rode on in
+silence. As he had thought, there was nothing supernatural about this
+weird Black Woman, except, perhaps, the manner in which she had
+contrived to keep close to him. She had warned him at the Stone
+Mountain, and she must have been keeping close to Bertragh ever since,
+unseen by any, with her unhinged mind driving her forward relentlessly.
+
+"Poor woman!" he thought darkly, gazing into the hills ahead. "There has
+been little luck to any who ever followed an O'Neill or loved an
+O'Neill! And now it seems likely that the same ill luck of all my family
+is to dog my heels, bringing me up to the heights, only to cast me down
+lower than before. Well, I may fall, but it shall not be until I have
+dragged down the Dark Master. If I fall not I may yet best the ill-luck
+and conquer Millhaven for my own."
+
+With that his mind leaped ahead again as the plan outlined itself to
+him. The O'Donnell pirates must have brought their whole force to the
+Dark Master's aid, and if he could but cut off that camp of theirs
+between the castle and the shore, Nuala O'Malley might bring her two
+ships against the weakened four and take them all.
+
+Then, when the castle had fallen, he could sail north to Millhaven,
+reduce the stronghold there, and let fly his own banner at last. It was
+a good plan, but it hung on many things.
+
+With a short laugh at his own fancies he turned in the saddle as the
+voice of Turlough broke into his musings.
+
+"I mind the last time I saw the poor woman back yonder, master. It was
+just before the great flight, and I mind now that she was not so
+ill-looking even then, though she was well past her youth, and that was
+forty years ago. Tyr-connall's bag-pipe men were blowing as we marched
+to Lough Swilly, and two earls rode in front when the poor _caillin_
+rushed out and flung herself under Tyr-owen's horse--oh, _Mhuire as
+truagh, Mhuire as truagh_ for the old days! And when the earl died, her
+name was on his lips, and I came home again to find her disappeared. Oh,
+what sorrow for the old days! Would that I had died in Rome with the
+princes--"
+
+"Stop that wailing," interrupted Brian sternly, for the old man was
+lashing himself into a frenzy of grief. "Put spurs to that horse of
+yours, Turlough, for we must reach Cathbarr's tower by noon if possible
+in order to start the men off over the hills. It'll be a long night's
+march, and I've no time to be idling here on the road."
+
+Upon which he dug in his spurs and urged his steed into a gallop, and in
+order to keep up, Turlough Wolf had to give over his laments and do
+likewise. Brian forced himself to bend all his energies toward carrying
+out his final desperate plan, but he silently vowed that the old woman
+who had so foully been cut down by the O'Donnells should not die
+unavenged.
+
+On they galloped without pause, gained the head of Bertraghboy Bay, and
+swung to the east on the last stretch of the trip. The storm which had
+arisen so inopportunely was now dying away, and the sun was breaking
+through the gray clouds; when they turned out from the main track into
+the hill-paths that led to Cathbarr's tower, the rough ground made them
+slow their pace. When they were still three miles from the tower,
+however, Brian gave a shout.
+
+"Men, Turlough! Cathbarr has sent out men to meet us!"
+
+So, indeed, it proved, and five minutes later a dozen men met them with
+yells of delighted welcome. From these overjoyed fellows Brian quickly
+learned that Cathbarr was at the tower and that Nuala O'Malley had just
+arrived there.
+
+So, leaving them to follow, he and Turlough went on at their best speed,
+and twenty minutes later they topped that same long rise from which
+Brian had first gazed down on the little promontory where stood
+Cathbarr's tower. But now, as he saw what lay beneath, he drew up with a
+shout of amazement.
+
+For around the tower and at the base at the neck of land were camped a
+goodly force of men, while at anchor near the tower lay--not Nuala's two
+ships alone, but also those other two of her kinsmen!
+
+"Those two O'Malleys have returned from the south," exclaimed Turlough
+in wild delight. "That means more men and ships, master--we will cut off
+those Millhaven pirates to a man!"
+
+Brian sent out a long shout, but his arrival had already been noted. As
+he rode down the slope, men poured from the camp and tower, and ahead of
+them all came Cathbarr of the Ax, with Nuala and Lame Art and Shaun the
+Little behind him.
+
+"Welcome!" bellowed the giant with a huge laugh, pulling Brian from his
+horse with a great hug of delight. "Welcome, brother!"
+
+Brian escaped from his grip and bowed over the Bird Daughter's hand. As
+he rose, he saw that her face had lost its ruddy hue, and that her eyes
+were ringed with darkness. Before he could speak she smiled and gripped
+his hand.
+
+"The birds came safe, and we know all. Yesterday arrived these kinsmen
+of mine, and their force is joined to our own, Yellow Brian--"
+
+Brian held up his hand, halting her suddenly, and silence fell on the
+men who had crowded around. For a moment he gazed into her deep eyes,
+then flung up his head and his voice rang clear and stern in the
+stillness.
+
+"Lady Nuala," he said quietly, "I promised you that when I slew the Dark
+Master I would tell you my name. Before another day has passed I shall
+have slain him; and now I tell you and your kinsmen that I renounce all
+fealty to you."
+
+At this the Bird Daughter started, staring in amazement, while an abrupt
+oath burst from Lame Art. Brian went on calmly.
+
+"This I do because it is not meet that The O'Neill should give fealty to
+any, Lady Nuala. I am Brian O'Neill, of right The O'Neill and Earl of
+Tyr-owen, though these are empty titles. And this night you and I shall
+fall on Bertragh together, Bird Daughter, and when we have won it again
+it shall be yours as of old."
+
+And amid a great roar of shouts welling up around him Brian bowed to
+Nuala.
+
+"Then, Brian O'Neill," she said, quieting the tumult a little, "am I to
+understand that you wish to make pact with me, and to receive no
+reward?"
+
+For a moment he gazed openly and frankly into her eyes, and under his
+look the red crept into her cheeks again; yet her own eyes did not
+flinch.
+
+Brian laughed out.
+
+"Yes, lady! It may be that I shall have a reward to ask of you, but that
+may not be until I have won back what I have lost for you."
+
+"And what if the reward be too great?"
+
+"Why, that shall be for you to say!" and Brian laughed again. "Is it
+agreed, Bird Daughter?"
+
+For an instant he thought she meant to refuse, as she drew herself up
+and met his level eyes; the men around held their breaths, and the
+O'Malley chiefs glanced at each other in puzzled wonder. Then her quick
+laugh rippled out and she gave him her hand.
+
+"Agreed, Brian--and I hope that you can shave that yellow beard of yours
+by to-morrow!"
+
+And the great yell that went up from the men drowned all else in Brian's
+ears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE STORM BURSTS.
+
+
+"Now, the first thing is to see what force of men we have," said Brian,
+after the midday meal. They were all gathered in Cathbarr's tower before
+a log fire, and were preparing the plan of campaign.
+
+"I have my hundred and eighty men," said Nuala. "When that last pigeon
+came from you I set out at once. With the hundred men under Cathbarr, we
+have close to three hundred. You can take them all, for my kinsmen here
+have enough and to spare to handle my two ships as well as theirs."
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Brian, as the two O'Malleys nodded. "I think that by
+striking at dawn we shall find most of the O'Donnells ashore or in the
+castle, and if you time your sailing to strike on their four ships at
+the same time we may easily take castle, camp, and ships at one blow."
+
+"If all went as men planned we would not need to pray Heaven for aid,"
+quoth Shaun the Little sententiously. Brian glanced at him.
+
+"Eh? What do you mean by that?"
+
+"Nothing," returned the wide-shouldered seaman with a shrug. "Except
+that there may be more to it than we think, Brian."
+
+"The Dark Master will not suspect your return so suddenly," spoke up
+Nuala. "Pay no heed to Shaun, Brian--he was ever a croaker. When think
+you we had best start?"
+
+"I am no seaman," laughed Brian. "Get there at dawn, that is all. I will
+send on my men at once, then; since we have only two horses, Cathbarr
+and I will ride after them later and catch them up. Will you take the
+men, Turlough, or bide here out of danger?"
+
+"I think it will be safest with the Lady Nuala," hesitated the old man
+craftily.
+
+"Little you know her, then," roared Lame Art, his cousin joining in the
+laugh.
+
+So Turlough had decided, however, and he stuck to it. Brian then
+described closely how the four pirate ships lay in the bay under
+Bertragh, while Shaun went out to arrange the distribution of his men on
+Nuala's ships.
+
+The arrangements having been perfected, Brian saw his three hundred men
+troop off on their march over the hills, after which he told Nuala at
+greater length all that had taken place in the castle since his parting
+with her at sea. Bitter and unrestrained were the curses of the
+O'Malleys as they heard of how his men had been poisoned, while Nuala's
+eyes flamed forth anger.
+
+"There shall be no quarter to these O'Donnells," she cried hotly. "Those
+whom we take shall hang, and the Scots with them--"
+
+"Not the Scots," exclaimed Brian quickly. "They are honest men enough,
+Nuala, and may serve us well as recruits. If we find them in the castle,
+as I think we shall, we may leave them there until we have finished the
+Millhaven men; however, it is possible that my men will find the castle
+almost unguarded, and so take it at the first blow. However that turns
+out, the Dark Master shall not escape us this time."
+
+During the afternoon, when the two O'Malleys were busily getting their
+ships in order for the coming fray, Brian sat in the tower with Nuala.
+He told her freely of himself, and although neither of them referred to
+that reward of which he had spoken at their meeting, Brian knew well
+that he would claim it.
+
+He did not conceal from himself that the Black Woman had guided him to
+more than conquest by sword. The Bird Daughter was such a woman as he
+had dreamed of, but had never found at the Spanish court, and he knew
+that whether there was love in her heart or not, his own soul was in her
+keeping.
+
+Perhaps he was not the only one who knew this, for as Lame Art rowed out
+with his cousin, the latter nodded back at the tower.
+
+"What think you of this ally, Art Bocagh? Could he be truly the Earl's
+grandson?"
+
+"I know not," grunted the other. "But I do not care whether he be Brian
+Buidh or Brian O'Neill or Brian the devil--he is such a man as I would
+fain see sitting in Gorumna Castle, Shaun!"
+
+And Shaun the Little nodded with a grin.
+
+When the sun began its westering, Brian and Cathbarr rode back from the
+tower with food and weapons at their saddle-bows, and they paused at the
+hill-crest to watch the four ships weigh anchor and up sail, then went
+on into the hills. They were to meet their men at that valley where the
+Dark Master had been defeated and broken in the first siege, and jogged
+along slowly, resting as they rode.
+
+"Brother," said Cathbarr suddenly, fingering the haft of his ax and
+looking at Brian, "do you remember my telling you, that night after we
+had bearded the Dark Master and got the loan of those two-score men, how
+an old witch-woman had predicted my fate?"
+
+"Yes," returned Brian, with a sharp glance. In the giant's face there
+was only a simple good-humor, however, mingled with a childlike
+confidence in all things. "And I told you that you were not bound to my
+service."
+
+"No, but I am bound to your friendship," laughed Cathbarr rumblingly. "I
+can well understand how I might die in a cause not mine own, since I am
+fighting for you; but I cannot see how death is to come upon me through
+water and fire, brother!"
+
+"Nonsense," smiled Brian. "Death is far from your heels, brother, unless
+you are seeking it."
+
+"Not I, Brian. I neither seek nor avoid if the time comes. Only I wish
+that witch-woman had told me a little more--"
+
+"Keep your mind off it, Cathbarr," said Brian. "In Spain the Moriscoes
+say that the fate of man is written on his forehead, and God is just."
+
+"What the devil do I care about that?" bellowed Cathbarr. "I care not
+when I die, brother--but I want to strike a blow or two first, and how
+can that be done if death comes by water and fire?"
+
+"Well, take heart," laughed Brian, seeing the cause of the other's
+anxiety. "You are not like to die from that cause to-night, and I
+promise you blows enough and to spare."
+
+Cathbarr grunted and said no more. The last of the storm had fled away,
+and the two men rode through a glittering sunset and a clear, cold
+evening that promised well for the morrow.
+
+They traveled easily, and it was hard on midnight when a sentry stopped
+them half a mile from the hollow where the men were resting. Brian noted
+with approval that no fires had been lighted, and he and Cathbarr at
+once lay down to get an hour's sleep among the men.
+
+Two hours before daybreak the camp was astir, and Brian gathered his
+lieutenants to arrange the attack. Thinking that the Dark Master would
+be in the castle, he and Cathbarr took a hundred men for that attack,
+ordering the rest to get as close to the camp as might be, but not to
+attack until he had struck on the castle, and to cut off the O'Donnells
+from their ships. Then, assured that the plan was understood, he and
+Cathbarr loaded their pistols and set out with the hundred.
+
+Brian ordered his men to give quarter to all the Scots who would accept
+it, if they got inside the castle, and as they marched forward through
+the darkness he found to his delight that O'Donnell seemed to have no
+sentries out.
+
+"We have caught the black fox this time," muttered Cathbarr, after they
+had passed the camp-fires without discovery and the black mass of the
+castle loomed up ahead. "They will hardly have repaired those gates by
+now, brother."
+
+Brian nodded, and ordered his men to rest, barely a hundred paces from
+the castle. Since there was no need of attacking before dawn, in order
+to let Nuala come up the bay, he went forward with Cathbarr to look at
+the gates.
+
+These, as nearly as he could tell, were still shattered in; there were
+fires in the courtyard, and sentries were on the wall, but their watch
+was lax and the two below were not discovered. They rejoined the
+hundred, and Brian bade Cathbarr follow him through the hall to that
+chamber he himself had occupied in the tower, where O'Donnell was most
+likely to be found.
+
+"Well, no use of delaying further," he said, when at length the grayness
+of dawn began to dull the starlight. Since to light matches would have
+meant discovery, he had brought with him those hundred Kerry pikemen
+Nuala had recruited after the dark Master's defeat, and he passed on the
+word to follow.
+
+The mass of men gained the moat before a challenge rang out from above,
+and with that Brian leaped forward at the gates. A musket roared out,
+and another, but Brian and Cathbarr were in the courtyard before the
+Scots awakened. A startled group barred their way to the hall, then
+Brian thrust once, the huge ax crashed down, and they were through.
+
+Other men were sleeping in the hall, but Brian did not stop to battle
+here, running through before the half-awakened figures sensed what was
+forward. A great din of clashing steel and yells was rising from the
+court; then he and Cathbarr gained the seaward battlements and rushed at
+the Dark Master's chamber. The door was open--it was empty.
+
+For a moment the two stared at each other in blank dismay. With a yell,
+a half-dozen Scots swirled down on them, but Brian threw up his hand.
+
+"The castle is mine," he shouted. "You shall have quarter!"
+
+The Scots halted, and when two or three of the Kerry pikemen dashed up
+with news that the rest of the garrison had been cut down or given
+quarter, they surrendered.
+
+Brian's first question was as to O'Donnell.
+
+"Either at the camp or aboard one of his kinsmen's ships," returned one
+of the prisoners. "They were carousing all last evening."
+
+At the same instant Cathbarr caught Brian's arm and whirled him about.
+
+"Listen, brother!"
+
+So swift had been Brian's attack that the castle had been won in a scant
+three minutes. Now, as he listened, there came a ragged roar of
+musketry, pierced by yells, and he knew that the camp was attacked.
+
+With that, a sudden fear came on him that he would again be outwitted.
+There was a thin mist driving in from the sea which would be dissipated
+with the daybreak, and if the Dark Master was on one of the ships he
+might get away before Nuala's caracks could arrive. Brian had been so
+certain that he would find O'Donnell in the castle that the
+disappointment was a bitter one, but he knew that there was no time to
+lose.
+
+"Come," he ordered Cathbarr quickly, "get a score of the men and to the
+camp. Leave the others here to hold the castle if need be."
+
+As he strode through the courtyard and the sullen groups of Scots
+prisoners, he directed the Kerry men to load the bastards on the walls
+and give what help might be in destroying the pirate ships. Then, with
+Cathbarr and twenty eager men at his back, he set off for the camp at a
+run, fearful that he might yet be too late.
+
+The day was brightening fast, and from the camp rose a mighty din of
+shouts and steel and musketry. Brian's men had charged after one hasty
+volley, but their leader gave a groan of dismay as he saw that instead
+of attacking from the seaward side as he had ordered, they were pouring
+into the camp from the land side.
+
+O'Donnell must have landed the greater part of his men, for Brian's
+force was being held in check, though they had swept in among the brush
+huts. Over the tumult Brian heard the piercing voice of the Dark Master,
+and with a flame of rage hot in his mind he sped forward and found
+himself confronted by a yelling mass of O'Donnells.
+
+Then fell a sterner battle than any Brian had waged. In the lessening
+obscurity it was hard to tell friend from foe, since the mist was
+swirling in off the water and holding down the powder-smoke. Brian saved
+his pistols, and, with Cathbarr at his side, struck into the wild,
+shaggy-haired northern men; they were armed with ax and sword and skean,
+and Brian soon found himself hard beset despite the pikemen behind.
+
+The Spanish blade licked in and out like a tongue of steel, and Brian's
+skill stood him in good stead that morn. Ax and broadsword crashed at
+him, and as he wore no armor save a steel cap, he more than once gave
+himself up for lost. But ever his thin, five-foot steel drove home to
+the mark, and ever Cathbarr's great ax hammered and clove at his side,
+so that the fight surged back and forth among the huts, as it was
+surging on the other side where was the Dark Master, holding off the
+main attack.
+
+Little by little the mist eddied away, however, and the day began to
+break. A fresh surge of the wild O'Donnells bore down on Brian's party,
+and as they did so a man rose up from among the wounded and stabbed at
+Brian with his skean. Brian kicked the arm aside, but slipped in blood
+and snow and went down; as a yell shrilled up from the pirates, Cathbarr
+leaped forward over him, swinging his ax mightily. With the blunt end he
+caught one man full in the face, then drove down his sharp edge and
+clove another head to waist. For an instant he was unable to get out his
+ax, but Brian thrust up and drove death to a third, then stood on his
+feet again.
+
+At the same instant there came a roar from across the camp where his
+main body of men were engaged, and Brian thrilled to the sound. As he
+afterward found, it was done by Turlough's cunning word; but up over the
+din of battle rose the great shout that struck dismay to the pirates and
+heartened Brian himself to new efforts.
+
+"Tyr-owen! Tyr-owen!"
+
+With a bellow of "Tyr-owen!" Cathbarr went at the foe, and Brian joined
+him with his own battle-cry on his lips for the first time in his life.
+The shout swelled louder and louder, and among the huts Brian got a
+glimpse of the Dark Master. In vain he tried to break through the
+Millhaven men, however; they stood like a wall, dying as they fought,
+but giving no ground until the ax and the sword had cloven a way,
+although the remnant of the twenty pikemen were fighting like fiends.
+
+Suddenly a yell of dismay went up from the O'Donnell ranks, and they
+broke in wild confusion. Leaning on his sword and panting for breath,
+Brian looked around and saw what had shattered them so swiftly.
+
+While the stubborn fight had raged, the eastern sky had been streaming
+and bursting into flame. Now, sharply outlined against the crimson
+water, appeared Nuala's four ships close on those of the pirates. Even
+as he looked, Brian saw their cannon spit out white smoke, while from
+behind came a deeper thunder as the castle's guns sent their heavy balls
+over the pirate ships.
+
+These were anchored a hundred yards from shore, and Brian saw the danger
+that betided as the stream of fugitives swept down toward the boats.
+Nuala's ships were undermanned, for he had counted on cutting off most
+of the pirates in the camp; should the Dark Master get to the ships with
+his men, things were like to go hard.
+
+"To the boats!" cried Brian to Cathbarr, and leaping over the dead, the
+two joined their men and poured down on the shore.
+
+The Dark Master himself stood by one of the boats, and others were
+filling fast with men as they were shoved down. Brian tried to cut his
+way to O'Donnell, but before he could do so the Dark Master had leaped
+aboard and oars were out. Fully aware of their danger, those of the
+pirates who could do so got into their boats and lay off the shore,
+while others splashed aboard; Brian led his men down with a rush,
+cutting down man after man, splashing out into the swirling water and
+hacking at those in the boats, but all in vain. Some half-dozen of the
+boats got off, crowded with men, while the remnant of the pirates held
+off Brian's force that their master might escape.
+
+Drawing out of the fight, Brian pulled forth his pistols and emptied
+them both at the figure of O'Donnell. He saw the Dark Master reel, and
+the rower next him plunged forward over the bows, but the next moment
+O'Donnell had taken up the oar himself and was at work in mad haste.
+Brian groaned and flung away his pistols.
+
+Those aboard the pirate ships had already cut the cables and were
+striving to make sail, for there was a light off-shore breeze in their
+favor, with an ebbing tide. The O'Malley ships were close on them,
+however, and as the cannon crashed out anew the masts of one O'Donnell
+ship crashed over. But the Dark Master's boat was alongside another of
+the ships, whose sails were streaming up, and now his cannon began to
+answer those of Nuala.
+
+But Brian stood in bitterness, unmindful of the wild yells of his men,
+for once more the Dark Master had escaped his hand at the last moment.
+Shaun the Little had been correct in his "croakings."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CATHBARR YIELDS UP HIS AX.
+
+
+Brian gazed out at the scene before him in dull despair. So close were
+the ships that he could clearly make out Nuala's figure, with its
+shimmering mail and red cloak, on the poop of the foremost.
+
+Her second carack had fallen behind, a shot having sent its foremast
+overside, but the other two ships were driving in. All three were
+lowering sail, for the Dark Master's craft were unable to get out of the
+bay and were giving over the attempt; his disabled ship was sending
+over its men to reinforce him, and Brian saw all his own efforts gone
+for nothing.
+
+There came a new burst of cannon, and through the veil of smoke he
+perceived that Nuala was laying her carack alongside one of the pirate
+ships. But it was not that on which stood the Dark Master; his was the
+ship closest to the castle, and Lame Art was bearing down on him, while
+Shaun the Little stood for the third, spitting out a final broadside as
+he came about and lowered sail.
+
+The crowding men on the shore had fallen silent as they watched the
+impending conflict, but now Brian felt Cathbarr touch his arm, and
+turned.
+
+"Why so doleful, brother?" grinned the giant; though blood dripped into
+his beard from a light slash over the brow, his eyes were as clear and
+childlike as ever, and the rage of battle had gone from him. "Let us
+join in that fight, you and I?"
+
+"Eh?" Brian started, staring at him. "How may that be?"
+
+"Ho, here is our captain given way to despair!" bellowed Cathbarr, and
+his fist smote down on Brian's back. "Wake up, brother! We have three
+boats here, and we can still strike a blow or two!"
+
+Now Brian wakened to life indeed. He saw the three boats on the shore,
+with dead men hanging over them, and leaped instantly into action.
+
+"Push out those boats--get the oars, there!" he shouted, leaping down to
+help shove them out. The men saw his intent, and sprang to work with a
+howl of delight.
+
+In no long time the dead were flung out, and the boats pushed down until
+they were afloat. Brian leaped into one, Cathbarr into another, and men
+piled in after them until the craft were almost awash.
+
+An eddy in the veil of smoke that hung over the bay showed Brian that
+Lame Art's ship had grappled with that of O'Donnell, and with renewed
+confidence thrilling in him, he shouted to his men to get aboard the
+O'Malley ship. The Bertragh cannon had ceased to thunder as the ships
+came together, but from the ships balls were hailing, musketry was
+crackling, and the water was tearing into spurting jets around the
+boats.
+
+Brian's men fell to their oars in sorry fashion enough, but they made up
+in energy what they lacked in skill. Driving past Nuala's ship, Brian
+saw that she had also grappled and that the battle was raging over her
+bulwarks, but sorely tempted to turn aside though he was, he waved his
+men on.
+
+They rowed close under the ship to which she was fastened, and as they
+sped past the O'Donnells saw them, and gave them a scattering volley.
+One or two of Brian's men went down, and a cry broke from him as he saw
+a round shot heaved over into his third boat, sinking her; then they
+were past, and bearing down on Art Bocagh's ship.
+
+"Tyr-owen for O'Malley!"
+
+Cathbarr's bellow rose over the tumult, and his boat crashed into the
+waist of the ship just as Brian leaped up into the mizzen-chains. His
+feet gained hold on a triced-up port, and as he looked down he saw a
+swell heave up the two boats, then bring them down together with a
+splintering smash.
+
+The result was dire confusion. None of the men were seamen, but some of
+them gained the side of Brian, others scrambled in through the ports,
+and more than one of them fell short and went down. Standing in the
+sinking boat with the water swirling about his ankles, Cathbarr caught
+up his ax and leaped; a moment later Brian was over the bulwarks with
+the giant at his side, and the O'Malleys welcomed them with a yell of
+joy.
+
+They were badly needed, indeed. The Dark Master had led his men in
+furious onslaught across the waist of the ship, and Art Bocagh was being
+beaten back to the poop despite his stubborn resistance. Brian saw that
+the Dark Master's men far outnumbered Art's, while from the rigging of
+each ship musketeers were sending down bullets into the mêlée. With a
+shout, Brian and Cathbarr led their men on the O'Donnell flank, and the
+tide of battle turned.
+
+At the first instant the rush of men bore Brian against the Dark Master,
+who was fighting like a demon. Brian caught the snarl on the other's
+pallid face, and struck savagely; O'Donnell parried the blow with his
+skean and returned it, but Brian warded with his left arm and swept down
+his blade. The Dark Master flung himself back, but not far enough, and
+Brian saw the point rip open the pallid cheek. Even as he pressed his
+advantage, however, another surge of men separated them.
+
+Now Brian gave over every thought save that of reaching his enemy again,
+and fell on the O'Donnells with stark madness in his face. A pistol
+roared into his stubbly beard and the ball carried off his steel cap,
+but he cut down the man and pressed into the midst of the pirates,
+cutting and thrusting in terrible rage.
+
+At sight of him men bore back; the icy flame in his eyes took the heart
+from those who faced him, and behind rose Cathbarr's wild bellows as the
+giant hewed through after Brian. Back went the pirates, and farther
+back. Brian found that he had cut his way to Lame Art, and with a yell
+the forces joined and swept on the Dark Master's men.
+
+O'Donnell had vanished, and now his men were swept back to the bulwarks
+and over to their own deck. Here they made a brief stand; then Cathbarr
+leaped over into the midst and his ax crushed down two men at once;
+Brian followed him, and for an instant it seemed that they would sweep
+all before them.
+
+Just then, however, Lame Art toppled from the bulwarks with a bullet
+through him from above, and the Dark Master's disappearance was
+explained by a rain of grenades that whirled among the O'Malleys. They
+gave back in dismay, Brian and Cathbarr were forced after them, and the
+Dark Master himself led his men in a mad stream over the bulwarks once
+more.
+
+There was no stopping them now. The death of Art Bocagh had disheartened
+his men, and amid flashing steel and spurting fire Brian and Cathbarr
+retreated to the quarterdeck. Here they had a brief breathing space
+until the pirates came at them anew, and with such fury that three of
+them gained a footing to one side. Brian went at them with a shout,
+thrust one man through the body, sent a second back with his bare fist,
+and as the third man struck down at him a pikeman transfixed the man
+before the blow could fall.
+
+The boarders drew back, but as they did so a great heave of the grinding
+ships broke the hastily flung grapplings. The ships were borne apart,
+and the Dark Master with most of his men remained in the waist of the
+O'Malley ship.
+
+This gave a new turn to the conflict. O'Donnell had to master the ship
+to win free, and when Brian saw this he gave a great laugh and rejoined
+Cathbarr. A quick glance around showed him that Nuala was slowly winning
+her grappled decks, while Shaun the Little was hanging off and sending
+his cannon crashing into the third pirate ship. The two disabled craft
+were slowly drawing together with the tide, which was forcing all eight
+into the bay, and were pounding away with their guns as they came.
+
+Now the combat resolved itself into a desperate struggle for possession
+of the quarterdeck, which Brian and Cathbarr held. The Dark Master's men
+swarmed up at them bravely enough, but the ax and sword flashed up and
+down, and time after time the Millhaven men fell back, unable to win a
+footing. Twice the Dark Master himself led them, snarling with baffled
+rage, but the first time a pikeman thrust him down and the second time
+Cathbarr's ax glanced from his helm.
+
+O'Donnell reeled back and was lost to sight for a time.
+
+"That was a poor blow," grunted the giant in disgust. "'Ware, brother!
+Stand aside!"
+
+Brian leaped away as the men behind him ran out a falcon and sent its
+blast into the crowd below in the waist. A dozen men went down under
+that storm of death, but almost at the same moment a grenade burst
+behind the falcon, and with that Brian was driven back as a keg of
+powder tore out half the quarterdeck in a bursting wall of flame and
+smoke.
+
+Barely had the shattering roar died out when Brian's reeling senses
+caught a wild yell of dismay from his men.
+
+"Fire! The ship is afire forward!"
+
+Brian saw that the grenades had indeed fired the ship forward, while the
+explosion had sent the quarterdeck into a burst of fire also, and the
+lowered but unfurled sails were roaring up in flame.
+
+Up poured the O'Malleys, and Brian staggered back to the poop. He had a
+vision of the great form of Cathbarr heaving up through the smoke,
+blackened and bleeding, but with the ax whirling like a leaf and smiting
+down men; then Brian gained the poop, helped the giant up, and with the
+few men left they turned to drive down the pirates, who were striving
+desperately to win the ship before it was too late.
+
+As he stood with Cathbarr at the narrow break of the poop, beating down
+man after man, Brian knew that it was only a question of time now, for
+the whole ship was breaking into flame forward. Suddenly he felt a tug
+at his buff coat, and looked down to see his belt fall away, sundered at
+his side by a bullet. He thought little of it, for he had half a dozen
+slight wounds, and turned to smite down at a man who had leaped for the
+poop; as his sword sheared through helm and skull, there came another
+tug, and Brian felt a bullet scrape along his ribs.
+
+The O'Donnells drew back momentarily, and in the brief pause Brian saw
+the figure of the Dark Master by the starboard rail in the waist, aiming
+up at him with a pistol, while two men behind him were hastily charging
+others. Cathbarr saw the action also, and hastily flung Brian aside, but
+too late. A burst of smoke flooded over the waist, and Brian caught the
+pistol-flash through it, as the ball ripped his left arm from shoulder
+to elbow. Then the pirates were at the poop again, and the waist was
+shut out by the flooding smoke as the wind drove it down from forward.
+
+With a scant dozen men behind them, Brian and Cathbarr once more beat
+the enemy back; the giant swung his ax less lightly now, and seemed to
+be covered with wounds, though most of them were slight. Brian still
+eyed the waist for another glimpse of the Dark Master, but the smoke was
+thick and he could see nothing. In the lull he flung a wan smile at
+Cathbarr, who stood leaning on his ax, his mail-shirt shredded and
+bloody.
+
+"Are you getting your fill of battle, brother?"
+
+"Aye," grinned the giant, "and we had best swim for it in another minute
+or the ship--look! _M'anam an diaoul!_ Look!"
+
+At his excited yell Brian turned, as a ball whistled between them. There
+below, in a boat half full of dead, but with two men at the oars, stood
+the Dark Master, just lowering his pistol. He flung the empty weapon up
+at Brian with a hoarse yell of anger, and passed from sight beneath the
+ship's counter, toward the stern.
+
+Realizing only that his enemy was escaping, Brian whirled and darted for
+the poop-cabins. He was dimly conscious of a mass of figures behind,
+amid whom stood Cathbarr with the ax heaving up and down, then he was in
+the cabins. Jerking open the door to the stern-walk, he saw the Dark
+Master's boat directly underneath, hardly six feet from him.
+
+"Tyr-owen!" yelled Brian, and dropping his sword, but holding his skean
+firmly, he hurdled the stern-walk railing and leaped.
+
+At that wild shout the Dark Master looked up, but he was too late. Brian
+hurtled down, his body striking O'Donnell full in the chest and driving
+him over on top of the two rowers, so that all four men sprawled out
+over the dead. For an instant the shock drove the breath out of Brian,
+then he felt a hand close on his throat, and struck out with his skean.
+
+One of the rowers gurgled and fell back, and Brian rolled over just as
+steel sank into his side. Giddy and still breathless, he gained his
+knees to find the Dark Master thrusting at him from the stern, while at
+his side the other rower was rising. Brian brought up his fist, caught
+the man full on the chin, and drove him backward over the gunwale. The
+lurch of the boat flung the Dark Master forward, Brian felt a sickening
+wrench of pain as the sword pierced his shoulder and tore loose from
+O'Donnell's hand, then he had clutched his enemy's throat, and his skean
+went home.
+
+Spent though both men were, the sting of the steel woke the Dark Master
+to a burst of energy. As the two fell over the thwarts, he twisted above
+and bore Brian down and tried to break the grip on his throat, but could
+not. For the second time in his life Brian felt that he had a wild
+animal in his grasp; the sight of the snarling face, the venomous black
+eyes, and the consciousness that his own strength was slowly ebbing, all
+roused him to a last great effort.
+
+The smoke-pall had shut out everything but that wolfish face, and as he
+writhed up even that seemed to dim and blur before his eyes, so that in
+desperate fear he struck out again and again, blindly. The blows fell
+harmless enough, for all his strength was going into that right hand of
+his; he did not know that his fingers were crushing out the Dark
+Master's life, that O'Donnell's face was purple and his hands feebly
+beating the air.
+
+Brian knew only that the terrible face was hidden from him by some loss
+of vision, some horrible failure of sight due to his weakness. Suddenly
+there was a great crash at his side, and he thought that a huge ax with
+iron twisted around its haft had fallen from the sky and sheared away
+half the gunnel of the boat. He struck out again with his skean, and
+felt the blow go home--and with that there came a terrific, blinding
+roar. The smoke-veil was rent apart by a sheet of flame, Brian realized
+that the burning ship must have blown up, and then a blast of hot wind
+drove down against him and smote his senses from him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE STORM OF MEN COMES TO REST.
+
+
+"Very well, Turlough. Tell Captain Peyton that I will give him an answer
+to his message to-night, then bid my kinsman Shaun entertain him in the
+hall, with the other officers. Send some food up here, and I may come
+down later."
+
+"And, mistress--you will tell me if--"
+
+"Surely. Now go."
+
+Brian tried to open his eyes, but could not. He tried to move, but could
+not; and realized at length that he was lying on a bed, and that a
+bandage was on his head and others on his limbs.
+
+Suddenly a hand fell on his cheek, and a thrill shot through him; his
+beard had been shaved away, for he could feel the softness of the hand
+against his chin. He felt the hand passed over his mouth--and he kissed
+it.
+
+There was a startled gasp, then the soft hand returned to his cheek.
+
+"Brian! Are you awake at last?"
+
+"I seem to be," he said, though his voice sounded more like a whisper.
+"Is that you, Nuala? Where are we?"
+
+"Yes, it is I," came her voice softly, and something warm splashed on
+his cheek. "Oh, Brian! I so feared that--that you were dead!"
+
+The hand moved away, and he moved uneasily, to feel pain through his
+body.
+
+"Nay, put back your hand!" he said. He tried to smile. "There, that's
+better. Where are we, Nuala? On your ship?"
+
+"No, Brian--at Gorumna. But I forgot. Turlough said you must not talk--"
+
+"Oh, curse Turlough," he cried in irritation. "Gorumna? What has
+happened? Where is the Dark Master?"
+
+"Lie still or I must leave you!" she cried sharply, and he obeyed. "The
+Dark Master's head is over the gate, Brian. It is two days since the
+fight."
+
+"Take that bandage from my eyes, Nuala," he said. After a minute her
+hands went to his head, and as he felt the bandage removed, light
+dazzled him, and he shut his eyes with a groan. Then he opened them
+again, and gradually he made out the figure of Nuala leaning over him,
+while a cresset shed light from above.
+
+"Tell me what has happened," said Brian quietly, as he tried again to
+move and failed. "Why am I helpless here?"
+
+"Because you are wounded," she replied softly. "Please lie quiet, Brian!
+I will tell you all that has chanced."
+
+"Where is Cathbarr! Did we win?"
+
+"Yes, we won; but--but Cathbarr--he must have flung away his ax before
+the ship exploded, for we found it sticking in your boat, and--"
+
+Her voice broke, and a pang of bitterness shot through Brian as he
+remembered it all now. He groaned.
+
+"And I left him there to die! Oh, coward that I am--coward, and false to
+my friend--"
+
+A great sob shook his body, but Nuala's hands fell on his face, and
+there was fear in her voice when she answered him.
+
+"No, Brian--don't say that! If any one's fault, it was Shaun's for not
+coming sooner to your aid. Cathbarr died as he would have wished, and
+indeed as he always thought he would die. But now listen, Brian, for I
+have news."
+
+So, leaning over him, she swiftly told him of what had passed. The
+O'Donnells had been defeated and slain to the last man; one of their
+ships was sunk, and the other three captured, and her men held Bertragh.
+As she and Shaun O'Malley lay refitting and gathering their wounded that
+same afternoon, a Parliament ship had come in from the south, bearing an
+answer to the appeal she had sent to Blake at the Cove of Cork.
+
+He had not only sent her powder and supplies, but had sent her a blank
+commission from Cromwell, which would be filled in upon her definite
+allegiance to the Commonwealth. The commission guaranteed her possession
+of Gorumna and Bertragh and the lands she claimed, and promised that
+when the royalists were driven from Galway the grant would be confirmed
+by Parliament.
+
+"I am to answer Captain Peyton to-night, Brian," she finished, her eyes
+dancing. "And Shaun is going to remain and hold Bertragh for me--"
+
+"What's that?" cried Brian. "Hold Bertragh? Am I then wounded so sore
+that I cannot draw sword again?"
+
+"No," and her laugh rippled out. "Turlough says that you will be as well
+as ever in a month, Brian. But since you withdrew your fealty to me, I
+had to find another servant!"
+
+"I had forgotten that," answered Brian moodily. He stared up at her
+face, and as he met her eyes saw the color flow up to her temples.
+
+"You have slain the Dark Master as you promised, Brian," she said
+quietly. "And have you forgotten also that you meant to claim a reward
+from me for that deed?"
+
+Brian laughed, and his face softened as happiness laid hold upon his
+heart.
+
+"I have not forgotten that, Nuala; but now I am not going to ask that
+reward in the same way I had intended."
+
+"How do you mean, Brian?" she asked gravely, though her eyes widened a
+trifle as if in quick fear.
+
+"This, dear lady," he smiled. "When you answer Captain Peyton, let the
+commission be made out in the name of Nuala O'Neill--and take my fealty
+for what is left to me of life, Nuala."
+
+He looked up steadily, knowing that all things hung on that instant.
+
+"Well, to tell the truth, Brian," and for a moment she seemed to
+hesitate, so that Brian felt a sudden shock, "I--I delayed answering him
+in--in that hope!"
+
+And her face came down to his.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The following synopsis originally appeared at the
+beginning of the second installment.]
+
+
+The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
+country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
+Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
+where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
+mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
+from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
+friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
+gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
+forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
+because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
+castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
+by black treachery.
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The following synopsis originally appeared at the
+beginning of the third installment.]
+
+
+The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
+country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
+Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
+where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
+mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
+from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
+friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
+gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
+forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
+because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
+castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
+by black treachery.
+
+By warlock arts O'Donnell More brings Brian and a handful of men through
+a snowstorm to Bertragh and makes him prisoner. He proceeds to torture
+him fiendishly, ending by nailing him to the castle door by one hand.
+Just then Colonel James Vere, British officer, arrives, and demands
+Brian in order to hang him comfortably in Galway. Red Murrough,
+O'Donnell's lieutenant, agrees, for the promise of ten English pounds,
+to pretend that Brian is worse off than he is so that he may take longer
+to recover. Cathbarr comes in, and offers to take Brian's place if
+O'Donnell will release Brian; and when the Black Master makes fun of
+him, he goes berserk and cleans out the hall, escaping with Brian to
+Nuala. Then they besiege and best O'Donnell, who escapes.
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The following synopsis originally appeared at the
+beginning of the fourth and final installment.]
+
+
+The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
+country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
+Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
+where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
+mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
+from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
+friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
+gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
+forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
+because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
+castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
+by black treachery.
+
+By warlock arts O'Donnell More brings Brian and a handful of men through
+a snowstorm to Bertragh and makes him prisoner. He proceeds to torture
+him fiendishly, ending by nailing him to the castle door by one hand.
+Just then Colonel James Vere, British officer, arrives, and demands
+Brian in order to hang him comfortably in Galway. Red Murrough,
+O'Donnell's lieutenant, agrees, for the promise of ten English pounds,
+to pretend that Brian is worse off than he is so that he may take longer
+to recover. Cathbarr comes in, and offers to take Brian's place if
+O'Donnell will release Brian; and when the Black Master makes fun of
+him, he goes berserk and cleans out the hall, escaping with Brian to
+Nuala. Then they besiege and best O'Donnell, who escapes.
+
+Brian goes after O'Donnell with a couple of hundred men, having
+recovered from his hurts, and all but catches him in a valley, just as
+he is working some kind of a divination with a bowl of water. Brian gets
+back his Spanish sword, but O'Donnell escapes with some of his men, and
+Brian loses all of his in chasing him to keep him from joining with his
+pirate friends. Brian and Turlough get back to Bertragh exhausted. He
+goes cruising with Nuala, and they meet a small vessel laden with wine
+and food for some of O'Donnell's men. Brian goes back with it to
+Bertragh, while Nuala goes on to Gorumna Castle, her own home. But the
+captured wine proves to be poisoned--it is a trick of the Black
+Master's.
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+The following typographical errors present in the original magazine
+publication have been corrected for this electronic edition.
+
+In Chapter V, a missing quotation mark was added after "I am for Brian
+Buidh."
+
+In Chapter VI, "Dhar mo lamb" was changed to "Dhar mo lamh".
+
+In Chapter VII, "which were small carracks" was changed to "which were
+small caracks". (While "carrack" is the more common English spelling,
+the author used "carack" consistently elsewhere in the text.)
+
+In Chapter XI, a missing quotation mark was added after "I would take
+your life for his."
+
+In Chapter XII, a missing period was added after "shifted thither in
+readiness".
+
+In Chapter XIII, "coming ing in one of his ships to marry me" was
+changed to "coming in one of his ships to marry me", and "Beannact
+leath!" was changed to "Beannacht leath!".
+
+In Chapter XIV, a missing quotation mark was added after "has joined
+with those friends of his".
+
+In Chapter XVI, "those of the Dark Maser were no better" was changed to
+"those of the Dark Master were no better".
+
+In Chapter XVIII, a missing quotation mark was added after "They'll have
+the gates down in a minute."
+
+In Chapter XIX, "Mhuire as truagh, Muire as truagh" was changed to
+"Mhuire as truagh, Mhuire as truagh".
+
+In Chapter XXII, a missing comma was added after "curse Turlough".
+
+No other corrections were made to the original text.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NUALA O'MALLEY***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nuala O'Malley, by H. Bedford-Jones</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Nuala O'Malley</p>
+<p>Author: H. Bedford-Jones</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 15, 2010  [eBook #30979]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NUALA O'MALLEY***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Steven desJardins<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Transcriber's Note:<br />
+<br />This novel was originally serialized in four
+installments in <i>All-Story Weekly</i> magazine from October 5, 1918, to
+October 26, 1918. The original breaks in the serial have been retained,
+but summaries of previous events preceding the second and third
+installments have been moved to the end of this e-book. The Table of
+Contents which follows the introduction was created for this electronic
+edition.</p>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="font-size: 125%; font-weight: bold;">ALL-STORY WEEKLY</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="font-weight: bold;">VOL. LXVI&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;NUMBER 2</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="font-weight: bold;">SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1916</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+
+<h1><i>Nuala O'Malley</i><br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%">by H. Bedford-Jones</span></h1>
+
+<p class="center">Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Editor</span>.This is a stirring, entrancing story of Erin when Cromwell was
+campaigning, and when the fighting heritage that is every Irishman's
+found vent through sword and ax and fire. You meet Brian Buidh, Brian of
+the Yellow Hair, more thrilling than even your favorite movie hero; and
+as for Nuala herself&mdash;well, just wait till you meet her!&mdash;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+
+<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_I">December 30, 1916</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">I.</td>
+<td class="chapname">THE BLACK WOMAN.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">177</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">II.</td>
+<td class="chapname">THE BEGINNING OF THE STORM.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">179</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">III.</td>
+<td class="chapname">THE DARK MASTER.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">182</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">BRIAN LEANS ON HIS SWORD.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">186</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">V.</td>
+<td class="chapname">YELLOW BRIAN RIDES SOUTH.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">191</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">BRIAN TAKES CAPTIVES.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">196</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">THE BIRD DAUGHTER.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">201</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_II">January 6, 1917</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">HOW BRIAN WAS NETTED.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">419</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IX.</td>
+<td class="chapname">THE NAILING OF BRIAN.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">424</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">X.</td>
+<td class="chapname">IN BERTRAGH CASTLE.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">429</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">THE BAITING OF CATHBARR.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">434</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">HOW THE DARK MASTER WAS RUINED.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">438</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_III">January 13, 1917</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">BRIAN RIDES TO VENGEANCE.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">659</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XIV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">HOW THE STORM FARED NORTH.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">664</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">WHAT HAPPENED AT THE TARN.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">670</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XVI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">BRIAN GETS HIS SWORD AGAIN.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">674</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XVII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">BRIAN GOES A CRUISING.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">679</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_IV">January 20, 1917</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XVIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">BRIAN YIELDS BERTRAGH.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">137</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XIX.</td>
+<td class="chapname">BRIAN MEETS THE BLACK WOMAN.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">142</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XX.</td>
+<td class="chapname">THE STORM BURSTS.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">147</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">CATHBARR YIELDS UP HIS AX.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">151</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">THE STORM OF MEN COMES TO REST.</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">155</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="Part_I" id="Part_I"></a><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">THE BLACK WOMAN.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>The horseman reined in as his jaded steed scrambled up the shelving
+bank, and for a space sat there motionless, for which the horse gave
+mute thanks. The moon was struggling to heave through fleecy clouds, as
+it was hard on midnight; in the half obscurity the rider gazed around
+suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing in sight to cause any man fear. Behind him rippled the
+Dee, and all around was desolation. Ardee itself lay a good two miles in
+the rear, burned and laid waste six weeks before, and ten miles to the
+south lay Drogheda. Indeed, as the horseman gazed about, he caught
+sight of a faint glare on the horizon that drew a bitter word from his
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>Dismounting with some difficulty, owing to his cloak and Spanish hat, he
+examined a long, raking gash in his horse's flank; then flung off hat
+and cloak and calmly proceeded to bind up his own naked shoulder
+beneath.</p>
+
+<p>His was a strange figure, indeed, now that he stood revealed. He wore no
+clothing save breeches and high riding-boots; an enormous sword without
+a sheath was girt about his waist, and the caked blood on his shoulder
+and cheek made his fair skin stand out with startling contrast.</p>
+
+<p>About his shoulders fell long hair of ruddy yellow, while his face was
+young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> and yet very bitter, tortured by both physical and mental
+anguish, as it seemed. He bound up the deep slash in his shoulder with a
+strip of cloth torn from his cloak, felt his wealed cheek tenderly, then
+flung the cloak about him again and drew down his broad-brimmed hat as
+he turned to his weary horse.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my friend," and his voice sounded whimsical for all its rich
+tone, "you've had a change of masters to-day, eh? I'd like to spare you,
+but man's life is first, though Heaven knows it's worth little in
+Ireland this day!" With that he reeled and caught at the saddle for
+support, put down his head, and sobbed unrestrainedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my God!" he groaned at length, straightening himself to shake a
+clenched and blood-splashed fist at the sky. "Where were You this day?
+God! God! The blood of men on Thine altars&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, you must be new come to Ireland, then!"</p>
+
+<p>At the shrill, mocking voice the man whirled about and his huge blade
+was out like a flash. But only a cackling laugh answered him, as down
+from the bank above slipped a perfect hag of a creature, and he drew
+back in alarm. At that instant the moon flooded out; his sudden motion
+had flung off his wide hat, and he stood staring at the wrinkled
+creature whose scanty garments and thin-shredded gray locks were pierced
+by a pair of weird brown eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then he quivered indeed, and even the poor horse took a step backward,
+for the old woman had flung up her arms with a shrill cry as she gazed
+on the yellow-haired young man.</p>
+
+<p>"The O'Neill!" The words seemed to burst from her involuntarily. She
+craned forward, her hands twisting at her ragged shawl, and a flood of
+Gaelic poured from her lips as she stared at the awe-struck man.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you, then, the earl, come back from the dead? Ghost of Tyr-owen,
+why stand you here idle in the gap of Ulster, where once Cuculain fought
+against the host of Meave? Do you also stand here to fight as he
+fought&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Peace, mad-woman!" exclaimed the young man, stooping after his hat.
+"Peace, and be off out of my way, for I have far to ride."</p>
+
+<p>The Gaelic words came roughly and brokenly from him, but the old hag
+took no heed. Instead, she advanced swiftly and laid her hand on his
+arm, still gazing into his face with a great wonder on her wrinkled
+features.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" she whispered. "Tell the Black Woman your name, if you
+are no ghost! For even as you stand now, once did these eyes see the
+great earl himself."</p>
+
+<p>"I am from Drogheda," answered the man, something very like fear stamped
+on his powerful and bitter-touched young face. "My name is Brian Buidh,
+and I ride to join Owen Ruadh&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Liar!" The old woman spat forth the word with a cackle of laughter.
+"Oh, you cannot fool the Black Woman, Yellow Brian! Listen&mdash;Brian your
+name is, and Yellow Brian your name shall be indeed, since this is your
+will. Owen Ruadh O'Neill lies at the O'Reilly stead at Lough Oughter,
+but you shall never ride to war behind him, Brian Buidh! No&mdash;the Black
+Woman tells you, and the Black Woman knows. Instead, you shall ride into
+the west, and there shall be a storm of men&mdash;a storm of men behind you
+and before you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"For the love of Heaven, have done!" cried Yellow Brian, shrinking
+before her, and yet with anger in his face. "Are you crazed, woman?
+Drogheda has fallen; O'Neill must join with the royalists, and never
+shall I ride into the west. Be off, for I have no money."</p>
+
+<p>He turned to mount, but again she stopped him. It seemed to him that
+there was strange power in that withered hand which rested so lightly on
+his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"The Black Woman needs no money, Yellow Brian," she cackled merrily.
+"You shall meet me once again, on a black day for you; and when you meet
+with Cath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>barr of the Ax you shall remember me, Brian Buidh; and when
+you ride into the west and meet with the Bird Daughter you shall
+remember me.</p>
+
+<p>"So go, Yellow Brian, upon whose heart is stamped the red hand of the
+O'Neills! <i>Beannacht leath!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Beannacht leath</i>," repeated the man thickly.</p>
+
+<p>There was a rustle of bushes, and he was alone, wiping the cold sweat
+from his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Woman or fiend!" he muttered hoarsely. "How did she know that last?
+Yes, she was crazed, no doubt. I suppose that I do look like the
+earl&mdash;since he was my grandfather!"</p>
+
+<p>And with a bitter laugh he climbed into the saddle and pushed his horse
+up the bank. The bushes closed behind him, the night closed over him,
+but it was long ere the weird words of the old hag who called herself
+the Black Woman were closed from his mind.</p>
+
+<p>For, after all, Yellow Brian was of right not alone an O'Neill, but The
+O'Neill.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">THE BEGINNING OF THE STORM.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The people of every nation&mdash;that is, the tillers of the soil, the people
+who form the backbone of their race&mdash;are in continual expectancy of a
+Man and a Day. Theirs is always the, perhaps, dumb hope, but still the
+hope, that in their future lie these two things, a Man and a Day.
+Sometimes the Man has come and the Day has failed; sometimes the Day has
+come and there has been no Man to use it; but now all Ireland had swept
+up in a wild roar, knowing that the Man and the Day had come together.</p>
+
+<p>And so, in truth, they had. Owen, the Ruadh, or red, O'Neill, had fought
+a desperate struggle against the royalists. Little by little he had
+cemented his own people together, his personal qualities and his
+splendid generalship had overborne all else, and the victory of Benburb
+had crowned the whole. Then Owen Ruadh was stricken down with sickness,
+Cromwell landed and stormed Drogheda, and Yellow Brian had fought clear
+and fled away to the kinsman he had never seen.</p>
+
+<p>Now, standing on the castle ramparts overlooking Lough Oughter, Yellow
+Brian stared moodily out at the lake. His identity had been revealed to
+none, and the name of Brian Buidh had little meaning to any in Ireland.
+Years since he who was The O'Neill, the same whom the English called
+Earl of Tyr-owen, had fled with his family from the land. His eldest son
+John had settled at the Spanish court.</p>
+
+<p>John was a spineless man, unworthy son of a great father, content to
+idle away his life in ease and quiet. And it was in the court of Spain
+that Brian O'Neill had been born, with only an old Irishwoman to nurse
+him and teach him the tongue and tidings of Ireland which his father
+cared nothing for.</p>
+
+<p>Yellow Brian had written out these things, sending the letter to the
+sick general who lay within the castle. His terrible news of Drogheda
+had created consternation, but already O'Neill's forces had been sent to
+join the royalists against the common foe. All Ireland was distraught by
+war. Royalist, patriot, and Parliament man fought each against the
+other, and the only man who could have faced Cromwell lay sick unto
+death.</p>
+
+<p>The Day was passing, the Man was passing, and shadow lay upon all the
+land.</p>
+
+<p>A man came up and touched Yellow Brian's arm, with word that Owen Ruadh
+would see him at once. Brian nodded, following. He was well garbed now,
+and a steel jack glittered from beneath his dark-red cloak as he strode
+along. Upon his strong-set face brooded bitterness, but his eyes were
+young for all their cold blue, and his ruddy hair shone like spun gold
+in the sunlight; while his firm mouth and chin, his erect figure, and
+his massive shoulders gained him more than one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> look of appreciation
+from the clustered O'Reillys.</p>
+
+<p>He followed the attendant to a large room, whose huge mantel was carven
+with the red hand and supporting lions of the clan Reilly, and passed
+over to the bed beside the window. He had requested to see O'Neill
+alone, and the attendant withdrew silently. Brian approached the bed,
+and stood looking down at the man who was passing from Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>Sharp and bright were the eyes as ever, but the red beard was grayed and
+the face was waxen; a spark of color came to it, as Owen Ruadh stretched
+forth a hand to take that of his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"Brian O'Neill!" he exclaimed, in a voice singularly like that of Brian
+himself. "Welcome, kinsman! But why the silence you enjoined in your
+letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Yellow Brian," answered the younger man somberly. "I have
+none other, general. You know the gist of my story, and here is the
+rest. I broke with my father, for he would hear nothing of my coming to
+Ireland. So I cast off his name and left him to his cursed idleness,
+reaching Drogheda barely in time to take part in the siege. I managed to
+cut through, as you know, and meant to take service with you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused, for words did not come easily to him, as with all his race. A
+low groan broke from the crippled warrior.</p>
+
+<p>"Too late, kinsman, too late! Cromwell is come, and I will never sit a
+horse again&mdash;ah, no protests, lad! How old are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-three."</p>
+
+<p>"By my faith, you look thirty! Lad, my heart is sore for you. I am
+wasted and broken. I have no money, and Cromwell will shatter all before
+him; I can do naught save give you advice."</p>
+
+<p>"I want naught," broke in Brian quickly, a little glint as of ice in his
+blue eyes. "Not for that did I cast off my name and come to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Tut, tut, lad!" O'Neill reproved him gently. "I understand, so say no
+more of that matter. You are Brian Buidh, but to me you are my kinsman,
+the rightful head of my house. You can do two things, Yellow
+Brian&mdash;either follow my advice, or go down to ruin with all Ireland. Now
+say, which shall it be?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian gazed at him with thoughtful face. What was the meaning of this
+dark speech? As he looked into the keen, death-smitten eyes of the man
+who might have saved Ireland, he smiled a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I see naught but ruin, Owen Ruadh," he replied slowly. "I care little
+for my life, having no ties left on this earth&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense!" broke in the other impatiently. "You are young, lad&mdash;the
+bitterness will soon pass, trust me. Now see, here is my advice, such
+advice as I would give no other man alive. I am dying, Yellow Brian.
+Well, I know that Cromwell will break down all I have built up, and I
+can see no brightness for my country. But for you I can see much. You
+are young, powerful, the last of the old race; you look strangely like
+the old earl, Brian!"</p>
+
+<p>The younger man started. For the first time in many days he remembered
+that crazed hag he had met by the Dee water the night of Drogheda.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, harken well. I tell you that our house lies in the dust, Brian;
+there is no hope for it or for any O'Neill. But for Yellow Brian there
+is hope. You must carve out a holding for yourself, for you are a ruler
+of men by your face, lad. Go into Galway, and there, where Cromwell's
+men will have hardest fighting of all, gather a force and make head. I
+have heard strange tales of a man who has done this very thing&mdash;they say
+he has seized on a castle somewhere near Bertraghboy Bay, in Galway,
+and&mdash; But I am getting weak, Brian lad. Hearken well&mdash;Ireland is lost;
+carve out now for your own hand, for the Red Hand of the old house, lad!
+And take this for my sake."</p>
+
+<p>Almost whispering the last words, Owen Ruadh took from his finger a
+signet graven deeply with the Red Hand of Tyr-owen. Brian accepted it
+gravely, kissed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> the hand that gave it, and with tears choking his
+throat, left the chamber of the man who was passing from Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>He had been there a brief fifteen minutes, yet it seemed that an age had
+passed. Both he and the sick man had said much in few words, for they
+were both men who spared speech and did much. But Brian had received a
+great wrench.</p>
+
+<p>As he had said, he had cast off his father, for the grandfather's blood
+ran riot within him, and had kindled to burning rage against the
+sluggard who had made his name a thing of reproach in all lands. With
+the overstrong bitterness of youth he had meant to die sword in hand,
+fighting for Ireland. The few burning words of Owen Ruadh had stripped
+all this false heroism from him, however, and had sent a flame of sanity
+into his brain.</p>
+
+<p>Brian returned slowly to the round tower, and stood looking out over the
+waters, for the castle was built on an island in the lake a mile from
+shore. It was nearing sunset, and snow was in the air&mdash;the first snow,
+for this was the end of September.</p>
+
+<p>"Ruin&mdash;the storm of men!" He repeated unconsciously the words of the hag
+who had stopped him by the Dee water. "What shall I do? Which is the
+part of a man, after all; to fall for Ireland or to hew out new lands
+and found a new house in the west? By my hilt! That old hag told me
+truly after all!"</p>
+
+<p>At that thought he stood silent, his eyes troubled. What was this fate
+which seemed to drive him into the west, instead of leading him to the
+flame of swords as he had so long hoped and dreamed? Death meant little
+to him; honor meant much. All his life he had lived in Spain, yet it had
+been a double life. He had ridden and hunted and learned arms with the
+young nobles of the court, but he had talked and sorrowed and dreamed
+with the old Irishwoman who had nursed him.</p>
+
+<p>After all, it is often the dreams of the youth which determine the
+career of the man, he reflected.</p>
+
+<p>Which path should he take? As he stood there struggling with himself,
+his hand went unconsciously to his long, powerful jaw; it was a gesture
+habitual with him when in deep thought&mdash;which he seldom was, however.
+Now the youth in him spoke for death, now the sanity which had flashed
+into his brain from that of the sick man spoke for the life of deeds and
+renown which lay in the west.</p>
+
+<p>An incident might turn him either way&mdash;and the incident came in the
+shape of a very tall old man who wore the Irish garb of belted,
+long-sleeved tunic and woolen hose, with iron-soled shoes. The old man's
+face was cunning, but his eyes were bright and keen and deep gray; his
+gray hair hung low to conceal his lopped ears, and there hung about him
+an indescribable air of shrewdness faced with apparent openness of
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>Brian glanced at him, remembered that he had heard him called Turlough
+Wolf, and looked away carelessly, absorbed in his own thought. But the
+old man halted abruptly with an exclamation:</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Corp na diaoul!</i> Where got you that face and that gesture, Drogheda
+man?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked at him, frowning.</p>
+
+<p>"What mean you, Turlough Wolf?"</p>
+
+<p>The other stared, his thin jaw fallen.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;why," he stammered, "I thought it had been The O'Neill come to
+life again! When I was a boy I have seen the earl hold his hand to his
+chin&mdash;often, often! And&mdash;and you look like him, Brian Buidh&mdash;-"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" Brian forced a laugh, but as he folded his arms again the
+glitter of O'Neill's ring on his finger caught the sharp gray eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Turlough Wolf started.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen!" he said, coming forward insinuatingly. "Yellow Brian, no man
+knows who you are, nor do I ask. But Turlough Wolf knows a man when he
+sees one, a chieftain among men. I owe no man service; but if you will
+need a swift brain, a cunning hand, and an eye that can read the hearts
+of men, I will serve you."</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked down into the shrewd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> face in wonder, then waved an
+impatient hand.</p>
+
+<p>"No use, Turlough Wolf. I have no money to pay for service, and to-night
+I must ride out to seek I know not what&mdash;nay, whether I ride west or
+east or south, I know not!"</p>
+
+<p>He turned abruptly, wishing to close the matter, but the old man laid a
+restraining hand on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"I seek no money, Yellow Brian. I seek only a master such as yourself; a
+man who is a master among men, and whom I can set higher still if he
+will heed my counsels. I am old, you are young; I know all parts of the
+land by heart, from the Mayo shore to Youghal, and I am skilled at many
+things. Take my service and you will not regret it."</p>
+
+<p>Brian hesitated. After all, he considered, the thing came close to being
+uncanny. The Black Woman by Dee water; Owen Ruadh himself, and now this
+Ulysseslike Turlough Wolf&mdash;whither was fate driving him? Was he really
+to meet such persons as the Bird Daughter and Cathbarr of the Ax, or
+were they only the figment of a crazed old woman's brain?</p>
+
+<p>So he hesitated, gazing down into those clear gray eyes. And as he
+looked it seemed to him that he found strange things in them, strange
+urgings that touched the chords of his soul. After all, adventure lay in
+the west, and he was young!</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" he said, gravely extending his hand. "To-night we ride to the
+west, you and I. Come; let us see O'Reilly about horses."</p>
+
+<p>And this was the beginning of the storm of men that came upon the west.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">THE DARK MASTER.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"There are two things, Yellow Brian, for you to mind. First, you must
+have men at your back who know you for their master; second, you must
+stand alone, giving and receiving aid from no man or party in the
+land."</p>
+
+<p>Brian nodded and stored away the words in his heart, for in their three
+weeks of wandering he had learned that Turlough Wolf was better aid than
+many men. It was his doing that, when they had chanced on a party of
+ravagers beyond Carrick, Yellow Brian had been led into strife with
+their leader. The upshot of that matter was that there was a dead rover;
+Yellow Brian had a dozen horsemen behind him and money in his purse, and
+of the dozen none but feared utterly this silent man who fought like a
+fiend.</p>
+
+<p>To the dozen had been added others&mdash;four Scotch plunderers strayed from
+Hamilton's horse and half a dozen Breffnians from Ormond's army, who had
+been driven out of Munster by the rising of the Parliament men there.
+They were a sadly mixed score, of all races and creeds, but were
+fighting ruffians to a man, and were bound together by Brian's solemn
+pledge that he himself would slay any who quarreled. The result was
+peace.</p>
+
+<p>So now, with a good score of men behind him, Yellow Brian had ridden
+down into Galway, was past Lough Corrib and Iar Connaught, and was hard
+upon Connemara.</p>
+
+<p>There was a thin snow upon the hills, and the bleak wind presaged more;
+but the score of men sang lustily as they rode. Two days before they had
+come upon a dozen strayed Royalist plunderers, and had gained great
+store of food and drink&mdash;particularly drink. So all were well content
+for the time being.</p>
+
+<p>"Turlough," asked Brian suddenly, as they rode side by side, "did you
+ever hear of one called the Black Woman?"</p>
+
+<p>The Wolf crossed himself and grimaced.</p>
+
+<p>"That I have, Yellow Brian, but dimly. They say she deals in magic and
+sorcery, and no good comes of meeting with her. But stop&mdash;there are
+horsemen on the road! Scatter the men, and quickly; let us two bide
+here."</p>
+
+<p>There was cunning in the advice, for the two had come to a bend in the
+road<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> and the men were a hundred yards behind them. Brian drew rein at
+sight of a score of men a scant quarter-mile away and riding up the hill
+toward them. He knew that they must also have been seen, but his men
+would still be out of sight, so he turned with a quick word:</p>
+
+<p>"Off into the rocks, men! If I raise my sword, come and strike. Off!"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he bared that same huge cut-or-thrust brand he had borne
+from Drogheda and set the point on his boot. Instantly the men scattered
+on either side the road, where black rocks thrust up from the snow, and
+within two minutes they and their horses had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The riders below came steadily forward in a clump, and Brian saw old
+Turlough staring with bulging eyes. Then the Wolf half caught at his
+bridle, as if minded to fly, and his hands were trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"What ails you, man?" smiled Brian. "Are they magicians and sorcerers,
+then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, <i>fareer gair</i>&mdash;worse luck!" blurted out the other. "Look at the
+little man who rides first, Yellow Brian!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian squinted against the snow-glare, and saw that the leader of the
+approaching party seemed indeed to be a little man with hunched
+shoulders and head that glinted steel.</p>
+
+<p>"A hunchback!" he exclaimed. "Well, who is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Dark Master&mdash;O'Donnell More himself! It is in my mind that this is
+a black day, Brian Buidh. O'Donnell More is the master of all men at
+craft, and the match of most men at weapons. Beware of him, master,
+beware! I had thought that he was still under siege at Bertragh Castle,
+else I had never taken this road."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" laughed out Brian joyously, drinking in the clear afternoon
+air. "So much the more honor if we slay him, Turlough Wolf! Let him
+match me at weapons, or you at wits, if he can!"</p>
+
+<p>Turlough muttered something and drew back behind Brian's steed with
+pallid face. Yellow Brian, however, having a sure trust in his own right
+arm and his hidden men, scanned the approaching O'Donnell curiously,
+seeking what had inspired such unwonted fear in the old gray Wolf.</p>
+
+<p>He could find nothing ominous in that hunched figure, save its mail-coat
+and steel helm. Yet the face was peculiar. Over a drooping mustache of
+black flared forth two intense black eyes. Brian noted this, and the
+thin, curved nose and prominent chin, and laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this Dark Master, Turlough?"</p>
+
+<p>The other shivered slightly. "He is an O'Donnell from the north, come
+here some ten years since&mdash;he seized on Bertragh even as we intend
+seizing on a stead, and has since done evil things in the land. Now
+hush, for they say the wind bears him idle talk."</p>
+
+<p>Brian's thin lips curved a trifle scornfully, but he kept silence,
+watching the approaching men. At fifty yards' distance they halted.
+Their leader eyed the motionless pair for a moment and then slowly rode
+on alone, waving back his followers. And Yellow Brian made a strange
+figure, with his ruddy hair streaming from beneath his steel cap and the
+bright, naked sword rising up from toe to head beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" O'Donnell More's voice was deep and harsh, though Brian
+afterward found that it could be changed to suit its owner's mood. "Who
+are you thus disputing my passage?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am Brian Buidh," came Brian's curt reply. "As for dispute, that is as
+you will."</p>
+
+<p>"Yellow Brian?" The black brows shot up in surprise. "A strange name.
+Whence come you, and seeking what?"</p>
+
+<p>"I seek men, O'Donnell More." Brian swiftly determined that this was a
+man who might give him aid, a man after his own heart. "Whence I come is
+my affair. Give me men, and I will repay with gold."</p>
+
+<p>"What need have you of men, Yellow Brian," came the sardonic answer,
+"when your own lie hidden among the rocks?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>Now indeed Brian started, whereat the other smiled grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"How knew you that?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you recognized me from afar, you had not stayed to meet me unless
+you had men," stated O'Donnell shrewdly enough.</p>
+
+<p>"True," said Brian, and laughed out. "Well said, O'Donnell. I have a
+score, and want another score. I will match mine against yours, or make
+a pact, as you desire."</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master sat fingering his sword-hilt and considered. With the
+black brows down and the black eyes fixed on him, Brian suddenly began
+to like the man less.</p>
+
+<p>"I will give you service," returned O'Donnell at last.</p>
+
+<p>Brian smiled. "Men serve me, not I them."</p>
+
+<p>At this curt answer O'Donnell looked black, then fell into thought, his
+shoulders hunched up and his head drawn in like the head of a turtle.
+Brian wished now that he had struck first and talked afterward.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the Dark Master looked up with a slow smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome to you, Brian of the hard eyes and hollow cheeks," he said.
+"<i>Slaintahut!</i> I will not give you men, but I will give you the loan of
+men if you will do me one of two favors. Ten miles to the south of here
+there is an old tower on a cliff, and in the tower dwells a man with
+certain companions who sets me at naught. On an island out near Golam
+Head is a castle where a woman rules, who has also set me at naught. Go,
+reduce either of these twain, and I will lend you twoscore men for three
+months."</p>
+
+<p>Brian sat his great horse and looked at the Dark Master. He would have
+sought advice from Turlough Wolf, save that he did not like to turn his
+back on those burning eyes. After all, the pact was not a bad one.</p>
+
+<p>"These enemies of yours&mdash;who are they, and what force have they?"</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master chuckled, and his head shot out from between his
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"The man is called Cathbarr of the Ax, and he is a hard man to fight,
+for he has ten men like himself, axmen all. The woman cannot fight, but
+she has a swift mind, many men, and her name is Nuala O'Malley, of the
+O'Malleys of Erris."</p>
+
+<p>"I had sooner fight a man than a woman," returned Brian slowly. "Also,
+this Cathbarr of the Ax has fewer men. I will do you this favor,
+O'Donnell Dubh."</p>
+
+<p>He gave no sign of the wonder that had shot into his mind at the name of
+Cathbarr, except that his blue eyes seemed changed suddenly to cold ice.
+The Dark Master saw the change, and his smile withered. Brian, watching
+him, reflected that this malformed freebooter could be venomous-looking
+at times.</p>
+
+<p>"I have passed my word," O'Donnell the Black made curt answer. "Fetch
+either of the twain to Bertragh, dead or alive, and you have the loan of
+twoscore men for three months, free. Is it a pact?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pact," answered Brian, and at that the other galloped back to
+his men.</p>
+
+<p>Brian swung his sword and flung it high into the air; before it had
+flashed down to nestle in his palm again, his men were scrambling into
+the road. He sheathed the sword, smiling a little, and turned to
+Turlough.</p>
+
+<p>"Well? To your mind or not, Wolf?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father saw the Brown Geraldine at Dublin," responded that worthy,
+scratching the gray beard which had begun to sprout. "They broke his
+bones with the back of an ax and swung him out in a cage until he died,
+and after. He made pacts too easily."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" asked Brian again, but a dull flush crossed his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"I gave you my rede," said Turlough sullenly. "I said to stand alone,
+receiving aid from neither man nor faction. Now there is mischief to be
+repaired."</p>
+
+<p>"Then my sword shall repair it," said Brian, and ordered the men to
+swing in after him. "Guide us to this tower of Cathbarr's, for my honor
+is in my own keeping."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>They swung about and headed to the south and the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The hill-paths, which Turlough Wolf seemed to know perfectly, were
+cruelly hard on the horses; none were as yet trodden down, for the snow
+was fresh, and all the west coast lay desolate. The plague had stricken
+Galway and Mayo heavily that year, smiting the mountains with death.
+Some few parties of Roundhead horse had come through, because they
+feared God and Ireton more than the plague, and some Royalists had fled
+up from the south for much the same reason.</p>
+
+<p>In any case, Yellow Brian found all the land desolate, and liked it. The
+more wasted the land, he reflected, the more chance for that sword of
+his to find swinging-room. As he had ridden, news had come from the
+east&mdash;news of the Wexford killing and the curse that was come upon the
+land. Owen Ruadh O'Neill was not yet dead, but Brian knew that he had
+prophesied truly. Ireland's day was gloaming fast.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the dismal tone of Turlough Wolf, Brian told himself that he had
+done a good day's work. O'Donnell Dubh would keep his word beyond any
+question. As for the man he was to slay, the only part of it which
+troubled Brian was the prediction of the Black Woman at the Dee water.
+She had known him, and had prophesied O'Neill's death, and had spoken of
+the west and this Cathbarr of the Ax. After all, however, she might have
+shot a chance shaft which had gone true. Brian had no faith in magic.</p>
+
+<p>All that afternoon he rode on, Turlough Wolf ahead of him, the men
+behind. They feared and hated the old Wolf as much as they feared and
+loved Brian.</p>
+
+<p>Progress was slow, owing to the bad paths, the snow, and sundry changes
+of direction, so that when night fell they had covered but eight miles
+of the ten. Turlough suggested that they push on and finish their
+business at a stroke, but Brian curtly refused. So the men made camp in
+lee of a cliff and proceeded to feast away the last of their provisions
+and wine, in confidence that on the morrow they would have more, or else
+would need none.</p>
+
+<p>Brian and Turlough built a fire apart, and after their repast Brian
+broke silence with a request for information about Cathbarr. It was his
+first speech since the parting with the Dark Master.</p>
+
+<p>"I never heard of him," responded Turlough. "No doubt he is some outlaw
+who has become a thorn in the Dark Master's flesh. With the woman it is
+different."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me of her," said Brian, gazing into the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"She is an O'Malley, and, like all the clan, makes much of ships and
+seamen and little of horses and riders. When the Dark Master came, ten
+years ago, he slew her father and mother by treachery, and would have
+slain her but that her men carried her off. She was a child then. Now
+she is a woman, very bitter against O'Donnell Dubh, and is allied with
+the Parliament so that her ships may have the run of the seas, it is
+said. O'Donnell takes sides with no faction, but caters to all. He lays
+nets and snares, and men fall into them, and he laughs."</p>
+
+<p>"Why is Nuala O'Malley called the Bird Daughter?" asked Brian quietly.</p>
+
+<p>At this question old Turlough rose on his elbow, and in his wide, gray
+eyes was set mingled fear and wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>M'anam an diaoul!</i>" he spat out. "Who are you to know this thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Answer my question," returned Brian, hiding his own surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Seven years ago, master, I was at Sligo Bay with O'Dowda when Hamilton
+cut us to pieces. Nuala O'Malley had brought us some powder&mdash;she was but
+a slip of a girl then. In the evening I was down at the ship when I saw
+her come from below, a hooded pigeon in her hands. She whispered in the
+bird's ear, set off the hood, and the bird flew into the night. I named
+her Bird Daughter, but no other man knew the name."</p>
+
+<p>"Then a woman did," chuckled Brian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> dryly. "It was but a carrier pigeon,
+Turlough; I have seen them used in Spain. Now listen to me."</p>
+
+<p>With that he told him of the Black Woman and his weird meeting at Dee
+water. Old Turlough listened in no little amazement, for he was full of
+superstitious fancies, but Brian said nothing of his own name. The
+uncanny prophecies, however, which now seemed on the road to fulfilment
+were enough to give any man pause.</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished, a very subdued Turlough Wolf stated that the Black
+Woman was an old hag who wandered all over the land, that some called
+her crazy and others thought her inspired, and that his own belief was
+that she was a banshee, no less.</p>
+
+<p>At this Brian saw the thing in a more rational light. The old woman knew
+of this nook in the west, and, attracted to him by his resemblance to
+the long-dead earl, she had endeavored to steer him thither. After all,
+it was quite simple.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, old Turlough swore that he had never breathed his name of
+Bird Daughter to a living soul, and that it was but a name he had used
+in his own mind for the slim girl who had fetched powder from the south.
+Brian chuckled, guessing that Turlough was not the only one who had seen
+carrier pigeons used, and who had ascribed the thing to higher powers.</p>
+
+<p>The incident served the purpose of establishing a firmer intimacy
+between Brian and the old man, however, and convinced Turlough that his
+master was destined to fly high. Nor through all the storm of men that
+befell after did Turlough again breathe reproof as he had dared that
+day.</p>
+
+<p>"I begin to see that your advice was good, Turlough Wolf," said Brian
+the next morning, as he rode shivering from camp. "As to making my men
+know me for their master, that troubles me little; but I think it will
+be a hard matter to avoid making pacts, and to stand alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Lean on your sword," grunted old Turlough. "To my notion, such
+friendship as that huge blade of yours can give is better than good.
+Order men ahead."</p>
+
+<p>Brian nodded and sent two of the men ahead as scouts, with the Wolf
+himself. For the better part of an hour they made slow headway among the
+rocks, and then emerged suddenly on the slope leading down to the cliffs
+and sea. Turlough pointed to the left.</p>
+
+<p>"There lies the tower, if I mistake not."</p>
+
+<p>Drawing rein, Brian saw at once why he had been sent on this errand.
+Cathbarr's tower was an old ruin at the end of a long and narrow
+headland&mdash;indeed, at high tide most of the headland would be covered,
+for it was low and yet beyond shot of the cliffs. Except from the water,
+it was almost impregnable; cannon might have reached it from shore, but
+two axmen could have held the narrow way against an army.</p>
+
+<p>Brian laughed softly and ordered the men to remain where they were.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do, master?" queried old Turlough anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to lean on my sword, as you advised me," chuckled Brian, and
+rode on alone.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">BRIAN LEANS ON HIS SWORD.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>As he had foreseen, Brian was allowed to ride across the narrow neck of
+land where his men would have had to battle for progress. It was from no
+mere bravado that he had gone forward alone to the tower, but because
+men were worth saving, and he believed that his own sword was a match
+for any ax. If this ruffian Cathbarr was a freebooting outlaw, he would
+be willing enough to stake his ten men on his prowess, and Yellow Brian
+was very anxious to have those ten axmen behind him.</p>
+
+<p>At the top of the tower men watched and steel glistened, and as Brian
+rode up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> to the low gateway, it was flung open and a man strode out.
+This man hardly came up to Brian's conception of an outlaw, except as to
+stature.</p>
+
+<p>He was a good six feet four, reflected Brian as he drew rein and waited,
+and was built in proportion&mdash;or, rather, out of proportion. His
+shoulders and chest seemed tremendous, and a long mail-shirt reached to
+his knees; his hair was short-clipped and brown, and beneath his curly
+brown beard Brian made out a massive face, wide-set brown eyes, and an
+air not so much ruffianly as of cheerful good-humor.</p>
+
+<p>Brian had no need to ask his name, however, for in one hand he carried a
+weapon such as had seldom seen the light since powder had come to
+Ireland. It was an ax, some five feet from haft to helve; double-bladed,
+each blade eight inches long, curved back slightly, and two inches thick
+by twice as much wide. The edges, which came down sharply from the
+thickness, were not overkeen, and were not meant to be so. When the
+thing struck, that was the end of what stood before it.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Cead mile failte!</i>" cried Cathbarr of the Ax in a deep, rumbling
+voice, his white teeth flashing through his beard in a smile. "A hundred
+thousand welcomes to you, swordsman! Are you come to capture my lordly
+castle?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; your men," laughed Brian, liking this huge, merry giant on the
+instant. "I am come from O'Donnell Dubh to reduce you and fetch you to
+him."</p>
+
+<p>The smile froze on the giant's face.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry for that, yellow one! I like your face and your thews, and
+to find that you serve the black traitor of Bertragh is an ill thing."</p>
+
+<p>"I serve no man," answered Brian easily. "I need men. If I conquer you,
+O'Donnell lends me twoscore men for three months; also, by conquering
+you I win your men to me, which makes fifty. With my seventy men, I
+shall fall to work."</p>
+
+<p>"By my faith, a ready reckoner!" and Cathbarr grinned again. "Get down
+and fight."</p>
+
+<p>Brian swung out of the saddle and led his horse to one side. They were
+not so badly matched, he reflected. Cathbarr's head was bared, while he
+had steel cap and jack; but for some reason he felt hesitant at thought
+of killing this merry giant.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so bad," he said, baring his five-foot blade and holding it up
+against the huge ax. "Not so bad, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr burst into a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"It will grieve me to crush your skull, dear man," he rumbled. "What a
+pair we would make, matched against that Dark Master! But enough.
+Ready?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian nodded slightly, and the long ax flashed up.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Brian O'Neill had served a stiff apprenticeship at weapons, and had
+faced many men whose eyes boded him death, but here, for the first time
+in all his life, he felt the self-confidence stricken out of him.</p>
+
+<p>As Cathbarr heaved up his ax, he became a different man. All the good
+cheer fled out of his face; his curly brown beard seemed to stand out
+about his head like snakes, and the massiveness of his body was
+reflected in the battle-fury of his face. He needed no blows to rouse
+him into madness; but with the ax swinging like a reed about him, he
+came rushing at Brian, a giant come to earth from of old time. His men
+on the tower set up a wild yell of encouragement.</p>
+
+<p>Brian leaped swiftly aside and, thinking to end the fight at a blow,
+brought down his sword against the descending ax-haft. Sparks flew&mdash;the
+haft was bound with iron; Brian only saved himself from falling by a
+miracle.</p>
+
+<p>Then began a strange battle of feet against brawn, for Cathbarr rushed
+and rushed again, but ever Brian slipped away from the falling ax, nor
+was he able to strike back. The play of that ax was a marvel to behold;
+it was shield and weapon in one, and it seemed no heavier than a thing
+of wood as it whirled. Twice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> Brian got in his point against the
+mail-coat without effect, and twice the ax brushed his shoulder, so that
+he gave over thrusting. He knew that he was fighting for his life
+indeed.</p>
+
+<p>An instant later he discovered that fact anew as a glancing touch of the
+ax drove off his steel cap and sent him staggering back a dozen paces,
+reeling and clutching at the air. To his amazement Cathbarr did not
+follow him, but stood waiting for him to recover; he had not looked for
+such courtesy on the west coast.</p>
+
+<p>He sprang back into his defense, desperate now. Again the ax whirled,
+seeming a part of the giant himself, and Brian knew that he was lost if
+he waited for it. So, instead of waiting, he leaped under the blow,
+dropped his sword, and drove up his fist into the bearded chin, now
+flecked with foam.</p>
+
+<p>It was a cruel blow. Cathbarr grunted, his head rocked back, and he
+swayed on his feet. Before he could recover, Brian had set his thigh
+against him, caught his arm, and sent him whirling to the ground, ax and
+all. Then he picked up his sword and stood leaning on it, panting.</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr sat up and gazed around blankly, until his gaze fell on the
+waiting figure. Brian looked at him, smiling slightly, and the eyes of
+the two men met and clinched. As if he had been a child caught doing
+wrong, the giant grinned and wiped the foam from his beard.</p>
+
+<p>"Was that fair fighting, yellow man?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," laughed Brian. "It was unfair, Cathbarr; but I think my fists can
+best your ax yet."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the giant got to his feet. To Brian's surprise he left his ax
+where it lay and came forward with extended hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Had you claimed that blow as fair," he rumbled, "I would have slain
+you. Now I love you, yellow man. Let us make a pact together. What is
+your name?"</p>
+
+<p>They struck hands, and Brian felt a great thrill of admiration for this
+man whose terrible strength enclosed the simple heart of a child. But
+he shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I make no pacts, Cathbarr. My name is Brian Buidh. I made pact with the
+Dark Master, and now I am sorry for it; yet it must be held to, for I
+see no way out of it. But wait&mdash;I have a cunning man whose wit may help
+us here."</p>
+
+<p>He turned and flung up his sword in the air. His men rode down to the
+narrow causeway, while from the tower came shouts warning Cathbarr
+against treachery. But the giant only grinned again, and Brian shouted
+to Turlough Wolf to come on alone.</p>
+
+<p>Old Turlough obeyed in no little wonder. When he came up Brian told him
+what had chanced&mdash;that out of enmity had arisen friendship.</p>
+
+<p>"But," he concluded, trouble in his heart, "you must find me a way out,
+Turlough. I have passed my word to O'Donness to reduce Cathbarr; to do
+that I must slay him, or he me. I see little honor either way."</p>
+
+<p>"Few men find honor in their dealings with the Dark Master," grumbled
+Turlough, looking from Cathbarr to Brian. "Yet, if you want a way out,
+it is an easy matter. Cathbarr of the Ax, give service to my master.
+Thus, Brian Buidh, you shall reduce Cathbarr; yet the Dark Master said
+naught of giving up this man to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" cried Brian, eagerness in his blue eyes, and swung on the giant.
+"Will you give me your service, friend, and follow me? There shall be a
+storm of men&mdash;" He paused abruptly as the words fell from his lips, but
+he had said enough.</p>
+
+<p>"I give you service, Yellow Brian," rumbled Cathbarr, taking his hand
+again, and his strong, white teeth flashed through his beard. "I will
+follow you, and my men, and there shall be firm friendship between us.
+Is it good?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is good!" exclaimed Brian, his heart singing. But Turlough laughed
+harshly.</p>
+
+<p>"So you have again broken my rede,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> Brian Buidh, for this man knows you
+not as his master, but names you his friend. I bade you take, not give."</p>
+
+<p>"It was your own advice," retorted Brian, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, since you asked it, I found the way out. But you have not
+conquered him."</p>
+
+<p>"He conquered me by not telling a lie," said Cathbarr simply. "I serve
+him."</p>
+
+<p>Turlough eyed them keenly, heard how the fight had gone, and then
+suddenly comprehended what manner of man this huge, bearded fellow was.
+His face cleared, and without a word he clasped Cathbarr's hand, and
+asked Brian for orders.</p>
+
+<p>"How far from here is Bertragh Castle?" questioned Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"It overlooks Bertraghboy Bay," answered the giant. "Bide here till
+noon, while my men bring in their horses from the hills, and with the
+night we can arrive there."</p>
+
+<p>To this Brian assented, well pleased that Cathbarr had horses. Turlough
+went back to bring up his men, and Brian entered the tower that served
+Cathbarr for castle. It was a small place, but strong; the ten men who
+took his hand and gave him service were cut after the pattern of their
+master&mdash;huge fellows all, O'Flahertys from the mountains who had
+followed Cathbarr down to loot the coast, with no ill success.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange tale that he heard, while he and his men ate and drank
+with their new comrades. For some months Cathbarr had maintained himself
+here, raiding O'Donnell's lands chiefly and making his ax feared through
+all the coast. In fact, the giant had attempted his own errand&mdash;to set
+himself up in power; but he had gone about it like a child.</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master had come against him with a hundred men, and after
+losing a score and more at the causeway, had tried to starve him out. At
+that Cathbarr had calmly stolen away by boat, raided O'Donnell's
+choicest farms overnight, and was back with his plunder before the Dark
+Master guessed his absence. After this O'Donnell had kept watch and ward
+upon his lands, with better results; Cathbarr occupied himself with
+raiding against the scattered parties of plunderers in the hills, and
+had won some booty.</p>
+
+<p>Brian discovered many things during the hour or two he waited for the
+horses to be fetched in. Chief of these was that he had set himself a
+difficult nut to crack. The Dark Master held a strong castle, with rich
+farms around it, and could summon at need some three hundred men to his
+standard. In short, Brian found that O'Donnell held the very position he
+himself wanted to hold&mdash;and was like to keep it.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," he thought soberly, reflecting on his future course, "if I
+come off clear to-night I can ride with my seventy men to a better
+place. And yet&mdash;I don't know! What better place than this? It will be no
+long time before hoofs are in the land, for Royalist and Roundhead and
+Ulsterman will be storming through the hills; Galway will be the last to
+give in to Cromwell, of a certainty. When the hurricane falls, I want a
+roof to shelter me&mdash;and whom could I turn out better than this
+O'Donnell?"</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr's tower was too small to serve him as a fortalice, for it was
+barely large enough to shelter the eleven axmen. Suddenly an idea
+flashed across Brian's mind. Why not a union with this O'Malley woman
+against the Dark Master?</p>
+
+<p>Upon the thought, he rose and went out to the ice-rimmed shore below the
+tower, where he paced up and down, considering the matter. After all, it
+would do no harm, and there were great possibilities in it. He returned
+to the tower at sound of shouts and clattering hoofs, and took Turlough
+aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Turlough Wolf, in your advice you spoke against making pacts with men,
+but you said nothing of women. It is my purpose to send you to this
+O'Malley castle, to propose a pact with Nuala O'Malley against the Dark
+Master. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> can tell her that I have a hundred horsemen behind me&mdash;for
+I will have them. Will you do this, bearing her word back to me?"</p>
+
+<p>Turlough plucked moodily at his ragged beard.</p>
+
+<p>"I see no harm in such a pact, master," he replied thoughtfully. "As to
+reaching the Bird Daughter, that is another matter. I think that I can
+do it, however. When shall I start, and where shall I find you again?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian reflected a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Start now, Turlough. Cathbarr and I will have no need of advice this
+night, for we shall either fight our way clear, or else the Dark Master
+will keep to his word. When you return, you will find me here; if I am
+not here, I will leave a man here to give you word of me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am to say that you have a hundred horsemen behind you?" Turlough's
+sharp eyes swept to Brian's half-questioningly.</p>
+
+<p>"Say a hundred and a half," laughed out Brian, "and trust your silver
+tongue for the rest, old Wolf! Never fear, I will have the men. But mind
+this, Turlough. I will make no other pact with her than this, against
+the Dark Master. It may be that when I have driven him forth I may fly
+after other game."</p>
+
+<p>"Men have sought to drive the Dark Master forth," quoth Turlough, "and
+their heads have rotted above his gate. Take heed lest there be an empty
+spike there this night, Yellow Brian!"</p>
+
+<p>But Brian only laughed shortly, and bade the old man affectionate
+farewell, for he knew that Turlough loved him. And when Turlough had
+ridden somberly away, Brian felt a strange sense of desertion, of loss,
+that was no whit inspired by Turlough's gloomy last words. He shook it
+off, however, at gripping hands again with Cathbarr. The axmen had
+gathered most of their loot and buried what was of value, for Brian had
+determined to return here from Bertragh and make use of the tower until
+he had heard from Turlough's errand.</p>
+
+<p>So now, at the head of thirty men, he rode across the narrow causeway
+with Cathbarr of the Ax at his side for friend and guide. The giant did
+not yet quite comprehend exactly what plan had flashed across the brain
+of old Turlough, so as they rode Brian made the thing clearer to him.
