kly 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 th