s 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