+When the simple and straightforward Cathbarr grasped the matter, he
+smote his horse's neck with a bellow of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho! So you bring me before the Dark Master ax in hand, reduced to
+<i>your</i> service instead of his, my men added to yours&mdash;oh, it is a jest,
+brother, a jest! I think that O'Donnell will slay us both on the spot!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if your axmen are true," retorted Brian.</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr laughed again. "They fear me and they love me, brother," he
+cried, gazing back at the file of horsemen. "Your own men fear you and
+love you also. Therefore we are men alike."</p>
+
+<p>Brian began to love the man for his utter simplicity, save where there
+was killing in hand. Cathbarr seemed in reality to have the heart of a
+child, impulsive and passionate to an extreme, and there was always a
+certain rugged power in his bearing which bespoke him a true Flaherty of
+the mountains. His men were like himself in this respect, and after they
+had fraternized with Brian's men they began to feel the same unbounded
+surety in Yellow Brian as Cathbarr expressed. Their axes were the usual
+splay-bladed affairs that their grandfathers had used under Red Hugh at
+the Yellow Ford, nor indeed in all his life had Brian ever seen another
+ax like to that of Cathbarr's.</p>
+
+<p>They rode through the afternoon while a light snow fell and a keen east
+wind cut down from the peaks of the Twelve Pins, until the shaggy horses
+slithered along with tails tucked tight beneath them. But there was good
+cheer in the company, for the news had spread of how Yellow Brian would
+have seventy men behind him that night. When the darkness began to fall,
+Bertragh Castle came in sight far below&mdash;a gray crag jutting up from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>
+the plain, scarped and embattled, the sea behind it and the watch-fires
+of men twinkling from its keep. All about lay farms and steads, and the
+lowing of byred cattle rose on the evening air when the snow ceased.</p>
+
+<p>"Be careful not to drink or eat in that hall," warned Cathbarr blackly.
+"Ill comes of it to all who accept hospitality there."</p>
+
+<p>Brian nodded and rode on in silence, for there were parties of horsemen
+and pikemen down below and the blare of horns shrilled up. Evidently the
+riders on the hills had been seen from afar.</p>
+
+<p>As they reached the lower ground Brian was aware of a band of men riding
+to meet them, and halted. Through the dusk came a score of armed
+horsemen, and their leader inquired their business, shouting from a safe
+distance. Brian returned the shout.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Yellow Brian, and I seek O'Donnell Dubh according to a pact made
+with him yesterday. I have reduced Cathbarr of the Ax, and am come in
+peace."</p>
+
+<p>"You are expected," called the other, riding up with his men. "The Dark
+Master is waiting for you."</p>
+
+<p>And Brian rode on to Bertragh, not without some forebodings.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">YELLOW BRIAN RIDES SOUTH.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Outside the castle gates, where cressets flared over the snow, an old
+seneschal appeared and ordered Brian to leave his men outside. To this
+the men made some objection, but Brian laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Bide where you are," he said. "You shall not be slain unless I am slain
+inside."</p>
+
+<p>The O'Donnells watched him and Cathbarr with no little wonder, and the
+two men made a fine pair as they marched across the creaking drawbridge.
+Though Cathbarr topped Brian by half a head, there was no doubt as to
+which was the nobler man; the giant gazed around him with amazed eyes,
+but Brian held his head high and strode in with a smile flickering on
+his lips. But his blue eyes were very sharp that night.</p>
+
+<p>He saw the crowded men in the courtyard, many of them armed with
+muskets, their matches burning, and noted also that the Dark Master
+possessed some half-dozen bastards&mdash;immense, nine-foot pieces mounted on
+huge carriages, with their eight-pound balls piled beside them. In those
+days it was no small thing to own such cannon in the west of Ireland,
+and Brian eyed them approvingly as he passed through the courtyard. He
+was beginning to count them as his own.</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr had told him that the Dark Master had brought many O'Donnells
+down from the north to settle the farms and lands beyond the castle, but
+Brian saw that these were not all. The garrison was a riffraff of all
+the armies that had wasted Ireland, and they were fighting men fit for
+their work.</p>
+
+<p>Brian entered the hall, with Cathbarr muttering oaths a pace behind him.
+The hall was high, lit with cressets, and beside a huge fireplace sat
+the Dark Master in a carved chair of black wood, an old harper sitting
+opposite. Behind Brian and Cathbarr flocked in men until the hall was
+well filled.</p>
+
+<p>Brian found the penetrating eyes fixed on him as he advanced, but in
+them was no surprise or fear, and O'Donnell calmly stroked his drooping
+mustache as he watched. Cathbarr still followed behind, bearing that
+great ax of his, and Brian stopped a few paces from the hearth as the
+Dark Master spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome to Bertragh, Yellow Brian. I had not looked for you so soon."</p>
+
+<p>"No." Brian's voice rang out richly in the stillness. "But I am here,
+O'Donnell Dubh, to claim my two-score men. I have reduced Cathbarr of
+the Ax."</p>
+
+<p>For the first time the hunched O'Donnell seemed to notice Cathbarr. His
+black eyes flickered curiously to the giant, then he smiled sourly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>"If he is reduced, why does he not kneel, Brian of the hard eyes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Kneel," ordered Brian.</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr flushed and his beard began to stand out, but he obeyed. There
+was no great love in his face as he knelt, holding to his ax, and gazed
+at O'Donnell.</p>
+
+<p>"Throw your ax into the fire," said the Dark Master, his voice smooth as
+silk.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not," exclaimed Brian, and his eyes grew bitterly cold as they
+clinched with those of the Dark Master. Over the latter's pallid face
+crept a slow red fire, and his head drew back between his shoulders. Men
+held their breaths.</p>
+
+<p>"O'Donnell," went on Brian slowly, "I have fulfilled my pact. I have
+reduced Cathbarr of the Ax&mdash;but he serves me and not you. Since I have
+conquered him as you bade, I call on you to carry out the pact and lend
+me two-score men for three months, scat-free."</p>
+
+<p>If Brian had wanted any testimony as to O'Donnell's iron hand, he had
+it. His words, with all they implied, would have drawn a howl of rage
+from the retainers of any other chief in the land, but the men behind
+and around him only grew more silent.</p>
+
+<p>As for the Dark Master, the red hue died slowly from his face, though
+his head remained drawn in, and still his eyes held those of Brian. When
+he spoke, it was as if he were musing aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"So, Brian of the hard eyes, you have some courage, eh? <i>Duar na
+Criosd!</i> Little did I ever think that a man would come to me and borrow
+my own men that he might make war upon me! Is this your thought, Yellow
+Brian?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have sharp ears, Dark Master," said Brian dryly, and a chuckle
+passed through the crowd. "In time I might take this castle, it is true.
+Just now I have other things in mind, however, and I shall not fall upon
+you until there has passed gage of battle between us."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks for so much," smiled the other slowly, though the red crept up
+to his cheek-bones faintly. Brian seemed perfectly at his ease, as
+indeed he was. "And what if I fell upon you first?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am liker to offer battle than accept it, O'Donnell."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, that is a good answer," said the Dark Master, while a whisper
+floated around the hall. "I would be glad to have you at my back, Yellow
+Brian, for men who ride behind me are like to win much."</p>
+
+<p>Brian laughed a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Some day I may be at your back, O'Donnell Dubh, and in that day I may
+win all that you have, from life to goods."</p>
+
+<p>To his blank amazement, O'Donnell only threw out his head and chuckled;
+but it was an evil chuckle, and there was venom gleaming in his black
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that it were best for me to slay you here, Brian of the hard
+eyes, to slay you and this Cathbarr of the Ax. It seems to my mind that
+it is anything but good to turn you loose upon the land, for I hear a
+storm of hoofs in the air, and dead men are riding on the wind, and
+there is a whisper&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused, drew his cloak about him, and gazed down at his foot. That
+pause was more dreadful than speech, for the crowded men moved not a
+finger, so that Brian all but thought that he and the Dark Master were
+alone. Then his face blanched a trifle. For, whether it were some
+uncanny play of mind or very truth, it seemed to him that from the wide
+fireplace there did indeed come a faint ring of hoofs and clash of
+steel; the long cressets over them suddenly flickered smokingly, though
+no draft crossed their faces.</p>
+
+<p>Then indeed Brian knew that his fate hung upon the Dark Master's
+thoughts, and he drew himself up a little straighter, and his blue eyes
+glinted colder than any ice as his hand closed upon his sword-hilt. But
+at the slight motion O'Donnell looked up keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have ridden hard, Brian. Pause and sup with me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not come to eat or drink," said Brian sternly. "Also, I am weary
+of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> talking. Now fulfil your pact, Dark Master, or be shamed before
+all your men."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you for Royalist or Parliament?" asked O'Donnell, as if he had not
+heard.</p>
+
+<p>"I am for Brian Buidh."</p>
+
+<p>"Take two-score men and begone," and the other rose. To his surprise,
+Brian found that, despite the hunched back, O'Donnell was as tall as
+himself. The black eyes flamed out at him for an instant. "I will keep
+my honor, though I regret it later, Yellow Brian. Go, with your men.
+When next we meet your head shall grin over my gates."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks for so much," retorted Brian mockingly, though he drew a swift
+breath of relief. "My head serves me too well to render it easily. <i>Slan
+leat</i>, O'Donnell!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Slan leat</i>," repeated the Dark Master and turned his back, gazing down
+at the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Brian turned and strode down the hall, Cathbarr at his heels. When they
+reached the courtyard he found men saddling in haste, and an officer
+saluted him gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Two-score men are at your orders, Yellow Brian."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them follow me," said Brian curtly. "And who quarrels with my men,
+dies."</p>
+
+<p>To that there was no dispute. The drawbridge clanked down once more,
+Brian and Cathbarr mounted and rode out to where the thirty waited
+grimly, and after them came the forty men from the garrison. Cathbarr,
+who trusted the Dark Master little, set his ten axmen in the van,
+followed with Brian, and the sixty followed them into the night.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we came out of that well, brother," said the giant softly.
+"Where do we ride?"</p>
+
+<p>"To your tower, for the night. After that, in search of more men."</p>
+
+<p>"Toward Galway or Slyne Head?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wherever there are men."</p>
+
+<p>After that they rode on in silence, while the men behind fraternized
+freely. All were of the same stamp, and indeed the two-score already
+were as willing to serve Brian as O'Donnell, since they had witnessed
+that scene in the castle hall.</p>
+
+<p>Brian wondered dully what the outcome of all this was to be. The strain
+of facing O'Donnell and bearding him in his own den had been no light
+one, but he knew that Cathbarr had spoken truth in saying that they were
+well out of it. The Dark Master, he thought, was a man well worth
+fighting. To take his castle was not like turning out a chieftain of
+some ancient family, with his clan about him for miles around; O'Donnell
+had seized upon the place himself, his men were reavers and outlaws, and
+the castle was a strong one.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was the O'Malley alliance. Brian had it in mind to beset the
+Dark Master by sea and land at once, for all the O'Malley clan had been
+seamen and rovers from time immemorial, while he himself preferred men
+and horses at his back. In calmer mood now, he reflected that Turlough
+might not return for a week, and there was food and fodder for seventy
+men and horses to be obtained.</p>
+
+<p>If he rode toward Galway he would have to plunder the patriots, which
+went against the grain. But in lower Galway and Clare things were
+different. That winter no army held to winter quarters save that of
+Cromwell, and between Limerick and Galway there was a wild rout of men
+out of half a dozen armies, the plague had swept off all but the
+seafaring folk, and men held only what their swords could guard.</p>
+
+<p>So Brian determined that he would ride toward the south.</p>
+
+<p>He realized well that his men must be drawn together by fighting, that
+they must learn a perfect confidence in him, and that they must earn
+their sustenance for the time being. Cathbarr already knew of old
+Turlough's mission, and of course approved, since in his eyes Brian
+could do no wrong. What was more, reflected Brian, he could not make
+this alliance empty-handed. He must get men and spare horses, stores and
+powder, and some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> muskets or pistols if possible, for few of his men
+carried more than sword or perhaps a sorry pistolet or ancient
+bombardule out of date a generation since.</p>
+
+<p>"A storm of men!" he muttered as he gazed at the stars. "A storm of men!
+Did that Black Woman speak truly, I wonder? And what dark magic was that
+which passed to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>But no answer came to his questions save that the cold stars chilled him
+to the bone. Since they had no better place to seek, they returned to
+Cathbarr's tower, but it was long past midnight when they reached it,
+and the men were nodding in their saddles. As barely a dozen could crowd
+into the place, the rest were forced to camp outside in the snow, but
+roaring fires and some little food put them in good humor and it was no
+hardship to any of them.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been a strange two days for us twain," said Brian as he and
+Cathbarr divided a scorched bannock one of the Scots had hastily turned
+out over the coals.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," smiled the giant into his beard, his deep-throated bull's voice
+rumbling through their tiny room. "But it is in my mind that there are
+stranger days ahead of us, Brian Buidh. A witch-woman once told me that
+I would meet my death from water and fire together, brother, in a cause
+not mine own."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not bound to my service," replied Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"But I am bound to you, for I like you," answered Cathbarr, and his hand
+crushed down on Brian's. That night they slept together beneath the same
+blanket, and though after that they spoke few words of love or
+friendship, the two men drew ever closer each to the other in all
+things.</p>
+
+<p>It had indeed been a strange two days for him, thought Brian as he
+roused up the camp late the next morning and set out sentries in the
+hills. He had met the Dark Master on the first, and on the second he had
+met Cathbarr, then had forced the Dark Master into lending him men
+against his will. Now, after a scant three days beyond Lough Corrib, he
+had twined his fate with that of other men, had set his heart upon
+winning Bertragh Castle, and had won both a stout friend and a stout
+enemy.</p>
+
+<p>For he counted O'Donnell as a foe, in which he was not far wrong.</p>
+
+<p>However, there was no time to be wasted, for fodder was exceeding
+scanty, and Brian himself had no heart for idleness. As he had resolved
+on his course during that return ride the night before, he gathered his
+men together and briefly ordered them to be ready to ride at noon, and
+to Cathbarr alone he outlined his plan. Then he picked two of the axmen
+who knew the country roundabout, and ten from among those O'Donnell had
+loaned him, and took them aside and told them of Turlough Wolf, who
+would come before long.</p>
+
+<p>"You will bide here," he concluded, "and bid him wait for me. I shall
+return this side of ten days. And mind you, if there is feud or
+treachery among you so that one man's blood is let, then I will exact a
+tenfold vengeance from both men."</p>
+
+<p>The twelve, who were sturdy ruffians and well able to hold the place
+against any sudden attack by the Dark Master, looked into the ice-blue
+eyes for an instant, and straightway vowed that there would be neither
+treachery nor quarreling among them. And Brian guessed shrewdly that he
+had inspired some little fear in their hearts.</p>
+
+<p>So that at high noon they rode away to the east, threescore strong, with
+Brian and Cathbarr and the remaining eight axmen in the van. Brian did
+not spare either man or horse that day, for there was little food left
+them; when midnight came they had slipped past Galway and were ready to
+ride south, though they all went to rest supperless.</p>
+
+<p>With the morning Brian found that two of the men had slipped off and
+were busy plundering a hill-farm a mile away, where an old woman lived
+alone. He promptly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> had them brought before him, and bade them take up
+their weapons.</p>
+
+<p>"I am no executioner," he said as he bared his huge sword. "I am a
+teacher of lessons, and my lessons must be learned."</p>
+
+<p>When they rode away from that place, leaving the two men buried under
+cairns, Brian was well assured that there would be no more ravaging by
+his men, though they died of hunger.</p>
+
+<p>However, it proved that there was no great chance of this, for Brian
+drove such a storm past Slieve Aughty as had not been heard of in
+generations. Of all that chanced in those seven days ere he set his face
+to the north again, not much has survived, for there were greater storms
+to come afterward, and more talked-of fighting. But certain things were
+done which had a sequel.</p>
+
+<p>By the fifth day Brian had swept past Gort toward Lough Graney, and
+turned west by Crusheen, which he passed through with a hundred horsemen
+at his heels. Two days before he had struck upon fifty Ulstermen who
+were working north from Munster, and what were left of them after the
+meeting took service with him. From them he learned that O'Neill was
+dying or dead, and that the Royalists and Confederacy men were paralyzed
+through the south.</p>
+
+<p>They had left Crusheen ten miles behind them on the fifth day, when
+Cathbarr laid his hand on Brian's knee and pointed to the left, where a
+hill rose against the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"Look there, <i>boucal</i>&mdash;when the birds fly from the <i>ceanabhan</i>, seek for
+snakes!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian drew rein. Gazing at the long slopes of moor-grass that rose
+across the hill, he saw a sudden flight of blackbirds from over the
+crest; they flew toward him, then swerved swiftly and darted to the
+right. Brian called up two of his men who knew the country, and asked
+them what lay over the hill.</p>
+
+<p>"The Ennis road to Mal Bay," they replied, and he sent them ahead to
+scout.</p>
+
+<p>Before he reached the hill-crest they were back with word that an
+"army" was on the road, and Brian pushed forward with Cathbarr to see
+for himself. Slipping from their horses, they gained the hilltop and
+looked over on the winding road beyond. Neither of them spoke, but
+Brian's eyes glinted suddenly, for he beheld a train of four wagons
+convoyed by some two hundred troopers. He touched Cathbarr and they
+returned.</p>
+
+<p>"A party of Ormond's Scottish troopers," he said quietly when they had
+rejoined the men. "Cathbarr, take thirty men and work around them. When
+you strike, I will lead over the hill and flank them."</p>
+
+<p>The giant nodded, picked his men, and rode away. Brian led his seventy
+closer to the rise of ground, and as they waited they could hear the
+creaking of wagons and the snap of whips. It was a Royalist convoy, and
+since there was no love between the Scots and the Irish of any party,
+Brian's men were hungry for the fight.</p>
+
+<p>They got their fill that day.</p>
+
+<p>A rippling shout, a scattering of shots, and Brian spurred forward. The
+road wound a hundred yards below, and Cathbarr had already fallen on the
+vanguard. The Scots were riding forward to whelm him when Brian's men
+drove down with a wild yell and smote the length of their flank.</p>
+
+<p>Brian hewed his way to the side of Cathbarr, and then the sword and ax
+flashed side by side. The captain in command of the troopers pistoled
+Cathbarr's horse, but the huge ax met his steel cap and Cathbarr was
+mounted again. Meanwhile, Brian was engaged with a cornet who had great
+skill at fencing, and his huge Spanish blade touched the young officer
+lightly until the Scot pulled forth a pistol, and at that Brian smote
+with the edge.</p>
+
+<p>The muskets and pistols of the troopers worked sad havoc among Brian's
+men at first, but there was no chance to reload, and when the officers
+had gone down the Scots lost heart. They would have trusted to no Gaelic
+oaths, for men got no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> quarter in the west, but when Brian shouted at
+them in English they listened to him right willingly. A score broke away
+and galloped breakneck for the south again, and perhaps fifty had gone
+down; the rest gathered about the wagons stared at Brian and Cathbarr in
+superstitious awe as the two lowered bloody ax and sword and offered
+terms.</p>
+
+<p>"I offer service to you," said Brian. "I am Brian Buidh, and if you will
+ride with me you shall find war. Those who wish may return to Ennis."</p>
+
+<p>Now, at the most Brian had some seventy-five men left, and those
+clustered at the wagons were over a hundred and a score, with muskets.
+But their officers were down, they had received no pay for a year and
+more, and they were for the most part Macdonalds of the Isles, who loved
+freebooting better than army work. So out of them all only ten men chose
+to ride to Ennis again, and Cathbarr shook his head as they departed.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me that ill shall come of this," he said, and wiped his ax
+clean.</p>
+
+<p>Brian laughed shortly and dismounted. He found that the wagons contained
+powder, stores, and muskets; so after placing the wounded in them, he
+rode north to Corrofin that day with close to two hundred men at his
+back. Staying that night at Corrofin, he hanged ten of the Scots for
+plundering, rested his horses for two days, and set his face homeward
+with the surety that his men knew him for master.</p>
+
+<p>The storm of men was gathering fast.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">BRIAN TAKES CAPTIVES.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"<i>Failte abhaile!</i> Welcome, Yellow Brian!"</p>
+
+<p>"So you won back before me, eh?" Brian swung down from his horse and
+gripped hands with old Turlough Wolf. "Get the men camped, Cathbarr,
+then join us."</p>
+
+<p>Turlough's cunning eyes rested on the wagons and weary horsemen, and he
+nodded approvingly as Brian told him of what had chanced.</p>
+
+<p>"Said I not that you were a master of men?" he chuckled quietly, as he
+turned to follow into Cathbarr's tower. "But it is easier to master men
+than women, Brian. I bear you a bitter rede from the Bird Daughter,
+master."</p>
+
+<p>"Hard words fare ill on empty stomachs," quoth Brian. "Keep it till I
+have eaten."</p>
+
+<p>When Cathbarr had joined them and they had dined well on Royalist stores
+and wine, Turlough made report on his mission. It seemed that he had met
+with a party of the O'Malleys at the head of Kilkieran Bay at the close
+of his first day's ride, and after hearing his errand they had taken him
+in their ship out to Gorumna Isle, where stood the hold of Nuala, the
+Bird Daughter. And somewhat to his own amazement, Turlough had found
+that by this same name she was known along the whole coast.</p>
+
+<p>He reported that it was a strong place, for the castle had been built by
+her father; that she had two large ships and five small ones, and that
+both ships and castle were defended by all manner of "shot"&mdash;meaning
+cannon. She had just returned from Kinsale, where she had been aiding
+Blake hold Prince Rupert's fleet in the bay. Now Rupert had slipped
+away, and after plundering a French ship with wines, she had come home
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"She seems a woman of heart," smiled Brian. "What of her looks?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not see her." Turlough shook his head. "She ordered my message
+written out, so she has some clerkly learning. She took an hour to
+ponder it, master, then set me ashore with this message.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tell Yellow Brian,' she ordered, 'that I claim tribute from Golam Head
+to Slyne. I will make no pact with him until he pay me tribute; and if I
+find him on my land I will set him in chains above my water-gate.'"</p>
+
+<p>Brian felt no little dismay at this, for he had counted strongly on
+alliance with this Bird Daughter.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>However, Turlough proceeded to set forth the reasons for such a message,
+as he had conceived them within his shrewd mind. First, it seemed that
+the pestilence had visited Gorumna in the absence of its mistress, and
+that the Dark Master had caught a score of the O'Malleys who had been
+wrecked in Bertraghboy Bay, promptly hanging them all. Between the
+plague and the hanging Nuala had a bare fourscore men left within the
+castle, and she counted Brian's offer as a ruse on the part of
+O'Donnell, for she was strongly afraid of treachery.</p>
+
+<p>"There is more pride than power in that message," commented Cathbarr
+easily. "The Dark Master has stripped away all her lands along the
+coast, and save for Kilkieran Bay she has little left. Let us fall on
+her, brother, and take what <i>is</i> left."</p>
+
+<p>Brian laughed at this naive counsel, looking at Turlough. But the old
+Wolf said nothing, brooding over the fire, and Brian reflected within
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>He had come into a merciless feud, that he knew well. If he was to enter
+upon it he must banish all pity from his heart, which was no easy thing
+for him; but Turlough related things he had heard which speedily changed
+his mind. There were tales of O'Donnell's ridings through the land, of
+men slaughtered and women carried off to people his castle; of
+treachery, and worse.</p>
+
+<p>It was also whispered that the Dark Master had made alliance with
+certain pirates from the north coast.</p>
+
+<p>However, Brian knew that he must reach some decision regarding his own
+men, and that speedily. The three talked long that night, setting aside
+the question of the O'Malley alliance for the time being. Brian had some
+two hundred men to house and horses to feed; he had good store of
+provision and powder, but Cathbarr's little tower was utterly useless to
+house the tenth of them all, while the stores would have to be
+sheltered. Then O'Donnell might fling his men on them at any moment,
+which would mean disaster in their present position.</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr suggested an attack on Bertragh castle, but Turlough dissented.</p>
+
+<p>"When we strike, we must strike to win," he said shrewdly. "The Dark
+Master has more men than we, and the sea is at his back, and they say he
+is a warlock to boot."</p>
+
+<p>The giant stared and crossed himself at talk of warlocks, but Brian
+laughed out.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a plan," he said, fingering his sword. "O'Donnell watches all
+the hill-paths like a hawk, even now in winter. Those wagons are of no
+great use to us, and we can store the goods here in the tower for the
+present. Get it done to-night, Cathbarr, and get the accouterments from
+two of those largest Scots for yourself and me."</p>
+
+<p>Turlough Wolf chuckled suddenly, and Brian knew that the old man had
+pierced to something of his plan. But not all.</p>
+
+<p>"Turlough," he went on as the scheme came to him more clearly, "at dawn
+ride out with a hundred men to that hill-road where first we met the
+Dark Master. Hide the men in the hills, and be ready to ride hard when
+the time comes. Cathbarr, before the dawn breaks have the wagons start
+out with twenty of the Scots troopers as escort. Bid as many more as can
+lie down in the wagons and cover up close with their muskets. Send a man
+or two with them to guide to that hill-road of which I spoke. We will
+ride after and catch them up shortly after sunrise."</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" roared out the giant, whose brains lay all in his ax. "And the
+Dark Master will swoop down to the feast, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"He will not," returned Brian dryly. "He will send two or threescore men
+upon us, and it is my purpose to take as many of these prisoner as may
+be."</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr stared, and Turlough's gray eyes squinted up at Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"How is this, master?" he asked in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>quiringly. "It is too good a trap to
+waste on prisoners&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My plan is my plan," said Brian briefly. "I am not making war on
+O'Donnell, but I intend to pay tribute to the Bird Daughter, and that
+right soon. While we are gone have a score of men remain here and build
+huts on the cliffs, Cathbarr."</p>
+
+<p>Turlough fell to staring into the fire, divining the plan at length, and
+Cathbarr went out to fulfil his orders. Brian knew well that there was
+danger in the scheme, but he determined to deal with one thing at a
+time, and thoroughly. Just at present he was intent on forming an
+alliance with Nuala O'Malley, for ships and cannon were needful before
+he could nip the Dark Master in his hold. It was going to cost the lives
+of men, and he made up his mind not to pause for that. If he was to live
+and make head it must be by the strong hand alone&mdash;the Red Hand of
+Tyr-owen; and he looked down at the ring of Owen Ruadh and took it for a
+symbol, as his ancestors had taken it.</p>
+
+<p>Before they went to rest Turlough pointed out that if the hills were
+watched he and his hundred would be noted, so Brian bade him hit back
+toward Lough Corrib and then to come straight down upon the main road.
+It might be that he could overcome the Dark Master's men of himself, and
+if not, he would hold them until Turlough came up.</p>
+
+<p>With this plan arranged, then, the four wagons set forth under the cold
+stars, with thirty Scots lying hidden and twenty riding before and
+behind. With the first gleam of dawn Turlough and his hundred cantered
+off to the northeast, and an hour later Brian and Cathbarr put on the
+buff coats and steel jacks of the troopers, with the wide morions; took
+a pair of loaded pistols, and galloped after the slow-moving wagons.
+Brian wore his Spanish blade, but Cathbarr had sent his ax ahead with
+the troopers.</p>
+
+<p>They caught up with the wagons when the latter were entering upon the
+road proper out of the hill-track they had followed. The first snows had
+vanished for the most part, leaving bleak, gaunt hills and rugged crags
+that twisted with soft fog. The sun struck the fog away, however, and as
+Brian rode on he gazed up at the purple mountains on his right, and down
+at the purple bog to his left, and caught the gleam of the Bertraghboy
+water out beyond. He laughed as he drank in the keen air of morning.</p>
+
+<p>"Best get your edge ready, Cathbarr of the Ax!"</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr grunted, and slung the heavy hammer-ax at his saddlebow. One of
+the guides, who were from the Dark Master's twoscore men, pointed to a
+twisted peak on their right, whence an almost invisible spiral of gray
+smoke wound up.</p>
+
+<p>"The signal, Yellow Brian," he grinned, cheerfully giving away his
+secrets. In fact, all those twoscore men rather hoped that their old
+master would be crushed by Brian, for so long as there was booty in
+sight they cared not whom they served.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later Brian saw ahead of him that same bend of road where
+first he and Turlough had met O'Donnell Dubh. But there was no sign of
+Turlough, and he cantered ahead to see if the O'Donnell men were below.
+As he did so a bullet sang past his ear, and he whirled to see half a
+dozen of his men go down beneath a storm of lead from the hillsides; at
+the same instant some three-score men came scrambling down from among
+the rocks&mdash;those same rocks where he had first laid ambush for the Dark
+Master.</p>
+
+<p>And riders were coming up on the road below!</p>
+
+<p>He was caught very neatly, and caught by more men than he had looked
+for. The remainder of the twenty gathered behind him and Cathbarr, and
+the thirty rose among the wagons and for a moment stopped the assault
+with their musketry; but before the smoke had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> cleared away two-score
+horsemen came thundering up the road from behind the curve, and struck.</p>
+
+<p>"Albanach! Albanach!"</p>
+
+<p>The wild yells shrilled up, and the Scots troopers knew that they were
+fighting without quarter in sight, for the "Albanach," as they were
+termed in Gaelic, gave and got little mercy in Ireland. The saddles of
+the fallen were filled from the men in the wagons, and leaving the
+musketeers to hold off the unmounted men, Brian plunged into the swirl
+of fighting horsemen and joined Cathbarr.</p>
+
+<p>The odds were heavy, but the big claymores of the Scots were heavier
+still. Side by side, Brian and Cathbarr plunged through the ranks, sword
+biting and ax smiting, until they stood almost alone among the
+O'Donnells, for their men had been borne back. Then the giant bellowed
+and his ax crushed down a man stabbing at Brian's horse; Brian pistoled
+one who struck at Cathbarr's back, and pressing their horses head to
+tail they faced the circle of men, while behind them roared the battle.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the O'Donnells held off, recognizing the pair, then one of
+them spurred forward with a howl of delight.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Dhar mo lamh</i>, Yellow Brian&mdash;your head to our gates!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian thrust unexpectedly, and the man went over his horse's tail as the
+ring closed in. So far Cathbarr had forgotten his pistols, but now he
+used them, and took a bullet-crease across his neck in return; then the
+ax and sword heaved up together, and the ring surged back. A skean went
+home in Cathbarr's horse, however, and the giant plunged down, but with
+that Brian spurred and went at the O'Donnells with the point of his
+blade. This sort of fighting was new to them, and when Brian had spitted
+three of them he heard Cathbarr's ax crunch down once more.</p>
+
+<p>They were still cut off from the wagons, but there came a wild drumming
+of hoofs, and wilder yells from the men on the hillside. Like a
+thunder-burst, Turlough and his hundred broke on the battle. The
+O'Donnells were swallowed up, stamped flat; the unmounted men fled among
+the rocks, Turlough's men after them, and a dozen horsemen went
+streaming down the road.</p>
+
+<p>It was hard to make the maddened Scots take prisoners, but Brian did it,
+and when Turlough's men came back he found that they had in all thirty
+captives. Some forty of the attackers had fallen and the rest had fled.</p>
+
+<p>Since all his captives expected no less than a quick death, Brian
+ordered ten of them bound on spare horses, of which there were plenty.
+He himself had lost twenty-three of his Scots, and the remaining score
+of captives cheerfully took service under him. Then, picking out one of
+them, he gave the man a horse and told him to ride home.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell your master, O'Donnell Dubh," he said, "that his men made this
+attack on me, and therefore there is war between us."</p>
+
+<p>The man grinned and departed at a gallop, and word passed through the
+men that the Dark Master had found his match at last. As to this,
+however, they were fated to change their opinion later.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Brian to old Turlough, as between them they bound up a slash
+in Cathbarr's thigh, "do you put the wounded in the wagons and begone
+home again. Set out sentries against an attack from O'Donnell, and
+scatter a score of men out along the roads to watch for other parties.
+You might pick up another score of recruits, Turlough Wolf."</p>
+
+<p>Turlough shook his head and tugged at his beard.</p>
+
+<p>"Best take me with you, master, instead of this overgrown ox. You may
+need brains in dealing with the Bird Daughter, and he has no more brains
+than strew his ax-edge. Also he is wounded."</p>
+
+<p>Brian pondered this, while Cathbarr furtively shook a fist at Turlough.
+There was wisdom in the advice, but on the other hand Brian did not like
+to leave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> his precious two hundred men in care of Cathbarr. If the Dark
+Master attacked suddenly, as he was like to do, brains would be more
+needed than brawn.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, he counted on Cathbarr's open face removing the
+evident suspicion that the smooth-tongued Turlough had raised in Gorumna
+Isle. It had been a mistake, he saw plainly, to send such an emissary on
+his mission. Picturing this woman who led her own ships to war, he
+limned her in his mind as a large-boned, flat-breasted, wide-hipped
+creature&mdash;and with good reason. He had seen women fighting at Drogheda
+and he had seen them in other places as he rode to the rest, for in
+those days many a woman took her slain lord's <i>skean fada</i> and drew
+blood for Ireland before she was cut down. And when women rode to battle
+there was no mercy asked or given, from Royalist or Confederate or
+Parliament man.</p>
+
+<p>Nuala O'Malley was a woman of blood, said Brian to himself, and he would
+give her blood for her help.</p>
+
+<p>So he curtly refused Turlough's advice, saw that the ten bridles of his
+bound and mounted captives were lined together, and beckoned to
+Cathbarr. Before they rode off, however, they doffed their Scot
+accouterments and took back their own garments, after which Cathbarr led
+the way over the hills to Kilkieran Bay, and Turlough took command of
+the force in sullen ill-humor.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was still young, for the attack had taken place a short two
+hours after sunrise and had soon been quelled. Beyond a slashed thigh
+and a red-creased neck, Cathbarr of the Ax was unhurt, and Brian had
+received no scratch. If the ten captives wondered why they were bound
+and their comrades freed, they said nothing of it.</p>
+
+<p>Even after seeing what he had of the merciless war in Ireland, Brian had
+much ado in making up his mind to hold to the plan he had formed on the
+previous evening. These ten ruffians were scoundrels enough, to judge by
+looks, and yet they were men; and he had been raised in no such school
+of war as this, where surrender meant slaughter without pity. However,
+he determined to do what he could for them, and he would have held to
+this determination had it not been for what chanced when they rode down
+to the little fishing village where Turlough had met the O'Malley men.</p>
+
+<p>They arrived just as the evening was darkling, after a hard day's ride.</p>
+
+<p>As they came within sight of the place, which lay at the head of
+Kilkieran water, Brian made out that a small galley was pulled up on
+shore, and there were a number of men about the huts. Upon the approach
+of the two chiefs with their file of captives there was an instant
+scurry of figures; women ran to the huts, and a dozen or more roughly
+clad men appeared with pikes and muskets. Brian held up his hand in sign
+of peace and rode slowly onward, Cathbarr at his side, to within a dozen
+paces of the huts.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" cried out one of the musketeers. "Be off!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bark less, dog," said Brian, scorn in his eye. "We seek Nuala O'Malley.
+Take us out to Gorumna Isle in your boat."</p>
+
+<p>"What seek ye with the Bird Daughter?" queried the other suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Her business, not yours."</p>
+
+<p>The seamen gazed at them doubtfully, then a number of other men came
+from the huts, well-armed. One of these set up a cry, pointing at the
+captives, and a burst of yells answered him from the rest. Next instant
+Brian and Cathbarr had their weapons out and were facing an excited
+crowd of men.</p>
+
+<p>"Be silent, dogs!" bellowed Cathbarr, and his voice quelled the uproar.
+"What means this attack? Would you have the Bird Daughter strip you with
+whips, fools?"</p>
+
+<p>The spokesman stood out, his dark face quivering with fury as he
+pointed.</p>
+
+<p>"That is as it may be, axman, but first those bound men shall die. One
+is the man who slew my brother, nailing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> him to his own door till he
+died; another is he who burned Lame Art's wife and child last
+Whit-Sunday&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There is he who lopped my husband's hands and nose! Slay him!" shrieked
+out a hag as she burst forward. Brian held out his sword and she drew
+back, but instantly others had taken up the cry.</p>
+
+<p>"And the devil who hung Blind Ulick!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is he who&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>In that brief moment Brian heard things too horrible for speech. The ten
+bound men had grouped together, some pale as death, others laughing
+defiantly. But as the crowd surged forward Brian held up his sword, and
+they paused to listen; he knew now that there was no more pity in his
+heart for these black ruffians of O'Donnell's.</p>
+
+<p>"Let the Bird Daughter render judgment upon them," he shouted. "Friends,
+take us to the Bird Daughter and let her do as she will, for I bear
+these men to her alone."</p>
+
+<p>At that the crowd fell silent, but their leader gave a rapid order, and
+half a dozen men ran down to the strand. Another order, and the maddened
+villagers gave back as the seamen closed about Brian and Cathbarr and
+their captives.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said the leader roughly. "You shall go to Gorumna Isle with us,
+strange men, but I do not think that you shall ever come back again."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor do I," grinned Cathbarr in the ear of Brian, as they left their
+horses to the fishermen, unbound the prisoners from their steeds, and
+made their way down to the galley. Brian looked at his friend, and they
+both smiled grimly.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">THE BIRD DAUGHTER.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"Now, <i>there</i> is a castle worth the taking, Yellow Brian!" said
+Cathbarr.</p>
+
+<p>Brian nodded, his eyes shining in the starlight. After a pull of a long
+seven miles down the bay, the galley had rounded into the northern end
+of Gorumna Isle, guided by a high beacon set among the stars. As they
+drew nearer Brian made out that this beacon was set on the tower of a
+high pile of masonry black against the sky, lit here and there by
+cressets, and it was plain that the Bird Daughter kept good watch since
+they had more than once been hailed in passing the islands.</p>
+
+<p>Once turned into the harbor, Brian found suddenly that they were among
+ships, many of them small galleys, but two of good size which bore
+riding-lights. Again they responded to hails, and without warning a few
+torches blazed out ahead of them. Then it was seen that the castle was
+built with its lower part close on the water, and its upper part rising
+on the crag. In reality, as he found later, it was two castles in one,
+as of necessity it had to be. Were the opposite isles held by an enemy,
+and hostile ships in the little harbor, the higher towers running up the
+crag could dominate all, and the lower castle could be abandoned without
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>Even in the starlight Brian's trained soldier's eye made out something
+of this. Then the leader of the seamen came and stood beside them, for
+during the two-hours' trip he had talked somewhat with Cathbarr and had
+come to look with more respect on Brian himself. That was only natural,
+for seamen ever like those men who talk least.</p>
+
+<p>"Strangers," he said with rough courtesy, "a word in your ear. If you
+would gain speech with the Lady Nuala, deal not with her as with me.
+Send in your names and your business, and you may perchance get to see
+her in the morning, or a week hence, as she may choose."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," answered Brian. "But my will is not like to hang upon hers."</p>
+
+<p>The seaman shrugged his shoulders, the oars were put in, and they
+floated up to where the torches flared. Here there was a landing-place
+of hewn stone, with a gate lying open beyond it, and armed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> men waiting.
+One of these, from his bunch of huge keys and air of authority, Brian
+knew for the seneschal.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>M'anam go'n Dhia!</i>" he growled, peering down into the boat as it
+ground on the stone, "what fish have you there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two salmon and ten herring, Muiertach," laughed one of the men. Brian
+and his friend stepped out while the ten prisoners were prodded after
+them, and Brian found the seneschal looking him over with some wonder,
+hands on hips.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! A giant with a devil's ax, and Cuculain, the Royal Hound, come to
+life again! Who are you, yellow man, and who is this axman, and who are
+these ten bound men?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian was minded to answer curtly enough, but he looked at the seneschal
+and remembered the seaman's kindly warning. Under his eye the laugh
+withered suddenly on the seneschal's lips.</p>
+
+<p>"These ten men belong to me, Muiertach. Go, tell the Bird Daughter that
+Brian Buidh and Cathbarr of the Ax have come to her, bringing tribute as
+she demanded."</p>
+
+<p>Now it was that Cathbarr, who had asked no questions all that day,
+perceived for the first time the reason of their fighting and hard
+riding, and what the manner of that tribute was. He broke into a great
+bellow of laughter so that the rough-clad seamen stared at him in
+wonder, but at a word from Brian he quieted instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"In the morning the message shall be delivered, Brian Buidh," returned
+burly Muiertach with a glimmer of respect in his voice. "And now render
+up your weapons, so that we may treat you as guests&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"So you sea-rovers are afraid of two men, lest they capture your hold?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian's biting words brought a deep flush to Muiertach's face.</p>
+
+<p>"No weapons do we render," he went on, his voice cold as his eyes. "We
+come as guests, seneschal, and our business is not with you. Take these
+ten men to your dungeons, take us to guest chambers and give us to eat,
+and see that we have speech with the Bird Daughter before to-morrow's
+sun is high."</p>
+
+<p>At this Muiertach growled something into his beard, but turned with a
+gesture of assent. His men closed around the captives, while Brian and
+Cathbarr followed him into the castle, the giant still chuckling to
+himself with great rumbles of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Let strict watch be kept over these two," said Muiertach in English to
+one of the torchmen who accompanied them, thinking he would not be
+understood.</p>
+
+<p>"You may yet get a touch of the whip for that order," said Brian in the
+same tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Stricken with amazement, Muiertach turned and stared at him, jaw
+dropping, while Cathbarr glanced from one to the other in perplexity.
+Brian smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Lead on, and talk less."</p>
+
+<p>With tenfold respect, the seneschal obeyed. Now Brian saw that this
+castle was indeed a stronghold, and might easily be defended by fewer
+men than it had. The inner walls of the lower castle were well lined
+with falcons and falconets, while on the towers above peered out heavier
+cannon, which he took for culverins from their length of nose. Crossing
+the courtyard, they entered the building itself, and Muiertach led them
+through upward-winding corridors, studded with cressets and with here
+and there a recessed <i>prie-dieu</i> in the wall.</p>
+
+<p>From the snatches of talk behind the doors they passed, Brian guessed
+that this lower castle was occupied by the garrison. In this he was
+right, for with torchmen before and behind them they emerged into the
+cold night air again and climbed upward, coming to a gate in the wall of
+the upper castle. This stood open, but it clanged shut behind them, and
+after crossing a steep courtyard they entered a second and broader
+corridor.</p>
+
+<p>Muiertach led them up a long flight of stairs, then another, and finally
+flung open a heavy door. It was evident that they were lodged in one of
+the towers.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>"Rest sound and fear not to eat our food," said the seneschal.
+"<i>Beannacht leath!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Blessing on you," responded Brian and Cathbarr together, and entered.</p>
+
+<p>For a wonder, Brian found that the chamber was lighted with candles,
+which Cathbarr examined with no little awe. Also, it contained a very
+good bed, on which the giant looked with suspicion. The hard stone walls
+were hung with tattered tapestries, and before they had settled well
+into their chairs two men entered with food and wine of the best.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so bad," smiled Brian as they ate. "How come your wounds, brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Those scratches? Bah!" And the giant gurgled down half a quart of
+Canary at a stretch. "You are not going to sleep on that bed of cloths?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I am," laughed Brian, "and soon, for I am overweary with riding.
+Try it, Cathbarr, and you will be glad of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Not I! Since there is no bracken here the floor is good enough for me.
+Eh, but this sea-woman will have a thought in her mind over your
+message, brother!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian chuckled, but he was too weary with that day's work to talk or
+think, and when the remnants of their meal had been removed and their
+door shut, he gratefully sought the first bed he had known for weeks.
+After some laughing persuasion he prevailed on the suspicious Cathbarr
+to blow out the candles, and upon that he fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>When he wakened it was broad daylight, and Cathbarr was still snoring
+with his ax looped about his wrist as usual. Brian, feeling like a new
+man, went to the open casement and looked out.</p>
+
+<p>He found himself gazing through a three-foot stone wall, and as he was
+doubtless in one of the towers, this argued that the lower walls were
+twelve feet thick or more. The lower castle was hid from him, but his
+view was toward the upper bay and included the harbor. The two larger
+ships, which were small caracks, but large for the west coast in that
+day, bore six guns on a side, and Brian saw that they were being
+scrubbed and made shipshape. The Bird Daughter must be a woman of some
+scrupulousness, he reflected. Beyond the brown sails of two
+fishing-boats, and low, storm-boding clouds over the farther hills,
+there was nothing more in sight.</p>
+
+<p>As Cathbarr still wore his long mail-shirt, Brian kicked him awake, and
+after his first bellowing yawn their door opened and men brought in jars
+of water. When the giant's wounds had been dressed, under protest, and
+they had broken their fast, the seneschal appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Chieftains," he said respectfully, "the Lady Nuala has received your
+message and will have speech with you this afternoon. Until then she
+wishes that you keep your chamber, since she knows not your mind in this
+visit."</p>
+
+<p>"That is but fair," assented Brian.</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr grumbled, but there was no help for it, since they were
+virtually prisoners. The day passed slowly, and toward noon storm drew
+down on the harbor and snow eddied in their casement. With that, they
+fell to polishing their weapons; Brian procured a razor and a
+much-needed shave, and Cathbarr furbished up his huge ax until it glowed
+like silver.</p>
+
+<p>Finally Muiertach appeared. Brian slung the great sword across his back,
+and they followed the seneschal down to the courtyard. Here they were
+joined by the captive O'Donnells and the seamen who had brought them to
+the castle, and Muiertach led them to the great hall.</p>
+
+<p>The father of this O'Malley woman must have been a man of parts, thought
+Brian as he gazed around. The hall was scantily filled with, perhaps,
+three-score men ranged along the walls, and at the farther end was a low
+dais where a huge log fire roared high. The beams were hung with a few
+pennons and ship-ensigns, and on the dais were placed a half-dozen
+chairs. Behind one of these stood two women, and in the chair, calmly
+facing the hall, sat the Bird Daughter.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>Brian caught his breath sharply, and his blue eyes flickered flame as he
+saw her. Never in his life had his gaze met such a woman&mdash;not in all the
+land of Spain or elsewhere in Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>At this time Nuala O'Malley was twenty years old, and ten of those years
+had been passed either on shipboard or here in Gorumna Isle. As one
+chronicler describes her, "She was not tall, but neither was she small
+of stature, and when she stood on a ship's deck there was no tossing
+could cause her to stumble. Her hair was not blue, but neither was it
+black, and her eyes were very deep and bright, violet in color, and set
+wide in her head. Her nose was neither small nor large, her cheeks were
+ever red with the wind off the sea, her mouth was finely curved, but
+tight-set withal, and she had more chin than women are wont to have. She
+was very lissom in body, but her head never drooped."</p>
+
+<p>And that is a most excellent description of the Bird Daughter, in fewer
+words than most men might use to-day.</p>
+
+<p>But of all this Brian noted at the moment only that before him sat a
+girl-woman whose calm poise and confident power struck out at him like a
+vibrant presence. Like himself, she wore a cloak of dark red, but no
+steel jack glittered beneath it; there was a torque of ancient gold
+about her neck, and her hair was caught up and hidden beneath a small
+cap of red.</p>
+
+<p>Brian thought of the woman he had painted in his mind, then laughed
+softly. She caught the laugh on his face, and comprehended it, and was
+pleased; then as she watched him very calmly, it seemed to Brian that
+her sheer beauty was a thing of deception. It must be, for she was
+surely a woman of blood. He had known enough of beautiful women, who
+played the parts of men, to know that on the far side of their beauty
+was neither mercy nor love nor compassion, that their lovers were many
+steps to ambition, and that they were venomous. So his smile died away,
+and his blue eyes glittered cold and dark, and this the Bird Daughter
+saw also.</p>
+
+<p>Now, there was no man on the dais save Muiertach, who mounted the two
+steps with his keys jangling. As Brian would have gone after him, two
+pikemen stepped forward to intervene. Brian looked into their eyes and
+they drew back again. He and Cathbarr mounted to the dais, and he bowed
+a low, courtly, Spanish bow, of which the Bird Daughter took no note.
+Instead he heard her voice, very low and penetrating, and she was
+speaking to the two pikemen.</p>
+
+<p>"Go out into the courtyard," she said, "and give each other five lashes.
+This is because you dared insult a guest, and because you drew back
+after insulting him. Go!"</p>
+
+<p>The two pikemen, rather pale under their beards, handed over their pikes
+to comrades and strode out of the hall. She turned to Brian, speaking
+still in Gaelic:</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome, Brian Buidh. You have come to bring me tribute?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Lady Nuala, and the tribute is these ten men of the Dark
+Master's."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at Cathbarr; her eyes swept over his ax. Then she looked
+again at Brian, and spoke to Muiertach in English.</p>
+
+<p>"Truly, I have seldom seen such a man as this&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A swift look of warning flashed over the seneschal's face, and Brian
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady," he said in the same tongue, "he is Cathbarr of the Ax, and he
+will be a good man to stand with us against the Dark Master."</p>
+
+<p>She betrayed no surprise, except that a little tinge of red crept to her
+temples.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know you spoke English, Brian Buidh. Still, it was not to
+Cathbarr that I referred."</p>
+
+<p>At that it was Brian's turn to redden, and mentally he cursed himself.
+There was no evil in this woman's heart, he saw at once. For an instant
+he was confused and taken aback. Then she smiled, slowly rose, and
+tendered him her hand. Going to one knee, he put her fingers to his
+lips.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>"Now sit, Yellow Brian," she said, "and let us talk. First, these
+captives of yours. Do you in truth bring them as a tribute? How do I
+know they are O'Donnell's men?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ask these seamen of yours," laughed Brian, seating himself beside her.
+Cathbarr remained standing and leaning on his ax, looking like some
+giant of the old times.</p>
+
+<p>She took him at his word, and when she had heard from the seamen certain
+tales of what cruelties the ten prisoners had done, her violet eyes
+suddenly turned black and an angry pallor drove across her face.</p>
+
+<p>"That is enough," she interrupted curtly. "Take them out and hang them."</p>
+
+<p>The men were led away, and Brian saw that her hands were tightly
+clenched, but whether in fury or in fear of herself he could not tell.
+Then she turned to him, looking straightly into his face, and on the
+instant Brian knew that if this girl-woman bade him go to his death, he
+would go, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me of yourself, Brian Buidh. Of what family are you? By the ring
+on your finger you are an O'Neill; yet I have heard nothing of such a
+man as yourself leading that sept. When your messenger came to me, I
+read cunning in his face, and took it for a trap set by the Dark Master;
+but now that I have seen you and Cathbarr of the Ax, I will take fealty
+from you if you wish to serve me."</p>
+
+<p>Brian smiled a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Serve you I would, lady, but not in fealty. I take fealty and do not
+give it. My name is indeed Brian Buidh, and as for that ring, it was a
+gift from Owen Ruadh."</p>
+
+<p>"Owen Ruadh died two days since," she said softly, watching his face. "I
+had word of it this morning."</p>
+
+<p>At that he started, and Cathbarr's eyes widened in fear of magic. Owen
+Ruadh had lain on the other side of Ireland, and three months would have
+been fast for such news to travel. But Brian nodded sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Carrier pigeons, eh?" he said in English and paused. He knew not why,
+but his loneliness seemed stricken into his heart on a sudden; he who
+neither explained nor asked for explanation from any man, felt impelled
+to open his life to this girl-woman. He crushed down the impulse, yet
+not entirely.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps, Lady Nuala, there shall be greater confidence between us in
+time, and so I truly desire. But know this much&mdash;I am better born than
+any man in Ireland&mdash;aye, than Clanrickard himself; and I am here in the
+west to seek a new name and a new power. It is in my mind to take
+O'Donnell's castle from him, lady. I have some two hundred men, of whom
+the Dark Master himself lent me twoscore, and in alliance with your
+ships we could reduce him."</p>
+
+<p>"How is this, Brian? You say he <i>lent</i> you twoscore men?"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed and explained the fashion of that loan; and when he had
+finished a great laugh ran down the hall, and the Bird Daughter herself
+was chuckling. Then he waited for her answer, and it was not long in
+coming.</p>
+
+<p>"There is some reason in your plan, Brian Buidh, but more reason against
+it. The castle that O'Donnell holds was formerly my father's. If you
+held it, there would be no peace between us, unless you gave fealty to
+me, which I see plainly you will not do. I claim that castle, and shall
+always claim it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it seems that I am held in a cleft stick," smiled Brian easily,
+"since I will give fealty to none save the king, or Parliament. You are
+allied with the Roundheads, I understand?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, watching him gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Cromwell is master of the country, and I am not minded to butt my
+head against a wall, Brian Buidh. If I am to hold to the little that is
+left me, I shall need all my strength."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is not much, lady. Your coasts are plague-smitten, your men
+reduced, and Cromwell has not yet won all the country. Galway will be
+the last to fall, indeed. But as to Bertragh Castle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> why should you not
+sell your rights in it to me?"</p>
+
+<p>At his first words a helpless anger flashed into her face, succeeded by
+a still more helpless pride.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I will not sell what I have been unable to conquer back, Brian
+Buidh. If there were any way out of this difficulty with honor, I would
+take it; for I tell you frankly that I would make alliance with you if I
+could."</p>
+
+<p>Brian gazed at her, reading her heart, and fighting vainly against the
+impulse that rose within him. Twice he tried to speak and could not,
+while she watched the conflict in his face and wondered. He wished
+vainly that he had Turlough's cunning brain to aid him now.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady," he said at last, biting his lips, "I will do this. I will give
+you fealty for the holding of Bertragh Castle, keeping it ever at your
+service, but for this alone. When we have taken it, it may be that I
+shall render it back after I have won a better for myself; yet, because
+I would sit at your side and have equal honor with you, and because we
+have need of each other, I will give you the service that I would grant
+to no man alive. Is it good?"</p>
+
+<p>For an instant he thought that she was about to break forth in eager
+assent, then she sank back in her chair, while breathless silence filled
+the hall. She gazed down at the floor, her face flushing deeply, and
+finally looked up again, sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not desire pity or compassion, Brian Buidh," she said simply, and
+her eyes held tears of helpless anger.</p>
+
+<p>Then Brian saw that she had pierced his mind, for which he was both
+sorry and glad. He knew well there were other castles to be had for the
+taking, and there was nothing to prevent his riding on past Slyne Head
+and winning them&mdash;except for his meeting with this girl-woman. Therefore
+he lied, and if she knew it, she gave no sign.</p>
+
+<p>"You mistake me, lady," he said earnestly, his blue eyes softening
+darkly.</p>
+
+<p>"I propose this only as a stepping-stone to my own ambition. Soon there
+will be a sweep of war through the coasts, and I would have a roof over
+my head. Is it good?"</p>
+
+<p>She rose and held out her hands to him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is good, Brian Buidh. Give me fealty-oath, for Bertragh Castle
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>And he gave it, and his words were drowned in a roar of cheers that
+stormed down the hall, for the O'Malleys had heard all that passed.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later Cathbarr of the Ax was despatched in a swift galley to
+bear the tidings to Turlough, and bid him make ready for a swift and
+sharp campaign.</p>
+
+<p>Through the remainder of that afternoon and evening Brian sat beside the
+Bird Daughter, and he found his tongue loosened most astonishingly, for
+him. He told her some part of his story, though not his name, while in
+turn he learned of her life, and of how her father and mother had been
+slain by O'Donnell through blackest treachery.</p>
+
+<p>The more he saw of her, the more clearly he read her heart and the more
+he gave her deeper fealty than had passed his lips in the oath of
+service. As for her, she had met Blake and others of the Roundhead
+captains on her cruises, deadly earnest men all; but in the earnestness
+of Brian she found somewhat more besides, though she said nothing of it
+then. It was arranged between them that in three days they would meet
+before Bertragh Castle, by sea and land, and the Dark Master would be
+speedily wiped out.</p>
+
+<p>With the morning Brian set forth to join his men in the largest sailing
+galley, for a wild gale was sweeping down from Iar Connaught. But the
+O'Malleys were skilled seamen who laughed at wind and waves, and Brian
+kissed the hand of the Bird Daughter as he stepped aboard, with never a
+thought of the storm of men that was coming down upon them both, and of
+the blacker storm which the Dark Master was brewing in his heart.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot" style="margin-top: 2.25em;">
+<p>TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly,
+and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a
+month.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="Part_II" id="Part_II"></a><i>Nuala O'Malley</i><br />
+by H. Bedford-Jones</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span>Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>This story began in the All-Story Weekly for December 30.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">HOW BRIAN WAS NETTED.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The Dark Master sat in his dark hall, brooding.</p>
+
+<p>It was a bad morning, for there was a sweep of wind and black cloud
+mingled with snow bearing out of the north; and since the great hall,
+with its huge fireplace, was the warmest part of the castle, as many of
+the men as could do so had drifted thither, but without making any undue
+disturbance over it.</p>
+
+<p>For that matter, they might have passed unseen, since the hall was black
+as night save for a single cresset above the fireplace. Here sat the
+Dark Master, a little oaken table before him on which his breakfast had
+rested, and at his side crouched a long, lean wolfhound that nuzzled him
+unheeded. On the other side the table sat the old <i>seanachie</i>, who was
+blind, and who fingered the strings of his harp with odd twangings and
+mutterings, but without coherence, for O'Donnell had bade him keep
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Go and see what the weather is," commanded the Dark Master. A man rose
+and ran outside, while other men came in with wood. Their master
+motioned them away, although the fire had sunk down into embers.</p>
+
+<p>"A gale from the north, which is turning to the eastward, with snow,
+master."</p>
+
+<p>"Remain outside, and bring me word what changes hap, and of all that you
+see or hear. Waste no time about it."</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master drew his cloak about his humped shoulders, and in the
+flickering dim light from overhead his face stood out in all its ghastly
+pallor, accentuated by the dead black hair and mustache. But his eyes
+were burning strangely, and when they saw it the men drew back, and more
+than one sought the outer chill in preference to staying.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span>Now O'Donnell Dubh stared into the embers and muttered below his breath,
+while, as if in response, a little flickering whirlwind of gray ash rose
+up and fell back again, so that it blew over the embers and deadened
+them. The muscles of the Dark Master's face contracted until his teeth
+flashed out in a silent snarl.</p>
+
+<p>"I could have slain, and I did not," he whispered as if to himself. "But
+there is still time, and I will not be a fool again!"</p>
+
+<p>The watching men shivered, for it seemed that the wind scurried down the
+wide chimney and again blew up the gray ash until the embers glowed
+through a white coating. But the wind wrought more than this, for it
+brought down from the gray clouds a whispering murmur that drifted
+through the hall, and in that murmur were mingled the sounds of beating
+hoofs and ringing steel and shrieking men.</p>
+
+<p>"Are watchers posted over the hills and the paths and the Galway roads?"
+spoke out the Dark Master as he gazed into the ashes.</p>
+
+<p>"They are watching, master," answered a deep voice from the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the wolfhound raised its head and stared into the ashes also,
+as if it saw something there that no man saw, for the bristles lifted on
+its neck, and it whined a little. O'Donnell dropped his hand to the thin
+muzzle, and the dog was quiet again. But after that the men stared at
+the fireplace with frightened eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"There is still time, though one has escaped me," said the Dark Master,
+looking up suddenly at his sightless harper, who seemed to fall
+atrembling beneath the look. "The one who has escaped matters not, for
+his bane comes not at my hands. It is the other whom I shall slay&mdash;Brian
+Buidh of the hard eyes. Then the Bird Daughter. But it seems to me that
+one stands in my path of whom I do not know."</p>
+
+<p>He brooded over the ashes as his head sank between his shoulders like a
+turtle's head. Then once again the wind swooped down on the castle, and
+whistled down the chimney, and filled the great hall with a thin noise
+like the death-rattle of men. The cresset wavered and fell to smoking
+overhead.</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master reached his hand across the table and caught the hand of
+the blind harper and spread it out on the oak. A little shudder shook
+the old man, and as if against his will he spread out his other hand
+likewise, his two hands lying between those of the Dark Master. Then
+there fell a terrible and awestruck silence on the hall.</p>
+
+<p>The stillness was perfect, and continued for a long while. Slowly
+occurred a weird and strange thing, for, although no blast whimpered
+down the chimney, the ashes fell away from the embers, which began to
+glow more redly and set out the forms of the Dark Master and the blind
+harper in a ruddy light. Suddenly a man pointed to the feet of the Dark
+Master, and would have cried out but that another man struck him back.</p>
+
+<p>For the ashes had drifted out from the fireplace, flake after flake, and
+were settling about the feet of the Dark Master beneath the table. They
+rose slowly into a little gray pile; then one of the men shrieked in
+horror at the sight, and the Dark Master threw out his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Slay him," he said quietly and drew in his head once more, staring at
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>There was a thudding blow and a groan, then the stillness of death. The
+ashes were quiet; the fire glowed ruddily. After a little there came a
+soft whirl of soot down the chimney, blackening the embers. The soot
+rose and fell, rose and fell, again and again; it was as if an eddying
+draft of wind were trying to raise it. Finally it was lifted, but it
+only whirled about and about over the embers, like a shape drawn
+together by some uncanny force.</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master raised his head as a clash of steel and the voice of the
+watcher came from the outer doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"Master, the blast thickens with black fog!"</p>
+
+<p>"Remain on watch," said O'Donnell, and his head fell.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span>But through the hall men's hands went out to one another in the
+darkness. For storm-driven fog was not a thing that many men had seen
+even on the west coast, and when it did happen men said that a warlock
+was at work. There was not far to seek for the warlock in this case,
+muttered the O'Donnells.</p>
+
+<p>Now the Dark Master looked into the fireplace and that whirling figure
+of soot raised itself anew and began its unearthly dance over the
+embers. After no long time men saw that the pile of gray ashes under the
+table was lifting also, lifting and whirling as though the wind spun it;
+but there was no wind.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a man to be blinded," said the Dark Master. "Let him be
+blinded with fog and snow, and the men with him, and let the wind come
+out of the east and drive him to this place."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, so slowly that no man could afterward say where there was
+beginning or end, the whirling figure of soot dissipated; and little by
+little the dancing stream of gray ashes drifted back into the fireplace;
+then it also dissipated, seeming to pass up the chimney, so that the
+embers glowed red and naked.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Seanachie</i>," said the Dark Master in a terribly piercing voice, "who
+is this standing in my way, standing between me and Brian of the hard
+eyes?"</p>
+
+<p>The blind harper began to tremble, but again came the clash and the
+watcher's voice from the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"Master, there is snow mingled with the fog, and the wind is shifting to
+the eastward."</p>
+
+<p>"Light the beacon and remain on watch," said the Dark Master. But at the
+watcher's word new terror seized on the men in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Seanachie</i>, who stands in my way? Speak!"</p>
+
+<p>The beard of the blind harper quivered and rose as if the wind lifted
+it, but men felt no wind through the hall. Then the old man began to
+writhe in his chair, and twisted to take his hands from the table, but
+he could not, although only he alone held them there. Suddenly his
+mouth opened, and a voice that was not his voice made answer:</p>
+
+<p>"Master, two people stand in your way."</p>
+
+<p>"Describe them," said the Dark Master, and those near by saw that sweat
+was running down his face, despite the coldness of the hall. After a
+moment's silence the old harper spoke again; he had lost his eyes twenty
+years since, yet he spoke of seeing.</p>
+
+<p>"Master, I see two people but dimly. One is a man, huge of stature and
+standing like Laeg the hero, the friend of the hero Cuculain, leaning
+upon an ax&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That is Cathbarr of the Ax," broke in the Dark Master. "His bane comes
+not at my hands. Who is the other?"</p>
+
+<p>Again the old harper seemed to struggle, and his voice came more
+faintly:</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot see, master. I think it is a woman&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That is the Bird Daughter," quoth the Dark Master.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, it is an old woman, but she blinds me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And the harper fell silent, writhing, until horror gripped those who
+looked on. O'Donnell leaned forward, his head sticking straight out and
+his eyes blazing.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you see, <i>seanachie</i>? Speak!"</p>
+
+<p>"I see men," and the old harper's voice rose in a great shriek. "A storm
+of men and of hoofs, and red snow on the ground, and fire over the snow,
+and the man of the ax laughing terribly. And I see other men riding
+hard; men with long hair and the flag of England in their midst&mdash;and
+Cuculain smites them&mdash;Cuculain of the yellow hair&mdash;the Royal Hound of
+Ulster smites them and scatters them&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Liar!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>With the hoarse word the Dark Master leaned forward and smote the blind
+harper with his fist, so that the old man slid from his chair senseless.
+Upon that the Dark Master swung around with his teeth bared and his head
+drawn in like the head of a snake about to strike.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span>"Lights!" he roared. "Lights! Bear the <i>seanachie</i> to his chamber, and
+send men to ring in the harbor and build beacons on the headlands.
+Hasten, you dogs, or I'll strip the flesh from you with whips!"</p>
+
+<p>Under his voice and his flaming eyes the hall sprang into life, while
+the men carried out the blind harper and one of their own number who had
+been stricken with madness at what he had seen. Then the hall blazed up
+with cressets, logs were flung on the fire, and parties of men set out
+to build beacons and guard the bay as the Dark Master had given command.
+And when word was spread abroad among the others of what had chanced in
+the hall that morning, Red Murrough, the Dark Master's lieutenant, swore
+a great oath.</p>
+
+<p>"If that Cuculain of whom the <i>seanachie</i> spoke be not the man Brian
+Buidh, then may I go down to hell alive!"</p>
+
+<p>And the men, who feared Red Murrough's heavy hand and hated him,
+muttered that he would be like to travel that same road whether living
+or dead, in which there was some truth.</p>
+
+<p>While these things took place in the hall at Bertragh&mdash;and they were
+told later to Brian by many who had seen them and heard them, all
+telling the same tale&mdash;Brian and his sailing galley was making hard
+weather of it. Six of the O'Malleys had been sent with him to manage the
+galley, for he was no seaman and had placed himself in their hands; and
+after rounding into Kilkieran Bay from the castle harbor and reaching
+out across the mouth of the bay toward Carna, intending to reach
+Cathbarr's tower direct, the blast came down on them, and even the
+O'Malleys looked stern.</p>
+
+<p>Sterner yet they looked when Brian cried that Golam Head was veiling in
+fog behind them, and with that the wind swerved almost in a moment and
+swept down out of the east, bearing fog and snow with it. Nor was this
+all, for the shift of wind bore against the seas and swept down
+currents and whirlpools out of the bay, and after the snow and black fog
+shrieked down upon them, the seamen straightway fell to praying.</p>
+
+<p>"Get up and bail!" shouted Brian, kicking them to their feet, for the
+seas were sweeping over the counter. The helmsman groaned and bade him
+desist, and almost at the same instant their mast crashed over the bow,
+breaking the back of one seaman, and the galley broached to.</p>
+
+<p>With that the O'Malleys ceased praying and fell to work with a will,
+getting out the sweeps and bailing. The mingling of snow, shrieking
+wind, and black fog had been too much for their superstitious natures,
+but made no impression on Brian, for the simple reason that he did not
+see why fog and wind should not come together. After he understood their
+fears better he shamed them into savage energy by his laughter, and
+since the broken-backed man had gone overboard, took his sweep and set
+his muscles to work.</p>
+
+<p>They made shift to keep the craft before the wind, but presently Brian
+found that half the men's fear sprang from the fact that the fog and
+snow blinded them, shutting out the land, and that the shifting wind had
+completely bewildered them. When he asked for their compass, their
+leader grunted:</p>
+
+<p>"No need have we for a compass on this boat, Brian Buidh, save when
+warlocks turn the fog and wind upon us. I warrant that were it not for
+the fog, we would be safe in port ere now. As it is, the Virgin alone
+knows where we are or whither going."</p>
+
+<p>"This is some of the Dark Master's wizardry," growled out another.
+"Before we hung those men of his last night, they said that the winds
+would bear word of it to the dark one, <i>cead mile mollaght</i> on him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Add another thousand curses for me," ordered Brian, "but keep to the
+bailing, or I'll give you a taste of my foot! And no more talk of
+warlocks."</p>
+
+<p>The five men fell silent, and indeed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span> they needed all their breath, for
+the struggle was a desperate one. Instead of lessening, the fog only
+increased with time, and even Brian began to perceive the marvel in it
+as swirl after swirl of darkness swept over them. Yet, since the wind
+was from the east, he reasoned, it would naturally blow out the fog from
+the bogs and low lands. But this explanation was received in dour
+silence by the men, so he said no more.</p>
+
+<p>There was no doubt that Cathbarr had reached home safely, since the
+night had been fair enough for the winter season. An hour passed, and
+then another, still without a lessening of the eery storm; and the nerve
+of the seamen was beginning to give way under the strain, when the
+helmsman let out a wild yell:</p>
+
+<p>"A light ahead! A beacon!"</p>
+
+<p>The rowers twisted about with shouts of joy, and Brian perceived a
+faint, ruddy light against the sky. Also, the fog began to lessen
+somewhat; and upon making out that the beacon undoubtedly came from a
+high tower or crag, the shout passed around that they had headed back to
+Gorumna with the shifting wind.</p>
+
+<p>This heartened them all greatly, the more so since the gale drove them
+straight onward toward the beacon. The fog closed down again, but the
+ruddy glare pierced through it; and of a sudden there was no more fog
+about them&mdash;only a blinding thick snow, which made all things grotesque.
+Then two more beacons were made out, lower than the first, and the men
+yelled joyously that fires had been lighted on either side the harbor to
+guide them in. And so they had been, but otherwise than the men thought.</p>
+
+<p>Half frozen with the cold, they drove on through the snow and spray
+until at length they swept in between the guiding fires and scanned the
+shores for landing. Then the snow ceased, though the hurricane howled
+down behind them with redoubled fury; and as they floated in against a
+low, rocky shore, silence of wild consternation fell on them all. For
+they had come to Bertragh Castle, and fifty feet away a score of men
+were waiting, while others were running down with torches.</p>
+
+<p>Even in that moment of terrible dismay, Brian noted their muskets, and
+how the lighted matches flared like fireflies in the wind.</p>
+
+<p>"Trapped!" groaned one of the men, and they would have rowed out again
+into the teeth of the storm had not Brian stayed them.</p>
+
+<p>"No use, comrades. They have muskets, and there are cannon up above. Row
+in, and if we must die, then let us die like men and not cowards."</p>
+
+<p>Seeing no help for it, the men growled assent, and they drifted slowly
+in, all standing ready with drawn swords, while Brian's Spanish blade
+flared in the prow. Then in the midst of the gathered men he saw a dark
+figure with hunched shoulders, sword in hand. As he turned to the seamen
+behind him, there was a glitter in his blue eyes colder than the icy
+blast behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"There is the Dark Master, comrades! Let him be first to fall."</p>
+
+<p>They drove up on the shore, and Brian leaped out, with the men behind
+him. Still the group above stood silent until the voice of O'Donnell
+sheared through the gale. "Fire, and drop Yellow Brian first."</p>
+
+<p>So there was to be no word of quarter! As the thought shot like fire
+through Brian's mind, he leaped forward with a shout. A ragged stream of
+musketry broke out from the men gathered on the higher rocks, and he
+heard the bullets whistle. He paid no heed to the seamen who followed
+him, however. His eyes were fixed on the Dark Master's figure, and with
+only one thought in his mind he plunged ahead.</p>
+
+<p>More and more muskets spattered out; a bullet splashed against his jack,
+and another; something caught his steel cap and tore it away, and a hot
+stab shot through his neck. But the group of men was only a dozen paces
+from him now, and a wild yell broke from his lips as he saw O'Donnell
+step forward to meet him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span>Then only did he remember Turlough's speech on the day of that first
+meeting with the Dark Master&mdash;"The master of all men at craft and the
+match of most men at weapons"&mdash;and he knew that, despite the hunched
+shoulders, this O'Donnell must be no mean fighter. But the next instant
+he was gazing into the evil eyes, and their blades had crossed.</p>
+
+<p>Flaming with his anger, Brian forced the attack savagely; then a sharp
+thrust against his jack showed him that O'Donnell was armed with a
+rapier, and he fell to the point with some caution. With the first
+moment of play, he knew that he faced a master of fence; yet almost upon
+the thought his blade ripped into the Dark Master's arm.</p>
+
+<p>Involuntarily he drew back, but O'Donnell caught the falling sword in
+his left hand and lunged forward viciously. Just as the blades met
+again, Brian saw a match go to a musket barely six paces away. He
+whirled aside, but too late, for the musket roared out, and a drift of
+stars poured into his brain. Then he fell.</p>
+
+<p>Like a flash the Dark Master leaped at the man who had fired and spitted
+him through the throat; the others drew back in swift terror, for
+O'Donnell was frothing at the mouth, and his face was the face of a
+madman. With a bitter laugh he turned and rolled Brian over with his
+foot. The five seamen had gone down under the bullets.</p>
+
+<p>"He is only stunned," said Red Murrough. "Shall I finish it?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you want to die with him, yes. Carry him in, and we will nail him up
+to the gates to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>And the clouds fell asunder, and the stars came out, cold and beautiful.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">THE NAILING OF BRIAN.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Brian woke in darkness, with pain tearing at his head and heaviness upon
+his hands and feet. When he tried to put his hand to his head, that
+heaviness was explained; for he could not, and thick iron struck dull
+against stone.</p>
+
+<p>He lay there, and thought leaped into his brain, and he felt very bitter
+of spirit, but chiefly for those men who had come with him, and because
+he had failed before the Dark Master's hand.</p>
+
+<p>It was cold, bitterly cold, and thin snow lay around him, so that he
+knew that he was in some tower or prison that faced to the east. It was
+from that direction that the snow had driven, as he had sore cause to
+know, and he wondered if the Dark Master had had any hand in that
+driving. But this he was not to know for many days.</p>
+
+<p>It was the cold which had awakened him from his unconsciousness, he
+guessed. By dint of shifting his position somewhat, he managed to get
+his back against a wall, and so got his hands to his head. In such
+fashion he made out that his hair was matted and frozen with blood, and
+his neck also, where a bullet had plowed through the muscles on the
+right side. His head-wound was no more than a jagged tear which had
+split half his scalp, but had not hurt the bone, as he found after some
+feeling. Then he dropped his hands again, for the chains that bound him
+to the wall were very heavy. It must be night, for light would come
+where snow had come, and there was no light.</p>
+
+<p>Now, having found that he was not like to die, at least from his wounds,
+he set about stretching to lie down again, and found some straw on the
+floor. He drew it up with his feet and gathered it about him; it was
+dank and smelled vilely, but at the least it gave his frozen body some
+warmth, so that he fell asleep after a time.</p>
+
+<p>When he wakened again, it was to find men around him and a narrow strip
+of cold sunlight coming through a high slit in the wall of his prison.
+From the sound of breakers that seemed to roar from below him, he
+conjectured that he was in a sea-facing tower of the castle, in which he
+was right.</p>
+
+<p>The men, who were led by Red Mur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span>rough, gave him bread and meat and
+wine, but they offered no word and would answer no questions. So he ate
+and drank, and felt life and strength creeping back into his bones. He
+concluded that it must be the day after his arrival.</p>
+
+<p>Now Red Murrough beckoned to the hoary old seneschal, whose red-rimmed
+eyes glittered evilly. The old man shook his keys and stooped over
+Brian, unlocking the hasp which bound him to the wall-ring. The
+oppressive silence of these men struck a chill through Brian, but he
+came to his feet readily enough as Murrough jerked his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>He followed out into a corridor, and the men closed around him, going
+with him down-stairs and along other passageways. Brian wondered as to
+his fate and what manner of death he was going to die; yet it seemed to
+him that death was an impossible and far-off thing where he was
+concerned.</p>
+
+<p>He expected no less than death from the Dark Master, but at the same
+time it was very hard to believe that he was going to that fate. He was
+by no means afraid to die, but he felt that he would like to see the
+Bird Daughter once more. Also, he had always thought of fate as coming
+to him suddenly and swiftly in battle or foray; and to be deliberately
+done to death in cold blood by hanging or otherwise was not as he would
+have wished.</p>
+
+<p>"At least," he thought without any great comfort, "Cathbarr and Turlough
+will avenge me on the Dark Master&mdash;though I had liefer be living when
+that was done!"</p>
+
+<p>In one of the larger and lower corridors they came on two men bearing a
+body, sewed for burial. Murrough stopped his party and growled out
+something.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the <i>seanachie</i>," answered one of the bearers. "Since the Dark
+Master struck him yester-morn he has not spoken, and he died last
+night."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this Red Murrough crossed himself, as did the rest, muttered into
+his tangle of red beard, and motioned Brian forward.</p>
+
+<p>This wider passage gave through a doorway upon the great hall. There was
+no dais, but the Dark Master was seated before the huge fireplace, his
+wolf-hound crouched down at his side. The hall was pierced near the roof
+with openings, and lower down with loopholes, so that when the sun shone
+outside it was bright enough.</p>
+
+<p>Red Murrough led Brian forward, the clank of the heavy chain-links
+echoing hollowly through the place, but O'Donnell Dubh did not look up
+until the two men stood a scant four paces from him. Then his head came
+out from between his rounded shoulders and his eyes spat fire at Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"A poor ending to proud talk, Brian Buidh!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian tried to smile, but with ill success, for he was chilled to the
+bone and there was blood on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not yet dead, O'Donnell."</p>
+
+<p>"You will be soon enough," the Dark Master chuckled, and the hall
+thrilled with evil laughter. In the eyes of all Brian had proven himself
+the weaker man and therefore deserved his fate. "What of this O'Malley
+journey of yours, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian made no answer, save that his strong lips clamped shut, and his
+blue eyes narrowed a little. O'Donnell laughed and began to stroke his
+wolf-hound.</p>
+
+<p>"I have many messengers and many servants, Yellow Brian, and there is
+little my enemies do which is not told me. Even now men are riding hard
+and fast to trap Cathbarr of the Ax and your following."</p>
+
+<p>At that Brian laughed, remembering Turlough Wolf and his cunning.</p>
+
+<p>"I think this trapping will prove a hard matter, Dark Master."</p>
+
+<p>"That is as it may be. Now, Brian Buidh, death is hard upon you, and
+neither an easy nor a swift one. Before you die there are two things
+which I would know from your lips."</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked at him, but without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> speaking. The Dark Master had thrust
+out his head, his hand still lingering on the wolfhound's neck, and his
+pallid face, drooping mustache, and high brow were very evil to gaze
+upon. Brian, eying that thin-nostriled, cruel nose, and the undershot
+jaw of the man, read no mercy there.</p>
+
+<p>"First, who <i>are</i> you, Brian Buidh? Are you an O'Neill, as that ring of
+yours would testify, or are you an O'Malley come down from the western
+isles?"</p>
+
+<p>At that Brian laughed out harshly. "Ask those servants of which you
+boast, Dark Master. Poor they must be if they cannot tell you even the
+names of your enemies!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well answered!" grinned the other, and chuckled again to himself as
+though the reply had indeed pleased him hugely. "I would that you served
+me, Brian of the hard eyes; I suppose that you are some left-hand scion
+of the Tyr-owens by some woman overseas, and the O'Neill bastards were
+ever as strong in arm as the true sons. Yet you might have made pact
+with me, whereas now your head shall sit on my gates, after your bones
+are broken and you have been nailed to a door."</p>
+
+<p>"Fools talk over-much of killing, but wise men smite first and talk
+after," Brian said contemptuously. He saw that the Dark Master was
+somewhat in doubt over slaying him, since if he were indeed an O'Neill
+there might be bitter vengeance looked for, or if he belonged to any
+other of the great families.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite true," countered the Dark Master mockingly, and with much relish.
+"Therein you were a fool, not to slay when first we met, instead of
+making pacts. Who will repay me my two-score men, Brian of the hollow
+cheeks?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Bird Daughter, perhaps," smiled Brian, "since two days ago she hung
+ten of those men I took in my ambuscade."</p>
+
+<p>This stung O'Donnell, and his men with him. One low, deep growl swirled
+down the hall, and the Dark Master snarled as his lips bared back from
+his teeth. Brian laughed out again, standing very tall and straight, and
+his chains clanked a little and stilled the murmur. He saw that
+O'Donnell wore his own Spanish blade, and the sight angered him.</p>
+
+<p>"There is another thing I would know," said the Dark Master slowly.
+"Tell me this thing, Brian Buidh, and I will turn you out of my gates a
+free man."</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked keenly at him and saw that the promise was given in
+earnest. He wondered what the thing might be, and was not long in
+learning.</p>
+
+<p>"You came hither from Gorumna Castle," went on O'Donnell, fixing him
+with his black flaming eyes. "Tell me what force of men is in that
+place, Brian of the hard eyes, and for this service you shall be set
+free."</p>
+
+<p>"Now I know that you are a fool, O'Donnell Dubh," and Brian's voice rang
+out merrily. "I have heard many tales of your wizardry and your servants
+and your watchers, but when an unknown man comes to you, his name is
+hidden from you; and all your black art cannot so much as tell you the
+number of your enemies! Now slay me and have done, for you have wasted
+much breath this day, and so have I, and it goes ill in my mind to waste
+speech on fools."</p>
+
+<p>"You refuse then?" O'Donnell peered up at him, but Brian set his face
+hard and made no reply. With a little sigh the Dark Master leaned back
+in his chair and motioned to Red Murrough to come forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Strip him," he said evenly, and at the word a great howl rang out from
+all the watching men, like the howl of wolves when they scent blood in
+the air.</p>
+
+<p>Murrough in turn signed to two of his men. These came forward and
+stripped off what clothes had been left to Brian, so that he stood naked
+before them. In that moment he was minded to spring on the Dark Master
+and crush him with his chains, but he saw that Red Mur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span>rough held a
+flint-lock pistolet cocked, and knew it would be useless. Also, if he
+had to die, he was minded to do it like a man and not to shame the blood
+of Tyr-owen, either by seeking death or by shrinking at its face.</p>
+
+<p>Now there passed a murmur through the hall, and even the Dark Master's
+evil features glowed a little; for Brian's body was very fair and slim
+and white, yet these judges of men saw that he was like a thing of
+steel, and that beneath the satin skin his body was all rippling sinew.
+Red Murrough drew out a hasp, brought his chained hands together, and
+caught the chain close to his wrists, so that his hands were bound
+close.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said the Dark Master, settling back and stroking his wolfhound as
+if he were watching some curious spectacle, "do with him as we did with
+Con O'More last Candlemas. But let us work slowly, for there is no
+haste, and we must break his will. In the end we will nail him to the
+door, and finish by breaking all his bones. It will be very interesting,
+eh?"</p>
+
+<p>A fierce howl and clash of steel answered him from the men. At another
+sign from Red Murrough, Brian felt himself jerked to the floor suddenly,
+and his hands were drawn up over his head. His wrist-chains were
+fastened to an iron ring set in the floor, and his ankles to another,
+and he stared up at the ceiling-rafters of the hall, watching the motes
+drift past overhead in the reaching sunbeams. It all seemed very unreal
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>"First that long hair of his," said the Dark Master quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Murrough went to the fire and returned with a blazing stick. Brian's
+gold-red hair had flung back from his head, along the floor, and
+presently he felt it burning, until his head was scorched and his brain
+began to roast and there was the smell of burnt hair rising from him.
+Then Murrough's rough hand brushed over his torn scalp, quelling the
+fire, but it did not quell the agony that wrenched Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"Paint him," ordered O'Donnell.</p>
+
+<p>Again Murrough went to the fireplace, and returned with a long white-hot
+iron which had lain among the embers. This he touched to Brian's right
+shoulder, so that the stench of scorched flesh sizzled up in a thin
+stream, and followed the iron down across the white breast and thigh,
+until it stopped at the knee, and there was a swath of red and blackened
+flesh down Brian's body. Yet he had not moved or flinched.</p>
+
+<p>Then Murrough touched the iron to his left shoulder and drew it very
+slowly down his left side. One of the watching men went sick with the
+smell and went out vomiting. A second swath of red and black rose on the
+white flesh, and beneath it all Brian felt his senses swirling. Try as
+he would he could not repress one long shudder, at which a wild yell of
+delight shrilled up&mdash;and then he fainted.</p>
+
+<p>"Take him away," said the Dark Master, smiling a little, as he leaned
+forward and saw that Brian had indeed swooned with the pain. "To-morrow
+we will paint his back with the whip."</p>
+
+<p>So they loosened him from the iron rings, and four men lifted him and
+carried him out. As they passed across the courtyard another came by
+with a pail of sea-water, which they flung over him; the salt entered
+into his wounds, washing away the blackness from his scalp, and slowly
+the life came back to him after he had been chained again in his
+tower-room and left alone.</p>
+
+<p>He was sorry for this, because he thought that he had died under the
+iron. He found a pitcher of water beside him, and after drinking a
+little he spent the rest in washing out the salt from his flesh, though
+every motion was terrible in its torture. So great was the pain that
+gasping sobs shook him, though he stared up dry-eyed at the stones, and
+a great desire for death came upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Slay me, oh God!" he groaned, shuddering again in his anguish. "Slay
+me, for I am helpless and cannot slay myself!"</p>
+
+<p>As if in answer, there came a soft laugh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> from somewhere overhead, and
+the voice of the Dark Master.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no God in Bertragh Castle save O'Donnell, Brian Buidh!"</p>
+
+<p>The blasphemy shocked him into his senses, which had wandered. Now he
+knew that from some hidden place the Dark Master was watching him and
+listening for his ravings, and upon that Brian sternly caught his lips
+together and said no more, though he prayed hard within himself. A cloak
+had been laid near-by him, and when he had covered himself somewhat
+against the cold, though with great pain in the doing, he lay quiet.</p>
+
+<p>The cold crept into him and for a space he was seized with chills that
+sent new thrills of pain through his burned body, for he could not
+repress them. After a time he relapsed slowly into numbed
+unconsciousness, waking from time to time, and so the hours dragged away
+until the night came.</p>
+
+<p>Then men brought him more food and wine and straw, and he managed to
+sleep a bit during the darkness, in utmost misery. But after the day had
+come, and more wine had stirred his blood redly, Murrough fetched him to
+his feet and bade him follow. Brian did it, though walking was agony,
+for his pride was stronger even than his torture.</p>
+
+<p>He was halted in the courtyard, found the Dark Master and his men
+gathered there, and knew that more torture was to come upon him. After a
+single scornful glance the Dark Master ordered him triced up to a post,
+which was done. Brian saw a man standing by with a long whip, but gained
+a brief respite as the drawbridge was lowered to admit a messenger
+mounted on a shaggy hill-pony. O'Donnell bade him make haste with his
+errand.</p>
+
+<p>"The word has come, master, that five hundred of Lord Burke's pikemen
+are on the road from Galway and will be close by within a day or so."</p>
+
+<p>"And what of Cathbarr of the Ax?" queried the Dark Master. Brian's
+heart caught at the words, then his head fell again at the response.</p>
+
+<p>"They have scattered in the mountains, it is said, master."</p>
+
+<p>"Murrough, have men sent to meet these royalists with food and wines,
+and if they are bound hither we will entreat them softly and send them
+home again empty. Now let us enjoy Brian Buidh a while&mdash;though he has
+stood up but poorly. It is in my mind that we will nail him up
+to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>With that Brian felt the whip stroking across his naked back. His
+muscles corded and heaved up in horrible contraction, but no sound broke
+from him; again and again the hide whip licked about him until he felt
+the warm blood running down his legs, and then with merciful suddenness
+all things went black, and he hung limp against the post.</p>
+
+<p>"Take him back," ordered the Dark Master in disgust. "Why, that boy we
+cut up the other side of Clifden had more strength than this fool!"</p>
+
+<p>"His strength went out of him with his hair," grinned Red Murrough, and
+they carried Brian to his prison.</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master had spoken truly, however. Brian's strength lay not so
+much in brute muscles, though he had enough of them, as in his nervous
+energy; and the slow horror of his burning hair and of that iron which
+had twice raked the length of his body had come close to destroying his
+whole nervous system. Other men might have endured the same thing and
+laughed the next day, but Brian was high-strung and tense, and while his
+will was still strong, his physical endurance was shattered.</p>
+
+<p>With the next morning, this fact had become quite evident to the general
+disgust of all within Bertragh Castle. The Dark Master himself visited
+the cell, and upon finding that Brian was lost in a half stupor and
+muttering words in Spanish which no one understood, he angrily ordered
+that he be revived and finished with that afternoon.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span>Red Murrough set about the task with savage determination. By dint of
+sea water externally and mingled wine and uisquebagh internally he had
+Brian wakened to a semblance of himself before midday. Then food, oil,
+and bandages about his wounds, and in another hour Brian was feeling
+like a new man.</p>
+
+<p>He was under no misapprehension as to the cause of this kindness, but
+cared little. So keenly had he suffered that he was glad to reach the
+end, and he walked out behind Red Murrough that afternoon with a ghastly
+face, but with firm mouth and firmer stride, though he was very weak and
+half-drunk with the liquors he had swallowed.</p>
+
+<p>His fetters were unlocked and he was led to the doorway of the great
+hall, with the Dark Master and his men watching eagerly. Red Murrough,
+with an evil grin, pressed his back to the door and held up his left arm
+against the heavy wood. Brian was half-conscious of another man who bore
+a heavy mallet and spikes, and whose breath came foul on his face as he
+pressed something cold against the extended left hand.</p>
+
+<p>Then Brian saw the mallet swing back, heard a sickening crunch, and with
+a terrible pain shooting to his soul, fell asleep.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">IN BERTRAGH CASTLE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Now, of what befell after that nail had been driven through his hand,
+Brian learned afterward; though at the time he was unconscious and
+seemed like to remain so. Hardly had he sagged forward limply when two
+men came riding up to the gates demanding instant admittance. One of
+these was of the Dark Master's band, the other was a certain Colonel
+James Vere, of the garrison which held Galway for the king.</p>
+
+<p>O'Donnell, who suddenly found himself with greater things on hand than
+the nailing of a prisoner, ordered Brian left where he lay for the
+present, and had the drawbridge lowered in all haste. Colonel Vere, who
+had late been in rebellion against his gracious majesty, was now joined
+with Ormond's men against the common enemy, and was in command of that
+force of five hundred pikemen which had been marching to the west.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing this, the Dark Master made ready to set his house in order,
+since it was known that Vere's men were only a few hours away. Hardly
+had the garrison gone to their posts, leaving Brian in the center of a
+little group about the hall doorway, when Colonel Vere rode in and was
+received in as stately fashion as possible by the Dark Master. It was
+not for nothing that O'Donnell had trimmed his sails to the blast, since
+he was on very good terms with all in Galway.</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome," he exclaimed with a low bow as Vere swung down from his
+saddle. "Your men received the provision I sent off yesterday?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, and thankful we were!" cried the other cheerily, for he was a
+red-faced man of forty, a Munsterman and half-English, and loved his
+bottle. "Hearing certain news from one of your men I made bold to ride
+ahead in all haste, O'Donnell."</p>
+
+<p>"News?" repeated the Dark Master softly. "And of what nature, Colonel
+Vere?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of one Brian Buidh, or Yellow Brian." At this the Dark Master
+began to finger the Spanish blade he had taken from Brian, and for a
+second Vere was very near to death, had he known it.</p>
+
+<p>"What of him, Colonel Vere?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the rogue had the impudence to come down on a convoy of powder and
+stores, last week, going from the Archbishop at Ennis to Malbay, for our
+use. Not only this, but a hundred of our rascally Scots deserted to him,
+he slipped past us at Galway, and I was in hopes you could give me word
+of him when I hit over this way. You're something of a ravager yourself,
+sink me if you aren't!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> and he dug the Dark Master jovially in the
+ribs.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," murmured O'Donnell thoughtfully, "so they say, Colonel Vere. But
+only when Parliament men come past, you understand. So you heard that
+this Yellow Brian was here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, and that you were doing him to death," coolly responded Vere, and
+his eyes flickered to the white form on the stones. "Zounds! What's
+this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yellow Brian," responded the Dark Master dryly. "What do you want with
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? Why, I'll take him back to Galway and hang him! I've a dozen of the
+Scots he was fool enough to let loose, and when my men come up they'll
+identify him readily enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless he's dead," chuckled O'Donnell. "Well, if you want him you may
+have him and welcome. So now come in and sample some prime sack I took
+from the O'Malleys last year."</p>
+
+<p>"With all the honors," responded Vere gallantly, and as they strode past
+Brian the Dark Master hastily directed that he be washed and tended and
+brought back to his right mind as soon as might be.</p>
+
+<p>This order, and the conversation preceding it, gave Red Murrough some
+cause for thought. So it was that when Brian wakened once more in his
+cell, as evening was falling, he found the fetters on him indeed, but
+Red Murrough had bound up his wounds, dressed his sundered hand-bones,
+and was sitting watching him reflectively. It had occurred to the Dark
+Master's lieutenant that there might be something made out of this man,
+who seemed wanted in several places at once.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore it was that while Brian made an excellent meal for a man
+swathed from crown to knees in bandages, Red Murrough poured into his
+ear the tale of what had chanced in the courtyard, and why it was that
+he was not at this moment nailed to the castle door. Brian collected his
+energy with some effort.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what of it?" he asked weakly.</p>
+
+<p>"Just this, Yellow Brian," and Murrough stroked his matted red beard
+easily. "O'Donnell will make a good thing out of handing you over to the
+royalists, who mean to hang you in style, it seems. Now, it is in my
+mind that it might advantage you somewhat if you were not moved thence
+for a few days&mdash;indeed, you might even escape, for I think you are not
+without friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?" Brian stared up at him wonderingly. "What does it matter to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, whether you live or die. But you are in my care, and if I
+report that you are in too bad shape to be moved&mdash;which you are
+not&mdash;then this Colonel Vere will camp outside our castle until you are
+handed over to him. You will gain a few days in which to get your wits
+back, and the rest is in your hands."</p>
+
+<p>"I had not thought you loved me so much," and despite his agony Brian
+forced out a bitter laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Not I! Faith, I had liefer see you nailed&mdash;but a service may be paid
+for."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no money," Brian closed his eyes wearily.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but you have friends," and Murrough leaned forward. "Promise me a
+clerkly writing to the Bird Daughter's men, or to your own men, ordering
+that I be paid ten English pounds, and it is done."</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure," smiled Brian wryly. "Also, if I escape, I will spare
+your life one day, Red Murrough."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. Then play your part." And Murrough departed well pleased with his
+acumen.</p>
+
+<p>And indeed, the man carried out his bargain more than faithfully. One
+visit assured the Dark Master that this broken, burned, cloth-swathed
+man was helpless to harm him further, and after that he gave Brian
+little thought.</p>
+
+<p>As Murrough had reckoned Brian's swoop on the convoy had given him some
+notoriety, and more than once Brian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> himself remembered Cathbarr's dark
+presage after he had let the ten Scots go free to Ennis; Colonel Vere
+was anxious to carry him back to Galway for an example to other
+freebooters, and he was quite content to bide at Bertragh Castle until
+his prisoner could travel.</p>
+
+<p>For that matter the other officers of his command were quite as content
+as he himself, since all were men from the south-country who loved good
+wines, and the Dark Master had better store of these than the empty
+royalist commissariat.</p>
+
+<p>As for the Dark Master, Murrough reported to Brian that he also was well
+content. Cromwell was sweeping like an avenging flame from Kilkenny to
+Mallow and Ormond was helpless before him; both king's men and Irish
+Confederacy men were pouring out of the South in despair, but the two
+had finally joined forces and the final stand would take place in the
+West. In fact, it seemed that things were dark for Parliament, despite
+Cromwell's activity, and the Dark Master was only one of many such who
+counted strongly on the rumors that the new king, Charles II, was on his
+way to Ireland with aid from France.</p>
+
+<p>And indeed he was at that time; but Charles, then and later, was more
+apt at starting a thing than at finishing it.</p>
+
+<p>Red Murrough lost no time in getting his "clerkly writing," luckily for
+himself. On the morning after his agreement he brought Brian a quill,
+and blood for lack of ink, and sheepskin. Brian wrote the order for ten
+pounds, promising to honor it himself if he escaped.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, did not seem likely, and even Murrough frankly stated
+that it was impossible. But Brian was tended well, and his perfect
+health was a strong asset. His head had been little more than scorched,
+and the scalp-wound stayed clean; after the first day there came a
+festering in his broken hand, but Murrough washed it out with vinegar
+which ate out the wound and cleansed it, after which he bound it firmly
+in wooden splints and it promised well.</p>
+
+<p>More than once Brian laughed grimly at the care he was getting, to the
+simple end that he should hang over Galway gates as a warning to the
+City of the Tribes and to all who entered the ancient Connacian town.
