uculain 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