HOW THE DARK MASTER WAS RUINED.
The fear that had come upon the O'Donnells was so great that not until
pikemen entered the castle from the camp could the Dark Master get men
at the doors of the hall. And this proved the salvation of Brian and
Cathbarr, for when they left the hall by the rear door and slipped
through the corridors, they came out upon the rear or seaward
battlements of the castle.
These they found denuded of men, while from the courtyard and front of
the keep were rising shouts and batterings, whereat Cathbarr chuckled.
"They are all drawn around to the front, brother. Now, how to get down
from here?"
Brian looked around in the starlight, but saw that there was no gate or
other opening in the walls. He began to lose hope again; once the Dark
Master had burst into the great hall he would scatter men over the whole
castle, and their shrift would be short. At this point the walls were
some thirty feet high, and pointing out to the sea stood four of the
bastards, with balls piled beside them.
"Now if we had a rope," he said, "the matter would not be hard. Is that
boat near the shore?"
"Not so far that I cannot make them hear," grinned Cathbarr, opening his
mouth to shout, but Brian stopped him.
"Be careful--do you want to draw down the O'Donnells likewise? Now, cut
the ropes from these cannon, and if we have time we shall yet get down
safe."
Cathbarr rushed off in delight, and began hewing at the recoil-ropes
which bound the bastards and their carriages to their places. Brian
followed him, seizing the ropes and trying to knot the strands hastily
and with no little pain to himself; but now the hope of escape began to
thrill through him, and for the first time since sighting the Dark
Master's stronghold he began to think that he might yet get away.
However, he could do little knotting with one hand, and not until
Cathbarr impatiently took over the task was it finished. At the same
instant a great burst of yells rose over the castle.
"Hasten!" cried Brian, as the other began fastening the line to a
cannon. "I can use one hand--"
"Save your strength," grunted Cathbarr, lifting him after swinging the
loop of his ax around his neck. "Catch me about the neck with your good
arm, and trust me for the rest, brother."
Brian did as he was ordered, since there was no time for lowering him
down. The giant scrambled over the edge, gripping the twisting rope, and
Brian tightened his lips to keep down his groans, for the agony was
cruel to him. He was forced against the body of Cathbarr, and swirl
after swirl of pain went over him at each touch on his burns.
The giant grunted once or twice, for he had many slight wounds also, but
with the rope gripped in hands and feet, he lowered away steadily. At
length they reached the ground, and the scattered rocks along the shore
were but a few yards away.
Cathbarr sent his bull-like voice roaring out at the stars, while Brian
clung weakly to him and searched the waters. He could see nothing, but
suddenly there drifted in a faint shout, and Cathbarr bellowed once
more.
"Swim for it," said Brian, as torches began to move along the walls
above. "If those cannon are not loaded, we're safe."
Cathbarr nodded, and caught up the body of Brian tenderly enough in one
arm, as he splashed out. The icy water shocked Brian's brain awake and
drove the pain out of him momentarily, and before Cathbarr was
waist-deep he heard a hail and saw the dark shape of a galley
approaching.
Muskets flashed out from the walls, and their bullets whistled overhead,
but five minutes later Brian was on the galley, Cathbarr was clambering
over the side, and the light boat was being rowed out again.
Brian thought his senses were slipping away when he found Nuala O'Malley
herself holding his head as he lay in the stern, while men flung cloaks
around him; but warm tears dripped on his face, and she patted his arm
soothingly.
"Lie quiet," she said, but Brian would not, for already his brain was
leaping ahead, and he knew that there was work to be done.
"Tell me," he asked eagerly, "are my men camped around the royalists?
Is help indeed coming to you from the North?"
"Yes," she replied, trying to quiet him. "A pigeon came in from Erris
to-day, with word that two ships with men were on the way to help me.
When I returned from the South and found that the plague had been at
Gorumna, I sent off asking for help, and now it is coming."
"Then send word to Turlough!" cried Brian eagerly. "Tell him to throw my
men on the royalist camp _to-night_ and drive the pikemen into the
castle! Colonel Vere is dead, and there is such confusion that all will
think we have more than two hundred men. If we can leaguer them there
until your ships come, we may win all at a blow!"
Nuala found instantly that there was meat in the plan, and as they were
rowing out to meet one of her caracks, promised to send in the galley
with word to Turlough when they got aboard the larger ship.
This they were no great while in doing. Brian knew nothing of it, for
upon the Bird Daughter's word he had dropped away into a faint once
more. With this Nuala O'Malley was quite content, so that when Brian
wakened he was greatly refreshed and found himself lying bandaged on a
bunk with the sunlight coming through a stern-port beside him, and the
Bird Daughter watching him with food and drink ready.
"Take of this first," she smiled; "then we will talk."