+For in that day Galway was a second Venice, and its commerce made rich
+plundering for the O'Malley's both of Gorumna and of Erris in the North,
+though the war had somewhat dimmed the glory of the fourteen great
+merchant families.</p>
+
+<p>Brian wondered often what had become of Cathbarr and his two hundred
+men, and Murrough could give him little satisfaction. It was known that
+the force had slipped away from Cathbarr's tower and had vanished; Brian
+guessed that Turlough had either led them north, or else into the
+western mountains where the O'Flahertys held savage rule. However, it
+was certain that neither the Dark Master nor the royalists had scattered
+them as yet.</p>
+
+<p>So Brian lay in his tower four days and might have lain there four-score
+more by dint of Red Murrough's lies, had it not been that on the fourth
+evening Colonel Vere managed to stay unexpectedly sober. Being thus
+sober, it occurred to him that he had best make sure he had the right
+man by the heels. So he ordered his ten Scots troopers in from the camp
+outside the walls, and the Dark Master sent for Brian to be identified.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have you carried down," said Red Murrough on coming for him. "Play
+the part, <i>ma boucal</i>, and when these royalists get into their cups
+again they'll forget all that is in their heads. Here's a cup of wine
+before ye go, and another for myself. <i>Slainte!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Slainte</i>," repeated Brian, and went forth to play his part.</p>
+
+<p>When the four men, with Red Murrough at their head, carried him down
+into the great hall, Brian found it no little changed. Tables were set
+along the walls, each of them being some ten feet in length by two wide,
+of massive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> oak, and in the center was another at which sat O'Donnell,
+Colonel Vere, and one or two other officers. Besides these there were a
+score more of the royalist officers mingled with the Dark Master's men,
+and it seemed that there would be few sober men in that hall by
+midnight, from the appearance of things. Only the ten Scots stood calm
+and dour before the fireplace.</p>
+
+<p>After that first quick glance around, Brian lay with his head back and
+his eyes closed, careful not to excite O'Donnell's suspicion that he was
+stronger than he seemed. He was set down in front of the ten Scots, and
+there was an eager craning forward of men to look at him, for his name
+was better known than himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Zounds!" swore Vere thickly. "The man has a strong and clean-cut face,
+O'Donnell! Strike me dead if he does not look like that painting of
+O'Neill, the Tyrone Earl, that hangs in the castle at Dublin! Though for
+that matter there is little enough of his face to be seen. You must have
+borne hardly on him with your cursed tortures."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy he is an O'Neill bastard," returned the Dark Master lightly.
+Brian felt the red creep into his face, but he knew that he was helpless
+in his chains, and he lay quiet. "Is he your man, Vere?"</p>
+
+<p>"How the devil should I know?" Vere turned to the troopers and spoke in
+English. "Well, boys, is this the fellow we're after? Speak up now!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's no' sae easy tae ken," returned one cautiously. "Yon man has the
+look o' Brian Buidh, aye."</p>
+
+<p>"Devil take you!" cried Vere irritably. "Do you mean to say yes or no?
+Speak out, one of you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Weel, Colonel," answered another cannily, "Jock here has the right of
+it. I wouldna swear tae the pawky carl, but I'd ken the een o' him full
+weel. An I had a peep in his een, sir. I'm thinkin' I'd ken their
+de'il's look. Eh, lads?"</p>
+
+<p>Since it seemed agreed that they would know Brian better by his hard
+blue eyes than by what they could see of his face, the exasperated Vere
+commanded that he be made open them if he were unconscious.</p>
+
+<p>"Run your hand down his body, Murrough," ordered the Dark Master
+cynically.</p>
+
+<p>Red Murrough leaned over Brian, and the latter opened his eyes without
+waiting for the rough command to be obeyed. Instantly the Scots broke
+into a chorus of recognition as Brian's gaze fell on them. Vere looked
+at him with an admiring laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Sink me, but the man has eyes! Well, so much the better for the ladies,
+eh? Now that this is over, give the lad a rouse and send him back to his
+cell."</p>
+
+<p>He waved the Scots to begone, and rose cup in hand. Smiling evilly, the
+Dark Master joined him in the toast to Brian, and a yell of delight
+broke from the crowd as they caught the jest and joined in. O'Donnell
+was just motioning Murrough to have Brian taken away, when there came a
+sudden interruption, as a man hastened up the hall. It was one of Vere's
+pikemen.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a party of four horsemen just outside our camp, colonel. One
+of them bade us get safe-conduct for him from O'Donnell Dubh, upon his
+honor."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?" the Dark Master snarled suddenly. "What was his name, fool?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cathbarr of the Ax, lord."</p>
+
+<p>A thrill shot through Brian, and he tried feebly to sit up. The Dark
+Master flashed him a glance. The hall had fallen silent.</p>
+
+<p>"His business?"</p>
+
+<p>"He bears word from one called the Bird Daughter, he said."</p>
+
+<p>While the royalists stared, wondering what all this boded, O'Donnell bit
+his lips in thought. Finally he nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Let the man enter, and tell him that he has my honor for his
+safe-conduct."</p>
+
+<p>Vere nodded, and the pikeman departed. Instantly the hall broke into
+uproar, but leaving the table, the Dark Master<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span> crossed swiftly to
+Brian, and bent over him.</p>
+
+<p>"Either swear to keep silence, or I have you gagged."</p>
+
+<p>"I promise," mumbled Brian as if he were very weak. The Dark Master
+ordered him carried behind one of the tables close by, and a cloak flung
+over him. When it had been done, Brian found that he could see without
+being seen, which was the intent of O'Donnell.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Dark Master was telling Vere and the other officers of
+Cathbarr, it seemed, and Vere hastily collected his wine-stricken
+senses.</p>
+
+<p>"Nuala O'Malley, eh?" he exclaimed when the Dark Master had finished.
+"She is the one who has held Gorumna Castle and would make no treaty
+with us, though she has more than once sent us powder, I understand."</p>
+
+<p>"I will talk with you later concerning her," returned O'Donnell. "She is
+allied with Parliament, they say, and it might be well for all of us if
+ships were sent against her place from Galway, and she were reduced."</p>
+
+<p>Brian saw that things were going badly. The Dark Master seemed to be
+playing his cards well, and was doubtless thinking of throwing off the
+cloak and openly allying himself with the royalist cause. In this way he
+could secure help against Gorumna in the shape of Galway ships and men,
+and it was like to go hard with the Bird Daughter in such case.</p>
+
+<p>However, Vere had no power to treat of such things, as Brian well knew.
+Also, Nuala had told him herself that her ships had not preyed on the
+commerce of Galway's merchants, but only on certain foreign caracks
+which free-traded along the coast. Therefore the Galwegians were not apt
+to make a troublesome enemy in haste, even if she were proved to be in
+alliance with Cromwell.</p>
+
+<p>None the less, the Dark Master was plainly thinking of making an effort
+in this direction, and Brian knew that the Bird Daughter was in no shape
+to carry things with a high hand in Galway town.</p>
+
+<p>He saw Vere and the Dark Master talking earnestly together across the
+table, but could not hear their words&mdash;and it was well, indeed, for him
+that he could not. As he was to find shortly, O'Donnell's quick brain
+had already grasped at what lay behind Cathbarr's coming, or something
+of it, and he had formed the devilish scheme on the instant&mdash;that scheme
+which was to result in many things then undreamed of.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had followed Turlough's rede, there when I first met this devil,"
+thought Brian bitterly, "I had slain him upon the road, and that would
+have been an end of it. Well, I think that I shall heed Turlough Wolf
+next time&mdash;if there is a next time."</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked out from his shelter with troubled eyes, for there was
+something in the wind of which he had no inkling. He saw Vere break into
+a sudden coarse laugh, and a great light of evil triumph shot across
+O'Donnell's face. Then the Dark Master gained his feet, gathered his
+cloak about his hunched shoulders, and sent Murrough to stand guard over
+Brian with a pistol and to shoot if he spoke out.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely he cannot be going back on his word, passed before so many men?"
+thought Brian bitterly. "No, that would shame him before all Galway, and
+he is proud in his way. But what the devil can be forward?"</p>
+
+<p>To that he obtained no answer. The Dark Master shoved his table back
+toward the fireplace, and placed his chair in front of it beside that of
+Colonel Vere. It seemed to Brian that the stage was being set for some
+grim scene, and a great fear seized on him lest harm was in truth meant
+toward Cathbarr.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt the giant had been in communication with the Bird Daughter, and
+it had been ascertained that the galley had come to grief at Bertragh
+Castle. A sudden thrill of hope darted through Brian. Was it possible
+that Cathbarr had led down his men and placed them in readiness to
+attack? Yet such a thing would have been madness&mdash;to set a scant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> two
+hundred against Vere's pikemen and the Dark Master's force combined!</p>
+
+<p>But Brian knew that Turlough Wolf was at large, and Turlough's brain was
+more cunning than most.</p>
+
+<p>If he could only get free, he thought, he might still be able to do
+something. He could ride, though it would mean bitter pain, and his
+sword-arm was still good&mdash;but he had got no farther than this when there
+came a tramping of feet, and in the doorway appeared Cathbarr, his
+mighty ax in hand, with the O'Donnells around him as jackals surround a
+lion.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">THE BAITING OF CATHBARR.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The bearded giant still wore the long mail-shirt that reached to his
+knees, and he paused at the doorway with his eyes roving about the hall.
+Well did Brian know whom he sought, but it was vain, for Cathbarr could
+not see him where he lay.</p>
+
+<p>Then Brian saw that the ax had been changed, and wondered at it. One of
+the long, back-curving blades had been rubbed down with files, so that
+it was very tapering and thin like an ordinary ax-blade, while the other
+was still the blunt, heavy thing it had always been. Brian read the
+cunning of Turlough Wolf in that handiwork, and in fact the great ax was
+thus rendered tenfold more deadly.</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master waited quietly until Cathbarr began a slow advance up
+the hall, all eyes fixed on him in no little wonder. Then O'Donnell
+raised a hand, stopping him.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us have your message, Cathbarr."</p>
+
+<p>The giant halted and dropped the ax-head, leaning on the haft of the
+weapon. He took his time about replying, however, and his eyes still
+roved about the hall ceaselessly and uneasily. Then of a sudden he gave
+over the search, and gazed straight at the Dark Master with a swift
+word:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you slain him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Slain who, Cathbarr?" queried O'Donnell, with a thin smile.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Duar na Criosd!</i>" bellowed Cathbarr with sudden fury. "Who but my
+friend Brian?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" The Dark Master laughed and eased back in his chair. "No, he's
+still alive, Cathbarr? Is your message from the Bird Daughter in his
+regard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Cathbarr fought for self-control, the breast of his mail shirt
+rising and falling, his bloodshot eyes beginning to circle about the
+place once more in a helpless and angry wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"O'Donnell Dubh," he went on at last, "Nuala O'Malley sends you this
+word. Give Brian Buidh over to her, and she will pay you what ransom you
+demand."</p>
+
+<p>"What alliance is there between Brian and her?" asked O'Donnell softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Brian has given her service, and I have," Cathbarr flung up his head.
+"Our men lie in Gorumna Castle, there are ships coming from Erris and
+the isles, and if Brian be slain we shall bear on this hold and give no
+quarter. We have four hundred men now, and five ships are coming from
+the North."</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master gazed quietly at the giant, Vere taking no part in the
+talk. But Brian, watching also, saw that which brought a mocking smile
+to O'Donnell's pallid face. Cathbarr had no fear of any man, and lies
+did not come easily to his lips; when he spoke of the force lying in
+Gorumna, and of help from Erris, his face gave him away. Brian saw
+Turlough behind that tale, but Cathbarr was no man to carry it off with
+success.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," laughed the Dark Master, "none the less shall Brian be slain.
+Carry back that word to Nuala O'Malley."</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr's mighty chest heaved like a barrel near to bursting. Brian was
+minded to break his promise, but Murrough's pistol was at his head, and
+he could but lie quietly and watch. The giant's face flushed somewhat.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not finished," said he. "My<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span> business for the Bird Daughter is
+done in truth, but now I have to speak a word of my own."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hear it," returned O'Donnell.</p>
+
+<p>"It is this." Cathbarr drew himself up. "I am more your enemy than is
+Brian. Let him go, O'Donnell Dubh, and take me in his place, for I love
+him."</p>
+
+<p>A sudden amazed silence fell on every man there, and but for Murrough's
+warning hand Brian would have sat up. O'Donnell's jaw fell for an
+instant, then his head drew in between his shoulders, he put a hand to
+Vere's arm, and whispered something. The royalist nodded, a grin on his
+coarse face, and the Dark Master settled back easily. Cathbarr still
+stood waiting, the ax held out before him, and a glory in his wide eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I would sooner hold you than Brian," and O'Donnell spoke softly. "If
+you will to take his place and die in his stead, Cathbarr, then loose
+that ax of yours."</p>
+
+<p>Brian saw that Cathbarr was lost indeed, for the Dark Master was not
+likely to give over his pact with the royalists so easily. Cathbarr
+heaved up his ax with a great laugh, like a child; he brought it down on
+the stones, but if he had meant to break it the effort was vain. The
+huge weapon clanged down and bounded high out of his two hands, so that
+men drew back in awe; but the ax whirled twice in the cresset-light,
+then fell and slithered over the flagging beneath a table, and no man
+touched it.</p>
+
+<p>"Take me," said Cathbarr simply.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay," answered the Dark Master calmly, though his eyes flamed, "kneel
+down."</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr stood breathing heavily for an instant, then slowly obeyed.
+Brian saw that his curly beard was beginning to stand out from his face,
+but no word came from him as he went to his knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," went on the Dark Master, "pray me for Brian's life, mighty one."</p>
+
+<p>The giant struggled with himself, for humiliation came hard to him. Then
+his voice fell curiously low, terrible in its self-restraint.</p>
+
+<p>"I pray you for the life of Yellow Brian, O'Donnell."</p>
+
+<p>Brian forced himself up, thinking to cry out a warning before it was too
+late; but Murrough's hand closed over his mouth and forced him back
+relentlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring ropes," said the Dark Master, and ordered Cathbarr to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>Men hastened out, and returned with a length of rope, binding the
+giant's arms behind his back, from elbow to wrist. Then the Dark Master
+laughed harshly, but Vere leaned toward him, his face troubled.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not carry this thing farther, O'Donnell," said the royalist
+hoarsely. "This man is a fool, but he has a great heart. Let be."</p>
+
+<p>For answer the Dark Master whirled on him with such fury in his snarl
+that Vere drew back hastily, and no more words passed between them at
+that time. O'Donnell rose and walked down the hall toward Cathbarr, in
+his hand a little switch that he used upon that wolfhound of his.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he said softly, yet his voice pierced hard through the dead
+stillness, "in token that your humility in this affair is without guile,
+Cathbarr of the Ax, bow your head to me."</p>
+
+<p>The giant obeyed, closing his eyes. The Dark Master lifted his hand and
+cut him twice across the head with his switch, while Brian gasped in
+amazement and looked for Cathbarr to strike out with his foot. But
+although the giant shuddered, he made no move, and the Dark Master
+strode back to his seat with a laugh. Then Cathbarr raised his face, and
+Brian saw that it was terribly convulsed.</p>
+
+<p>"Do with me as you wish," he said, still in that low voice. "But now let
+Brian be freed in my presence."</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master flung back his head in a laugh, and when the men saw his
+jest, a great howl of derision rang up to the rafters. Only Vere's
+officers looked on with black faces, for it was plain that this affair
+was none of their liking. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span> look of simple wonder came into Cathbarr's
+wide-set eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you not loose him?" he asked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Fetch the man out, Murrough," ordered the Dark Master. "Shoot him if he
+speaks."</p>
+
+<p>Now, whether through some shred of mercy&mdash;for he knew well that Brian
+would cry out&mdash;or for some other reason, Murrough leaned down swiftly to
+Brian's ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Careful," he whispered as he motioned his men forward. "Play the part,
+and mind that this thing is not yet finished."</p>
+
+<p>The warning came in good time, and cooled Brian's raging impulse. He was
+lifted from behind the table, his chains clanking, and laid upon it;
+Cathbarr gave a great start and bellowed out one furious word:</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay," smiled the Dark Master. "His eyes are open, and he is but weak
+with his wounds, Cathbarr. Now say&mdash;would you sooner that we cut off
+that right hand of his, or blinded him? One of these things I shall do
+before I loose him, for I said only that I would take your life for
+his."</p>
+
+<p>Brian saw that the Dark Master was only playing with the giant, for well
+he knew that Vere wanted to take him back to Galway whole and sound. But
+Cathbarr knew nothing of this, and as the whole terrible trickery
+flashed over his simple mind he lifted a face that was dark with blood
+and passion.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not play with me!" he cried out, his voice deep and angry. "Loose
+him!"</p>
+
+<p>Then O'Donnell leaned back in his chair, laughing with his men, and
+waved a careless hand toward Vere.</p>
+
+<p>"He is not mine," he grinned. "I have given him to the royalists, for
+hanging at Galway. You, however, are now mine to slay."</p>
+
+<p>Whether the Dark Master indeed meant to break his plighted faith, Brian
+never knew. Cathbarr took a single step forward, his curly beard
+writhing and standing out, and his whole face so terrible to look on
+that all laughter was stricken dead in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"You lied to me!" he cried hoarsely. "You lied to me!"</p>
+
+<p>O'Donnell laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, Cathbarr. Your master goes back to Galway to be hung&mdash;he is out of
+my hands, but you are in them. However, since I have passed my word on
+your safe-conduct, I think that I may hold to it."</p>
+
+<p>But the giant had not heard him. Throwing back his head, he gave one
+deep groan of anguish, and his shoulders began to move very slowly as
+his chest heaved up. All the while his eyes were fixed on the Dark
+Master, while the whole hall watched him in awe; not even Brian or
+O'Donnell himself guessed what that slow movement of Cathbarr's body
+boded.</p>
+
+<p>"Best put chains upon him, Murrough," said the Dark Master, his teeth
+shining under his drooping mustache.</p>
+
+<p>Vere cried out in sudden wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"'Fore Gad! Look!"</p>
+
+<p>Then indeed the Dark Master looked, and sprang to his feet, and one
+great shout of alarm and fear shrilled up from those watching. For as
+Cathbarr stood there, the veins had suddenly come out on his face and
+neck, and with a dull sound the ropes had broken on his arms, and he was
+free.</p>
+
+<p>Murrough rushed forward, and his pistol spat fire. Cathbarr, with his
+eyes still on the Dark Master, put out a hand and Murrough went whirling
+away with a dull groan. Then the giant rushed.</p>
+
+<p>O'Donnell did not stay for that meeting, but slipped away like a shadow
+into his surging men, yelling at them to fire. There were few muskets in
+the hall, however, and an instant later Cathbarr had reached the table
+where Vere still sat astounded. He brought down a fist on the royalist's
+steel cap, and Vere coughed horribly and fell out of his chair with his
+skull crushed.</p>
+
+<p>Now a musket roared out, and another.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span> But Cathbarr caught up the oaken
+table and faced around on the men who were surging forward at him;
+lifting the ten-foot table as though it were paper, he bellowed
+something and rushed at them, casting the table in a great heave. It
+fell squarely on the front rank, and then indeed fear came upon the
+hall. For Cathbarr's foot had struck against his ax, and he rose with it
+in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>There was a din of screams and shouts, for half the men were struggling
+to get out of the hall and the rest were rushing to get at Cathbarr.
+Another musket crashed, and in the smoke Brian saw the giant stagger,
+recover, and go bellowing into the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>Brian struggled from the table, groaned with pain, and then stood
+watching. He could walk, but his weakness and the chains on his wrists
+and ankles hindered him from being of any advantage to Cathbarr, though
+he lifted his voice in a shout of encouragement.</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr heard the shout, and roared out with delight. A musket-ball had
+cut across his forehead, and with the blood dripping from his beard he
+looked more like a demon than a man. The huge ax flashed in the smoky
+light, and before it men groaned and shrieked and gave back; it cleaved
+steel and flesh, or smashed helms and heads together, and the Dark
+Master had slipped from the place, so that his men had no leader.</p>
+
+<p>Over the roar of fear-mad men, over the storm of shrieks and shouts,
+over the dust and smoke, rose the mighty bellow of Cathbarr and the
+thudding blows of his ax. The royalist officers were fighting around the
+doorway, while O'Donnell's men were trying to make head against the
+giant, but he swept through them like a whirlwind, awing them more by
+his ferocious aspect and his mad rage than by the half-seen effect of
+his terrific strength.</p>
+
+<p>Little by little they eddied out from the door. Men lay all about,
+tables were overturned, and through the crowd swirled the terrible ax,
+leaving a path of dead in its wake. Brian staggered to the motionless
+form of Colonel Vere, and reaching down drew a pistol from the dead
+man's belt. His strength was flooding back to him, and in spite of the
+agony caused by every movement, he clanked slowly down toward the door.
+At sight of his chained and bandage-swathed figure a wild shriek welled
+up, and when he laughed and fired into the midst of them all opposition
+ceased.</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr still sought the Dark Master, raging back and forth, smiting
+and smiting with never a pause in the flaillike sweep of his long arms.
+He saw Brian standing there, and emitted a wild bellow of joy, but never
+ceased from his smiting. Out through the door poured a stream of
+maddened figures, for blind panic had come on every man there, and
+Cathbarr's was not the only weapon that drew blood as the men fought for
+exit.</p>
+
+<p>Brian laughed again, for now he knew that he would die in no long time,
+but it would not be under the torturers. Cathbarr cleared the hall, sent
+the last man flying out with an arm lopped from him, and swung to the
+huge doors after kicking two or three bodies from his way. When the beam
+had dropped into place and they were alone with the dead and dying, he
+turned to Brian and flung out his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Careful!" exclaimed Brian, seizing his hand. "None of your bear-hugs,
+old friend," and he swiftly told of his tortures. Tears ran down the
+giant's blood-strewn face as he listened, and with the tenderness of a
+woman he picked up Brian and carried him back to a table, setting him on
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"First for these chains, brother," he cried, going back for his ax. "We
+may yet win out against these devils."</p>
+
+<p>"Small chance," smiled Brian grimly. "I cannot swing a blade, and we
+cannot hold this hall for long. Besides, you have some wounds."</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr roared out a laugh, exuberantly as a boy, and carefully spread
+Brian's legs open on the table.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span>"Hold quiet!" he cautioned, and swung up the ax. Down it flashed, the
+thinner blade sheared through the chain an inch from Brian's ankle and
+split the oak beneath, and Cathbarr drew back for a second blow.</p>
+
+<p>Four times he struck, and the blows smote off the chains from each wrist
+and ankle, although the locked rings still remained. But Brian was free,
+and when he gained his feet he found the exercise had somewhat loosened
+his muscles, and he picked up a sword.</p>
+
+<p>"We can at least die fighting, Cathbarr," he said, and looked into the
+giant's eyes. "And, brother, I thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" blurted out Cathbarr, wiping the blood from his eyes and
+grinning through his beard. "Turlough Wolf has our men hidden around
+this royalist camp, and the Bird Daughter has a boat outside the castle.
+We cannot get through the royalists, but there is a chance that we can
+get to the shore. Besides, she has ships and men coming from her kinsmen
+in the North. Now, how shall we get away?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian shook his head. "I can hardly walk, Cathbarr, to say nothing of
+swimming or fighting. There is a rear door out of the hall, yonder, but
+no use trying it."</p>
+
+<p>"Perchance I have still some strength," grinned Cathbarr, picking up his
+ax. "Let us have a look at that rear door, before they come at us with
+muskets."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">HOW THE DARK MASTER WAS RUINED.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The fear that had come upon the O'Donnells was so great that not until
+pikemen entered the castle from the camp could the Dark Master get men
+at the doors of the hall. And this proved the salvation of Brian and
+Cathbarr, for when they left the hall by the rear door and slipped
+through the corridors, they came out upon the rear or seaward
+battlements of the castle.</p>
+
+<p>These they found denuded of men, while from the courtyard and front of
+the keep were rising shouts and batterings, whereat Cathbarr chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>"They are all drawn around to the front, brother. Now, how to get down
+from here?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked around in the starlight, but saw that there was no gate or
+other opening in the walls. He began to lose hope again; once the Dark
+Master had burst into the great hall he would scatter men over the whole
+castle, and their shrift would be short. At this point the walls were
+some thirty feet high, and pointing out to the sea stood four of the
+bastards, with balls piled beside them.</p>
+
+<p>"Now if we had a rope," he said, "the matter would not be hard. Is that
+boat near the shore?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not so far that I cannot make them hear," grinned Cathbarr, opening his
+mouth to shout, but Brian stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"Be careful&mdash;do you want to draw down the O'Donnells likewise? Now, cut
+the ropes from these cannon, and if we have time we shall yet get down
+safe."</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr rushed off in delight, and began hewing at the recoil-ropes
+which bound the bastards and their carriages to their places. Brian
+followed him, seizing the ropes and trying to knot the strands hastily
+and with no little pain to himself; but now the hope of escape began to
+thrill through him, and for the first time since sighting the Dark
+Master's stronghold he began to think that he might yet get away.
+However, he could do little knotting with one hand, and not until
+Cathbarr impatiently took over the task was it finished. At the same
+instant a great burst of yells rose over the castle.</p>
+
+<p>"Hasten!" cried Brian, as the other began fastening the line to a
+cannon. "I can use one hand&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Save your strength," grunted Cathbarr, lifting him after swinging the
+loop of his ax around his neck. "Catch me about the neck with your good
+arm, and trust me for the rest, brother."</p>
+
+<p>Brian did as he was ordered, since there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> was no time for lowering him
+down. The giant scrambled over the edge, gripping the twisting rope, and
+Brian tightened his lips to keep down his groans, for the agony was
+cruel to him. He was forced against the body of Cathbarr, and swirl
+after swirl of pain went over him at each touch on his burns.</p>
+
+<p>The giant grunted once or twice, for he had many slight wounds also, but
+with the rope gripped in hands and feet, he lowered away steadily. At
+length they reached the ground, and the scattered rocks along the shore
+were but a few yards away.</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr sent his bull-like voice roaring out at the stars, while Brian
+clung weakly to him and searched the waters. He could see nothing, but
+suddenly there drifted in a faint shout, and Cathbarr bellowed once
+more.</p>
+
+<p>"Swim for it," said Brian, as torches began to move along the walls
+above. "If those cannon are not loaded, we're safe."</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr nodded, and caught up the body of Brian tenderly enough in one
+arm, as he splashed out. The icy water shocked Brian's brain awake and
+drove the pain out of him momentarily, and before Cathbarr was
+waist-deep he heard a hail and saw the dark shape of a galley
+approaching.</p>
+
+<p>Muskets flashed out from the walls, and their bullets whistled overhead,
+but five minutes later Brian was on the galley, Cathbarr was clambering
+over the side, and the light boat was being rowed out again.</p>
+
+<p>Brian thought his senses were slipping away when he found Nuala O'Malley
+herself holding his head as he lay in the stern, while men flung cloaks
+around him; but warm tears dripped on his face, and she patted his arm
+soothingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Lie quiet," she said, but Brian would not, for already his brain was
+leaping ahead, and he knew that there was work to be done.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," he asked eagerly, "are my men camped around the royalists?
+Is help indeed coming to you from the North?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied, trying to quiet him. "A pigeon came in from Erris
+to-day, with word that two ships with men were on the way to help me.
+When I returned from the South and found that the plague had been at
+Gorumna, I sent off asking for help, and now it is coming."</p>
+
+<p>"Then send word to Turlough!" cried Brian eagerly. "Tell him to throw my
+men on the royalist camp <i>to-night</i> and drive the pikemen into the
+castle! Colonel Vere is dead, and there is such confusion that all will
+think we have more than two hundred men. If we can leaguer them there
+until your ships come, we may win all at a blow!"</p>
+
+<p>Nuala found instantly that there was meat in the plan, and as they were
+rowing out to meet one of her caracks, promised to send in the galley
+with word to Turlough when they got aboard the larger ship.</p>
+
+<p>This they were no great while in doing. Brian knew nothing of it, for
+upon the Bird Daughter's word he had dropped away into a faint once
+more. With this Nuala O'Malley was quite content, so that when Brian
+wakened he was greatly refreshed and found himself lying bandaged on a
+bunk with the sunlight coming through a stern-port beside him, and the
+Bird Daughter watching him with food and drink ready.</p>
+
+<p>"Take of this first," she smiled; "then we will talk."</p>
+
+<p>Brian obeyed, being very thirsty and ravenously hungered. He had little
+pain except when he tried to move, and so he ate as he lay, propped up
+with folded garments, and watched the Bird Daughter. She refused to
+speak until he had eaten the meat and cakes she had fetched, but when he
+smiled and asked for a razor her grave face rippled with frank laughter,
+and her deep violet eyes danced as they looked into his.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry I have none," she said mockingly. "So you must wait till we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span>
+come to port again. Just at present we are off Slyne Head and bearing
+northward."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" Brian stared at her. "Are you in jest?"</p>
+
+<p>It appeared that she was not, for she was sailing north to meet those
+ships of her kinsmen, and to hasten them back with her. Meantime
+Cathbarr had been sent ashore to meet Turlough and hold the Dark Master
+and his royalists in check. Nuala had sent fifty of her men to join
+Turlough, left twenty to hold her castle, and had ten with her upon the
+carack. It seemed likely that Turlough and Cathbarr could hold the Dark
+Master penned up for a few days at least, even with fewer men; if they
+could not, said Nuala shortly, they had best sit at spinning-wheels for
+the rest of their lives.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a wonderful girl!" said Brian, and fell asleep again.</p>
+
+<p>He remembered little of that voyage, for they met two caracks crowded
+with men off Innishark that afternoon, found they were the expected
+O'Malleys from the North, and turned back with them at once. Brian
+wakened again that same evening, but Nuala refused to let him go on deck
+until the following morning, when they sighted Bertraghboy Bay. Then
+Brian discarded most of his bandages, dressed, and, with his left arm in
+a sling, joined the Bird Daughter on the quarterdeck. He found that his
+burns were well on toward healing, for he could walk slowly without
+great pain, and had every confidence that he could sit a horse if need
+be.</p>
+
+<p>Sailing past Bertragh Castle, the three ships went on up the bay and
+cast anchor. It was not hard to see that Turlough and Cathbarr had done
+their work well, for in passing the castle they had made out that the
+royalist pikemen had been driven inside, and there was some musketry to
+be heard at times. No sooner had the anchor-cables roared out, indeed,
+than a band of men came riding toward the shore, and Nuala sent off a
+boat for them. She had known nothing of Cathbarr's deeds at the castle
+until Brian had told her of them, and on seeing that the giant was among
+those coming off, she smiled at Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you shall see how a girl can conquer a giant, Yellow Brian!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian laughed and waved a hand to Turlough, who was beside Cathbarr in
+the boat. As the men came over the rail, Nuala quietly pushed him aside
+and faced the giant, sharply bidding him kneel. Cathbarr had been all
+for rushing forward to Brian, and obeyed with an ill grace, when Nuala
+quickly leaned forward and kissed him on the brow.</p>
+
+<p>"That is for bravery and faith," she said. "Truly, I would that you
+served me!"</p>
+
+<p>Poor Cathbarr grew redder than the Bird Daughter's cloak. He started to
+his feet, gazed around sheepishly, found all men laughing at him&mdash;and
+did the best thing he could have done, which was to go to his knees
+again and put Nuala's hand to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"While my master serves you, I serve you," he blurted out, and this
+answer must have pleased Nuala mightily, for she flushed, laughed, and
+bade all down into the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Brian greeted Turlough with no little joy, but beyond assurances that
+all went well, gained no knowledge of what had happened. Nuala had sent
+for the O'Malley chieftains, and proposed to hold a conference at once.</p>
+
+<p>The O'Malleys arrived from the other ships in a scant five
+minutes&mdash;dark, silent men who spoke little, but spoke to the point. Art
+Bocagh, or the Lame, had had one leg hamstrung in his youth, but Brian
+took him for a dangerous man in battle; while his cousin Shaun the
+Little was a very short man with tremendous shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Nuala took her seat at the head of the stern-cabin table, and the
+position of affairs was gone over carefully.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that no sooner had Turlough learned from Cathbarr of what had
+taken place in the castle, and that Brian was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> safe on shipboard, than
+he drove his men down pell-mell on the camp, just before dawn. Any other
+man would have been exhausted by the events of that night, but Cathbarr
+had led them in the assault. The result had been that, with hardly any
+resistance, they had slain some four-score of the pikemen, and would
+have captured or slain them all had it not been for the Dark Master's
+cannon which drove them back.</p>
+
+<p>The better part of the royalist officers had fallen, either then or
+under the ax of Cathbarr in the hall of the castle. In fact, after
+learning that he had slain some nineteen persons on that occasion,
+Cathbarr had taken no few airs upon himself. Vanity was to him as
+natural as to a child, and Brian hugely enjoyed watching the giant
+strut. However, what remained of Vere's five hundred pikemen were in the
+castle, joined to the Dark Master's men; and Turlough's advice was that
+since there must be some seven hundred mouths to feed, the safest plan
+was to bide close and force the fight to come to them, rather than to
+take it to O'Donnell.</p>
+
+<p>"There is reason against that, Turlough Wolf," said Brian quickly. "The
+Dark Master has men on the hills, and if news is borne to Galway of what
+has happened, we are like to have a larger army on our heels than we can
+cope with."</p>
+
+<p>"I have attended to O'Donnell's watchers," said Turlough grimly. "When
+Cathbarr bore word of the pact from Gorumna Castle, I sent out horsemen
+and we swept the hills bare of men. O'Donnell has no more than are in
+the castle, and a score of our own men are on the roads, watching for
+any ill."</p>
+
+<p>"How many men have we in all?" spoke up Lame Art O'Malley. "In our ships
+there are sixty men we can spare for land battle."</p>
+
+<p>"That gives us three hundred in all," replied Turlough to Nuala's
+questioning glance. "If we take a strong position we should sweep most
+of O'Donnell's men away at the first charge."</p>
+
+<p>"There you are wrong," said Brian, shaking his head. "Those pikemen are
+bad foes for cavalry, and our two hundred horsemen would shatter on them
+if they stood firm."</p>
+
+<p>"Not if we choose our ground," said the Bird Daughter, her eyes
+flashing. "Nay, <i>I</i> am master here, my friends! Now this is my rede. We
+shall not waste men by attacking the castle, unless forced to it by an
+army from Galway. Instead, we will wait until the Dark Master is driven
+out by hunger; then we will fall on him and destroy him utterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yellow Brian, you have some knowledge of war, and you shall take this
+matter in charge. Cathbarr, do you command fifty horse, with the men
+from our ships here, and keep the Dark Master in play. With the
+remainder, we shall wait in whatever spot Brian shall choose, and before
+many days are sped I think that Bertragh will be mine again."</p>
+
+<p>The Bird Daughter had her way, since none could find much against her
+plan; and that afternoon Brian went ashore with her and the O'Malleys,
+leaving the three ships at anchor under a small guard. Turlough had made
+camp a short mile from the castle, on a little hill among the farms;
+both Nuala and the O'Malley men were somewhat surprised at finding the
+O'Donnell women and children safe and untouched in their own steads.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw to that," laughed Turlough, slanting his crafty eyes at Brian. "I
+had but to threaten them in Brian's name, and the men only were slain."</p>
+
+<p>"I think that you are a hard master," laughed Nuala, but Brian smiled
+and pointed to his men, who were pouring out to meet him with shouts of
+joy.</p>
+
+<p>"All men do not rule by fear alone, Bird Daughter," he said quietly. She
+gave him a quick glance. "I found these men riffraff of the wars, and
+while they have no such love for me as Cathbarr here, I think they had
+liefer follow me than any other leader."</p>
+
+<p>After that Nuala said little concerning Brian's discipline.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span>That night Nuala and Brian took up headquarters at one of the larger
+farms, and while Cathbarr went before the castle to keep the Dark Master
+in check and allow none to leave the place, they called in a number of
+those men O'Donnell had loaned to Brian, and questioned them about the
+provisioning of the castle.</p>
+
+<p>From these they found that there was good store of all things for the
+usual garrison, but with seven hundred men to feed the Dark Master would
+be forced out speedily. So with the dawn Brian and Turlough rode forth
+to select a battleground, and while Brian was very sore and riding
+caused him great pain at first, he soon found himself in better shape.</p>
+
+<p>Turlough picked a hollow in the road a mile farther from the castle,
+flanked on either hand by woods and hillsides where men might lie
+hidden. Brian found it good, and that afternoon a part of their horsemen
+were shifted thither in readiness.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>For the next three days there was little done. Twice the Dark Master
+attempted sallies with what few horsemen he had left, but on each
+occasion Cathbarr's horse smote his men and drove them back. To be sure,
+O'Donnell thundered with his bastards, but the guns only burned up good
+powder, for Brian would allow no assault made.</p>
+
+<p>By Turlough's advice, however, they brought about the Dark Master's fall
+through certain prisoners made in the two sallies.</p>
+
+<p>These captives were led through the depleted central camp, though they
+knew nothing of that picked place farther back. Having been allowed to
+see what men Brian had here, Turlough slyly drove Cathbarr into parading
+his vanity before them; and in all innocence the giant told how he could
+put the Dark Master's men to flight single-handed, and of his anxiety
+lest the O'Donnells should fear to fight in the open. What was more,
+Brian affected to be utterly shattered by his wounds, and with that the
+prisoners were sent back with a message offering quarter to all within
+the castle save the Dark Master himself.</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning a horseman came riding fast from Cathbarr with
+word that the garrison was stirring. Without delay, Brian donned a
+mail-shirt, bound his useless left arm to his side, and mounted. The
+Bird Daughter insisted on accompanying him, and stilled his dismayed
+protests by asserting her feudal superiority; in the end she had her
+way.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving her kinsmen and a hundred more men to dispute O'Donnell's
+passage and give back slowly before him with Cathbarr, she and Brian
+rode to their men among the trees on the hillsides over the hollow in
+the road. Here they had a hundred and fifty men, composed of the Scots
+troopers and the pick of the others, and Nuala took one side of the road
+while Brian took the other. Then, being well hidden, they waited.</p>
+
+<p>Brian was savagely determined to slay the Dark Master that day, and came
+near to doing it. Presently a man galloped up to say that O'Donnell and
+six hundred men were on the road, having left the rest to hold the
+castle. A little later Cathbarr's retreating force came in sight, and
+after them marched O'Donnell. He had deployed his muskets in front and
+rear, and rode in the midst of his pikemen, whose banner of England blew
+out bravely in the morning wind.</p>
+
+<p>At the edge of the dip in the road Cathbarr led his men in full flight
+down the hollow and up the farther rise, where he halted as if to
+dispute the Dark Master further. There were barely a dozen mounted men
+with O'Donnell, and he made no pursuit, but marched steadily along with
+his muskets pecking at Cathbarr's men. When he had come between the
+wooded hillsides, however, Cathbarr came charging down the road; the
+pikemen settled their pikes three deep to receive him, and with that
+Brian led out his men among the trees and swooped down with an ax
+swinging in his right hand.</p>
+
+<p>Alive to his danger, the Dark Master<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span> tried to receive his charge, but
+at that instant Nuala's men burst down on the other flank. Brian headed
+his men, and at sight of him a yell of dismay went up from the
+O'Donnells. A moment later the pikemen's array was broken and the fight
+disintegrated into a wild affray wherein the horsemen had much the
+better of it.</p>
+
+<p>Brian tried to cut his way to the Dark Master, but when O'Donnell saw
+the pikemen shattered he knew that the day was lost. He gathered his
+dozen horsemen and went at Cathbarr viciously; Brian saw the two meet,
+saw O'Donnell's blade slip under the ax and Cathbarr go from the saddle,
+then the Dark Master had broken through the ring and was riding hard for
+the North.</p>
+
+<p>Brian wheeled his horse instantly, found the Bird Daughter at his side,
+and with a score of men behind them they rode out of the battle in
+pursuit. It proved useless, however, for the Dark Master had the better
+horseflesh; after half an hour he was gaining rapidly, and with a bitter
+groan Brian drew rein at last.</p>
+
+<p>"No use, Nuala," he said. "I must wait until my strength has come back
+to me, for I have done too much and can go no farther."</p>
+
+<p>The girl reined in beside him, and her hand went out to his, and he
+found himself gazing deep into her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"For what you have done, Brian," she said simply, "thanks. Now let us
+ride back, for I think there is work before us, and we shall see the
+Dark Master soon enough."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not minded to wait his coming," quoth Yellow Brian darkly, and
+they returned.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot" style="margin-top: 2.25em;">
+<p>TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly,
+and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a
+month.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="Part_III" id="Part_III"></a><i>Nuala O'Malley</i><br />
+<i>by</i> H. Bedford-Jones</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_659" id="Page_659">[Pg 659]</a></span>Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>This story began in the All-Story Weekly for December 30.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">BRIAN RIDES TO VENGEANCE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"Then you are intent on this vengeance, master?" asked Turlough
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Brian. "I here take oath that I will never cut hair nor
+beard again until I have seen the Dark Master dead."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not like to have a chance at your hair very soon," laughed out
+Lame Art O'Malley. "But that is a good oath, Yellow Brian."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I think this is a better plan," spoke up Turlough Wolf. "Give me
+ten men, Brian, and I will go to Galway. I will soon get traces of
+O'Donnell; and if he goes into the north to get men of his own sept"
+(tribe or family), "as I think most likely, I will send back word, and
+we can follow him."</p>
+
+<p>"Do it," said Brian, and Turlough was gone that night.</p>
+
+<p>This discussion took place in the hollow, where the fight was soon over
+after the flight of the Dark Master. Out of the six hundred who had left
+the castle, two hundred had been O'Donnell's men. Half of these remained
+and took service with Brian at once. Of the four hundred pikemen, three
+hundred had gone down fighting like the stubborn south-country men they
+were, and the rest took service<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_660" id="Page_660">[Pg 660]</a></span> with Nuala O'Malley. They were most of
+them Kerry men, and well disposed toward ships and piracy.</p>
+
+<p>Brian had lost in all fifty men in that battle, while the Dark Master
+had given Cathbarr a goodly thrust through the shoulder, which had let
+out most of the giant's vanity and promised to give the huge ax some
+time to rest and rust. So, then, Brian found himself heading two hundred
+and fifty men of his own, with Nuala's hundred O'Malleys, when they rode
+down again to Bertragh Castle.</p>
+
+<p>This had been left in charge of a hundred men under Red Murrough, who
+had not been slain, but only wounded by Cathbarr's fist, that night in
+the great hall. Having left a party to bring in the wounded in wagons
+from the farms, they arrived before the castle shortly after noon.
+Cathbarr was left in charge of the camp, and Brian rode up to the gates
+with Nuala and her two kinsmen, with a flag of truce.</p>
+
+<p>Murrough and his men were put into consternation by the news Brian gave
+them. After much stroking of his matted beard, Murrough proposed to
+surrender the castle on condition that he hold his post of lieutenant.
+Brian laughed, for he had other views on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"You sold your master, and you will have no chance to sell me, Murrough.
+I will give you the ten pounds I owe you and a good horse. Refuse, and I
+slay you when we storm the castle."</p>
+
+<p>The end of that matter was that Murrough assented. An hour later he
+opened the gates, his men taking service with the rest under Brian.
+Then, having obtained his ten English pounds and a horse, he waved
+farewell to his men and rode away; and what became of him after that is
+not set forth in the chronicle, so he comes no more into this tale.</p>
+
+<p>Nuala loaded her fifty men into her carack, and sent them home that
+night to Gorumna in case of need, proposing to follow later with Lame
+Art, Shaun the Little, and her Kerry recruits. The O'Malley cousins
+intended going south, since their affair had been so unexpectedly
+ended, and picking up a Spanish ship or two before returning home.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, what of your plans?" asked Nuala, as she and Brian sat
+together that night before the huge fireplace in the hall, where Brian
+had been burned and where Cathbarr had fought so well. "Of course, we
+can settle rents later on."</p>
+
+<p>"When there are farms to gather rents from," laughed Brian, stretching
+out easily. He lifted his bandaged left hand, gazing at it. "First, I am
+minded to rest here and wait for news from Galway. The bones in this
+hand of mine are not broken, from what I can make out, and it will soon
+knit. As soon as may be, I shall ride after the Dark Master; when I have
+paid my debts, I will then be in shape to look for a castle for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are determined to kill O'Donnell?" and she looked at him
+sidewise.</p>
+
+<p>"He has my Spanish blade," said Brian. "It is good Toledo steel, and I
+want it back again."</p>
+
+<p>"You have three hundred and fifty men here," she observed. "Can you feed
+them?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have food in Gorumna&mdash;send me some. When I am well again I shall
+ride with most of them, which will lessen the burden. With the spring I
+will take lands between here and Slyne Head, for now I am strong enough
+to defend what I take."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall also send you some of my pigeons, Brian. They are born and bred
+on Gorumna Isle, and if you tie a message to them they will&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know," nodded Brian. "I have seen them used in Spain."</p>
+
+<p>With that she described how she used these pigeons, and Brian saw that
+it was not by strength alone that this girl had maintained her position.
+She kept men in Galway, Kinvarra, and elsewhere, as far south as the
+Shannon and as far north as Erris, with others at Limerick and Tuam and
+Castlebar. In this wise she got news of what was passing in Con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_661" id="Page_661">[Pg 661]</a></span>naught
+and Munster before most men had it, and more than one foreign ship had
+found her caracks waiting for it through the same means, since she held
+a privateer commission given her by Blake to legalize her sea-roving.
+Also, she had pigeons which carried return messages, chiefly to her
+kinsmen in Erris.</p>
+
+<p>"And what is your goal, Bird Daughter?" Brian turned to her, his blue
+eyes clinching on her violet ones. "What will the end of all this wild
+life of yours be?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," she answered him, and turned away from his eyes to
+stare down into the fire. "In the end I may be forced into marriage,
+though I think not, for I have some will of my own in that regard." She
+laughed out suddenly and looked up. "Two years ago Stephen Lynch sent me
+a fair screed in all the glory of his chevron and three shamrocks and
+wolf crest, saying that he was coming in one of his ships to marry me."</p>
+
+<p>"And did he ever come?" smiled Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but I took his ship from him and sent him home again by road, tied
+to a horse," she rippled out merrily. "Poor Stephen! The Bodkins never
+let the Lynches hear the last of it until Stephen fell fighting against
+Coote, and there was an end of it and him, too. When are you going to
+tell me your name, Brian?"</p>
+
+<p>At the sudden question Brian was tempted, but forbore.</p>
+
+<p>"When I have slain the Dark Master," he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are likely to be bearded worse than Cathbarr," she mocked him
+gaily. "Unless, indeed, you break that oath you swore this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Not I," returned Brian shortly. "I am not given to light oaths or light
+pacts, Bird Daughter. I think I shall get me a ship and go cruising some
+day."</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me," she said, rising, "and you may win food and wine without
+begging from your overlord. Well, now for that chamber Cathbarr fixed up
+for me. <i>Beannacht leath!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat to his surprise, the next morning Brian found that Nuala was
+extremely businesslike and even curt. Knowing little of women, he tried
+to find wherein he had offended; failed utterly, and gave over the
+attempt on seeing that Nuala preferred the company of Cathbarr.</p>
+
+<p>Then, remembering that kiss she had given the giant aboard ship, he
+concluded that the Bird Daughter was drawn by the physical magnificence
+of the man, which gave him a little bitterness. So he merely set his jaw
+the harder and said nothing of the thing that lay in his heart to any
+one. For that matter, he was not quite sure himself what the thing was;
+but he knew that he had never seen a woman such as the Bird Daughter in
+all his life, and was not apt to find another.</p>
+
+<p>Turlough having departed on his mission, Brian fell back on Cathbarr to
+act as lieutenant; with Nuala herself, the work of getting the castle in
+shape proceeded apace. The Bertragh hold was built on a cliff that rose
+from the plain on the one hand, and sloped down to the water on the
+other; had the Dark Master not fallen into Turlough's trap, he might
+have turned out the pikemen to shift for themselves and have held the
+castle with his own men for as long as he wished.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Brian found that the removal of danger and the taking of the
+castle had somewhat puffed up his men, lessening their fear of him. So,
+on the second day, he quelled a free fight that rose among them, hanged
+ten of the worst, and after this the others became as lambs before him.</p>
+
+<p>Upon exploring the castle, Brian was delighted to find it well equipped
+in all things except prisoners. The Dark Master had had little use for
+captives, it seemed, and his dungeons were in sad disrepair. However,
+there was good store of powder, provisions in moderation, a well within
+the castle, and no lack of arms and munitions of war. Brian promptly
+took the chamber of O'Donnell for his own use&mdash;a large tower-room well
+furnished in English style, and having the luxury of a fireplace
+besides.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_662" id="Page_662">[Pg 662]</a></span>The construction of the building was simple&mdash;a large stone structure
+with embattled walls, running down close to the sea behind and rising
+above the plain in front. Save for the courtyard, the walls were not
+separated from the building proper, and there was one high tower, on
+which the flagstaff had been shattered since O'Donnell had taken the
+place, for he was not given to flags and display. Besides a dozen of the
+large bastards, there were five falcons, with plenty of ball.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, Brian had good reason to be satisfied with his new home. The
+only thing that rankled was that he held it not for himself, but for the
+Bird Daughter; and he was determined that when he had settled scores
+with the Dark Master he would only remain here until he had secured a
+hold for himself, free of all service.</p>
+
+<p>But settling with O'Donnell Dubh was the first duty he had. Brian
+recalled his torture and the agony of Cathbarr every time he entered the
+hall. The iron rings that had been in the floor he had already torn out,
+while Nuala had taken for her own the lonely wolfhound, which had been
+left behind by the Dark Master. But Brian, who put all his desire for
+vengeance in the wish to "get back his Spanish blade," could hardly turn
+around without having some phase of his sufferings brought back to him.</p>
+
+<p>The men who had been thrown out along the roads had fetched in word that
+the Dark Master had ridden for Galway, so Brian had great hopes that
+Turlough would bring back some definite news. If O'Donnell settled in
+the city, he was determined to go in at all risks and seek out his enemy
+face to face; the O'Malleys were on good terms with the Bodkins, who in
+old Galway played <i>Capulet</i> to the <i>Montague</i> of the Lynch family, and
+he would be able to command some help in that quarter.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>On the fifth day after the castle had been taken, a galley came over
+from Gorumna Castle bearing news. Cromwell had failed before Duncannon,
+and promised to fail again at Waterford, and hope was rising high among
+the royalists, while O'Neill's Ulster army was biding its time in the
+north until a new leader was chosen by the Confederacy to make head with
+Ormond against the Parliament armies.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this the O'Malley rovers were impatient to revictual at Gorumna and
+be off to the south after plunder, so Nuala decided to leave Bertragh
+the next morning. That night, after Cathbarr had drunk himself asleep
+and the O'Malleys had sought their ships, the Bird Daughter unexpectedly
+became very cordial toward Brian once more, and they sat up late before
+the fireplace.</p>
+
+<p>Brian did not understand it, but he was quite willing to accept it, and
+when the talk turned on personal matters he was careful to ask no
+questions concerning Nuala's plans for the future. Instead, he told her
+tales of his life at the Spanish court, which interested her vastly,
+until in the end she broke forth with a passionate outburst.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I wish I were a man!" she cried softly and eagerly, looking into
+the red embers. "All my life I have been among men, and yet not of them;
+I have had to do with guns and ships and powder, and I think I have not
+done so ill, yet I have had dreams of other things&mdash;things which I
+hardly know myself."</p>
+
+<p>Astonished though he was at her sudden unfolding of herself, Brian
+looked at her gravely, his blue eyes very soft as he pierced to her
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said gently, "you are a woman, Bird Daughter&mdash;and if you were
+a man I think that you might have gain, but others would have great
+loss."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?" She looked straightly at him, unfearing his half-expressed
+thought. "I do not seek idle compliments, Yellow Brian, from those who
+serve me."</p>
+
+<p>Brian flushed a little.</p>
+
+<p>"It is hard to receive compliments gracefully," he said, and at that she
+also colored, but laughed, her eyes still on his.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_663" id="Page_663">[Pg 663]</a></span>"There, give grace to my rude tongue, Brian! Of course you meant it&mdash;but
+why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because there is no woman like you, Nuala&mdash;so able to weld men into
+union, so vibrant with inner power, and yet so womanly withal. It is no
+little honor to have known you, to have&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would tell me your name, Yellow Brian!"</p>
+
+<p>There was woman's cunning in the placing of that answer, and it took
+Brian all aback. For a moment he was near to blurting out his whole
+story; then he took shame for letting a girl's face so run away with
+him. None the less, he knew well that it was her heart as well as her
+face, and her spirit as well as her heart, that had captured him; yet,
+because he had had no dealings with women since leaving Spain some
+months before, he told himself that if the Bird Daughter had other women
+near by to compare herself with, less attraction might be found in her.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not pause long upon that thought, sweeping his blue eyes to
+hers in a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"If you had been a man, Nuala, you had never had fealty from me."</p>
+
+<p>"So&mdash;then it <i>was</i> pity?" and swift anger leaped into her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it pity that drove Cathbarr to proffer his life for mine?" parried
+Brian, his eyes grave. He felt a great impulse to speak out all that was
+in him, but crushed it down. Her eyes met his, and held there for a long
+moment. Then she spoke very calmly:</p>
+
+<p>"When will you take that cruise with me, Yellow Brian?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I have won my Spanish blade again," he smiled, and after that they
+talked no more of intimate things, yet Brian's heart was glad within
+him.</p>
+
+<p>With the next morning the Bird Daughter said farewell and went aboard
+Lame Art's carack. Sorry was Brian to see her go, for he had come to
+count much on her fine backing and inspiring courage, and knew not if he
+would ever see her again. As the ships raised anchor, Cathbarr suddenly
+let off the bastards with a great roar and raised on the shattered
+flag-pole an ensign he had secretly obtained from Shaun the Little. The
+ship-cannon barked out in brave answer and hoisted ensigns likewise; but
+as Brian looked up at the flag overhead, his despondent mood was not
+heartened. The three-masted ship of the O'Malleys flew above him, where
+he had much rather flown the red hand of his own house.</p>
+
+<p>"When I have slain the Dark Master," he thought, watching from those
+same sea-facing battlements where he and Cathbarr had descended, as the
+two caracks leaped off to the south, "and when I have established myself
+in some hold, be it never so small, then I shall take back my name again
+and let the red hand hold what it has gripped. But not until these
+things have been done, for Brian O'Neill will give fealty to none&mdash;no,
+not even to the Bird Daughter herself."</p>
+
+<p>Thus he thought in his proud bitterness, reckoning not on what the
+future was to bring forth. However, he had lost his idea that Nuala
+might love Cathbarr, and had great gladness of it.</p>
+
+<p>Now there was work to be done, and Brian soon found himself too busy to
+bother his mind with thoughts of bitterness. Cathbarr had done no little
+drinking, so that his wound was turning bad, and in no little alarm
+Brian banished all liquors from him and tended him carefully. Taking a
+lesson from Red Murrough, he washed out the wound with vinegar, and
+found that this had its effect.</p>
+
+<p>Since Brian was irked at having to rely on others for his supplies, he
+rode to all the outlying farms and sent off the families there under
+escort, with sufficient money to keep them and take them to their homes
+in the north. Many of them chose to remain, and certain of his men knew
+of women-folk they wished to bring hither, so that Brian saw he would
+not lack for farmers and settlers. Enough fodder was obtained to keep
+his horses for a time; but as this did not satisfy him, he set forth
+after four days on a cattle-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_664" id="Page_664">[Pg 664]</a></span>raid to the northeast, riding past the
+Manturks toward Ashford with ninety men.</p>
+
+<p>He was gone on that raid five days; found to his great joy that his
+strength had returned to him, and also found a small party of Royalist
+horse near Lough Corrib. These had been buying up cattle for the Galway
+garrison, and had collected fifty head; but on Brian's approach they did
+not stay for dispute, but fled.</p>
+
+<p>So Brian cheerfully sent the fifty head of cattle home with as many men,
+and with the others swept around through the mountains. With him were
+two of Cathbarr's axmen, and they led him to the hold occupied by
+Murrough O'Flaherty of the Kine, where Brian stayed half a day. He
+concluded a friendship with the mountaineers, promising them powder in
+exchange for cattle, and they promised, in turn, that within three weeks
+they would fetch a hundred kine down to Castle Bertragh.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus assured himself of both food and stock for his farms, he
+rode home again, to find great news awaiting him.</p>
+
+<p>First, there had come a galley from Gorumna with wine and stores. Nuala
+sent word that her men in Galway had informed her the Dark Master was
+there, but in no high favor with Lord Burke and the other commanders.
+Second, one of Turlough Wolf's men had come in with news which had
+caused Cathbarr to have the men in all readiness against Brian's return.</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master was indeed in Galway town, and had made small head with
+his suit for men, having related that Vere and his pikemen were lost.
+However, he had been promised some help, provided he could gather any
+force of his own and would hold Bertragh for the Royalists. Cromwell had
+been driven back at Waterford, but Cork had risen for him, and his men
+had entered there.</p>
+
+<p>So the Dark Master was going to the north to get him men in Sligo, as
+Turlough had predicted he would do, and his plan was to raise a force,
+bring down those Donegal pirates with whom he was in alliance, and set
+on Bertragh by sea and land, as Brian himself had aimed at doing.
+Turlough said that he was following, but would leave men at Swineford
+and Tobercurry with further news of what happed.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" cried Brian joyfully. "Cathbarr, have a hundred and fifty men
+saddled at dawn&mdash;what is this?"</p>
+
+<p>Turlough's messenger handed him a paper. It was a safe-conduct issued by
+the Confederacy and Royalist leaders in the name of one Stephen Burke,
+and where the wily Wolf had gotten it the messenger did not know. But it
+might come in useful, since there were few parliament men in Sligo and
+Mayo, and Brian tucked it away with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Then to the north at dawn&mdash;and O'Donnell shall not escape me this
+time!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">HOW THE STORM FARED NORTH.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Now, it was no easy matter for a band of horsemen to ride from Galway to
+Sligo in that day, unless they were known men and rode for the king or
+the Confederacy. Scattered bands of men had come into the west from
+Ulster and Leinster, and these had driven out what Parliament men had
+landed; through the early years of the war Owen Ruadh's men had swept
+all the west country, and now the land was resting, waiting for the
+storm that was fated to come upon it when the rest of Ireland had been
+crushed under the heel of Ireton. Enniskillen alone, in Fermanagh, held
+out for Parliament.</p>
+
+<p>So, while the larger towns were all under Irish authority, the
+hill-country was full of seething parties from all armies, most of them
+being ravagers and outlaws who would fear to lay hand on so large a
+party as Brian's. But little Brian cared for them, and without let or
+pause he drove north to Ashford and so into the lowlands.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_665" id="Page_665">[Pg 665]</a></span>Knowing that he must return again by the same way, he avoided the larger
+towns and pushed hard for Swineford, where he would find word from
+Turlough. More than once he met parties of men on the road, but these
+were not anxious to question him, and it was not until he was riding
+around Claremorris that men began to feel his heavy hand.</p>
+
+<p>With Lough Garra falling behind on the left, and Claremorris at safe
+distance on the right, Brian was clattering along on the third morning.
+His men carried muskets slung at their saddles, with bandoliers of
+cartridges at their waists ready for quick action; and well it was that
+they were so prepared. Searching ahead with narrowed eyes, Brian caught
+a quick glint of steel on the road, and in no long time he made out a
+party of a hundred men riding toward him. Brian got ready both his ax
+and his safe-conduct, and rode forward without pause.</p>
+
+<p>Now, he had brought with him most of those Scots troopers he had taken
+into service, and as the other party drew near he heard a swift yell of
+"Albanach!" that boded no good. But Brian shouted to them and asked who
+they were.</p>
+
+<p>"None of your affair!" answered their leader, a huge, dark man. "Who are
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stephen Burke from Galway," answered Brian; but before the words left
+him he saw a musket flash, and one of his men fell.</p>
+
+<p>Upon that, no more words were wasted. Brian threw up his ax and dug in
+his spurs, with his men behind; and when they loosed their muskets they
+rode on the hundred with butts swinging. This was a new kind of warfare
+in Connaught, and before Brian's ax had struck twice the field was won.
+From two prisoners he found that the band was composed of a levy of the
+O'Connors out of the Storm Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>"That is not well for our return," said one of his lieutenants. "We will
+have the whole country up after this battle, and we have lost ten men."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we shall have the more need of recruits," quoth Brian, and let his
+prisoners go free, since they would take no service, but only cursed
+him.</p>
+
+<p>However, Brian was not ill pleased, since he found that he was nearly
+sped of his wounds, though his left hand gave him some trouble at times.
+His pleasure was speedily cured, for when they camped that night on the
+hither side of Kiltarnagh there came a rush of men toward dawn, and
+before they were beaten off twenty of Brian's men were dead. Five
+prisoners were taken, and when two of these had been hung, the other
+three confessed that the attack had been made by certain O'Connors from
+the southern end of Lough Conn, to whose villages fugitives had come
+from the affray of the previous morning.</p>
+
+<p>With that, Brian took counsel with some of his men who knew the country,
+and it was their advice that he give up the ride and return home.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not," said Brian shortly. "This war was not of my seeking, but
+thirty of my men have been slain. Guide me to these villages, and I will
+take blood-fine."</p>
+
+<p>This he did because he needs must. His men did no ravaging, and were in
+need of provisions, while he was minded to fill up his ranks. Also, by
+taking sharp vengeance, he knew that on his return he was not like to be
+molested.</p>
+
+<p>So he turned aside and rode fast for Lough Conn, which he reached the
+next evening, and there came a storm of men on all that country. Twice
+through the days that followed Brian had to fight hard&mdash;once against a
+muster of the O'Connors, and once against a large force of ravaging
+hillsmen under one Fitzgerald. Him Brian slew with a blow of his ax that
+went from shoulder to saddle.</p>
+
+<p>From his men he gained fifty recruits and no small booty, both of money
+and horses; and from the O'Connors he took bitter blood-fine for his
+slain men in spare horses and provisions.</p>
+
+<p>These doings are set down briefly in the chronicle; but when Brian
+turned east<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_666" id="Page_666">[Pg 666]</a></span> again, with Swineford a hard day's ride away, he once more
+had a hundred and fifty men at his back, with a good store of all
+things, while his name was one that spread fear. He left his men camped
+two miles out of Swineford, on the Moy, and rode next morning into the
+town with a dozen horsemen only.</p>
+
+<p>In the town was quartered a small force of Maguires from Fermanagh, and
+as he rode in Brian was halted by their leader, who gave him the sele of
+the day and asked his name. Brian held out his passport, and after
+Maguire had fumbled over it and pretended that he could read, he gave it
+back with a grin and Brian passed on with another.</p>
+
+<p>The seal of the Confederacy on the safe-conduct was quite enough for any
+man in these parts, however.</p>
+
+<p>Brian had not ridden a hundred paces farther before he saw one of
+Turlough's men beckoning to him from the door of an inn, so he left his
+troopers to drink outside and passed within. Turlough's man joined him
+at a table, and there Brian gained news of the most cheering.</p>
+
+<p>Six days before this the Dark Master had arrived at Swineford, with
+Turlough an hour behind him. The old Wolf, whose cunning made up for his
+lack of courage, had made shift to get two of O'Donnell's dozen men
+embroiled with the Maguires. The upshot of that had been a fight,
+followed by a delay of two days for investigation; finally the Dark
+Master had slipped away, his two men had promptly been hung, and
+Turlough had meantime gone ahead to prepare fresh delays at Bellahy and
+Tobercurry. He had four men left with him, though he had left Bertragh
+with ten.</p>
+
+<p>"Then O'Donnell has four days' start of me," reflected Brian. "If
+Turlough can hold him, we will catch him at Sligo at latest."</p>
+
+<p>He left the inn and rode back to his camp, where he had the men on the
+road in ten minutes. Tobercurry was only fifteen miles north, and
+putting his horses to a gallop, Brian rode hard and fast until that
+afternoon he came into the place. He found no garrison, but, instead,
+was met by old Turlough himself, with a bandaged head and two wounded
+men.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Mile failte!</i>" cried Turlough joyously, running forward to kiss
+Brian's hand in wild delight. "You are well come, master! Is all well
+down below?"</p>
+
+<p>"All well, old friend," laughed Brian, swinging down to clasp the old
+man in his arms. "Where is the Dark Master?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where we shall catch him in a forked stick presently," chuckled
+Turlough, wagging his beard. "Get these wild men of yours out of the
+town, and come into the inn with me to talk. I have all the Dark
+Master's plans, master, and we have only to strike."</p>
+
+<p>Brian ordered his men to camp a mile outside town and to do no
+plundering, so they clattered off, to the great relief of the townfolk.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Brian, when they two were sitting across a table, "what has
+passed that you are bound up? Have you been fighting?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, after a fashion," grimaced Turlough disgustedly. "I was here
+ahead of the Dark Master, and raised the townpeople against him for a
+plunderer. When he came up the road was full of men; but the devil slew
+two and wounded two of my own men, cut his way through the rest, and as
+I fled north my horse flung me and bruised my head. Has the castle
+fallen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," laughed Brian, and related what had happed at Bertragh. "Have I
+time to bide here and eat?"</p>
+
+<p>Turlough yeasaid this and sent the inn-master bustling for food and
+wine. When this was set before them, Turlough Wolf told his tale,
+beginning with the statement that two of O'Donnell's men had been
+captured when he cut through the townfolk and rode off.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are they?" asked Brian quickly, his eyes narrowing.</p>
+
+<p>"Hanged," chuckled the old man succinctly. "At Galway I could make out
+nothing more than the word I sent you by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_667" id="Page_667">[Pg 667]</a></span> messenger, so I came north
+after O'Donnell Dubh, taking very good care that he saw nothing of me."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll warrant that," laughed Brian. "We met your man at Swineford."</p>
+
+<p>"Then no need to tell what passed there. Well, I said that we caught two
+of his men here, and I got back into the town just in time to keep the
+folk from hanging them to the church steeple."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?" Brian stared, with his mouth full. "Why, I thought you said&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Dhar mo lamh</i>, give me time to finish, master!" Turlough hesitated a
+little, evidently in some fear. "We took them into the churchyard and
+burned them a little, and so got out of them all the Dark Master's
+plans. Then the priest shrived them, and I let the townfolk hang them."</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked across the table, his blue eyes like ice and his nostrils
+quivering with anger; the old man slanted up his gray eyes and turned
+uneasily in his seat, for well he knew what Brian would say to this.</p>
+
+<p>"That was ill done, Turlough Wolf. If you had not served me so well, you
+would repent that work. By my faith, I am minded to hang you at their
+side!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian meant it, for the torture of men made him furious.</p>
+
+<p>"I am no fool to spare mad dogs," muttered Turlough sullenly. "It was
+the Dark Master who lopped these ears of mine eight years gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell your tale," said Brian curtly and fell to eating again.</p>
+
+<p>"I found tidings both good and bad, master. From Galway the Dark Master
+had sent messengers to his kin in Donegal, bidding them send aid south;
+also, he sent to certain pirates north of Sligo Bay. From Sligo to the
+Erne all that land is desolate, and has been so these six years, and the
+O'Donnells from Lough Swilly have set up a pirate hold near Millhaven.
+It was to these that the Dark Master sent also.</p>
+
+<p>"He has appointed a meeting-place in the hills beyond Drumcliff, at a
+certain mountain named Clochaun, or the Stone. Now, whether you think
+my craft evil or good, master, it is yet gainful to us."</p>
+
+<p>This much Brian was forced to acknowledge, though for many days
+afterward he was still angry at Turlough for torturing and hanging those
+men. He had no scruples about a downright hanging, but torturing was a
+very different matter, and one of which he had tasted himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is your advice in this?"</p>
+
+<p>"We can do one of two things, master. The one is to ride on to Sligo and
+fall on him when he comes south again with his men; the other is to ride
+hard after him and catch him, then fall on the Millhaven men, then meet
+the O'Donnells who are coming south to join him at the Stone Mountain
+with the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"The first plan is more cautious," said Brian thoughtfully; "but to
+strike him when he has his men around him would be to repeat what we
+have done. I like the other way the better."</p>
+
+<p>"It is both safer and yet more dangerous, master. Safer in that we smite
+him and his men separately, and more dangerous because we shall be in
+the heart of a wild country, without supplies, and with no aid in case
+we are defeated."</p>
+
+<p>"It is more to my mind to talk of winning than losing," grunted Brian.
+"I have spare horses and money with which to buy provisions. Also, I
+think that I shall stamp flat that pirate nest at Millhaven, and set up
+my own banner there."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have a banner of your own, master?" Turlough squinted up
+slyly, for it was the first hint Brian had given him of what lay behind
+his nickname.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye!" laughed Brian as the wine warmed him. "And it shall bear the Red
+Hand of Tyr-owen, old Wolf; but first to catch the Dark Master. Now let
+us go, for we shall ride to the Stone Mountain and see what haps there."</p>
+
+<p>Upon that they rode forth from the town, and all the townfolk bade the
+crafty Turlough farewell, and gave him gifts for warning them against
+the "plunderers."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_668" id="Page_668">[Pg 668]</a></span> Turlough looked up at the two bodies swinging in the
+wind as they passed the church-tower, and put his tongue in his cheek,
+but Brian said no more on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>That night they camped outside the town, and Brian bought all the
+provision that the people would sell. This he loaded on the spare
+horses, and the next morning they set off for the north.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Now, in that fighting by Lough Conn, Brian had taken a shrewd clip which
+had reopened the bullet-tear over his scalp. Added to this, he was not
+yet in all of his former strength, and the hard ride to Tobercurry had
+set his blood to heating; wherefore it was that before coming to Sligo
+Brian was heavy with fever and was shaken with chill. A hard snow was
+driving through the night, and Turlough sent most of the men around the
+city to wait for them on the other side the Garravogue to avoid danger.</p>
+
+<p>There was no garrison in Sligo, however. The old castle which Red Hugh
+O'Donnell had fought over in the old days was ruined; the grand
+monastery, built by Brian of Tyr-erril, had been burned by Hamilton's
+men, together with the town itself, and Sligo was well-nigh desolate.
+Turlough got shelter in a hovel, however; managed to put Brian into a
+miserable bed, and gave him a brew to drink. With the morning Brian
+found his fever gone, but weakness was on him.</p>
+
+<p>They stayed in Sligo town all that day and the next night, and upon
+dawn, Brian insisted on riding north once more, against Turlough's
+protests. However, no ill came of it, for Brian was well used to riding,
+and the exercise gave him strength, though they made but a short march
+that day past the round tower of Drumcliff, halting in the hills.</p>
+
+<p>As Turlough Wolf knew where the Stone Mountain was they had no use for
+guides. It lay only another day's march ahead of them, and there was
+some danger that their quarry would descry their coming and flee away to
+Millhaven.</p>
+
+<p>"This is my rede, master;" said Turlough, "that you and I ride ahead
+with a few men to see how things go, and leave our men to follow. The
+hills are empty of rovers, for there is naught to plunder; but it were
+well to know if the Dark Master has joined with those friends of his."</p>
+
+<p>"That seems good advice," said Brian, and, taking a dozen men, they rode
+forward warily, sending out other parties to scout also.</p>
+
+<p>Over them towered the whiteness of the Stone Mountain, for snow lay
+thickly on all things. Brian gazed up at the gray-jutted crags, but his
+thoughts were not all with the Dark Master. Him he already accounted
+slain, and he was thinking of that Millhaven stronghold.</p>
+
+<p>One day his own banner should fly there, he told himself. There must be
+a good harbor, else the northern pirates had never settled down to hold
+the place; and since all the country roundabout lay bleak and unsettled
+of men, the vision came to him of first taking the place, and then
+fetching O'Neills from the east and north to settle the lands around.
+They would flock to him when his condition was made known, and that
+Cromwell's men would shatter the royalists and confederacy Brian saw
+clearly, as Owen Ruadh had foretold him.</p>
+
+<p>Already the house of Tyr-owen was scattered and fallen, as the greater
+house of Tyr-connall had been before it, for when the last earl had fled
+from the land, there had been only the younger branch to hold the sept
+together. Owen Ruadh was the final glory of that branch, and now Brian
+entertained the vision of transplanting the Red Hand and of making his
+rule strong in the west.</p>
+
+<p>But other men had entertained the same vision before him, and it had
+remained a vision, and no more; and the high hopes of Brian himself were
+fated to be driven upon the rocks of destiny before many days had passed
+over.</p>
+
+<p>With the afternoon the little party stood on the lower slopes of the
+Stone Mountain itself, and Turlough drew the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_669" id="Page_669">[Pg 669]</a></span> shape of the place in the
+snow with his pike-haft.</p>
+
+<p>"Here are we," he explained, "on the southern slopes. A half-mile ahead
+of us is a valley with a small and fast-rushing water, where we shall
+make camp this night if the Dark Master be not before us. And if he is
+not, then he will be on the northern side, where there are two
+well-sheltered valleys with water running, fit for the meeting-place and
+camp of men. Here is the easternmost, but, as I remember it, the snow
+fills the valley somewhat in winter. The other holds a small lake called
+the Dubh Linn, or Black Tarn, and in one of these we shall find the Dark
+Master, unless he is here before us."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let us ride on and see to that," said Brian, and they did so.</p>
+
+<p>However, they found the valley deserted and empty, and picked a place
+for camp, sending back a horseman to bring up the force. They could make
+out no smoke rising from the mountain, nor dared they light fires until
+after dark for fear of alarming O'Donnell; but when the force came up,
+Brian sent out scouts to bring in what word might be had.</p>
+
+<p>"Where got you such knowledge of this wilderness?" he asked Turlough
+that night when the fires were blazing and the men were warmed and fed.
+The old man narrowed his gray eyes and chuckled a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been in many armies, master, though I have fought not; and I
+have been outlawed twice by the English, in the old days. This was
+always a good place to flee to."</p>
+
+<p>Brian laughed and said no more. That night the men rested well, and
+Brian himself got sleep which sent strength into him and served him well
+in the days to come, for it was long before he was to sleep again, save
+as he rode, nodding in the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>Not until nearly dawn did the last of the scouts straggle in. None of
+these bore any news, and all agreed that no signs could they find of any
+large band of men, nor of any men at all. Turlough heard their reports,
+letting Brian sleep, and only when the last man came in were any tidings
+brought. This man bore a strip of sheepskin, which, he said, an old
+woman had given him to bear to his master.</p>
+
+<p>"A woman!" exclaimed Turlough, scanning the written words on the
+sheepskin, but unable to read them. "What is she like? It is a strange
+thing if women bide on Slieve Clochaun! Was there any stead near by?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," replied the man, who trembled with something more than cold.
+"<i>M'anam go'n Dhia!</i> She was a witch woman, or worse, Turlough Wolf. She
+leaped out of the snow in my path, told me to bear that skin to Yellow
+Brian, and vanished in a burst of fire. How could she not have been a
+devil?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" grunted Turlough, though he suddenly laid the strip of skin
+down. "You are overwarm with <i>uisquebagh</i>, man. What was this woman
+like? Was she clad all in black?"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, I did not stop to see," grinned the man sheepishly.</p>
+
+<p>Turlough stroked his beard, while the men went off to eat and sleep. He
+gazed at the strip of skin, and twice stretched out his hand toward it,
+with his eye on the fire, but each time drew back. Then he glanced
+around craftily, found he was alone, and took from under his cloak a
+small, brass crucifix. With this he touched the skin, found that nothing
+happened, and rose with a nod. The dawn was just breaking in the east.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no sorcery in it, at least," he muttered; "but I think it
+bodes no great good to us. Ho, Brian!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian woke and sprang up. Turlough handed him the strip of skin, saying
+no word, and when Brian had held it to the light of the embers, he
+looked up suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Whence came this?"</p>
+
+<p>"What does it say first?" returned Turlough uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>"News!" cried Brian, his blue eyes aflame with eagerness. "It says that
+O'Donnell bides alone by the Black Tarn, and that his horsemen from the
+north are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_670" id="Page_670">[Pg 670]</a></span> camped two miles beyond the mountain, waiting for him, and
+that he has made pact with the Millhaven pirates and they have left for
+their stronghold. Answer me&mdash;whence came this? It is written in good
+English writing, man!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Turlough told of what had chanced, and when he had done, Brian
+stared into his gray eyes with a great wonder. Twice he tried to speak,
+but his lips were dry.</p>
+
+<p>"The Black Woman!" he muttered thickly. "Can it be, Turlough? Who is
+she?"</p>
+
+<p>"That was my thought, master," said Turlough. "Who she is none know save
+herself; but she deals with no good. This may be a trap; let us ride
+south again, and at once, lest evil come upon us."</p>
+
+<p>"South? Not I," laughed Brian, though his face was pale. "To horse,
+men!"</p>
+
+<p>And at his ringing shout the camp awoke, and Brian saw his vengeance
+drawing near.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">WHAT HAPPENED AT THE TARN.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It had been long, indeed, since Brian had given thought to his meeting
+with the Black Woman on the other side of Ireland. In that brief
+meeting, the Black Woman had spoken of seeing the old earl, his
+grandfather, in his youth. Yet it was forty years since the two earls,
+O'Donnell and O'Neill, had fled together from Ireland, and even then
+Tyr-owen had been an old man. Unless this Black Woman was close on a
+hundred years of age, Brian could not see how she had known Hugh O'Neill
+in his youth.</p>
+
+<p>The mere fact that she had recognized him there in the moonlight was
+proof of her true speaking, however. Brian could no longer hide from
+himself that her words had some strange prophecy in them. She had
+foretold his meeting with Cathbarr and with the Bird Daughter, though,
+indeed, she might have been attempting only to guide him on the path
+which he had afterward followed.</p>
+
+<p>While the men were saddling, Brian called Turlough and told of the hag's
+word that she would meet him again "on a black day for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, what think you she meant by that, Turlough? Is this the meeting?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, master, for it is no meeting. It may be as you think, and that she
+was but trying to lead you into the west; yet, for my part, I call it
+sorcery," and the old man crossed himself, for, like better men than
+himself, Turlough ascribed all he could not fathom to magic. "It seems
+to me that she is some witch who is hanging on your tracks, and that
+when&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense!" laughed Brian, flinging the matter from his mind. "At
+any rate, she has served me well this time. Now, what rede shall we
+follow in this matter, and shall we capture and slay the Dark Master
+first, or fall on his men first, or both together?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is ill to sunder a force of men, master," quoth Turlough. "If those
+horsemen of O'Donnell's are encamped in a valley two miles to the north,
+it is a vale of which I know well. But we must mind this&mdash;if O'Donnell
+gets safe into Galway again with either these horsemen or those
+Millhaven pirates of his clan, he will drive hard against Bertragh."</p>
+
+<p>"The Dark Master shall come no more to Galway," said Brian grimly,
+fingering his ax. "Now finish, and quickly."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a plan in my mind, master; but unless we slay the Dark Master,
+it is like to fail us. Let us send a hundred of the men around to the
+north, for I will tell them how to ride, so that by this night they can
+fall upon those men of his and scatter them in the darkness, and drive
+them south where we can slay them utterly at our wills. If we drove them
+back whence they came, there would be little craft in it, and it is to
+my liking to do a thing well or not at all."</p>
+
+<p>"A true word there," nodded Brian, his eyes gleaming. "I think those men
+are as good as dead now, Turlough. Speak on."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_671" id="Page_671">[Pg 671]</a></span>"With fifty men, master, you and I can reach the valley of the Dubh
+Linn. We cannot do it with horses, unless we ride around to the north,
+and in that there would be danger of striking on the Dark Master's
+scouts. But while our hundred are circling far around, we with fifty can
+go over the mountain by valleys and paths I know of, so that by this
+evening we will come to the Black Tarn and strike the Dark Master as our
+hundred men fall on his camp. That is my&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" cried Brian, leaping up eagerly. "Then we&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold, master!" And Turlough caught his arm, quickly staying him. When
+Brian looked down he read a sudden fear in the old man's gray eyes.
+"That was my first rede, Yellow Brian, and you would do well to hear my
+second also."</p>
+
+<p>"Say it," said Brian, and glanced at the brightening sky.</p>
+
+<p>"My second rede is this. That message might be a trap to ensnare us,
+though I have two minds about this Black Woman. But if we fail to slay
+the Dark Master at the Black Tarn, we are like to have an ill time."</p>
+
+<p>"Why so?" asked Brian, for he could see no likelihood of that. "I said
+that we would slay him."</p>
+
+<p>"Master, do you hold the lives of men in your keeping?" In the gray eyes
+leaped a swift horror that amazed Brian. "I tell you that if the Dark
+Master escapes from our hand, and his men are driven past our fifty into
+the south, he will ride hard before us into Galway. I see evil in that
+first rede of mine, Yellow Brian. I see evil in it&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He broke off, staring past Brian with fixed and unseeing eyes, his face
+rigid.</p>
+
+<p>"Turlough, are you mad?" Brian seized the other's shoulder, shaking him
+harshly. The old man shivered a little, and sanity came back into his
+eyes as they met the icy blue of Brian's. "What daftness is upon you,
+man?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know not, master," whimpered old Turlough feebly. "Do as you will."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will to follow your rede, divide my men as you say, and when we
+have slain the Dark Master, we will cut off the last of these O'Donnells
+of his, ride to Millhaven and take that hold, and send word to the Bird
+Daughter that she may keep Bertragh Castle and send Cathbarr north to
+me. Now go, and tell a hundred of the men how to ride around this
+mountain; then be ready to guide me over it to the Black Tarn."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a hard man, Yellow Brian," said Turlough, and turned him about
+and did as Brian had ordered.</p>
+
+<p>None the less, Brian gave some thought to that second rede of
+Turlough's. He saw clearly enough that with the northern horsemen driven
+past, scattered though they might be, they could be cut off to a man if
+the Dark Master were slain. But if O'Donnell should escape by some trick
+of fate, he could gather up his men and drive south.</p>
+
+<p>"If he does that, there will be slaying between Sligo and Galway," swore
+Brian quickly. "But I cannot see that he will escape me here. When
+another day breaks, I shall have won my Spanish blade again&mdash;and then
+ho! for the Red Hand of Tyr-owen!"</p>
+
+<p>So Brian laughed and donned his jack and back-piece, while Turlough drew
+plans in the snow and showed the leaders of the hundred how to sweep
+around without discovery so that they might fall on the northern
+horsemen at eve.</p>
+
+<p>Brian had grown into an older and grimmer man since the day he had stood
+beside the bed of Owen Ruadh O'Neill, short though the time had been.
+Youth was still in his face when he smiled out, but suffering had
+deepened his eyes and sunk his cheeks and drawn the skin tighter over
+that powerful jaw of his. When he had armed, he stood in thought for a
+little, with hand on jaw in his instinctive gesture, and wakened
+suddenly to find old Turlough bending the knee before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I know of what blood you come, Yellow Brian," said the old man
+softly. "I saw Hugh O'Neill, the great earl, standing even as you stand
+now, on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_672" id="Page_672">[Pg 672]</a></span> morning when we slew the English at the Yellow Ford."</p>
+
+<p>"Man, man!" exclaimed Brian in wonder; "that battle was fought fifty
+years ago, and yet you say that you were there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was the earl's horse-boy, master." And Brian saw tears on the old
+man's beard. "I loved him, and I was at the flight of the earls ten
+years after, going with Tyr-owen to Italy, and it was these hands laid
+him in his grave, master; master, have faith in me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Brian put down his hands to those of Turlough, his heart strangely
+softened.</p>
+
+<p>"He was my grandfather," he said simply, and Turlough broke down and
+wept like a child.</p>
+
+<p>When they left their horses and the camp behind, Brian followed
+Turlough, feeling like a new man. He had lightened his heart of a great
+load, and he wished that he had talked of these things with Turlough
+Wolf long before this. Now he understood why the old man had offered him
+service as he stood in that attitude on the battlements of O'Reilly's
+castle after leaving Owen Ruadh, and he understood the love that
+Turlough bore him, and the silence the old man had kept on the matter,
+though it must have ever been deep in his heart to speak out.</p>
+
+<p>No more words passed between them, nor did Brian tell Turlough more of
+his story until long after; but of this there was no need. As they
+climbed higher on the mountain they could see the hundred horsemen
+filing off to the eastward; but soon these were lost sight of as
+Turlough led Brian and the fifty through the valleys and deep openings,
+which were drifted deep in snow, making progress slow and wearisome.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Brian thought afterward that this hard traveling might have been
+responsible for what chanced on the other side of the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>On the higher crests and ridges there was little snow, however, and
+Turlough seemed to know every inch of the place by heart, though more
+than once Brian gave himself up for lost in the maze of smaller peaks
+and the twisted paths they followed. Most of the fifty Turlough had
+chosen from those hillmen who had joined Brian by Lough Conn, so that
+they were not unused to such climbing, and remained with spirits
+unshaken by the vast loneliness that surrounded them, and to which other
+men might have succumbed somewhat.</p>
+
+<p>Brian himself was no little awed by the desolate grandeur of the Stone
+Mountain, but he only wrapped his cloak more closely about him, and
+swore that the Dark Master should yield up the Spanish blade before many
+more hours.</p>
+
+<p>And so indeed it was done, though not as Brian looked for.</p>
+
+<p>Until long after noon the band wended their way with great toil and pain
+over the flanks of the mountain, until Turlough led Brian out to a point
+of black rock and motioned toward the valleys below them.</p>
+
+<p>"There to the left," he said, "is the valley of the Black Tarn. Do you
+see that smoke, Brian, and that dark spot between the trees and the
+lake?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked, squinting because of the snow-glare. Leading down from the
+side of the mountain itself was a valley&mdash;long, and widening gradually
+to the plain, where a dark wood swallowed it up. Almost under his feet,
+as it were, was a small, round lake deep in the rock, with a small,
+frozen-over outlet that was lost in the snow.</p>
+
+<p>But farther down the valley-slopes there were trees, and among them
+horses tethered and a fire strewing smoke on the air close beside.
+Between this little wood and the tarn itself there stood a low house of
+thatch with smoke also rising from it, and from the other fire among the
+trees came a sheen of steel caps and jacks, where were men.</p>
+
+<p>But to Brian all these things were very small and hard to make out
+distinctly, as if he were looking at some carven mimicry, such as
+children are wont to use in play.</p>
+
+<p>"Now come," said Turlough Wolf. "It is no easy task getting there
+without being discovered, and the way is long."</p>
+
+<p>Brian found, indeed, that to avoid being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_673" id="Page_673">[Pg 673]</a></span> seen from below they must
+needs take a roundabout way; but when the afternoon was far spent they
+had come to a snow-filled hollow among the rocks which Turlough declared
+was just over the edge of that valley-slope where stood the low house.
+Turlough said that in his day that house had not stood there, and he
+knew nothing of it.</p>
+
+<p>Since there could be no talk of lighting a fire, Brian's men huddled
+together in the hollow, and ate and drank cheerlessly. Brian was minded
+to meet the Dark Master and win his Spanish blade with his own hand, so
+he ordered that his men pass on after dark and make ready to fall upon
+those men who were camped at the wood, but to hold off until he and
+Turlough had smitten the Dark Master in that little thatched house,
+where he was most like to be found. Turlough yeasaid this plan, for he
+trusted greatly to Brian's strength.</p>
+
+<p>At length they set out under the cold stars, and Brian's men were very
+weary, but promised to do all as he had commanded. He and Turlough set
+off alone over the hill, and when they had come to the hill-crest after
+much toiling through the snow they looked down and found the house a
+hundred yards below them.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go down cautiously," said Turlough, "for I think we can peer
+through the thatch and plan our stroke well."</p>
+
+<p>So they struck down openly across the hill-slope, and found that there
+was none on guard. The door of the house was fast shut, but Turlough
+strode cautiously in the trampled snow around the house, where, at the
+side, a spark of firelight glittered through the loose thatch. To this
+he led Brian, and Brian stooped down and looked through the cranny,
+while Turlough went farther and fared as well.</p>
+
+<p>There was but one room in the hut, and it was well lighted by the fire
+that glittered merrily on the hearth. Sitting not far away, but with his
+back to Brian, was a man; he sat on a stool, and there seemed to be a
+wide earthenware bowl of water or some dark liquid on the floor between
+his feet into which he was staring. In his bent-down position his
+rounded shoulders stood up stark against the fire, and Brian knew this
+was the Dark Master.</p>
+
+<p>His hand went to the pistol in his belt, but since there was no other
+man in the hut, he thought it shame to murder O'Donnell as he sat, and
+made up his mind to go around to the door and burst in. He saw his own
+great sword slung across the Dark Master's back, but even as he stirred
+to rise, O'Donnell's voice came to him, low and vibrant, so that he bode
+where he was and listened.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot make out the figures," muttered the Dark Master, still staring
+down into the bowl of dark water. "The man has the face of Yellow Brian,
+yet he is swart; the woman I sure never saw before. <i>Corp na diaoul!</i>
+What is the meaning of this? Who stands in my way?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian paused in no little astonishment, and stole a glance aside to see
+old Turlough crossing himself fervently. It struck his mind that he had
+chanced on some sorcery here, and, remembering the tales he had heard of
+the Dark Master's work, he laughed a little and settled down. He was
+minded to see what this thing might be; but he made his pistol ready in
+case the magic told O'Donnell of his danger.</p>
+
+<p>"It is some great man," came the Dark Master's voice again. "There is
+something broidered on his&mdash; By my soul, it is the Red Hand of Tyr-owen!
+It is The O'Neill himself&mdash;the earl&mdash; Is Yellow Brian of his blood,
+then?"</p>
+
+<p>At hearing this Brian crouched closer, in some fear and more wonder. Was
+the Dark Master in reality seeing such figures in that water-bowl? Then
+the man must be either mad or&mdash;or figures were there. Now O'Donnell's
+voice rose stronger:</p>
+
+<p>"Which of these twain stands now in my way? It is not Yellow Brian. Ah,
+the earl is slipping away, and the woman is smiling. One of his loves,
+belike, for he had many; she is fair, wondrous fair! Ah, what's this?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian saw the dark figure crouch lower, as if in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Changing, changing! Is it this wo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_674" id="Page_674">[Pg 674]</a></span>man who stands in my way, then?
+Toothless and grinning, crouched low over a stick, rags and tatters and
+wisps of gray hair&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master paused in his jerky speech, stiffened as if in wild
+amazement at that which he beheld, and a sudden cry broke from him,
+sharp and awestruck:</p>
+
+<p>"The Black Woman!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Brian straightened up, feeling Turlough's hand touch his; but for a
+space he stood silent while his mind cast out for what the Dark Master's
+words meant.</p>
+
+<p>In a flash it came to him. Through some black dealings O'Donnell had in
+truth pictured The O'Neill in that bowl, and with him a woman he had
+loved and who loved him; and this was no other than she whom Brian had
+known as the Black Woman, now become an old hag indeed, with only the
+memories of her fair youth and her love behind her. And this was why she
+had recognized him and why she had evidently watched over him since that
+first meeting, out of the love she had borne the earl, his grandsire, in
+days now buried under many bitter years.</p>
+
+<p>The two men looked into each other's eyes, and Brian saw that Turlough's
+jaw had dropped loosely, and that fright had stricken the old man almost
+out of his senses. With that Brian felt his own fear take wings. He
+laughed a little as his grip closed on the haft of his ax, and the cold
+star-glint seemed to shine back again from his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Bide here if you will," he smiled quietly. "I have my work to do."</p>
+
+<p>And, turning with the word, he strode quickly to the door, just as there
+came a great cry from within the place.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">BRIAN GETS HIS SWORD AGAIN.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Brian pushed the door open, and it gave easily to his fist. Gazing
+within he saw the Dark Master standing over the shattered bowl, whose
+liquid flowed down toward the hearth and hissed on the embers; plainly,
+the Dark Master had seen nothing good in that water, for he had
+shattered the bowl with his foot, and his teeth were snarling under his
+drooping mustache.</p>
+
+<p>"I am come," said Brian, laughing grimly as he stood in the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>O'Donnell whirled, gripping at his sword.</p>
+
+<p>Now, whether there was magic on the place, as Turlough ever swore, or
+whether the opening of the door had made a draft, as Brian thought more
+likely, a strange thing happened.</p>
+
+<p>Brian had raised his pistol in his left hand, meaning to kill the Dark
+Master without pity in that first moment. Out of the hearth came a great
+swirl of ashes and red embers, flying toward the door and closing around
+O'Donnell; as Brian pressed the trigger the ashes smote him in a
+blinding swirl, and a harsh laugh answered the roar of the pistol.</p>
+
+<p>With a curse Brian cleared his eyes of the light ash and reached with
+his ax at the dim figure of the Dark Master, nigh hid with ashes and
+powder-smoke. From down the vale came other shots and cries, and he knew
+his men had struck on that small camp lying there; but at this O'Donnell
+gave him other things to think of.</p>
+
+<p>That was a great fight, for Brian was little used to ax-play and had
+much ado to parry the keen thrusts of his own Spanish blade; the roof
+was too low to give room for a swing, and when the Dark Master had
+lunged him back to the door again, he knew that he had done ill. So with
+another bitter curse Brian flung the ax from his hand and ripped out the
+long, Irish dagger that hung at his girdle.</p>
+
+<p>For all his wrath he had taken good heed to fling the ax aright, and the
+broad flat of it took the Dark Master full in the chest and bore him
+back, reeling and shouting for his men. Before he could recover Brian
+leaped at him, caught O'Donnell's sword wrist in his left hand, and
+aimed a deadly stroke with his <i>skean</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_675" id="Page_675">[Pg 675]</a></span>The blow went true, but the steel turned aside from the Dark Master's
+mail-shirt; O'Donnell caught his wrist in turn, and there the two stood
+heaving each at the other for a long minute. Brian's eyes struck cold
+and hard into the evil features of the Dark Master; the other's breath
+came hot on his cheeks, and so beastlike was the man's face that Brian
+half expected those snarling teeth to close snapping at his throat. But
+the Dark Master was strong, for all his hunched shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Then a great flame of vengeance seemed to cleave Brian's soul, and with
+a curt laugh he threw out his strength and flung the Dark Master back
+bodily so that he fell into the hearth and burst the mud chimney and the
+thatched wall behind. Before he could rise again Brian had whipped out
+his other pistol and fired; he saw the man's figure writhe aside, then
+up through the powder-smoke rose a burning brand that smote him over the
+brow heavily. At the same instant the scattered sparks caught the
+thatch, and the whole house broke into flame.</p>
+
+<p>Brian's eyes found the dark figure once more and he rushed forward. At
+the broken heap of mud from the chimney his feet struck on the sword,
+which had fallen from the Dark Master's hand, and he caught it up with a
+cry of joy and bore forward.</p>
+
+<p>That brief instant of delay lost him his quarry, however. Brian flung
+through the shattered wall, with the whole structure flaming up behind
+him; he saw a dark figure on the snow and ran at it, only to find
+himself striking at Turlough Wolf, and stayed his hand barely in time.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he?" he panted hoarsely, looking around with fierce eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then he caught the Dark Master's figure running across the snow toward
+that camp amid the trees, where fighting was still forward and men were
+shouting and firing. Brian rushed off, with Turlough staggering after
+him; but with a sob of despairing anger he saw the Dark Master flit into
+the trees, and heard his voice ringing at his men.</p>
+
+<p>It turned out afterward that Brian's fifty men, weary and chilled, had
+made a somewhat heartless assault on the score of horsemen camped in the
+trees; therefore, instead of carrying O'Donnell's men off their feet and
+cutting them down straightway, they were held off for a little.</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master knew that he was lost if he stayed long in that place,
+however, and when Brian reached the clump of trees he found that he was
+too late. With two or three men behind him, O'Donnell had cut through
+Brian's men and was galloping away. Brian groaned savagely, leaped at a
+mounted man and dragged him from the saddle, and was just springing up
+when Turlough caught and stayed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, master!" panted the old man in desperate fear of the surging men
+around him, but in more desperate fear for Brian. "This is madness, for
+I ordered our fifty horses fetched around&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Bide here for them, then!" said Brian, and swung up into the saddle.
+One of the Dark Master's men barred his way, and Brian's blade went
+through his throat; then he was off after the four figures who by now
+were far distant toward the dark forest that swallowed up the valley
+ahead.</p>
+
+<p>The cold night air cleared his brain, however, and after a moment he
+drew rein with bitterness upon him. Turlough had spoken rightly, for to
+ride after those four men with his naked sword alone was in truth
+madness. So he came back again to where the last of the hemmed-in
+horsemen was being cut out of his saddle, and when his men gathered
+about him with a shout, his tongue gave them little joy.</p>
+
+<p>"You are fools," he said harshly, "for the Dark Master has escaped us.
+Take these horses, fifteen of you, and ride. Let five men go to bring in
+our horses with all speed, and let ten more scatter out in search of our
+hundred men. These are not more than two miles distant, and in an hour I
+must ride from here. See to it that you return with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_676" id="Page_676">[Pg 676]</a></span> men and horses
+by then, or shift for yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"That is too much," spoke out a burly fellow angrily. "We have been
+climbing all day, and have&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Brian said no word, but leaned down from his saddle and his Spanish
+blade flickered in the light. The man fell and lay quiet, while the
+others drew back in black fear.</p>
+
+<p>"I am master here," said Brian coldly, when a long instant had passed.
+"Go."</p>
+
+<p>There was no more muttering among his recruits, either then or later. He
+dismounted, saw that the O'Donnells had been slain to the last man, and
+joined Turlough at the campfire. Food and drink had been found in the
+camp, and a flagon of wine heartened Brian greatly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now give me your rede, Turlough Wolf," he said. "I have failed in this
+matter, and it seems that ill shall come of it."</p>
+
+<p>"So I foretold, master, but we may still remedy the ill if we catch
+O'Donnell. I think that by now his horsemen are scattered, and this
+burning hut will draw our own men thither. Before midnight they will be
+here, and we can ride forth. I think that the Dark Master will gather
+what men are left him and strike down for Galway."</p>
+
+<p>"Two men may ride the same road," quoth Brian grimly, and set his naked
+blade in his belt. He saw that before him lay some fighting and much
+hard riding, so inside the next hour he had his men full-fed. Before
+this was finished the spare horses and those of his men came in, for
+Turlough had ordered them to start at noon and ride around in case of
+need.</p>
+
+<p>Brian determined to spare neither men nor horseflesh on that riding, and
+when his men were mounted he set out across the night to meet his
+hundred, and to hear what had been done at the camp two miles distant.
+As the moon was rising he met them; and if he was glad at the meeting,
+they were twice glad.</p>
+
+<p>They had found the camp and had lain off it until after dark as
+Turlough had bidden them, the more so since there were two-score over a
+hundred men there. But at length they had ridden down as if they were
+fresh come from the north, and had twice ridden through the camp before
+the O'Donnells were well awake, though it had been sharp work. The
+result had been that a score of Brian's men had fallen, they had slain a
+full half of the O'Donnells, and the rest had been driven and scattered
+southward. Brian's men had plundered their camp and were weary, so that
+when they heard of what had chanced at the Black Tarn they were somewhat
+less than half willing to ride farther.</p>
+
+<p>But Brian speedily persuaded them to that course, and Turlough led them
+all to the south on the way to Sligo.</p>
+
+<p>Bitterness and heaviness of heart dwelt deep in Brian that night, and
+for some time to come. With the escape of the Dark Master, whether it
+had been by magic or craft, all his visions had burst; he must ride away
+from the pirate hold at Millhaven, he saw that he would lose many men on
+his way south, and yet there lay no choice before him. He had scotched
+the snake, and now he must kill it. If the Dark Master reached Galway
+town in safety, those O'Donnells from Millhaven would be around by sea
+to meet him, and the royalists would lend him men and guns to go against
+Bertragh in their cause.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any likelihood that the Dark Master will miss those scattered
+men of his?" he asked Turlough, who rode on his right hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Little, master. There is but the one road south to Sligo at this
+season, and it is great wonder indeed that the scattered men did not
+fall on us at the Black Tarn in seeking their master. But with only
+seventy-five men or so I do not think they will bide our coming."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor do I," and Brian laughed grimly as he thought of that fight with
+his enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Certain men had been wounded in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_677" id="Page_677">[Pg 677]</a></span> those frays, and he left them to follow
+after him, so that he turned south with a hundred and a score men at his
+back. He did not think that the Dark Master would face him, but since
+those men were all O'Donnells who would obey him utterly, he looked to
+have some fighting; in which he was not far wrong.</p>
+
+<p>An hour after the day was broken they thundered up to the bridge that
+spanned the Garravogue, and ten wild and silent men were holding that
+bridge behind an overturned cart for barricade. Brian would waste no men
+on a storm, but slew six of the men with musketry and rode over the
+other four; even so, those four brought down three of his men before
+they were done with.</p>
+
+<p>Brian baited the horses in Sligo, remaining there a scant half-hour.
+From the townfolk he learned that the Dark Master was but two hours
+ahead of him, and Brian had great hopes of running him to earth that
+same day. So he set forth again and they rode hard to Ballsadare, at the
+south branch of Sligo Bay, and on to Coolany at the edge of the Storm
+Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>At this latter place they found different work, however, for here was a
+small garrison of Cavan pikemen who stopped them, lined with their pikes
+three deep across the road before the church. Brian was no long time in
+learning that the Dark Master had spread word of him as a plunderer and
+Parliament man.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no time to waste on you," he said shortly to the leader of the
+pikemen. "Here is a safe-conduct, and I am Stephen Burke."</p>
+
+<p>"None the less, you must stay until I have looked into this," said the
+other, pulling out his pistol with some determination.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay I will not, but I think you shall," replied Brian, and thrust as
+the man fired. The bullet glanced from his jack, but the officer fell
+back among his pikes, and Brian spurred after him in great anger. His
+Scots troopers were in the van, or what was left of them, and they came
+down galloping, and rode over the pikemen leaving a sea of smitten men
+in the roadway behind.</p>
+
+<p>Also, ten of Brian's men were left.</p>
+
+<p>By the evening they were back at Tobercurry again, where Turlough had
+hung those two men after torturing them. The Dark Master was something
+over an hour ahead of them, and he had stayed to fire the church and the
+town. Brian's heart was sore for the townfolk, but he could pause no
+longer than to bait horses and men, since he looked for hard riding that
+night; however, he gave what money and plunder he had to the townfolk
+and got a blessing in return, and so rode forth again as the stars
+peeped out.</p>
+
+<p>"There are Maguires in Swineford, master," said old Turlough with a
+cunning, sidelong look.</p>
+
+<p>"I met them coming north," laughed Brian softly. "They will prove good
+men to avoid, so I think that we shall ride around that burg."</p>
+
+<p>Brian thought that he could get through the Maguires, but he intended to
+take no chances. However, they had gained to within five miles of
+Swineford and had halted to blow the horses, when one of the scouts came
+riding back to say that a score of farmers with three carts were
+approaching from the town.</p>
+
+<p>Presently they came on them&mdash;a black mass swinging down the road, which
+was very boggy on either hand. Neither Brian nor Turlough smelt any ill
+in this until they were within a hundred paces of the party, when
+suddenly the carts were swung across the road and a score of muskets
+spat death into Brian's men.</p>
+
+<p>"Back!" shouted Brian, when his men would have charged. "We have no time
+and lives to waste on this party&mdash;what shall we do, Turlough? The fields
+are all bog."</p>
+
+<p>"We cannot well ride around," said Turlough, when they had ridden back a
+little, leaving dead men on the road. "But a little way back is a path
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_678" id="Page_678">[Pg 678]</a></span> leads out and around Swineford. Put ten men here to keep these
+O'Donnells from following us, and we will make a short cut to the Moy
+near Kiltanmugh. It was a clever trick, this!"</p>
+
+<p>It was indeed, and it had cost Brian a round score of men, so that he
+followed Turlough out into the open land with less than a hundred men
+behind him. His fury abated before dawn, when they had splashed across
+the Moy and came upon the road once more, but he saw that the O'Donnells
+were willing enough to die if the Dark Master might escape, and he
+became more cautious.</p>
+
+<p>When the night fell again they were far south of Claremorris, but a
+score of horses had foundered and he was forced to leave more men
+behind. Until evening Turlough led him at a distance from the main
+roads, then they struck into good riding again and save for one detour
+to avoid Tuam would have a clear road between themselves and Galway,
+which Brian meant to reach before dawn unless his own horse foundered
+with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Of the Dark Master they heard nothing until they were fording the Clare
+north of Tuam, when two men gave them word that a scant half-hour before
+some two-score horsemen had fled past them toward Tuam.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" cried Brian. "Now, Turlough, lead us around Tuam, and I think we
+shall finish this thing long before the day comes."</p>
+
+<p>Said Turlough sourly, "Every horse down is a man gone, master," but to
+that Brian only laughed and set in his spurs.</p>
+
+<p>So now they let gallop through the darkness, trusting more to Turlough's
+wits than to their horses' feet; for Brian knew that if his own beasts
+were spent, those of the Dark Master were no better unless he were to
+get mounts at Tuam. That would be hard, however, for there were no
+horses to be had save far in the mountains where the war had not swept
+all things away.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had they reached the road again beyond Tuam than it seemed to
+Brian that he heard the faint drum of hoofs ahead of him, and at that he
+gave a shout and drove on with such of his men storming behind as might
+come. Many of them had gone down, indeed, but now all wakened from their
+nodding sleep and kept close, though here and there one dropped out.
+Turlough, whose steed had been the best of all save Brian's, kept at his
+master's flank.</p>
+
+<p>They were hard on Claregalway when Brian saw his quarry first&mdash;a deep
+mass of men far ahead on an open stretch of road. Then he knew that the
+race was nearly won, and for all that his beast was sobbing under his
+thighs, he raced ahead, and laughed out loud when a little band cut off
+from the main body of the Dark Master's men. There were fifteen or less
+who waited his coming with pistols ready, but Brian rode hardily at
+them, their balls whistled overhead or past, and he was on them.</p>
+
+<p>The shock of the meeting came near to unseating him, and sent one of the
+foe sprawling, horse and man; Brian cut another to the chin and thrust
+the life from a third, and before the first sword had slithered on his
+steel-cap his men had swept aside the devoted fifteen, and he was riding
+on. O'Donnell had straightened his party for nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Now the Dark Master was riding for his life, and knew it. Some few of
+his men fell out with spent beasts, and these Brian's party rode over,
+taking and giving but one blow, or none at all. When Claregalway drew up
+ahead, cold and gray under the stars, Brian was but two hundred yards
+behind with forty men still behind him, while O'Donnell had not half so
+many.</p>
+
+<p>As he thundered down to the river Brian had drawn as much ahead of
+Turlough and the others as he was behind the Dark Master. He shouted
+back to those of his men whose matches were lit to loose off their
+muskets, but before the first pan had flashed out he saw the O'Donnells
+draw rein and wheel at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_679" id="Page_679">[Pg 679]</a></span> bridge-head, while two of their number drove
+clattering on into the town.</p>
+
+<p>Now, had Brian chosen to wait for his men things would have fallen out
+differently; but this he would not do, for he thought to break through
+these as he had done with the others. So he went at them with naked
+sword, his heart raging within him and his face set and cold like stone.
+He was still fifty paces from the bridge-head when their pistols
+spattered out; the men behind dared not fire for fear of hitting him, so
+that Brian had all the fight for himself.</p>
+
+<p>He came near to having none, for at that first discharge a pistol-ball
+split his jack and lodged in his buff-coat over his heart, while another
+came between his arm and his side, drawing blood a little from both;
+while a third and worse went into his horse between the fore shoulders.
+Brian felt the poor beast falter shudderingly, and pause; then the
+O'Donnells shouted greatly and closed about him, thinking to slay him
+before his men could come up.</p>
+
+<p>Brian saw a long <i>skean</i> plunge into his horse's neck, and in terrible
+anger he smote with the edge, so that a hand and arm hung down from the
+dagger, a ghastly thing to see. But the poor steed was dead with that
+blow, and Brian had but time to fling himself headlong ere the horse
+rolled over.</p>
+
+<p>The leap saved his life, for the O'Donnells were striking fast at him.
+Brian rose up between two of them, dragged one down with his left hand
+and thrust the other under the arm, and tried to leap up into the
+saddle. But as he did so his own men struck, so that the horses were
+swept together and pinned Brian's legs between them, and he hung
+helpless.</p>
+
+<p>In that instant he saw an ax swinging above him and flung back his head,
+but not enough, for the ax fell, and Brian went down under the horses.</p>
+
+<p>Save for three of his men who saw the thing and stood over him, Brian
+would have been trampled to death on the spot. These O'Donnells were no
+loose fighting-men, and they smote shrewdly against the press of
+Brian's greater numbers, while their wild cry rose high over the shrill
+of steel. When Brian's men knew that he was down, however, they struck
+such blows as they knew not they had in them, and quarter was not asked
+or offered in that battle by the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>The fight was not ended until the last O'Donnell went down in a swirl
+and clash of steel. Then Turlough, who had kept well out of it according
+to his wont, pushed through and fell upon Brian's body. When Brian
+opened his eyes his head was still ringing, while his men were bathing
+him with water. After an instant he sat up and gazed around.</p>
+
+<p>"The Dark Master&mdash;did you catch him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, our thought was all for you, master," answered Turlough.</p>
+
+<p>Brian groaned in great bitterness, but said no word. He knew that his
+chance was gone from him for that time, and as he looked around his
+heart sank within him. Half of his men had slipped down and lay sleeping
+among the dead, and the rest could scarce stay in their saddles for
+weariness and lack of sleep. But Turlough sprang up and gazed at the
+graying sky with fear in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Up, master!" he cried fiercely. "We must still ride hard, for the Dark
+Master will send out a troop of horse from Galway to catch us, and we
+must get past that town before the sun is high!"</p>
+
+<p>So the sleeping were roused in haste, the wounded were put in saddle,
+and with their beasts staggering under them, those that were left of
+Brian's men closed around him and rode over the bridge through
+Claregalway.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">BRIAN GOES A CRUISING.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Above the head of Bertraghboy Bay there was a swooping curve in the hill
+road. It was at this same curve that Brian Buidh had first met<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_680" id="Page_680">[Pg 680]</a></span> the Dark
+Master, and it was here he had set that trap which had won him tribute
+for the Bird Daughter. When first he had ridden that road Brian had had
+a score of lusty men at his back; on the second occasion he had headed a
+hundred and four-score; but when he drew rein there a week after that
+fight at Claregalway bridge there was with him only old Turlough Wolf,
+and their horses were sorry skeletons like themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"We are somewhat worse than when we twain started out together," laughed
+Brian bitterly. "Then we had full bellies at the least, but now we have
+naught."</p>
+
+<p>"There are men coming, master," said Turlough, hanging weakly to his
+saddle. "I think they are our castle watchers."</p>
+
+<p>Very gaunt was Brian that day, and nigh spent with his wounds and hunger
+and weariness. During the week that had passed since the Dark Master
+slipped away from him, nothing but evil had come upon him.</p>
+
+<p>First they had tried to slip past to the north of the city, and had
+reached the Lough Corrib River, and could even faintly hear the bells of
+St. Nicholas below, when a half-troop of horse fell upon them. Then in
+desperation Brian's men smote for the last time, and put the royalists
+to flight; but there Brian lost the most of his men. However, he got
+fresh horses, and so fled eastward again when more men were seen
+approaching.</p>
+
+<p>What chanced in the six days following is not fully set forth, for Brian
+got little glory from it. One by one he lost his men, and at length was
+forced north again to the shores of Lough Corrib, with men riding hot
+and fast to catch him. With Turlough Wolf alone left to him, he had made
+shift to cross the lake in a leaky fisherman's boat, the horses swimming
+behind, and so came into the O'Flahertys' country.</p>
+
+<p>There word had also gone forth against him, but because of the pact
+between them, Murrough of the Kine sped him in peace through Iar
+Connaught, and at length Brian had won home again with joyless heart.</p>
+
+<p>As Turlough said, men were coming, and they were Brian's own men who
+watched the roads. From them he got food and wine and two fresh horses,
+and with the afternoon they rode down to Bertragh in worse shape than
+they had ridden from it. Brian was the less heartened when he saw two of
+Nuala O'Malley's ships in the bay, and knew that she must be at the
+castle.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, before they reached the gates the Bird Daughter rode out to meet
+them, with Cathbarr striding before her. When the woman saw Brian's face
+her violet eyes filled with tears, and when he dismounted and kissed her
+hand and would have spoken, she stayed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, we know enough of the story for now, Brian. First rest and eat,
+then talk."</p>
+
+<p>Brian guessed straightway that pigeons had come from her men in Galway
+telling of those ridings about the city, and that she had come over to
+Bertragh in anxiety; and this was the truth indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Turlough Wolf hied him away and slept, but Brian sat about a table in
+the hall with Cathbarr and Nuala. He was very worn and weary, but when
+he had eaten and drunk he refused to sleep yet a while, and told how
+that storm had fared north and what had come of it.</p>
+
+<p>"So I have lost a hundred and fifty hard-won men," he concluded
+gloomily. "I would not grudge them if the Dark Master had fallen, but he
+is in Galway, and the Millhaven pirates will be down to meet him, and
+that means war on Bertragh."</p>
+
+<p>"I will be glad of that," said Cathbarr simply. "I am sound again and
+have been sharpening up this ax of mine."</p>
+
+<p>Nuala smiled and put her hand across the table to lay it on Brian's.</p>
+
+<p>"Success would be of little worth, Yellow Brian," she said softly, and
+her eyes steadied him, "if it were won with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_681" id="Page_681">[Pg 681]</a></span>out reverses. Few men have
+the luck to win always, and a touch of defeat is not an ill thing,
+perhaps. When we had this news of you from Galway, a week since, I sent
+off a galley to find Blake at the Cove of Cork and seek aid of him. Also
+my kinsmen will return to Gorumna before going home to Erris, and we are
+not in hard case here. So now get rested, Brian Buidh, and afterward we
+will see what may be done. Those Millhaven men have not yet passed
+Erris, or I would have word of it by pigeon, so they have doubtless
+delayed to plunder in Sligo or Killala."</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked into her eyes, and from that moment he began to put behind
+him all thoughts of capturing that Millhaven castle for himself or of
+placing himself out of touch with Nuala O'Malley. He went to his chamber
+as she bade, and slept that night and the next day and the night after,
+waking on the second morning still empty of sleep and seeming more weary
+than when he had laid down.</p>
+
+<p>This was but seeming, however, and when he had bathed and eaten he felt
+more like himself than for many a day.</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr had departed at dawn with a wagon-load of powder to trade for
+kine with his O'Flaherty kinsmen in the hills, and before Brian had
+broken his fast one of the galleys from Gorumna came over with three
+pigeons for Nuala. The cage was brought to her as she sat at meat with
+Brian in the hall, and she opened the tiny messages with all the
+delighted anticipation of a girl.</p>
+
+<p>"This is from that galley I sent to Cork," she exclaimed, laying down
+the first. "It merely reports safe arrival and the delivery of my letter
+to Blake, who is leaving there before long. Now for the&mdash;ah!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good news or bad?" smiled Brian easily, as animation flashed into her
+face. She looked up at him with a rippling laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Both, Brian! This is from Erris, and says that the O'Donnell seamen
+have made a landing at Ballycastle under Downpatrick Head, and will
+likely put to sea again in a day or two. They will give Erris a wide
+berth, never fear, and that means that they will make no pause until
+they come to Galway."</p>
+
+<p>The third message was from Galway itself, and said that the Dark Master
+was biding the coming of those Millhaven men, and had been promised both
+horsemen and shot if they came, so that Bertragh might be taken and held
+for Ireland against the Parliament.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not taken yet," laughed Nuala as old Turlough came shuffling up,
+and they gave him the sele of the day merrily enough. "You had best keep
+these birds, Brian, so that if there is any need you may send me
+messages to Gorumna. Now, shall we bide here until the Dark Master comes
+against us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were going to take me cruising with you?" smiled Brian,
+but at that Turlough struck in and asked what the messages were. When he
+had heard them he stood pulling at his gray beard for a little, then
+turned to Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"How is your body, master?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well enough," said Brian, feeling his head. "Save for this beard, which
+now I may not cut for a time."</p>
+
+<p>He intended to abide by that oath of his, and so his beard was growing
+out and his hair as well, of which latter he was glad.</p>
+
+<p>Since he had ever kept his face clean shaven, however, the beard was not
+to his liking. He was quite unaware that it built out his face greatly
+and made him grimmer-looking than before, and yet so young were his blue
+eyes except when he was in anger that it was not hard for Nuala to
+believe that he was only two years older than herself.</p>
+
+<p>None the less, she made great sport of his beard, saying that it curled
+at the end like a drake's tail, as indeed it did; and as Brian only
+repaid her laughter with the open wonder and admiration that he held for
+her, there was great good-comradeship between them.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_682" id="Page_682">[Pg 682]</a></span>"There is still one chance for stopping the Dark Master," said Turlough
+thoughtfully. "If we cut off those pirate ships on their way south he is
+not like to get much help from Galway."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;and I never thought of it!" cried Nuala, staring at him.</p>
+
+<p>Turlough chuckled. "That was spoken like a woman, mistress! If the rede
+seems good we could lay aboard men from here for fighting, and sail out
+with those two ships of yours."</p>
+
+<p>Now Brian's heart filled with new hope, and after no long discussion
+they decided to adopt the plan. Nuala was of the opinion that a short
+cruise would do Brian great good, so they decided to set off that
+evening in her two ships, leaving Turlough to keep the castle against
+Cathbarr's return.</p>
+
+<p>Had they taken Turlough Wolf with them or had Brian been less
+close-mouthed on his return from that cruise, the evil that befell might
+have been averted. The old man was cunning and swift at piercing beneath
+the craft of other men and turning it back upon themselves; but as
+Brian's mind lost its bitterness at his own failure it gained joy at
+being with the Bird Daughter, while Nuala had no less friendship and
+liking for him, so that neither of them gave much thought to O'Donnell
+Dubh who lay in Galway and bided his time after his own fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Once having reached their decision, they hastened it somewhat and sent
+men and muskets aboard the two ships at noon. Nuala wished to sail first
+to Gorumna Castle and make all safe there, then reach back for Slyne
+Head. She proposed that Brian take one carack and she the other, but at
+this Brian laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"No, lady&mdash;I am no seaman, and I am your guest on this cruise, so I go
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you shall have good guesting," she answered, flushing a little,
+but her eyes not flinching from his, and so they went aboard her ship
+together.</p>
+
+<p>Having two hundred men still, Brian had put fifty on each ship in case
+they met with those pirates, who were like to give good battle. Also
+Turlough had hopes that many of Brian's men would win home from that
+riding of his yet, since a large part of them had dropped out by the way
+or had been left behind with wounds. And in the end, indeed, fifty or
+less did find their way back.</p>
+
+<p>Before night they made Gorumna Castle, and Brian found why they had come
+here first. With her Kerry recruits, Nuala had a hundred and eighty men,
+so she had set to work to build a tower and small keep on the opposite
+island, that Gorumna itself might be more easily defended. Also she had
+taken some falconets and two bastards out of a large French ship, and
+had set about building a battery outside the castle that would overlook
+the harbor.</p>
+
+<p>"That will be better than good when it is done," said Brian approvingly.
+"But you had best get it done speedily. When we come back from this
+cruise you shall take this hundred men of mine, for I will not need them
+until the Dark Master comes, and of that we shall have good warning."</p>
+
+<p>This she was glad of, and she was glad because Brian had found her work
+well planned; nor did either of them suspect what grief that loan of a
+hundred men was to bring upon Brian.</p>
+
+<p>They paused only to sup at Gorumna, then set forth again, and by dawn
+were off Slyne Head with a light breeze behind them. Nuala would take no
+chance of missing those Millhaven men, so instead of going north among
+the islands she turned her ships and beat off Slyne all that day, seeing
+no sail save fishing-craft.</p>
+
+<p>Those were pleasant hours for Brian, for the sea was fair and he had
+naught to do but sit with the Bird Daughter. He found himself drawn ever
+closer to her, admiring her wit and fairness as he did, and he fancied
+that she was by no means unwilling to talk with him and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_683" id="Page_683">[Pg 683]</a></span> open her mind
+as she did to few men. Yet he remembered that he was no more than her
+vassal, a landless man in truth.</p>
+
+<p>That night the two caracks separated, standing well off the land and
+keeping good watch, but no sign did they catch of the O'Donnell pirates.
+Toward morning a stiff wind came upon them from the west, and Brian's
+men, being all landsmen, got no great joy out of that cruise.</p>
+
+<p>"This wind is like to hold," said Nuala, laughing as she stood on the
+poop with Brian that morning and watched the decks. "I am afraid that we
+might as well give over this attempt, Brian. Your men will be in no
+shape to fight. What think you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right," nodded Brian slowly, for he saw that those men of his were
+worse than useless with their sickness.</p>
+
+<p>So they turned about and drove before the wind, but before ever they had
+got past Slyne Head the men aloft descried a sail to the south that
+seemed like a large galley. Nuala signaled the other carack to bear down
+with her, and presently they made out that it was a large sailing
+galley, which headed straight for them.</p>
+
+<p>"That is none of my ships," exclaimed Nuala, watching. "It seems strange
+that she does not flee before us, Brian. She bears no ensign, yet she
+must be from these parts, and would naturally have some fear of
+pirates."</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked at her rather than the ship, and thought her a fine
+picture, with her body swinging a little to the sway of the deck and the
+wind blowing her red cloak around her. The galley came straight for them
+as if seeking speech, however, and when a falconet was fired from the
+carack without charge, she lowered her sail and put out her sweeps,
+coming straight for them.</p>
+
+<p>Nuala sped a word to her sailing-master, and the men let down the sails
+with shouting and great creaking of ropes. The Bird Daughter stood under
+the high poop bulwark, and now she turned to Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you speak with them and find their business, for it seems to me that
+all is not as it should be, and they would likely know me too well."</p>
+
+<p>Brian nodded, and when the galley had come under their lee he saw that
+she was well laden, and had for crew a dozen rough-looking men. One of
+these replied to his hail.</p>
+
+<p>"We are come from Galway, lord, with a gift of stores and wines from
+O'Donnell Dubh to certain friends of his whom we came to meet. Are you
+those friends, as we think?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian started in surprise, but needed no word from Nuala. He saw that
+the Dark Master must have sent this galley out to meet the Millhaven
+men, and that the crew had taken the two caracks for those pirate ships.</p>
+
+<p>"We are the O'Donnells from Millhaven," he shouted, and ordered the
+seaman to cast down ropes to the galley. Her master, a stout man with
+bushy black beard, waved a hand in reply, and after another moment the
+two craft ground together. The master of the galley got aboard over the
+low waist of the carack, and Brian ordered a dozen of his own
+green-faced men down into the smaller ship. At this the galley's master
+stared somewhat, but came up to the poop.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord, O'Donnell sends you these stores with a message. I am Con Teague
+of Galway."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us have it," ordered Brian, liking the looks of the man not at all.</p>
+
+<p>"He bade us say that he was leaving Galway to-morrow at dawn with a
+force of men, and that you should meet him at Bertragh Castle and fall
+on that place to take it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is good," laughed Brian. "Now learn that you have found the wrong
+ships, my man. We are not the Millhaven pirates, but I am Brian Buidh,
+who holds Bertragh; and here is the Lady Nuala, for whom I hold it."</p>
+
+<p>At that Nuala came forward, and Teague looked greatly astonished, as
+well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_684" id="Page_684">[Pg 684]</a></span> he might, and all the Bird Daughter's men fell roaring with
+laughter. But he could make no resistance, and stood chapfallen while
+Brian talked with Nuala.</p>
+
+<p>"I must back to the Castle," he said, "and see if this news be true. Do
+you go on to Gorumna with my men, and I will let loose a pigeon to you.
+If the Dark Master is indeed on the way, then come with all the men you
+can spare, and it will go hard if we do not best his royalists, and the
+pirates later when the latter come."</p>
+
+<p>This was clearly the best plan, so Brian sent Teague down into the
+galley and followed him, as the light ship was faster than the caracks.
+Replacing half of Teague's men with O'Malleys, he had the ropes cast
+off, waved his hand at Nuala, and they drove to the eastward and
+Bertragh Castle.</p>
+
+<p>Teague made so much moan over losing his ship that Brian promised it
+back to him when they had reached the castle; the stores and wine,
+however, he accounted good spoils of war. This put the seaman in better
+mood, and by noon the fast galley had covered the twenty miles to
+Bertragh, and cast down her anchor in the little bay beyond the castle,
+that same bay where Brian had come to grief through O'Donnell's sorcery.</p>
+
+<p>The men crowded down to meet him joyfully, and Brian found that Cathbarr
+had come home safe with his beeves and was hungry for fight. No sign had
+been heard of the Dark Master along the roads, however, so Brian set
+Turlough in charge of getting the stores and wine-casks off the galley,
+and fell to work putting the castle in shape for defense.</p>
+
+<p>Since there was no need of loosing a pigeon until word came that the
+Dark Master was actually on the way, he sent out men to have a beacon
+built on the hills at the bay's head as soon as the enemy was sighted.
+What with seeing that the bastards and other shot were cleaned and
+loaded, and stationing his hundred men to the best advantage, he found
+that the afternoon soon wore away.</p>
+
+<p>"Those are good wines," said Turlough when they sat at meat that
+evening, the men eating below in the courtyard around fires. "But I do
+not like that ship-master."</p>
+
+<p>So far Brian had said nothing of how the galley had been taken, save
+that they had chanced on it at sea and had heard from Teague that the
+Dark Master might be on them in another day. As for the O'Malleys, they
+kept to themselves and talked not at all, so that neither Turlough nor
+Cathbarr had heard the way of that capture.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she unladen?" asked Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"All save a few barrels. That ship-master was so eager to be off,"
+grunted old Turlough spitefully, "that I stayed the work and put a guard
+on the galley until morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Give the men a cask of the best wine," ordered Brian shortly.</p>
+
+<p>Having taken upon himself the duties of seneschal, Turlough departed
+grumbling. While he was gone, Brian's tongue was a little loosened with
+wine, so that he told Cathbarr of how he had taken the galley, at which
+the giant bellowed with laughter. Presently from the courtyard came
+shouting and singing, and Turlough appeared with a beaker of wine.</p>
+
+<p>"The men like it well enough," he said, "yet to me it seems soured.
+Taste it, Brian; if it be so, then you have made a poor haul on that
+cruise."</p>
+
+<p>Brian sipped the wine, and in truth it seemed to have soured. Cathbarr
+made little of that, and would have drunken it except that his clumsy
+hand knocked it from the table and emptied it all. But as it happened,
+that mischance saved his life.</p>
+
+<p>A little after, Brian pulled out a Spanish pipe he had got that day from
+one of the O'Malleys, with some tobacco, and began puffing in great
+good-humor, for it was long since he had tasted tobacco. Cathbarr
+watched in awe, never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_685" id="Page_685">[Pg 685]</a></span> having seen this done before, so that Brian and
+Turlough had great fun with him. All his life the giant had lived in the
+mountains and he knew no more than his ax had taught him; though he had
+seen men smoke before, he had ever accounted it sorcery of some kind,
+nor could Brian get him to as much as touch the pipe with his finger.</p>
+
+<p>Brian was sorry that the wine had proved sour; the butts were huge ones,
+and he had counted on their lasting him and his men all the winter
+through. However, he dismissed the matter from his mind and fell to
+talking with Turlough and Cathbarr over their arrangements in case of an
+attack. In the midst, one of the men who had been watching from the
+tower ran in to say that he had caught sight of a beacon on the hills,
+which meant that the arch-enemy was on the road.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" exclaimed Brian, springing up. "Turlough, go fetch me that cage
+of pigeons. Cathbarr, see that the men are set on the walls&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He had got no further than this when there came a strange noise from the
+doorway. Turning, he saw a man staggering forward, choking as he came,
+and recognized him as one of the Bird Daughter's seamen. The fellow held
+a bloody sword in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"What's this?" cried Brian angrily, noting that there was silence upon
+the court-yard. "Has there been wrangling again&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Death!" coughed the O'Malley, staring at him with starting, terrible
+eyes. "Con Teague&mdash;I slew him&mdash;too&mdash;too late&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Man, what is forward?" Brian leaped out and caught the seaman in his
+arms, for the fellow's head was rolling on his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Death!" whispered the man again. "They are&mdash;all dead&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His head fell back in death, and the sword fell from his hand with a
+clatter. But from Cathbarr, who had gone to the doorway, came one
+terrible shout of grief and rage.</p>
+
+<p>"Brian! Our men lie dead&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I think the Dark Master has sent us a kindly gift," quoth Turlough
+Wolf, as Brian rose with horror in his face and let the seaman's body
+fall. "Now I know why that wine was sour, master!"</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot" style="margin-top: 2.25em;">
+<p>TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly,
+and that you will get the conclusion of this story without waiting a
+month.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="Part_IV" id="Part_IV"></a><i>Nuala O'Malley</i><br />
+<i>by</i> H. Bedford-Jones</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>This story began in the All-Story Weekly for December 30.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">BRIAN YIELDS BERTRAGH.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"I dare not trust birds alone in this strait, Cathbarr. Go to that
+galley with the two O'Malleys and hasten to Gorumna. Bid the Bird
+Daughter stay and wait further word from me; but take those hundred men
+of mine with her galleys, and hasten back. If the beacon on the tower is
+burning, I will be here; if not, and if I can make terms, I will meet
+you at that tower of yours. Now hasten!"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"For God's love go, or my heart will burst!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian sank down on the horse-stone with a groan, and Cathbarr, catching
+up his ax, fled through the open gates and was gone into the night.
+Brian gazed up after him, and on the hills he saw that dim beacon-fire
+heralding the Dark Master.</p>
+
+<p>The six men guarding the galley, two of them being O'Malleys, and three
+men who had watched on the tower, were all that remained alive in
+Bertragh besides<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> Turlough and Brian. The men had drunk deep of that
+poisoned wine; when Con Teague and his men tried to get away after a few
+had died, they were slain. But so swift was the poison that only one of
+the O'Malleys had lived to reach Brian.</p>
+
+<p>The fires still burned brightly, and before some of them meat was
+burning. Sitting in blank despair on a horse-block, Brian saw the dead
+bodies of a few less than a hundred men lying there. Turlough Wolf and
+his six gave over trying to put life into any of them, and now the old
+man came and put his hand on Brian's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Where has Cathbarr of the Ax gone, master?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian told him dully, and Turlough nodded approval, having at length
+learned all the story of how that galley had been taken.</p>
+
+<p>"Master, there was deep cunning in this. O'Donnell sent that galley to
+you, or, rather, to the Bird Daughter, and he had spies watching. Had
+the Gorumna men drunk of that brew, he would have fallen on there; but
+here came the galley, and now he comes over the hills. And we are few to
+meet him."</p>
+
+<p>"We will be more when the men come in from the hill-roads before him,"
+and Brian rose up with heavy heart, forcing himself to the task. "Send
+out a man to haste them in and to warn what men there be at the farms.
+Also let him send a wagon or two, that these dead may be carried out
+before the Dark Master falls on us. Send two men to the tower to build a
+beacon, for Cathbarr will not be back before to-morrow night."</p>
+
+<p>Brian went to the stables where the three carrier-pigeons were caged,
+and fetched the cage to the great hall. Here he wrote what had happened,
+with his plan, in small space, fastened it under the wing of a bird, and
+let loose the pigeon from the courtyard.</p>
+
+<p>Stunned though he was by the sudden and terrible blow, Brian had seized
+on the only course left him. If he could make shift to hold the castle
+at all, he would do so; if not, he must make terms and get off to
+Gorumna that he might take vengeance for this dastardly stroke that had
+been dealt him.</p>
+
+<p>Nuala had nigh three hundred men in her castle, and he felt that all was
+not yet lost, even should he have to yield Bertragh. The Dark Master
+would hardly have a large force with him, and he would know nothing of
+those hundred men Brian had loaned Nuala; so Brian reckoned that if he
+could get away, O'Donnell would think him a broken man who could do no
+further against him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's looking too far ahead," thought Brian very wearily.
+"Perchance I am broken, indeed, since I have lost two hundred and a half
+of men without gain."</p>
+
+<p>An hour later rode in a score of men with wagons, and fell to work
+getting the dead out of the castle, though for burying there was no
+time. This score, and two more who came in later, were all the men left
+to Brian; they reported that the Dark Master would be on them by
+daybreak, with two hundred Scots troopers and one horse cannon.</p>
+
+<p>"His friends proved niggardly, then," laughed Brian drearily. "We have
+but to hold the place till to-morrow night, friends, and the O'Malleys
+will relieve us. Now, one man to watch and the rest of us to rest, for
+there is work ahead."</p>
+
+<p>Brian, indeed, got some sleep that night, but it was shot through with
+visions of those poisoned men of his, and their twisted faces gibbered
+at him, and he thought they shrieked and howled for revenge. When he was
+roused at dawn, he found the meaning of those noises, since a great
+storm was sweeping down out of the west, and the farther wore the day,
+the worse grew the storm.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Heaven itself fighting against us?" he thought bitterly, watching
+the sea from the battlements. "Against this blast Nuala cannot reach me,
+if she will."</p>
+
+<p>He got little time to brood, however. Before he had broken his fast the
+Dark<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> Master's horsemen came in sight&mdash;two hundred braw Scots, with
+wagons and a cannon following after. It was no large force, but Brian
+found afterward that it was the best the Dark Master could get, since
+the Galway Irish cared nothing whether the Scots lived or died.</p>
+
+<p>They halted and spread out, half a mile from the castle, and Brian saw
+that the men were being quartered on the farms round about. Bitterly he
+wished that he had his lost men, for with them he could have sent those
+Scots flying home again; but now he was helpless.</p>
+
+<p>With the gates shut and the bastards loaded with bullets to sweep the
+approach, Brian sent his twenty men to the battlements and watched, with
+Turlough beside him. It was plain that no offensive operations were
+under way as yet, and an hour passed quietly; then ten men rode down to
+the castle under a white flag, and foremost of them was the Dark Master.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, if I were in your place, master," said Turlough, slanting his eyes
+up at Brian in his shrewd way, "I would loose those bastards and sweep
+the road bare."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not in my place," said Brian, and the Wolf held his peace.</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master looked at those bodies piled between the castle and the
+shore, and it was easy to see that he was laughing and pointing them out
+to the Scots. At that Brian heard his men mutter no little, and he
+himself clenched his nails into his palms and cursed bitterly; but he
+forbade his men to fire and they durst not disobey him. The party rode
+up under the walls, and the Dark Master grinned at Brian standing above.</p>
+
+<p>"You have great drunkards, Yellow Brian," he called mockingly. "Have all
+your men drunk themselves to death?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian answered him not, but fingered his hilt; even at that distance the
+Dark Master seemed to feel the icy blue eyes upon him, for his leer
+vanished.</p>
+
+<p>"Yield to us, Yellow Brian," he continued, shooting up his head from
+betwixt his shoulders. "I do not think you have many men in that
+castle."</p>
+
+<p>"I have enough to hold you till more come," answered Brian.</p>
+
+<p>"Mayhap, and mayhap not," and O'Donnell laughed again. "Keep a watch to
+seaward, Yellow Brian, and when you see four sail turning the headland,
+judge if those two caracks of the Bird Daughter's are like to help you."</p>
+
+<p>"If you have no more to say, get you gone," said Brian, feeling the
+anger in him rising beyond endurance. The Dark Master looked along the
+walls for a moment, then signed to his men, and they rode off through
+the driving snow again.</p>
+
+<p>Turlough looked at Brian and Brian at him, and the same thought was in
+the minds of both. If those Millhaven men had four ships driving down
+before that storm, as seemed probable enough, the Bird Daughter's two
+little caracks would never land men under the guns of Bertragh.</p>
+
+<p>About noon the snow fell less thickly, though the storm had risen to
+great power, and Brian made out that the Scots were bringing forward
+that cannon of theirs. Having some little knowledge of artillery
+himself, he drew the charge of bullets from a bastard and put in more
+powder, then put the bullets back, a full bag of them. He did the same
+with two more of the bastards on that wall, and when the Scots had
+halted aimed all three very carefully, and set men by them to fire at
+his order. The Scots were turning their cannon about, a score of men
+being in their party, and Brian judged that they were eight hundred
+paces away&mdash;just within range of his bastards.</p>
+
+<p>"The Dark Master lost this hold because he had too many men," he said to
+Turlough, "and we shall lose it because we have too few; but we will
+make better use of these shot than did he. Fire, men!"</p>
+
+<p>The three men brought down their linstocks and ran for it, having seen
+that extra charge of powder set in the cannon. But none of the pieces
+burst, though they roared loud enough and leaped at their recoil-ropes
+like mad things. When the white smoke shredded down the wind,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> Brian's
+men yelled in great delight, for those Scots and horses about the cannon
+were stricken down or fleeing, and the piece had not yet been loaded.</p>
+
+<p>"They will get little joy of that cannon," said Brian grimly, and went
+in to meat.</p>
+
+<p>During the rest of the day the cannon stood there silent, dead horses
+and men around it; nor was any further attack made. Brian knew well that
+having found him prepared, the Dark Master would now attack at night and
+hard did Brian pray that the storm might abate from the west, or at
+least shift around, so that Nuala's ships could come to his aid.</p>
+
+<p>Instead, the gale only swooped down the wilder, and seemed like to hold
+a day or more, as indeed it did. About mid-afternoon Turlough came and
+beckoned him silently out to the rear or seaward battlement and pointed
+out.</p>
+
+<p>No words passed between the two men, nor were any needed; beating around
+the southern headland were four flecks of white that Brian knew for
+ships coming from the west with the storm, and he saw that for once the
+Dark Master had told the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"I have some skill at war," he said to Turlough that afternoon when they
+had seen the four ships weather past them and anchor a mile up the bay;
+"and since the Dark Master's troopers are also skilled at that game,
+they will fall to work without waste of time or men. We may look to have
+the dry moat filled with fascines to-night and our gates blown in with
+petards. At the worst, we can hold that tower, where the powder is
+stored."</p>
+
+<p>If he had had more men, Brian would have slung the bastards down from
+the high walls and set them in the courtyard where they could sweep the
+gates when these had been blown in. But they weighed a ton and half
+each, and there was no time to build shears to let them down, even had
+they had spars and ropes at hand. So Brian set them to cover the
+approach, and had the smaller falcons brought down to the courtyard, all
+five, where he trained them on the gates and loaded them with bullets
+heavily.</p>
+
+<p>"Turlough and I will fire these ourselves," he told his men that evening
+as they made supper together, the men looking forward to the night's
+work with great joy. "Do the rest of you gather on either hand by the
+stables, with spare muskets and pistols."</p>
+
+<p>So this was done as he said. Because of the storm Brian did not light
+his beacon after all, but he stocked the tower with food and wine, and
+told his men to get there, if they could, when the rest was taken. That
+tower had Brian's chamber in the lower part and a ladder in the upper
+part, where was great store of powder.</p>
+
+<p>The five falcons were set in front of the hall doorway, where once Brian
+had come near to being nailed. Brian loosed another of the pigeons,
+telling Nuala how things chanced, and of the four pirate ships, and set
+the last bird in the tower in case of need, which proved a lucky thing
+for him in the end.</p>
+
+<p>Brian and his men slept after meat, while Turlough Wolf remained
+watching. It was wearing well on to midnight when the old man woke them
+all, and Brian went to the walls to hear a thud of hoofs and a murmur of
+men coming across the wind to him. He sent off men to loose the loaded
+guns on the outer walls at random, and then suddenly flung lighted
+cressets over the gates.</p>
+
+<p>A wild yell answered this, and bullets from the men who were filling the
+dry moat, while others scrambled across it and charged up to the gates
+with small powder-kegs and petards ready. This was not done without
+scathe, however; Brian's men loosed their muskets, and one by one the
+heavy bastards thundered out across the snow, though the result was hard
+to see in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>There came a ragged flash of musketry in reply, and that abandoned
+cannon roared out lustily, though its ball passed far overhead. Brian
+stood on a demi-bastion that half flanked the gates, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> after firing
+his pistol into the men below, he leaped down the steps into the
+courtyard and joined Turlough behind the falcons.</p>
+
+<p>"One at a time, Turlough. They'll have the gates down in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>While he waited for the storm to fall, Brian saw that two or three of
+his men had been hit. He wondered dully that the Dark Master had not
+made a general assault, and concluded that he must wish to save men. It
+was a long moment that dragged down on him; then a splash of light burst
+up, the gates were driven inward and shattered, and with a great roar
+there fell a rain of riven beams and stones and dirt.</p>
+
+<p>Sheltering in the hall doorway, Brian and Turlough stayed unmoving
+through an instant of black silence. Out of it broke a wild Scots yell,
+and in the light of the courtyard cressets a wave of men surged up in
+the breach. Brian's linstock fell on a falcon, and the little gun barked
+a hail of bullets across the Scots; Turlough's gun followed suit, and
+the first lines of men went down in a struggling mass.</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master was not to be beaten this time, however. Another wave of
+Scots swept up, with a mass of men behind them. While some of Brian's
+men tried to get the two falcons reloaded, a storm of bullets swept
+across the courtyard, and Brian saw Turlough turn and run for it through
+the doorway, while two of the men fell over a falcon.</p>
+
+<p>But as the first line of men broke into the courtyard, Brian fired the
+remaining three cannon as fast as he could touch linstock to powder. The
+bullet-hail tore the front ranks to shreds, but through the darkling
+smoke-cloud he saw other men come leaping, and knew that the game was
+up.</p>
+
+<p>On the next instant his men had closed around him, muskets were stabbing
+the powder-smoke, and Brian fell to work with his Spanish blade.
+O'Donnells and Scots together heaved up against them, but Brian's point
+weaved out between cutlas and claymore and bit out men's lives until
+the mass of men surged back again like the backleash of a wave that
+comes against a wall.</p>
+
+<p>Brian heard the Dark Master's voice from somewhere, and with that
+muskets spat from the gloom and bullets thudded around him. One slapped
+his steel cap away and another nicked his ear, and a third came so close
+across his eyes that he felt the hot breath of it; but his men fared in
+worse case than that, for they were clutching and reeling and fallen,
+and Brian leaped across the last of them into the hall with bullets
+driving at his back-piece.</p>
+
+<p>As he ran through the hall he knew that his falcons had punished
+O'Donnell's men heavily, and that his twenty men had not fallen without
+some payment for their lives. None the less, Bertragh Castle was now
+lost to him and to the Bird Daughter; but he thought it likely that he
+would yet make a play that might nip O'Donnell in the midst of his
+success.</p>
+
+<p>In this Brian was a true O'Neill and the true luck of the Red Hand had
+seemed to dog him, for he had lost all his men without suffering a
+defeat, and now that he was beaten down, he was planning to strike
+heaviest.</p>
+
+<p>He gained the tower well enough, and found Turlough there to receive
+him, with food and wine and loaded pistols. They soon had the door of
+the lower chamber fast barred and clamped, and Brian flung himself down
+on his bed, panting, but unwounded to speak of.</p>
+
+<p>"Now sleep, master," said the old man. "They will search elsewhere, and
+finding this door closed will do naught here until the morning."</p>
+
+<p>Brian laughed a little.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not easy to sleep after fighting, Turlough. I think that now I
+will send off that last pigeon, so give me that quill yonder."</p>
+
+<p>With great care Brian wrote his message, telling what had passed, and
+saying that he hoped to ride free from the castle next morning. In that
+case he would be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> at Cathbarr's tower before evening came, and he told
+Nuala to have all her men landed there at once, since she could hope to
+do nothing by sea against the pirate ships.</p>
+
+<p>When the writing was bound to the pigeon's wing he loosed the bird
+through the seaward casement, and bade Turlough blow out their
+flickering oil-light.</p>
+
+<p>After eating and drinking a little, they lay down to sleep. Men came and
+pounded at the door, then departed growling; but Turlough had guessed
+aright. The Dark Master was plainly speeding the search for Brian
+elsewhere, and since there was no sign of life from the powder-tower, he
+did not molest this until close to dawn. Then Brian was wakened by a
+shock at the door, and he heard the Dark Master's voice outside
+directing his men. Still he seemed to have no thought that Brian was
+there, but wanted to get at the powder and into his own chamber again.</p>
+
+<p>Brian took up his pistols and went to a loophole opening on the
+battlements, while Turlough still crouched on the bed in no little fear.
+Finding that the Dark Master stood out of his sight, Brian fired at two
+of the men under the door, and they fell; then he raised his voice above
+the shouting that came from outside.</p>
+
+<p>"O'Donnell, are you there?"</p>
+
+<p>The uproar died away, and the other's voice came to him.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are trapped at last, Brian Buidh! Now yield and I promise you a
+swift hanging."</p>
+
+<p>"Not I," laughed Brian curtly. "There is no lack of powder here,
+O'Donnell Dubh, and one of my men holds a pistol ready for it."</p>
+
+<p>At this he glanced at Turlough, who grimaced. But from outside came a
+sudden yell of alarm, and Brian saw a few fleeing figures, while
+O'Donnell shouted at his men in furious rage. Brian called out to him
+again:</p>
+
+<p>"Give me a horse and let me go free with the one man left me, or else I
+will blow up both tower and castle, and you will have little gain for my
+death."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you trust my word in this?" cried the Dark Master. Brian smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, as you must trust mine to leave no fuse in the powder when I am
+gone."</p>
+
+<p>Then fell silence. Brian hated O'Donnell, as he knew he was hated in
+return; and so great was the hatred between them that he felt
+instinctively he could trust the Dark Master to send him out free. It
+seemed to him that the other would sooner have him go broken and crushed
+than do him to death, for that would be a greater revenge. Moreover, the
+Dark Master could know nothing of those men at Gorumna and would have
+little fear of the Bird Daughter.</p>
+
+<p>And it befell exactly as Brian thought.</p>
+
+<p>"I agree," cried the Dark Master, stepping out in the dawn-light boldly.
+"You shall go forth empty as you came, Yellow Brian. What of those
+two-score men you owe me?"</p>
+
+<p>"The time is not yet up," returned Brian, beginning to unbar the door,
+and he laughed at the mocking voice.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">BRIAN MEETS THE BLACK WOMAN.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"The storm is over, master, or will be by this night."</p>
+
+<p>"Too late now, Turlough."</p>
+
+<p>Brian and the old man stood in the courtyard, while the Dark Master was
+seeing to horses being made ready for them. Drawing his cloak farther
+about his hunched shoulders, the latter turned to Brian with a mocking
+sneer.</p>
+
+<p>"Now farewell, Brian Buidh, and forget not to repay that loan, if you
+can gather enough men together. When you come again, you will find me
+here. A merry riding to you. <i>Beannacht leath!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Brian looked at him grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Your curse would make better company than your blessing, O'Donnell," he
+said, and turned to his horse with no more words.</p>
+
+<p>The Scots who were standing around gave vent to a murmur of approval,
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> Brian saw the black looks passing between them and the wild
+O'Donnells. The Highlanders had done murdering enough in Ireland since
+Hamilton brought them over, but they were outspoken men, who had little
+love for poisoners; and as Brian settled into the saddle with his huge
+sword slung across his back, he caught more than one word of muttered
+approval, which the Dark Master was powerless to check.</p>
+
+<p>So Yellow Brian rode out from the castle he had lost, with Turlough Wolf
+at his heels, and his heart was very sore. Once across the filled-in
+moat and he saw fifty men at work by the shore, loading the dead into
+boats to be buried in the bay, for the ground was hard-frozen.</p>
+
+<p>Parties of Scots troopers and the horseless O'Donnells were scattered
+over the farmlands and country ahead, but these offered no menace as the
+two horsemen rode slowly through them. For all his bitterness, Brian
+noted that the four pirate ships had been brought around into the bay
+before the castle, into which the Scots had moved, while a great number
+of the O'Donnells had landed and were hastily throwing up brush huts on
+the height above the shore, evidently intending to camp there for the
+present.</p>
+
+<p>That was a dark leave-taking for Brian, since he had lost so many men
+and his castle to boot. Yet more than once he looked back on Bertragh,
+and when they came to the last rise of ground before the track wound
+into the hills and woods, he drew rein and pointed back with a curt
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"This night I shall return, Turlough, and I think we shall catch the
+Dark Master off his guard at last. If we throw part of our men on that
+camp at dawn and the rest upon the castle, the tables may yet be
+turned."</p>
+
+<p>"A good rede, Brian O'Neill," nodded the old Wolf approvingly. At thus
+hearing his name Brian flung Turlough one lightning-swift glance, then
+pulled out his Spanish sword and threw it high, and caught it again with
+a great shout.</p>
+
+<p>"Tyr-owen! <i>Slainte!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>With that he put spurs to his horse and rode on with better heart,
+striving to forget his troubles in thinking of the stroke he would deal
+that night. If those three pigeons had won clear to Gorumna, he would
+find Nuala and her men waiting at Cathbarr's tower, and before the dawn
+they would be back again and over the hills.</p>
+
+<p>So they rode onward, and presently came to a stretch of forest, dark
+against the snow. Suddenly Turlough drew up with a frightened glance
+around.</p>
+
+<p>"Master&mdash;what is that wail? If I ever heard a banshee, that is the cry!
+Beware of the Little People, master&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" exclaimed Brian, drawing rein also and listening. He heard a
+faint, sobbing cry come from ahead, and so mournful was it, so charged
+with wild grief, that for an instant his heart stood still, and the
+color fled from his face.</p>
+
+<p>"It is some woman wailing her dead, Turlough," he said at length,
+although doubtfully. "Yet I have never heard a <i>caoine</i> like it; but
+onward, and let us see."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, master!" implored the old man. "Let us cut over the hills and go
+by another path&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Go, if you are afraid," returned Brian, and spurred forward. The other
+hesitated, but followed unwillingly, and a moment later Brian came upon
+the cause of that mournful wailing, as the trees closed about them and
+the road wound into a hollow.</p>
+
+<p>The dingle was so sheltered by the brooding pines that there was little
+snow, except on the track itself, and no wind. Under the spreading
+splay-boughs to the right was what seemed to be a heap of rags and
+tatters, though the wailing cry ceased as the two riders clattered down,
+with Turlough keeping well behind Brian.</p>
+
+<p>The latter drew rein, seeing that the creature under the pine-boughs was
+some old crone whose grief seemed more bitter still than his own.</p>
+
+<p>"What is wrong, mother?" he cried cheerily. "Are you from one of the
+Bertragh farms?"</p>
+
+<p>The tattered heap moved slightly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> and a wrinkled, withered face peered
+up at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, I come from farther than that," and to his surprise there was a
+mocking note in her voice, though it was weak. "That is a good horse of
+yours, <i>ma boucal</i>; he must trot sixteen miles to the hour, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"All of that, mother," returned Brian, wondering if the old crone was
+out of her senses. "Was it you whom I heard wailing a moment ago? Where
+is your home?"</p>
+
+<p>The old woman broke into a cackle of hideous laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"My home, is it? Once I had a home, Yellow Brian&mdash;and it was in
+Dungannon, with Tyr-owen and Cormac and Art and the noblest of the
+chiefs of Ulster to do me honor! Have you forgotten me, Brian O'Neill,
+since we met at the Dee Water?"</p>
+
+<p>Then Brian gave a great cry, and swung down to earth, for now he
+recognized the Black Woman. But as he strode toward her she tried to
+rise and failed, and forth from the midst of her rags came a quick gush
+of red blood. Brian leaped forward and caught her in his arms, pitying
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you," she gasped out weakly, clutching at his shoulder. "I knew
+you, son of Tyr-owen! You had yellow hair, but your face was the face I
+once loved, the face of the great Hugh&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped abruptly, and her words were lost in a choking gasp as blood
+came from her mouth. Brian swore.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Mile Mollaght!</i> What has happened here, woman? Are you wounded?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, those dogs of O'Donnells," she moaned feebly. Then new strength
+came to her, and she peered up with another cackle. "But did I not tell
+wisely, son? Have you not found Cathbarr of the Ax and the Bird Daughter
+even as I foretold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," returned Brian impatiently. "Where are you wounded, mother?
+We can take you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Peace, avic," she cried. "They came on me last night, and my life is
+gone. You shall take vengeance for the old <i>calliagh</i>, Brian&mdash;but first
+I must talk. Do you know who I am, avic&mdash;or who I was, rather?"</p>
+
+<p>"How should I know that, mother?" answered Brian. "Old Turlough Wolf,
+yonder, swears you are some witch&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Turlough!" The hag raised herself on his arm, cackling. "So the old
+Wolf is still living! Do <i>you</i> know me, Turlough? Do you remember the
+sorrowful day of the earl's flight?"</p>
+
+<p>Old Turlough, who had ridden closer, bent over and looked down, fear in
+his face. Suddenly he straightened up again with a wild cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Noreen of Breffny! By my hand, it is the earl's love!"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, the earl's love!" she gasped out, falling back. "I was his love in
+truth, Yellow Brian, and he loved me above all the rest, though
+another's hand closed his eyes and laid him to earth in Rome. I knew you
+would come, Brian&mdash;I saw you at Drogheda, though you saw me not, and I
+bade you come here into the West, and I have watched over you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She coughed horribly, clutching at Brian's arm. He stared down at her in
+amazement, for the incredible story seemed true enough. This old hag had
+been that Noreen of Breffny of whom he had heard much&mdash;the fairest maid
+of the North, whom the great earl had loved to the last, though the
+church had not blessed their union.</p>
+
+<p>Brian's old Irish nurse had often told him of the "Breffny lily," and it
+was bitter and hard to realize that this ancient hag, withered and
+shrunk and done to death by the Dark Master's men, had been the fairest
+maid in Ulster. She gasped out a little more of her story, and Brian
+found that his wild surmises had been true; after seeing him and
+recognizing him for one of the earl's house, she had instantly led his
+mind to this part of the country, being aware of the strife between
+O'Donnell and Nuala<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> O'Malley. It had been a crazed notion enough, and
+since then she had kept as near to him as possible in the half-sane idea
+that she might help him.</p>
+
+<p>How she had managed to do it ever remained a mystery to Brian, since his
+marches had been none of the slowest, but she had done so.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are&mdash;your men?" she exclaimed after a little. Brian told her what
+had chanced at the castle, and she broke out in a last wild cackling
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Tyr-owen's luck!" she cried. "Betrayed and blasted, betrayed and
+blasted&mdash;but the root of the tree is still strong, Yellow Brian&mdash;give me
+your blessing, master&mdash;give Noreen your blessing before you go to Rome,
+Hugh <i>mo mhuirnin</i>&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Brian's face blanched and his hands trembled, for he saw that her
+wandering mind took him for his grandsire.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Dhia agus mhuire orth</i>," he murmured, and with a little sob the Black
+Woman died.</p>
+
+<p>Silence fell upon the dingle, as Brian gazed down at the woman his
+grandfather had loved, and whose love had been no less. Then Turlough
+pushed his horse closer, looking down with a shrewd leer.</p>
+
+<p>"Said she not that it would be a black day when you met her again,
+master?" he queried with awe in his voice. "I think&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Keep silence!" commanded Brian shortly. "Get down from that horse and
+dig a grave."</p>
+
+<p>"But the ground is frozen&mdash;" began old Turlough in dismay. Brian gave
+him one look, and the old man hastily dismounted, crossing himself and
+mumbling.</p>
+
+<p>Brian joined him, and they managed to scoop out a shallow grave with
+knife and sword, laid the old woman in it, and covered her up again. It
+was a sorry burial for the love of the great earl, but it was the best
+they could do.</p>
+
+<p>Shaken more than he cared to admit, Brian mounted and rode on in
+silence. As he had thought, there was nothing supernatural about this
+weird Black Woman, except, perhaps, the manner in which she had
+contrived to keep close to him. She had warned him at the Stone
+Mountain, and she must have been keeping close to Bertragh ever since,
+unseen by any, with her unhinged mind driving her forward relentlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor woman!" he thought darkly, gazing into the hills ahead. "There has
+been little luck to any who ever followed an O'Neill or loved an
+O'Neill! And now it seems likely that the same ill luck of all my family
+is to dog my heels, bringing me up to the heights, only to cast me down
+lower than before. Well, I may fall, but it shall not be until I have
+dragged down the Dark Master. If I fall not I may yet best the ill-luck
+and conquer Millhaven for my own."</p>
+
+<p>With that his mind leaped ahead again as the plan outlined itself to
+him. The O'Donnell pirates must have brought their whole force to the
+Dark Master's aid, and if he could but cut off that camp of theirs
+between the castle and the shore, Nuala O'Malley might bring her two
+ships against the weakened four and take them all.</p>
+
+<p>Then, when the castle had fallen, he could sail north to Millhaven,
+reduce the stronghold there, and let fly his own banner at last. It was
+a good plan, but it hung on many things.</p>
+
+<p>With a short laugh at his own fancies he turned in the saddle as the
+voice of Turlough broke into his musings.</p>
+
+<p>"I mind the last time I saw the poor woman back yonder, master. It was
+just before the great flight, and I mind now that she was not so
+ill-looking even then, though she was well past her youth, and that was
+forty years ago. Tyr-connall's bag-pipe men were blowing as we marched
+to Lough Swilly, and two earls rode in front when the poor <i>caillin</i>
+rushed out and flung herself under Tyr-owen's horse&mdash;oh, <i>Mhuire as
+truagh, Mhuire as truagh</i> for the old days! And when the earl died, her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+name was on his lips, and I came home again to find her disappeared. Oh,
+what sorrow for the old days! Would that I had died in Rome with the
+princes&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop that wailing," interrupted Brian sternly, for the old man was
+lashing himself into a frenzy of grief. "Put spurs to that horse of
+yours, Turlough, for we must reach Cathbarr's tower by noon if possible
+in order to start the men off over the hills. It'll be a long night's
+march, and I've no time to be idling here on the road."</p>
+
+<p>Upon which he dug in his spurs and urged his steed into a gallop, and in
+order to keep up, Turlough Wolf had to give over his laments and do
+likewise. Brian forced himself to bend all his energies toward carrying
+out his final desperate plan, but he silently vowed that the old woman
+who had so foully been cut down by the O'Donnells should not die
+unavenged.</p>
+
+<p>On they galloped without pause, gained the head of Bertraghboy Bay, and
+swung to the east on the last stretch of the trip. The storm which had
+arisen so inopportunely was now dying away, and the sun was breaking
+through the gray clouds; when they turned out from the main track into
+the hill-paths that led to Cathbarr's tower, the rough ground made them
+slow their pace. When they were still three miles from the tower,
+however, Brian gave a shout.</p>
+
+<p>"Men, Turlough! Cathbarr has sent out men to meet us!"</p>
+
+<p>So, indeed, it proved, and five minutes later a dozen men met them with
+yells of delighted welcome. From these overjoyed fellows Brian quickly
+learned that Cathbarr was at the tower and that Nuala O'Malley had just
+arrived there.</p>
+
+<p>So, leaving them to follow, he and Turlough went on at their best speed,
+and twenty minutes later they topped that same long rise from which
+Brian had first gazed down on the little promontory where stood
+Cathbarr's tower. But now, as he saw what lay beneath, he drew up with a
+shout of amazement.</p>
+
+<p>For around the tower and at the base at the neck of land were camped a
+goodly force of men, while at anchor near the tower lay&mdash;not Nuala's two
+ships alone, but also those other two of her kinsmen!</p>
+
+<p>"Those two O'Malleys have returned from the south," exclaimed Turlough
+in wild delight. "That means more men and ships, master&mdash;we will cut off
+those Millhaven pirates to a man!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian sent out a long shout, but his arrival had already been noted. As
+he rode down the slope, men poured from the camp and tower, and ahead of
+them all came Cathbarr of the Ax, with Nuala and Lame Art and Shaun the
+Little behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome!" bellowed the giant with a huge laugh, pulling Brian from his
+horse with a great hug of delight. "Welcome, brother!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian escaped from his grip and bowed over the Bird Daughter's hand. As
+he rose, he saw that her face had lost its ruddy hue, and that her eyes
+were ringed with darkness. Before he could speak she smiled and gripped
+his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"The birds came safe, and we know all. Yesterday arrived these kinsmen
+of mine, and their force is joined to our own, Yellow Brian&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Brian held up his hand, halting her suddenly, and silence fell on the
+men who had crowded around. For a moment he gazed into her deep eyes,
+then flung up his head and his voice rang clear and stern in the
+stillness.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Nuala," he said quietly, "I promised you that when I slew the Dark
+Master I would tell you my name. Before another day has passed I shall
+have slain him; and now I tell you and your kinsmen that I renounce all
+fealty to you."</p>
+
+<p>At this the Bird Daughter started, staring in amazement, while an abrupt
+oath burst from Lame Art. Brian went on calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"This I do because it is not meet that The O'Neill should give fealty to
+any,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> Lady Nuala. I am Brian O'Neill, of right The O'Neill and Earl of
+Tyr-owen, though these are empty titles. And this night you and I shall
+fall on Bertragh together, Bird Daughter, and when we have won it again
+it shall be yours as of old."</p>
+
+<p>And amid a great roar of shouts welling up around him Brian bowed to
+Nuala.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Brian O'Neill," she said, quieting the tumult a little, "am I to
+understand that you wish to make pact with me, and to receive no
+reward?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment he gazed openly and frankly into her eyes, and under his
+look the red crept into her cheeks again; yet her own eyes did not
+flinch.</p>
+
+<p>Brian laughed out.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, lady! It may be that I shall have a reward to ask of you, but that
+may not be until I have won back what I have lost for you."</p>
+
+<p>"And what if the reward be too great?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that shall be for you to say!" and Brian laughed again. "Is it
+agreed, Bird Daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>For an instant he thought she meant to refuse, as she drew herself up
+and met his level eyes; the men around held their breaths, and the
+O'Malley chiefs glanced at each other in puzzled wonder. Then her quick
+laugh rippled out and she gave him her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed, Brian&mdash;and I hope that you can shave that yellow beard of yours
+by to-morrow!"</p>
+
+<p>And the great yell that went up from the men drowned all else in Brian's
+ears.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">THE STORM BURSTS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"Now, the first thing is to see what force of men we have," said Brian,
+after the midday meal. They were all gathered in Cathbarr's tower before
+a log fire, and were preparing the plan of campaign.</p>
+
+<p>"I have my hundred and eighty men," said Nuala. "When that last pigeon
+came from you I set out at once. With the hundred men under Cathbarr, we
+have close to three hundred. You can take them all, for my kinsmen here
+have enough and to spare to handle my two ships as well as theirs."</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" exclaimed Brian, as the two O'Malleys nodded. "I think that by
+striking at dawn we shall find most of the O'Donnells ashore or in the
+castle, and if you time your sailing to strike on their four ships at
+the same time we may easily take castle, camp, and ships at one blow."</p>
+
+<p>"If all went as men planned we would not need to pray Heaven for aid,"
+quoth Shaun the Little sententiously. Brian glanced at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? What do you mean by that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," returned the wide-shouldered seaman with a shrug. "Except
+that there may be more to it than we think, Brian."</p>
+
+<p>"The Dark Master will not suspect your return so suddenly," spoke up
+Nuala. "Pay no heed to Shaun, Brian&mdash;he was ever a croaker. When think
+you we had best start?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am no seaman," laughed Brian. "Get there at dawn, that is all. I will
+send on my men at once, then; since we have only two horses, Cathbarr
+and I will ride after them later and catch them up. Will you take the
+men, Turlough, or bide here out of danger?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it will be safest with the Lady Nuala," hesitated the old man
+craftily.</p>
+
+<p>"Little you know her, then," roared Lame Art, his cousin joining in the
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>So Turlough had decided, however, and he stuck to it. Brian then
+described closely how the four pirate ships lay in the bay under
+Bertragh, while Shaun went out to arrange the distribution of his men on
+Nuala's ships.</p>
+
+<p>The arrangements having been perfected, Brian saw his three hundred men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+troop off on their march over the hills, after which he told Nuala at
+greater length all that had taken place in the castle since his parting
+with her at sea. Bitter and unrestrained were the curses of the
+O'Malleys as they heard of how his men had been poisoned, while Nuala's
+eyes flamed forth anger.</p>
+
+<p>"There shall be no quarter to these O'Donnells," she cried hotly. "Those
+whom we take shall hang, and the Scots with them&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the Scots," exclaimed Brian quickly. "They are honest men enough,
+Nuala, and may serve us well as recruits. If we find them in the castle,
+as I think we shall, we may leave them there until we have finished the
+Millhaven men; however, it is possible that my men will find the castle
+almost unguarded, and so take it at the first blow. However that turns
+out, the Dark Master shall not escape us this time."</p>
+
+<p>During the afternoon, when the two O'Malleys were busily getting their
+ships in order for the coming fray, Brian sat in the tower with Nuala.
+He told her freely of himself, and although neither of them referred to
+that reward of which he had spoken at their meeting, Brian knew well
+that he would claim it.</p>
+
+<p>He did not conceal from himself that the Black Woman had guided him to
+more than conquest by sword. The Bird Daughter was such a woman as he
+had dreamed of, but had never found at the Spanish court, and he knew
+that whether there was love in her heart or not, his own soul was in her
+keeping.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps he was not the only one who knew this, for as Lame Art rowed out
+with his cousin, the latter nodded back at the tower.</p>
+
+<p>"What think you of this ally, Art Bocagh? Could he be truly the Earl's
+grandson?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know not," grunted the other. "But I do not care whether he be Brian
+Buidh or Brian O'Neill or Brian the devil&mdash;he is such a man as I would
+fain see sitting in Gorumna Castle, Shaun!"</p>
+
+<p>And Shaun the Little nodded with a grin.</p>
+
+<p>When the sun began its westering, Brian and Cathbarr rode back from the
+tower with food and weapons at their saddle-bows, and they paused at the
+hill-crest to watch the four ships weigh anchor and up sail, then went
+on into the hills. They were to meet their men at that valley where the
+Dark Master had been defeated and broken in the first siege, and jogged
+along slowly, resting as they rode.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," said Cathbarr suddenly, fingering the haft of his ax and
+looking at Brian, "do you remember my telling you, that night after we
+had bearded the Dark Master and got the loan of those two-score men, how
+an old witch-woman had predicted my fate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," returned Brian, with a sharp glance. In the giant's face there
+was only a simple good-humor, however, mingled with a childlike
+confidence in all things. "And I told you that you were not bound to my
+service."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I am bound to your friendship," laughed Cathbarr rumblingly. "I
+can well understand how I might die in a cause not mine own, since I am
+fighting for you; but I cannot see how death is to come upon me through
+water and fire, brother!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense," smiled Brian. "Death is far from your heels, brother, unless
+you are seeking it."</p>
+
+<p>"Not I, Brian. I neither seek nor avoid if the time comes. Only I wish
+that witch-woman had told me a little more&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your mind off it, Cathbarr," said Brian. "In Spain the Moriscoes
+say that the fate of man is written on his forehead, and God is just."</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil do I care about that?" bellowed Cathbarr. "I care not
+when I die, brother&mdash;but I want to strike a blow or two first, and how
+can that be done if death comes by water and fire?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, take heart," laughed Brian,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> seeing the cause of the other's
+anxiety. "You are not like to die from that cause to-night, and I
+promise you blows enough and to spare."</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr grunted and said no more. The last of the storm had fled away,
+and the two men rode through a glittering sunset and a clear, cold
+evening that promised well for the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>They traveled easily, and it was hard on midnight when a sentry stopped
+them half a mile from the hollow where the men were resting. Brian noted
+with approval that no fires had been lighted, and he and Cathbarr at
+once lay down to get an hour's sleep among the men.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours before daybreak the camp was astir, and Brian gathered his
+lieutenants to arrange the attack. Thinking that the Dark Master would
+be in the castle, he and Cathbarr took a hundred men for that attack,
+ordering the rest to get as close to the camp as might be, but not to
+attack until he had struck on the castle, and to cut off the O'Donnells
+from their ships. Then, assured that the plan was understood, he and
+Cathbarr loaded their pistols and set out with the hundred.</p>
+
+<p>Brian ordered his men to give quarter to all the Scots who would accept
+it, if they got inside the castle, and as they marched forward through
+the darkness he found to his delight that O'Donnell seemed to have no
+sentries out.</p>
+
+<p>"We have caught the black fox this time," muttered Cathbarr, after they
+had passed the camp-fires without discovery and the black mass of the
+castle loomed up ahead. "They will hardly have repaired those gates by
+now, brother."</p>
+
+<p>Brian nodded, and ordered his men to rest, barely a hundred paces from
+the castle. Since there was no need of attacking before dawn, in order
+to let Nuala come up the bay, he went forward with Cathbarr to look at
+the gates.</p>
+
+<p>These, as nearly as he could tell, were still shattered in; there were
+fires in the courtyard, and sentries were on the wall, but their watch
+was lax and the two below were not discovered. They rejoined the
+hundred, and Brian bade Cathbarr follow him through the hall to that
+chamber he himself had occupied in the tower, where O'Donnell was most
+likely to be found.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no use of delaying further," he said, when at length the grayness
+of dawn began to dull the starlight. Since to light matches would have
+meant discovery, he had brought with him those hundred Kerry pikemen
+Nuala had recruited after the dark Master's defeat, and he passed on the
+word to follow.</p>
+
+<p>The mass of men gained the moat before a challenge rang out from above,
+and with that Brian leaped forward at the gates. A musket roared out,
+and another, but Brian and Cathbarr were in the courtyard before the
+Scots awakened. A startled group barred their way to the hall, then
+Brian thrust once, the huge ax crashed down, and they were through.</p>
+
+<p>Other men were sleeping in the hall, but Brian did not stop to battle
+here, running through before the half-awakened figures sensed what was
+forward. A great din of clashing steel and yells was rising from the
+court; then he and Cathbarr gained the seaward battlements and rushed at
+the Dark Master's chamber. The door was open&mdash;it was empty.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the two stared at each other in blank dismay. With a yell,
+a half-dozen Scots swirled down on them, but Brian threw up his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"The castle is mine," he shouted. "You shall have quarter!"</p>
+
+<p>The Scots halted, and when two or three of the Kerry pikemen dashed up
+with news that the rest of the garrison had been cut down or given
+quarter, they surrendered.</p>
+
+<p>Brian's first question was as to O'Donnell.</p>
+
+<p>"Either at the camp or aboard one of his kinsmen's ships," returned one
+of the prisoners. "They were carousing all last evening."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>At the same instant Cathbarr caught Brian's arm and whirled him about.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, brother!"</p>
+
+<p>So swift had been Brian's attack that the castle had been won in a scant
+three minutes. Now, as he listened, there came a ragged roar of
+musketry, pierced by yells, and he knew that the camp was attacked.</p>
+
+<p>With that, a sudden fear came on him that he would again be outwitted.
+There was a thin mist driving in from the sea which would be dissipated
+with the daybreak, and if the Dark Master was on one of the ships he
+might get away before Nuala's caracks could arrive. Brian had been so
+certain that he would find O'Donnell in the castle that the
+disappointment was a bitter one, but he knew that there was no time to
+lose.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," he ordered Cathbarr quickly, "get a score of the men and to the
+camp. Leave the others here to hold the castle if need be."</p>
+
+<p>As he strode through the courtyard and the sullen groups of Scots
+prisoners, he directed the Kerry men to load the bastards on the walls
+and give what help might be in destroying the pirate ships. Then, with
+Cathbarr and twenty eager men at his back, he set off for the camp at a
+run, fearful that he might yet be too late.</p>
+
+<p>The day was brightening fast, and from the camp rose a mighty din of
+shouts and steel and musketry. Brian's men had charged after one hasty
+volley, but their leader gave a groan of dismay as he saw that instead
+of attacking from the seaward side as he had ordered, they were pouring
+into the camp from the land side.</p>
+
+<p>O'Donnell must have landed the greater part of his men, for Brian's
+force was being held in check, though they had swept in among the brush
+huts. Over the tumult Brian heard the piercing voice of the Dark Master,
+and with a flame of rage hot in his mind he sped forward and found
+himself confronted by a yelling mass of O'Donnells.</p>
+
+<p>Then fell a sterner battle than any Brian had waged. In the lessening
+obscurity it was hard to tell friend from foe, since the mist was
+swirling in off the water and holding down the powder-smoke. Brian saved
+his pistols, and, with Cathbarr at his side, struck into the wild,
+shaggy-haired northern men; they were armed with ax and sword and skean,
+and Brian soon found himself hard beset despite the pikemen behind.</p>
+
+<p>The Spanish blade licked in and out like a tongue of steel, and Brian's
+skill stood him in good stead that morn. Ax and broadsword crashed at
+him, and as he wore no armor save a steel cap, he more than once gave
+himself up for lost. But ever his thin, five-foot steel drove home to
+the mark, and ever Cathbarr's great ax hammered and clove at his side,
+so that the fight surged back and forth among the huts, as it was
+surging on the other side where was the Dark Master, holding off the
+main attack.</p>
+
+<p>Little by little the mist eddied away, however, and the day began to
+break. A fresh surge of the wild O'Donnells bore down on Brian's party,
+and as they did so a man rose up from among the wounded and stabbed at
+Brian with his skean. Brian kicked the arm aside, but slipped in blood
+and snow and went down; as a yell shrilled up from the pirates, Cathbarr
+leaped forward over him, swinging his ax mightily. With the blunt end he
+caught one man full in the face, then drove down his sharp edge and
+clove another head to waist. For an instant he was unable to get out his
+ax, but Brian thrust up and drove death to a third, then stood on his
+feet again.</p>
+
+<p>At the same instant there came a roar from across the camp where his
+main body of men were engaged, and Brian thrilled to the sound. As he
+afterward found, it was done by Turlough's cunning word; but up over the
+din of battle rose the great shout that struck dismay to the pirates and
+heartened Brian himself to new efforts.</p>
+
+<p>"Tyr-owen! Tyr-owen!"</p>
+
+<p>With a bellow of "Tyr-owen!" Cath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>barr went at the foe, and Brian joined
+him with his own battle-cry on his lips for the first time in his life.
