ell, 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: