, 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