+The shout swelled louder and louder, and among the huts Brian got a
+glimpse of the Dark Master. In vain he tried to break through the
+Millhaven men, however; they stood like a wall, dying as they fought,
+but giving no ground until the ax and the sword had cloven a way,
+although the remnant of the twenty pikemen were fighting like fiends.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a yell of dismay went up from the O'Donnell ranks, and they
+broke in wild confusion. Leaning on his sword and panting for breath,
+Brian looked around and saw what had shattered them so swiftly.</p>
+
+<p>While the stubborn fight had raged, the eastern sky had been streaming
+and bursting into flame. Now, sharply outlined against the crimson
+water, appeared Nuala's four ships close on those of the pirates. Even
+as he looked, Brian saw their cannon spit out white smoke, while from
+behind came a deeper thunder as the castle's guns sent their heavy balls
+over the pirate ships.</p>
+
+<p>These were anchored a hundred yards from shore, and Brian saw the danger
+that betided as the stream of fugitives swept down toward the boats.
+Nuala's ships were undermanned, for he had counted on cutting off most
+of the pirates in the camp; should the Dark Master get to the ships with
+his men, things were like to go hard.</p>
+
+<p>"To the boats!" cried Brian to Cathbarr, and leaping over the dead, the
+two joined their men and poured down on the shore.</p>
+
+<p>The Dark Master himself stood by one of the boats, and others were
+filling fast with men as they were shoved down. Brian tried to cut his
+way to O'Donnell, but before he could do so the Dark Master had leaped
+aboard and oars were out. Fully aware of their danger, those of the
+pirates who could do so got into their boats and lay off the shore,
+while others splashed aboard; Brian led his men down with a rush,
+cutting down man after man, splashing out into the swirling water and
+hacking at those in the boats, but all in vain. Some half-dozen of the
+boats got off, crowded with men, while the remnant of the pirates held
+off Brian's force that their master might escape.</p>
+
+<p>Drawing out of the fight, Brian pulled forth his pistols and emptied
+them both at the figure of O'Donnell. He saw the Dark Master reel, and
+the rower next him plunged forward over the bows, but the next moment
+O'Donnell had taken up the oar himself and was at work in mad haste.
+Brian groaned and flung away his pistols.</p>
+
+<p>Those aboard the pirate ships had already cut the cables and were
+striving to make sail, for there was a light off-shore breeze in their
+favor, with an ebbing tide. The O'Malley ships were close on them,
+however, and as the cannon crashed out anew the masts of one O'Donnell
+ship crashed over. But the Dark Master's boat was alongside another of
+the ships, whose sails were streaming up, and now his cannon began to
+answer those of Nuala.</p>
+
+<p>But Brian stood in bitterness, unmindful of the wild yells of his men,
+for once more the Dark Master had escaped his hand at the last moment.
+Shaun the Little had been correct in his "croakings."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">CATHBARR YIELDS UP HIS AX.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Brian gazed out at the scene before him in dull despair. So close were
+the ships that he could clearly make out Nuala's figure, with its
+shimmering mail and red cloak, on the poop of the foremost.</p>
+
+<p>Her second carack had fallen behind, a shot having sent its foremast
+overside, but the other two ships were driving in. All three were
+lowering sail, for the Dark Master's craft were unable to get out of the
+bay and were giving over the attempt; his disabled ship was sending
+over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> its men to reinforce him, and Brian saw all his own efforts gone
+for nothing.</p>
+
+<p>There came a new burst of cannon, and through the veil of smoke he
+perceived that Nuala was laying her carack alongside one of the pirate
+ships. But it was not that on which stood the Dark Master; his was the
+ship closest to the castle, and Lame Art was bearing down on him, while
+Shaun the Little stood for the third, spitting out a final broadside as
+he came about and lowered sail.</p>
+
+<p>The crowding men on the shore had fallen silent as they watched the
+impending conflict, but now Brian felt Cathbarr touch his arm, and
+turned.</p>
+
+<p>"Why so doleful, brother?" grinned the giant; though blood dripped into
+his beard from a light slash over the brow, his eyes were as clear and
+childlike as ever, and the rage of battle had gone from him. "Let us
+join in that fight, you and I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?" Brian started, staring at him. "How may that be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ho, here is our captain given way to despair!" bellowed Cathbarr, and
+his fist smote down on Brian's back. "Wake up, brother! We have three
+boats here, and we can still strike a blow or two!"</p>
+
+<p>Now Brian wakened to life indeed. He saw the three boats on the shore,
+with dead men hanging over them, and leaped instantly into action.</p>
+
+<p>"Push out those boats&mdash;get the oars, there!" he shouted, leaping down to
+help shove them out. The men saw his intent, and sprang to work with a
+howl of delight.</p>
+
+<p>In no long time the dead were flung out, and the boats pushed down until
+they were afloat. Brian leaped into one, Cathbarr into another, and men
+piled in after them until the craft were almost awash.</p>
+
+<p>An eddy in the veil of smoke that hung over the bay showed Brian that
+Lame Art's ship had grappled with that of O'Donnell, and with renewed
+confidence thrilling in him, he shouted to his men to get aboard the
+O'Malley ship. The Bertragh cannon had ceased to thunder as the ships
+came together, but from the ships balls were hailing, musketry was
+crackling, and the water was tearing into spurting jets around the
+boats.</p>
+
+<p>Brian's men fell to their oars in sorry fashion enough, but they made up
+in energy what they lacked in skill. Driving past Nuala's ship, Brian
+saw that she had also grappled and that the battle was raging over her
+bulwarks, but sorely tempted to turn aside though he was, he waved his
+men on.</p>
+
+<p>They rowed close under the ship to which she was fastened, and as they
+sped past the O'Donnells saw them, and gave them a scattering volley.
+One or two of Brian's men went down, and a cry broke from him as he saw
+a round shot heaved over into his third boat, sinking her; then they
+were past, and bearing down on Art Bocagh's ship.</p>
+
+<p>"Tyr-owen for O'Malley!"</p>
+
+<p>Cathbarr's bellow rose over the tumult, and his boat crashed into the
+waist of the ship just as Brian leaped up into the mizzen-chains. His
+feet gained hold on a triced-up port, and as he looked down he saw a
+swell heave up the two boats, then bring them down together with a
+splintering smash.</p>
+
+<p>The result was dire confusion. None of the men were seamen, but some of
+them gained the side of Brian, others scrambled in through the ports,
+and more than one of them fell short and went down. Standing in the
+sinking boat with the water swirling about his ankles, Cathbarr caught
+up his ax and leaped; a moment later Brian was over the bulwarks with
+the giant at his side, and the O'Malleys welcomed them with a yell of
+joy.</p>
+
+<p>They were badly needed, indeed. The Dark Master had led his men in
+furious onslaught across the waist of the ship, and Art Bocagh was being
+beaten back to the poop despite his stubborn resistance. Brian saw that
+the Dark Master's men far outnumbered Art's, while from the rigging of
+each ship musketeers were sending down bullets into the m&ecirc;l&eacute;e. With<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> a
+shout, Brian and Cathbarr led their men on the O'Donnell flank, and the
+tide of battle turned.</p>
+
+<p>At the first instant the rush of men bore Brian against the Dark Master,
+who was fighting like a demon. Brian caught the snarl on the other's
+pallid face, and struck savagely; O'Donnell parried the blow with his
+skean and returned it, but Brian warded with his left arm and swept down
+his blade. The Dark Master flung himself back, but not far enough, and
+Brian saw the point rip open the pallid cheek. Even as he pressed his
+advantage, however, another surge of men separated them.</p>
+
+<p>Now Brian gave over every thought save that of reaching his enemy again,
+and fell on the O'Donnells with stark madness in his face. A pistol
+roared into his stubbly beard and the ball carried off his steel cap,
+but he cut down the man and pressed into the midst of the pirates,
+cutting and thrusting in terrible rage.</p>
+
+<p>At sight of him men bore back; the icy flame in his eyes took the heart
+from those who faced him, and behind rose Cathbarr's wild bellows as the
+giant hewed through after Brian. Back went the pirates, and farther
+back. Brian found that he had cut his way to Lame Art, and with a yell
+the forces joined and swept on the Dark Master's men.</p>
+
+<p>O'Donnell had vanished, and now his men were swept back to the bulwarks
+and over to their own deck. Here they made a brief stand; then Cathbarr
+leaped over into the midst and his ax crushed down two men at once;
+Brian followed him, and for an instant it seemed that they would sweep
+all before them.</p>
+
+<p>Just then, however, Lame Art toppled from the bulwarks with a bullet
+through him from above, and the Dark Master's disappearance was
+explained by a rain of grenades that whirled among the O'Malleys. They
+gave back in dismay, Brian and Cathbarr were forced after them, and the
+Dark Master himself led his men in a mad stream over the bulwarks once
+more.</p>
+
+<p>There was no stopping them now. The death of Art Bocagh had disheartened
+his men, and amid flashing steel and spurting fire Brian and Cathbarr
+retreated to the quarterdeck. Here they had a brief breathing space
+until the pirates came at them anew, and with such fury that three of
+them gained a footing to one side. Brian went at them with a shout,
+thrust one man through the body, sent a second back with his bare fist,
+and as the third man struck down at him a pikeman transfixed the man
+before the blow could fall.</p>
+
+<p>The boarders drew back, but as they did so a great heave of the grinding
+ships broke the hastily flung grapplings. The ships were borne apart,
+and the Dark Master with most of his men remained in the waist of the
+O'Malley ship.</p>
+
+<p>This gave a new turn to the conflict. O'Donnell had to master the ship
+to win free, and when Brian saw this he gave a great laugh and rejoined
+Cathbarr. A quick glance around showed him that Nuala was slowly winning
+her grappled decks, while Shaun the Little was hanging off and sending
+his cannon crashing into the third pirate ship. The two disabled craft
+were slowly drawing together with the tide, which was forcing all eight
+into the bay, and were pounding away with their guns as they came.</p>
+
+<p>Now the combat resolved itself into a desperate struggle for possession
+of the quarterdeck, which Brian and Cathbarr held. The Dark Master's men
+swarmed up at them bravely enough, but the ax and sword flashed up and
+down, and time after time the Millhaven men fell back, unable to win a
+footing. Twice the Dark Master himself led them, snarling with baffled
+rage, but the first time a pikeman thrust him down and the second time
+Cathbarr's ax glanced from his helm.</p>
+
+<p>O'Donnell reeled back and was lost to sight for a time.</p>
+
+<p>"That was a poor blow," grunted the giant in disgust. "'Ware, brother!
+Stand aside!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian leaped away as the men behind him ran out a falcon and sent its
+blast<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> into the crowd below in the waist. A dozen men went down under
+that storm of death, but almost at the same moment a grenade burst
+behind the falcon, and with that Brian was driven back as a keg of
+powder tore out half the quarterdeck in a bursting wall of flame and
+smoke.</p>
+
+<p>Barely had the shattering roar died out when Brian's reeling senses
+caught a wild yell of dismay from his men.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire! The ship is afire forward!"</p>
+
+<p>Brian saw that the grenades had indeed fired the ship forward, while the
+explosion had sent the quarterdeck into a burst of fire also, and the
+lowered but unfurled sails were roaring up in flame.</p>
+
+<p>Up poured the O'Malleys, and Brian staggered back to the poop. He had a
+vision of the great form of Cathbarr heaving up through the smoke,
+blackened and bleeding, but with the ax whirling like a leaf and smiting
+down men; then Brian gained the poop, helped the giant up, and with the
+few men left they turned to drive down the pirates, who were striving
+desperately to win the ship before it was too late.</p>
+
+<p>As he stood with Cathbarr at the narrow break of the poop, beating down
+man after man, Brian knew that it was only a question of time now, for
+the whole ship was breaking into flame forward. Suddenly he felt a tug
+at his buff coat, and looked down to see his belt fall away, sundered at
+his side by a bullet. He thought little of it, for he had half a dozen
+slight wounds, and turned to smite down at a man who had leaped for the
+poop; as his sword sheared through helm and skull, there came another
+tug, and Brian felt a bullet scrape along his ribs.</p>
+
+<p>The O'Donnells drew back momentarily, and in the brief pause Brian saw
+the figure of the Dark Master by the starboard rail in the waist, aiming
+up at him with a pistol, while two men behind him were hastily charging
+others. Cathbarr saw the action also, and hastily flung Brian aside, but
+too late. A burst of smoke flooded over the waist, and Brian caught the
+pistol-flash through it, as the ball ripped his left arm from shoulder
+to elbow. Then the pirates were at the poop again, and the waist was
+shut out by the flooding smoke as the wind drove it down from forward.</p>
+
+<p>With a scant dozen men behind them, Brian and Cathbarr once more beat
+the enemy back; the giant swung his ax less lightly now, and seemed to
+be covered with wounds, though most of them were slight. Brian still
+eyed the waist for another glimpse of the Dark Master, but the smoke was
+thick and he could see nothing. In the lull he flung a wan smile at
+Cathbarr, who stood leaning on his ax, his mail-shirt shredded and
+bloody.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you getting your fill of battle, brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye," grinned the giant, "and we had best swim for it in another minute
+or the ship&mdash;look! <i>M'anam an diaoul!</i> Look!"</p>
+
+<p>At his excited yell Brian turned, as a ball whistled between them. There
+below, in a boat half full of dead, but with two men at the oars, stood
+the Dark Master, just lowering his pistol. He flung the empty weapon up
+at Brian with a hoarse yell of anger, and passed from sight beneath the
+ship's counter, toward the stern.</p>
+
+<p>Realizing only that his enemy was escaping, Brian whirled and darted for
+the poop-cabins. He was dimly conscious of a mass of figures behind,
+amid whom stood Cathbarr with the ax heaving up and down, then he was in
+the cabins. Jerking open the door to the stern-walk, he saw the Dark
+Master's boat directly underneath, hardly six feet from him.</p>
+
+<p>"Tyr-owen!" yelled Brian, and dropping his sword, but holding his skean
+firmly, he hurdled the stern-walk railing and leaped.</p>
+
+<p>At that wild shout the Dark Master looked up, but he was too late. Brian
+hurtled down, his body striking O'Donnell full in the chest and driving
+him over on top of the two rowers, so that all four men sprawled out
+over the dead. For<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> an instant the shock drove the breath out of Brian,
+then he felt a hand close on his throat, and struck out with his skean.</p>
+
+<p>One of the rowers gurgled and fell back, and Brian rolled over just as
+steel sank into his side. Giddy and still breathless, he gained his
+knees to find the Dark Master thrusting at him from the stern, while at
+his side the other rower was rising. Brian brought up his fist, caught
+the man full on the chin, and drove him backward over the gunwale. The
+lurch of the boat flung the Dark Master forward, Brian felt a sickening
+wrench of pain as the sword pierced his shoulder and tore loose from
+O'Donnell's hand, then he had clutched his enemy's throat, and his skean
+went home.</p>
+
+<p>Spent though both men were, the sting of the steel woke the Dark Master
+to a burst of energy. As the two fell over the thwarts, he twisted above
+and bore Brian down and tried to break the grip on his throat, but could
+not. For the second time in his life Brian felt that he had a wild
+animal in his grasp; the sight of the snarling face, the venomous black
+eyes, and the consciousness that his own strength was slowly ebbing, all
+roused him to a last great effort.</p>
+
+<p>The smoke-pall had shut out everything but that wolfish face, and as he
+writhed up even that seemed to dim and blur before his eyes, so that in
+desperate fear he struck out again and again, blindly. The blows fell
+harmless enough, for all his strength was going into that right hand of
+his; he did not know that his fingers were crushing out the Dark
+Master's life, that O'Donnell's face was purple and his hands feebly
+beating the air.</p>
+
+<p>Brian knew only that the terrible face was hidden from him by some loss
+of vision, some horrible failure of sight due to his weakness. Suddenly
+there was a great crash at his side, and he thought that a huge ax with
+iron twisted around its haft had fallen from the sky and sheared away
+half the gunnel of the boat. He struck out again with his skean, and
+felt the blow go home&mdash;and with that there came a terrific, blinding
+roar. The smoke-veil was rent apart by a sheet of flame, Brian realized
+that the burning ship must have blown up, and then a blast of hot wind
+drove down against him and smote his senses from him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.<br />
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">THE STORM OF MEN COMES TO REST.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"Very well, Turlough. Tell Captain Peyton that I will give him an answer
+to his message to-night, then bid my kinsman Shaun entertain him in the
+hall, with the other officers. Send some food up here, and I may come
+down later."</p>
+
+<p>"And, mistress&mdash;you will tell me if&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely. Now go."</p>
+
+<p>Brian tried to open his eyes, but could not. He tried to move, but could
+not; and realized at length that he was lying on a bed, and that a
+bandage was on his head and others on his limbs.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a hand fell on his cheek, and a thrill shot through him; his
+beard had been shaved away, for he could feel the softness of the hand
+against his chin. He felt the hand passed over his mouth&mdash;and he kissed
+it.</p>
+
+<p>There was a startled gasp, then the soft hand returned to his cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Brian! Are you awake at last?"</p>
+
+<p>"I seem to be," he said, though his voice sounded more like a whisper.
+"Is that you, Nuala? Where are we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is I," came her voice softly, and something warm splashed on
+his cheek. "Oh, Brian! I so feared that&mdash;that you were dead!"</p>
+
+<p>The hand moved away, and he moved uneasily, to feel pain through his
+body.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, put back your hand!" he said. He tried to smile. "There, that's
+better. Where are we, Nuala? On your ship?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Brian&mdash;at Gorumna. But I forgot. Turlough said you must not talk&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, curse Turlough," he cried in irritation. "Gorumna? What has
+happened? Where is the Dark Master?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>"Lie still or I must leave you!" she cried sharply, and he obeyed. "The
+Dark Master's head is over the gate, Brian. It is two days since the
+fight."</p>
+
+<p>"Take that bandage from my eyes, Nuala," he said. After a minute her
+hands went to his head, and as he felt the bandage removed, light
+dazzled him, and he shut his eyes with a groan. Then he opened them
+again, and gradually he made out the figure of Nuala leaning over him,
+while a cresset shed light from above.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me what has happened," said Brian quietly, as he tried again to
+move and failed. "Why am I helpless here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are wounded," she replied softly. "Please lie quiet, Brian!
+I will tell you all that has chanced."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Cathbarr! Did we win?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we won; but&mdash;but Cathbarr&mdash;he must have flung away his ax before
+the ship exploded, for we found it sticking in your boat, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her voice broke, and a pang of bitterness shot through Brian as he
+remembered it all now. He groaned.</p>
+
+<p>"And I left him there to die! Oh, coward that I am&mdash;coward, and false to
+my friend&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A great sob shook his body, but Nuala's hands fell on his face, and
+there was fear in her voice when she answered him.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Brian&mdash;don't say that! If any one's fault, it was Shaun's for not
+coming sooner to your aid. Cathbarr died as he would have wished, and
+indeed as he always thought he would die. But now listen, Brian, for I
+have news."</p>
+
+<p>So, leaning over him, she swiftly told him of what had passed. The
+O'Donnells had been defeated and slain to the last man; one of their
+ships was sunk, and the other three captured, and her men held Bertragh.
+As she and Shaun O'Malley lay refitting and gathering their wounded that
+same afternoon, a Parliament ship had come in from the south, bearing an
+answer to the appeal she had sent to Blake at the Cove of Cork.</p>
+
+<p>He had not only sent her powder and supplies, but had sent her a blank
+commission from Cromwell, which would be filled in upon her definite
+allegiance to the Commonwealth. The commission guaranteed her possession
+of Gorumna and Bertragh and the lands she claimed, and promised that
+when the royalists were driven from Galway the grant would be confirmed
+by Parliament.</p>
+
+<p>"I am to answer Captain Peyton to-night, Brian," she finished, her eyes
+dancing. "And Shaun is going to remain and hold Bertragh for me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" cried Brian. "Hold Bertragh? Am I then wounded so sore
+that I cannot draw sword again?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," and her laugh rippled out. "Turlough says that you will be as well
+as ever in a month, Brian. But since you withdrew your fealty to me, I
+had to find another servant!"</p>
+
+<p>"I had forgotten that," answered Brian moodily. He stared up at her
+face, and as he met her eyes saw the color flow up to her temples.</p>
+
+<p>"You have slain the Dark Master as you promised, Brian," she said
+quietly. "And have you forgotten also that you meant to claim a reward
+from me for that deed?"</p>
+
+<p>Brian laughed, and his face softened as happiness laid hold upon his
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not forgotten that, Nuala; but now I am not going to ask that
+reward in the same way I had intended."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean, Brian?" she asked gravely, though her eyes widened a
+trifle as if in quick fear.</p>
+
+<p>"This, dear lady," he smiled. "When you answer Captain Peyton, let the
+commission be made out in the name of Nuala O'Neill&mdash;and take my fealty
+for what is left to me of life, Nuala."</p>
+
+<p>He looked up steadily, knowing that all things hung on that instant.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, to tell the truth, Brian," and for a moment she seemed to
+hesitate, so that Brian felt a sudden shock, "I&mdash;I delayed answering him
+in&mdash;in that hope!"</p>
+
+<p>And her face came down to his.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+
+<p>[Transcriber's Note: The following synopsis originally appeared at the
+beginning of the second installment.]</p>
+
+<p>The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
+country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
+Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
+where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
+mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
+from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
+friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
+gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
+forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
+because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
+castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
+by black treachery.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+
+<p>[Transcriber's Note: The following synopsis originally appeared at the
+beginning of the third installment.]</p>
+
+
+<p>The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
+country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
+Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
+where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
+mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
+from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
+friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
+gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
+forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
+because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
+castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
+by black treachery.</p>
+
+<p>By warlock arts O'Donnell More brings Brian and a handful of men through
+a snowstorm to Bertragh and makes him prisoner. He proceeds to torture
+him fiendishly, ending by nailing him to the castle door by one hand.
+Just then Colonel James Vere, British officer, arrives, and demands
+Brian in order to hang him comfortably in Galway. Red Murrough,
+O'Donnell's lieutenant, agrees, for the promise of ten English pounds,
+to pretend that Brian is worse off than he is so that he may take longer
+to recover. Cathbarr comes in, and offers to take Brian's place if
+O'Donnell will release Brian; and when the Black Master makes fun of
+him, he goes berserk and cleans out the hall, escaping with Brian to
+Nuala. Then they besiege and best O'Donnell, who escapes.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+
+<p>[Transcriber's Note: The following synopsis originally appeared at the
+beginning of the fourth and final installment.]</p>
+
+
+<p>The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
+country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
+Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
+where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
+mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
+from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
+friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
+gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
+forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
+because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
+castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
+by black treachery.</p>
+
+<p>By warlock arts O'Donnell More brings Brian and a handful of men through
+a snowstorm to Bertragh and makes him prisoner. He proceeds to torture
+him fiendishly, ending by nailing him to the castle door by one hand.
+Just then Colonel James Vere, British officer, arrives, and demands
+Brian in order to hang him comfortably in Galway. Red Murrough,
+O'Donnell's lieutenant, agrees, for the promise of ten English pounds,
+to pretend that Brian is worse off than he is so that he may take longer
+to recover. Cathbarr comes in, and offers to take Brian's place if
+O'Donnell will release Brian; and when the Black Master makes fun of
+him, he goes berserk and cleans out the hall, escaping with Brian to
+Nuala. Then they besiege and best O'Donnell, who escapes.</p>
+
+<p>Brian goes after O'Donnell with a couple of hundred men, having
+recovered from his hurts, and all but catches him in a valley, just as
+he is working some kind of a divination with a bowl of water. Brian gets
+back his Spanish sword, but O'Donnell escapes with some of his men, and
+Brian loses all of his in chasing him to keep him from joining with his
+pirate friends. Brian and Turlough get back to Bertragh exhausted. He
+goes cruising with Nuala, and they meet a small vessel laden with wine
+and food for some of O'Donnell's men. Brian goes back with it to
+Bertragh, while Nuala goes on to Gorumna Castle, her own home. But the
+captured wine proves to be poisoned&mdash;it is a trick of the Black
+Master's.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+
+<p>Transcriber's note:</p>
+
+<p>The following typographical errors present in the
+original magazine publication have been corrected for this electronic
+edition.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter V, a missing quotation mark was added after "I am for Brian
+Buidh."</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter VI, "Dhar mo lamb" was changed to "Dhar mo lamh".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter VII, "which were small carracks" was changed to "which were
+small caracks". (While "carrack" is the more common English spelling,
+the author used "carack" consistently elsewhere in the text.)</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XI, a missing quotation mark was added after "I would take
+your life for his."</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XII, a missing period was added after "shifted thither in
+readiness".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XIII, "coming ing in one of his ships to marry me" was
+changed to "coming in one of his ships to marry me", and "Beannact
+leath!" was changed to "Beannacht leath!".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XIV, a missing quotation mark was added after "has joined
+with those friends of his".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XVI, "those of the Dark Maser were no better" was changed to
+"those of the Dark Master were no better".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XVIII, a missing quotation mark was added after "They'll have
+the gates down in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XIX, "Mhuire as truagh, Muire as truagh" was changed to
+"Mhuire as truagh, Mhuire as truagh".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XXII, a missing comma was added after "curse Turlough".</p>
+
+<p>No other corrections were made to the original text.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NUALA O'MALLEY***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nuala O'Malley, by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Nuala O'Malley
+
+
+Author: H. Bedford-Jones
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 15, 2010  [eBook #30979]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NUALA O'MALLEY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Steven desJardins and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   This novel was originally serialized in four installments in
+   _All-Story Weekly_ magazine from December 30, 1916, to January
+   20, 1917. The original breaks in the serial have been retained,
+   but summaries of previous events preceding the second, third,
+   and fourth installments have been moved to the end of this
+   e-book. The Table of Contents which follows the introduction
+   was created for this electronic edition.
+
+
+
+
+
+NUALA O'MALLEY
+
+by
+
+H. BEDFORD-JONES
+
+
+
+ALL-STORY WEEKLY
+
+VOL. LXVI   NUMBER 2
+
+SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1916
+
+
+NUALA O'MALLEY
+
+by
+
+H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.
+
+
+
+
+This is a stirring, entrancing story of Erin when Cromwell was
+campaigning, and when the fighting heritage that is every Irishman's
+found vent through sword and ax and fire. You meet Brian Buidh, Brian of
+the Yellow Hair, more thrilling than even your favorite movie hero; and
+as for Nuala herself--well, just wait till you meet her!--THE EDITOR.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+Part I
+
+I.      THE BLACK WOMAN.                     177
+II.     THE BEGINNING OF THE STORM.          179
+III.    THE DARK MASTER.                     182
+IV.     BRIAN LEANS ON HIS SWORD.            186
+V.      YELLOW BRIAN RIDES SOUTH.            191
+VI.     BRIAN TAKES CAPTIVES.                196
+VII.    THE BIRD DAUGHTER.                   201
+
+Part II
+
+VIII.   HOW BRIAN WAS NETTED.                419
+IX.     THE NAILING OF BRIAN.                424
+X.      IN BERTRAGH CASTLE.                  429
+XI.     THE BAITING OF CATHBARR.             434
+XII.    HOW THE DARK MASTER WAS RUINED.      438
+
+Part III
+
+XIII.   BRIAN RIDES TO VENGEANCE.            659
+XIV.    HOW THE STORM FARED NORTH.           664
+XV.     WHAT HAPPENED AT THE TARN.           670
+XVI.    BRIAN GETS HIS SWORD AGAIN.          674
+XVII.   BRIAN GOES A CRUISING.               679
+
+Part IV
+
+XVIII.  BRIAN YIELDS BERTRAGH.               137
+XIX.    BRIAN MEETS THE BLACK WOMAN.         142
+XX.     THE STORM BURSTS.                    147
+XXI.    CATHBARR YIELDS UP HIS AX.           151
+XXII.   THE STORM OF MEN COMES TO REST.      155
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BLACK WOMAN.
+
+
+The horseman reined in as his jaded steed scrambled up the shelving
+bank, and for a space sat there motionless, for which the horse gave
+mute thanks. The moon was struggling to heave through fleecy clouds, as
+it was hard on midnight; in the half obscurity the rider gazed around
+suspiciously.
+
+There was nothing in sight to cause any man fear. Behind him rippled the
+Dee, and all around was desolation. Ardee itself lay a good two miles in
+the rear, burned and laid waste six weeks before, and ten miles to the
+south lay Drogheda. Indeed, as the horseman gazed about, he caught
+sight of a faint glare on the horizon that drew a bitter word from his
+lips.
+
+Dismounting with some difficulty, owing to his cloak and Spanish hat, he
+examined a long, raking gash in his horse's flank; then flung off hat
+and cloak and calmly proceeded to bind up his own naked shoulder
+beneath.
+
+His was a strange figure, indeed, now that he stood revealed. He wore no
+clothing save breeches and high riding-boots; an enormous sword without
+a sheath was girt about his waist, and the caked blood on his shoulder
+and cheek made his fair skin stand out with startling contrast.
+
+About his shoulders fell long hair of ruddy yellow, while his face was
+young and yet very bitter, tortured by both physical and mental
+anguish, as it seemed. He bound up the deep slash in his shoulder with a
+strip of cloth torn from his cloak, felt his wealed cheek tenderly, then
+flung the cloak about him again and drew down his broad-brimmed hat as
+he turned to his weary horse.
+
+"Well, my friend," and his voice sounded whimsical for all its rich
+tone, "you've had a change of masters to-day, eh? I'd like to spare you,
+but man's life is first, though Heaven knows it's worth little in
+Ireland this day!" With that he reeled and caught at the saddle for
+support, put down his head, and sobbed unrestrainedly.
+
+"Oh, my God!" he groaned at length, straightening himself to shake a
+clenched and blood-splashed fist at the sky. "Where were You this day?
+God! God! The blood of men on Thine altars--"
+
+"Faith, you must be new come to Ireland, then!"
+
+At the shrill, mocking voice the man whirled about and his huge blade
+was out like a flash. But only a cackling laugh answered him, as down
+from the bank above slipped a perfect hag of a creature, and he drew
+back in alarm. At that instant the moon flooded out; his sudden motion
+had flung off his wide hat, and he stood staring at the wrinkled
+creature whose scanty garments and thin-shredded gray locks were pierced
+by a pair of weird brown eyes.
+
+Then he quivered indeed, and even the poor horse took a step backward,
+for the old woman had flung up her arms with a shrill cry as she gazed
+on the yellow-haired young man.
+
+"The O'Neill!" The words seemed to burst from her involuntarily. She
+craned forward, her hands twisting at her ragged shawl, and a flood of
+Gaelic poured from her lips as she stared at the awe-struck man.
+
+"Are you, then, the earl, come back from the dead? Ghost of Tyr-owen,
+why stand you here idle in the gap of Ulster, where once Cuculain fought
+against the host of Meave? Do you also stand here to fight as he
+fought--"
+
+"Peace, mad-woman!" exclaimed the young man, stooping after his hat.
+"Peace, and be off out of my way, for I have far to ride."
+
+The Gaelic words came roughly and brokenly from him, but the old hag
+took no heed. Instead, she advanced swiftly and laid her hand on his
+arm, still gazing into his face with a great wonder on her wrinkled
+features.
+
+"Who are you?" she whispered. "Tell the Black Woman your name, if you
+are no ghost! For even as you stand now, once did these eyes see the
+great earl himself."
+
+"I am from Drogheda," answered the man, something very like fear stamped
+on his powerful and bitter-touched young face. "My name is Brian Buidh,
+and I ride to join Owen Ruadh--"
+
+"Liar!" The old woman spat forth the word with a cackle of laughter.
+"Oh, you cannot fool the Black Woman, Yellow Brian! Listen--Brian your
+name is, and Yellow Brian your name shall be indeed, since this is your
+will. Owen Ruadh O'Neill lies at the O'Reilly stead at Lough Oughter,
+but you shall never ride to war behind him, Brian Buidh! No--the Black
+Woman tells you, and the Black Woman knows. Instead, you shall ride into
+the west, and there shall be a storm of men--a storm of men behind you
+and before you--"
+
+"For the love of Heaven, have done!" cried Yellow Brian, shrinking
+before her, and yet with anger in his face. "Are you crazed, woman?
+Drogheda has fallen; O'Neill must join with the royalists, and never
+shall I ride into the west. Be off, for I have no money."
+
+He turned to mount, but again she stopped him. It seemed to him that
+there was strange power in that withered hand which rested so lightly on
+his arm.
+
+"The Black Woman needs no money, Yellow Brian," she cackled merrily.
+"You shall meet me once again, on a black day for you; and when you meet
+with Cathbarr of the Ax you shall remember me, Brian Buidh; and when
+you ride into the west and meet with the Bird Daughter you shall
+remember me.
+
+"So go, Yellow Brian, upon whose heart is stamped the red hand of the
+O'Neills! _Beannacht leath!_"
+
+"_Beannacht leath_," repeated the man thickly.
+
+There was a rustle of bushes, and he was alone, wiping the cold sweat
+from his face.
+
+"Woman or fiend!" he muttered hoarsely. "How did she know that last?
+Yes, she was crazed, no doubt. I suppose that I do look like the
+earl--since he was my grandfather!"
+
+And with a bitter laugh he climbed into the saddle and pushed his horse
+up the bank. The bushes closed behind him, the night closed over him,
+but it was long ere the weird words of the old hag who called herself
+the Black Woman were closed from his mind.
+
+For, after all, Yellow Brian was of right not alone an O'Neill, but The
+O'Neill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE BEGINNING OF THE STORM.
+
+
+The people of every nation--that is, the tillers of the soil, the people
+who form the backbone of their race--are in continual expectancy of a
+Man and a Day. Theirs is always the, perhaps, dumb hope, but still the
+hope, that in their future lie these two things, a Man and a Day.
+Sometimes the Man has come and the Day has failed; sometimes the Day has
+come and there has been no Man to use it; but now all Ireland had swept
+up in a wild roar, knowing that the Man and the Day had come together.
+
+And so, in truth, they had. Owen, the Ruadh, or red, O'Neill, had fought
+a desperate struggle against the royalists. Little by little he had
+cemented his own people together, his personal qualities and his
+splendid generalship had overborne all else, and the victory of Benburb
+had crowned the whole. Then Owen Ruadh was stricken down with sickness,
+Cromwell landed and stormed Drogheda, and Yellow Brian had fought clear
+and fled away to the kinsman he had never seen.
+
+Now, standing on the castle ramparts overlooking Lough Oughter, Yellow
+Brian stared moodily out at the lake. His identity had been revealed to
+none, and the name of Brian Buidh had little meaning to any in Ireland.
+Years since he who was The O'Neill, the same whom the English called
+Earl of Tyr-owen, had fled with his family from the land. His eldest son
+John had settled at the Spanish court.
+
+John was a spineless man, unworthy son of a great father, content to
+idle away his life in ease and quiet. And it was in the court of Spain
+that Brian O'Neill had been born, with only an old Irishwoman to nurse
+him and teach him the tongue and tidings of Ireland which his father
+cared nothing for.
+
+Yellow Brian had written out these things, sending the letter to the
+sick general who lay within the castle. His terrible news of Drogheda
+had created consternation, but already O'Neill's forces had been sent to
+join the royalists against the common foe. All Ireland was distraught by
+war. Royalist, patriot, and Parliament man fought each against the
+other, and the only man who could have faced Cromwell lay sick unto
+death.
+
+The Day was passing, the Man was passing, and shadow lay upon all the
+land.
+
+A man came up and touched Yellow Brian's arm, with word that Owen Ruadh
+would see him at once. Brian nodded, following. He was well garbed now,
+and a steel jack glittered from beneath his dark-red cloak as he strode
+along. Upon his strong-set face brooded bitterness, but his eyes were
+young for all their cold blue, and his ruddy hair shone like spun gold
+in the sunlight; while his firm mouth and chin, his erect figure, and
+his massive shoulders gained him more than one look of appreciation
+from the clustered O'Reillys.
+
+He followed the attendant to a large room, whose huge mantel was carven
+with the red hand and supporting lions of the clan Reilly, and passed
+over to the bed beside the window. He had requested to see O'Neill
+alone, and the attendant withdrew silently. Brian approached the bed,
+and stood looking down at the man who was passing from Ireland.
+
+Sharp and bright were the eyes as ever, but the red beard was grayed and
+the face was waxen; a spark of color came to it, as Owen Ruadh stretched
+forth a hand to take that of his visitor.
+
+"Brian O'Neill!" he exclaimed, in a voice singularly like that of Brian
+himself. "Welcome, kinsman! But why the silence you enjoined in your
+letter?"
+
+"My name is Yellow Brian," answered the younger man somberly. "I have
+none other, general. You know the gist of my story, and here is the
+rest. I broke with my father, for he would hear nothing of my coming to
+Ireland. So I cast off his name and left him to his cursed idleness,
+reaching Drogheda barely in time to take part in the siege. I managed to
+cut through, as you know, and meant to take service with you--"
+
+He paused, for words did not come easily to him, as with all his race. A
+low groan broke from the crippled warrior.
+
+"Too late, kinsman, too late! Cromwell is come, and I will never sit a
+horse again--ah, no protests, lad! How old are you?"
+
+"Twenty-three."
+
+"By my faith, you look thirty! Lad, my heart is sore for you. I am
+wasted and broken. I have no money, and Cromwell will shatter all before
+him; I can do naught save give you advice."
+
+"I want naught," broke in Brian quickly, a little glint as of ice in his
+blue eyes. "Not for that did I cast off my name and come to--"
+
+"Tut, tut, lad!" O'Neill reproved him gently. "I understand, so say no
+more of that matter. You are Brian Buidh, but to me you are my kinsman,
+the rightful head of my house. You can do two things, Yellow
+Brian--either follow my advice, or go down to ruin with all Ireland. Now
+say, which shall it be?"
+
+Brian gazed at him with thoughtful face. What was the meaning of this
+dark speech? As he looked into the keen, death-smitten eyes of the man
+who might have saved Ireland, he smiled a little.
+
+"I see naught but ruin, Owen Ruadh," he replied slowly. "I care little
+for my life, having no ties left on this earth--"
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" broke in the other impatiently. "You are young, lad--the
+bitterness will soon pass, trust me. Now see, here is my advice, such
+advice as I would give no other man alive. I am dying, Yellow Brian.
+Well, I know that Cromwell will break down all I have built up, and I
+can see no brightness for my country. But for you I can see much. You
+are young, powerful, the last of the old race; you look strangely like
+the old earl, Brian!"
+
+The younger man started. For the first time in many days he remembered
+that crazed hag he had met by the Dee water the night of Drogheda.
+
+"Now, harken well. I tell you that our house lies in the dust, Brian;
+there is no hope for it or for any O'Neill. But for Yellow Brian there
+is hope. You must carve out a holding for yourself, for you are a ruler
+of men by your face, lad. Go into Galway, and there, where Cromwell's
+men will have hardest fighting of all, gather a force and make head. I
+have heard strange tales of a man who has done this very thing--they say
+he has seized on a castle somewhere near Bertraghboy Bay, in Galway,
+and-- But I am getting weak, Brian lad. Hearken well--Ireland is lost;
+carve out now for your own hand, for the Red Hand of the old house, lad!
+And take this for my sake."
+
+Almost whispering the last words, Owen Ruadh took from his finger a
+signet graven deeply with the Red Hand of Tyr-owen. Brian accepted it
+gravely, kissed the hand that gave it, and with tears choking his
+throat, left the chamber of the man who was passing from Ireland.
+
+He had been there a brief fifteen minutes, yet it seemed that an age had
+passed. Both he and the sick man had said much in few words, for they
+were both men who spared speech and did much. But Brian had received a
+great wrench.
+
+As he had said, he had cast off his father, for the grandfather's blood
+ran riot within him, and had kindled to burning rage against the
+sluggard who had made his name a thing of reproach in all lands. With
+the overstrong bitterness of youth he had meant to die sword in hand,
+fighting for Ireland. The few burning words of Owen Ruadh had stripped
+all this false heroism from him, however, and had sent a flame of sanity
+into his brain.
+
+Brian returned slowly to the round tower, and stood looking out over the
+waters, for the castle was built on an island in the lake a mile from
+shore. It was nearing sunset, and snow was in the air--the first snow,
+for this was the end of September.
+
+"Ruin--the storm of men!" He repeated unconsciously the words of the hag
+who had stopped him by the Dee water. "What shall I do? Which is the
+part of a man, after all; to fall for Ireland or to hew out new lands
+and found a new house in the west? By my hilt! That old hag told me
+truly after all!"
+
+At that thought he stood silent, his eyes troubled. What was this fate
+which seemed to drive him into the west, instead of leading him to the
+flame of swords as he had so long hoped and dreamed? Death meant little
+to him; honor meant much. All his life he had lived in Spain, yet it had
+been a double life. He had ridden and hunted and learned arms with the
+young nobles of the court, but he had talked and sorrowed and dreamed
+with the old Irishwoman who had nursed him.
+
+After all, it is often the dreams of the youth which determine the
+career of the man, he reflected.
+
+Which path should he take? As he stood there struggling with himself,
+his hand went unconsciously to his long, powerful jaw; it was a gesture
+habitual with him when in deep thought--which he seldom was, however.
+Now the youth in him spoke for death, now the sanity which had flashed
+into his brain from that of the sick man spoke for the life of deeds and
+renown which lay in the west.
+
+An incident might turn him either way--and the incident came in the
+shape of a very tall old man who wore the Irish garb of belted,
+long-sleeved tunic and woolen hose, with iron-soled shoes. The old man's
+face was cunning, but his eyes were bright and keen and deep gray; his
+gray hair hung low to conceal his lopped ears, and there hung about him
+an indescribable air of shrewdness faced with apparent openness of
+heart.
+
+Brian glanced at him, remembered that he had heard him called Turlough
+Wolf, and looked away carelessly, absorbed in his own thought. But the
+old man halted abruptly with an exclamation:
+
+"_Corp na diaoul!_ Where got you that face and that gesture, Drogheda
+man?"
+
+Brian looked at him, frowning.
+
+"What mean you, Turlough Wolf?"
+
+The other stared, his thin jaw fallen.
+
+"Why--why," he stammered, "I thought it had been The O'Neill come to
+life again! When I was a boy I have seen the earl hold his hand to his
+chin--often, often! And--and you look like him, Brian Buidh---"
+
+"Nonsense!" Brian forced a laugh, but as he folded his arms again the
+glitter of O'Neill's ring on his finger caught the sharp gray eyes.
+
+Turlough Wolf started.
+
+"Listen!" he said, coming forward insinuatingly. "Yellow Brian, no man
+knows who you are, nor do I ask. But Turlough Wolf knows a man when he
+sees one, a chieftain among men. I owe no man service; but if you will
+need a swift brain, a cunning hand, and an eye that can read the hearts
+of men, I will serve you."
+
+Brian looked down into the shrewd face in wonder, then waved an
+impatient hand.
+
+"No use, Turlough Wolf. I have no money to pay for service, and to-night
+I must ride out to seek I know not what--nay, whether I ride west or
+east or south, I know not!"
+
+He turned abruptly, wishing to close the matter, but the old man laid a
+restraining hand on his shoulder.
+
+"I seek no money, Yellow Brian. I seek only a master such as yourself; a
+man who is a master among men, and whom I can set higher still if he
+will heed my counsels. I am old, you are young; I know all parts of the
+land by heart, from the Mayo shore to Youghal, and I am skilled at many
+things. Take my service and you will not regret it."
+
+Brian hesitated. After all, he considered, the thing came close to being
+uncanny. The Black Woman by Dee water; Owen Ruadh himself, and now this
+Ulysseslike Turlough Wolf--whither was fate driving him? Was he really
+to meet such persons as the Bird Daughter and Cathbarr of the Ax, or
+were they only the figment of a crazed old woman's brain?
+
+So he hesitated, gazing down into those clear gray eyes. And as he
+looked it seemed to him that he found strange things in them, strange
+urgings that touched the chords of his soul. After all, adventure lay in
+the west, and he was young!
+
+"Good!" he said, gravely extending his hand. "To-night we ride to the
+west, you and I. Come; let us see O'Reilly about horses."
+
+And this was the beginning of the storm of men that came upon the west.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE DARK MASTER.
+
+
+"There are two things, Yellow Brian, for you to mind. First, you must
+have men at your back who know you for their master; second, you must
+stand alone, giving and receiving aid from no man or party in the
+land."
+
+Brian nodded and stored away the words in his heart, for in their three
+weeks of wandering he had learned that Turlough Wolf was better aid than
+many men. It was his doing that, when they had chanced on a party of
+ravagers beyond Carrick, Yellow Brian had been led into strife with
+their leader. The upshot of that matter was that there was a dead rover;
+Yellow Brian had a dozen horsemen behind him and money in his purse, and
+of the dozen none but feared utterly this silent man who fought like a
+fiend.
+
+To the dozen had been added others--four Scotch plunderers strayed from
+Hamilton's horse and half a dozen Breffnians from Ormond's army, who had
+been driven out of Munster by the rising of the Parliament men there.
+They were a sadly mixed score, of all races and creeds, but were
+fighting ruffians to a man, and were bound together by Brian's solemn
+pledge that he himself would slay any who quarreled. The result was
+peace.
+
+So now, with a good score of men behind him, Yellow Brian had ridden
+down into Galway, was past Lough Corrib and Iar Connaught, and was hard
+upon Connemara.
+
+There was a thin snow upon the hills, and the bleak wind presaged more;
+but the score of men sang lustily as they rode. Two days before they had
+come upon a dozen strayed Royalist plunderers, and had gained great
+store of food and drink--particularly drink. So all were well content
+for the time being.
+
+"Turlough," asked Brian suddenly, as they rode side by side, "did you
+ever hear of one called the Black Woman?"
+
+The Wolf crossed himself and grimaced.
+
+"That I have, Yellow Brian, but dimly. They say she deals in magic and
+sorcery, and no good comes of meeting with her. But stop--there are
+horsemen on the road! Scatter the men, and quickly; let us two bide
+here."
+
+There was cunning in the advice, for the two had come to a bend in the
+road and the men were a hundred yards behind them. Brian drew rein at
+sight of a score of men a scant quarter-mile away and riding up the hill
+toward them. He knew that they must also have been seen, but his men
+would still be out of sight, so he turned with a quick word:
+
+"Off into the rocks, men! If I raise my sword, come and strike. Off!"
+
+As he spoke he bared that same huge cut-or-thrust brand he had borne
+from Drogheda and set the point on his boot. Instantly the men scattered
+on either side the road, where black rocks thrust up from the snow, and
+within two minutes they and their horses had disappeared.
+
+The riders below came steadily forward in a clump, and Brian saw old
+Turlough staring with bulging eyes. Then the Wolf half caught at his
+bridle, as if minded to fly, and his hands were trembling.
+
+"What ails you, man?" smiled Brian. "Are they magicians and sorcerers,
+then?"
+
+"No, _fareer gair_--worse luck!" blurted out the other. "Look at the
+little man who rides first, Yellow Brian!"
+
+Brian squinted against the snow-glare, and saw that the leader of the
+approaching party seemed indeed to be a little man with hunched
+shoulders and head that glinted steel.
+
+"A hunchback!" he exclaimed. "Well, who is he?"
+
+"The Dark Master--O'Donnell More himself! It is in my mind that this is
+a black day, Brian Buidh. O'Donnell More is the master of all men at
+craft, and the match of most men at weapons. Beware of him, master,
+beware! I had thought that he was still under siege at Bertragh Castle,
+else I had never taken this road."
+
+"Nonsense!" laughed out Brian joyously, drinking in the clear afternoon
+air. "So much the more honor if we slay him, Turlough Wolf! Let him
+match me at weapons, or you at wits, if he can!"
+
+Turlough muttered something and drew back behind Brian's steed with
+pallid face. Yellow Brian, however, having a sure trust in his own right
+arm and his hidden men, scanned the approaching O'Donnell curiously,
+seeking what had inspired such unwonted fear in the old gray Wolf.
+
+He could find nothing ominous in that hunched figure, save its mail-coat
+and steel helm. Yet the face was peculiar. Over a drooping mustache of
+black flared forth two intense black eyes. Brian noted this, and the
+thin, curved nose and prominent chin, and laughed again.
+
+"Who is this Dark Master, Turlough?"
+
+The other shivered slightly. "He is an O'Donnell from the north, come
+here some ten years since--he seized on Bertragh even as we intend
+seizing on a stead, and has since done evil things in the land. Now
+hush, for they say the wind bears him idle talk."
+
+Brian's thin lips curved a trifle scornfully, but he kept silence,
+watching the approaching men. At fifty yards' distance they halted.
+Their leader eyed the motionless pair for a moment and then slowly rode
+on alone, waving back his followers. And Yellow Brian made a strange
+figure, with his ruddy hair streaming from beneath his steel cap and the
+bright, naked sword rising up from toe to head beside him.
+
+"Well?" O'Donnell More's voice was deep and harsh, though Brian
+afterward found that it could be changed to suit its owner's mood. "Who
+are you thus disputing my passage?"
+
+"I am Brian Buidh," came Brian's curt reply. "As for dispute, that is as
+you will."
+
+"Yellow Brian?" The black brows shot up in surprise. "A strange name.
+Whence come you, and seeking what?"
+
+"I seek men, O'Donnell More." Brian swiftly determined that this was a
+man who might give him aid, a man after his own heart. "Whence I come is
+my affair. Give me men, and I will repay with gold."
+
+"What need have you of men, Yellow Brian," came the sardonic answer,
+"when your own lie hidden among the rocks?"
+
+Now indeed Brian started, whereat the other smiled grimly.
+
+"How knew you that?"
+
+"If you recognized me from afar, you had not stayed to meet me unless
+you had men," stated O'Donnell shrewdly enough.
+
+"True," said Brian, and laughed out. "Well said, O'Donnell. I have a
+score, and want another score. I will match mine against yours, or make
+a pact, as you desire."
+
+The Dark Master sat fingering his sword-hilt and considered. With the
+black brows down and the black eyes fixed on him, Brian suddenly began
+to like the man less.
+
+"I will give you service," returned O'Donnell at last.
+
+Brian smiled. "Men serve me, not I them."
+
+At this curt answer O'Donnell looked black, then fell into thought, his
+shoulders hunched up and his head drawn in like the head of a turtle.
+Brian wished now that he had struck first and talked afterward.
+
+Finally the Dark Master looked up with a slow smile.
+
+"Welcome to you, Brian of the hard eyes and hollow cheeks," he said.
+"_Slaintahut!_ I will not give you men, but I will give you the loan of
+men if you will do me one of two favors. Ten miles to the south of here
+there is an old tower on a cliff, and in the tower dwells a man with
+certain companions who sets me at naught. On an island out near Golam
+Head is a castle where a woman rules, who has also set me at naught. Go,
+reduce either of these twain, and I will lend you twoscore men for three
+months."
+
+Brian sat his great horse and looked at the Dark Master. He would have
+sought advice from Turlough Wolf, save that he did not like to turn his
+back on those burning eyes. After all, the pact was not a bad one.
+
+"These enemies of yours--who are they, and what force have they?"
+
+The Dark Master chuckled, and his head shot out from between his
+shoulders.
+
+"The man is called Cathbarr of the Ax, and he is a hard man to fight,
+for he has ten men like himself, axmen all. The woman cannot fight, but
+she has a swift mind, many men, and her name is Nuala O'Malley, of the
+O'Malleys of Erris."
+
+"I had sooner fight a man than a woman," returned Brian slowly. "Also,
+this Cathbarr of the Ax has fewer men. I will do you this favor,
+O'Donnell Dubh."
+
+He gave no sign of the wonder that had shot into his mind at the name of
+Cathbarr, except that his blue eyes seemed changed suddenly to cold ice.
+The Dark Master saw the change, and his smile withered. Brian, watching
+him, reflected that this malformed freebooter could be venomous-looking
+at times.
+
+"I have passed my word," O'Donnell the Black made curt answer. "Fetch
+either of the twain to Bertragh, dead or alive, and you have the loan of
+twoscore men for three months, free. Is it a pact?"
+
+"It is a pact," answered Brian, and at that the other galloped back to
+his men.
+
+Brian swung his sword and flung it high into the air; before it had
+flashed down to nestle in his palm again, his men were scrambling into
+the road. He sheathed the sword, smiling a little, and turned to
+Turlough.
+
+"Well? To your mind or not, Wolf?"
+
+"My father saw the Brown Geraldine at Dublin," responded that worthy,
+scratching the gray beard which had begun to sprout. "They broke his
+bones with the back of an ax and swung him out in a cage until he died,
+and after. He made pacts too easily."
+
+"Well?" asked Brian again, but a dull flush crossed his cheeks.
+
+"I gave you my rede," said Turlough sullenly. "I said to stand alone,
+receiving aid from neither man nor faction. Now there is mischief to be
+repaired."
+
+"Then my sword shall repair it," said Brian, and ordered the men to
+swing in after him. "Guide us to this tower of Cathbarr's, for my honor
+is in my own keeping."
+
+They swung about and headed to the south and the sea.
+
+The hill-paths, which Turlough Wolf seemed to know perfectly, were
+cruelly hard on the horses; none were as yet trodden down, for the snow
+was fresh, and all the west coast lay desolate. The plague had stricken
+Galway and Mayo heavily that year, smiting the mountains with death.
+Some few parties of Roundhead horse had come through, because they
+feared God and Ireton more than the plague, and some Royalists had fled
+up from the south for much the same reason.
+
+In any case, Yellow Brian found all the land desolate, and liked it. The
+more wasted the land, he reflected, the more chance for that sword of
+his to find swinging-room. As he had ridden, news had come from the
+east--news of the Wexford killing and the curse that was come upon the
+land. Owen Ruadh O'Neill was not yet dead, but Brian knew that he had
+prophesied truly. Ireland's day was gloaming fast.
+
+Despite the dismal tone of Turlough Wolf, Brian told himself that he had
+done a good day's work. O'Donnell Dubh would keep his word beyond any
+question. As for the man he was to slay, the only part of it which
+troubled Brian was the prediction of the Black Woman at the Dee water.
+She had known him, and had prophesied O'Neill's death, and had spoken of
+the west and this Cathbarr of the Ax. After all, however, she might have
+shot a chance shaft which had gone true. Brian had no faith in magic.
+
+All that afternoon he rode on, Turlough Wolf ahead of him, the men
+behind. They feared and hated the old Wolf as much as they feared and
+loved Brian.
+
+Progress was slow, owing to the bad paths, the snow, and sundry changes
+of direction, so that when night fell they had covered but eight miles
+of the ten. Turlough suggested that they push on and finish their
+business at a stroke, but Brian curtly refused. So the men made camp in
+lee of a cliff and proceeded to feast away the last of their provisions
+and wine, in confidence that on the morrow they would have more, or else
+would need none.
+
+Brian and Turlough built a fire apart, and after their repast Brian
+broke silence with a request for information about Cathbarr. It was his
+first speech since the parting with the Dark Master.
+
+"I never heard of him," responded Turlough. "No doubt he is some outlaw
+who has become a thorn in the Dark Master's flesh. With the woman it is
+different."
+
+"Tell me of her," said Brian, gazing into the fire.
+
+"She is an O'Malley, and, like all the clan, makes much of ships and
+seamen and little of horses and riders. When the Dark Master came, ten
+years ago, he slew her father and mother by treachery, and would have
+slain her but that her men carried her off. She was a child then. Now
+she is a woman, very bitter against O'Donnell Dubh, and is allied with
+the Parliament so that her ships may have the run of the seas, it is
+said. O'Donnell takes sides with no faction, but caters to all. He lays
+nets and snares, and men fall into them, and he laughs."
+
+"Why is Nuala O'Malley called the Bird Daughter?" asked Brian quietly.
+
+At this question old Turlough rose on his elbow, and in his wide, gray
+eyes was set mingled fear and wonder.
+
+"_M'anam an diaoul!_" he spat out. "Who are you to know this thing?"
+
+"Answer my question," returned Brian, hiding his own surprise.
+
+"Seven years ago, master, I was at Sligo Bay with O'Dowda when Hamilton
+cut us to pieces. Nuala O'Malley had brought us some powder--she was but
+a slip of a girl then. In the evening I was down at the ship when I saw
+her come from below, a hooded pigeon in her hands. She whispered in the
+bird's ear, set off the hood, and the bird flew into the night. I named
+her Bird Daughter, but no other man knew the name."
+
+"Then a woman did," chuckled Brian dryly. "It was but a carrier pigeon,
+Turlough; I have seen them used in Spain. Now listen to me."
+
+With that he told him of the Black Woman and his weird meeting at Dee
+water. Old Turlough listened in no little amazement, for he was full of
+superstitious fancies, but Brian said nothing of his own name. The
+uncanny prophecies, however, which now seemed on the road to fulfilment
+were enough to give any man pause.
+
+When he had finished, a very subdued Turlough Wolf stated that the Black
+Woman was an old hag who wandered all over the land, that some called
+her crazy and others thought her inspired, and that his own belief was
+that she was a banshee, no less.
+
+At this Brian saw the thing in a more rational light. The old woman knew
+of this nook in the west, and, attracted to him by his resemblance to
+the long-dead earl, she had endeavored to steer him thither. After all,
+it was quite simple.
+
+Of course, old Turlough swore that he had never breathed his name of
+Bird Daughter to a living soul, and that it was but a name he had used
+in his own mind for the slim girl who had fetched powder from the south.
+Brian chuckled, guessing that Turlough was not the only one who had seen
+carrier pigeons used, and who had ascribed the thing to higher powers.
+
+The incident served the purpose of establishing a firmer intimacy
+between Brian and the old man, however, and convinced Turlough that his
+master was destined to fly high. Nor through all the storm of men that
+befell after did Turlough again breathe reproof as he had dared that
+day.
+
+"I begin to see that your advice was good, Turlough Wolf," said Brian
+the next morning, as he rode shivering from camp. "As to making my men
+know me for their master, that troubles me little; but I think it will
+be a hard matter to avoid making pacts, and to stand alone."
+
+"Lean on your sword," grunted old Turlough. "To my notion, such
+friendship as that huge blade of yours can give is better than good.
+Order men ahead."
+
+Brian nodded and sent two of the men ahead as scouts, with the Wolf
+himself. For the better part of an hour they made slow headway among the
+rocks, and then emerged suddenly on the slope leading down to the cliffs
+and sea. Turlough pointed to the left.
+
+"There lies the tower, if I mistake not."
+
+Drawing rein, Brian saw at once why he had been sent on this errand.
+Cathbarr's tower was an old ruin at the end of a long and narrow
+headland--indeed, at high tide most of the headland would be covered,
+for it was low and yet beyond shot of the cliffs. Except from the water,
+it was almost impregnable; cannon might have reached it from shore, but
+two axmen could have held the narrow way against an army.
+
+Brian laughed softly and ordered the men to remain where they were.
+
+"What are you going to do, master?" queried old Turlough anxiously.
+
+"I am going to lean on my sword, as you advised me," chuckled Brian, and
+rode on alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+BRIAN LEANS ON HIS SWORD.
+
+
+As he had foreseen, Brian was allowed to ride across the narrow neck of
+land where his men would have had to battle for progress. It was from no
+mere bravado that he had gone forward alone to the tower, but because
+men were worth saving, and he believed that his own sword was a match
+for any ax. If this ruffian Cathbarr was a freebooting outlaw, he would
+be willing enough to stake his ten men on his prowess, and Yellow Brian
+was very anxious to have those ten axmen behind him.
+
+At the top of the tower men watched and steel glistened, and as Brian
+rode up to the low gateway, it was flung open and a man strode out.
+This man hardly came up to Brian's conception of an outlaw, except as to
+stature.
+
+He was a good six feet four, reflected Brian as he drew rein and waited,
+and was built in proportion--or, rather, out of proportion. His
+shoulders and chest seemed tremendous, and a long mail-shirt reached to
+his knees; his hair was short-clipped and brown, and beneath his curly
+brown beard Brian made out a massive face, wide-set brown eyes, and an
+air not so much ruffianly as of cheerful good-humor.
+
+Brian had no need to ask his name, however, for in one hand he carried a
+weapon such as had seldom seen the light since powder had come to
+Ireland. It was an ax, some five feet from haft to helve; double-bladed,
+each blade eight inches long, curved back slightly, and two inches thick
+by twice as much wide. The edges, which came down sharply from the
+thickness, were not overkeen, and were not meant to be so. When the
+thing struck, that was the end of what stood before it.
+
+"_Cead mile failte!_" cried Cathbarr of the Ax in a deep, rumbling
+voice, his white teeth flashing through his beard in a smile. "A hundred
+thousand welcomes to you, swordsman! Are you come to capture my lordly
+castle?"
+
+"No; your men," laughed Brian, liking this huge, merry giant on the
+instant. "I am come from O'Donnell Dubh to reduce you and fetch you to
+him."
+
+The smile froze on the giant's face.
+
+"I am sorry for that, yellow one! I like your face and your thews, and
+to find that you serve the black traitor of Bertragh is an ill thing."
+
+"I serve no man," answered Brian easily. "I need men. If I conquer you,
+O'Donnell lends me twoscore men for three months; also, by conquering
+you I win your men to me, which makes fifty. With my seventy men, I
+shall fall to work."
+
+"By my faith, a ready reckoner!" and Cathbarr grinned again. "Get down
+and fight."
+
+Brian swung out of the saddle and led his horse to one side. They were
+not so badly matched, he reflected. Cathbarr's head was bared, while he
+had steel cap and jack; but for some reason he felt hesitant at thought
+of killing this merry giant.
+
+"Not so bad," he said, baring his five-foot blade and holding it up
+against the huge ax. "Not so bad, eh?"
+
+Cathbarr burst into a laugh.
+
+"It will grieve me to crush your skull, dear man," he rumbled. "What a
+pair we would make, matched against that Dark Master! But enough.
+Ready?"
+
+Brian nodded slightly, and the long ax flashed up.
+
+Now, Brian O'Neill had served a stiff apprenticeship at weapons, and had
+faced many men whose eyes boded him death, but here, for the first time
+in all his life, he felt the self-confidence stricken out of him.
+
+As Cathbarr heaved up his ax, he became a different man. All the good
+cheer fled out of his face; his curly brown beard seemed to stand out
+about his head like snakes, and the massiveness of his body was
+reflected in the battle-fury of his face. He needed no blows to rouse
+him into madness; but with the ax swinging like a reed about him, he
+came rushing at Brian, a giant come to earth from of old time. His men
+on the tower set up a wild yell of encouragement.
+
+Brian leaped swiftly aside and, thinking to end the fight at a blow,
+brought down his sword against the descending ax-haft. Sparks flew--the
+haft was bound with iron; Brian only saved himself from falling by a
+miracle.
+
+Then began a strange battle of feet against brawn, for Cathbarr rushed
+and rushed again, but ever Brian slipped away from the falling ax, nor
+was he able to strike back. The play of that ax was a marvel to behold;
+it was shield and weapon in one, and it seemed no heavier than a thing
+of wood as it whirled. Twice Brian got in his point against the
+mail-coat without effect, and twice the ax brushed his shoulder, so that
+he gave over thrusting. He knew that he was fighting for his life
+indeed.
+
+An instant later he discovered that fact anew as a glancing touch of the
+ax drove off his steel cap and sent him staggering back a dozen paces,
+reeling and clutching at the air. To his amazement Cathbarr did not
+follow him, but stood waiting for him to recover; he had not looked for
+such courtesy on the west coast.
+
+He sprang back into his defense, desperate now. Again the ax whirled,
+seeming a part of the giant himself, and Brian knew that he was lost if
+he waited for it. So, instead of waiting, he leaped under the blow,
+dropped his sword, and drove up his fist into the bearded chin, now
+flecked with foam.
+
+It was a cruel blow. Cathbarr grunted, his head rocked back, and he
+swayed on his feet. Before he could recover, Brian had set his thigh
+against him, caught his arm, and sent him whirling to the ground, ax and
+all. Then he picked up his sword and stood leaning on it, panting.
+
+Cathbarr sat up and gazed around blankly, until his gaze fell on the
+waiting figure. Brian looked at him, smiling slightly, and the eyes of
+the two men met and clinched. As if he had been a child caught doing
+wrong, the giant grinned and wiped the foam from his beard.
+
+"Was that fair fighting, yellow man?" he asked.
+
+"No," laughed Brian. "It was unfair, Cathbarr; but I think my fists can
+best your ax yet."
+
+Slowly the giant got to his feet. To Brian's surprise he left his ax
+where it lay and came forward with extended hand.
+
+"Had you claimed that blow as fair," he rumbled, "I would have slain
+you. Now I love you, yellow man. Let us make a pact together. What is
+your name?"
+
+They struck hands, and Brian felt a great thrill of admiration for this
+man whose terrible strength enclosed the simple heart of a child. But
+he shook his head.
+
+"I make no pacts, Cathbarr. My name is Brian Buidh. I made pact with the
+Dark Master, and now I am sorry for it; yet it must be held to, for I
+see no way out of it. But wait--I have a cunning man whose wit may help
+us here."
+
+He turned and flung up his sword in the air. His men rode down to the
+narrow causeway, while from the tower came shouts warning Cathbarr
+against treachery. But the giant only grinned again, and Brian shouted
+to Turlough Wolf to come on alone.
+
+Old Turlough obeyed in no little wonder. When he came up Brian told him
+what had chanced--that out of enmity had arisen friendship.
+
+"But," he concluded, trouble in his heart, "you must find me a way out,
+Turlough. I have passed my word to O'Donness to reduce Cathbarr; to do
+that I must slay him, or he me. I see little honor either way."
+
+"Few men find honor in their dealings with the Dark Master," grumbled
+Turlough, looking from Cathbarr to Brian. "Yet, if you want a way out,
+it is an easy matter. Cathbarr of the Ax, give service to my master.
+Thus, Brian Buidh, you shall reduce Cathbarr; yet the Dark Master said
+naught of giving up this man to him."
+
+"Good!" cried Brian, eagerness in his blue eyes, and swung on the giant.
+"Will you give me your service, friend, and follow me? There shall be a
+storm of men--" He paused abruptly as the words fell from his lips, but
+he had said enough.
+
+"I give you service, Yellow Brian," rumbled Cathbarr, taking his hand
+again, and his strong, white teeth flashed through his beard. "I will
+follow you, and my men, and there shall be firm friendship between us.
+Is it good?"
+
+"It is good!" exclaimed Brian, his heart singing. But Turlough laughed
+harshly.
+
+"So you have again broken my rede, Brian Buidh, for this man knows you
+not as his master, but names you his friend. I bade you take, not give."
+
+"It was your own advice," retorted Brian, laughing.
+
+"Aye, since you asked it, I found the way out. But you have not
+conquered him."
+
+"He conquered me by not telling a lie," said Cathbarr simply. "I serve
+him."
+
+Turlough eyed them keenly, heard how the fight had gone, and then
+suddenly comprehended what manner of man this huge, bearded fellow was.
+His face cleared, and without a word he clasped Cathbarr's hand, and
+asked Brian for orders.
+
+"How far from here is Bertragh Castle?" questioned Brian.
+
+"It overlooks Bertraghboy Bay," answered the giant. "Bide here till
+noon, while my men bring in their horses from the hills, and with the
+night we can arrive there."
+
+To this Brian assented, well pleased that Cathbarr had horses. Turlough
+went back to bring up his men, and Brian entered the tower that served
+Cathbarr for castle. It was a small place, but strong; the ten men who
+took his hand and gave him service were cut after the pattern of their
+master--huge fellows all, O'Flahertys from the mountains who had
+followed Cathbarr down to loot the coast, with no ill success.
+
+It was a strange tale that he heard, while he and his men ate and drank
+with their new comrades. For some months Cathbarr had maintained himself
+here, raiding O'Donnell's lands chiefly and making his ax feared through
+all the coast. In fact, the giant had attempted his own errand--to set
+himself up in power; but he had gone about it like a child.
+
+The Dark Master had come against him with a hundred men, and after
+losing a score and more at the causeway, had tried to starve him out. At
+that Cathbarr had calmly stolen away by boat, raided O'Donnell's
+choicest farms overnight, and was back with his plunder before the Dark
+Master guessed his absence. After this O'Donnell had kept watch and ward
+upon his lands, with better results; Cathbarr occupied himself with
+raiding against the scattered parties of plunderers in the hills, and
+had won some booty.
+
+Brian discovered many things during the hour or two he waited for the
+horses to be fetched in. Chief of these was that he had set himself a
+difficult nut to crack. The Dark Master held a strong castle, with rich
+farms around it, and could summon at need some three hundred men to his
+standard. In short, Brian found that O'Donnell held the very position he
+himself wanted to hold--and was like to keep it.
+
+"Of course," he thought soberly, reflecting on his future course, "if I
+come off clear to-night I can ride with my seventy men to a better
+place. And yet--I don't know! What better place than this? It will be no
+long time before hoofs are in the land, for Royalist and Roundhead and
+Ulsterman will be storming through the hills; Galway will be the last to
+give in to Cromwell, of a certainty. When the hurricane falls, I want a
+roof to shelter me--and whom could I turn out better than this
+O'Donnell?"
+
+Cathbarr's tower was too small to serve him as a fortalice, for it was
+barely large enough to shelter the eleven axmen. Suddenly an idea
+flashed across Brian's mind. Why not a union with this O'Malley woman
+against the Dark Master?
+
+Upon the thought, he rose and went out to the ice-rimmed shore below the
+tower, where he paced up and down, considering the matter. After all, it
+would do no harm, and there were great possibilities in it. He returned
+to the tower at sound of shouts and clattering hoofs, and took Turlough
+aside.
+
+"Turlough Wolf, in your advice you spoke against making pacts with men,
+but you said nothing of women. It is my purpose to send you to this
+O'Malley castle, to propose a pact with Nuala O'Malley against the Dark
+Master. You can tell her that I have a hundred horsemen behind me--for
+I will have them. Will you do this, bearing her word back to me?"
+
+Turlough plucked moodily at his ragged beard.
+
+"I see no harm in such a pact, master," he replied thoughtfully. "As to
+reaching the Bird Daughter, that is another matter. I think that I can
+do it, however. When shall I start, and where shall I find you again?"
+
+Brian reflected a moment.
+
+"Start now, Turlough. Cathbarr and I will have no need of advice this
+night, for we shall either fight our way clear, or else the Dark Master
+will keep to his word. When you return, you will find me here; if I am
+not here, I will leave a man here to give you word of me."
+
+"I am to say that you have a hundred horsemen behind you?" Turlough's
+sharp eyes swept to Brian's half-questioningly.
+
+"Say a hundred and a half," laughed out Brian, "and trust your silver
+tongue for the rest, old Wolf! Never fear, I will have the men. But mind
+this, Turlough. I will make no other pact with her than this, against
+the Dark Master. It may be that when I have driven him forth I may fly
+after other game."
+
+"Men have sought to drive the Dark Master forth," quoth Turlough, "and
+their heads have rotted above his gate. Take heed lest there be an empty
+spike there this night, Yellow Brian!"
+
+But Brian only laughed shortly, and bade the old man affectionate
+farewell, for he knew that Turlough loved him. And when Turlough had
+ridden somberly away, Brian felt a strange sense of desertion, of loss,
+that was no whit inspired by Turlough's gloomy last words. He shook it
+off, however, at gripping hands again with Cathbarr. The axmen had
+gathered most of their loot and buried what was of value, for Brian had
+determined to return here from Bertragh and make use of the tower until
+he had heard from Turlough's errand.
+
+So now, at the head of thirty men, he rode across the narrow causeway
+with Cathbarr of the Ax at his side for friend and guide. The giant did
+not yet quite comprehend exactly what plan had flashed across the brain
+of old Turlough, so as they rode Brian made the thing clearer to him.
+When the simple and straightforward Cathbarr grasped the matter, he
+smote his horse's neck with a bellow of laughter.
+
+"Ho! So you bring me before the Dark Master ax in hand, reduced to
+_your_ service instead of his, my men added to yours--oh, it is a jest,
+brother, a jest! I think that O'Donnell will slay us both on the spot!"
+
+"Not if your axmen are true," retorted Brian.
+
+Cathbarr laughed again. "They fear me and they love me, brother," he
+cried, gazing back at the file of horsemen. "Your own men fear you and
+love you also. Therefore we are men alike."
+
+Brian began to love the man for his utter simplicity, save where there
+was killing in hand. Cathbarr seemed in reality to have the heart of a
+child, impulsive and passionate to an extreme, and there was always a
+certain rugged power in his bearing which bespoke him a true Flaherty of
+the mountains. His men were like himself in this respect, and after they
+had fraternized with Brian's men they began to feel the same unbounded
+surety in Yellow Brian as Cathbarr expressed. Their axes were the usual
+splay-bladed affairs that their grandfathers had used under Red Hugh at
+the Yellow Ford, nor indeed in all his life had Brian ever seen another
+ax like to that of Cathbarr's.
+
+They rode through the afternoon while a light snow fell and a keen east
+wind cut down from the peaks of the Twelve Pins, until the shaggy horses
+slithered along with tails tucked tight beneath them. But there was good
+cheer in the company, for the news had spread of how Yellow Brian would
+have seventy men behind him that night. When the darkness began to fall,
+Bertragh Castle came in sight far below--a gray crag jutting up from
+the plain, scarped and embattled, the sea behind it and the watch-fires
+of men twinkling from its keep. All about lay farms and steads, and the
+lowing of byred cattle rose on the evening air when the snow ceased.
+
+"Be careful not to drink or eat in that hall," warned Cathbarr blackly.
+"Ill comes of it to all who accept hospitality there."
+
+Brian nodded and rode on in silence, for there were parties of horsemen
+and pikemen down below and the blare of horns shrilled up. Evidently the
+riders on the hills had been seen from afar.
+
+As they reached the lower ground Brian was aware of a band of men riding
+to meet them, and halted. Through the dusk came a score of armed
+horsemen, and their leader inquired their business, shouting from a safe
+distance. Brian returned the shout.
+
+"I am Yellow Brian, and I seek O'Donnell Dubh according to a pact made
+with him yesterday. I have reduced Cathbarr of the Ax, and am come in
+peace."
+
+"You are expected," called the other, riding up with his men. "The Dark
+Master is waiting for you."
+
+And Brian rode on to Bertragh, not without some forebodings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+YELLOW BRIAN RIDES SOUTH.
+
+
+Outside the castle gates, where cressets flared over the snow, an old
+seneschal appeared and ordered Brian to leave his men outside. To this
+the men made some objection, but Brian laughed softly.
+
+"Bide where you are," he said. "You shall not be slain unless I am slain
+inside."
+
+The O'Donnells watched him and Cathbarr with no little wonder, and the
+two men made a fine pair as they marched across the creaking drawbridge.
+Though Cathbarr topped Brian by half a head, there was no doubt as to
+which was the nobler man; the giant gazed around him with amazed eyes,
+but Brian held his head high and strode in with a smile flickering on
+his lips. But his blue eyes were very sharp that night.
+
+He saw the crowded men in the courtyard, many of them armed with
+muskets, their matches burning, and noted also that the Dark Master
+possessed some half-dozen bastards--immense, nine-foot pieces mounted on
+huge carriages, with their eight-pound balls piled beside them. In those
+days it was no small thing to own such cannon in the west of Ireland,
+and Brian eyed them approvingly as he passed through the courtyard. He
+was beginning to count them as his own.
+
+Cathbarr had told him that the Dark Master had brought many O'Donnells
+down from the north to settle the farms and lands beyond the castle, but
+Brian saw that these were not all. The garrison was a riffraff of all
+the armies that had wasted Ireland, and they were fighting men fit for
+their work.
+
+Brian entered the hall, with Cathbarr muttering oaths a pace behind him.
+The hall was high, lit with cressets, and beside a huge fireplace sat
+the Dark Master in a carved chair of black wood, an old harper sitting
+opposite. Behind Brian and Cathbarr flocked in men until the hall was
+well filled.
+
+Brian found the penetrating eyes fixed on him as he advanced, but in
+them was no surprise or fear, and O'Donnell calmly stroked his drooping
+mustache as he watched. Cathbarr still followed behind, bearing that
+great ax of his, and Brian stopped a few paces from the hearth as the
+Dark Master spoke.
+
+"Welcome to Bertragh, Yellow Brian. I had not looked for you so soon."
+
+"No." Brian's voice rang out richly in the stillness. "But I am here,
+O'Donnell Dubh, to claim my two-score men. I have reduced Cathbarr of
+the Ax."
+
+For the first time the hunched O'Donnell seemed to notice Cathbarr. His
+black eyes flickered curiously to the giant, then he smiled sourly.
+
+"If he is reduced, why does he not kneel, Brian of the hard eyes?"
+
+"Kneel," ordered Brian.
+
+Cathbarr flushed and his beard began to stand out, but he obeyed. There
+was no great love in his face as he knelt, holding to his ax, and gazed
+at O'Donnell.
+
+"Throw your ax into the fire," said the Dark Master, his voice smooth as
+silk.
+
+"Do not," exclaimed Brian, and his eyes grew bitterly cold as they
+clinched with those of the Dark Master. Over the latter's pallid face
+crept a slow red fire, and his head drew back between his shoulders. Men
+held their breaths.
+
+"O'Donnell," went on Brian slowly, "I have fulfilled my pact. I have
+reduced Cathbarr of the Ax--but he serves me and not you. Since I have
+conquered him as you bade, I call on you to carry out the pact and lend
+me two-score men for three months, scat-free."
+
+If Brian had wanted any testimony as to O'Donnell's iron hand, he had
+it. His words, with all they implied, would have drawn a howl of rage
+from the retainers of any other chief in the land, but the men behind
+and around him only grew more silent.
+
+As for the Dark Master, the red hue died slowly from his face, though
+his head remained drawn in, and still his eyes held those of Brian. When
+he spoke, it was as if he were musing aloud.
+
+"So, Brian of the hard eyes, you have some courage, eh? _Duar na
+Criosd!_ Little did I ever think that a man would come to me and borrow
+my own men that he might make war upon me! Is this your thought, Yellow
+Brian?"
+
+"You have sharp ears, Dark Master," said Brian dryly, and a chuckle
+passed through the crowd. "In time I might take this castle, it is true.
+Just now I have other things in mind, however, and I shall not fall upon
+you until there has passed gage of battle between us."
+
+"Thanks for so much," smiled the other slowly, though the red crept up
+to his cheek-bones faintly. Brian seemed perfectly at his ease, as
+indeed he was. "And what if I fell upon you first?"
+
+"I am liker to offer battle than accept it, O'Donnell."
+
+"Now, that is a good answer," said the Dark Master, while a whisper
+floated around the hall. "I would be glad to have you at my back, Yellow
+Brian, for men who ride behind me are like to win much."
+
+Brian laughed a little.
+
+"Some day I may be at your back, O'Donnell Dubh, and in that day I may
+win all that you have, from life to goods."
+
+To his blank amazement, O'Donnell only threw out his head and chuckled;
+but it was an evil chuckle, and there was venom gleaming in his black
+eyes.
+
+"I think that it were best for me to slay you here, Brian of the hard
+eyes, to slay you and this Cathbarr of the Ax. It seems to my mind that
+it is anything but good to turn you loose upon the land, for I hear a
+storm of hoofs in the air, and dead men are riding on the wind, and
+there is a whisper--"
+
+He paused, drew his cloak about him, and gazed down at his foot. That
+pause was more dreadful than speech, for the crowded men moved not a
+finger, so that Brian all but thought that he and the Dark Master were
+alone. Then his face blanched a trifle. For, whether it were some
+uncanny play of mind or very truth, it seemed to him that from the wide
+fireplace there did indeed come a faint ring of hoofs and clash of
+steel; the long cressets over them suddenly flickered smokingly, though
+no draft crossed their faces.
+
+Then indeed Brian knew that his fate hung upon the Dark Master's
+thoughts, and he drew himself up a little straighter, and his blue eyes
+glinted colder than any ice as his hand closed upon his sword-hilt. But
+at the slight motion O'Donnell looked up keenly.
+
+"You have ridden hard, Brian. Pause and sup with me--"
+
+"I did not come to eat or drink," said Brian sternly. "Also, I am weary
+of this talking. Now fulfil your pact, Dark Master, or be shamed before
+all your men."
+
+"Are you for Royalist or Parliament?" asked O'Donnell, as if he had not
+heard.
+
+"I am for Brian Buidh."
+
+"Take two-score men and begone," and the other rose. To his surprise,
+Brian found that, despite the hunched back, O'Donnell was as tall as
+himself. The black eyes flamed out at him for an instant. "I will keep
+my honor, though I regret it later, Yellow Brian. Go, with your men.
+When next we meet your head shall grin over my gates."
+
+"Thanks for so much," retorted Brian mockingly, though he drew a swift
+breath of relief. "My head serves me too well to render it easily. _Slan
+leat_, O'Donnell!"
+
+"_Slan leat_," repeated the Dark Master and turned his back, gazing down
+at the fire.
+
+Brian turned and strode down the hall, Cathbarr at his heels. When they
+reached the courtyard he found men saddling in haste, and an officer
+saluted him gravely.
+
+"Two-score men are at your orders, Yellow Brian."
+
+"Let them follow me," said Brian curtly. "And who quarrels with my men,
+dies."
+
+To that there was no dispute. The drawbridge clanked down once more,
+Brian and Cathbarr mounted and rode out to where the thirty waited
+grimly, and after them came the forty men from the garrison. Cathbarr,
+who trusted the Dark Master little, set his ten axmen in the van,
+followed with Brian, and the sixty followed them into the night.
+
+"I think we came out of that well, brother," said the giant softly.
+"Where do we ride?"
+
+"To your tower, for the night. After that, in search of more men."
+
+"Toward Galway or Slyne Head?"
+
+"Wherever there are men."
+
+After that they rode on in silence, while the men behind fraternized
+freely. All were of the same stamp, and indeed the two-score already
+were as willing to serve Brian as O'Donnell, since they had witnessed
+that scene in the castle hall.
+
+Brian wondered dully what the outcome of all this was to be. The strain
+of facing O'Donnell and bearding him in his own den had been no light
+one, but he knew that Cathbarr had spoken truth in saying that they were
+well out of it. The Dark Master, he thought, was a man well worth
+fighting. To take his castle was not like turning out a chieftain of
+some ancient family, with his clan about him for miles around; O'Donnell
+had seized upon the place himself, his men were reavers and outlaws, and
+the castle was a strong one.
+
+Then there was the O'Malley alliance. Brian had it in mind to beset the
+Dark Master by sea and land at once, for all the O'Malley clan had been
+seamen and rovers from time immemorial, while he himself preferred men
+and horses at his back. In calmer mood now, he reflected that Turlough
+might not return for a week, and there was food and fodder for seventy
+men and horses to be obtained.
+
+If he rode toward Galway he would have to plunder the patriots, which
+went against the grain. But in lower Galway and Clare things were
+different. That winter no army held to winter quarters save that of
+Cromwell, and between Limerick and Galway there was a wild rout of men
+out of half a dozen armies, the plague had swept off all but the
+seafaring folk, and men held only what their swords could guard.
+
+So Brian determined that he would ride toward the south.
+
+He realized well that his men must be drawn together by fighting, that
+they must learn a perfect confidence in him, and that they must earn
+their sustenance for the time being. Cathbarr already knew of old
+Turlough's mission, and of course approved, since in his eyes Brian
+could do no wrong. What was more, reflected Brian, he could not make
+this alliance empty-handed. He must get men and spare horses, stores and
+powder, and some muskets or pistols if possible, for few of his men
+carried more than sword or perhaps a sorry pistolet or ancient
+bombardule out of date a generation since.
+
+"A storm of men!" he muttered as he gazed at the stars. "A storm of men!
+Did that Black Woman speak truly, I wonder? And what dark magic was that
+which passed to-night?"
+
+But no answer came to his questions save that the cold stars chilled him
+to the bone. Since they had no better place to seek, they returned to
+Cathbarr's tower, but it was long past midnight when they reached it,
+and the men were nodding in their saddles. As barely a dozen could crowd
+into the place, the rest were forced to camp outside in the snow, but
+roaring fires and some little food put them in good humor and it was no
+hardship to any of them.
+
+"It has been a strange two days for us twain," said Brian as he and
+Cathbarr divided a scorched bannock one of the Scots had hastily turned
+out over the coals.
+
+"Yes," smiled the giant into his beard, his deep-throated bull's voice
+rumbling through their tiny room. "But it is in my mind that there are
+stranger days ahead of us, Brian Buidh. A witch-woman once told me that
+I would meet my death from water and fire together, brother, in a cause
+not mine own."
+
+"You are not bound to my service," replied Brian.
+
+"But I am bound to you, for I like you," answered Cathbarr, and his hand
+crushed down on Brian's. That night they slept together beneath the same
+blanket, and though after that they spoke few words of love or
+friendship, the two men drew ever closer each to the other in all
+things.
+
+It had indeed been a strange two days for him, thought Brian as he
+roused up the camp late the next morning and set out sentries in the
+hills. He had met the Dark Master on the first, and on the second he had
+met Cathbarr, then had forced the Dark Master into lending him men
+against his will. Now, after a scant three days beyond Lough Corrib, he
+had twined his fate with that of other men, had set his heart upon
+winning Bertragh Castle, and had won both a stout friend and a stout
+enemy.
+
+For he counted O'Donnell as a foe, in which he was not far wrong.
+
+However, there was no time to be wasted, for fodder was exceeding
+scanty, and Brian himself had no heart for idleness. As he had resolved
+on his course during that return ride the night before, he gathered his
+men together and briefly ordered them to be ready to ride at noon, and
+to Cathbarr alone he outlined his plan. Then he picked two of the axmen
+who knew the country roundabout, and ten from among those O'Donnell had
+loaned him, and took them aside and told them of Turlough Wolf, who
+would come before long.
+
+"You will bide here," he concluded, "and bid him wait for me. I shall
+return this side of ten days. And mind you, if there is feud or
+treachery among you so that one man's blood is let, then I will exact a
+tenfold vengeance from both men."
+
+The twelve, who were sturdy ruffians and well able to hold the place
+against any sudden attack by the Dark Master, looked into the ice-blue
+eyes for an instant, and straightway vowed that there would be neither
+treachery nor quarreling among them. And Brian guessed shrewdly that he
+had inspired some little fear in their hearts.
+
+So that at high noon they rode away to the east, threescore strong, with
+Brian and Cathbarr and the remaining eight axmen in the van. Brian did
+not spare either man or horse that day, for there was little food left
+them; when midnight came they had slipped past Galway and were ready to
+ride south, though they all went to rest supperless.
+
+With the morning Brian found that two of the men had slipped off and
+were busy plundering a hill-farm a mile away, where an old woman lived
+alone. He promptly had them brought before him, and bade them take up
+their weapons.
+
+"I am no executioner," he said as he bared his huge sword. "I am a
+teacher of lessons, and my lessons must be learned."
+
+When they rode away from that place, leaving the two men buried under
+cairns, Brian was well assured that there would be no more ravaging by
+his men, though they died of hunger.
+
+However, it proved that there was no great chance of this, for Brian
+drove such a storm past Slieve Aughty as had not been heard of in
+generations. Of all that chanced in those seven days ere he set his face
+to the north again, not much has survived, for there were greater storms
+to come afterward, and more talked-of fighting. But certain things were
+done which had a sequel.
+
+By the fifth day Brian had swept past Gort toward Lough Graney, and
+turned west by Crusheen, which he passed through with a hundred horsemen
+at his heels. Two days before he had struck upon fifty Ulstermen who
+were working north from Munster, and what were left of them after the
+meeting took service with him. From them he learned that O'Neill was
+dying or dead, and that the Royalists and Confederacy men were paralyzed
+through the south.
+
+They had left Crusheen ten miles behind them on the fifth day, when
+Cathbarr laid his hand on Brian's knee and pointed to the left, where a
+hill rose against the sky.
+
+"Look there, _boucal_--when the birds fly from the _ceanabhan_, seek for
+snakes!"
+
+Brian drew rein. Gazing at the long slopes of moor-grass that rose
+across the hill, he saw a sudden flight of blackbirds from over the
+crest; they flew toward him, then swerved swiftly and darted to the
+right. Brian called up two of his men who knew the country, and asked
+them what lay over the hill.
+
+"The Ennis road to Mal Bay," they replied, and he sent them ahead to
+scout.
+
+Before he reached the hill-crest they were back with word that an
+"army" was on the road, and Brian pushed forward with Cathbarr to see
+for himself. Slipping from their horses, they gained the hilltop and
+looked over on the winding road beyond. Neither of them spoke, but
+Brian's eyes glinted suddenly, for he beheld a train of four wagons
+convoyed by some two hundred troopers. He touched Cathbarr and they
+returned.
+
+"A party of Ormond's Scottish troopers," he said quietly when they had
+rejoined the men. "Cathbarr, take thirty men and work around them. When
+you strike, I will lead over the hill and flank them."
+
+The giant nodded, picked his men, and rode away. Brian led his seventy
+closer to the rise of ground, and as they waited they could hear the
+creaking of wagons and the snap of whips. It was a Royalist convoy, and
+since there was no love between the Scots and the Irish of any party,
+Brian's men were hungry for the fight.
+
+They got their fill that day.
+
+A rippling shout, a scattering of shots, and Brian spurred forward. The
+road wound a hundred yards below, and Cathbarr had already fallen on the
+vanguard. The Scots were riding forward to whelm him when Brian's men
+drove down with a wild yell and smote the length of their flank.
+
+Brian hewed his way to the side of Cathbarr, and then the sword and ax
+flashed side by side. The captain in command of the troopers pistoled
+Cathbarr's horse, but the huge ax met his steel cap and Cathbarr was
+mounted again. Meanwhile, Brian was engaged with a cornet who had great
+skill at fencing, and his huge Spanish blade touched the young officer
+lightly until the Scot pulled forth a pistol, and at that Brian smote
+with the edge.
+
+The muskets and pistols of the troopers worked sad havoc among Brian's
+men at first, but there was no chance to reload, and when the officers
+had gone down the Scots lost heart. They would have trusted to no Gaelic
+oaths, for men got no quarter in the west, but when Brian shouted at
+them in English they listened to him right willingly. A score broke away
+and galloped breakneck for the south again, and perhaps fifty had gone
+down; the rest gathered about the wagons stared at Brian and Cathbarr in
+superstitious awe as the two lowered bloody ax and sword and offered
+terms.
+
+"I offer service to you," said Brian. "I am Brian Buidh, and if you will
+ride with me you shall find war. Those who wish may return to Ennis."
+
+Now, at the most Brian had some seventy-five men left, and those
+clustered at the wagons were over a hundred and a score, with muskets.
+But their officers were down, they had received no pay for a year and
+more, and they were for the most part Macdonalds of the Isles, who loved
+freebooting better than army work. So out of them all only ten men chose
+to ride to Ennis again, and Cathbarr shook his head as they departed.
+
+"It seems to me that ill shall come of this," he said, and wiped his ax
+clean.
+
+Brian laughed shortly and dismounted. He found that the wagons contained
+powder, stores, and muskets; so after placing the wounded in them, he
+rode north to Corrofin that day with close to two hundred men at his
+back. Staying that night at Corrofin, he hanged ten of the Scots for
+plundering, rested his horses for two days, and set his face homeward
+with the surety that his men knew him for master.
+
+The storm of men was gathering fast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+BRIAN TAKES CAPTIVES.
+
+
+"_Failte abhaile!_ Welcome, Yellow Brian!"
+
+"So you won back before me, eh?" Brian swung down from his horse and
+gripped hands with old Turlough Wolf. "Get the men camped, Cathbarr,
+then join us."
+
+Turlough's cunning eyes rested on the wagons and weary horsemen, and he
+nodded approvingly as Brian told him of what had chanced.
+
+"Said I not that you were a master of men?" he chuckled quietly, as he
+turned to follow into Cathbarr's tower. "But it is easier to master men
+than women, Brian. I bear you a bitter rede from the Bird Daughter,
+master."
+
+"Hard words fare ill on empty stomachs," quoth Brian. "Keep it till I
+have eaten."
+
+When Cathbarr had joined them and they had dined well on Royalist stores
+and wine, Turlough made report on his mission. It seemed that he had met
+with a party of the O'Malleys at the head of Kilkieran Bay at the close
+of his first day's ride, and after hearing his errand they had taken him
+in their ship out to Gorumna Isle, where stood the hold of Nuala, the
+Bird Daughter. And somewhat to his own amazement, Turlough had found
+that by this same name she was known along the whole coast.
+
+He reported that it was a strong place, for the castle had been built by
+her father; that she had two large ships and five small ones, and that
+both ships and castle were defended by all manner of "shot"--meaning
+cannon. She had just returned from Kinsale, where she had been aiding
+Blake hold Prince Rupert's fleet in the bay. Now Rupert had slipped
+away, and after plundering a French ship with wines, she had come home
+again.
+
+"She seems a woman of heart," smiled Brian. "What of her looks?"
+
+"I did not see her." Turlough shook his head. "She ordered my message
+written out, so she has some clerkly learning. She took an hour to
+ponder it, master, then set me ashore with this message.
+
+"'Tell Yellow Brian,' she ordered, 'that I claim tribute from Golam Head
+to Slyne. I will make no pact with him until he pay me tribute; and if I
+find him on my land I will set him in chains above my water-gate.'"
+
+Brian felt no little dismay at this, for he had counted strongly on
+alliance with this Bird Daughter.
+
+However, Turlough proceeded to set forth the reasons for such a message,
+as he had conceived them within his shrewd mind. First, it seemed that
+the pestilence had visited Gorumna in the absence of its mistress, and
+that the Dark Master had caught a score of the O'Malleys who had been
+wrecked in Bertraghboy Bay, promptly hanging them all. Between the
+plague and the hanging Nuala had a bare fourscore men left within the
+castle, and she counted Brian's offer as a ruse on the part of
+O'Donnell, for she was strongly afraid of treachery.
+
+"There is more pride than power in that message," commented Cathbarr
+easily. "The Dark Master has stripped away all her lands along the
+coast, and save for Kilkieran Bay she has little left. Let us fall on
+her, brother, and take what _is_ left."
+
+Brian laughed at this naive counsel, looking at Turlough. But the old
+Wolf said nothing, brooding over the fire, and Brian reflected within
+himself.
+
+He had come into a merciless feud, that he knew well. If he was to enter
+upon it he must banish all pity from his heart, which was no easy thing
+for him; but Turlough related things he had heard which speedily changed
+his mind. There were tales of O'Donnell's ridings through the land, of
+men slaughtered and women carried off to people his castle; of
+treachery, and worse.
+
+It was also whispered that the Dark Master had made alliance with
+certain pirates from the north coast.
+
+However, Brian knew that he must reach some decision regarding his own
+men, and that speedily. The three talked long that night, setting aside
+the question of the O'Malley alliance for the time being. Brian had some
+two hundred men to house and horses to feed; he had good store of
+provision and powder, but Cathbarr's little tower was utterly useless to
+house the tenth of them all, while the stores would have to be
+sheltered. Then O'Donnell might fling his men on them at any moment,
+which would mean disaster in their present position.
+
+Cathbarr suggested an attack on Bertragh castle, but Turlough dissented.
+
+"When we strike, we must strike to win," he said shrewdly. "The Dark
+Master has more men than we, and the sea is at his back, and they say he
+is a warlock to boot."
+
+The giant stared and crossed himself at talk of warlocks, but Brian
+laughed out.
+
+"I have a plan," he said, fingering his sword. "O'Donnell watches all
+the hill-paths like a hawk, even now in winter. Those wagons are of no
+great use to us, and we can store the goods here in the tower for the
+present. Get it done to-night, Cathbarr, and get the accouterments from
+two of those largest Scots for yourself and me."
+
+Turlough Wolf chuckled suddenly, and Brian knew that the old man had
+pierced to something of his plan. But not all.
+
+"Turlough," he went on as the scheme came to him more clearly, "at dawn
+ride out with a hundred men to that hill-road where first we met the
+Dark Master. Hide the men in the hills, and be ready to ride hard when
+the time comes. Cathbarr, before the dawn breaks have the wagons start
+out with twenty of the Scots troopers as escort. Bid as many more as can
+lie down in the wagons and cover up close with their muskets. Send a man
+or two with them to guide to that hill-road of which I spoke. We will
+ride after and catch them up shortly after sunrise."
+
+"Good!" roared out the giant, whose brains lay all in his ax. "And the
+Dark Master will swoop down to the feast, eh?"
+
+"He will not," returned Brian dryly. "He will send two or threescore men
+upon us, and it is my purpose to take as many of these prisoner as may
+be."
+
+Cathbarr stared, and Turlough's gray eyes squinted up at Brian.
+
+"How is this, master?" he asked inquiringly. "It is too good a trap to
+waste on prisoners--"
+
+"My plan is my plan," said Brian briefly. "I am not making war on
+O'Donnell, but I intend to pay tribute to the Bird Daughter, and that
+right soon. While we are gone have a score of men remain here and build
+huts on the cliffs, Cathbarr."
+
+Turlough fell to staring into the fire, divining the plan at length, and
+Cathbarr went out to fulfil his orders. Brian knew well that there was
+danger in the scheme, but he determined to deal with one thing at a
+time, and thoroughly. Just at present he was intent on forming an
+alliance with Nuala O'Malley, for ships and cannon were needful before
+he could nip the Dark Master in his hold. It was going to cost the lives
+of men, and he made up his mind not to pause for that. If he was to live
+and make head it must be by the strong hand alone--the Red Hand of
+Tyr-owen; and he looked down at the ring of Owen Ruadh and took it for a
+symbol, as his ancestors had taken it.
+
+Before they went to rest Turlough pointed out that if the hills were
+watched he and his hundred would be noted, so Brian bade him hit back
+toward Lough Corrib and then to come straight down upon the main road.
+It might be that he could overcome the Dark Master's men of himself, and
+if not, he would hold them until Turlough came up.
+
+With this plan arranged, then, the four wagons set forth under the cold
+stars, with thirty Scots lying hidden and twenty riding before and
+behind. With the first gleam of dawn Turlough and his hundred cantered
+off to the northeast, and an hour later Brian and Cathbarr put on the
+buff coats and steel jacks of the troopers, with the wide morions; took
+a pair of loaded pistols, and galloped after the slow-moving wagons.
+Brian wore his Spanish blade, but Cathbarr had sent his ax ahead with
+the troopers.
+
+They caught up with the wagons when the latter were entering upon the
+road proper out of the hill-track they had followed. The first snows had
+vanished for the most part, leaving bleak, gaunt hills and rugged crags
+that twisted with soft fog. The sun struck the fog away, however, and as
+Brian rode on he gazed up at the purple mountains on his right, and down
+at the purple bog to his left, and caught the gleam of the Bertraghboy
+water out beyond. He laughed as he drank in the keen air of morning.
+
+"Best get your edge ready, Cathbarr of the Ax!"
+
+Cathbarr grunted, and slung the heavy hammer-ax at his saddlebow. One of
+the guides, who were from the Dark Master's twoscore men, pointed to a
+twisted peak on their right, whence an almost invisible spiral of gray
+smoke wound up.
+
+"The signal, Yellow Brian," he grinned, cheerfully giving away his
+secrets. In fact, all those twoscore men rather hoped that their old
+master would be crushed by Brian, for so long as there was booty in
+sight they cared not whom they served.
+
+Half an hour later Brian saw ahead of him that same bend of road where
+first he and Turlough had met O'Donnell Dubh. But there was no sign of
+Turlough, and he cantered ahead to see if the O'Donnell men were below.
+As he did so a bullet sang past his ear, and he whirled to see half a
+dozen of his men go down beneath a storm of lead from the hillsides; at
+the same instant some three-score men came scrambling down from among
+the rocks--those same rocks where he had first laid ambush for the Dark
+Master.
+
+And riders were coming up on the road below!
+
+He was caught very neatly, and caught by more men than he had looked
+for. The remainder of the twenty gathered behind him and Cathbarr, and
+the thirty rose among the wagons and for a moment stopped the assault
+with their musketry; but before the smoke had cleared away two-score
+horsemen came thundering up the road from behind the curve, and struck.
+
+"Albanach! Albanach!"
+
+The wild yells shrilled up, and the Scots troopers knew that they were
+fighting without quarter in sight, for the "Albanach," as they were
+termed in Gaelic, gave and got little mercy in Ireland. The saddles of
+the fallen were filled from the men in the wagons, and leaving the
+musketeers to hold off the unmounted men, Brian plunged into the swirl
+of fighting horsemen and joined Cathbarr.
+
+The odds were heavy, but the big claymores of the Scots were heavier
+still. Side by side, Brian and Cathbarr plunged through the ranks, sword
+biting and ax smiting, until they stood almost alone among the
+O'Donnells, for their men had been borne back. Then the giant bellowed
+and his ax crushed down a man stabbing at Brian's horse; Brian pistoled
+one who struck at Cathbarr's back, and pressing their horses head to
+tail they faced the circle of men, while behind them roared the battle.
+
+For a moment the O'Donnells held off, recognizing the pair, then one of
+them spurred forward with a howl of delight.
+
+"_Dhar mo lamh_, Yellow Brian--your head to our gates!"
+
+Brian thrust unexpectedly, and the man went over his horse's tail as the
+ring closed in. So far Cathbarr had forgotten his pistols, but now he
+used them, and took a bullet-crease across his neck in return; then the
+ax and sword heaved up together, and the ring surged back. A skean went
+home in Cathbarr's horse, however, and the giant plunged down, but with
+that Brian spurred and went at the O'Donnells with the point of his
+blade. This sort of fighting was new to them, and when Brian had spitted
+three of them he heard Cathbarr's ax crunch down once more.
+
+They were still cut off from the wagons, but there came a wild drumming
+of hoofs, and wilder yells from the men on the hillside. Like a
+thunder-burst, Turlough and his hundred broke on the battle. The
+O'Donnells were swallowed up, stamped flat; the unmounted men fled among
+the rocks, Turlough's men after them, and a dozen horsemen went
+streaming down the road.
+
+It was hard to make the maddened Scots take prisoners, but Brian did it,
+and when Turlough's men came back he found that they had in all thirty
+captives. Some forty of the attackers had fallen and the rest had fled.
+
+Since all his captives expected no less than a quick death, Brian
+ordered ten of them bound on spare horses, of which there were plenty.
+He himself had lost twenty-three of his Scots, and the remaining score
+of captives cheerfully took service under him. Then, picking out one of
+them, he gave the man a horse and told him to ride home.
+
+"Tell your master, O'Donnell Dubh," he said, "that his men made this
+attack on me, and therefore there is war between us."
+
+The man grinned and departed at a gallop, and word passed through the
+men that the Dark Master had found his match at last. As to this,
+however, they were fated to change their opinion later.
+
+"Now," said Brian to old Turlough, as between them they bound up a slash
+in Cathbarr's thigh, "do you put the wounded in the wagons and begone
+home again. Set out sentries against an attack from O'Donnell, and
+scatter a score of men out along the roads to watch for other parties.
+You might pick up another score of recruits, Turlough Wolf."
+
+Turlough shook his head and tugged at his beard.
+
+"Best take me with you, master, instead of this overgrown ox. You may
+need brains in dealing with the Bird Daughter, and he has no more brains
+than strew his ax-edge. Also he is wounded."
+
+Brian pondered this, while Cathbarr furtively shook a fist at Turlough.
+There was wisdom in the advice, but on the other hand Brian did not like
+to leave his precious two hundred men in care of Cathbarr. If the Dark
+Master attacked suddenly, as he was like to do, brains would be more
+needed than brawn.
+
+On the other hand, he counted on Cathbarr's open face removing the
+evident suspicion that the smooth-tongued Turlough had raised in Gorumna
+Isle. It had been a mistake, he saw plainly, to send such an emissary on
+his mission. Picturing this woman who led her own ships to war, he
+limned her in his mind as a large-boned, flat-breasted, wide-hipped
+creature--and with good reason. He had seen women fighting at Drogheda
+and he had seen them in other places as he rode to the rest, for in
+those days many a woman took her slain lord's _skean fada_ and drew
+blood for Ireland before she was cut down. And when women rode to battle
+there was no mercy asked or given, from Royalist or Confederate or
+Parliament man.
+
+Nuala O'Malley was a woman of blood, said Brian to himself, and he would
+give her blood for her help.
+
+So he curtly refused Turlough's advice, saw that the ten bridles of his
+bound and mounted captives were lined together, and beckoned to
+Cathbarr. Before they rode off, however, they doffed their Scot
+accouterments and took back their own garments, after which Cathbarr led
+the way over the hills to Kilkieran Bay, and Turlough took command of
+the force in sullen ill-humor.
+
+The morning was still young, for the attack had taken place a short two
+hours after sunrise and had soon been quelled. Beyond a slashed thigh
+and a red-creased neck, Cathbarr of the Ax was unhurt, and Brian had
+received no scratch. If the ten captives wondered why they were bound
+and their comrades freed, they said nothing of it.
+
+Even after seeing what he had of the merciless war in Ireland, Brian had
+much ado in making up his mind to hold to the plan he had formed on the
+previous evening. These ten ruffians were scoundrels enough, to judge by
+looks, and yet they were men; and he had been raised in no such school
+of war as this, where surrender meant slaughter without pity. However,
+he determined to do what he could for them, and he would have held to
+this determination had it not been for what chanced when they rode down
+to the little fishing village where Turlough had met the O'Malley men.
+
+They arrived just as the evening was darkling, after a hard day's ride.
+
+As they came within sight of the place, which lay at the head of
+Kilkieran water, Brian made out that a small galley was pulled up on
+shore, and there were a number of men about the huts. Upon the approach
+of the two chiefs with their file of captives there was an instant
+scurry of figures; women ran to the huts, and a dozen or more roughly
+clad men appeared with pikes and muskets. Brian held up his hand in sign
+of peace and rode slowly onward, Cathbarr at his side, to within a dozen
+paces of the huts.
+
+"Who are you?" cried out one of the musketeers. "Be off!"
+
+"Bark less, dog," said Brian, scorn in his eye. "We seek Nuala O'Malley.
+Take us out to Gorumna Isle in your boat."
+
+"What seek ye with the Bird Daughter?" queried the other suspiciously.
+
+"Her business, not yours."
+
+The seamen gazed at them doubtfully, then a number of other men came
+from the huts, well-armed. One of these set up a cry, pointing at the
+captives, and a burst of yells answered him from the rest. Next instant
+Brian and Cathbarr had their weapons out and were facing an excited
+crowd of men.
+
+"Be silent, dogs!" bellowed Cathbarr, and his voice quelled the uproar.
+"What means this attack? Would you have the Bird Daughter strip you with
+whips, fools?"
+
+The spokesman stood out, his dark face quivering with fury as he
+pointed.
+
+"That is as it may be, axman, but first those bound men shall die. One
+is the man who slew my brother, nailing him to his own door till he
+died; another is he who burned Lame Art's wife and child last
+Whit-Sunday--"
+
+"There is he who lopped my husband's hands and nose! Slay him!" shrieked
+out a hag as she burst forward. Brian held out his sword and she drew
+back, but instantly others had taken up the cry.
+
+"And the devil who hung Blind Ulick!"
+
+"There is he who--"
+
+In that brief moment Brian heard things too horrible for speech. The ten
+bound men had grouped together, some pale as death, others laughing
+defiantly. But as the crowd surged forward Brian held up his sword, and
+they paused to listen; he knew now that there was no more pity in his
+heart for these black ruffians of O'Donnell's.
+
+"Let the Bird Daughter render judgment upon them," he shouted. "Friends,
+take us to the Bird Daughter and let her do as she will, for I bear
+these men to her alone."
+
+At that the crowd fell silent, but their leader gave a rapid order, and
+half a dozen men ran down to the strand. Another order, and the maddened
+villagers gave back as the seamen closed about Brian and Cathbarr and
+their captives.
+
+"Come," said the leader roughly. "You shall go to Gorumna Isle with us,
+strange men, but I do not think that you shall ever come back again."
+
+"Nor do I," grinned Cathbarr in the ear of Brian, as they left their
+horses to the fishermen, unbound the prisoners from their steeds, and
+made their way down to the galley. Brian looked at his friend, and they
+both smiled grimly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE BIRD DAUGHTER.
+
+
+"Now, _there_ is a castle worth the taking, Yellow Brian!" said
+Cathbarr.
+
+Brian nodded, his eyes shining in the starlight. After a pull of a long
+seven miles down the bay, the galley had rounded into the northern end
+of Gorumna Isle, guided by a high beacon set among the stars. As they
+drew nearer Brian made out that this beacon was set on the tower of a
+high pile of masonry black against the sky, lit here and there by
+cressets, and it was plain that the Bird Daughter kept good watch since
+they had more than once been hailed in passing the islands.
+
+Once turned into the harbor, Brian found suddenly that they were among
+ships, many of them small galleys, but two of good size which bore
+riding-lights. Again they responded to hails, and without warning a few
+torches blazed out ahead of them. Then it was seen that the castle was
+built with its lower part close on the water, and its upper part rising
+on the crag. In reality, as he found later, it was two castles in one,
+as of necessity it had to be. Were the opposite isles held by an enemy,
+and hostile ships in the little harbor, the higher towers running up the
+crag could dominate all, and the lower castle could be abandoned without
+danger.
+
+Even in the starlight Brian's trained soldier's eye made out something
+of this. Then the leader of the seamen came and stood beside them, for
+during the two-hours' trip he had talked somewhat with Cathbarr and had
+come to look with more respect on Brian himself. That was only natural,
+for seamen ever like those men who talk least.
+
+"Strangers," he said with rough courtesy, "a word in your ear. If you
+would gain speech with the Lady Nuala, deal not with her as with me.
+Send in your names and your business, and you may perchance get to see
+her in the morning, or a week hence, as she may choose."
+
+"Thanks," answered Brian. "But my will is not like to hang upon hers."
+
+The seaman shrugged his shoulders, the oars were put in, and they
+floated up to where the torches flared. Here there was a landing-place
+of hewn stone, with a gate lying open beyond it, and armed men waiting.
+One of these, from his bunch of huge keys and air of authority, Brian
+knew for the seneschal.
+
+"_M'anam go'n Dhia!_" he growled, peering down into the boat as it
+ground on the stone, "what fish have you there?"
+
+"Two salmon and ten herring, Muiertach," laughed one of the men. Brian
+and his friend stepped out while the ten prisoners were prodded after
+them, and Brian found the seneschal looking him over with some wonder,
+hands on hips.
+
+"Well! A giant with a devil's ax, and Cuculain, the Royal Hound, come to
+life again! Who are you, yellow man, and who is this axman, and who are
+these ten bound men?"
+
+Brian was minded to answer curtly enough, but he looked at the seneschal
+and remembered the seaman's kindly warning. Under his eye the laugh
+withered suddenly on the seneschal's lips.
+
+"These ten men belong to me, Muiertach. Go, tell the Bird Daughter that
+Brian Buidh and Cathbarr of the Ax have come to her, bringing tribute as
+she demanded."
+
+Now it was that Cathbarr, who had asked no questions all that day,
+perceived for the first time the reason of their fighting and hard
+riding, and what the manner of that tribute was. He broke into a great
+bellow of laughter so that the rough-clad seamen stared at him in
+wonder, but at a word from Brian he quieted instantly.
+
+"In the morning the message shall be delivered, Brian Buidh," returned
+burly Muiertach with a glimmer of respect in his voice. "And now render
+up your weapons, so that we may treat you as guests--"
+
+"So you sea-rovers are afraid of two men, lest they capture your hold?"
+
+Brian's biting words brought a deep flush to Muiertach's face.
+
+"No weapons do we render," he went on, his voice cold as his eyes. "We
+come as guests, seneschal, and our business is not with you. Take these
+ten men to your dungeons, take us to guest chambers and give us to eat,
+and see that we have speech with the Bird Daughter before to-morrow's
+sun is high."
+
+At this Muiertach growled something into his beard, but turned with a
+gesture of assent. His men closed around the captives, while Brian and
+Cathbarr followed him into the castle, the giant still chuckling to
+himself with great rumbles of laughter.
+
+"Let strict watch be kept over these two," said Muiertach in English to
+one of the torchmen who accompanied them, thinking he would not be
+understood.
+
+"You may yet get a touch of the whip for that order," said Brian in the
+same tongue.
+
+Stricken with amazement, Muiertach turned and stared at him, jaw
+dropping, while Cathbarr glanced from one to the other in perplexity.
+Brian smiled.
+
+"Lead on, and talk less."
+
+With tenfold respect, the seneschal obeyed. Now Brian saw that this
+castle was indeed a stronghold, and might easily be defended by fewer
+men than it had. The inner walls of the lower castle were well lined
+with falcons and falconets, while on the towers above peered out heavier
+cannon, which he took for culverins from their length of nose. Crossing
+the courtyard, they entered the building itself, and Muiertach led them
+through upward-winding corridors, studded with cressets and with here
+and there a recessed _prie-dieu_ in the wall.
+
+From the snatches of talk behind the doors they passed, Brian guessed
+that this lower castle was occupied by the garrison. In this he was
+right, for with torchmen before and behind them they emerged into the
+cold night air again and climbed upward, coming to a gate in the wall of
+the upper castle. This stood open, but it clanged shut behind them, and
+after crossing a steep courtyard they entered a second and broader
+corridor.
+
+Muiertach led them up a long flight of stairs, then another, and finally
+flung open a heavy door. It was evident that they were lodged in one of
+the towers.
+
+"Rest sound and fear not to eat our food," said the seneschal.
+"_Beannacht leath!_"
+
+"Blessing on you," responded Brian and Cathbarr together, and entered.
+
+For a wonder, Brian found that the chamber was lighted with candles,
+which Cathbarr examined with no little awe. Also, it contained a very
+good bed, on which the giant looked with suspicion. The hard stone walls
+were hung with tattered tapestries, and before they had settled well
+into their chairs two men entered with food and wine of the best.
+
+"Not so bad," smiled Brian as they ate. "How come your wounds, brother?"
+
+"Those scratches? Bah!" And the giant gurgled down half a quart of
+Canary at a stretch. "You are not going to sleep on that bed of cloths?"
+
+"That I am," laughed Brian, "and soon, for I am overweary with riding.
+Try it, Cathbarr, and you will be glad of it."
+
+"Not I! Since there is no bracken here the floor is good enough for me.
+Eh, but this sea-woman will have a thought in her mind over your
+message, brother!"
+
+Brian chuckled, but he was too weary with that day's work to talk or
+think, and when the remnants of their meal had been removed and their
+door shut, he gratefully sought the first bed he had known for weeks.
+After some laughing persuasion he prevailed on the suspicious Cathbarr
+to blow out the candles, and upon that he fell asleep.
+
+When he wakened it was broad daylight, and Cathbarr was still snoring
+with his ax looped about his wrist as usual. Brian, feeling like a new
+man, went to the open casement and looked out.
+
+He found himself gazing through a three-foot stone wall, and as he was
+doubtless in one of the towers, this argued that the lower walls were
+twelve feet thick or more. The lower castle was hid from him, but his
+view was toward the upper bay and included the harbor. The two larger
+ships, which were small caracks, but large for the west coast in that
+day, bore six guns on a side, and Brian saw that they were being
+scrubbed and made shipshape. The Bird Daughter must be a woman of some
+scrupulousness, he reflected. Beyond the brown sails of two
+fishing-boats, and low, storm-boding clouds over the farther hills,
+there was nothing more in sight.
+
+As Cathbarr still wore his long mail-shirt, Brian kicked him awake, and
+after his first bellowing yawn their door opened and men brought in jars
+of water. When the giant's wounds had been dressed, under protest, and
+they had broken their fast, the seneschal appeared.
+
+"Chieftains," he said respectfully, "the Lady Nuala has received your
+message and will have speech with you this afternoon. Until then she
+wishes that you keep your chamber, since she knows not your mind in this
+visit."
+
+"That is but fair," assented Brian.
+
+Cathbarr grumbled, but there was no help for it, since they were
+virtually prisoners. The day passed slowly, and toward noon storm drew
+down on the harbor and snow eddied in their casement. With that, they
+fell to polishing their weapons; Brian procured a razor and a
+much-needed shave, and Cathbarr furbished up his huge ax until it glowed
+like silver.
+
+Finally Muiertach appeared. Brian slung the great sword across his back,
+and they followed the seneschal down to the courtyard. Here they were
+joined by the captive O'Donnells and the seamen who had brought them to
+the castle, and Muiertach led them to the great hall.
+
+The father of this O'Malley woman must have been a man of parts, thought
+Brian as he gazed around. The hall was scantily filled with, perhaps,
+three-score men ranged along the walls, and at the farther end was a low
+dais where a huge log fire roared high. The beams were hung with a few
+pennons and ship-ensigns, and on the dais were placed a half-dozen
+chairs. Behind one of these stood two women, and in the chair, calmly
+facing the hall, sat the Bird Daughter.
+
+Brian caught his breath sharply, and his blue eyes flickered flame as he
+saw her. Never in his life had his gaze met such a woman--not in all the
+land of Spain or elsewhere in Ireland.
+
+At this time Nuala O'Malley was twenty years old, and ten of those years
+had been passed either on shipboard or here in Gorumna Isle. As one
+chronicler describes her, "She was not tall, but neither was she small
+of stature, and when she stood on a ship's deck there was no tossing
+could cause her to stumble. Her hair was not blue, but neither was it
+black, and her eyes were very deep and bright, violet in color, and set
+wide in her head. Her nose was neither small nor large, her cheeks were
+ever red with the wind off the sea, her mouth was finely curved, but
+tight-set withal, and she had more chin than women are wont to have. She
+was very lissom in body, but her head never drooped."
+
+And that is a most excellent description of the Bird Daughter, in fewer
+words than most men might use to-day.
+
+But of all this Brian noted at the moment only that before him sat a
+girl-woman whose calm poise and confident power struck out at him like a
+vibrant presence. Like himself, she wore a cloak of dark red, but no
+steel jack glittered beneath it; there was a torque of ancient gold
+about her neck, and her hair was caught up and hidden beneath a small
+cap of red.
+
+Brian thought of the woman he had painted in his mind, then laughed
+softly. She caught the laugh on his face, and comprehended it, and was
+pleased; then as she watched him very calmly, it seemed to Brian that
+her sheer beauty was a thing of deception. It must be, for she was
+surely a woman of blood. He had known enough of beautiful women, who
+played the parts of men, to know that on the far side of their beauty
+was neither mercy nor love nor compassion, that their lovers were many
+steps to ambition, and that they were venomous. So his smile died away,
+and his blue eyes glittered cold and dark, and this the Bird Daughter
+saw also.
+
+Now, there was no man on the dais save Muiertach, who mounted the two
+steps with his keys jangling. As Brian would have gone after him, two
+pikemen stepped forward to intervene. Brian looked into their eyes and
+they drew back again. He and Cathbarr mounted to the dais, and he bowed
+a low, courtly, Spanish bow, of which the Bird Daughter took no note.
+Instead he heard her voice, very low and penetrating, and she was
+speaking to the two pikemen.
+
+"Go out into the courtyard," she said, "and give each other five lashes.
+This is because you dared insult a guest, and because you drew back
+after insulting him. Go!"
+
+The two pikemen, rather pale under their beards, handed over their pikes
+to comrades and strode out of the hall. She turned to Brian, speaking
+still in Gaelic:
+
+"Welcome, Brian Buidh. You have come to bring me tribute?"
+
+"Yes, Lady Nuala, and the tribute is these ten men of the Dark
+Master's."
+
+She looked at Cathbarr; her eyes swept over his ax. Then she looked
+again at Brian, and spoke to Muiertach in English.
+
+"Truly, I have seldom seen such a man as this--"
+
+A swift look of warning flashed over the seneschal's face, and Brian
+laughed.
+
+"Lady," he said in the same tongue, "he is Cathbarr of the Ax, and he
+will be a good man to stand with us against the Dark Master."
+
+She betrayed no surprise, except that a little tinge of red crept to her
+temples.
+
+"I did not know you spoke English, Brian Buidh. Still, it was not to
+Cathbarr that I referred."
+
+At that it was Brian's turn to redden, and mentally he cursed himself.
+There was no evil in this woman's heart, he saw at once. For an instant
+he was confused and taken aback. Then she smiled, slowly rose, and
+tendered him her hand. Going to one knee, he put her fingers to his
+lips.
+
+"Now sit, Yellow Brian," she said, "and let us talk. First, these
+captives of yours. Do you in truth bring them as a tribute? How do I
+know they are O'Donnell's men?"
+
+"Ask these seamen of yours," laughed Brian, seating himself beside her.
+Cathbarr remained standing and leaning on his ax, looking like some
+giant of the old times.
+
+She took him at his word, and when she had heard from the seamen certain
+tales of what cruelties the ten prisoners had done, her violet eyes
+suddenly turned black and an angry pallor drove across her face.
+
+"That is enough," she interrupted curtly. "Take them out and hang them."
+
+The men were led away, and Brian saw that her hands were tightly
+clenched, but whether in fury or in fear of herself he could not tell.
+Then she turned to him, looking straightly into his face, and on the
+instant Brian knew that if this girl-woman bade him go to his death, he
+would go, laughing.
+
+"Tell me of yourself, Brian Buidh. Of what family are you? By the ring
+on your finger you are an O'Neill; yet I have heard nothing of such a
+man as yourself leading that sept. When your messenger came to me, I
+read cunning in his face, and took it for a trap set by the Dark Master;
+but now that I have seen you and Cathbarr of the Ax, I will take fealty
+from you if you wish to serve me."
+
+Brian smiled a little.
+
+"Serve you I would, lady, but not in fealty. I take fealty and do not
+give it. My name is indeed Brian Buidh, and as for that ring, it was a
+gift from Owen Ruadh."
+
+"Owen Ruadh died two days since," she said softly, watching his face. "I
+had word of it this morning."
+
+At that he started, and Cathbarr's eyes widened in fear of magic. Owen
+Ruadh had lain on the other side of Ireland, and three months would have
+been fast for such news to travel. But Brian nodded sadly.
+
+"Carrier pigeons, eh?" he said in English and paused. He knew not why,
+but his loneliness seemed stricken into his heart on a sudden; he who
+neither explained nor asked for explanation from any man, felt impelled
+to open his life to this girl-woman. He crushed down the impulse, yet
+not entirely.
+
+"Perhaps, Lady Nuala, there shall be greater confidence between us in
+time, and so I truly desire. But know this much--I am better born than
+any man in Ireland--aye, than Clanrickard himself; and I am here in the
+west to seek a new name and a new power. It is in my mind to take
+O'Donnell's castle from him, lady. I have some two hundred men, of whom
+the Dark Master himself lent me twoscore, and in alliance with your
+ships we could reduce him."
+
+"How is this, Brian? You say he _lent_ you twoscore men?"
+
+He laughed and explained the fashion of that loan; and when he had
+finished a great laugh ran down the hall, and the Bird Daughter herself
+was chuckling. Then he waited for her answer, and it was not long in
+coming.
+
+"There is some reason in your plan, Brian Buidh, but more reason against
+it. The castle that O'Donnell holds was formerly my father's. If you
+held it, there would be no peace between us, unless you gave fealty to
+me, which I see plainly you will not do. I claim that castle, and shall
+always claim it."
+
+"Then it seems that I am held in a cleft stick," smiled Brian easily,
+"since I will give fealty to none save the king, or Parliament. You are
+allied with the Roundheads, I understand?"
+
+She nodded, watching him gravely.
+
+"Yes. Cromwell is master of the country, and I am not minded to butt my
+head against a wall, Brian Buidh. If I am to hold to the little that is
+left me, I shall need all my strength."
+
+"And that is not much, lady. Your coasts are plague-smitten, your men
+reduced, and Cromwell has not yet won all the country. Galway will be
+the last to fall, indeed. But as to Bertragh Castle, why should you not
+sell your rights in it to me?"
+
+At his first words a helpless anger flashed into her face, succeeded by
+a still more helpless pride.
+
+"No, I will not sell what I have been unable to conquer back, Brian
+Buidh. If there were any way out of this difficulty with honor, I would
+take it; for I tell you frankly that I would make alliance with you if I
+could."
+
+Brian gazed at her, reading her heart, and fighting vainly against the
+impulse that rose within him. Twice he tried to speak and could not,
+while she watched the conflict in his face and wondered. He wished
+vainly that he had Turlough's cunning brain to aid him now.
+
+"Lady," he said at last, biting his lips, "I will do this. I will give
+you fealty for the holding of Bertragh Castle, keeping it ever at your
+service, but for this alone. When we have taken it, it may be that I
+shall render it back after I have won a better for myself; yet, because
+I would sit at your side and have equal honor with you, and because we
+have need of each other, I will give you the service that I would grant
+to no man alive. Is it good?"
+
+For an instant he thought that she was about to break forth in eager
+assent, then she sank back in her chair, while breathless silence filled
+the hall. She gazed down at the floor, her face flushing deeply, and
+finally looked up again, sadly.
+
+"I do not desire pity or compassion, Brian Buidh," she said simply, and
+her eyes held tears of helpless anger.
+
+Then Brian saw that she had pierced his mind, for which he was both
+sorry and glad. He knew well there were other castles to be had for the
+taking, and there was nothing to prevent his riding on past Slyne Head
+and winning them--except for his meeting with this girl-woman. Therefore
+he lied, and if she knew it, she gave no sign.
+
+"You mistake me, lady," he said earnestly, his blue eyes softening
+darkly.
+
+"I propose this only as a stepping-stone to my own ambition. Soon there
+will be a sweep of war through the coasts, and I would have a roof over
+my head. Is it good?"
+
+She rose and held out her hands to him.
+
+"It is good, Brian Buidh. Give me fealty-oath, for Bertragh Castle
+alone."
+
+And he gave it, and his words were drowned in a roar of cheers that
+stormed down the hall, for the O'Malleys had heard all that passed.
+
+An hour later Cathbarr of the Ax was despatched in a swift galley to
+bear the tidings to Turlough, and bid him make ready for a swift and
+sharp campaign.
+
+Through the remainder of that afternoon and evening Brian sat beside the
+Bird Daughter, and he found his tongue loosened most astonishingly, for
+him. He told her some part of his story, though not his name, while in
+turn he learned of her life, and of how her father and mother had been
+slain by O'Donnell through blackest treachery.
+
+The more he saw of her, the more clearly he read her heart and the more
+he gave her deeper fealty than had passed his lips in the oath of
+service. As for her, she had met Blake and others of the Roundhead
+captains on her cruises, deadly earnest men all; but in the earnestness
+of Brian she found somewhat more besides, though she said nothing of it
+then. It was arranged between them that in three days they would meet
+before Bertragh Castle, by sea and land, and the Dark Master would be
+speedily wiped out.
+
+With the morning Brian set forth to join his men in the largest sailing
+galley, for a wild gale was sweeping down from Iar Connaught. But the
+O'Malleys were skilled seamen who laughed at wind and waves, and Brian
+kissed the hand of the Bird Daughter as he stepped aboard, with never a
+thought of the storm of men that was coming down upon them both, and of
+the blacker storm which the Dark Master was brewing in his heart.
+
+
+TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly,
+and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a
+month.
+
+
+
+
+Nuala O'Malley
+
+by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.
+
+
+This story began in the All-Story Weekly for December 30.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+HOW BRIAN WAS NETTED.
+
+
+The Dark Master sat in his dark hall, brooding.
+
+It was a bad morning, for there was a sweep of wind and black cloud
+mingled with snow bearing out of the north; and since the great hall,
+with its huge fireplace, was the warmest part of the castle, as many of
+the men as could do so had drifted thither, but without making any undue
+disturbance over it.
+
+For that matter, they might have passed unseen, since the hall was black
+as night save for a single cresset above the fireplace. Here sat the
+Dark Master, a little oaken table before him on which his breakfast had
+rested, and at his side crouched a long, lean wolfhound that nuzzled him
+unheeded. On the other side the table sat the old _seanachie_, who was
+blind, and who fingered the strings of his harp with odd twangings and
+mutterings, but without coherence, for O'Donnell had bade him keep
+silence.
+
+"Go and see what the weather is," commanded the Dark Master. A man rose
+and ran outside, while other men came in with wood. Their master
+motioned them away, although the fire had sunk down into embers.
+
+"A gale from the north, which is turning to the eastward, with snow,
+master."
+
+"Remain outside, and bring me word what changes hap, and of all that you
+see or hear. Waste no time about it."
+
+The Dark Master drew his cloak about his humped shoulders, and in the
+flickering dim light from overhead his face stood out in all its ghastly
+pallor, accentuated by the dead black hair and mustache. But his eyes
+were burning strangely, and when they saw it the men drew back, and more
+than one sought the outer chill in preference to staying.
+
+Now O'Donnell Dubh stared into the embers and muttered below his breath,
+while, as if in response, a little flickering whirlwind of gray ash rose
+up and fell back again, so that it blew over the embers and deadened
+them. The muscles of the Dark Master's face contracted until his teeth
+flashed out in a silent snarl.
+
+"I could have slain, and I did not," he whispered as if to himself. "But
+there is still time, and I will not be a fool again!"
+
+The watching men shivered, for it seemed that the wind scurried down the
+wide chimney and again blew up the gray ash until the embers glowed
+through a white coating. But the wind wrought more than this, for it
+brought down from the gray clouds a whispering murmur that drifted
+through the hall, and in that murmur were mingled the sounds of beating
+hoofs and ringing steel and shrieking men.
+
+"Are watchers posted over the hills and the paths and the Galway roads?"
+spoke out the Dark Master as he gazed into the ashes.
+
+"They are watching, master," answered a deep voice from the darkness.
+
+Suddenly the wolfhound raised its head and stared into the ashes also,
+as if it saw something there that no man saw, for the bristles lifted on
+its neck, and it whined a little. O'Donnell dropped his hand to the thin
+muzzle, and the dog was quiet again. But after that the men stared at
+the fireplace with frightened eyes.
+
+"There is still time, though one has escaped me," said the Dark Master,
+looking up suddenly at his sightless harper, who seemed to fall
+atrembling beneath the look. "The one who has escaped matters not, for
+his bane comes not at my hands. It is the other whom I shall slay--Brian
+Buidh of the hard eyes. Then the Bird Daughter. But it seems to me that
+one stands in my path of whom I do not know."
+
+He brooded over the ashes as his head sank between his shoulders like a
+turtle's head. Then once again the wind swooped down on the castle, and
+whistled down the chimney, and filled the great hall with a thin noise
+like the death-rattle of men. The cresset wavered and fell to smoking
+overhead.
+
+The Dark Master reached his hand across the table and caught the hand of
+the blind harper and spread it out on the oak. A little shudder shook
+the old man, and as if against his will he spread out his other hand
+likewise, his two hands lying between those of the Dark Master. Then
+there fell a terrible and awestruck silence on the hall.
+
+The stillness was perfect, and continued for a long while. Slowly
+occurred a weird and strange thing, for, although no blast whimpered
+down the chimney, the ashes fell away from the embers, which began to
+glow more redly and set out the forms of the Dark Master and the blind
+harper in a ruddy light. Suddenly a man pointed to the feet of the Dark
+Master, and would have cried out but that another man struck him back.
+
+For the ashes had drifted out from the fireplace, flake after flake, and
+were settling about the feet of the Dark Master beneath the table. They
+rose slowly into a little gray pile; then one of the men shrieked in
+horror at the sight, and the Dark Master threw out his head.
+
+"Slay him," he said quietly and drew in his head once more, staring at
+the table.
+
+There was a thudding blow and a groan, then the stillness of death. The
+ashes were quiet; the fire glowed ruddily. After a little there came a
+soft whirl of soot down the chimney, blackening the embers. The soot
+rose and fell, rose and fell, again and again; it was as if an eddying
+draft of wind were trying to raise it. Finally it was lifted, but it
+only whirled about and about over the embers, like a shape drawn
+together by some uncanny force.
+
+The Dark Master raised his head as a clash of steel and the voice of the
+watcher came from the outer doorway.
+
+"Master, the blast thickens with black fog!"
+
+"Remain on watch," said O'Donnell, and his head fell.
+
+But through the hall men's hands went out to one another in the
+darkness. For storm-driven fog was not a thing that many men had seen
+even on the west coast, and when it did happen men said that a warlock
+was at work. There was not far to seek for the warlock in this case,
+muttered the O'Donnells.
+
+Now the Dark Master looked into the fireplace and that whirling figure
+of soot raised itself anew and began its unearthly dance over the
+embers. After no long time men saw that the pile of gray ashes under the
+table was lifting also, lifting and whirling as though the wind spun it;
+but there was no wind.
+
+"There is a man to be blinded," said the Dark Master. "Let him be
+blinded with fog and snow, and the men with him, and let the wind come
+out of the east and drive him to this place."
+
+Slowly, so slowly that no man could afterward say where there was
+beginning or end, the whirling figure of soot dissipated; and little by
+little the dancing stream of gray ashes drifted back into the fireplace;
+then it also dissipated, seeming to pass up the chimney, so that the
+embers glowed red and naked.
+
+"_Seanachie_," said the Dark Master in a terribly piercing voice, "who
+is this standing in my way, standing between me and Brian of the hard
+eyes?"
+
+The blind harper began to tremble, but again came the clash and the
+watcher's voice from the doorway.
+
+"Master, there is snow mingled with the fog, and the wind is shifting to
+the eastward."
+
+"Light the beacon and remain on watch," said the Dark Master. But at the
+watcher's word new terror seized on the men in the hall.
+
+"_Seanachie_, who stands in my way? Speak!"
+
+The beard of the blind harper quivered and rose as if the wind lifted
+it, but men felt no wind through the hall. Then the old man began to
+writhe in his chair, and twisted to take his hands from the table, but
+he could not, although only he alone held them there. Suddenly his
+mouth opened, and a voice that was not his voice made answer:
+
+"Master, two people stand in your way."
+
+"Describe them," said the Dark Master, and those near by saw that sweat
+was running down his face, despite the coldness of the hall. After a
+moment's silence the old harper spoke again; he had lost his eyes twenty
+years since, yet he spoke of seeing.
+
+"Master, I see two people but dimly. One is a man, huge of stature and
+standing like Laeg the hero, the friend of the hero Cuculain, leaning
+upon an ax--"
+
+"That is Cathbarr of the Ax," broke in the Dark Master. "His bane comes
+not at my hands. Who is the other?"
+
+Again the old harper seemed to struggle, and his voice came more
+faintly:
+
+"I cannot see, master. I think it is a woman--"
+
+"That is the Bird Daughter," quoth the Dark Master.
+
+"Nay, it is an old woman, but she blinds me--"
+
+And the harper fell silent, writhing, until horror gripped those who
+looked on. O'Donnell leaned forward, his head sticking straight out and
+his eyes blazing.
+
+"What do you see, _seanachie_? Speak!"
+
+"I see men," and the old harper's voice rose in a great shriek. "A storm
+of men and of hoofs, and red snow on the ground, and fire over the snow,
+and the man of the ax laughing terribly. And I see other men riding
+hard; men with long hair and the flag of England in their midst--and
+Cuculain smites them--Cuculain of the yellow hair--the Royal Hound of
+Ulster smites them and scatters them--"
+
+"_Liar!_"
+
+With the hoarse word the Dark Master leaned forward and smote the blind
+harper with his fist, so that the old man slid from his chair senseless.
+Upon that the Dark Master swung around with his teeth bared and his head
+drawn in like the head of a snake about to strike.
+
+"Lights!" he roared. "Lights! Bear the _seanachie_ to his chamber, and
+send men to ring in the harbor and build beacons on the headlands.
+Hasten, you dogs, or I'll strip the flesh from you with whips!"
+
+Under his voice and his flaming eyes the hall sprang into life, while
+the men carried out the blind harper and one of their own number who had
+been stricken with madness at what he had seen. Then the hall blazed up
+with cressets, logs were flung on the fire, and parties of men set out
+to build beacons and guard the bay as the Dark Master had given command.
+And when word was spread abroad among the others of what had chanced in
+the hall that morning, Red Murrough, the Dark Master's lieutenant, swore
+a great oath.
+
+"If that Cuculain of whom the _seanachie_ spoke be not the man Brian
+Buidh, then may I go down to hell alive!"
+
+And the men, who feared Red Murrough's heavy hand and hated him,
+muttered that he would be like to travel that same road whether living
+or dead, in which there was some truth.
+
+While these things took place in the hall at Bertragh--and they were
+told later to Brian by many who had seen them and heard them, all
+telling the same tale--Brian and his sailing galley was making hard
+weather of it. Six of the O'Malleys had been sent with him to manage the
+galley, for he was no seaman and had placed himself in their hands; and
+after rounding into Kilkieran Bay from the castle harbor and reaching
+out across the mouth of the bay toward Carna, intending to reach
+Cathbarr's tower direct, the blast came down on them, and even the
+O'Malleys looked stern.
+
+Sterner yet they looked when Brian cried that Golam Head was veiling in
+fog behind them, and with that the wind swerved almost in a moment and
+swept down out of the east, bearing fog and snow with it. Nor was this
+all, for the shift of wind bore against the seas and swept down
+currents and whirlpools out of the bay, and after the snow and black fog
+shrieked down upon them, the seamen straightway fell to praying.
+
+"Get up and bail!" shouted Brian, kicking them to their feet, for the
+seas were sweeping over the counter. The helmsman groaned and bade him
+desist, and almost at the same instant their mast crashed over the bow,
+breaking the back of one seaman, and the galley broached to.
+
+With that the O'Malleys ceased praying and fell to work with a will,
+getting out the sweeps and bailing. The mingling of snow, shrieking
+wind, and black fog had been too much for their superstitious natures,
+but made no impression on Brian, for the simple reason that he did not
+see why fog and wind should not come together. After he understood their
+fears better he shamed them into savage energy by his laughter, and
+since the broken-backed man had gone overboard, took his sweep and set
+his muscles to work.
+
+They made shift to keep the craft before the wind, but presently Brian
+found that half the men's fear sprang from the fact that the fog and
+snow blinded them, shutting out the land, and that the shifting wind had
+completely bewildered them. When he asked for their compass, their
+leader grunted:
+
+"No need have we for a compass on this boat, Brian Buidh, save when
+warlocks turn the fog and wind upon us. I warrant that were it not for
+the fog, we would be safe in port ere now. As it is, the Virgin alone
+knows where we are or whither going."
+
+"This is some of the Dark Master's wizardry," growled out another.
+"Before we hung those men of his last night, they said that the winds
+would bear word of it to the dark one, _cead mile mollaght_ on him!"
+
+"Add another thousand curses for me," ordered Brian, "but keep to the
+bailing, or I'll give you a taste of my foot! And no more talk of
+warlocks."
+
+The five men fell silent, and indeed they needed all their breath, for
+the struggle was a desperate one. Instead of lessening, the fog only
+increased with time, and even Brian began to perceive the marvel in it
+as swirl after swirl of darkness swept over them. Yet, since the wind
+was from the east, he reasoned, it would naturally blow out the fog from
+the bogs and low lands. But this explanation was received in dour
+silence by the men, so he said no more.
+
+There was no doubt that Cathbarr had reached home safely, since the
+night had been fair enough for the winter season. An hour passed, and
+then another, still without a lessening of the eery storm; and the nerve
+of the seamen was beginning to give way under the strain, when the
+helmsman let out a wild yell:
+
+"A light ahead! A beacon!"
+
+The rowers twisted about with shouts of joy, and Brian perceived a
+faint, ruddy light against the sky. Also, the fog began to lessen
+somewhat; and upon making out that the beacon undoubtedly came from a
+high tower or crag, the shout passed around that they had headed back to
+Gorumna with the shifting wind.
+
+This heartened them all greatly, the more so since the gale drove them
+straight onward toward the beacon. The fog closed down again, but the
+ruddy glare pierced through it; and of a sudden there was no more fog
+about them--only a blinding thick snow, which made all things grotesque.
+Then two more beacons were made out, lower than the first, and the men
+yelled joyously that fires had been lighted on either side the harbor to
+guide them in. And so they had been, but otherwise than the men thought.
+
+Half frozen with the cold, they drove on through the snow and spray
+until at length they swept in between the guiding fires and scanned the
+shores for landing. Then the snow ceased, though the hurricane howled
+down behind them with redoubled fury; and as they floated in against a
+low, rocky shore, silence of wild consternation fell on them all. For
+they had come to Bertragh Castle, and fifty feet away a score of men
+were waiting, while others were running down with torches.
+
+Even in that moment of terrible dismay, Brian noted their muskets, and
+how the lighted matches flared like fireflies in the wind.
+
+"Trapped!" groaned one of the men, and they would have rowed out again
+into the teeth of the storm had not Brian stayed them.
+
+"No use, comrades. They have muskets, and there are cannon up above. Row
+in, and if we must die, then let us die like men and not cowards."
+
+Seeing no help for it, the men growled assent, and they drifted slowly
+in, all standing ready with drawn swords, while Brian's Spanish blade
+flared in the prow. Then in the midst of the gathered men he saw a dark
+figure with hunched shoulders, sword in hand. As he turned to the seamen
+behind him, there was a glitter in his blue eyes colder than the icy
+blast behind them.
+
+"There is the Dark Master, comrades! Let him be first to fall."
+
+They drove up on the shore, and Brian leaped out, with the men behind
+him. Still the group above stood silent until the voice of O'Donnell
+sheared through the gale. "Fire, and drop Yellow Brian first."
+
+So there was to be no word of quarter! As the thought shot like fire
+through Brian's mind, he leaped forward with a shout. A ragged stream of
+musketry broke out from the men gathered on the higher rocks, and he
+heard the bullets whistle. He paid no heed to the seamen who followed
+him, however. His eyes were fixed on the Dark Master's figure, and with
+only one thought in his mind he plunged ahead.
+
+More and more muskets spattered out; a bullet splashed against his jack,
+and another; something caught his steel cap and tore it away, and a hot
+stab shot through his neck. But the group of men was only a dozen paces
+from him now, and a wild yell broke from his lips as he saw O'Donnell
+step forward to meet him.
+
+Then only did he remember Turlough's speech on the day of that first
+meeting with the Dark Master--"The master of all men at craft and the
+match of most men at weapons"--and he knew that, despite the hunched
+shoulders, this O'Donnell must be no mean fighter. But the next instant
+he was gazing into the evil eyes, and their blades had crossed.
+
+Flaming with his anger, Brian forced the attack savagely; then a sharp
+thrust against his jack showed him that O'Donnell was armed with a
+rapier, and he fell to the point with some caution. With the first
+moment of play, he knew that he faced a master of fence; yet almost upon
+the thought his blade ripped into the Dark Master's arm.
+
+Involuntarily he drew back, but O'Donnell caught the falling sword in
+his left hand and lunged forward viciously. Just as the blades met
+again, Brian saw a match go to a musket barely six paces away. He
+whirled aside, but too late, for the musket roared out, and a drift of
+stars poured into his brain. Then he fell.
+
+Like a flash the Dark Master leaped at the man who had fired and spitted
+him through the throat; the others drew back in swift terror, for
+O'Donnell was frothing at the mouth, and his face was the face of a
+madman. With a bitter laugh he turned and rolled Brian over with his
+foot. The five seamen had gone down under the bullets.
+
+"He is only stunned," said Red Murrough. "Shall I finish it?"
+
+"If you want to die with him, yes. Carry him in, and we will nail him up
+to the gates to-morrow."
+
+And the clouds fell asunder, and the stars came out, cold and beautiful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE NAILING OF BRIAN.
+
+
+Brian woke in darkness, with pain tearing at his head and heaviness upon
+his hands and feet. When he tried to put his hand to his head, that
+heaviness was explained; for he could not, and thick iron struck dull
+against stone.
+
+He lay there, and thought leaped into his brain, and he felt very bitter
+of spirit, but chiefly for those men who had come with him, and because
+he had failed before the Dark Master's hand.
+
+It was cold, bitterly cold, and thin snow lay around him, so that he
+knew that he was in some tower or prison that faced to the east. It was
+from that direction that the snow had driven, as he had sore cause to
+know, and he wondered if the Dark Master had had any hand in that
+driving. But this he was not to know for many days.
+
+It was the cold which had awakened him from his unconsciousness, he
+guessed. By dint of shifting his position somewhat, he managed to get
+his back against a wall, and so got his hands to his head. In such
+fashion he made out that his hair was matted and frozen with blood, and
+his neck also, where a bullet had plowed through the muscles on the
+right side. His head-wound was no more than a jagged tear which had
+split half his scalp, but had not hurt the bone, as he found after some
+feeling. Then he dropped his hands again, for the chains that bound him
+to the wall were very heavy. It must be night, for light would come
+where snow had come, and there was no light.
+
+Now, having found that he was not like to die, at least from his wounds,
+he set about stretching to lie down again, and found some straw on the
+floor. He drew it up with his feet and gathered it about him; it was
+dank and smelled vilely, but at the least it gave his frozen body some
+warmth, so that he fell asleep after a time.
+
+When he wakened again, it was to find men around him and a narrow strip
+of cold sunlight coming through a high slit in the wall of his prison.
+From the sound of breakers that seemed to roar from below him, he
+conjectured that he was in a sea-facing tower of the castle, in which he
+was right.
+
+The men, who were led by Red Murrough, gave him bread and meat and
+wine, but they offered no word and would answer no questions. So he ate
+and drank, and felt life and strength creeping back into his bones. He
+concluded that it must be the day after his arrival.
+
+Now Red Murrough beckoned to the hoary old seneschal, whose red-rimmed
+eyes glittered evilly. The old man shook his keys and stooped over
+Brian, unlocking the hasp which bound him to the wall-ring. The
+oppressive silence of these men struck a chill through Brian, but he
+came to his feet readily enough as Murrough jerked his shoulder.
+
+He followed out into a corridor, and the men closed around him, going
+with him down-stairs and along other passageways. Brian wondered as to
+his fate and what manner of death he was going to die; yet it seemed to
+him that death was an impossible and far-off thing where he was
+concerned.
+
+He expected no less than death from the Dark Master, but at the same
+time it was very hard to believe that he was going to that fate. He was
+by no means afraid to die, but he felt that he would like to see the
+Bird Daughter once more. Also, he had always thought of fate as coming
+to him suddenly and swiftly in battle or foray; and to be deliberately
+done to death in cold blood by hanging or otherwise was not as he would
+have wished.
+
+"At least," he thought without any great comfort, "Cathbarr and Turlough
+will avenge me on the Dark Master--though I had liefer be living when
+that was done!"
+
+In one of the larger and lower corridors they came on two men bearing a
+body, sewed for burial. Murrough stopped his party and growled out
+something.
+
+"It is the _seanachie_," answered one of the bearers. "Since the Dark
+Master struck him yester-morn he has not spoken, and he died last
+night."
+
+Upon this Red Murrough crossed himself, as did the rest, muttered into
+his tangle of red beard, and motioned Brian forward.
+
+This wider passage gave through a doorway upon the great hall. There was
+no dais, but the Dark Master was seated before the huge fireplace, his
+wolf-hound crouched down at his side. The hall was pierced near the roof
+with openings, and lower down with loopholes, so that when the sun shone
+outside it was bright enough.
+
+Red Murrough led Brian forward, the clank of the heavy chain-links
+echoing hollowly through the place, but O'Donnell Dubh did not look up
+until the two men stood a scant four paces from him. Then his head came
+out from between his rounded shoulders and his eyes spat fire at Brian.
+
+"A poor ending to proud talk, Brian Buidh!"
+
+Brian tried to smile, but with ill success, for he was chilled to the
+bone and there was blood on his face.
+
+"I am not yet dead, O'Donnell."
+
+"You will be soon enough," the Dark Master chuckled, and the hall
+thrilled with evil laughter. In the eyes of all Brian had proven himself
+the weaker man and therefore deserved his fate. "What of this O'Malley
+journey of yours, eh?"
+
+Brian made no answer, save that his strong lips clamped shut, and his
+blue eyes narrowed a little. O'Donnell laughed and began to stroke his
+wolf-hound.
+
+"I have many messengers and many servants, Yellow Brian, and there is
+little my enemies do which is not told me. Even now men are riding hard
+and fast to trap Cathbarr of the Ax and your following."
+
+At that Brian laughed, remembering Turlough Wolf and his cunning.
+
+"I think this trapping will prove a hard matter, Dark Master."
+
+"That is as it may be. Now, Brian Buidh, death is hard upon you, and
+neither an easy nor a swift one. Before you die there are two things
+which I would know from your lips."
+
+Brian looked at him, but without speaking. The Dark Master had thrust
+out his head, his hand still lingering on the wolfhound's neck, and his
+pallid face, drooping mustache, and high brow were very evil to gaze
+upon. Brian, eying that thin-nostriled, cruel nose, and the undershot
+jaw of the man, read no mercy there.
+
+"First, who _are_ you, Brian Buidh? Are you an O'Neill, as that ring of
+yours would testify, or are you an O'Malley come down from the western
+isles?"
+
+At that Brian laughed out harshly. "Ask those servants of which you
+boast, Dark Master. Poor they must be if they cannot tell you even the
+names of your enemies!"
+
+"Well answered!" grinned the other, and chuckled again to himself as
+though the reply had indeed pleased him hugely. "I would that you served
+me, Brian of the hard eyes; I suppose that you are some left-hand scion
+of the Tyr-owens by some woman overseas, and the O'Neill bastards were
+ever as strong in arm as the true sons. Yet you might have made pact
+with me, whereas now your head shall sit on my gates, after your bones
+are broken and you have been nailed to a door."
+
+"Fools talk over-much of killing, but wise men smite first and talk
+after," Brian said contemptuously. He saw that the Dark Master was
+somewhat in doubt over slaying him, since if he were indeed an O'Neill
+there might be bitter vengeance looked for, or if he belonged to any
+other of the great families.
+
+"Quite true," countered the Dark Master mockingly, and with much relish.
+"Therein you were a fool, not to slay when first we met, instead of
+making pacts. Who will repay me my two-score men, Brian of the hollow
+cheeks?"
+
+"The Bird Daughter, perhaps," smiled Brian, "since two days ago she hung
+ten of those men I took in my ambuscade."
+
+This stung O'Donnell, and his men with him. One low, deep growl swirled
+down the hall, and the Dark Master snarled as his lips bared back from
+his teeth. Brian laughed out again, standing very tall and straight, and
+his chains clanked a little and stilled the murmur. He saw that
+O'Donnell wore his own Spanish blade, and the sight angered him.
+
+"There is another thing I would know," said the Dark Master slowly.
+"Tell me this thing, Brian Buidh, and I will turn you out of my gates a
+free man."
+
+Brian looked keenly at him and saw that the promise was given in
+earnest. He wondered what the thing might be, and was not long in
+learning.
+
+"You came hither from Gorumna Castle," went on O'Donnell, fixing him
+with his black flaming eyes. "Tell me what force of men is in that
+place, Brian of the hard eyes, and for this service you shall be set
+free."
+
+"Now I know that you are a fool, O'Donnell Dubh," and Brian's voice rang
+out merrily. "I have heard many tales of your wizardry and your servants
+and your watchers, but when an unknown man comes to you, his name is
+hidden from you; and all your black art cannot so much as tell you the
+number of your enemies! Now slay me and have done, for you have wasted
+much breath this day, and so have I, and it goes ill in my mind to waste
+speech on fools."
+
+"You refuse then?" O'Donnell peered up at him, but Brian set his face
+hard and made no reply. With a little sigh the Dark Master leaned back
+in his chair and motioned to Red Murrough to come forward.
+
+"Strip him," he said evenly, and at the word a great howl rang out from
+all the watching men, like the howl of wolves when they scent blood in
+the air.
+
+Murrough in turn signed to two of his men. These came forward and
+stripped off what clothes had been left to Brian, so that he stood naked
+before them. In that moment he was minded to spring on the Dark Master
+and crush him with his chains, but he saw that Red Murrough held a
+flint-lock pistolet cocked, and knew it would be useless. Also, if he
+had to die, he was minded to do it like a man and not to shame the blood
+of Tyr-owen, either by seeking death or by shrinking at its face.
+
+Now there passed a murmur through the hall, and even the Dark Master's
+evil features glowed a little; for Brian's body was very fair and slim
+and white, yet these judges of men saw that he was like a thing of
+steel, and that beneath the satin skin his body was all rippling sinew.
+Red Murrough drew out a hasp, brought his chained hands together, and
+caught the chain close to his wrists, so that his hands were bound
+close.
+
+"Now," said the Dark Master, settling back and stroking his wolfhound as
+if he were watching some curious spectacle, "do with him as we did with
+Con O'More last Candlemas. But let us work slowly, for there is no
+haste, and we must break his will. In the end we will nail him to the
+door, and finish by breaking all his bones. It will be very interesting,
+eh?"
+
+A fierce howl and clash of steel answered him from the men. At another
+sign from Red Murrough, Brian felt himself jerked to the floor suddenly,
+and his hands were drawn up over his head. His wrist-chains were
+fastened to an iron ring set in the floor, and his ankles to another,
+and he stared up at the ceiling-rafters of the hall, watching the motes
+drift past overhead in the reaching sunbeams. It all seemed very unreal
+to him.
+
+"First that long hair of his," said the Dark Master quietly.
+
+Murrough went to the fire and returned with a blazing stick. Brian's
+gold-red hair had flung back from his head, along the floor, and
+presently he felt it burning, until his head was scorched and his brain
+began to roast and there was the smell of burnt hair rising from him.
+Then Murrough's rough hand brushed over his torn scalp, quelling the
+fire, but it did not quell the agony that wrenched Brian.
+
+"Paint him," ordered O'Donnell.
+
+Again Murrough went to the fireplace, and returned with a long white-hot
+iron which had lain among the embers. This he touched to Brian's right
+shoulder, so that the stench of scorched flesh sizzled up in a thin
+stream, and followed the iron down across the white breast and thigh,
+until it stopped at the knee, and there was a swath of red and blackened
+flesh down Brian's body. Yet he had not moved or flinched.
+
+Then Murrough touched the iron to his left shoulder and drew it very
+slowly down his left side. One of the watching men went sick with the
+smell and went out vomiting. A second swath of red and black rose on the
+white flesh, and beneath it all Brian felt his senses swirling. Try as
+he would he could not repress one long shudder, at which a wild yell of
+delight shrilled up--and then he fainted.
+
+"Take him away," said the Dark Master, smiling a little, as he leaned
+forward and saw that Brian had indeed swooned with the pain. "To-morrow
+we will paint his back with the whip."
+
+So they loosened him from the iron rings, and four men lifted him and
+carried him out. As they passed across the courtyard another came by
+with a pail of sea-water, which they flung over him; the salt entered
+into his wounds, washing away the blackness from his scalp, and slowly
+the life came back to him after he had been chained again in his
+tower-room and left alone.
+
+He was sorry for this, because he thought that he had died under the
+iron. He found a pitcher of water beside him, and after drinking a
+little he spent the rest in washing out the salt from his flesh, though
+every motion was terrible in its torture. So great was the pain that
+gasping sobs shook him, though he stared up dry-eyed at the stones, and
+a great desire for death came upon him.
+
+"Slay me, oh God!" he groaned, shuddering again in his anguish. "Slay
+me, for I am helpless and cannot slay myself!"
+
+As if in answer, there came a soft laugh from somewhere overhead, and
+the voice of the Dark Master.
+
+"There is no God in Bertragh Castle save O'Donnell, Brian Buidh!"
+
+The blasphemy shocked him into his senses, which had wandered. Now he
+knew that from some hidden place the Dark Master was watching him and
+listening for his ravings, and upon that Brian sternly caught his lips
+together and said no more, though he prayed hard within himself. A cloak
+had been laid near-by him, and when he had covered himself somewhat
+against the cold, though with great pain in the doing, he lay quiet.
+
+The cold crept into him and for a space he was seized with chills that
+sent new thrills of pain through his burned body, for he could not
+repress them. After a time he relapsed slowly into numbed
+unconsciousness, waking from time to time, and so the hours dragged away
+until the night came.
+
+Then men brought him more food and wine and straw, and he managed to
+sleep a bit during the darkness, in utmost misery. But after the day had
+come, and more wine had stirred his blood redly, Murrough fetched him to
+his feet and bade him follow. Brian did it, though walking was agony,
+for his pride was stronger even than his torture.
+
+He was halted in the courtyard, found the Dark Master and his men
+gathered there, and knew that more torture was to come upon him. After a
+single scornful glance the Dark Master ordered him triced up to a post,
+which was done. Brian saw a man standing by with a long whip, but gained
+a brief respite as the drawbridge was lowered to admit a messenger
+mounted on a shaggy hill-pony. O'Donnell bade him make haste with his
+errand.
+
+"The word has come, master, that five hundred of Lord Burke's pikemen
+are on the road from Galway and will be close by within a day or so."
+
+"And what of Cathbarr of the Ax?" queried the Dark Master. Brian's
+heart caught at the words, then his head fell again at the response.
+
+"They have scattered in the mountains, it is said, master."
+
+"Murrough, have men sent to meet these royalists with food and wines,
+and if they are bound hither we will entreat them softly and send them
+home again empty. Now let us enjoy Brian Buidh a while--though he has
+stood up but poorly. It is in my mind that we will nail him up
+to-morrow."
+
+With that Brian felt the whip stroking across his naked back. His
+muscles corded and heaved up in horrible contraction, but no sound broke
+from him; again and again the hide whip licked about him until he felt
+the warm blood running down his legs, and then with merciful suddenness
+all things went black, and he hung limp against the post.
+
+"Take him back," ordered the Dark Master in disgust. "Why, that boy we
+cut up the other side of Clifden had more strength than this fool!"
+
+"His strength went out of him with his hair," grinned Red Murrough, and
+they carried Brian to his prison.
+
+The Dark Master had spoken truly, however. Brian's strength lay not so
+much in brute muscles, though he had enough of them, as in his nervous
+energy; and the slow horror of his burning hair and of that iron which
+had twice raked the length of his body had come close to destroying his
+whole nervous system. Other men might have endured the same thing and
+laughed the next day, but Brian was high-strung and tense, and while his
+will was still strong, his physical endurance was shattered.
+
+With the next morning, this fact had become quite evident to the general
+disgust of all within Bertragh Castle. The Dark Master himself visited
+the cell, and upon finding that Brian was lost in a half stupor and
+muttering words in Spanish which no one understood, he angrily ordered
+that he be revived and finished with that afternoon.
+
+Red Murrough set about the task with savage determination. By dint of
+sea water externally and mingled wine and uisquebagh internally he had
+Brian wakened to a semblance of himself before midday. Then food, oil,
+and bandages about his wounds, and in another hour Brian was feeling
+like a new man.
+
+He was under no misapprehension as to the cause of this kindness, but
+cared little. So keenly had he suffered that he was glad to reach the
+end, and he walked out behind Red Murrough that afternoon with a ghastly
+face, but with firm mouth and firmer stride, though he was very weak and
+half-drunk with the liquors he had swallowed.
+
+His fetters were unlocked and he was led to the doorway of the great
+hall, with the Dark Master and his men watching eagerly. Red Murrough,
+with an evil grin, pressed his back to the door and held up his left arm
+against the heavy wood. Brian was half-conscious of another man who bore
+a heavy mallet and spikes, and whose breath came foul on his face as he
+pressed something cold against the extended left hand.
+
+Then Brian saw the mallet swing back, heard a sickening crunch, and with
+a terrible pain shooting to his soul, fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+IN BERTRAGH CASTLE.
+
+
+Now, of what befell after that nail had been driven through his hand,
+Brian learned afterward; though at the time he was unconscious and
+seemed like to remain so. Hardly had he sagged forward limply when two
+men came riding up to the gates demanding instant admittance. One of
+these was of the Dark Master's band, the other was a certain Colonel
+James Vere, of the garrison which held Galway for the king.
+
+O'Donnell, who suddenly found himself with greater things on hand than
+the nailing of a prisoner, ordered Brian left where he lay for the
+present, and had the drawbridge lowered in all haste. Colonel Vere, who
+had late been in rebellion against his gracious majesty, was now joined
+with Ormond's men against the common enemy, and was in command of that
+force of five hundred pikemen which had been marching to the west.
+
+Knowing this, the Dark Master made ready to set his house in order,
+since it was known that Vere's men were only a few hours away. Hardly
+had the garrison gone to their posts, leaving Brian in the center of a
+little group about the hall doorway, when Colonel Vere rode in and was
+received in as stately fashion as possible by the Dark Master. It was
+not for nothing that O'Donnell had trimmed his sails to the blast, since
+he was on very good terms with all in Galway.
+
+"Welcome," he exclaimed with a low bow as Vere swung down from his
+saddle. "Your men received the provision I sent off yesterday?"
+
+"Aye, and thankful we were!" cried the other cheerily, for he was a
+red-faced man of forty, a Munsterman and half-English, and loved his
+bottle. "Hearing certain news from one of your men I made bold to ride
+ahead in all haste, O'Donnell."
+
+"News?" repeated the Dark Master softly. "And of what nature, Colonel
+Vere?"
+
+"Why, of one Brian Buidh, or Yellow Brian." At this the Dark Master
+began to finger the Spanish blade he had taken from Brian, and for a
+second Vere was very near to death, had he known it.
+
+"What of him, Colonel Vere?"
+
+"Why, the rogue had the impudence to come down on a convoy of powder and
+stores, last week, going from the Archbishop at Ennis to Malbay, for our
+use. Not only this, but a hundred of our rascally Scots deserted to him,
+he slipped past us at Galway, and I was in hopes you could give me word
+of him when I hit over this way. You're something of a ravager yourself,
+sink me if you aren't!" and he dug the Dark Master jovially in the
+ribs.
+
+"Yes," murmured O'Donnell thoughtfully, "so they say, Colonel Vere. But
+only when Parliament men come past, you understand. So you heard that
+this Yellow Brian was here?"
+
+"Aye, and that you were doing him to death," coolly responded Vere, and
+his eyes flickered to the white form on the stones. "Zounds! What's
+this?"
+
+"Yellow Brian," responded the Dark Master dryly. "What do you want with
+him?"
+
+"Eh? Why, I'll take him back to Galway and hang him! I've a dozen of the
+Scots he was fool enough to let loose, and when my men come up they'll
+identify him readily enough."
+
+"Unless he's dead," chuckled O'Donnell. "Well, if you want him you may
+have him and welcome. So now come in and sample some prime sack I took
+from the O'Malleys last year."
+
+"With all the honors," responded Vere gallantly, and as they strode past
+Brian the Dark Master hastily directed that he be washed and tended and
+brought back to his right mind as soon as might be.
+
+This order, and the conversation preceding it, gave Red Murrough some
+cause for thought. So it was that when Brian wakened once more in his
+cell, as evening was falling, he found the fetters on him indeed, but
+Red Murrough had bound up his wounds, dressed his sundered hand-bones,
+and was sitting watching him reflectively. It had occurred to the Dark
+Master's lieutenant that there might be something made out of this man,
+who seemed wanted in several places at once.
+
+Therefore it was that while Brian made an excellent meal for a man
+swathed from crown to knees in bandages, Red Murrough poured into his
+ear the tale of what had chanced in the courtyard, and why it was that
+he was not at this moment nailed to the castle door. Brian collected his
+energy with some effort.
+
+"Well, what of it?" he asked weakly.
+
+"Just this, Yellow Brian," and Murrough stroked his matted red beard
+easily. "O'Donnell will make a good thing out of handing you over to the
+royalists, who mean to hang you in style, it seems. Now, it is in my
+mind that it might advantage you somewhat if you were not moved thence
+for a few days--indeed, you might even escape, for I think you are not
+without friends."
+
+"Eh?" Brian stared up at him wonderingly. "What does it matter to you?"
+
+"Nothing, whether you live or die. But you are in my care, and if I
+report that you are in too bad shape to be moved--which you are
+not--then this Colonel Vere will camp outside our castle until you are
+handed over to him. You will gain a few days in which to get your wits
+back, and the rest is in your hands."
+
+"I had not thought you loved me so much," and despite his agony Brian
+forced out a bitter laugh.
+
+"Not I! Faith, I had liefer see you nailed--but a service may be paid
+for."
+
+"I have no money," Brian closed his eyes wearily.
+
+"No, but you have friends," and Murrough leaned forward. "Promise me a
+clerkly writing to the Bird Daughter's men, or to your own men, ordering
+that I be paid ten English pounds, and it is done."
+
+"With pleasure," smiled Brian wryly. "Also, if I escape, I will spare
+your life one day, Red Murrough."
+
+"Good. Then play your part." And Murrough departed well pleased with his
+acumen.
+
+And indeed, the man carried out his bargain more than faithfully. One
+visit assured the Dark Master that this broken, burned, cloth-swathed
+man was helpless to harm him further, and after that he gave Brian
+little thought.
+
+As Murrough had reckoned Brian's swoop on the convoy had given him some
+notoriety, and more than once Brian himself remembered Cathbarr's dark
+presage after he had let the ten Scots go free to Ennis; Colonel Vere
+was anxious to carry him back to Galway for an example to other
+freebooters, and he was quite content to bide at Bertragh Castle until
+his prisoner could travel.
+
+For that matter the other officers of his command were quite as content
+as he himself, since all were men from the south-country who loved good
+wines, and the Dark Master had better store of these than the empty
+royalist commissariat.
+
+As for the Dark Master, Murrough reported to Brian that he also was well
+content. Cromwell was sweeping like an avenging flame from Kilkenny to
+Mallow and Ormond was helpless before him; both king's men and Irish
+Confederacy men were pouring out of the South in despair, but the two
+had finally joined forces and the final stand would take place in the
+West. In fact, it seemed that things were dark for Parliament, despite
+Cromwell's activity, and the Dark Master was only one of many such who
+counted strongly on the rumors that the new king, Charles II, was on his
+way to Ireland with aid from France.
+
+And indeed he was at that time; but Charles, then and later, was more
+apt at starting a thing than at finishing it.
+
+Red Murrough lost no time in getting his "clerkly writing," luckily for
+himself. On the morning after his agreement he brought Brian a quill,
+and blood for lack of ink, and sheepskin. Brian wrote the order for ten
+pounds, promising to honor it himself if he escaped.
+
+This, however, did not seem likely, and even Murrough frankly stated
+that it was impossible. But Brian was tended well, and his perfect
+health was a strong asset. His head had been little more than scorched,
+and the scalp-wound stayed clean; after the first day there came a
+festering in his broken hand, but Murrough washed it out with vinegar
+which ate out the wound and cleansed it, after which he bound it firmly
+in wooden splints and it promised well.
+
+More than once Brian laughed grimly at the care he was getting, to the
+simple end that he should hang over Galway gates as a warning to the
+City of the Tribes and to all who entered the ancient Connacian town.
+For in that day Galway was a second Venice, and its commerce made rich
+plundering for the O'Malley's both of Gorumna and of Erris in the North,
+though the war had somewhat dimmed the glory of the fourteen great
+merchant families.
+
+Brian wondered often what had become of Cathbarr and his two hundred
+men, and Murrough could give him little satisfaction. It was known that
+the force had slipped away from Cathbarr's tower and had vanished; Brian
+guessed that Turlough had either led them north, or else into the
+western mountains where the O'Flahertys held savage rule. However, it
+was certain that neither the Dark Master nor the royalists had scattered
+them as yet.
+
+So Brian lay in his tower four days and might have lain there four-score
+more by dint of Red Murrough's lies, had it not been that on the fourth
+evening Colonel Vere managed to stay unexpectedly sober. Being thus
+sober, it occurred to him that he had best make sure he had the right
+man by the heels. So he ordered his ten Scots troopers in from the camp
+outside the walls, and the Dark Master sent for Brian to be identified.
+
+"I'll have you carried down," said Red Murrough on coming for him. "Play
+the part, _ma boucal_, and when these royalists get into their cups
+again they'll forget all that is in their heads. Here's a cup of wine
+before ye go, and another for myself. _Slainte!_"
+
+"_Slainte_," repeated Brian, and went forth to play his part.
+
+When the four men, with Red Murrough at their head, carried him down
+into the great hall, Brian found it no little changed. Tables were set
+along the walls, each of them being some ten feet in length by two wide,
+of massive oak, and in the center was another at which sat O'Donnell,
+Colonel Vere, and one or two other officers. Besides these there were a
+score more of the royalist officers mingled with the Dark Master's men,
+and it seemed that there would be few sober men in that hall by
+midnight, from the appearance of things. Only the ten Scots stood calm
+and dour before the fireplace.
+
+After that first quick glance around, Brian lay with his head back and
+his eyes closed, careful not to excite O'Donnell's suspicion that he was
+stronger than he seemed. He was set down in front of the ten Scots, and
+there was an eager craning forward of men to look at him, for his name
+was better known than himself.
+
+"Zounds!" swore Vere thickly. "The man has a strong and clean-cut face,
+O'Donnell! Strike me dead if he does not look like that painting of
+O'Neill, the Tyrone Earl, that hangs in the castle at Dublin! Though for
+that matter there is little enough of his face to be seen. You must have
+borne hardly on him with your cursed tortures."
+
+"I fancy he is an O'Neill bastard," returned the Dark Master lightly.
+Brian felt the red creep into his face, but he knew that he was helpless
+in his chains, and he lay quiet. "Is he your man, Vere?"
+
+"How the devil should I know?" Vere turned to the troopers and spoke in
+English. "Well, boys, is this the fellow we're after? Speak up now!"
+
+"It's no' sae easy tae ken," returned one cautiously. "Yon man has the
+look o' Brian Buidh, aye."
+
+"Devil take you!" cried Vere irritably. "Do you mean to say yes or no?
+Speak out, one of you!"
+
+"Weel, Colonel," answered another cannily, "Jock here has the right of
+it. I wouldna swear tae the pawky carl, but I'd ken the een o' him full
+weel. An I had a peep in his een, sir. I'm thinkin' I'd ken their
+de'il's look. Eh, lads?"
+
+Since it seemed agreed that they would know Brian better by his hard
+blue eyes than by what they could see of his face, the exasperated Vere
+commanded that he be made open them if he were unconscious.
+
+"Run your hand down his body, Murrough," ordered the Dark Master
+cynically.
+
+Red Murrough leaned over Brian, and the latter opened his eyes without
+waiting for the rough command to be obeyed. Instantly the Scots broke
+into a chorus of recognition as Brian's gaze fell on them. Vere looked
+at him with an admiring laugh.
+
+"Sink me, but the man has eyes! Well, so much the better for the ladies,
+eh? Now that this is over, give the lad a rouse and send him back to his
+cell."
+
+He waved the Scots to begone, and rose cup in hand. Smiling evilly, the
+Dark Master joined him in the toast to Brian, and a yell of delight
+broke from the crowd as they caught the jest and joined in. O'Donnell
+was just motioning Murrough to have Brian taken away, when there came a
+sudden interruption, as a man hastened up the hall. It was one of Vere's
+pikemen.
+
+"There is a party of four horsemen just outside our camp, colonel. One
+of them bade us get safe-conduct for him from O'Donnell Dubh, upon his
+honor."
+
+"Eh?" the Dark Master snarled suddenly. "What was his name, fool?"
+
+"Cathbarr of the Ax, lord."
+
+A thrill shot through Brian, and he tried feebly to sit up. The Dark
+Master flashed him a glance. The hall had fallen silent.
+
+"His business?"
+
+"He bears word from one called the Bird Daughter, he said."
+
+While the royalists stared, wondering what all this boded, O'Donnell bit
+his lips in thought. Finally he nodded.
+
+"Let the man enter, and tell him that he has my honor for his
+safe-conduct."
+
+Vere nodded, and the pikeman departed. Instantly the hall broke into
+uproar, but leaving the table, the Dark Master crossed swiftly to
+Brian, and bent over him.
+
+"Either swear to keep silence, or I have you gagged."
+
+"I promise," mumbled Brian as if he were very weak. The Dark Master
+ordered him carried behind one of the tables close by, and a cloak flung
+over him. When it had been done, Brian found that he could see without
+being seen, which was the intent of O'Donnell.
+
+Meanwhile the Dark Master was telling Vere and the other officers of
+Cathbarr, it seemed, and Vere hastily collected his wine-stricken
+senses.
+
+"Nuala O'Malley, eh?" he exclaimed when the Dark Master had finished.
+"She is the one who has held Gorumna Castle and would make no treaty
+with us, though she has more than once sent us powder, I understand."
+
+"I will talk with you later concerning her," returned O'Donnell. "She is
+allied with Parliament, they say, and it might be well for all of us if
+ships were sent against her place from Galway, and she were reduced."
+
+Brian saw that things were going badly. The Dark Master seemed to be
+playing his cards well, and was doubtless thinking of throwing off the
+cloak and openly allying himself with the royalist cause. In this way he
+could secure help against Gorumna in the shape of Galway ships and men,
+and it was like to go hard with the Bird Daughter in such case.
+
+However, Vere had no power to treat of such things, as Brian well knew.
+Also, Nuala had told him herself that her ships had not preyed on the
+commerce of Galway's merchants, but only on certain foreign caracks
+which free-traded along the coast. Therefore the Galwegians were not apt
+to make a troublesome enemy in haste, even if she were proved to be in
+alliance with Cromwell.
+
+None the less, the Dark Master was plainly thinking of making an effort
+in this direction, and Brian knew that the Bird Daughter was in no shape
+to carry things with a high hand in Galway town.
+
+He saw Vere and the Dark Master talking earnestly together across the
+table, but could not hear their words--and it was well, indeed, for him
+that he could not. As he was to find shortly, O'Donnell's quick brain
+had already grasped at what lay behind Cathbarr's coming, or something
+of it, and he had formed the devilish scheme on the instant--that scheme
+which was to result in many things then undreamed of.
+
+"If I had followed Turlough's rede, there when I first met this devil,"
+thought Brian bitterly, "I had slain him upon the road, and that would
+have been an end of it. Well, I think that I shall heed Turlough Wolf
+next time--if there is a next time."
+
+Brian looked out from his shelter with troubled eyes, for there was
+something in the wind of which he had no inkling. He saw Vere break into
+a sudden coarse laugh, and a great light of evil triumph shot across
+O'Donnell's face. Then the Dark Master gained his feet, gathered his
+cloak about his hunched shoulders, and sent Murrough to stand guard over
+Brian with a pistol and to shoot if he spoke out.
+
+"Surely he cannot be going back on his word, passed before so many men?"
+thought Brian bitterly. "No, that would shame him before all Galway, and
+he is proud in his way. But what the devil can be forward?"
+
+To that he obtained no answer. The Dark Master shoved his table back
+toward the fireplace, and placed his chair in front of it beside that of
+Colonel Vere. It seemed to Brian that the stage was being set for some
+grim scene, and a great fear seized on him lest harm was in truth meant
+toward Cathbarr.
+
+No doubt the giant had been in communication with the Bird Daughter, and
+it had been ascertained that the galley had come to grief at Bertragh
+Castle. A sudden thrill of hope darted through Brian. Was it possible
+that Cathbarr had led down his men and placed them in readiness to
+attack? Yet such a thing would have been madness--to set a scant two
+hundred against Vere's pikemen and the Dark Master's force combined!
+
+But Brian knew that Turlough Wolf was at large, and Turlough's brain was
+more cunning than most.
+
+If he could only get free, he thought, he might still be able to do
+something. He could ride, though it would mean bitter pain, and his
+sword-arm was still good--but he had got no farther than this when there
+came a tramping of feet, and in the doorway appeared Cathbarr, his
+mighty ax in hand, with the O'Donnells around him as jackals surround a
+lion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE BAITING OF CATHBARR.
+
+
+The bearded giant still wore the long mail-shirt that reached to his
+knees, and he paused at the doorway with his eyes roving about the hall.
+Well did Brian know whom he sought, but it was vain, for Cathbarr could
+not see him where he lay.
+
+Then Brian saw that the ax had been changed, and wondered at it. One of
+the long, back-curving blades had been rubbed down with files, so that
+it was very tapering and thin like an ordinary ax-blade, while the other
+was still the blunt, heavy thing it had always been. Brian read the
+cunning of Turlough Wolf in that handiwork, and in fact the great ax was
+thus rendered tenfold more deadly.
+
+The Dark Master waited quietly until Cathbarr began a slow advance up
+the hall, all eyes fixed on him in no little wonder. Then O'Donnell
+raised a hand, stopping him.
+
+"Let us have your message, Cathbarr."
+
+The giant halted and dropped the ax-head, leaning on the haft of the
+weapon. He took his time about replying, however, and his eyes still
+roved about the hall ceaselessly and uneasily. Then of a sudden he gave
+over the search, and gazed straight at the Dark Master with a swift
+word:
+
+"Have you slain him?"
+
+"Slain who, Cathbarr?" queried O'Donnell, with a thin smile.
+
+"_Duar na Criosd!_" bellowed Cathbarr with sudden fury. "Who but my
+friend Brian?"
+
+"Oh!" The Dark Master laughed and eased back in his chair. "No, he's
+still alive, Cathbarr? Is your message from the Bird Daughter in his
+regard?"
+
+"Yes." Cathbarr fought for self-control, the breast of his mail shirt
+rising and falling, his bloodshot eyes beginning to circle about the
+place once more in a helpless and angry wonder.
+
+"O'Donnell Dubh," he went on at last, "Nuala O'Malley sends you this
+word. Give Brian Buidh over to her, and she will pay you what ransom you
+demand."
+
+"What alliance is there between Brian and her?" asked O'Donnell softly.
+
+"Brian has given her service, and I have," Cathbarr flung up his head.
+"Our men lie in Gorumna Castle, there are ships coming from Erris and
+the isles, and if Brian be slain we shall bear on this hold and give no
+quarter. We have four hundred men now, and five ships are coming from
+the North."
+
+The Dark Master gazed quietly at the giant, Vere taking no part in the
+talk. But Brian, watching also, saw that which brought a mocking smile
+to O'Donnell's pallid face. Cathbarr had no fear of any man, and lies
+did not come easily to his lips; when he spoke of the force lying in
+Gorumna, and of help from Erris, his face gave him away. Brian saw
+Turlough behind that tale, but Cathbarr was no man to carry it off with
+success.
+
+"Well," laughed the Dark Master, "none the less shall Brian be slain.
+Carry back that word to Nuala O'Malley."
+
+Cathbarr's mighty chest heaved like a barrel near to bursting. Brian was
+minded to break his promise, but Murrough's pistol was at his head, and
+he could but lie quietly and watch. The giant's face flushed somewhat.
+
+"I have not finished," said he. "My business for the Bird Daughter is
+done in truth, but now I have to speak a word of my own."
+
+"Let us hear it," returned O'Donnell.
+
+"It is this." Cathbarr drew himself up. "I am more your enemy than is
+Brian. Let him go, O'Donnell Dubh, and take me in his place, for I love
+him."
+
+A sudden amazed silence fell on every man there, and but for Murrough's
+warning hand Brian would have sat up. O'Donnell's jaw fell for an
+instant, then his head drew in between his shoulders, he put a hand to
+Vere's arm, and whispered something. The royalist nodded, a grin on his
+coarse face, and the Dark Master settled back easily. Cathbarr still
+stood waiting, the ax held out before him, and a glory in his wide eyes.
+
+"I would sooner hold you than Brian," and O'Donnell spoke softly. "If
+you will to take his place and die in his stead, Cathbarr, then loose
+that ax of yours."
+
+Brian saw that Cathbarr was lost indeed, for the Dark Master was not
+likely to give over his pact with the royalists so easily. Cathbarr
+heaved up his ax with a great laugh, like a child; he brought it down on
+the stones, but if he had meant to break it the effort was vain. The
+huge weapon clanged down and bounded high out of his two hands, so that
+men drew back in awe; but the ax whirled twice in the cresset-light,
+then fell and slithered over the flagging beneath a table, and no man
+touched it.
+
+"Take me," said Cathbarr simply.
+
+"Nay," answered the Dark Master calmly, though his eyes flamed, "kneel
+down."
+
+Cathbarr stood breathing heavily for an instant, then slowly obeyed.
+Brian saw that his curly beard was beginning to stand out from his face,
+but no word came from him as he went to his knees.
+
+"Now," went on the Dark Master, "pray me for Brian's life, mighty one."
+
+The giant struggled with himself, for humiliation came hard to him. Then
+his voice fell curiously low, terrible in its self-restraint.
+
+"I pray you for the life of Yellow Brian, O'Donnell."
+
+Brian forced himself up, thinking to cry out a warning before it was too
+late; but Murrough's hand closed over his mouth and forced him back
+relentlessly.
+
+"Bring ropes," said the Dark Master, and ordered Cathbarr to his feet.
+
+Men hastened out, and returned with a length of rope, binding the
+giant's arms behind his back, from elbow to wrist. Then the Dark Master
+laughed harshly, but Vere leaned toward him, his face troubled.
+
+"Do not carry this thing farther, O'Donnell," said the royalist
+hoarsely. "This man is a fool, but he has a great heart. Let be."
+
+For answer the Dark Master whirled on him with such fury in his snarl
+that Vere drew back hastily, and no more words passed between them at
+that time. O'Donnell rose and walked down the hall toward Cathbarr, in
+his hand a little switch that he used upon that wolfhound of his.