Brian obeyed, being very thirsty and ravenously hungered. He had little
pain except when he tried to move, and so he ate as he lay, propped up
with folded garments, and watched the Bird Daughter. She refused to
speak until he had eaten the meat and cakes she had fetched, 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
and faced the giant, sharply bidding him kneel. Cathbarr had been all
for rushing forward to Brian, and obeyed with an ill grace, when Nuala
quickly leaned forward and kissed him on the brow.
"That is for bravery and faith," she said. "Truly, I would that you
served me!"
Poor Cathbarr grew redder than the Bird Daughter's cloak. He started to
his feet, gazed around sheepishly, found all men laughing at him--and
did the best thing he could have done, which was to go to his knees
again and put Nuala's hand to his lips.
"While my master serves you, I serve you," he blurted out, and this
answer must have pleased Nuala mightily, for she flushed, laughed, and
bade all down into the cabin.
Brian greeted Turlough with no little joy, but beyond assurances that
all went well, gained no knowledge of what had happened. Nuala had sent
for the O'Malley chieftains, and proposed to hold a conference at once.
The O'Malleys arrived from the other ships in a scant five
minutes--dark, silent men who spoke little, but spoke to the point. Art
Bocagh, or the Lame, had had one leg hamstrung in his youth, but Brian
took him for a dangerous man in battle; while his cousin Shaun the
Little was a very short man with tremendous shoulders.
Nuala took her seat at the head of the stern-cabin table, and the
position of affairs was gone over carefully.
It seemed that no sooner had Turlough learned from Cathbarr of what had
taken place in the castle, and that Brian was safe on shipboard, than
he drove his men down pell-mell on the camp, just before dawn. Any other
man would have been exhausted by the events of that night, but Cathbarr
had led them in the assault. The result had been that, with hardly any
resistance, they had slain some four-score of the pikemen, and would
have captured or slain them all had it not been for the Dark Master's
cannon which drove them back.
The better part of the royalist officers had fallen, either then or
under the ax of Cathbarr in the hall of the castle. In fact, after
learning that he had slain some nineteen persons on that occasion,
Cathbarr had taken no few airs upon himself. Vanity was to him as
natural as to a child, and Brian hugely enjoyed watching the giant
strut. However, what remained of Vere's five hundred pikemen were in the
castle, joined to the Dark Master's men; and Turlough's advice was that
since there must be some seven hundred mouths to feed, the safest plan
was to bide close and force the fight to come to them, rather than to
take it to O'Donnell.
"There is reason against that, Turlough Wolf," said Brian quickly. "The
Dark Master has men on the hills, and if news is borne to Galway of what
has happened, we are like to have a larger army on our heels than we can
cope with."
"I have attended to O'Donnell's watchers," said Turlough grimly. "When
Cathbarr bore word of the pact from Gorumna Castle, I sent out horsemen
and we swept the hills bare of men. O'Donnell has no more than are in
the castle, and a score of our own men are on the roads, watching for
any ill."
"How many men have we in all?" spoke up Lame Art O'Malley. "In our ships
there are sixty men we can spare for land battle."
"That gives us three hundred in all," replied Turlough to Nuala's
questioning glance. "If we take a strong position we should sweep most
of O'Donnell's men away at the first charge."
"There you are wrong," said Brian, shaking his head. "Those pikemen are
bad foes for cavalry, and our two hundred horsemen would shatter on them
if they stood firm."
"Not if we choose our ground," said the Bird Daughter, her eyes
flashing. "Nay, _I_ am master here, my friends! Now this is my rede. We
shall not waste men by attacking the castle, unless forced to it by an
army from Galway. Instead, we will wait until the Dark Master is driven
out by hunger; then we will fall on him and destroy him utterly.
"Yellow Brian, you have some knowledge of war, and you shall take this
matter in charge. Cathbarr, do you command fifty horse, with the men
from our ships here, and keep the Dark Master in play. With the
remainder, we shall wait in whatever spot Brian shall choose, and before
many days are sped I think that Bertragh will be mine again."
The Bird Daughter had her way, since none could find much against her
plan; and that afternoon Brian went ashore with her and the O'Malleys,
leaving the three ships at anchor under a small guard. Turlough had made
camp a short mile from the castle, on a little hill among the farms;
both Nuala and the O'Malley men were somewhat surprised at finding the
O'Donnell women and children safe and untouched in their own steads.
"I saw to that," laughed Turlough, slanting his crafty eyes at Brian. "I
had but to threaten them in Brian's name, and the men only were slain."
"I think that you are a hard master," laughed Nuala, but Brian smiled
and pointed to his men, who were pouring out to meet him with shouts of
joy.
"All men do not rule by fear alone, Bird Daughter," he said quietly. She
gave him a quick glance. "I found these men riffraff of the wars, and
while they have no such love for me as Cathbarr here, I think they had
liefer follow me than any other leader."
After that Nuala said little concerning Brian's discipline.
That night Nuala and Brian took up headquarters at one of the larger
farms, and while Cathbarr went before the castle to keep the Dark Master
in check and allow none to leave the place, they called in a number of
those men O'Donnell had loaned to Brian, and questioned them about the
provisioning of the castle.
From these they found that there was good store of all things for the
usual garrison, but with seven hundred men to feed the Dark Master would
be forced out speedily. So with the dawn Brian and Turlough rode forth
to select a battleground, and while Brian was very sore and riding
caused him great pain at first, he soon found himself in better shape.
Turlough picked a hollow in the road a mile farther from the castle,
flanked on either hand by woods and hillsides where men might lie
hidden. Brian found it good, and that afternoon a part of their horsemen
were shifted thither in readiness.
* * * * *
For the next three days there was little done. Twice the Dark Master
attempted sallies with what few horsemen he had left, but on each
occasion Cathbarr's horse smote his men and drove them back. To be sure,
O'Donnell thundered with his bastards, but the guns only burned up good
powder, for Brian would allow no assault made.
By Turlough's advice, however, they brought about the Dark Master's fall
through certain prisoners made in the two sallies.
These captives were led through the depleted central camp, though they
knew nothing of that picked place farther back. Having been allowed to
see what men Brian had here, Turlough slyly drove Cathbarr into parading
his vanity before them; and in all innocence the giant told how he could
put the Dark Master's men to flight single-handed, and of his anxiety
lest the O'Donnells should fear to fight in the open. What was more,
Brian affected to be utterly shattered by his wounds, and with that the
prisoners were sent back with a message offering quarter to all within
the castle save the Dark Master himself.
Early the next morning a horseman came riding fast from Cathbarr with
word that the garrison was stirring. Without delay, Brian donned a
mail-shirt, bound his useless left arm to his side, and mounted. The
Bird Daughter insisted on accompanying him, and stilled his dismayed
protests by asserting her feudal superiority; in the end she had her
way.
Leaving her kinsmen and a hundred more men to dispute O'Donnell's
passage and give back slowly before him with Cathbarr, she and Brian
rode to their men among the trees on the hillsides over the hollow in
the road. Here they had a hundred and fifty men, composed of the Scots
troopers and the pick of the others, and Nuala took one side of the road
while Brian took the other. Then, being well hidden, they waited.
Brian was savagely determined to slay the Dark Master that day, and came
near to doing it. Presently a man galloped up to say that O'Donnell and
six hundred men were on the road, having left the rest to hold the
castle. A little later Cathbarr's retreating force came in sight, and
after them marched O'Donnell. He had deployed his muskets in front and
rear, and rode in the midst of his pikemen, whose banner of England blew
out bravely in the morning wind.
At the edge of the dip in the road Cathbarr led his men in full flight
down the hollow and up the farther rise, where he halted as if to
dispute the Dark Master further. There were barely a dozen mounted men
with O'Donnell, and he made no pursuit, but marched steadily along with
his muskets pecking at Cathbarr's men. When he had come between the
wooded hillsides, however, Cathbarr came charging down the road; the
pikemen settled their pikes three deep to receive him, and with that
Brian led out his men among the trees and swooped down with an ax
swinging in his right hand.
Alive to his danger, the Dark Master tried to receive his charge, but
at that instant Nuala's men burst down on the other flank. Brian headed
his men, and at sight of him a yell of dismay went up from the
O'Donnells. A moment later the pikemen's array was broken and the fight
disintegrated into a wild affray wherein the horsemen had much the
better of it.
Brian tried to cut his way to the Dark Master, but when O'Donnell saw
the pikemen shattered he knew that the day was lost. He gathered his
dozen horsemen and went at Cathbarr viciously; Brian saw the two meet,
saw O'Donnell's blade slip under the ax and Cathbarr go from the saddle,
then the Dark Master had broken through the ring and was riding hard for
the North.
Brian wheeled his horse instantly, found the Bird Daughter at his side,
and with a score of men behind them they rode out of the battle in
pursuit. It proved useless, however, for the Dark Master had the better
horseflesh; after half an hour he was gaining rapidly, and with a bitter
groan Brian drew rein at last.
"No use, Nuala," he said. "I must wait until my strength has come back
to me, for I have done too much and can go no farther."
The girl reined in beside him, and her hand went out to his, and he
found himself gazing deep into her eyes.
"For what you have done, Brian," she said simply, "thanks. Now let us
ride back, for I think there is work before us, and we shall see the
Dark Master soon enough."
"I am not minded to wait his coming," quoth Yellow Brian darkly, and
they returned.
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly,
and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a
month.
Nuala O'Malley
by H. Bedford-Jones
Author of "Malay Gold," "The Ghost Hill," "John Solomon, Supercargo,"
etc.
This story began in the All-Story Weekly for December 30.