+
+"Now," he said softly, yet his voice pierced hard through the dead
+stillness, "in token that your humility in this affair is without guile,
+Cathbarr of the Ax, bow your head to me."
+
+The giant obeyed, closing his eyes. The Dark Master lifted his hand and
+cut him twice across the head with his switch, while Brian gasped in
+amazement and looked for Cathbarr to strike out with his foot. But
+although the giant shuddered, he made no move, and the Dark Master
+strode back to his seat with a laugh. Then Cathbarr raised his face, and
+Brian saw that it was terribly convulsed.
+
+"Do with me as you wish," he said, still in that low voice. "But now let
+Brian be freed in my presence."
+
+The Dark Master flung back his head in a laugh, and when the men saw his
+jest, a great howl of derision rang up to the rafters. Only Vere's
+officers looked on with black faces, for it was plain that this affair
+was none of their liking. A look of simple wonder came into Cathbarr's
+wide-set eyes.
+
+"Why do you not loose him?" he asked quietly.
+
+"Fetch the man out, Murrough," ordered the Dark Master. "Shoot him if he
+speaks."
+
+Now, whether through some shred of mercy--for he knew well that Brian
+would cry out--or for some other reason, Murrough leaned down swiftly to
+Brian's ear.
+
+"Careful," he whispered as he motioned his men forward. "Play the part,
+and mind that this thing is not yet finished."
+
+The warning came in good time, and cooled Brian's raging impulse. He was
+lifted from behind the table, his chains clanking, and laid upon it;
+Cathbarr gave a great start and bellowed out one furious word:
+
+"Dead!"
+
+"Nay," smiled the Dark Master. "His eyes are open, and he is but weak
+with his wounds, Cathbarr. Now say--would you sooner that we cut off
+that right hand of his, or blinded him? One of these things I shall do
+before I loose him, for I said only that I would take your life for
+his."
+
+Brian saw that the Dark Master was only playing with the giant, for well
+he knew that Vere wanted to take him back to Galway whole and sound. But
+Cathbarr knew nothing of this, and as the whole terrible trickery
+flashed over his simple mind he lifted a face that was dark with blood
+and passion.
+
+"Do not play with me!" he cried out, his voice deep and angry. "Loose
+him!"
+
+Then O'Donnell leaned back in his chair, laughing with his men, and
+waved a careless hand toward Vere.
+
+"He is not mine," he grinned. "I have given him to the royalists, for
+hanging at Galway. You, however, are now mine to slay."
+
+Whether the Dark Master indeed meant to break his plighted faith, Brian
+never knew. Cathbarr took a single step forward, his curly beard
+writhing and standing out, and his whole face so terrible to look on
+that all laughter was stricken dead in the hall.
+
+"You lied to me!" he cried hoarsely. "You lied to me!"
+
+O'Donnell laughed.
+
+"Aye, Cathbarr. Your master goes back to Galway to be hung--he is out of
+my hands, but you are in them. However, since I have passed my word on
+your safe-conduct, I think that I may hold to it."
+
+But the giant had not heard him. Throwing back his head, he gave one
+deep groan of anguish, and his shoulders began to move very slowly as
+his chest heaved up. All the while his eyes were fixed on the Dark
+Master, while the whole hall watched him in awe; not even Brian or
+O'Donnell himself guessed what that slow movement of Cathbarr's body
+boded.
+
+"Best put chains upon him, Murrough," said the Dark Master, his teeth
+shining under his drooping mustache.
+
+Vere cried out in sudden wonder.
+
+"'Fore Gad! Look!"
+
+Then indeed the Dark Master looked, and sprang to his feet, and one
+great shout of alarm and fear shrilled up from those watching. For as
+Cathbarr stood there, the veins had suddenly come out on his face and
+neck, and with a dull sound the ropes had broken on his arms, and he was
+free.
+
+Murrough rushed forward, and his pistol spat fire. Cathbarr, with his
+eyes still on the Dark Master, put out a hand and Murrough went whirling
+away with a dull groan. Then the giant rushed.
+
+O'Donnell did not stay for that meeting, but slipped away like a shadow
+into his surging men, yelling at them to fire. There were few muskets in
+the hall, however, and an instant later Cathbarr had reached the table
+where Vere still sat astounded. He brought down a fist on the royalist's
+steel cap, and Vere coughed horribly and fell out of his chair with his
+skull crushed.
+
+Now a musket roared out, and another. But Cathbarr caught up the oaken
+table and faced around on the men who were surging forward at him;
+lifting the ten-foot table as though it were paper, he bellowed
+something and rushed at them, casting the table in a great heave. It
+fell squarely on the front rank, and then indeed fear came upon the
+hall. For Cathbarr's foot had struck against his ax, and he rose with it
+in his hand.
+
+There was a din of screams and shouts, for half the men were struggling
+to get out of the hall and the rest were rushing to get at Cathbarr.
+Another musket crashed, and in the smoke Brian saw the giant stagger,
+recover, and go bellowing into the crowd.
+
+Brian struggled from the table, groaned with pain, and then stood
+watching. He could walk, but his weakness and the chains on his wrists
+and ankles hindered him from being of any advantage to Cathbarr, though
+he lifted his voice in a shout of encouragement.
+
+Cathbarr heard the shout, and roared out with delight. A musket-ball had
+cut across his forehead, and with the blood dripping from his beard he
+looked more like a demon than a man. The huge ax flashed in the smoky
+light, and before it men groaned and shrieked and gave back; it cleaved
+steel and flesh, or smashed helms and heads together, and the Dark
+Master had slipped from the place, so that his men had no leader.
+
+Over the roar of fear-mad men, over the storm of shrieks and shouts,
+over the dust and smoke, rose the mighty bellow of Cathbarr and the
+thudding blows of his ax. The royalist officers were fighting around the
+doorway, while O'Donnell's men were trying to make head against the
+giant, but he swept through them like a whirlwind, awing them more by
+his ferocious aspect and his mad rage than by the half-seen effect of
+his terrific strength.
+
+Little by little they eddied out from the door. Men lay all about,
+tables were overturned, and through the crowd swirled the terrible ax,
+leaving a path of dead in its wake. Brian staggered to the motionless
+form of Colonel Vere, and reaching down drew a pistol from the dead
+man's belt. His strength was flooding back to him, and in spite of the
+agony caused by every movement, he clanked slowly down toward the door.
+At sight of his chained and bandage-swathed figure a wild shriek welled
+up, and when he laughed and fired into the midst of them all opposition
+ceased.
+
+Cathbarr still sought the Dark Master, raging back and forth, smiting
+and smiting with never a pause in the flaillike sweep of his long arms.
+He saw Brian standing there, and emitted a wild bellow of joy, but never
+ceased from his smiting. Out through the door poured a stream of
+maddened figures, for blind panic had come on every man there, and
+Cathbarr's was not the only weapon that drew blood as the men fought for
+exit.
+
+Brian laughed again, for now he knew that he would die in no long time,
+but it would not be under the torturers. Cathbarr cleared the hall, sent
+the last man flying out with an arm lopped from him, and swung to the
+huge doors after kicking two or three bodies from his way. When the beam
+had dropped into place and they were alone with the dead and dying, he
+turned to Brian and flung out his arms.
+
+"Careful!" exclaimed Brian, seizing his hand. "None of your bear-hugs,
+old friend," and he swiftly told of his tortures. Tears ran down the
+giant's blood-strewn face as he listened, and with the tenderness of a
+woman he picked up Brian and carried him back to a table, setting him on
+it.
+
+"First for these chains, brother," he cried, going back for his ax. "We
+may yet win out against these devils."
+
+"Small chance," smiled Brian grimly. "I cannot swing a blade, and we
+cannot hold this hall for long. Besides, you have some wounds."
+
+Cathbarr roared out a laugh, exuberantly as a boy, and carefully spread
+Brian's legs open on the table.
+
+"Hold quiet!" he cautioned, and swung up the ax. Down it flashed, the
+thinner blade sheared through the chain an inch from Brian's ankle and
+split the oak beneath, and Cathbarr drew back for a second blow.
+
+Four times he struck, and the blows smote off the chains from each wrist
+and ankle, although the locked rings still remained. But Brian was free,
+and when he gained his feet he found the exercise had somewhat loosened
+his muscles, and he picked up a sword.
+
+"We can at least die fighting, Cathbarr," he said, and looked into the
+giant's eyes. "And, brother, I thank you."
+
+"Nonsense!" blurted out Cathbarr, wiping the blood from his eyes and
+grinning through his beard. "Turlough Wolf has our men hidden around
+this royalist camp, and the Bird Daughter has a boat outside the castle.
+We cannot get through the royalists, but there is a chance that we can
+get to the shore. Besides, she has ships and men coming from her kinsmen
+in the North. Now, how shall we get away?"
+
+Brian shook his head. "I can hardly walk, Cathbarr, to say nothing of
+swimming or fighting. There is a rear door out of the hall, yonder, but
+no use trying it."
+
+"Perchance I have still some strength," grinned Cathbarr, picking up his
+ax. "Let us have a look at that rear door, before they come at us with
+muskets."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+HOW THE DARK MASTER WAS RUINED.
+
+
+The fear that had come upon the O'Donnells was so great that not until
+pikemen entered the castle from the camp could the Dark Master get men
+at the doors of the hall. And this proved the salvation of Brian and
+Cathbarr, for when they left the hall by the rear door and slipped
+through the corridors, they came out upon the rear or seaward
+battlements of the castle.
+
+These they found denuded of men, while from the courtyard and front of
+the keep were rising shouts and batterings, whereat Cathbarr chuckled.
+
+"They are all drawn around to the front, brother. Now, how to get down
+from here?"
+
+Brian looked around in the starlight, but saw that there was no gate or
+other opening in the walls. He began to lose hope again; once the Dark
+Master had burst into the great hall he would scatter men over the whole
+castle, and their shrift would be short. At this point the walls were
+some thirty feet high, and pointing out to the sea stood four of the
+bastards, with balls piled beside them.
+
+"Now if we had a rope," he said, "the matter would not be hard. Is that
+boat near the shore?"
+
+"Not so far that I cannot make them hear," grinned Cathbarr, opening his
+mouth to shout, but Brian stopped him.
+
+"Be careful--do you want to draw down the O'Donnells likewise? Now, cut
+the ropes from these cannon, and if we have time we shall yet get down
+safe."
+
+Cathbarr rushed off in delight, and began hewing at the recoil-ropes
+which bound the bastards and their carriages to their places. Brian
+followed him, seizing the ropes and trying to knot the strands hastily
+and with no little pain to himself; but now the hope of escape began to
+thrill through him, and for the first time since sighting the Dark
+Master's stronghold he began to think that he might yet get away.
+However, he could do little knotting with one hand, and not until
+Cathbarr impatiently took over the task was it finished. At the same
+instant a great burst of yells rose over the castle.
+
+"Hasten!" cried Brian, as the other began fastening the line to a
+cannon. "I can use one hand--"
+
+"Save your strength," grunted Cathbarr, lifting him after swinging the
+loop of his ax around his neck. "Catch me about the neck with your good
+arm, and trust me for the rest, brother."
+
+Brian did as he was ordered, since there was no time for lowering him
+down. The giant scrambled over the edge, gripping the twisting rope, and
+Brian tightened his lips to keep down his groans, for the agony was
+cruel to him. He was forced against the body of Cathbarr, and swirl
+after swirl of pain went over him at each touch on his burns.
+
+The giant grunted once or twice, for he had many slight wounds also, but
+with the rope gripped in hands and feet, he lowered away steadily. At
+length they reached the ground, and the scattered rocks along the shore
+were but a few yards away.
+
+Cathbarr sent his bull-like voice roaring out at the stars, while Brian
+clung weakly to him and searched the waters. He could see nothing, but
+suddenly there drifted in a faint shout, and Cathbarr bellowed once
+more.
+
+"Swim for it," said Brian, as torches began to move along the walls
+above. "If those cannon are not loaded, we're safe."
+
+Cathbarr nodded, and caught up the body of Brian tenderly enough in one
+arm, as he splashed out. The icy water shocked Brian's brain awake and
+drove the pain out of him momentarily, and before Cathbarr was
+waist-deep he heard a hail and saw the dark shape of a galley
+approaching.
+
+Muskets flashed out from the walls, and their bullets whistled overhead,
+but five minutes later Brian was on the galley, Cathbarr was clambering
+over the side, and the light boat was being rowed out again.
+
+Brian thought his senses were slipping away when he found Nuala O'Malley
+herself holding his head as he lay in the stern, while men flung cloaks
+around him; but warm tears dripped on his face, and she patted his arm
+soothingly.
+
+"Lie quiet," she said, but Brian would not, for already his brain was
+leaping ahead, and he knew that there was work to be done.
+
+"Tell me," he asked eagerly, "are my men camped around the royalists?
+Is help indeed coming to you from the North?"
+
+"Yes," she replied, trying to quiet him. "A pigeon came in from Erris
+to-day, with word that two ships with men were on the way to help me.
+When I returned from the South and found that the plague had been at
+Gorumna, I sent off asking for help, and now it is coming."
+
+"Then send word to Turlough!" cried Brian eagerly. "Tell him to throw my
+men on the royalist camp _to-night_ and drive the pikemen into the
+castle! Colonel Vere is dead, and there is such confusion that all will
+think we have more than two hundred men. If we can leaguer them there
+until your ships come, we may win all at a blow!"
+
+Nuala found instantly that there was meat in the plan, and as they were
+rowing out to meet one of her caracks, promised to send in the galley
+with word to Turlough when they got aboard the larger ship.
+
+This they were no great while in doing. Brian knew nothing of it, for
+upon the Bird Daughter's word he had dropped away into a faint once
+more. With this Nuala O'Malley was quite content, so that when Brian
+wakened he was greatly refreshed and found himself lying bandaged on a
+bunk with the sunlight coming through a stern-port beside him, and the
+Bird Daughter watching him with food and drink ready.
+
+"Take of this first," she smiled; "then we will talk."
+
+Brian obeyed, being very thirsty and ravenously hungered. He had little
+pain except when he tried to move, and so he ate as he lay, propped up
+with folded garments, and watched the Bird Daughter. She refused to
+speak until he had eaten the meat and cakes she had fetched, but when he
+smiled and asked for a razor her grave face rippled with frank laughter,
+and her deep violet eyes danced as they looked into his.
+
+"I am sorry I have none," she said mockingly. "So you must wait till we
+come to port again. Just at present we are off Slyne Head and bearing
+northward."
+
+"What!" Brian stared at her. "Are you in jest?"
+
+It appeared that she was not, for she was sailing north to meet those
+ships of her kinsmen, and to hasten them back with her. Meantime
+Cathbarr had been sent ashore to meet Turlough and hold the Dark Master
+and his royalists in check. Nuala had sent fifty of her men to join
+Turlough, left twenty to hold her castle, and had ten with her upon the
+carack. It seemed likely that Turlough and Cathbarr could hold the Dark
+Master penned up for a few days at least, even with fewer men; if they
+could not, said Nuala shortly, they had best sit at spinning-wheels for
+the rest of their lives.
+
+"You are a wonderful girl!" said Brian, and fell asleep again.
+
+He remembered little of that voyage, for they met two caracks crowded
+with men off Innishark that afternoon, found they were the expected
+O'Malleys from the North, and turned back with them at once. Brian
+wakened again that same evening, but Nuala refused to let him go on deck
+until the following morning, when they sighted Bertraghboy Bay. Then
+Brian discarded most of his bandages, dressed, and, with his left arm in
+a sling, joined the Bird Daughter on the quarterdeck. He found that his
+burns were well on toward healing, for he could walk slowly without
+great pain, and had every confidence that he could sit a horse if need
+be.
+
+Sailing past Bertragh Castle, the three ships went on up the bay and
+cast anchor. It was not hard to see that Turlough and Cathbarr had done
+their work well, for in passing the castle they had made out that the
+royalist pikemen had been driven inside, and there was some musketry to
+be heard at times. No sooner had the anchor-cables roared out, indeed,
+than a band of men came riding toward the shore, and Nuala sent off a
+boat for them. She had known nothing of Cathbarr's deeds at the castle
+until Brian had told her of them, and on seeing that the giant was among
+those coming off, she smiled at Brian.
+
+"Now you shall see how a girl can conquer a giant, Yellow Brian!"
+
+Brian laughed and waved a hand to Turlough, who was beside Cathbarr in
+the boat. As the men came over the rail, Nuala quietly pushed him aside
+and faced the giant, sharply bidding him kneel. Cathbarr had been all
+for rushing forward to Brian, and obeyed with an ill grace, when Nuala
+quickly leaned forward and kissed him on the brow.
+
+"That is for bravery and faith," she said. "Truly, I would that you
+served me!"
+
+Poor Cathbarr grew redder than the Bird Daughter's cloak. He started to
+his feet, gazed around sheepishly, found all men laughing at him--and
+did the best thing he could have done, which was to go to his knees
+again and put Nuala's hand to his lips.
+
+"While my master serves you, I serve you," he blurted out, and this
+answer must have pleased Nuala mightily, for she flushed, laughed, and
+bade all down into the cabin.
+
+Brian greeted Turlough with no little joy, but beyond assurances that
+all went well, gained no knowledge of what had happened. Nuala had sent
+for the O'Malley chieftains, and proposed to hold a conference at once.
+
+The O'Malleys arrived from the other ships in a scant five
+minutes--dark, silent men who spoke little, but spoke to the point. Art
+Bocagh, or the Lame, had had one leg hamstrung in his youth, but Brian
+took him for a dangerous man in battle; while his cousin Shaun the
+Little was a very short man with tremendous shoulders.
+
+Nuala took her seat at the head of the stern-cabin table, and the
+position of affairs was gone over carefully.
+
+It seemed that no sooner had Turlough learned from Cathbarr of what had
+taken place in the castle, and that Brian was safe on shipboard, than
+he drove his men down pell-mell on the camp, just before dawn. Any other
+man would have been exhausted by the events of that night, but Cathbarr
+had led them in the assault. The result had been that, with hardly any
+resistance, they had slain some four-score of the pikemen, and would
+have captured or slain them all had it not been for the Dark Master's
+cannon which drove them back.
+
+The better part of the royalist officers had fallen, either then or
+under the ax of Cathbarr in the hall of the castle. In fact, after
+learning that he had slain some nineteen persons on that occasion,
+Cathbarr had taken no few airs upon himself. Vanity was to him as
+natural as to a child, and Brian hugely enjoyed watching the giant
+strut. However, what remained of Vere's five hundred pikemen were in the
+castle, joined to the Dark Master's men; and Turlough's advice was that
+since there must be some seven hundred mouths to feed, the safest plan
+was to bide close and force the fight to come to them, rather than to
+take it to O'Donnell.
+
+"There is reason against that, Turlough Wolf," said Brian quickly. "The
+Dark Master has men on the hills, and if news is borne to Galway of what
+has happened, we are like to have a larger army on our heels than we can
+cope with."
+
+"I have attended to O'Donnell's watchers," said Turlough grimly. "When
+Cathbarr bore word of the pact from Gorumna Castle, I sent out horsemen
+and we swept the hills bare of men. O'Donnell has no more than are in
+the castle, and a score of our own men are on the roads, watching for
+any ill."
+
+"How many men have we in all?" spoke up Lame Art O'Malley. "In our ships
+there are sixty men we can spare for land battle."
+
+"That gives us three hundred in all," replied Turlough to Nuala's
+questioning glance. "If we take a strong position we should sweep most
+of O'Donnell's men away at the first charge."
+
+"There you are wrong," said Brian, shaking his head. "Those pikemen are
+bad foes for cavalry, and our two hundred horsemen would shatter on them
+if they stood firm."
+
+"Not if we choose our ground," said the Bird Daughter, her eyes
+flashing. "Nay, _I_ am master here, my friends! Now this is my rede. We
+shall not waste men by attacking the castle, unless forced to it by an
+army from Galway. Instead, we will wait until the Dark Master is driven
+out by hunger; then we will fall on him and destroy him utterly.
+
+"Yellow Brian, you have some knowledge of war, and you shall take this
+matter in charge. Cathbarr, do you command fifty horse, with the men
+from our ships here, and keep the Dark Master in play. With the
+remainder, we shall wait in whatever spot Brian shall choose, and before
+many days are sped I think that Bertragh will be mine again."
+
+The Bird Daughter had her way, since none could find much against her
+plan; and that afternoon Brian went ashore with her and the O'Malleys,
+leaving the three ships at anchor under a small guard. Turlough had made
+camp a short mile from the castle, on a little hill among the farms;
+both Nuala and the O'Malley men were somewhat surprised at finding the
+O'Donnell women and children safe and untouched in their own steads.
+
+"I saw to that," laughed Turlough, slanting his crafty eyes at Brian. "I
+had but to threaten them in Brian's name, and the men only were slain."
+
+"I think that you are a hard master," laughed Nuala, but Brian smiled
+and pointed to his men, who were pouring out to meet him with shouts of
+joy.
+
+"All men do not rule by fear alone, Bird Daughter," he said quietly. She
+gave him a quick glance. "I found these men riffraff of the wars, and
+while they have no such love for me as Cathbarr here, I think they had
+liefer follow me than any other leader."
+
+After that Nuala said little concerning Brian's discipline.
+
+That night Nuala and Brian took up headquarters at one of the larger
+farms, and while Cathbarr went before the castle to keep the Dark Master
+in check and allow none to leave the place, they called in a number of
+those men O'Donnell had loaned to Brian, and questioned them about the
+provisioning of the castle.
+
+From these they found that there was good store of all things for the
+usual garrison, but with seven hundred men to feed the Dark Master would
+be forced out speedily. So with the dawn Brian and Turlough rode forth
+to select a battleground, and while Brian was very sore and riding
+caused him great pain at first, he soon found himself in better shape.
+
+Turlough picked a hollow in the road a mile farther from the castle,
+flanked on either hand by woods and hillsides where men might lie
+hidden. Brian found it good, and that afternoon a part of their horsemen
+were shifted thither in readiness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For the next three days there was little done. Twice the Dark Master
+attempted sallies with what few horsemen he had left, but on each
+occasion Cathbarr's horse smote his men and drove them back. To be sure,
+O'Donnell thundered with his bastards, but the guns only burned up good
+powder, for Brian would allow no assault made.
+
+By Turlough's advice, however, they brought about the Dark Master's fall
+through certain prisoners made in the two sallies.
+
+These captives were led through the depleted central camp, though they
+knew nothing of that picked place farther back. Having been allowed to
+see what men Brian had here, Turlough slyly drove Cathbarr into parading
+his vanity before them; and in all innocence the giant told how he could
+put the Dark Master's men to flight single-handed, and of his anxiety
+lest the O'Donnells should fear to fight in the open. What was more,
+Brian affected to be utterly shattered by his wounds, and with that the
+prisoners were sent back with a message offering quarter to all within
+the castle save the Dark Master himself.
+
+Early the next morning a horseman came riding fast from Cathbarr with
+word that the garrison was stirring. Without delay, Brian donned a
+mail-shirt, bound his useless left arm to his side, and mounted. The
+Bird Daughter insisted on accompanying him, and stilled his dismayed
+protests by asserting her feudal superiority; in the end she had her
+way.
+
+Leaving her kinsmen and a hundred more men to dispute O'Donnell's
+passage and give back slowly before him with Cathbarr, she and Brian
+rode to their men among the trees on the hillsides over the hollow in
+the road. Here they had a hundred and fifty men, composed of the Scots
+troopers and the pick of the others, and Nuala took one side of the road
+while Brian took the other. Then, being well hidden, they waited.
+
+Brian was savagely determined to slay the Dark Master that day, and came
+near to doing it. Presently a man galloped up to say that O'Donnell and
+six hundred men were on the road, having left the rest to hold the
+castle. A little later Cathbarr's retreating force came in sight, and
+after them marched O'Donnell. He had deployed his muskets in front and
+rear, and rode in the midst of his pikemen, whose banner of England blew
+out bravely in the morning wind.
+
+At the edge of the dip in the road Cathbarr led his men in full flight
+down the hollow and up the farther rise, where he halted as if to
+dispute the Dark Master further. There were barely a dozen mounted men
+with O'Donnell, and he made no pursuit, but marched steadily along with
+his muskets pecking at Cathbarr's men. When he had come between the
+wooded hillsides, however, Cathbarr came charging down the road; the
+pikemen settled their pikes three deep to receive him, and with that
+Brian led out his men among the trees and swooped down with an ax
+swinging in his right hand.
+
+Alive to his danger, the Dark Master tried to receive his charge, but
+at that instant Nuala's men burst down on the other flank. Brian headed
+his men, and at sight of him a yell of dismay went up from the
+O'Donnells. A moment later the pikemen's array was broken and the fight
+disintegrated into a wild affray wherein the horsemen had much the
+better of it.
+
+Brian tried to cut his way to the Dark Master, but when O'Donnell saw
+the pikemen shattered he knew that the day was lost. He gathered his
+dozen horsemen and went at Cathbarr viciously; Brian saw the two meet,
+saw O'Donnell's blade slip under the ax and Cathbarr go from the saddle,
+then the Dark Master had broken through the ring and was riding hard for
+the North.
+
+Brian wheeled his horse instantly, found the Bird Daughter at his side,
+and with a score of men behind them they rode out of the battle in
+pursuit. It proved useless, however, for the Dark Master had the better
+horseflesh; after half an hour he was gaining rapidly, and with a bitter
+groan Brian drew rein at last.
+
+"No use, Nuala," he said. "I must wait until my strength has come back
+to me, for I have done too much and can go no farther."
+
+The girl reined in beside him, and her hand went out to his, and he
+found himself gazing deep into her eyes.
+
+"For what you have done, Brian," she said simply, "thanks. Now let us
+ride back, for I think there is work before us, and we shall see the
+Dark Master soon enough."
+
+"I am not minded to wait his coming," quoth Yellow Brian darkly, and
+they returned.
+
+
+TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly,
+and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a
+month.
+
+
+
+
+Nuala O'Malley
+
+by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.
+
+
+This story began in the All-Story Weekly for December 30.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+BRIAN RIDES TO VENGEANCE.
+
+
+"Then you are intent on this vengeance, master?" asked Turlough
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes," answered Brian. "I here take oath that I will never cut hair nor
+beard again until I have seen the Dark Master dead."
+
+"You are not like to have a chance at your hair very soon," laughed out
+Lame Art O'Malley. "But that is a good oath, Yellow Brian."
+
+"Then I think this is a better plan," spoke up Turlough Wolf. "Give me
+ten men, Brian, and I will go to Galway. I will soon get traces of
+O'Donnell; and if he goes into the north to get men of his own sept"
+(tribe or family), "as I think most likely, I will send back word, and
+we can follow him."
+
+"Do it," said Brian, and Turlough was gone that night.
+
+This discussion took place in the hollow, where the fight was soon over
+after the flight of the Dark Master. Out of the six hundred who had left
+the castle, two hundred had been O'Donnell's men. Half of these remained
+and took service with Brian at once. Of the four hundred pikemen, three
+hundred had gone down fighting like the stubborn south-country men they
+were, and the rest took service with Nuala O'Malley. They were most of
+them Kerry men, and well disposed toward ships and piracy.
+
+Brian had lost in all fifty men in that battle, while the Dark Master
+had given Cathbarr a goodly thrust through the shoulder, which had let
+out most of the giant's vanity and promised to give the huge ax some
+time to rest and rust. So, then, Brian found himself heading two hundred
+and fifty men of his own, with Nuala's hundred O'Malleys, when they rode
+down again to Bertragh Castle.
+
+This had been left in charge of a hundred men under Red Murrough, who
+had not been slain, but only wounded by Cathbarr's fist, that night in
+the great hall. Having left a party to bring in the wounded in wagons
+from the farms, they arrived before the castle shortly after noon.
+Cathbarr was left in charge of the camp, and Brian rode up to the gates
+with Nuala and her two kinsmen, with a flag of truce.
+
+Murrough and his men were put into consternation by the news Brian gave
+them. After much stroking of his matted beard, Murrough proposed to
+surrender the castle on condition that he hold his post of lieutenant.
+Brian laughed, for he had other views on the subject.
+
+"You sold your master, and you will have no chance to sell me, Murrough.
+I will give you the ten pounds I owe you and a good horse. Refuse, and I
+slay you when we storm the castle."
+
+The end of that matter was that Murrough assented. An hour later he
+opened the gates, his men taking service with the rest under Brian.
+Then, having obtained his ten English pounds and a horse, he waved
+farewell to his men and rode away; and what became of him after that is
+not set forth in the chronicle, so he comes no more into this tale.
+
+Nuala loaded her fifty men into her carack, and sent them home that
+night to Gorumna in case of need, proposing to follow later with Lame
+Art, Shaun the Little, and her Kerry recruits. The O'Malley cousins
+intended going south, since their affair had been so unexpectedly
+ended, and picking up a Spanish ship or two before returning home.
+
+"And now, what of your plans?" asked Nuala, as she and Brian sat
+together that night before the huge fireplace in the hall, where Brian
+had been burned and where Cathbarr had fought so well. "Of course, we
+can settle rents later on."
+
+"When there are farms to gather rents from," laughed Brian, stretching
+out easily. He lifted his bandaged left hand, gazing at it. "First, I am
+minded to rest here and wait for news from Galway. The bones in this
+hand of mine are not broken, from what I can make out, and it will soon
+knit. As soon as may be, I shall ride after the Dark Master; when I have
+paid my debts, I will then be in shape to look for a castle for myself."
+
+"Then you are determined to kill O'Donnell?" and she looked at him
+sidewise.
+
+"He has my Spanish blade," said Brian. "It is good Toledo steel, and I
+want it back again."
+
+"You have three hundred and fifty men here," she observed. "Can you feed
+them?"
+
+"You have food in Gorumna--send me some. When I am well again I shall
+ride with most of them, which will lessen the burden. With the spring I
+will take lands between here and Slyne Head, for now I am strong enough
+to defend what I take."
+
+"I shall also send you some of my pigeons, Brian. They are born and bred
+on Gorumna Isle, and if you tie a message to them they will--"
+
+"I know," nodded Brian. "I have seen them used in Spain."
+
+With that she described how she used these pigeons, and Brian saw that
+it was not by strength alone that this girl had maintained her position.
+She kept men in Galway, Kinvarra, and elsewhere, as far south as the
+Shannon and as far north as Erris, with others at Limerick and Tuam and
+Castlebar. In this wise she got news of what was passing in Connaught
+and Munster before most men had it, and more than one foreign ship had
+found her caracks waiting for it through the same means, since she held
+a privateer commission given her by Blake to legalize her sea-roving.
+Also, she had pigeons which carried return messages, chiefly to her
+kinsmen in Erris.
+
+"And what is your goal, Bird Daughter?" Brian turned to her, his blue
+eyes clinching on her violet ones. "What will the end of all this wild
+life of yours be?"
+
+"I do not know," she answered him, and turned away from his eyes to
+stare down into the fire. "In the end I may be forced into marriage,
+though I think not, for I have some will of my own in that regard." She
+laughed out suddenly and looked up. "Two years ago Stephen Lynch sent me
+a fair screed in all the glory of his chevron and three shamrocks and
+wolf crest, saying that he was coming in one of his ships to marry me."
+
+"And did he ever come?" smiled Brian.
+
+"Yes; but I took his ship from him and sent him home again by road, tied
+to a horse," she rippled out merrily. "Poor Stephen! The Bodkins never
+let the Lynches hear the last of it until Stephen fell fighting against
+Coote, and there was an end of it and him, too. When are you going to
+tell me your name, Brian?"
+
+At the sudden question Brian was tempted, but forbore.
+
+"When I have slain the Dark Master," he laughed.
+
+"Then you are likely to be bearded worse than Cathbarr," she mocked him
+gaily. "Unless, indeed, you break that oath you swore this morning."
+
+"Not I," returned Brian shortly. "I am not given to light oaths or light
+pacts, Bird Daughter. I think I shall get me a ship and go cruising some
+day."
+
+"Come with me," she said, rising, "and you may win food and wine without
+begging from your overlord. Well, now for that chamber Cathbarr fixed up
+for me. _Beannacht leath!_"
+
+Somewhat to his surprise, the next morning Brian found that Nuala was
+extremely businesslike and even curt. Knowing little of women, he tried
+to find wherein he had offended; failed utterly, and gave over the
+attempt on seeing that Nuala preferred the company of Cathbarr.
+
+Then, remembering that kiss she had given the giant aboard ship, he
+concluded that the Bird Daughter was drawn by the physical magnificence
+of the man, which gave him a little bitterness. So he merely set his jaw
+the harder and said nothing of the thing that lay in his heart to any
+one. For that matter, he was not quite sure himself what the thing was;
+but he knew that he had never seen a woman such as the Bird Daughter in
+all his life, and was not apt to find another.
+
+Turlough having departed on his mission, Brian fell back on Cathbarr to
+act as lieutenant; with Nuala herself, the work of getting the castle in
+shape proceeded apace. The Bertragh hold was built on a cliff that rose
+from the plain on the one hand, and sloped down to the water on the
+other; had the Dark Master not fallen into Turlough's trap, he might
+have turned out the pikemen to shift for themselves and have held the
+castle with his own men for as long as he wished.
+
+Indeed, Brian found that the removal of danger and the taking of the
+castle had somewhat puffed up his men, lessening their fear of him. So,
+on the second day, he quelled a free fight that rose among them, hanged
+ten of the worst, and after this the others became as lambs before him.
+
+Upon exploring the castle, Brian was delighted to find it well equipped
+in all things except prisoners. The Dark Master had had little use for
+captives, it seemed, and his dungeons were in sad disrepair. However,
+there was good store of powder, provisions in moderation, a well within
+the castle, and no lack of arms and munitions of war. Brian promptly
+took the chamber of O'Donnell for his own use--a large tower-room well
+furnished in English style, and having the luxury of a fireplace
+besides.
+
+The construction of the building was simple--a large stone structure
+with embattled walls, running down close to the sea behind and rising
+above the plain in front. Save for the courtyard, the walls were not
+separated from the building proper, and there was one high tower, on
+which the flagstaff had been shattered since O'Donnell had taken the
+place, for he was not given to flags and display. Besides a dozen of the
+large bastards, there were five falcons, with plenty of ball.
+
+Therefore, Brian had good reason to be satisfied with his new home. The
+only thing that rankled was that he held it not for himself, but for the
+Bird Daughter; and he was determined that when he had settled scores
+with the Dark Master he would only remain here until he had secured a
+hold for himself, free of all service.
+
+But settling with O'Donnell Dubh was the first duty he had. Brian
+recalled his torture and the agony of Cathbarr every time he entered the
+hall. The iron rings that had been in the floor he had already torn out,
+while Nuala had taken for her own the lonely wolfhound, which had been
+left behind by the Dark Master. But Brian, who put all his desire for
+vengeance in the wish to "get back his Spanish blade," could hardly turn
+around without having some phase of his sufferings brought back to him.
+
+The men who had been thrown out along the roads had fetched in word that
+the Dark Master had ridden for Galway, so Brian had great hopes that
+Turlough would bring back some definite news. If O'Donnell settled in
+the city, he was determined to go in at all risks and seek out his enemy
+face to face; the O'Malleys were on good terms with the Bodkins, who in
+old Galway played _Capulet_ to the _Montague_ of the Lynch family, and
+he would be able to command some help in that quarter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the fifth day after the castle had been taken, a galley came over
+from Gorumna Castle bearing news. Cromwell had failed before Duncannon,
+and promised to fail again at Waterford, and hope was rising high among
+the royalists, while O'Neill's Ulster army was biding its time in the
+north until a new leader was chosen by the Confederacy to make head with
+Ormond against the Parliament armies.
+
+Upon this the O'Malley rovers were impatient to revictual at Gorumna and
+be off to the south after plunder, so Nuala decided to leave Bertragh
+the next morning. That night, after Cathbarr had drunk himself asleep
+and the O'Malleys had sought their ships, the Bird Daughter unexpectedly
+became very cordial toward Brian once more, and they sat up late before
+the fireplace.
+
+Brian did not understand it, but he was quite willing to accept it, and
+when the talk turned on personal matters he was careful to ask no
+questions concerning Nuala's plans for the future. Instead, he told her
+tales of his life at the Spanish court, which interested her vastly,
+until in the end she broke forth with a passionate outburst.
+
+"Oh, I wish I were a man!" she cried softly and eagerly, looking into
+the red embers. "All my life I have been among men, and yet not of them;
+I have had to do with guns and ships and powder, and I think I have not
+done so ill, yet I have had dreams of other things--things which I
+hardly know myself."
+
+Astonished though he was at her sudden unfolding of herself, Brian
+looked at her gravely, his blue eyes very soft as he pierced to her
+thought.
+
+"Yes," he said gently, "you are a woman, Bird Daughter--and if you were
+a man I think that you might have gain, but others would have great
+loss."
+
+"Eh?" She looked straightly at him, unfearing his half-expressed
+thought. "I do not seek idle compliments, Yellow Brian, from those who
+serve me."
+
+Brian flushed a little.
+
+"It is hard to receive compliments gracefully," he said, and at that she
+also colored, but laughed, her eyes still on his.
+
+"There, give grace to my rude tongue, Brian! Of course you meant it--but
+why?"
+
+"Because there is no woman like you, Nuala--so able to weld men into
+union, so vibrant with inner power, and yet so womanly withal. It is no
+little honor to have known you, to have--"
+
+"I wish you would tell me your name, Yellow Brian!"
+
+There was woman's cunning in the placing of that answer, and it took
+Brian all aback. For a moment he was near to blurting out his whole
+story; then he took shame for letting a girl's face so run away with
+him. None the less, he knew well that it was her heart as well as her
+face, and her spirit as well as her heart, that had captured him; yet,
+because he had had no dealings with women since leaving Spain some
+months before, he told himself that if the Bird Daughter had other women
+near by to compare herself with, less attraction might be found in her.
+
+But he did not pause long upon that thought, sweeping his blue eyes to
+hers in a smile.
+
+"If you had been a man, Nuala, you had never had fealty from me."
+
+"So--then it _was_ pity?" and swift anger leaped into her face.
+
+"Was it pity that drove Cathbarr to proffer his life for mine?" parried
+Brian, his eyes grave. He felt a great impulse to speak out all that was
+in him, but crushed it down. Her eyes met his, and held there for a long
+moment. Then she spoke very calmly:
+
+"When will you take that cruise with me, Yellow Brian?"
+
+"When I have won my Spanish blade again," he smiled, and after that they
+talked no more of intimate things, yet Brian's heart was glad within
+him.
+
+With the next morning the Bird Daughter said farewell and went aboard
+Lame Art's carack. Sorry was Brian to see her go, for he had come to
+count much on her fine backing and inspiring courage, and knew not if he
+would ever see her again. As the ships raised anchor, Cathbarr suddenly
+let off the bastards with a great roar and raised on the shattered
+flag-pole an ensign he had secretly obtained from Shaun the Little. The
+ship-cannon barked out in brave answer and hoisted ensigns likewise; but
+as Brian looked up at the flag overhead, his despondent mood was not
+heartened. The three-masted ship of the O'Malleys flew above him, where
+he had much rather flown the red hand of his own house.
+
+"When I have slain the Dark Master," he thought, watching from those
+same sea-facing battlements where he and Cathbarr had descended, as the
+two caracks leaped off to the south, "and when I have established myself
+in some hold, be it never so small, then I shall take back my name again
+and let the red hand hold what it has gripped. But not until these
+things have been done, for Brian O'Neill will give fealty to none--no,
+not even to the Bird Daughter herself."
+
+Thus he thought in his proud bitterness, reckoning not on what the
+future was to bring forth. However, he had lost his idea that Nuala
+might love Cathbarr, and had great gladness of it.
+
+Now there was work to be done, and Brian soon found himself too busy to
+bother his mind with thoughts of bitterness. Cathbarr had done no little
+drinking, so that his wound was turning bad, and in no little alarm
+Brian banished all liquors from him and tended him carefully. Taking a
+lesson from Red Murrough, he washed out the wound with vinegar, and
+found that this had its effect.
+
+Since Brian was irked at having to rely on others for his supplies, he
+rode to all the outlying farms and sent off the families there under
+escort, with sufficient money to keep them and take them to their homes
+in the north. Many of them chose to remain, and certain of his men knew
+of women-folk they wished to bring hither, so that Brian saw he would
+not lack for farmers and settlers. Enough fodder was obtained to keep
+his horses for a time; but as this did not satisfy him, he set forth
+after four days on a cattle-raid to the northeast, riding past the
+Manturks toward Ashford with ninety men.
+
+He was gone on that raid five days; found to his great joy that his
+strength had returned to him, and also found a small party of Royalist
+horse near Lough Corrib. These had been buying up cattle for the Galway
+garrison, and had collected fifty head; but on Brian's approach they did
+not stay for dispute, but fled.
+
+So Brian cheerfully sent the fifty head of cattle home with as many men,
+and with the others swept around through the mountains. With him were
+two of Cathbarr's axmen, and they led him to the hold occupied by
+Murrough O'Flaherty of the Kine, where Brian stayed half a day. He
+concluded a friendship with the mountaineers, promising them powder in
+exchange for cattle, and they promised, in turn, that within three weeks
+they would fetch a hundred kine down to Castle Bertragh.
+
+Having thus assured himself of both food and stock for his farms, he
+rode home again, to find great news awaiting him.
+
+First, there had come a galley from Gorumna with wine and stores. Nuala
+sent word that her men in Galway had informed her the Dark Master was
+there, but in no high favor with Lord Burke and the other commanders.
+Second, one of Turlough Wolf's men had come in with news which had
+caused Cathbarr to have the men in all readiness against Brian's return.
+
+The Dark Master was indeed in Galway town, and had made small head with
+his suit for men, having related that Vere and his pikemen were lost.
+However, he had been promised some help, provided he could gather any
+force of his own and would hold Bertragh for the Royalists. Cromwell had
+been driven back at Waterford, but Cork had risen for him, and his men
+had entered there.
+
+So the Dark Master was going to the north to get him men in Sligo, as
+Turlough had predicted he would do, and his plan was to raise a force,
+bring down those Donegal pirates with whom he was in alliance, and set
+on Bertragh by sea and land, as Brian himself had aimed at doing.
+Turlough said that he was following, but would leave men at Swineford
+and Tobercurry with further news of what happed.
+
+"Good!" cried Brian joyfully. "Cathbarr, have a hundred and fifty men
+saddled at dawn--what is this?"
+
+Turlough's messenger handed him a paper. It was a safe-conduct issued by
+the Confederacy and Royalist leaders in the name of one Stephen Burke,
+and where the wily Wolf had gotten it the messenger did not know. But it
+might come in useful, since there were few parliament men in Sligo and
+Mayo, and Brian tucked it away with a laugh.
+
+"Then to the north at dawn--and O'Donnell shall not escape me this
+time!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+HOW THE STORM FARED NORTH.
+
+
+Now, it was no easy matter for a band of horsemen to ride from Galway to
+Sligo in that day, unless they were known men and rode for the king or
+the Confederacy. Scattered bands of men had come into the west from
+Ulster and Leinster, and these had driven out what Parliament men had
+landed; through the early years of the war Owen Ruadh's men had swept
+all the west country, and now the land was resting, waiting for the
+storm that was fated to come upon it when the rest of Ireland had been
+crushed under the heel of Ireton. Enniskillen alone, in Fermanagh, held
+out for Parliament.
+
+So, while the larger towns were all under Irish authority, the
+hill-country was full of seething parties from all armies, most of them
+being ravagers and outlaws who would fear to lay hand on so large a
+party as Brian's. But little Brian cared for them, and without let or
+pause he drove north to Ashford and so into the lowlands.
+
+Knowing that he must return again by the same way, he avoided the larger
+towns and pushed hard for Swineford, where he would find word from
+Turlough. More than once he met parties of men on the road, but these
+were not anxious to question him, and it was not until he was riding
+around Claremorris that men began to feel his heavy hand.
+
+With Lough Garra falling behind on the left, and Claremorris at safe
+distance on the right, Brian was clattering along on the third morning.
+His men carried muskets slung at their saddles, with bandoliers of
+cartridges at their waists ready for quick action; and well it was that
+they were so prepared. Searching ahead with narrowed eyes, Brian caught
+a quick glint of steel on the road, and in no long time he made out a
+party of a hundred men riding toward him. Brian got ready both his ax
+and his safe-conduct, and rode forward without pause.
+
+Now, he had brought with him most of those Scots troopers he had taken
+into service, and as the other party drew near he heard a swift yell of
+"Albanach!" that boded no good. But Brian shouted to them and asked who
+they were.
+
+"None of your affair!" answered their leader, a huge, dark man. "Who are
+you?"
+
+"Stephen Burke from Galway," answered Brian; but before the words left
+him he saw a musket flash, and one of his men fell.
+
+Upon that, no more words were wasted. Brian threw up his ax and dug in
+his spurs, with his men behind; and when they loosed their muskets they
+rode on the hundred with butts swinging. This was a new kind of warfare
+in Connaught, and before Brian's ax had struck twice the field was won.
+From two prisoners he found that the band was composed of a levy of the
+O'Connors out of the Storm Mountains.
+
+"That is not well for our return," said one of his lieutenants. "We will
+have the whole country up after this battle, and we have lost ten men."
+
+"Then we shall have the more need of recruits," quoth Brian, and let his
+prisoners go free, since they would take no service, but only cursed
+him.
+
+However, Brian was not ill pleased, since he found that he was nearly
+sped of his wounds, though his left hand gave him some trouble at times.
+His pleasure was speedily cured, for when they camped that night on the
+hither side of Kiltarnagh there came a rush of men toward dawn, and
+before they were beaten off twenty of Brian's men were dead. Five
+prisoners were taken, and when two of these had been hung, the other
+three confessed that the attack had been made by certain O'Connors from
+the southern end of Lough Conn, to whose villages fugitives had come
+from the affray of the previous morning.
+
+With that, Brian took counsel with some of his men who knew the country,
+and it was their advice that he give up the ride and return home.
+
+"I will not," said Brian shortly. "This war was not of my seeking, but
+thirty of my men have been slain. Guide me to these villages, and I will
+take blood-fine."
+
+This he did because he needs must. His men did no ravaging, and were in
+need of provisions, while he was minded to fill up his ranks. Also, by
+taking sharp vengeance, he knew that on his return he was not like to be
+molested.
+
+So he turned aside and rode fast for Lough Conn, which he reached the
+next evening, and there came a storm of men on all that country. Twice
+through the days that followed Brian had to fight hard--once against a
+muster of the O'Connors, and once against a large force of ravaging
+hillsmen under one Fitzgerald. Him Brian slew with a blow of his ax that
+went from shoulder to saddle.
+
+From his men he gained fifty recruits and no small booty, both of money
+and horses; and from the O'Connors he took bitter blood-fine for his
+slain men in spare horses and provisions.
+
+These doings are set down briefly in the chronicle; but when Brian
+turned east again, with Swineford a hard day's ride away, he once more
+had a hundred and fifty men at his back, with a good store of all
+things, while his name was one that spread fear. He left his men camped
+two miles out of Swineford, on the Moy, and rode next morning into the
+town with a dozen horsemen only.
+
+In the town was quartered a small force of Maguires from Fermanagh, and
+as he rode in Brian was halted by their leader, who gave him the sele of
+the day and asked his name. Brian held out his passport, and after
+Maguire had fumbled over it and pretended that he could read, he gave it
+back with a grin and Brian passed on with another.
+
+The seal of the Confederacy on the safe-conduct was quite enough for any
+man in these parts, however.
+
+Brian had not ridden a hundred paces farther before he saw one of
+Turlough's men beckoning to him from the door of an inn, so he left his
+troopers to drink outside and passed within. Turlough's man joined him
+at a table, and there Brian gained news of the most cheering.
+
+Six days before this the Dark Master had arrived at Swineford, with
+Turlough an hour behind him. The old Wolf, whose cunning made up for his
+lack of courage, had made shift to get two of O'Donnell's dozen men
+embroiled with the Maguires. The upshot of that had been a fight,
+followed by a delay of two days for investigation; finally the Dark
+Master had slipped away, his two men had promptly been hung, and
+Turlough had meantime gone ahead to prepare fresh delays at Bellahy and
+Tobercurry. He had four men left with him, though he had left Bertragh
+with ten.
+
+"Then O'Donnell has four days' start of me," reflected Brian. "If
+Turlough can hold him, we will catch him at Sligo at latest."
+
+He left the inn and rode back to his camp, where he had the men on the
+road in ten minutes. Tobercurry was only fifteen miles north, and
+putting his horses to a gallop, Brian rode hard and fast until that
+afternoon he came into the place. He found no garrison, but, instead,
+was met by old Turlough himself, with a bandaged head and two wounded
+men.
+
+"_Mile failte!_" cried Turlough joyously, running forward to kiss
+Brian's hand in wild delight. "You are well come, master! Is all well
+down below?"
+
+"All well, old friend," laughed Brian, swinging down to clasp the old
+man in his arms. "Where is the Dark Master?"
+
+"Where we shall catch him in a forked stick presently," chuckled
+Turlough, wagging his beard. "Get these wild men of yours out of the
+town, and come into the inn with me to talk. I have all the Dark
+Master's plans, master, and we have only to strike."
+
+Brian ordered his men to camp a mile outside town and to do no
+plundering, so they clattered off, to the great relief of the townfolk.
+
+"Now," said Brian, when they two were sitting across a table, "what has
+passed that you are bound up? Have you been fighting?"
+
+"Well, after a fashion," grimaced Turlough disgustedly. "I was here
+ahead of the Dark Master, and raised the townpeople against him for a
+plunderer. When he came up the road was full of men; but the devil slew
+two and wounded two of my own men, cut his way through the rest, and as
+I fled north my horse flung me and bruised my head. Has the castle
+fallen?"
+
+"Yes," laughed Brian, and related what had happed at Bertragh. "Have I
+time to bide here and eat?"
+
+Turlough yeasaid this and sent the inn-master bustling for food and
+wine. When this was set before them, Turlough Wolf told his tale,
+beginning with the statement that two of O'Donnell's men had been
+captured when he cut through the townfolk and rode off.
+
+"Where are they?" asked Brian quickly, his eyes narrowing.
+
+"Hanged," chuckled the old man succinctly. "At Galway I could make out
+nothing more than the word I sent you by messenger, so I came north
+after O'Donnell Dubh, taking very good care that he saw nothing of me."
+
+"I'll warrant that," laughed Brian. "We met your man at Swineford."
+
+"Then no need to tell what passed there. Well, I said that we caught two
+of his men here, and I got back into the town just in time to keep the
+folk from hanging them to the church steeple."
+
+"Eh?" Brian stared, with his mouth full. "Why, I thought you said--"
+
+"_Dhar mo lamh_, give me time to finish, master!" Turlough hesitated a
+little, evidently in some fear. "We took them into the churchyard and
+burned them a little, and so got out of them all the Dark Master's
+plans. Then the priest shrived them, and I let the townfolk hang them."
+
+Brian looked across the table, his blue eyes like ice and his nostrils
+quivering with anger; the old man slanted up his gray eyes and turned
+uneasily in his seat, for well he knew what Brian would say to this.
+
+"That was ill done, Turlough Wolf. If you had not served me so well, you
+would repent that work. By my faith, I am minded to hang you at their
+side!"
+
+Brian meant it, for the torture of men made him furious.
+
+"I am no fool to spare mad dogs," muttered Turlough sullenly. "It was
+the Dark Master who lopped these ears of mine eight years gone."
+
+"Tell your tale," said Brian curtly and fell to eating again.
+
+"I found tidings both good and bad, master. From Galway the Dark Master
+had sent messengers to his kin in Donegal, bidding them send aid south;
+also, he sent to certain pirates north of Sligo Bay. From Sligo to the
+Erne all that land is desolate, and has been so these six years, and the
+O'Donnells from Lough Swilly have set up a pirate hold near Millhaven.
+It was to these that the Dark Master sent also.
+
+"He has appointed a meeting-place in the hills beyond Drumcliff, at a
+certain mountain named Clochaun, or the Stone. Now, whether you think
+my craft evil or good, master, it is yet gainful to us."
+
+This much Brian was forced to acknowledge, though for many days
+afterward he was still angry at Turlough for torturing and hanging those
+men. He had no scruples about a downright hanging, but torturing was a
+very different matter, and one of which he had tasted himself.
+
+"Well, what is your advice in this?"
+
+"We can do one of two things, master. The one is to ride on to Sligo and
+fall on him when he comes south again with his men; the other is to ride
+hard after him and catch him, then fall on the Millhaven men, then meet
+the O'Donnells who are coming south to join him at the Stone Mountain
+with the rest."
+
+"The first plan is more cautious," said Brian thoughtfully; "but to
+strike him when he has his men around him would be to repeat what we
+have done. I like the other way the better."
+
+"It is both safer and yet more dangerous, master. Safer in that we smite
+him and his men separately, and more dangerous because we shall be in
+the heart of a wild country, without supplies, and with no aid in case
+we are defeated."
+
+"It is more to my mind to talk of winning than losing," grunted Brian.
+"I have spare horses and money with which to buy provisions. Also, I
+think that I shall stamp flat that pirate nest at Millhaven, and set up
+my own banner there."
+
+"Then you have a banner of your own, master?" Turlough squinted up
+slyly, for it was the first hint Brian had given him of what lay behind
+his nickname.
+
+"Aye!" laughed Brian as the wine warmed him. "And it shall bear the Red
+Hand of Tyr-owen, old Wolf; but first to catch the Dark Master. Now let
+us go, for we shall ride to the Stone Mountain and see what haps there."
+
+Upon that they rode forth from the town, and all the townfolk bade the
+crafty Turlough farewell, and gave him gifts for warning them against
+the "plunderers." Turlough looked up at the two bodies swinging in the
+wind as they passed the church-tower, and put his tongue in his cheek,
+but Brian said no more on the subject.
+
+That night they camped outside the town, and Brian bought all the
+provision that the people would sell. This he loaded on the spare
+horses, and the next morning they set off for the north.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, in that fighting by Lough Conn, Brian had taken a shrewd clip which
+had reopened the bullet-tear over his scalp. Added to this, he was not
+yet in all of his former strength, and the hard ride to Tobercurry had
+set his blood to heating; wherefore it was that before coming to Sligo
+Brian was heavy with fever and was shaken with chill. A hard snow was
+driving through the night, and Turlough sent most of the men around the
+city to wait for them on the other side the Garravogue to avoid danger.
+
+There was no garrison in Sligo, however. The old castle which Red Hugh
+O'Donnell had fought over in the old days was ruined; the grand
+monastery, built by Brian of Tyr-erril, had been burned by Hamilton's
+men, together with the town itself, and Sligo was well-nigh desolate.
+Turlough got shelter in a hovel, however; managed to put Brian into a
+miserable bed, and gave him a brew to drink. With the morning Brian
+found his fever gone, but weakness was on him.
+
+They stayed in Sligo town all that day and the next night, and upon
+dawn, Brian insisted on riding north once more, against Turlough's
+protests. However, no ill came of it, for Brian was well used to riding,
+and the exercise gave him strength, though they made but a short march
+that day past the round tower of Drumcliff, halting in the hills.
+
+As Turlough Wolf knew where the Stone Mountain was they had no use for
+guides. It lay only another day's march ahead of them, and there was
+some danger that their quarry would descry their coming and flee away to
+Millhaven.
+
+"This is my rede, master;" said Turlough, "that you and I ride ahead
+with a few men to see how things go, and leave our men to follow. The
+hills are empty of rovers, for there is naught to plunder; but it were
+well to know if the Dark Master has joined with those friends of his."
+
+"That seems good advice," said Brian, and, taking a dozen men, they rode
+forward warily, sending out other parties to scout also.
+
+Over them towered the whiteness of the Stone Mountain, for snow lay
+thickly on all things. Brian gazed up at the gray-jutted crags, but his
+thoughts were not all with the Dark Master. Him he already accounted
+slain, and he was thinking of that Millhaven stronghold.
+
+One day his own banner should fly there, he told himself. There must be
+a good harbor, else the northern pirates had never settled down to hold
+the place; and since all the country roundabout lay bleak and unsettled
+of men, the vision came to him of first taking the place, and then
+fetching O'Neills from the east and north to settle the lands around.
+They would flock to him when his condition was made known, and that
+Cromwell's men would shatter the royalists and confederacy Brian saw
+clearly, as Owen Ruadh had foretold him.
+
+Already the house of Tyr-owen was scattered and fallen, as the greater
+house of Tyr-connall had been before it, for when the last earl had fled
+from the land, there had been only the younger branch to hold the sept
+together. Owen Ruadh was the final glory of that branch, and now Brian
+entertained the vision of transplanting the Red Hand and of making his
+rule strong in the west.
+
+But other men had entertained the same vision before him, and it had
+remained a vision, and no more; and the high hopes of Brian himself were
+fated to be driven upon the rocks of destiny before many days had passed
+over.
+
+With the afternoon the little party stood on the lower slopes of the
+Stone Mountain itself, and Turlough drew the shape of the place in the
+snow with his pike-haft.
+
+"Here are we," he explained, "on the southern slopes. A half-mile ahead
+of us is a valley with a small and fast-rushing water, where we shall
+make camp this night if the Dark Master be not before us. And if he is
+not, then he will be on the northern side, where there are two
+well-sheltered valleys with water running, fit for the meeting-place and
+camp of men. Here is the easternmost, but, as I remember it, the snow
+fills the valley somewhat in winter. The other holds a small lake called
+the Dubh Linn, or Black Tarn, and in one of these we shall find the Dark
+Master, unless he is here before us."
+
+"Well, let us ride on and see to that," said Brian, and they did so.
+
+However, they found the valley deserted and empty, and picked a place
+for camp, sending back a horseman to bring up the force. They could make
+out no smoke rising from the mountain, nor dared they light fires until
+after dark for fear of alarming O'Donnell; but when the force came up,
+Brian sent out scouts to bring in what word might be had.
+
+"Where got you such knowledge of this wilderness?" he asked Turlough
+that night when the fires were blazing and the men were warmed and fed.
+The old man narrowed his gray eyes and chuckled a little.
+
+"I have been in many armies, master, though I have fought not; and I
+have been outlawed twice by the English, in the old days. This was
+always a good place to flee to."
+
+Brian laughed and said no more. That night the men rested well, and
+Brian himself got sleep which sent strength into him and served him well
+in the days to come, for it was long before he was to sleep again, save
+as he rode, nodding in the saddle.
+
+Not until nearly dawn did the last of the scouts straggle in. None of
+these bore any news, and all agreed that no signs could they find of any
+large band of men, nor of any men at all. Turlough heard their reports,
+letting Brian sleep, and only when the last man came in were any tidings
+brought. This man bore a strip of sheepskin, which, he said, an old
+woman had given him to bear to his master.
+
+"A woman!" exclaimed Turlough, scanning the written words on the
+sheepskin, but unable to read them. "What is she like? It is a strange
+thing if women bide on Slieve Clochaun! Was there any stead near by?"
+
+"None," replied the man, who trembled with something more than cold.
+"_M'anam go'n Dhia!_ She was a witch woman, or worse, Turlough Wolf. She
+leaped out of the snow in my path, told me to bear that skin to Yellow
+Brian, and vanished in a burst of fire. How could she not have been a
+devil?"
+
+"Nonsense!" grunted Turlough, though he suddenly laid the strip of skin
+down. "You are overwarm with _uisquebagh_, man. What was this woman
+like? Was she clad all in black?"
+
+"Faith, I did not stop to see," grinned the man sheepishly.
+
+Turlough stroked his beard, while the men went off to eat and sleep. He
+gazed at the strip of skin, and twice stretched out his hand toward it,
+with his eye on the fire, but each time drew back. Then he glanced
+around craftily, found he was alone, and took from under his cloak a
+small, brass crucifix. With this he touched the skin, found that nothing
+happened, and rose with a nod. The dawn was just breaking in the east.
+
+"There is no sorcery in it, at least," he muttered; "but I think it
+bodes no great good to us. Ho, Brian!"
+
+Brian woke and sprang up. Turlough handed him the strip of skin, saying
+no word, and when Brian had held it to the light of the embers, he
+looked up suddenly.
+
+"Whence came this?"
+
+"What does it say first?" returned Turlough uneasily.
+
+"News!" cried Brian, his blue eyes aflame with eagerness. "It says that
+O'Donnell bides alone by the Black Tarn, and that his horsemen from the
+north are camped two miles beyond the mountain, waiting for him, and
+that he has made pact with the Millhaven pirates and they have left for
+their stronghold. Answer me--whence came this? It is written in good
+English writing, man!"
+
+Then Turlough told of what had chanced, and when he had done, Brian
+stared into his gray eyes with a great wonder. Twice he tried to speak,
+but his lips were dry.
+
+"The Black Woman!" he muttered thickly. "Can it be, Turlough? Who is
+she?"
+
+"That was my thought, master," said Turlough. "Who she is none know save
+herself; but she deals with no good. This may be a trap; let us ride
+south again, and at once, lest evil come upon us."
+
+"South? Not I," laughed Brian, though his face was pale. "To horse,
+men!"
+
+And at his ringing shout the camp awoke, and Brian saw his vengeance
+drawing near.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+WHAT HAPPENED AT THE TARN.
+
+
+It had been long, indeed, since Brian had given thought to his meeting
+with the Black Woman on the other side of Ireland. In that brief
+meeting, the Black Woman had spoken of seeing the old earl, his
+grandfather, in his youth. Yet it was forty years since the two earls,
+O'Donnell and O'Neill, had fled together from Ireland, and even then
+Tyr-owen had been an old man. Unless this Black Woman was close on a
+hundred years of age, Brian could not see how she had known Hugh O'Neill
+in his youth.
+
+The mere fact that she had recognized him there in the moonlight was
+proof of her true speaking, however. Brian could no longer hide from
+himself that her words had some strange prophecy in them. She had
+foretold his meeting with Cathbarr and with the Bird Daughter, though,
+indeed, she might have been attempting only to guide him on the path
+which he had afterward followed.
+
+While the men were saddling, Brian called Turlough and told of the hag's
+word that she would meet him again "on a black day for him."
+
+"Now, what think you she meant by that, Turlough? Is this the meeting?"
+
+"No, master, for it is no meeting. It may be as you think, and that she
+was but trying to lead you into the west; yet, for my part, I call it
+sorcery," and the old man crossed himself, for, like better men than
+himself, Turlough ascribed all he could not fathom to magic. "It seems
+to me that she is some witch who is hanging on your tracks, and that
+when--"
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" laughed Brian, flinging the matter from his mind. "At
+any rate, she has served me well this time. Now, what rede shall we
+follow in this matter, and shall we capture and slay the Dark Master
+first, or fall on his men first, or both together?"
+
+"It is ill to sunder a force of men, master," quoth Turlough. "If those
+horsemen of O'Donnell's are encamped in a valley two miles to the north,
+it is a vale of which I know well. But we must mind this--if O'Donnell
+gets safe into Galway again with either these horsemen or those
+Millhaven pirates of his clan, he will drive hard against Bertragh."
+
+"The Dark Master shall come no more to Galway," said Brian grimly,
+fingering his ax. "Now finish, and quickly."
+
+"I have a plan in my mind, master; but unless we slay the Dark Master,
+it is like to fail us. Let us send a hundred of the men around to the
+north, for I will tell them how to ride, so that by this night they can
+fall upon those men of his and scatter them in the darkness, and drive
+them south where we can slay them utterly at our wills. If we drove them
+back whence they came, there would be little craft in it, and it is to
+my liking to do a thing well or not at all."
+
+"A true word there," nodded Brian, his eyes gleaming. "I think those men
+are as good as dead now, Turlough. Speak on."
+
+"With fifty men, master, you and I can reach the valley of the Dubh
+Linn. We cannot do it with horses, unless we ride around to the north,
+and in that there would be danger of striking on the Dark Master's
+scouts. But while our hundred are circling far around, we with fifty can
+go over the mountain by valleys and paths I know of, so that by this
+evening we will come to the Black Tarn and strike the Dark Master as our
+hundred men fall on his camp. That is my--"
+
+"Good!" cried Brian, leaping up eagerly. "Then we--"
+
+"Hold, master!" And Turlough caught his arm, quickly staying him. When
+Brian looked down he read a sudden fear in the old man's gray eyes.
+"That was my first rede, Yellow Brian, and you would do well to hear my
+second also."
+
+"Say it," said Brian, and glanced at the brightening sky.
+
+"My second rede is this. That message might be a trap to ensnare us,
+though I have two minds about this Black Woman. But if we fail to slay
+the Dark Master at the Black Tarn, we are like to have an ill time."
+
+"Why so?" asked Brian, for he could see no likelihood of that. "I said
+that we would slay him."
+
+"Master, do you hold the lives of men in your keeping?" In the gray eyes
+leaped a swift horror that amazed Brian. "I tell you that if the Dark
+Master escapes from our hand, and his men are driven past our fifty into
+the south, he will ride hard before us into Galway. I see evil in that
+first rede of mine, Yellow Brian. I see evil in it--"
+
+He broke off, staring past Brian with fixed and unseeing eyes, his face
+rigid.
+
+"Turlough, are you mad?" Brian seized the other's shoulder, shaking him
+harshly. The old man shivered a little, and sanity came back into his
+eyes as they met the icy blue of Brian's. "What daftness is upon you,
+man?"
+
+"I know not, master," whimpered old Turlough feebly. "Do as you will."
+
+"Then I will to follow your rede, divide my men as you say, and when we
+have slain the Dark Master, we will cut off the last of these O'Donnells
+of his, ride to Millhaven and take that hold, and send word to the Bird
+Daughter that she may keep Bertragh Castle and send Cathbarr north to
+me. Now go, and tell a hundred of the men how to ride around this
+mountain; then be ready to guide me over it to the Black Tarn."
+
+"You are a hard man, Yellow Brian," said Turlough, and turned him about
+and did as Brian had ordered.
+
+None the less, Brian gave some thought to that second rede of
+Turlough's. He saw clearly enough that with the northern horsemen driven
+past, scattered though they might be, they could be cut off to a man if
+the Dark Master were slain. But if O'Donnell should escape by some trick
+of fate, he could gather up his men and drive south.
+
+"If he does that, there will be slaying between Sligo and Galway," swore
+Brian quickly. "But I cannot see that he will escape me here. When
+another day breaks, I shall have won my Spanish blade again--and then
+ho! for the Red Hand of Tyr-owen!"
+
+So Brian laughed and donned his jack and back-piece, while Turlough drew
+plans in the snow and showed the leaders of the hundred how to sweep
+around without discovery so that they might fall on the northern
+horsemen at eve.
+
+Brian had grown into an older and grimmer man since the day he had stood
+beside the bed of Owen Ruadh O'Neill, short though the time had been.
+Youth was still in his face when he smiled out, but suffering had
+deepened his eyes and sunk his cheeks and drawn the skin tighter over
+that powerful jaw of his. When he had armed, he stood in thought for a
+little, with hand on jaw in his instinctive gesture, and wakened
+suddenly to find old Turlough bending the knee before him.
+
+"Now I know of what blood you come, Yellow Brian," said the old man
+softly. "I saw Hugh O'Neill, the great earl, standing even as you stand
+now, on the morning when we slew the English at the Yellow Ford."
+
+"Man, man!" exclaimed Brian in wonder; "that battle was fought fifty
+years ago, and yet you say that you were there?"
+
+"I was the earl's horse-boy, master." And Brian saw tears on the old
+man's beard. "I loved him, and I was at the flight of the earls ten
+years after, going with Tyr-owen to Italy, and it was these hands laid
+him in his grave, master; master, have faith in me--"
+
+Brian put down his hands to those of Turlough, his heart strangely
+softened.
+
+"He was my grandfather," he said simply, and Turlough broke down and
+wept like a child.
+
+When they left their horses and the camp behind, Brian followed
+Turlough, feeling like a new man. He had lightened his heart of a great
+load, and he wished that he had talked of these things with Turlough
+Wolf long before this. Now he understood why the old man had offered him
+service as he stood in that attitude on the battlements of O'Reilly's
+castle after leaving Owen Ruadh, and he understood the love that
+Turlough bore him, and the silence the old man had kept on the matter,
+though it must have ever been deep in his heart to speak out.
+
+No more words passed between them, nor did Brian tell Turlough more of
+his story until long after; but of this there was no need. As they
+climbed higher on the mountain they could see the hundred horsemen
+filing off to the eastward; but soon these were lost sight of as
+Turlough led Brian and the fifty through the valleys and deep openings,
+which were drifted deep in snow, making progress slow and wearisome.
+
+Indeed, Brian thought afterward that this hard traveling might have been
+responsible for what chanced on the other side of the mountain.
+
+On the higher crests and ridges there was little snow, however, and
+Turlough seemed to know every inch of the place by heart, though more
+than once Brian gave himself up for lost in the maze of smaller peaks
+and the twisted paths they followed. Most of the fifty Turlough had
+chosen from those hillmen who had joined Brian by Lough Conn, so that
+they were not unused to such climbing, and remained with spirits
+unshaken by the vast loneliness that surrounded them, and to which other
+men might have succumbed somewhat.
+
+Brian himself was no little awed by the desolate grandeur of the Stone
+Mountain, but he only wrapped his cloak more closely about him, and
+swore that the Dark Master should yield up the Spanish blade before many
+more hours.
+
+And so indeed it was done, though not as Brian looked for.
+
+Until long after noon the band wended their way with great toil and pain
+over the flanks of the mountain, until Turlough led Brian out to a point
+of black rock and motioned toward the valleys below them.
+
+"There to the left," he said, "is the valley of the Black Tarn. Do you
+see that smoke, Brian, and that dark spot between the trees and the
+lake?"
+
+Brian looked, squinting because of the snow-glare. Leading down from the
+side of the mountain itself was a valley--long, and widening gradually
+to the plain, where a dark wood swallowed it up. Almost under his feet,
+as it were, was a small, round lake deep in the rock, with a small,
+frozen-over outlet that was lost in the snow.
+
+But farther down the valley-slopes there were trees, and among them
+horses tethered and a fire strewing smoke on the air close beside.
+Between this little wood and the tarn itself there stood a low house of
+thatch with smoke also rising from it, and from the other fire among the
+trees came a sheen of steel caps and jacks, where were men.
+
+But to Brian all these things were very small and hard to make out
+distinctly, as if he were looking at some carven mimicry, such as
+children are wont to use in play.
+
+"Now come," said Turlough Wolf. "It is no easy task getting there
+without being discovered, and the way is long."
+
+Brian found, indeed, that to avoid being seen from below they must
+needs take a roundabout way; but when the afternoon was far spent they
+had come to a snow-filled hollow among the rocks which Turlough declared
+was just over the edge of that valley-slope where stood the low house.
+Turlough said that in his day that house had not stood there, and he
+knew nothing of it.
+
+Since there could be no talk of lighting a fire, Brian's men huddled
+together in the hollow, and ate and drank cheerlessly. Brian was minded
+to meet the Dark Master and win his Spanish blade with his own hand, so
+he ordered that his men pass on after dark and make ready to fall upon
+those men who were camped at the wood, but to hold off until he and
+Turlough had smitten the Dark Master in that little thatched house,
+where he was most like to be found. Turlough yeasaid this plan, for he
+trusted greatly to Brian's strength.
+
+At length they set out under the cold stars, and Brian's men were very
+weary, but promised to do all as he had commanded. He and Turlough set
+off alone over the hill, and when they had come to the hill-crest after
+much toiling through the snow they looked down and found the house a
+hundred yards below them.
+
+"Let us go down cautiously," said Turlough, "for I think we can peer
+through the thatch and plan our stroke well."
+
+So they struck down openly across the hill-slope, and found that there
+was none on guard. The door of the house was fast shut, but Turlough
+strode cautiously in the trampled snow around the house, where, at the
+side, a spark of firelight glittered through the loose thatch. To this
+he led Brian, and Brian stooped down and looked through the cranny,
+while Turlough went farther and fared as well.
+
+There was but one room in the hut, and it was well lighted by the fire
+that glittered merrily on the hearth. Sitting not far away, but with his
+back to Brian, was a man; he sat on a stool, and there seemed to be a
+wide earthenware bowl of water or some dark liquid on the floor between
+his feet into which he was staring. In his bent-down position his
+rounded shoulders stood up stark against the fire, and Brian knew this
+was the Dark Master.
+
+His hand went to the pistol in his belt, but since there was no other
+man in the hut, he thought it shame to murder O'Donnell as he sat, and
+made up his mind to go around to the door and burst in. He saw his own
+great sword slung across the Dark Master's back, but even as he stirred
+to rise, O'Donnell's voice came to him, low and vibrant, so that he bode
+where he was and listened.
+
+"I cannot make out the figures," muttered the Dark Master, still staring
+down into the bowl of dark water. "The man has the face of Yellow Brian,
+yet he is swart; the woman I sure never saw before. _Corp na diaoul!_
+What is the meaning of this? Who stands in my way?"
+
+Brian paused in no little astonishment, and stole a glance aside to see
+old Turlough crossing himself fervently. It struck his mind that he had
+chanced on some sorcery here, and, remembering the tales he had heard of
+the Dark Master's work, he laughed a little and settled down. He was
+minded to see what this thing might be; but he made his pistol ready in
+case the magic told O'Donnell of his danger.
+
+"It is some great man," came the Dark Master's voice again. "There is
+something broidered on his-- By my soul, it is the Red Hand of Tyr-owen!
+It is The O'Neill himself--the earl-- Is Yellow Brian of his blood,
+then?"
+
+At hearing this Brian crouched closer, in some fear and more wonder. Was
+the Dark Master in reality seeing such figures in that water-bowl? Then
+the man must be either mad or--or figures were there. Now O'Donnell's
+voice rose stronger:
+
+"Which of these twain stands now in my way? It is not Yellow Brian. Ah,
+the earl is slipping away, and the woman is smiling. One of his loves,
+belike, for he had many; she is fair, wondrous fair! Ah, what's this?"
+
+Brian saw the dark figure crouch lower, as if in astonishment.
+
+"Changing, changing! Is it this woman who stands in my way, then?
+Toothless and grinning, crouched low over a stick, rags and tatters and
+wisps of gray hair--"
+
+The Dark Master paused in his jerky speech, stiffened as if in wild
+amazement at that which he beheld, and a sudden cry broke from him,
+sharp and awestruck:
+
+"The Black Woman!"
+
+Then Brian straightened up, feeling Turlough's hand touch his; but for a
+space he stood silent while his mind cast out for what the Dark Master's
+words meant.
+
+In a flash it came to him. Through some black dealings O'Donnell had in
+truth pictured The O'Neill in that bowl, and with him a woman he had
+loved and who loved him; and this was no other than she whom Brian had
+known as the Black Woman, now become an old hag indeed, with only the
+memories of her fair youth and her love behind her. And this was why she
+had recognized him and why she had evidently watched over him since that
+first meeting, out of the love she had borne the earl, his grandsire, in
+days now buried under many bitter years.
+
+The two men looked into each other's eyes, and Brian saw that Turlough's
+jaw had dropped loosely, and that fright had stricken the old man almost
+out of his senses. With that Brian felt his own fear take wings. He
+laughed a little as his grip closed on the haft of his ax, and the cold
+star-glint seemed to shine back again from his eyes.
+
+"Bide here if you will," he smiled quietly. "I have my work to do."
+
+And, turning with the word, he strode quickly to the door, just as there
+came a great cry from within the place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+BRIAN GETS HIS SWORD AGAIN.
+
+
+Brian pushed the door open, and it gave easily to his fist. Gazing
+within he saw the Dark Master standing over the shattered bowl, whose
+liquid flowed down toward the hearth and hissed on the embers; plainly,
+the Dark Master had seen nothing good in that water, for he had
+shattered the bowl with his foot, and his teeth were snarling under his
+drooping mustache.
+
+"I am come," said Brian, laughing grimly as he stood in the doorway.
+
+O'Donnell whirled, gripping at his sword.
+
+Now, whether there was magic on the place, as Turlough ever swore, or
+whether the opening of the door had made a draft, as Brian thought more
+likely, a strange thing happened.
+
+Brian had raised his pistol in his left hand, meaning to kill the Dark
+Master without pity in that first moment. Out of the hearth came a great
+swirl of ashes and red embers, flying toward the door and closing around
+O'Donnell; as Brian pressed the trigger the ashes smote him in a
+blinding swirl, and a harsh laugh answered the roar of the pistol.
+
+With a curse Brian cleared his eyes of the light ash and reached with
+his ax at the dim figure of the Dark Master, nigh hid with ashes and
+powder-smoke. From down the vale came other shots and cries, and he knew
+his men had struck on that small camp lying there; but at this O'Donnell
+gave him other things to think of.
+
+That was a great fight, for Brian was little used to ax-play and had
+much ado to parry the keen thrusts of his own Spanish blade; the roof
+was too low to give room for a swing, and when the Dark Master had
+lunged him back to the door again, he knew that he had done ill. So with
+another bitter curse Brian flung the ax from his hand and ripped out the
+long, Irish dagger that hung at his girdle.
+
+For all his wrath he had taken good heed to fling the ax aright, and the
+broad flat of it took the Dark Master full in the chest and bore him
+back, reeling and shouting for his men. Before he could recover Brian
+leaped at him, caught O'Donnell's sword wrist in his left hand, and
+aimed a deadly stroke with his _skean_.
+
+The blow went true, but the steel turned aside from the Dark Master's
+mail-shirt; O'Donnell caught his wrist in turn, and there the two stood
+heaving each at the other for a long minute. Brian's eyes struck cold
+and hard into the evil features of the Dark Master; the other's breath
+came hot on his cheeks, and so beastlike was the man's face that Brian
+half expected those snarling teeth to close snapping at his throat. But
+the Dark Master was strong, for all his hunched shoulders.
+
+Then a great flame of vengeance seemed to cleave Brian's soul, and with
+a curt laugh he threw out his strength and flung the Dark Master back
+bodily so that he fell into the hearth and burst the mud chimney and the
+thatched wall behind. Before he could rise again Brian had whipped out
+his other pistol and fired; he saw the man's figure writhe aside, then
+up through the powder-smoke rose a burning brand that smote him over the
+brow heavily. At the same instant the scattered sparks caught the
+thatch, and the whole house broke into flame.
+
+Brian's eyes found the dark figure once more and he rushed forward. At
+the broken heap of mud from the chimney his feet struck on the sword,
+which had fallen from the Dark Master's hand, and he caught it up with a
+cry of joy and bore forward.
+
+That brief instant of delay lost him his quarry, however. Brian flung
+through the shattered wall, with the whole structure flaming up behind
+him; he saw a dark figure on the snow and ran at it, only to find
+himself striking at Turlough Wolf, and stayed his hand barely in time.
+
+"Where is he?" he panted hoarsely, looking around with fierce eyes.
+
+Then he caught the Dark Master's figure running across the snow toward
+that camp amid the trees, where fighting was still forward and men were
+shouting and firing. Brian rushed off, with Turlough staggering after
+him; but with a sob of despairing anger he saw the Dark Master flit into
+the trees, and heard his voice ringing at his men.
+
+It turned out afterward that Brian's fifty men, weary and chilled, had
+made a somewhat heartless assault on the score of horsemen camped in the
+trees; therefore, instead of carrying O'Donnell's men off their feet and
+cutting them down straightway, they were held off for a little.
+
+The Dark Master knew that he was lost if he stayed long in that place,
+however, and when Brian reached the clump of trees he found that he was
+too late. With two or three men behind him, O'Donnell had cut through
+Brian's men and was galloping away. Brian groaned savagely, leaped at a
+mounted man and dragged him from the saddle, and was just springing up
+when Turlough caught and stayed him.
+
+"Wait, master!" panted the old man in desperate fear of the surging men
+around him, but in more desperate fear for Brian. "This is madness, for
+I ordered our fifty horses fetched around--"
+
+"Bide here for them, then!" said Brian, and swung up into the saddle.
+One of the Dark Master's men barred his way, and Brian's blade went
+through his throat; then he was off after the four figures who by now
+were far distant toward the dark forest that swallowed up the valley
+ahead.
+
+The cold night air cleared his brain, however, and after a moment he
+drew rein with bitterness upon him. Turlough had spoken rightly, for to
+ride after those four men with his naked sword alone was in truth
+madness. So he came back again to where the last of the hemmed-in
+horsemen was being cut out of his saddle, and when his men gathered
+about him with a shout, his tongue gave them little joy.
+
+"You are fools," he said harshly, "for the Dark Master has escaped us.
+Take these horses, fifteen of you, and ride. Let five men go to bring in
+our horses with all speed, and let ten more scatter out in search of our
+hundred men. These are not more than two miles distant, and in an hour I
+must ride from here. See to it that you return with the men and horses
+by then, or shift for yourselves."
+
+"That is too much," spoke out a burly fellow angrily. "We have been
+climbing all day, and have----"
+
+Brian said no word, but leaned down from his saddle and his Spanish
+blade flickered in the light. The man fell and lay quiet, while the
+others drew back in black fear.
+
+"I am master here," said Brian coldly, when a long instant had passed.
+"Go."
+
+There was no more muttering among his recruits, either then or later. He
+dismounted, saw that the O'Donnells had been slain to the last man, and
+joined Turlough at the campfire. Food and drink had been found in the
+camp, and a flagon of wine heartened Brian greatly.
+
+"Now give me your rede, Turlough Wolf," he said. "I have failed in this
+matter, and it seems that ill shall come of it."
+
+"So I foretold, master, but we may still remedy the ill if we catch
+O'Donnell. I think that by now his horsemen are scattered, and this
+burning hut will draw our own men thither. Before midnight they will be
+here, and we can ride forth. I think that the Dark Master will gather
+what men are left him and strike down for Galway."
+
+"Two men may ride the same road," quoth Brian grimly, and set his naked
+blade in his belt. He saw that before him lay some fighting and much
+hard riding, so inside the next hour he had his men full-fed. Before
+this was finished the spare horses and those of his men came in, for
+Turlough had ordered them to start at noon and ride around in case of
+need.
+
+Brian determined to spare neither men nor horseflesh on that riding, and
+when his men were mounted he set out across the night to meet his
+hundred, and to hear what had been done at the camp two miles distant.
+As the moon was rising he met them; and if he was glad at the meeting,
+they were twice glad.
+
+They had found the camp and had lain off it until after dark as
+Turlough had bidden them, the more so since there were two-score over a
+hundred men there. But at length they had ridden down as if they were
+fresh come from the north, and had twice ridden through the camp before
+the O'Donnells were well awake, though it had been sharp work. The
+result had been that a score of Brian's men had fallen, they had slain a
+full half of the O'Donnells, and the rest had been driven and scattered
+southward. Brian's men had plundered their camp and were weary, so that
+when they heard of what had chanced at the Black Tarn they were somewhat
+less than half willing to ride farther.
+
+But Brian speedily persuaded them to that course, and Turlough led them
+all to the south on the way to Sligo.
+
+Bitterness and heaviness of heart dwelt deep in Brian that night, and
+for some time to come. With the escape of the Dark Master, whether it
+had been by magic or craft, all his visions had burst; he must ride away
+from the pirate hold at Millhaven, he saw that he would lose many men on
+his way south, and yet there lay no choice before him. He had scotched
+the snake, and now he must kill it. If the Dark Master reached Galway
+town in safety, those O'Donnells from Millhaven would be around by sea
+to meet him, and the royalists would lend him men and guns to go against
+Bertragh in their cause.
+
+"Is there any likelihood that the Dark Master will miss those scattered
+men of his?" he asked Turlough, who rode on his right hand.
+
+"Little, master. There is but the one road south to Sligo at this
+season, and it is great wonder indeed that the scattered men did not
+fall on us at the Black Tarn in seeking their master. But with only
+seventy-five men or so I do not think they will bide our coming."
+
+"Nor do I," and Brian laughed grimly as he thought of that fight with
+his enemy.
+
+Certain men had been wounded in those frays, and he left them to follow
+after him, so that he turned south with a hundred and a score men at his
+back. He did not think that the Dark Master would face him, but since
+those men were all O'Donnells who would obey him utterly, he looked to
+have some fighting; in which he was not far wrong.
+
+An hour after the day was broken they thundered up to the bridge that
+spanned the Garravogue, and ten wild and silent men were holding that
+bridge behind an overturned cart for barricade. Brian would waste no men
+on a storm, but slew six of the men with musketry and rode over the
+other four; even so, those four brought down three of his men before
+they were done with.
+
+Brian baited the horses in Sligo, remaining there a scant half-hour.
+From the townfolk he learned that the Dark Master was but two hours
+ahead of him, and Brian had great hopes of running him to earth that
+same day. So he set forth again and they rode hard to Ballsadare, at the
+south branch of Sligo Bay, and on to Coolany at the edge of the Storm
+Mountains.
+
+At this latter place they found different work, however, for here was a
+small garrison of Cavan pikemen who stopped them, lined with their pikes
+three deep across the road before the church. Brian was no long time in
+learning that the Dark Master had spread word of him as a plunderer and
+Parliament man.
+
+"I have no time to waste on you," he said shortly to the leader of the
+pikemen. "Here is a safe-conduct, and I am Stephen Burke."
+
+"None the less, you must stay until I have looked into this," said the
+other, pulling out his pistol with some determination.
+
+"Stay I will not, but I think you shall," replied Brian, and thrust as
+the man fired. The bullet glanced from his jack, but the officer fell
+back among his pikes, and Brian spurred after him in great anger. His
+Scots troopers were in the van, or what was left of them, and they came
+down galloping, and rode over the pikemen leaving a sea of smitten men
+in the roadway behind.
+
+Also, ten of Brian's men were left.
+
+By the evening they were back at Tobercurry again, where Turlough had
+hung those two men after torturing them. The Dark Master was something
+over an hour ahead of them, and he had stayed to fire the church and the
+town. Brian's heart was sore for the townfolk, but he could pause no
+longer than to bait horses and men, since he looked for hard riding that
+night; however, he gave what money and plunder he had to the townfolk
+and got a blessing in return, and so rode forth again as the stars
+peeped out.
+
+"There are Maguires in Swineford, master," said old Turlough with a
+cunning, sidelong look.
+
+"I met them coming north," laughed Brian softly. "They will prove good
+men to avoid, so I think that we shall ride around that burg."
+
+Brian thought that he could get through the Maguires, but he intended to
+take no chances. However, they had gained to within five miles of
+Swineford and had halted to blow the horses, when one of the scouts came
+riding back to say that a score of farmers with three carts were
+approaching from the town.
+
+Presently they came on them--a black mass swinging down the road, which
+was very boggy on either hand. Neither Brian nor Turlough smelt any ill
+in this until they were within a hundred paces of the party, when
+suddenly the carts were swung across the road and a score of muskets
+spat death into Brian's men.
+
+"Back!" shouted Brian, when his men would have charged. "We have no time
+and lives to waste on this party--what shall we do, Turlough? The fields
+are all bog."
+
+"We cannot well ride around," said Turlough, when they had ridden back a
+little, leaving dead men on the road. "But a little way back is a path
+that leads out and around Swineford. Put ten men here to keep these
+O'Donnells from following us, and we will make a short cut to the Moy
+near Kiltanmugh. It was a clever trick, this!"
+
+It was indeed, and it had cost Brian a round score of men, so that he
+followed Turlough out into the open land with less than a hundred men
+behind him. His fury abated before dawn, when they had splashed across
+the Moy and came upon the road once more, but he saw that the O'Donnells
+were willing enough to die if the Dark Master might escape, and he
+became more cautious.
+
+When the night fell again they were far south of Claremorris, but a
+score of horses had foundered and he was forced to leave more men
+behind. Until evening Turlough led him at a distance from the main
+roads, then they struck into good riding again and save for one detour
+to avoid Tuam would have a clear road between themselves and Galway,
+which Brian meant to reach before dawn unless his own horse foundered
+with the rest.
+
+Of the Dark Master they heard nothing until they were fording the Clare
+north of Tuam, when two men gave them word that a scant half-hour before
+some two-score horsemen had fled past them toward Tuam.
+
+"Good!" cried Brian. "Now, Turlough, lead us around Tuam, and I think we
+shall finish this thing long before the day comes."
+
+Said Turlough sourly, "Every horse down is a man gone, master," but to
+that Brian only laughed and set in his spurs.
+
+So now they let gallop through the darkness, trusting more to Turlough's
+wits than to their horses' feet; for Brian knew that if his own beasts
+were spent, those of the Dark Master were no better unless he were to
+get mounts at Tuam. That would be hard, however, for there were no
+horses to be had save far in the mountains where the war had not swept
+all things away.
+
+No sooner had they reached the road again beyond Tuam than it seemed to
+Brian that he heard the faint drum of hoofs ahead of him, and at that he
+gave a shout and drove on with such of his men storming behind as might
+come. Many of them had gone down, indeed, but now all wakened from their
+nodding sleep and kept close, though here and there one dropped out.
+Turlough, whose steed had been the best of all save Brian's, kept at his
+master's flank.
+
+They were hard on Claregalway when Brian saw his quarry first--a deep
+mass of men far ahead on an open stretch of road. Then he knew that the
+race was nearly won, and for all that his beast was sobbing under his
+thighs, he raced ahead, and laughed out loud when a little band cut off
+from the main body of the Dark Master's men. There were fifteen or less
+who waited his coming with pistols ready, but Brian rode hardily at
+them, their balls whistled overhead or past, and he was on them.
+
+The shock of the meeting came near to unseating him, and sent one of the
+foe sprawling, horse and man; Brian cut another to the chin and thrust
+the life from a third, and before the first sword had slithered on his
+steel-cap his men had swept aside the devoted fifteen, and he was riding
+on. O'Donnell had straightened his party for nothing.
+
+Now the Dark Master was riding for his life, and knew it. Some few of
+his men fell out with spent beasts, and these Brian's party rode over,
+taking and giving but one blow, or none at all. When Claregalway drew up
+ahead, cold and gray under the stars, Brian was but two hundred yards
+behind with forty men still behind him, while O'Donnell had not half so
+many.
+
+As he thundered down to the river Brian had drawn as much ahead of
+Turlough and the others as he was behind the Dark Master. He shouted
+back to those of his men whose matches were lit to loose off their
+muskets, but before the first pan had flashed out he saw the O'Donnells
+draw rein and wheel at the bridge-head, while two of their number drove
+clattering on into the town.
+
+Now, had Brian chosen to wait for his men things would have fallen out
+differently; but this he would not do, for he thought to break through
+these as he had done with the others. So he went at them with naked
+sword, his heart raging within him and his face set and cold like stone.
+He was still fifty paces from the bridge-head when their pistols
+spattered out; the men behind dared not fire for fear of hitting him, so
+that Brian had all the fight for himself.
+
+He came near to having none, for at that first discharge a pistol-ball
+split his jack and lodged in his buff-coat over his heart, while another
+came between his arm and his side, drawing blood a little from both;
+while a third and worse went into his horse between the fore shoulders.
+Brian felt the poor beast falter shudderingly, and pause; then the
+O'Donnells shouted greatly and closed about him, thinking to slay him
+before his men could come up.
+
+Brian saw a long _skean_ plunge into his horse's neck, and in terrible
+anger he smote with the edge, so that a hand and arm hung down from the
+dagger, a ghastly thing to see. But the poor steed was dead with that
+blow, and Brian had but time to fling himself headlong ere the horse
+rolled over.
+
+The leap saved his life, for the O'Donnells were striking fast at him.
+Brian rose up between two of them, dragged one down with his left hand
+and thrust the other under the arm, and tried to leap up into the
+saddle. But as he did so his own men struck, so that the horses were
+swept together and pinned Brian's legs between them, and he hung
+helpless.
+
+In that instant he saw an ax swinging above him and flung back his head,
+but not enough, for the ax fell, and Brian went down under the horses.
+
+Save for three of his men who saw the thing and stood over him, Brian
+would have been trampled to death on the spot. These O'Donnells were no
+loose fighting-men, and they smote shrewdly against the press of
+Brian's greater numbers, while their wild cry rose high over the shrill
+of steel. When Brian's men knew that he was down, however, they struck
+such blows as they knew not they had in them, and quarter was not asked
+or offered in that battle by the bridge.
+
+The fight was not ended until the last O'Donnell went down in a swirl
+and clash of steel. Then Turlough, who had kept well out of it according
+to his wont, pushed through and fell upon Brian's body. When Brian
+opened his eyes his head was still ringing, while his men were bathing
+him with water. After an instant he sat up and gazed around.
+
+"The Dark Master--did you catch him?"
+
+"Nay, our thought was all for you, master," answered Turlough.
+
+Brian groaned in great bitterness, but said no word. He knew that his
+chance was gone from him for that time, and as he looked around his
+heart sank within him. Half of his men had slipped down and lay sleeping
+among the dead, and the rest could scarce stay in their saddles for
+weariness and lack of sleep. But Turlough sprang up and gazed at the
+graying sky with fear in his face.
+
+"Up, master!" he cried fiercely. "We must still ride hard, for the Dark
+Master will send out a troop of horse from Galway to catch us, and we
+must get past that town before the sun is high!"
+
+So the sleeping were roused in haste, the wounded were put in saddle,
+and with their beasts staggering under them, those that were left of
+Brian's men closed around him and rode over the bridge through
+Claregalway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+BRIAN GOES A CRUISING.
+
+
+Above the head of Bertraghboy Bay there was a swooping curve in the hill
+road. It was at this same curve that Brian Buidh had first met the Dark
+Master, and it was here he had set that trap which had won him tribute
+for the Bird Daughter. When first he had ridden that road Brian had had
+a score of lusty men at his back; on the second occasion he had headed a
+hundred and four-score; but when he drew rein there a week after that
+fight at Claregalway bridge there was with him only old Turlough Wolf,
+and their horses were sorry skeletons like themselves.
+
+"We are somewhat worse than when we twain started out together," laughed
+Brian bitterly. "Then we had full bellies at the least, but now we have
+naught."
+
+"There are men coming, master," said Turlough, hanging weakly to his
+saddle. "I think they are our castle watchers."
+
+Very gaunt was Brian that day, and nigh spent with his wounds and hunger
+and weariness. During the week that had passed since the Dark Master
+slipped away from him, nothing but evil had come upon him.
+
+First they had tried to slip past to the north of the city, and had
+reached the Lough Corrib River, and could even faintly hear the bells of
+St. Nicholas below, when a half-troop of horse fell upon them. Then in
+desperation Brian's men smote for the last time, and put the royalists
+to flight; but there Brian lost the most of his men. However, he got
+fresh horses, and so fled eastward again when more men were seen
+approaching.
+
+What chanced in the six days following is not fully set forth, for Brian
+got little glory from it. One by one he lost his men, and at length was
+forced north again to the shores of Lough Corrib, with men riding hot
+and fast to catch him. With Turlough Wolf alone left to him, he had made
+shift to cross the lake in a leaky fisherman's boat, the horses swimming
+behind, and so came into the O'Flahertys' country.
+
+There word had also gone forth against him, but because of the pact
+between them, Murrough of the Kine sped him in peace through Iar
+Connaught, and at length Brian had won home again with joyless heart.
+
+As Turlough said, men were coming, and they were Brian's own men who
+watched the roads. From them he got food and wine and two fresh horses,
+and with the afternoon they rode down to Bertragh in worse shape than
+they had ridden from it. Brian was the less heartened when he saw two of
+Nuala O'Malley's ships in the bay, and knew that she must be at the
+castle.
+
+Indeed, before they reached the gates the Bird Daughter rode out to meet
+them, with Cathbarr striding before her. When the woman saw Brian's face
+her violet eyes filled with tears, and when he dismounted and kissed her
+hand and would have spoken, she stayed him.
+
+"Nay, we know enough of the story for now, Brian. First rest and eat,
+then talk."
+
+Brian guessed straightway that pigeons had come from her men in Galway
+telling of those ridings about the city, and that she had come over to
+Bertragh in anxiety; and this was the truth indeed.
+
+Turlough Wolf hied him away and slept, but Brian sat about a table in
+the hall with Cathbarr and Nuala. He was very worn and weary, but when
+he had eaten and drunk he refused to sleep yet a while, and told how
+that storm had fared north and what had come of it.
+
+"So I have lost a hundred and fifty hard-won men," he concluded
+gloomily. "I would not grudge them if the Dark Master had fallen, but he
+is in Galway, and the Millhaven pirates will be down to meet him, and
+that means war on Bertragh."
+
+"I will be glad of that," said Cathbarr simply. "I am sound again and
+have been sharpening up this ax of mine."
+
+Nuala smiled and put her hand across the table to lay it on Brian's.
+
+"Success would be of little worth, Yellow Brian," she said softly, and
+her eyes steadied him, "if it were won without reverses. Few men have
+the luck to win always, and a touch of defeat is not an ill thing,
+perhaps. When we had this news of you from Galway, a week since, I sent
+off a galley to find Blake at the Cove of Cork and seek aid of him. Also
+my kinsmen will return to Gorumna before going home to Erris, and we are
+not in hard case here. So now get rested, Brian Buidh, and afterward we
+will see what may be done. Those Millhaven men have not yet passed
+Erris, or I would have word of it by pigeon, so they have doubtless
+delayed to plunder in Sligo or Killala."
+
+Brian looked into her eyes, and from that moment he began to put behind
+him all thoughts of capturing that Millhaven castle for himself or of
+placing himself out of touch with Nuala O'Malley. He went to his chamber
+as she bade, and slept that night and the next day and the night after,
+waking on the second morning still empty of sleep and seeming more weary
+than when he had laid down.
+
+This was but seeming, however, and when he had bathed and eaten he felt
+more like himself than for many a day.
+
+Cathbarr had departed at dawn with a wagon-load of powder to trade for
+kine with his O'Flaherty kinsmen in the hills, and before Brian had
+broken his fast one of the galleys from Gorumna came over with three
+pigeons for Nuala. The cage was brought to her as she sat at meat with
+Brian in the hall, and she opened the tiny messages with all the
+delighted anticipation of a girl.
+
+"This is from that galley I sent to Cork," she exclaimed, laying down
+the first. "It merely reports safe arrival and the delivery of my letter
+to Blake, who is leaving there before long. Now for the--ah!"
+
+"Good news or bad?" smiled Brian easily, as animation flashed into her
+face. She looked up at him with a rippling laugh.
+
+"Both, Brian! This is from Erris, and says that the O'Donnell seamen
+have made a landing at Ballycastle under Downpatrick Head, and will
+likely put to sea again in a day or two. They will give Erris a wide
+berth, never fear, and that means that they will make no pause until
+they come to Galway."
+
+The third message was from Galway itself, and said that the Dark Master
+was biding the coming of those Millhaven men, and had been promised both
+horsemen and shot if they came, so that Bertragh might be taken and held
+for Ireland against the Parliament.
+
+"It is not taken yet," laughed Nuala as old Turlough came shuffling up,
+and they gave him the sele of the day merrily enough. "You had best keep
+these birds, Brian, so that if there is any need you may send me
+messages to Gorumna. Now, shall we bide here until the Dark Master comes
+against us?"
+
+"I thought you were going to take me cruising with you?" smiled Brian,
+but at that Turlough struck in and asked what the messages were. When he
+had heard them he stood pulling at his gray beard for a little, then
+turned to Brian.
+
+"How is your body, master?"
+
+"Well enough," said Brian, feeling his head. "Save for this beard, which
+now I may not cut for a time."
+
+He intended to abide by that oath of his, and so his beard was growing
+out and his hair as well, of which latter he was glad.
+
+Since he had ever kept his face clean shaven, however, the beard was not
+to his liking. He was quite unaware that it built out his face greatly
+and made him grimmer-looking than before, and yet so young were his blue
+eyes except when he was in anger that it was not hard for Nuala to
+believe that he was only two years older than herself.
+
+None the less, she made great sport of his beard, saying that it curled
+at the end like a drake's tail, as indeed it did; and as Brian only
+repaid her laughter with the open wonder and admiration that he held for
+her, there was great good-comradeship between them.
+
+"There is still one chance for stopping the Dark Master," said Turlough
+thoughtfully. "If we cut off those pirate ships on their way south he is
+not like to get much help from Galway."
+
+"Oh--and I never thought of it!" cried Nuala, staring at him.
+
+Turlough chuckled. "That was spoken like a woman, mistress! If the rede
+seems good we could lay aboard men from here for fighting, and sail out
+with those two ships of yours."
+
+Now Brian's heart filled with new hope, and after no long discussion
+they decided to adopt the plan. Nuala was of the opinion that a short
+cruise would do Brian great good, so they decided to set off that
+evening in her two ships, leaving Turlough to keep the castle against
+Cathbarr's return.
+
+Had they taken Turlough Wolf with them or had Brian been less
+close-mouthed on his return from that cruise, the evil that befell might
+have been averted. The old man was cunning and swift at piercing beneath
+the craft of other men and turning it back upon themselves; but as
+Brian's mind lost its bitterness at his own failure it gained joy at
+being with the Bird Daughter, while Nuala had no less friendship and
+liking for him, so that neither of them gave much thought to O'Donnell
+Dubh who lay in Galway and bided his time after his own fashion.
+
+Once having reached their decision, they hastened it somewhat and sent
+men and muskets aboard the two ships at noon. Nuala wished to sail first
+to Gorumna Castle and make all safe there, then reach back for Slyne
+Head. She proposed that Brian take one carack and she the other, but at
+this Brian laughed.
+
+"No, lady--I am no seaman, and I am your guest on this cruise, so I go
+with you."
+
+"Well, you shall have good guesting," she answered, flushing a little,
+but her eyes not flinching from his, and so they went aboard her ship
+together.
+
+Having two hundred men still, Brian had put fifty on each ship in case
+they met with those pirates, who were like to give good battle. Also
+Turlough had hopes that many of Brian's men would win home from that
+riding of his yet, since a large part of them had dropped out by the way
+or had been left behind with wounds. And in the end, indeed, fifty or
+less did find their way back.
+
+Before night they made Gorumna Castle, and Brian found why they had come
+here first. With her Kerry recruits, Nuala had a hundred and eighty men,
+so she had set to work to build a tower and small keep on the opposite
+island, that Gorumna itself might be more easily defended. Also she had
+taken some falconets and two bastards out of a large French ship, and
+had set about building a battery outside the castle that would overlook
+the harbor.
+
+"That will be better than good when it is done," said Brian approvingly.
+"But you had best get it done speedily. When we come back from this
+cruise you shall take this hundred men of mine, for I will not need them
+until the Dark Master comes, and of that we shall have good warning."
+
+This she was glad of, and she was glad because Brian had found her work
+well planned; nor did either of them suspect what grief that loan of a
+hundred men was to bring upon Brian.
+
+They paused only to sup at Gorumna, then set forth again, and by dawn
+were off Slyne Head with a light breeze behind them. Nuala would take no
+chance of missing those Millhaven men, so instead of going north among
+the islands she turned her ships and beat off Slyne all that day, seeing
+no sail save fishing-craft.
+
+Those were pleasant hours for Brian, for the sea was fair and he had
+naught to do but sit with the Bird Daughter. He found himself drawn ever
+closer to her, admiring her wit and fairness as he did, and he fancied
+that she was by no means unwilling to talk with him and open her mind
+as she did to few men. Yet he remembered that he was no more than her
+vassal, a landless man in truth.
+
+That night the two caracks separated, standing well off the land and
+keeping good watch, but no sign did they catch of the O'Donnell pirates.
+Toward morning a stiff wind came upon them from the west, and Brian's
+men, being all landsmen, got no great joy out of that cruise.
+
+"This wind is like to hold," said Nuala, laughing as she stood on the
+poop with Brian that morning and watched the decks. "I am afraid that we
+might as well give over this attempt, Brian. Your men will be in no
+shape to fight. What think you?"
+
+"Right," nodded Brian slowly, for he saw that those men of his were
+worse than useless with their sickness.
+
+So they turned about and drove before the wind, but before ever they had
+got past Slyne Head the men aloft descried a sail to the south that
+seemed like a large galley. Nuala signaled the other carack to bear down
+with her, and presently they made out that it was a large sailing
+galley, which headed straight for them.
+
+"That is none of my ships," exclaimed Nuala, watching. "It seems strange
+that she does not flee before us, Brian. She bears no ensign, yet she
+must be from these parts, and would naturally have some fear of
+pirates."
+
+Brian looked at her rather than the ship, and thought her a fine
+picture, with her body swinging a little to the sway of the deck and the
+wind blowing her red cloak around her. The galley came straight for them
+as if seeking speech, however, and when a falconet was fired from the
+carack without charge, she lowered her sail and put out her sweeps,
+coming straight for them.
+
+Nuala sped a word to her sailing-master, and the men let down the sails
+with shouting and great creaking of ropes. The Bird Daughter stood under
+the high poop bulwark, and now she turned to Brian.
+
+"Do you speak with them and find their business, for it seems to me that
+all is not as it should be, and they would likely know me too well."
+
+Brian nodded, and when the galley had come under their lee he saw that
+she was well laden, and had for crew a dozen rough-looking men. One of
+these replied to his hail.
+
+"We are come from Galway, lord, with a gift of stores and wines from
+O'Donnell Dubh to certain friends of his whom we came to meet. Are you
+those friends, as we think?"
+
+Brian started in surprise, but needed no word from Nuala. He saw that
+the Dark Master must have sent this galley out to meet the Millhaven
+men, and that the crew had taken the two caracks for those pirate ships.
+
+"We are the O'Donnells from Millhaven," he shouted, and ordered the
+seaman to cast down ropes to the galley. Her master, a stout man with
+bushy black beard, waved a hand in reply, and after another moment the
+two craft ground together. The master of the galley got aboard over the
+low waist of the carack, and Brian ordered a dozen of his own
+green-faced men down into the smaller ship. At this the galley's master
+stared somewhat, but came up to the poop.
+
+"Lord, O'Donnell sends you these stores with a message. I am Con Teague
+of Galway."
+
+"Let us have it," ordered Brian, liking the looks of the man not at all.
+
+"He bade us say that he was leaving Galway to-morrow at dawn with a
+force of men, and that you should meet him at Bertragh Castle and fall
+on that place to take it."
+
+"That is good," laughed Brian. "Now learn that you have found the wrong
+ships, my man. We are not the Millhaven pirates, but I am Brian Buidh,
+who holds Bertragh; and here is the Lady Nuala, for whom I hold it."
+
+At that Nuala came forward, and Teague looked greatly astonished, as
+well he might, and all the Bird Daughter's men fell roaring with
+laughter. But he could make no resistance, and stood chapfallen while
+Brian talked with Nuala.
+
+"I must back to the Castle," he said, "and see if this news be true. Do
+you go on to Gorumna with my men, and I will let loose a pigeon to you.
+If the Dark Master is indeed on the way, then come with all the men you
+can spare, and it will go hard if we do not best his royalists, and the
+pirates later when the latter come."
+
+This was clearly the best plan, so Brian sent Teague down into the
+galley and followed him, as the light ship was faster than the caracks.
+Replacing half of Teague's men with O'Malleys, he had the ropes cast
+off, waved his hand at Nuala, and they drove to the eastward and
+Bertragh Castle.
+
+Teague made so much moan over losing his ship that Brian promised it
+back to him when they had reached the castle; the stores and wine,
+however, he accounted good spoils of war. This put the seaman in better
+mood, and by noon the fast galley had covered the twenty miles to
+Bertragh, and cast down her anchor in the little bay beyond the castle,
+that same bay where Brian had come to grief through O'Donnell's sorcery.
+
+The men crowded down to meet him joyfully, and Brian found that Cathbarr
+had come home safe with his beeves and was hungry for fight. No sign had
+been heard of the Dark Master along the roads, however, so Brian set
+Turlough in charge of getting the stores and wine-casks off the galley,
+and fell to work putting the castle in shape for defense.
+
+Since there was no need of loosing a pigeon until word came that the
+Dark Master was actually on the way, he sent out men to have a beacon
+built on the hills at the bay's head as soon as the enemy was sighted.
+What with seeing that the bastards and other shot were cleaned and
+loaded, and stationing his hundred men to the best advantage, he found
+that the afternoon soon wore away.
+
+"Those are good wines," said Turlough when they sat at meat that
+evening, the men eating below in the courtyard around fires. "But I do
+not like that ship-master."
+
+So far Brian had said nothing of how the galley had been taken, save
+that they had chanced on it at sea and had heard from Teague that the
+Dark Master might be on them in another day. As for the O'Malleys, they
+kept to themselves and talked not at all, so that neither Turlough nor
+Cathbarr had heard the way of that capture.
+
+"Is she unladen?" asked Brian.
+
+"All save a few barrels. That ship-master was so eager to be off,"
+grunted old Turlough spitefully, "that I stayed the work and put a guard
+on the galley until morning."
+
+"Give the men a cask of the best wine," ordered Brian shortly.
+
+Having taken upon himself the duties of seneschal, Turlough departed
+grumbling. While he was gone, Brian's tongue was a little loosened with
+wine, so that he told Cathbarr of how he had taken the galley, at which
+the giant bellowed with laughter. Presently from the courtyard came
+shouting and singing, and Turlough appeared with a beaker of wine.
+
+"The men like it well enough," he said, "yet to me it seems soured.
+Taste it, Brian; if it be so, then you have made a poor haul on that
+cruise."
+
+Brian sipped the wine, and in truth it seemed to have soured. Cathbarr
+made little of that, and would have drunken it except that his clumsy
+hand knocked it from the table and emptied it all. But as it happened,
+that mischance saved his life.
+
+A little after, Brian pulled out a Spanish pipe he had got that day from
+one of the O'Malleys, with some tobacco, and began puffing in great
+good-humor, for it was long since he had tasted tobacco. Cathbarr
+watched in awe, never having seen this done before, so that Brian and
+Turlough had great fun with him. All his life the giant had lived in the
+mountains and he knew no more than his ax had taught him; though he had
+seen men smoke before, he had ever accounted it sorcery of some kind,
+nor could Brian get him to as much as touch the pipe with his finger.
+
+Brian was sorry that the wine had proved sour; the butts were huge ones,
+and he had counted on their lasting him and his men all the winter
+through. However, he dismissed the matter from his mind and fell to
+talking with Turlough and Cathbarr over their arrangements in case of an
+attack. In the midst, one of the men who had been watching from the
+tower ran in to say that he had caught sight of a beacon on the hills,
+which meant that the arch-enemy was on the road.
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Brian, springing up. "Turlough, go fetch me that cage
+of pigeons. Cathbarr, see that the men are set on the walls--"
+
+He had got no further than this when there came a strange noise from the
+doorway. Turning, he saw a man staggering forward, choking as he came,
+and recognized him as one of the Bird Daughter's seamen. The fellow held
+a bloody sword in his hand.
+
+"What's this?" cried Brian angrily, noting that there was silence upon
+the court-yard. "Has there been wrangling again--"
+
+"Death!" coughed the O'Malley, staring at him with starting, terrible
+eyes. "Con Teague--I slew him--too--too late--"
+
+"Man, what is forward?" Brian leaped out and caught the seaman in his
+arms, for the fellow's head was rolling on his shoulders.
+
+"Death!" whispered the man again. "They are--all dead--"
+
+His head fell back in death, and the sword fell from his hand with a
+clatter. But from Cathbarr, who had gone to the doorway, came one
+terrible shout of grief and rage.
+
+"Brian! Our men lie dead--"
+
+"I think the Dark Master has sent us a kindly gift," quoth Turlough
+Wolf, as Brian rose with horror in his face and let the seaman's body
+fall. "Now I know why that wine was sour, master!"
+
+
+TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly,
+and that you will get the conclusion of this story without waiting a
+month.
+
+
+
+
+Nuala O'Malley
+
+by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
+etc.
+
+
+This story began in the All-Story Weekly for December 30.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+BRIAN YIELDS BERTRAGH.
+
+
+"I dare not trust birds alone in this strait, Cathbarr. Go to that
+galley with the two O'Malleys and hasten to Gorumna. Bid the Bird
+Daughter stay and wait further word from me; but take those hundred men
+of mine with her galleys, and hasten back. If the beacon on the tower is
+burning, I will be here; if not, and if I can make terms, I will meet
+you at that tower of yours. Now hasten!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"For God's love go, or my heart will burst!"
+
+Brian sank down on the horse-stone with a groan, and Cathbarr, catching
+up his ax, fled through the open gates and was gone into the night.
+Brian gazed up after him, and on the hills he saw that dim beacon-fire
+heralding the Dark Master.
+
+The six men guarding the galley, two of them being O'Malleys, and three
+men who had watched on the tower, were all that remained alive in
+Bertragh besides Turlough and Brian. The men had drunk deep of that
+poisoned wine; when Con Teague and his men tried to get away after a few
+had died, they were slain. But so swift was the poison that only one of
+the O'Malleys had lived to reach Brian.
+
+The fires still burned brightly, and before some of them meat was
+burning. Sitting in blank despair on a horse-block, Brian saw the dead
+bodies of a few less than a hundred men lying there. Turlough Wolf and
+his six gave over trying to put life into any of them, and now the old
+man came and put his hand on Brian's shoulder.
+
+"Where has Cathbarr of the Ax gone, master?"
+
+Brian told him dully, and Turlough nodded approval, having at length
+learned all the story of how that galley had been taken.
+
+"Master, there was deep cunning in this. O'Donnell sent that galley to
+you, or, rather, to the Bird Daughter, and he had spies watching. Had
+the Gorumna men drunk of that brew, he would have fallen on there; but
+here came the galley, and now he comes over the hills. And we are few to
+meet him."
+
+"We will be more when the men come in from the hill-roads before him,"
+and Brian rose up with heavy heart, forcing himself to the task. "Send
+out a man to haste them in and to warn what men there be at the farms.
+Also let him send a wagon or two, that these dead may be carried out
+before the Dark Master falls on us. Send two men to the tower to build a
+beacon, for Cathbarr will not be back before to-morrow night."
+
+Brian went to the stables where the three carrier-pigeons were caged,
+and fetched the cage to the great hall. Here he wrote what had happened,
+with his plan, in small space, fastened it under the wing of a bird, and
+let loose the pigeon from the courtyard.
+
+Stunned though he was by the sudden and terrible blow, Brian had seized
+on the only course left him. If he could make shift to hold the castle
+at all, he would do so; if not, he must make terms and get off to
+Gorumna that he might take vengeance for this dastardly stroke that had
+been dealt him.
+
+Nuala had nigh three hundred men in her castle, and he felt that all was
+not yet lost, even should he have to yield Bertragh. The Dark Master
+would hardly have a large force with him, and he would know nothing of
+those hundred men Brian had loaned Nuala; so Brian reckoned that if he
+could get away, O'Donnell would think him a broken man who could do no
+further against him.
+
+"Well, that's looking too far ahead," thought Brian very wearily.
+"Perchance I am broken, indeed, since I have lost two hundred and a half
+of men without gain."
+
+An hour later rode in a score of men with wagons, and fell to work
+getting the dead out of the castle, though for burying there was no
+time. This score, and two more who came in later, were all the men left
+to Brian; they reported that the Dark Master would be on them by
+daybreak, with two hundred Scots troopers and one horse cannon.
+
+"His friends proved niggardly, then," laughed Brian drearily. "We have
+but to hold the place till to-morrow night, friends, and the O'Malleys
+will relieve us. Now, one man to watch and the rest of us to rest, for
+there is work ahead."
+
+Brian, indeed, got some sleep that night, but it was shot through with
+visions of those poisoned men of his, and their twisted faces gibbered
+at him, and he thought they shrieked and howled for revenge. When he was
+roused at dawn, he found the meaning of those noises, since a great
+storm was sweeping down out of the west, and the farther wore the day,
+the worse grew the storm.
+
+"Is Heaven itself fighting against us?" he thought bitterly, watching
+the sea from the battlements. "Against this blast Nuala cannot reach me,
+if she will."
+
+He got little time to brood, however. Before he had broken his fast the
+Dark Master's horsemen came in sight--two hundred braw Scots, with
+wagons and a cannon following after. It was no large force, but Brian
+found afterward that it was the best the Dark Master could get, since
+the Galway Irish cared nothing whether the Scots lived or died.
+
+They halted and spread out, half a mile from the castle, and Brian saw
+that the men were being quartered on the farms round about. Bitterly he
+wished that he had his lost men, for with them he could have sent those
+Scots flying home again; but now he was helpless.
+
+With the gates shut and the bastards loaded with bullets to sweep the
+approach, Brian sent his twenty men to the battlements and watched, with
+Turlough beside him. It was plain that no offensive operations were
+under way as yet, and an hour passed quietly; then ten men rode down to
+the castle under a white flag, and foremost of them was the Dark Master.
+
+"Now, if I were in your place, master," said Turlough, slanting his eyes
+up at Brian in his shrewd way, "I would loose those bastards and sweep
+the road bare."
+
+"You are not in my place," said Brian, and the Wolf held his peace.
+
+The Dark Master looked at those bodies piled between the castle and the
+shore, and it was easy to see that he was laughing and pointing them out
+to the Scots. At that Brian heard his men mutter no little, and he
+himself clenched his nails into his palms and cursed bitterly; but he
+forbade his men to fire and they durst not disobey him. The party rode
+up under the walls, and the Dark Master grinned at Brian standing above.
+
+"You have great drunkards, Yellow Brian," he called mockingly. "Have all
+your men drunk themselves to death?"
+
+Brian answered him not, but fingered his hilt; even at that distance the
+Dark Master seemed to feel the icy blue eyes upon him, for his leer
+vanished.
+
+"Yield to us, Yellow Brian," he continued, shooting up his head from
+betwixt his shoulders. "I do not think you have many men in that
+castle."
+
+"I have enough to hold you till more come," answered Brian.
+
+"Mayhap, and mayhap not," and O'Donnell laughed again. "Keep a watch to
+seaward, Yellow Brian, and when you see four sail turning the headland,
+judge if those two caracks of the Bird Daughter's are like to help you."
+
+"If you have no more to say, get you gone," said Brian, feeling the
+anger in him rising beyond endurance. The Dark Master looked along the
+walls for a moment, then signed to his men, and they rode off through
+the driving snow again.
+
+Turlough looked at Brian and Brian at him, and the same thought was in
+the minds of both. If those Millhaven men had four ships driving down
+before that storm, as seemed probable enough, the Bird Daughter's two
+little caracks would never land men under the guns of Bertragh.
+
+About noon the snow fell less thickly, though the storm had risen to
+great power, and Brian made out that the Scots were bringing forward
+that cannon of theirs. Having some little knowledge of artillery
+himself, he drew the charge of bullets from a bastard and put in more
+powder, then put the bullets back, a full bag of them. He did the same
+with two more of the bastards on that wall, and when the Scots had
+halted aimed all three very carefully, and set men by them to fire at
+his order. The Scots were turning their cannon about, a score of men
+being in their party, and Brian judged that they were eight hundred
+paces away--just within range of his bastards.
+
+"The Dark Master lost this hold because he had too many men," he said to
+Turlough, "and we shall lose it because we have too few; but we will
+make better use of these shot than did he. Fire, men!"
+
+The three men brought down their linstocks and ran for it, having seen
+that extra charge of powder set in the cannon. But none of the pieces
+burst, though they roared loud enough and leaped at their recoil-ropes
+like mad things. When the white smoke shredded down the wind, Brian's
+men yelled in great delight, for those Scots and horses about the cannon
+were stricken down or fleeing, and the piece had not yet been loaded.
+
+"They will get little joy of that cannon," said Brian grimly, and went
+in to meat.
+
+During the rest of the day the cannon stood there silent, dead horses
+and men around it; nor was any further attack made. Brian knew well that
+having found him prepared, the Dark Master would now attack at night and
+hard did Brian pray that the storm might abate from the west, or at
+least shift around, so that Nuala's ships could come to his aid.
+
+Instead, the gale only swooped down the wilder, and seemed like to hold
+a day or more, as indeed it did. About mid-afternoon Turlough came and
+beckoned him silently out to the rear or seaward battlement and pointed
+out.
+
+No words passed between the two men, nor were any needed; beating around
+the southern headland were four flecks of white that Brian knew for
+ships coming from the west with the storm, and he saw that for once the
+Dark Master had told the truth.
+
+"I have some skill at war," he said to Turlough that afternoon when they
+had seen the four ships weather past them and anchor a mile up the bay;
+"and since the Dark Master's troopers are also skilled at that game,
+they will fall to work without waste of time or men. We may look to have
+the dry moat filled with fascines to-night and our gates blown in with
+petards. At the worst, we can hold that tower, where the powder is
+stored."
+
+If he had had more men, Brian would have slung the bastards down from
+the high walls and set them in the courtyard where they could sweep the
+gates when these had been blown in. But they weighed a ton and half
+each, and there was no time to build shears to let them down, even had
+they had spars and ropes at hand. So Brian set them to cover the
+approach, and had the smaller falcons brought down to the courtyard, all
+five, where he trained them on the gates and loaded them with bullets
+heavily.
+
+"Turlough and I will fire these ourselves," he told his men that evening
+as they made supper together, the men looking forward to the night's
+work with great joy. "Do the rest of you gather on either hand by the
+stables, with spare muskets and pistols."
+
+So this was done as he said. Because of the storm Brian did not light
+his beacon after all, but he stocked the tower with food and wine, and
+told his men to get there, if they could, when the rest was taken. That
+tower had Brian's chamber in the lower part and a ladder in the upper
+part, where was great store of powder.
+
+The five falcons were set in front of the hall doorway, where once Brian
+had come near to being nailed. Brian loosed another of the pigeons,
+telling Nuala how things chanced, and of the four pirate ships, and set
+the last bird in the tower in case of need, which proved a lucky thing
+for him in the end.
+
+Brian and his men slept after meat, while Turlough Wolf remained
+watching. It was wearing well on to midnight when the old man woke them
+all, and Brian went to the walls to hear a thud of hoofs and a murmur of
+men coming across the wind to him. He sent off men to loose the loaded
+guns on the outer walls at random, and then suddenly flung lighted
+cressets over the gates.
+
+A wild yell answered this, and bullets from the men who were filling the
+dry moat, while others scrambled across it and charged up to the gates
+with small powder-kegs and petards ready. This was not done without
+scathe, however; Brian's men loosed their muskets, and one by one the
+heavy bastards thundered out across the snow, though the result was hard
+to see in the darkness.
+
+There came a ragged flash of musketry in reply, and that abandoned
+cannon roared out lustily, though its ball passed far overhead. Brian
+stood on a demi-bastion that half flanked the gates, and after firing
+his pistol into the men below, he leaped down the steps into the
+courtyard and joined Turlough behind the falcons.
+
+"One at a time, Turlough. They'll have the gates down in a minute."
+
+While he waited for the storm to fall, Brian saw that two or three of
+his men had been hit. He wondered dully that the Dark Master had not
+made a general assault, and concluded that he must wish to save men. It
+was a long moment that dragged down on him; then a splash of light burst
+up, the gates were driven inward and shattered, and with a great roar
+there fell a rain of riven beams and stones and dirt.
+
+Sheltering in the hall doorway, Brian and Turlough stayed unmoving
+through an instant of black silence. Out of it broke a wild Scots yell,
+and in the light of the courtyard cressets a wave of men surged up in
+the breach. Brian's linstock fell on a falcon, and the little gun barked
+a hail of bullets across the Scots; Turlough's gun followed suit, and
+the first lines of men went down in a struggling mass.
+
+The Dark Master was not to be beaten this time, however. Another wave of
+Scots swept up, with a mass of men behind them. While some of Brian's
+men tried to get the two falcons reloaded, a storm of bullets swept
+across the courtyard, and Brian saw Turlough turn and run for it through
+the doorway, while two of the men fell over a falcon.
+
+But as the first line of men broke into the courtyard, Brian fired the
+remaining three cannon as fast as he could touch linstock to powder. The
+bullet-hail tore the front ranks to shreds, but through the darkling
+smoke-cloud he saw other men come leaping, and knew that the game was
+up.
+
+On the next instant his men had closed around him, muskets were stabbing
+the powder-smoke, and Brian fell to work with his Spanish blade.
+O'Donnells and Scots together heaved up against them, but Brian's point
+weaved out between cutlas and claymore and bit out men's lives until
+the mass of men surged back again like the backleash of a wave that
+comes against a wall.
+
+Brian heard the Dark Master's voice from somewhere, and with that
+muskets spat from the gloom and bullets thudded around him. One slapped
+his steel cap away and another nicked his ear, and a third came so close
+across his eyes that he felt the hot breath of it; but his men fared in
+worse case than that, for they were clutching and reeling and fallen,
+and Brian leaped across the last of them into the hall with bullets
+driving at his back-piece.
+
+As he ran through the hall he knew that his falcons had punished
+O'Donnell's men heavily, and that his twenty men had not fallen without
+some payment for their lives. None the less, Bertragh Castle was now
+lost to him and to the Bird Daughter; but he thought it likely that he
+would yet make a play that might nip O'Donnell in the midst of his
+success.
+
+In this Brian was a true O'Neill and the true luck of the Red Hand had
+seemed to dog him, for he had lost all his men without suffering a
+defeat, and now that he was beaten down, he was planning to strike
+heaviest.
+
+He gained the tower well enough, and found Turlough there to receive
+him, with food and wine and loaded pistols. They soon had the door of
+the lower chamber fast barred and clamped, and Brian flung himself down
+on his bed, panting, but unwounded to speak of.
+
+"Now sleep, master," said the old man. "They will search elsewhere, and
+finding this door closed will do naught here until the morning."
+
+Brian laughed a little.
+
+"It is not easy to sleep after fighting, Turlough. I think that now I
+will send off that last pigeon, so give me that quill yonder."
+
+With great care Brian wrote his message, telling what had passed, and
+saying that he hoped to ride free from the castle next morning. In that
+case he would be at Cathbarr's tower before evening came, and he told
+Nuala to have all her men landed there at once, since she could hope to
+do nothing by sea against the pirate ships.
+
+When the writing was bound to the pigeon's wing he loosed the bird
+through the seaward casement, and bade Turlough blow out their
+flickering oil-light.
+
+After eating and drinking a little, they lay down to sleep. Men came and
+pounded at the door, then departed growling; but Turlough had guessed
+aright. The Dark Master was plainly speeding the search for Brian
+elsewhere, and since there was no sign of life from the powder-tower, he
+did not molest this until close to dawn. Then Brian was wakened by a
+shock at the door, and he heard the Dark Master's voice outside
+directing his men. Still he seemed to have no thought that Brian was
+there, but wanted to get at the powder and into his own chamber again.
+
+Brian took up his pistols and went to a loophole opening on the
+battlements, while Turlough still crouched on the bed in no little fear.
+Finding that the Dark Master stood out of his sight, Brian fired at two
+of the men under the door, and they fell; then he raised his voice above
+the shouting that came from outside.
+
+"O'Donnell, are you there?"
+
+The uproar died away, and the other's voice came to him.
+
+"So you are trapped at last, Brian Buidh! Now yield and I promise you a
+swift hanging."
+
+"Not I," laughed Brian curtly. "There is no lack of powder here,
+O'Donnell Dubh, and one of my men holds a pistol ready for it."
+
+At this he glanced at Turlough, who grimaced. But from outside came a
+sudden yell of alarm, and Brian saw a few fleeing figures, while
+O'Donnell shouted at his men in furious rage. Brian called out to him
+again:
+
+"Give me a horse and let me go free with the one man left me, or else I
+will blow up both tower and castle, and you will have little gain for my
+death."
+
+"Would you trust my word in this?" cried the Dark Master. Brian smiled.
+
+"Yes, as you must trust mine to leave no fuse in the powder when I am
+gone."
+
+Then fell silence. Brian hated O'Donnell, as he knew he was hated in
+return; and so great was the hatred between them that he felt
+instinctively he could trust the Dark Master to send him out free. It
+seemed to him that the other would sooner have him go broken and crushed
+than do him to death, for that would be a greater revenge. Moreover, the
+Dark Master could know nothing of those men at Gorumna and would have
+little fear of the Bird Daughter.
+
+And it befell exactly as Brian thought.
+
+"I agree," cried the Dark Master, stepping out in the dawn-light boldly.
+"You shall go forth empty as you came, Yellow Brian. What of those
+two-score men you owe me?"
+
+"The time is not yet up," returned Brian, beginning to unbar the door,
+and he laughed at the mocking voice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+BRIAN MEETS THE BLACK WOMAN.
+
+
+"The storm is over, master, or will be by this night."
+
+"Too late now, Turlough."
+
+Brian and the old man stood in the courtyard, while the Dark Master was
+seeing to horses being made ready for them. Drawing his cloak farther
+about his hunched shoulders, the latter turned to Brian with a mocking
+sneer.
+
+"Now farewell, Brian Buidh, and forget not to repay that loan, if you
+can gather enough men together. When you come again, you will find me
+here. A merry riding to you. _Beannacht leath!_"
+
+Brian looked at him grimly.
+
+"Your curse would make better company than your blessing, O'Donnell," he
+said, and turned to his horse with no more words.
+
+The Scots who were standing around gave vent to a murmur of approval,
+and Brian saw the black looks passing between them and the wild
+O'Donnells. The Highlanders had done murdering enough in Ireland since
+Hamilton brought them over, but they were outspoken men, who had little
+love for poisoners; and as Brian settled into the saddle with his huge
+sword slung across his back, he caught more than one word of muttered
+approval, which the Dark Master was powerless to check.
+
+So Yellow Brian rode out from the castle he had lost, with Turlough Wolf
+at his heels, and his heart was very sore. Once across the filled-in
+moat and he saw fifty men at work by the shore, loading the dead into
+boats to be buried in the bay, for the ground was hard-frozen.
+
+Parties of Scots troopers and the horseless O'Donnells were scattered
+over the farmlands and country ahead, but these offered no menace as the
+two horsemen rode slowly through them. For all his bitterness, Brian
+noted that the four pirate ships had been brought around into the bay
+before the castle, into which the Scots had moved, while a great number
+of the O'Donnells had landed and were hastily throwing up brush huts on
+the height above the shore, evidently intending to camp there for the
+present.
+
+That was a dark leave-taking for Brian, since he had lost so many men
+and his castle to boot. Yet more than once he looked back on Bertragh,
+and when they came to the last rise of ground before the track wound
+into the hills and woods, he drew rein and pointed back with a curt
+laugh.
+
+"This night I shall return, Turlough, and I think we shall catch the
+Dark Master off his guard at last. If we throw part of our men on that
+camp at dawn and the rest upon the castle, the tables may yet be
+turned."
+
+"A good rede, Brian O'Neill," nodded the old Wolf approvingly. At thus
+hearing his name Brian flung Turlough one lightning-swift glance, then
+pulled out his Spanish sword and threw it high, and caught it again with
+a great shout.
+
+"Tyr-owen! _Slainte!_"
+
+With that he put spurs to his horse and rode on with better heart,
+striving to forget his troubles in thinking of the stroke he would deal
+that night. If those three pigeons had won clear to Gorumna, he would
+find Nuala and her men waiting at Cathbarr's tower, and before the dawn
+they would be back again and over the hills.
+
+So they rode onward, and presently came to a stretch of forest, dark
+against the snow. Suddenly Turlough drew up with a frightened glance
+around.
+
+"Master--what is that wail? If I ever heard a banshee, that is the cry!
+Beware of the Little People, master--"
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Brian, drawing rein also and listening. He heard a
+faint, sobbing cry come from ahead, and so mournful was it, so charged
+with wild grief, that for an instant his heart stood still, and the
+color fled from his face.
+
+"It is some woman wailing her dead, Turlough," he said at length,
+although doubtfully. "Yet I have never heard a _caoine_ like it; but
+onward, and let us see."
+
+"Wait, master!" implored the old man. "Let us cut over the hills and go
+by another path--"
+
+"Go, if you are afraid," returned Brian, and spurred forward. The other
+hesitated, but followed unwillingly, and a moment later Brian came upon
+the cause of that mournful wailing, as the trees closed about them and
+the road wound into a hollow.
+
+The dingle was so sheltered by the brooding pines that there was little
+snow, except on the track itself, and no wind. Under the spreading
+splay-boughs to the right was what seemed to be a heap of rags and
+tatters, though the wailing cry ceased as the two riders clattered down,
+with Turlough keeping well behind Brian.
+
+The latter drew rein, seeing that the creature under the pine-boughs was
+some old crone whose grief seemed more bitter still than his own.
+
+"What is wrong, mother?" he cried cheerily. "Are you from one of the
+Bertragh farms?"
+
+The tattered heap moved slightly, and a wrinkled, withered face peered
+up at him.
+
+"Nay, I come from farther than that," and to his surprise there was a
+mocking note in her voice, though it was weak. "That is a good horse of
+yours, _ma boucal_; he must trot sixteen miles to the hour, eh?"
+
+"All of that, mother," returned Brian, wondering if the old crone was
+out of her senses. "Was it you whom I heard wailing a moment ago? Where
+is your home?"
+
+The old woman broke into a cackle of hideous laughter.
+
+"My home, is it? Once I had a home, Yellow Brian--and it was in
+Dungannon, with Tyr-owen and Cormac and Art and the noblest of the
+chiefs of Ulster to do me honor! Have you forgotten me, Brian O'Neill,
+since we met at the Dee Water?"
+
+Then Brian gave a great cry, and swung down to earth, for now he
+recognized the Black Woman. But as he strode toward her she tried to
+rise and failed, and forth from the midst of her rags came a quick gush
+of red blood. Brian leaped forward and caught her in his arms, pitying
+her.
+
+"I knew you," she gasped out weakly, clutching at his shoulder. "I knew
+you, son of Tyr-owen! You had yellow hair, but your face was the face I
+once loved, the face of the great Hugh--"
+
+She stopped abruptly, and her words were lost in a choking gasp as blood
+came from her mouth. Brian swore.
+
+"_Mile Mollaght!_ What has happened here, woman? Are you wounded?"
+
+"Aye, those dogs of O'Donnells," she moaned feebly. Then new strength
+came to her, and she peered up with another cackle. "But did I not tell
+wisely, son? Have you not found Cathbarr of the Ax and the Bird Daughter
+even as I foretold?"
+
+"Yes, yes," returned Brian impatiently. "Where are you wounded, mother?
+We can take you--"
+
+"Peace, avic," she cried. "They came on me last night, and my life is
+gone. You shall take vengeance for the old _calliagh_, Brian--but first
+I must talk. Do you know who I am, avic--or who I was, rather?"
+
+"How should I know that, mother?" answered Brian. "Old Turlough Wolf,
+yonder, swears you are some witch--"
+
+"Turlough!" The hag raised herself on his arm, cackling. "So the old
+Wolf is still living! Do _you_ know me, Turlough? Do you remember the
+sorrowful day of the earl's flight?"
+
+Old Turlough, who had ridden closer, bent over and looked down, fear in
+his face. Suddenly he straightened up again with a wild cry.
+
+"Noreen of Breffny! By my hand, it is the earl's love!"
+
+"Aye, the earl's love!" she gasped out, falling back. "I was his love in
+truth, Yellow Brian, and he loved me above all the rest, though
+another's hand closed his eyes and laid him to earth in Rome. I knew you
+would come, Brian--I saw you at Drogheda, though you saw me not, and I
+bade you come here into the West, and I have watched over you--"
+
+She coughed horribly, clutching at Brian's arm. He stared down at her in
+amazement, for the incredible story seemed true enough. This old hag had
+been that Noreen of Breffny of whom he had heard much--the fairest maid
+of the North, whom the great earl had loved to the last, though the
+church had not blessed their union.
+
+Brian's old Irish nurse had often told him of the "Breffny lily," and it
+was bitter and hard to realize that this ancient hag, withered and
+shrunk and done to death by the Dark Master's men, had been the fairest
+maid in Ulster. She gasped out a little more of her story, and Brian
+found that his wild surmises had been true; after seeing him and
+recognizing him for one of the earl's house, she had instantly led his
+mind to this part of the country, being aware of the strife between
+O'Donnell and Nuala O'Malley. It had been a crazed notion enough, and
+since then she had kept as near to him as possible in the half-sane idea
+that she might help him.
+
+How she had managed to do it ever remained a mystery to Brian, since his
+marches had been none of the slowest, but she had done so.
+
+"Where are--your men?" she exclaimed after a little. Brian told her what
+had chanced at the castle, and she broke out in a last wild cackling
+laugh.
+
+"Tyr-owen's luck!" she cried. "Betrayed and blasted, betrayed and
+blasted--but the root of the tree is still strong, Yellow Brian--give me
+your blessing, master--give Noreen your blessing before you go to Rome,
+Hugh _mo mhuirnin_--"
+
+Brian's face blanched and his hands trembled, for he saw that her
+wandering mind took him for his grandsire.
+
+"_Dhia agus mhuire orth_," he murmured, and with a little sob the Black
+Woman died.
+
+Silence fell upon the dingle, as Brian gazed down at the woman his
+grandfather had loved, and whose love had been no less. Then Turlough
+pushed his horse closer, looking down with a shrewd leer.
+
+"Said she not that it would be a black day when you met her again,
+master?" he queried with awe in his voice. "I think--"
+
+"Keep silence!" commanded Brian shortly. "Get down from that horse and
+dig a grave."
+
+"But the ground is frozen--" began old Turlough in dismay. Brian gave
+him one look, and the old man hastily dismounted, crossing himself and
+mumbling.
+
+Brian joined him, and they managed to scoop out a shallow grave with
+knife and sword, laid the old woman in it, and covered her up again. It
+was a sorry burial for the love of the great earl, but it was the best
+they could do.
+
+Shaken more than he cared to admit, Brian mounted and rode on in
+silence. As he had thought, there was nothing supernatural about this
+weird Black Woman, except, perhaps, the manner in which she had
+contrived to keep close to him. She had warned him at the Stone
+Mountain, and she must have been keeping close to Bertragh ever since,
+unseen by any, with her unhinged mind driving her forward relentlessly.
+
+"Poor woman!" he thought darkly, gazing into the hills ahead. "There has
+been little luck to any who ever followed an O'Neill or loved an
+O'Neill! And now it seems likely that the same ill luck of all my family
+is to dog my heels, bringing me up to the heights, only to cast me down
+lower than before. Well, I may fall, but it shall not be until I have
+dragged down the Dark Master. If I fall not I may yet best the ill-luck
+and conquer Millhaven for my own."
+
+With that his mind leaped ahead again as the plan outlined itself to
+him. The O'Donnell pirates must have brought their whole force to the
+Dark Master's aid, and if he could but cut off that camp of theirs
+between the castle and the shore, Nuala O'Malley might bring her two
+ships against the weakened four and take them all.
+
+Then, when the castle had fallen, he could sail north to Millhaven,
+reduce the stronghold there, and let fly his own banner at last. It was
+a good plan, but it hung on many things.
+
+With a short laugh at his own fancies he turned in the saddle as the
+voice of Turlough broke into his musings.
+
+"I mind the last time I saw the poor woman back yonder, master. It was
+just before the great flight, and I mind now that she was not so
+ill-looking even then, though she was well past her youth, and that was
+forty years ago. Tyr-connall's bag-pipe men were blowing as we marched
+to Lough Swilly, and two earls rode in front when the poor _caillin_
+rushed out and flung herself under Tyr-owen's horse--oh, _Mhuire as
+truagh, Mhuire as truagh_ for the old days! And when the earl died, her
+name was on his lips, and I came home again to find her disappeared. Oh,
+what sorrow for the old days! Would that I had died in Rome with the
+princes--"
+
+"Stop that wailing," interrupted Brian sternly, for the old man was
+lashing himself into a frenzy of grief. "Put spurs to that horse of
+yours, Turlough, for we must reach Cathbarr's tower by noon if possible
+in order to start the men off over the hills. It'll be a long night's
+march, and I've no time to be idling here on the road."
+
+Upon which he dug in his spurs and urged his steed into a gallop, and in
+order to keep up, Turlough Wolf had to give over his laments and do
+likewise. Brian forced himself to bend all his energies toward carrying
+out his final desperate plan, but he silently vowed that the old woman
+who had so foully been cut down by the O'Donnells should not die
+unavenged.
+
+On they galloped without pause, gained the head of Bertraghboy Bay, and
+swung to the east on the last stretch of the trip. The storm which had
+arisen so inopportunely was now dying away, and the sun was breaking
+through the gray clouds; when they turned out from the main track into
+the hill-paths that led to Cathbarr's tower, the rough ground made them
+slow their pace. When they were still three miles from the tower,
+however, Brian gave a shout.
+
+"Men, Turlough! Cathbarr has sent out men to meet us!"
+
+So, indeed, it proved, and five minutes later a dozen men met them with
+yells of delighted welcome. From these overjoyed fellows Brian quickly
+learned that Cathbarr was at the tower and that Nuala O'Malley had just
+arrived there.
+
+So, leaving them to follow, he and Turlough went on at their best speed,
+and twenty minutes later they topped that same long rise from which
+Brian had first gazed down on the little promontory where stood
+Cathbarr's tower. But now, as he saw what lay beneath, he drew up with a
+shout of amazement.
+
+For around the tower and at the base at the neck of land were camped a
+goodly force of men, while at anchor near the tower lay--not Nuala's two
+ships alone, but also those other two of her kinsmen!
+
+"Those two O'Malleys have returned from the south," exclaimed Turlough
+in wild delight. "That means more men and ships, master--we will cut off
+those Millhaven pirates to a man!"
+
+Brian sent out a long shout, but his arrival had already been noted. As
+he rode down the slope, men poured from the camp and tower, and ahead of
+them all came Cathbarr of the Ax, with Nuala and Lame Art and Shaun the
+Little behind him.
+
+"Welcome!" bellowed the giant with a huge laugh, pulling Brian from his
+horse with a great hug of delight. "Welcome, brother!"
+
+Brian escaped from his grip and bowed over the Bird Daughter's hand. As
+he rose, he saw that her face had lost its ruddy hue, and that her eyes
+were ringed with darkness. Before he could speak she smiled and gripped
+his hand.
+
+"The birds came safe, and we know all. Yesterday arrived these kinsmen
+of mine, and their force is joined to our own, Yellow Brian--"
+
+Brian held up his hand, halting her suddenly, and silence fell on the
+men who had crowded around. For a moment he gazed into her deep eyes,
+then flung up his head and his voice rang clear and stern in the
+stillness.
+
+"Lady Nuala," he said quietly, "I promised you that when I slew the Dark
+Master I would tell you my name. Before another day has passed I shall
+have slain him; and now I tell you and your kinsmen that I renounce all
+fealty to you."
+
+At this the Bird Daughter started, staring in amazement, while an abrupt
+oath burst from Lame Art. Brian went on calmly.
+
+"This I do because it is not meet that The O'Neill should give fealty to
+any, Lady Nuala. I am Brian O'Neill, of right The O'Neill and Earl of
+Tyr-owen, though these are empty titles. And this night you and I shall
+fall on Bertragh together, Bird Daughter, and when we have won it again
+it shall be yours as of old."
+
+And amid a great roar of shouts welling up around him Brian bowed to
+Nuala.
+
+"Then, Brian O'Neill," she said, quieting the tumult a little, "am I to
+understand that you wish to make pact with me, and to receive no
+reward?"
+
+For a moment he gazed openly and frankly into her eyes, and under his
+look the red crept into her cheeks again; yet her own eyes did not
+flinch.
+
+Brian laughed out.
+
+"Yes, lady! It may be that I shall have a reward to ask of you, but that
+may not be until I have won back what I have lost for you."
+
+"And what if the reward be too great?"
+
+"Why, that shall be for you to say!" and Brian laughed again. "Is it
+agreed, Bird Daughter?"
+
+For an instant he thought she meant to refuse, as she drew herself up
+and met his level eyes; the men around held their breaths, and the
+O'Malley chiefs glanced at each other in puzzled wonder. Then her quick
+laugh rippled out and she gave him her hand.
+
+"Agreed, Brian--and I hope that you can shave that yellow beard of yours
+by to-morrow!"
+
+And the great yell that went up from the men drowned all else in Brian's
+ears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE STORM BURSTS.
+
+
+"Now, the first thing is to see what force of men we have," said Brian,
+after the midday meal. They were all gathered in Cathbarr's tower before
+a log fire, and were preparing the plan of campaign.
+
+"I have my hundred and eighty men," said Nuala. "When that last pigeon
+came from you I set out at once. With the hundred men under Cathbarr, we
+have close to three hundred. You can take them all, for my kinsmen here
+have enough and to spare to handle my two ships as well as theirs."
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Brian, as the two O'Malleys nodded. "I think that by
+striking at dawn we shall find most of the O'Donnells ashore or in the
+castle, and if you time your sailing to strike on their four ships at
+the same time we may easily take castle, camp, and ships at one blow."
+
+"If all went as men planned we would not need to pray Heaven for aid,"
+quoth Shaun the Little sententiously. Brian glanced at him.
+
+"Eh? What do you mean by that?"
+
+"Nothing," returned the wide-shouldered seaman with a shrug. "Except
+that there may be more to it than we think, Brian."
+
+"The Dark Master will not suspect your return so suddenly," spoke up
+Nuala. "Pay no heed to Shaun, Brian--he was ever a croaker. When think
+you we had best start?"
+
+"I am no seaman," laughed Brian. "Get there at dawn, that is all. I will
+send on my men at once, then; since we have only two horses, Cathbarr
+and I will ride after them later and catch them up. Will you take the
+men, Turlough, or bide here out of danger?"
+
+"I think it will be safest with the Lady Nuala," hesitated the old man
+craftily.
+
+"Little you know her, then," roared Lame Art, his cousin joining in the
+laugh.
+
+So Turlough had decided, however, and he stuck to it. Brian then
+described closely how the four pirate ships lay in the bay under
+Bertragh, while Shaun went out to arrange the distribution of his men on
+Nuala's ships.
+
+The arrangements having been perfected, Brian saw his three hundred men
+troop off on their march over the hills, after which he told Nuala at
+greater length all that had taken place in the castle since his parting
+with her at sea. Bitter and unrestrained were the curses of the
+O'Malleys as they heard of how his men had been poisoned, while Nuala's
+eyes flamed forth anger.
+
+"There shall be no quarter to these O'Donnells," she cried hotly. "Those
+whom we take shall hang, and the Scots with them--"
+
+"Not the Scots," exclaimed Brian quickly. "They are honest men enough,
+Nuala, and may serve us well as recruits. If we find them in the castle,
+as I think we shall, we may leave them there until we have finished the
+Millhaven men; however, it is possible that my men will find the castle
+almost unguarded, and so take it at the first blow. However that turns
+out, the Dark Master shall not escape us this time."
+
+During the afternoon, when the two O'Malleys were busily getting their
+ships in order for the coming fray, Brian sat in the tower with Nuala.
+He told her freely of himself, and although neither of them referred to
+that reward of which he had spoken at their meeting, Brian knew well
+that he would claim it.
+
+He did not conceal from himself that the Black Woman had guided him to
+more than conquest by sword. The Bird Daughter was such a woman as he
+had dreamed of, but had never found at the Spanish court, and he knew
+that whether there was love in her heart or not, his own soul was in her
+keeping.
+
+Perhaps he was not the only one who knew this, for as Lame Art rowed out
+with his cousin, the latter nodded back at the tower.
+
+"What think you of this ally, Art Bocagh? Could he be truly the Earl's
+grandson?"
+
+"I know not," grunted the other. "But I do not care whether he be Brian
+Buidh or Brian O'Neill or Brian the devil--he is such a man as I would
+fain see sitting in Gorumna Castle, Shaun!"
+
+And Shaun the Little nodded with a grin.
+
+When the sun began its westering, Brian and Cathbarr rode back from the
+tower with food and weapons at their saddle-bows, and they paused at the
+hill-crest to watch the four ships weigh anchor and up sail, then went
+on into the hills. They were to meet their men at that valley where the
+Dark Master had been defeated and broken in the first siege, and jogged
+along slowly, resting as they rode.
+
+"Brother," said Cathbarr suddenly, fingering the haft of his ax and
+looking at Brian, "do you remember my telling you, that night after we
+had bearded the Dark Master and got the loan of those two-score men, how
+an old witch-woman had predicted my fate?"
+
+"Yes," returned Brian, with a sharp glance. In the giant's face there
+was only a simple good-humor, however, mingled with a childlike
+confidence in all things. "And I told you that you were not bound to my
+service."
+
+"No, but I am bound to your friendship," laughed Cathbarr rumblingly. "I
+can well understand how I might die in a cause not mine own, since I am
+fighting for you; but I cannot see how death is to come upon me through
+water and fire, brother!"
+
+"Nonsense," smiled Brian. "Death is far from your heels, brother, unless
+you are seeking it."
+
+"Not I, Brian. I neither seek nor avoid if the time comes. Only I wish
+that witch-woman had told me a little more--"
+
+"Keep your mind off it, Cathbarr," said Brian. "In Spain the Moriscoes
+say that the fate of man is written on his forehead, and God is just."
+
+"What the devil do I care about that?" bellowed Cathbarr. "I care not
+when I die, brother--but I want to strike a blow or two first, and how
+can that be done if death comes by water and fire?"
+
+"Well, take heart," laughed Brian, seeing the cause of the other's
+anxiety. "You are not like to die from that cause to-night, and I
+promise you blows enough and to spare."
+
+Cathbarr grunted and said no more. The last of the storm had fled away,
+and the two men rode through a glittering sunset and a clear, cold
+evening that promised well for the morrow.
+
+They traveled easily, and it was hard on midnight when a sentry stopped
+them half a mile from the hollow where the men were resting. Brian noted
+with approval that no fires had been lighted, and he and Cathbarr at
+once lay down to get an hour's sleep among the men.
+
+Two hours before daybreak the camp was astir, and Brian gathered his
+lieutenants to arrange the attack. Thinking that the Dark Master would
+be in the castle, he and Cathbarr took a hundred men for that attack,
+ordering the rest to get as close to the camp as might be, but not to
+attack until he had struck on the castle, and to cut off the O'Donnells
+from their ships. Then, assured that the plan was understood, he and
+Cathbarr loaded their pistols and set out with the hundred.
+
+Brian ordered his men to give quarter to all the Scots who would accept
+it, if they got inside the castle, and as they marched forward through
+the darkness he found to his delight that O'Donnell seemed to have no
+sentries out.
+
+"We have caught the black fox this time," muttered Cathbarr, after they
+had passed the camp-fires without discovery and the black mass of the
+castle loomed up ahead. "They will hardly have repaired those gates by
+now, brother."
+
+Brian nodded, and ordered his men to rest, barely a hundred paces from
+the castle. Since there was no need of attacking before dawn, in order
+to let Nuala come up the bay, he went forward with Cathbarr to look at
+the gates.
+
+These, as nearly as he could tell, were still shattered in; there were
+fires in the courtyard, and sentries were on the wall, but their watch
+was lax and the two below were not discovered. They rejoined the
+hundred, and Brian bade Cathbarr follow him through the hall to that
+chamber he himself had occupied in the tower, where O'Donnell was most
+likely to be found.
+
+"Well, no use of delaying further," he said, when at length the grayness
+of dawn began to dull the starlight. Since to light matches would have
+meant discovery, he had brought with him those hundred Kerry pikemen
+Nuala had recruited after the dark Master's defeat, and he passed on the
+word to follow.
+
+The mass of men gained the moat before a challenge rang out from above,
+and with that Brian leaped forward at the gates. A musket roared out,
+and another, but Brian and Cathbarr were in the courtyard before the
+Scots awakened. A startled group barred their way to the hall, then
+Brian thrust once, the huge ax crashed down, and they were through.
+
+Other men were sleeping in the hall, but Brian did not stop to battle
+here, running through before the half-awakened figures sensed what was
+forward. A great din of clashing steel and yells was rising from the
+court; then he and Cathbarr gained the seaward battlements and rushed at
+the Dark Master's chamber. The door was open--it was empty.
+
+For a moment the two stared at each other in blank dismay. With a yell,
+a half-dozen Scots swirled down on them, but Brian threw up his hand.
+
+"The castle is mine," he shouted. "You shall have quarter!"
+
+The Scots halted, and when two or three of the Kerry pikemen dashed up
+with news that the rest of the garrison had been cut down or given
+quarter, they surrendered.
+
+Brian's first question was as to O'Donnell.
+
+"Either at the camp or aboard one of his kinsmen's ships," returned one
+of the prisoners. "They were carousing all last evening."
+
+At the same instant Cathbarr caught Brian's arm and whirled him about.
+
+"Listen, brother!"
+
+So swift had been Brian's attack that the castle had been won in a scant
+three minutes. Now, as he listened, there came a ragged roar of
+musketry, pierced by yells, and he knew that the camp was attacked.
+
+With that, a sudden fear came on him that he would again be outwitted.
+There was a thin mist driving in from the sea which would be dissipated
+with the daybreak, and if the Dark Master was on one of the ships he
+might get away before Nuala's caracks could arrive. Brian had been so
+certain that he would find O'Donnell in the castle that the
+disappointment was a bitter one, but he knew that there was no time to
+lose.
+
+"Come," he ordered Cathbarr quickly, "get a score of the men and to the
+camp. Leave the others here to hold the castle if need be."
+
+As he strode through the courtyard and the sullen groups of Scots
+prisoners, he directed the Kerry men to load the bastards on the walls
+and give what help might be in destroying the pirate ships. Then, with
+Cathbarr and twenty eager men at his back, he set off for the camp at a
+run, fearful that he might yet be too late.
+
+The day was brightening fast, and from the camp rose a mighty din of
+shouts and steel and musketry. Brian's men had charged after one hasty
+volley, but their leader gave a groan of dismay as he saw that instead
+of attacking from the seaward side as he had ordered, they were pouring
+into the camp from the land side.
+
+O'Donnell must have landed the greater part of his men, for Brian's
+force was being held in check, though they had swept in among the brush
+huts. Over the tumult Brian heard the piercing voice of the Dark Master,
+and with a flame of rage hot in his mind he sped forward and found
+himself confronted by a yelling mass of O'Donnells.
+
+Then fell a sterner battle than any Brian had waged. In the lessening
+obscurity it was hard to tell friend from foe, since the mist was
+swirling in off the water and holding down the powder-smoke. Brian saved
+his pistols, and, with Cathbarr at his side, struck into the wild,
+shaggy-haired northern men; they were armed with ax and sword and skean,
+and Brian soon found himself hard beset despite the pikemen behind.
+
+The Spanish blade licked in and out like a tongue of steel, and Brian's
+skill stood him in good stead that morn. Ax and broadsword crashed at
+him, and as he wore no armor save a steel cap, he more than once gave
+himself up for lost. But ever his thin, five-foot steel drove home to
+the mark, and ever Cathbarr's great ax hammered and clove at his side,
+so that the fight surged back and forth among the huts, as it was
+surging on the other side where was the Dark Master, holding off the
+main attack.
+
+Little by little the mist eddied away, however, and the day began to
+break. A fresh surge of the wild O'Donnells bore down on Brian's party,
+and as they did so a man rose up from among the wounded and stabbed at
+Brian with his skean. Brian kicked the arm aside, but slipped in blood
+and snow and went down; as a yell shrilled up from the pirates, Cathbarr
+leaped forward over him, swinging his ax mightily. With the blunt end he
+caught one man full in the face, then drove down his sharp edge and
+clove another head to waist. For an instant he was unable to get out his
+ax, but Brian thrust up and drove death to a third, then stood on his
+feet again.
+
+At the same instant there came a roar from across the camp where his
+main body of men were engaged, and Brian thrilled to the sound. As he
+afterward found, it was done by Turlough's cunning word; but up over the
+din of battle rose the great shout that struck dismay to the pirates and
+heartened Brian himself to new efforts.
+
+"Tyr-owen! Tyr-owen!"
+
+With a bellow of "Tyr-owen!" Cathbarr went at the foe, and Brian joined
+him with his own battle-cry on his lips for the first time in his life.
+The shout swelled louder and louder, and among the huts Brian got a
+glimpse of the Dark Master. In vain he tried to break through the
+Millhaven men, however; they stood like a wall, dying as they fought,
+but giving no ground until the ax and the sword had cloven a way,
+although the remnant of the twenty pikemen were fighting like fiends.
+
+Suddenly a yell of dismay went up from the O'Donnell ranks, and they
+broke in wild confusion. Leaning on his sword and panting for breath,
+Brian looked around and saw what had shattered them so swiftly.
+
+While the stubborn fight had raged, the eastern sky had been streaming
+and bursting into flame. Now, sharply outlined against the crimson
+water, appeared Nuala's four ships close on those of the pirates. Even
+as he looked, Brian saw their cannon spit out white smoke, while from
+behind came a deeper thunder as the castle's guns sent their heavy balls
+over the pirate ships.
+
+These were anchored a hundred yards from shore, and Brian saw the danger
+that betided as the stream of fugitives swept down toward the boats.
+Nuala's ships were undermanned, for he had counted on cutting off most
+of the pirates in the camp; should the Dark Master get to the ships with
+his men, things were like to go hard.
+
+"To the boats!" cried Brian to Cathbarr, and leaping over the dead, the
+two joined their men and poured down on the shore.
+
+The Dark Master himself stood by one of the boats, and others were
+filling fast with men as they were shoved down. Brian tried to cut his
+way to O'Donnell, but before he could do so the Dark Master had leaped
+aboard and oars were out. Fully aware of their danger, those of the
+pirates who could do so got into their boats and lay off the shore,
+while others splashed aboard; Brian led his men down with a rush,
+cutting down man after man, splashing out into the swirling water and
+hacking at those in the boats, but all in vain. Some half-dozen of the
+boats got off, crowded with men, while the remnant of the pirates held
+off Brian's force that their master might escape.
+
+Drawing out of the fight, Brian pulled forth his pistols and emptied
+them both at the figure of O'Donnell. He saw the Dark Master reel, and
+the rower next him plunged forward over the bows, but the next moment
+O'Donnell had taken up the oar himself and was at work in mad haste.
+Brian groaned and flung away his pistols.
+
+Those aboard the pirate ships had already cut the cables and were
+striving to make sail, for there was a light off-shore breeze in their
+favor, with an ebbing tide. The O'Malley ships were close on them,
+however, and as the cannon crashed out anew the masts of one O'Donnell
+ship crashed over. But the Dark Master's boat was alongside another of
+the ships, whose sails were streaming up, and now his cannon began to
+answer those of Nuala.
+
+But Brian stood in bitterness, unmindful of the wild yells of his men,
+for once more the Dark Master had escaped his hand at the last moment.
+Shaun the Little had been correct in his "croakings."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CATHBARR YIELDS UP HIS AX.
+
+
+Brian gazed out at the scene before him in dull despair. So close were
+the ships that he could clearly make out Nuala's figure, with its
+shimmering mail and red cloak, on the poop of the foremost.
+
+Her second carack had fallen behind, a shot having sent its foremast
+overside, but the other two ships were driving in. All three were
+lowering sail, for the Dark Master's craft were unable to get out of the
+bay and were giving over the attempt; his disabled ship was sending
+over its men to reinforce him, and Brian saw all his own efforts gone
+for nothing.
+
+There came a new burst of cannon, and through the veil of smoke he
+perceived that Nuala was laying her carack alongside one of the pirate
+ships. But it was not that on which stood the Dark Master; his was the
+ship closest to the castle, and Lame Art was bearing down on him, while
+Shaun the Little stood for the third, spitting out a final broadside as
+he came about and lowered sail.
+
+The crowding men on the shore had fallen silent as they watched the
+impending conflict, but now Brian felt Cathbarr touch his arm, and
+turned.
+
+"Why so doleful, brother?" grinned the giant; though blood dripped into
+his beard from a light slash over the brow, his eyes were as clear and
+childlike as ever, and the rage of battle had gone from him. "Let us
+join in that fight, you and I?"
+
+"Eh?" Brian started, staring at him. "How may that be?"
+
+"Ho, here is our captain given way to despair!" bellowed Cathbarr, and
+his fist smote down on Brian's back. "Wake up, brother! We have three
+boats here, and we can still strike a blow or two!"
+
+Now Brian wakened to life indeed. He saw the three boats on the shore,
+with dead men hanging over them, and leaped instantly into action.
+
+"Push out those boats--get the oars, there!" he shouted, leaping down to
+help shove them out. The men saw his intent, and sprang to work with a
+howl of delight.
+
+In no long time the dead were flung out, and the boats pushed down until
+they were afloat. Brian leaped into one, Cathbarr into another, and men
+piled in after them until the craft were almost awash.
+
+An eddy in the veil of smoke that hung over the bay showed Brian that
+Lame Art's ship had grappled with that of O'Donnell, and with renewed
+confidence thrilling in him, he shouted to his men to get aboard the
+O'Malley ship. The Bertragh cannon had ceased to thunder as the ships
+came together, but from the ships balls were hailing, musketry was
+crackling, and the water was tearing into spurting jets around the
+boats.
+
+Brian's men fell to their oars in sorry fashion enough, but they made up
+in energy what they lacked in skill. Driving past Nuala's ship, Brian
+saw that she had also grappled and that the battle was raging over her
+bulwarks, but sorely tempted to turn aside though he was, he waved his
+men on.
+
+They rowed close under the ship to which she was fastened, and as they
+sped past the O'Donnells saw them, and gave them a scattering volley.
+One or two of Brian's men went down, and a cry broke from him as he saw
+a round shot heaved over into his third boat, sinking her; then they
+were past, and bearing down on Art Bocagh's ship.
+
+"Tyr-owen for O'Malley!"
+
+Cathbarr's bellow rose over the tumult, and his boat crashed into the
+waist of the ship just as Brian leaped up into the mizzen-chains. His
+feet gained hold on a triced-up port, and as he looked down he saw a
+swell heave up the two boats, then bring them down together with a
+splintering smash.
+
+The result was dire confusion. None of the men were seamen, but some of
+them gained the side of Brian, others scrambled in through the ports,
+and more than one of them fell short and went down. Standing in the
+sinking boat with the water swirling about his ankles, Cathbarr caught
+up his ax and leaped; a moment later Brian was over the bulwarks with
+the giant at his side, and the O'Malleys welcomed them with a yell of
+joy.
+
+They were badly needed, indeed. The Dark Master had led his men in
+furious onslaught across the waist of the ship, and Art Bocagh was being
+beaten back to the poop despite his stubborn resistance. Brian saw that
+the Dark Master's men far outnumbered Art's, while from the rigging of
+each ship musketeers were sending down bullets into the melee. With a
+shout, Brian and Cathbarr led their men on the O'Donnell flank, and the
+tide of battle turned.
+
+At the first instant the rush of men bore Brian against the Dark Master,
+who was fighting like a demon. Brian caught the snarl on the other's
+pallid face, and struck savagely; O'Donnell parried the blow with his
+skean and returned it, but Brian warded with his left arm and swept down
+his blade. The Dark Master flung himself back, but not far enough, and
+Brian saw the point rip open the pallid cheek. Even as he pressed his
+advantage, however, another surge of men separated them.
+
+Now Brian gave over every thought save that of reaching his enemy again,
+and fell on the O'Donnells with stark madness in his face. A pistol
+roared into his stubbly beard and the ball carried off his steel cap,
+but he cut down the man and pressed into the midst of the pirates,
+cutting and thrusting in terrible rage.
+
+At sight of him men bore back; the icy flame in his eyes took the heart
+from those who faced him, and behind rose Cathbarr's wild bellows as the
+giant hewed through after Brian. Back went the pirates, and farther
+back. Brian found that he had cut his way to Lame Art, and with a yell
+the forces joined and swept on the Dark Master's men.
+
+O'Donnell had vanished, and now his men were swept back to the bulwarks
+and over to their own deck. Here they made a brief stand; then Cathbarr
+leaped over into the midst and his ax crushed down two men at once;
+Brian followed him, and for an instant it seemed that they would sweep
+all before them.
+
+Just then, however, Lame Art toppled from the bulwarks with a bullet
+through him from above, and the Dark Master's disappearance was
+explained by a rain of grenades that whirled among the O'Malleys. They
+gave back in dismay, Brian and Cathbarr were forced after them, and the
+Dark Master himself led his men in a mad stream over the bulwarks once
+more.
+
+There was no stopping them now. The death of Art Bocagh had disheartened
+his men, and amid flashing steel and spurting fire Brian and Cathbarr
+retreated to the quarterdeck. Here they had a brief breathing space
+until the pirates came at them anew, and with such fury that three of
+them gained a footing to one side. Brian went at them with a shout,
+thrust one man through the body, sent a second back with his bare fist,
+and as the third man struck down at him a pikeman transfixed the man
+before the blow could fall.
+
+The boarders drew back, but as they did so a great heave of the grinding
+ships broke the hastily flung grapplings. The ships were borne apart,
+and the Dark Master with most of his men remained in the waist of the
+O'Malley ship.
+
+This gave a new turn to the conflict. O'Donnell had to master the ship
+to win free, and when Brian saw this he gave a great laugh and rejoined
+Cathbarr. A quick glance around showed him that Nuala was slowly winning
+her grappled decks, while Shaun the Little was hanging off and sending
+his cannon crashing into the third pirate ship. The two disabled craft
+were slowly drawing together with the tide, which was forcing all eight
+into the bay, and were pounding away with their guns as they came.
+
+Now the combat resolved itself into a desperate struggle for possession
+of the quarterdeck, which Brian and Cathbarr held. The Dark Master's men
+swarmed up at them bravely enough, but the ax and sword flashed up and
+down, and time after time the Millhaven men fell back, unable to win a
+footing. Twice the Dark Master himself led them, snarling with baffled
+rage, but the first time a pikeman thrust him down and the second time
+Cathbarr's ax glanced from his helm.
+
+O'Donnell reeled back and was lost to sight for a time.
+
+"That was a poor blow," grunted the giant in disgust. "'Ware, brother!
+Stand aside!"
+
+Brian leaped away as the men behind him ran out a falcon and sent its
+blast into the crowd below in the waist. A dozen men went down under
+that storm of death, but almost at the same moment a grenade burst
+behind the falcon, and with that Brian was driven back as a keg of
+powder tore out half the quarterdeck in a bursting wall of flame and
+smoke.
+
+Barely had the shattering roar died out when Brian's reeling senses
+caught a wild yell of dismay from his men.
+
+"Fire! The ship is afire forward!"
+
+Brian saw that the grenades had indeed fired the ship forward, while the
+explosion had sent the quarterdeck into a burst of fire also, and the
+lowered but unfurled sails were roaring up in flame.
+
+Up poured the O'Malleys, and Brian staggered back to the poop. He had a
+vision of the great form of Cathbarr heaving up through the smoke,
+blackened and bleeding, but with the ax whirling like a leaf and smiting
+down men; then Brian gained the poop, helped the giant up, and with the
+few men left they turned to drive down the pirates, who were striving
+desperately to win the ship before it was too late.
+
+As he stood with Cathbarr at the narrow break of the poop, beating down
+man after man, Brian knew that it was only a question of time now, for
+the whole ship was breaking into flame forward. Suddenly he felt a tug
+at his buff coat, and looked down to see his belt fall away, sundered at
+his side by a bullet. He thought little of it, for he had half a dozen
+slight wounds, and turned to smite down at a man who had leaped for the
+poop; as his sword sheared through helm and skull, there came another
+tug, and Brian felt a bullet scrape along his ribs.
+
+The O'Donnells drew back momentarily, and in the brief pause Brian saw
+the figure of the Dark Master by the starboard rail in the waist, aiming
+up at him with a pistol, while two men behind him were hastily charging
+others. Cathbarr saw the action also, and hastily flung Brian aside, but
+too late. A burst of smoke flooded over the waist, and Brian caught the
+pistol-flash through it, as the ball ripped his left arm from shoulder
+to elbow. Then the pirates were at the poop again, and the waist was
+shut out by the flooding smoke as the wind drove it down from forward.
+
+With a scant dozen men behind them, Brian and Cathbarr once more beat
+the enemy back; the giant swung his ax less lightly now, and seemed to
+be covered with wounds, though most of them were slight. Brian still
+eyed the waist for another glimpse of the Dark Master, but the smoke was
+thick and he could see nothing. In the lull he flung a wan smile at
+Cathbarr, who stood leaning on his ax, his mail-shirt shredded and
+bloody.
+
+"Are you getting your fill of battle, brother?"
+
+"Aye," grinned the giant, "and we had best swim for it in another minute
+or the ship--look! _M'anam an diaoul!_ Look!"
+
+At his excited yell Brian turned, as a ball whistled between them. There
+below, in a boat half full of dead, but with two men at the oars, stood
+the Dark Master, just lowering his pistol. He flung the empty weapon up
+at Brian with a hoarse yell of anger, and passed from sight beneath the
+ship's counter, toward the stern.
+
+Realizing only that his enemy was escaping, Brian whirled and darted for
+the poop-cabins. He was dimly conscious of a mass of figures behind,
+amid whom stood Cathbarr with the ax heaving up and down, then he was in
+the cabins. Jerking open the door to the stern-walk, he saw the Dark
+Master's boat directly underneath, hardly six feet from him.
+
+"Tyr-owen!" yelled Brian, and dropping his sword, but holding his skean
+firmly, he hurdled the stern-walk railing and leaped.
+
+At that wild shout the Dark Master looked up, but he was too late. Brian
+hurtled down, his body striking O'Donnell full in the chest and driving
+him over on top of the two rowers, so that all four men sprawled out
+over the dead. For an instant the shock drove the breath out of Brian,
+then he felt a hand close on his throat, and struck out with his skean.
+
+One of the rowers gurgled and fell back, and Brian rolled over just as
+steel sank into his side. Giddy and still breathless, he gained his
+knees to find the Dark Master thrusting at him from the stern, while at
+his side the other rower was rising. Brian brought up his fist, caught
+the man full on the chin, and drove him backward over the gunwale. The
+lurch of the boat flung the Dark Master forward, Brian felt a sickening
+wrench of pain as the sword pierced his shoulder and tore loose from
+O'Donnell's hand, then he had clutched his enemy's throat, and his skean
+went home.
+
+Spent though both men were, the sting of the steel woke the Dark Master
+to a burst of energy. As the two fell over the thwarts, he twisted above
+and bore Brian down and tried to break the grip on his throat, but could
+not. For the second time in his life Brian felt that he had a wild
+animal in his grasp; the sight of the snarling face, the venomous black
+eyes, and the consciousness that his own strength was slowly ebbing, all
+roused him to a last great effort.
+
+The smoke-pall had shut out everything but that wolfish face, and as he
+writhed up even that seemed to dim and blur before his eyes, so that in
+desperate fear he struck out again and again, blindly. The blows fell
+harmless enough, for all his strength was going into that right hand of
+his; he did not know that his fingers were crushing out the Dark
+Master's life, that O'Donnell's face was purple and his hands feebly
+beating the air.
+
+Brian knew only that the terrible face was hidden from him by some loss
+of vision, some horrible failure of sight due to his weakness. Suddenly
+there was a great crash at his side, and he thought that a huge ax with
+iron twisted around its haft had fallen from the sky and sheared away
+half the gunnel of the boat. He struck out again with his skean, and
+felt the blow go home--and with that there came a terrific, blinding
+roar. The smoke-veil was rent apart by a sheet of flame, Brian realized
+that the burning ship must have blown up, and then a blast of hot wind
+drove down against him and smote his senses from him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE STORM OF MEN COMES TO REST.
+
+
+"Very well, Turlough. Tell Captain Peyton that I will give him an answer
+to his message to-night, then bid my kinsman Shaun entertain him in the
+hall, with the other officers. Send some food up here, and I may come
+down later."
+
+"And, mistress--you will tell me if--"
+
+"Surely. Now go."
+
+Brian tried to open his eyes, but could not. He tried to move, but could
+not; and realized at length that he was lying on a bed, and that a
+bandage was on his head and others on his limbs.
+
+Suddenly a hand fell on his cheek, and a thrill shot through him; his
+beard had been shaved away, for he could feel the softness of the hand
+against his chin. He felt the hand passed over his mouth--and he kissed
+it.
+
+There was a startled gasp, then the soft hand returned to his cheek.
+
+"Brian! Are you awake at last?"
+
+"I seem to be," he said, though his voice sounded more like a whisper.
+"Is that you, Nuala? Where are we?"
+
+"Yes, it is I," came her voice softly, and something warm splashed on
+his cheek. "Oh, Brian! I so feared that--that you were dead!"
+
+The hand moved away, and he moved uneasily, to feel pain through his
+body.
+
+"Nay, put back your hand!" he said. He tried to smile. "There, that's
+better. Where are we, Nuala? On your ship?"
+
+"No, Brian--at Gorumna. But I forgot. Turlough said you must not talk--"
+
+"Oh, curse Turlough," he cried in irritation. "Gorumna? What has
+happened? Where is the Dark Master?"
+
+"Lie still or I must leave you!" she cried sharply, and he obeyed. "The
+Dark Master's head is over the gate, Brian. It is two days since the
+fight."
+
+"Take that bandage from my eyes, Nuala," he said. After a minute her
+hands went to his head, and as he felt the bandage removed, light
+dazzled him, and he shut his eyes with a groan. Then he opened them
+again, and gradually he made out the figure of Nuala leaning over him,
+while a cresset shed light from above.
+
+"Tell me what has happened," said Brian quietly, as he tried again to
+move and failed. "Why am I helpless here?"
+
+"Because you are wounded," she replied softly. "Please lie quiet, Brian!
+I will tell you all that has chanced."
+
+"Where is Cathbarr! Did we win?"
+
+"Yes, we won; but--but Cathbarr--he must have flung away his ax before
+the ship exploded, for we found it sticking in your boat, and--"
+
+Her voice broke, and a pang of bitterness shot through Brian as he
+remembered it all now. He groaned.
+
+"And I left him there to die! Oh, coward that I am--coward, and false to
+my friend--"
+
+A great sob shook his body, but Nuala's hands fell on his face, and
+there was fear in her voice when she answered him.
+
+"No, Brian--don't say that! If any one's fault, it was Shaun's for not
+coming sooner to your aid. Cathbarr died as he would have wished, and
+indeed as he always thought he would die. But now listen, Brian, for I
+have news."
+
+So, leaning over him, she swiftly told him of what had passed. The
+O'Donnells had been defeated and slain to the last man; one of their
+ships was sunk, and the other three captured, and her men held Bertragh.
+As she and Shaun O'Malley lay refitting and gathering their wounded that
+same afternoon, a Parliament ship had come in from the south, bearing an
+answer to the appeal she had sent to Blake at the Cove of Cork.
+
+He had not only sent her powder and supplies, but had sent her a blank
+commission from Cromwell, which would be filled in upon her definite
+allegiance to the Commonwealth. The commission guaranteed her possession
+of Gorumna and Bertragh and the lands she claimed, and promised that
+when the royalists were driven from Galway the grant would be confirmed
+by Parliament.
+
+"I am to answer Captain Peyton to-night, Brian," she finished, her eyes
+dancing. "And Shaun is going to remain and hold Bertragh for me--"
+
+"What's that?" cried Brian. "Hold Bertragh? Am I then wounded so sore
+that I cannot draw sword again?"
+
+"No," and her laugh rippled out. "Turlough says that you will be as well
+as ever in a month, Brian. But since you withdrew your fealty to me, I
+had to find another servant!"
+
+"I had forgotten that," answered Brian moodily. He stared up at her
+face, and as he met her eyes saw the color flow up to her temples.
+
+"You have slain the Dark Master as you promised, Brian," she said
+quietly. "And have you forgotten also that you meant to claim a reward
+from me for that deed?"
+
+Brian laughed, and his face softened as happiness laid hold upon his
+heart.
+
+"I have not forgotten that, Nuala; but now I am not going to ask that
+reward in the same way I had intended."
+
+"How do you mean, Brian?" she asked gravely, though her eyes widened a
+trifle as if in quick fear.
+
+"This, dear lady," he smiled. "When you answer Captain Peyton, let the
+commission be made out in the name of Nuala O'Neill--and take my fealty
+for what is left to me of life, Nuala."
+
+He looked up steadily, knowing that all things hung on that instant.
+
+"Well, to tell the truth, Brian," and for a moment she seemed to
+hesitate, so that Brian felt a sudden shock, "I--I delayed answering him
+in--in that hope!"
+
+And her face came down to his.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The following synopsis originally appeared at the
+beginning of the second installment.]
+
+
+The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
+country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
+Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
+where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
+mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
+from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
+friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
+gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
+forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
+because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
+castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
+by black treachery.
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The following synopsis originally appeared at the
+beginning of the third installment.]
+
+
+The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
+country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
+Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
+where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
+mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
+from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
+friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
+gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
+forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
+because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
+castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
+by black treachery.
+
+By warlock arts O'Donnell More brings Brian and a handful of men through
+a snowstorm to Bertragh and makes him prisoner. He proceeds to torture
+him fiendishly, ending by nailing him to the castle door by one hand.
+Just then Colonel James Vere, British officer, arrives, and demands
+Brian in order to hang him comfortably in Galway. Red Murrough,
+O'Donnell's lieutenant, agrees, for the promise of ten English pounds,
+to pretend that Brian is worse off than he is so that he may take longer
+to recover. Cathbarr comes in, and offers to take Brian's place if
+O'Donnell will release Brian; and when the Black Master makes fun of
+him, he goes berserk and cleans out the hall, escaping with Brian to
+Nuala. Then they besiege and best O'Donnell, who escapes.
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The following synopsis originally appeared at the
+beginning of the fourth and final installment.]
+
+
+The scene is laid in Ireland during Cromwell's time, when the whole
+country was in arms for or against the various parties. Brian Buidh, or
+Brian of the Yellow Hair, himself The O'Neill, comes home from Spain,
+where he had been brought up to fight for his country. After a
+mysterious warning from the Black Woman, an old hag, he wins forty men
+from O'Donnell More, the Black Master, by a trick, and wins the
+friendship of Turlough Wolf and Cathbarr of the Ax. His intention is to
+gather a storm of men and hold an independent place near Galway. He
+forms an alliance with Nuala O'Malley, known as the Bird Daughter
+because of her carrier pigeons, for the purpose of recovering her
+castle, Bertragh, which O'Donnell had won years before from her parents
+by black treachery.
+
+By warlock arts O'Donnell More brings Brian and a handful of men through
+a snowstorm to Bertragh and makes him prisoner. He proceeds to torture
+him fiendishly, ending by nailing him to the castle door by one hand.
+Just then Colonel James Vere, British officer, arrives, and demands
+Brian in order to hang him comfortably in Galway. Red Murrough,
+O'Donnell's lieutenant, agrees, for the promise of ten English pounds,
+to pretend that Brian is worse off than he is so that he may take longer
+to recover. Cathbarr comes in, and offers to take Brian's place if
+O'Donnell will release Brian; and when the Black Master makes fun of
+him, he goes berserk and cleans out the hall, escaping with Brian to
+Nuala. Then they besiege and best O'Donnell, who escapes.
+
+Brian goes after O'Donnell with a couple of hundred men, having
+recovered from his hurts, and all but catches him in a valley, just as
+he is working some kind of a divination with a bowl of water. Brian gets
+back his Spanish sword, but O'Donnell escapes with some of his men, and
+Brian loses all of his in chasing him to keep him from joining with his
+pirate friends. Brian and Turlough get back to Bertragh exhausted. He
+goes cruising with Nuala, and they meet a small vessel laden with wine
+and food for some of O'Donnell's men. Brian goes back with it to
+Bertragh, while Nuala goes on to Gorumna Castle, her own home. But the
+captured wine proves to be poisoned--it is a trick of the Black
+Master's.
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+The following typographical errors present in the original magazine
+publication have been corrected for this electronic edition.
+
+In Chapter V, a missing quotation mark was added after "I am for Brian
+Buidh."
+
+In Chapter VI, "Dhar mo lamb" was changed to "Dhar mo lamh".
+
+In Chapter VII, "which were small carracks" was changed to "which were
+small caracks". (While "carrack" is the more common English spelling,
+the author used "carack" consistently elsewhere in the text.)
+
+In Chapter XI, a missing quotation mark was added after "I would take
+your life for his."
+
+In Chapter XII, a missing period was added after "shifted thither in
+readiness".
+
+In Chapter XIII, "coming ing in one of his ships to marry me" was
+changed to "coming in one of his ships to marry me", and "Beannact
+leath!" was changed to "Beannacht leath!".
+
+In Chapter XIV, a missing quotation mark was added after "has joined
+with those friends of his".
+
+In Chapter XVI, "those of the Dark Maser were no better" was changed to
+"those of the Dark Master were no better".
+
+In Chapter XVIII, a missing quotation mark was added after "They'll have
+the gates down in a minute."
+
+In Chapter XIX, "Mhuire as truagh, Muire as truagh" was changed to
+"Mhuire as truagh, Mhuire as truagh".
+
+In Chapter XXII, a missing comma was added after "curse Turlough".
+
+No other corrections were made to the original text.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NUALA O'MALLEY***
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