ood dripping from his beard he
looked more like a demon than a man. The huge ax flashed in the smoky
light, and before it men groaned and shrieked and gave back; it cleaved
steel and flesh, or smashed helms and heads together, and the Dark
Master had slipped from the place, so that his men had no leader.

Over the roar of fear-mad men, over the storm of shrieks and shouts,
over the dust and smoke, rose the mighty bellow of Cathbarr and the
thudding blows of his ax. The royalist officers were fighting around the
doorway, while O'Donnell's men were trying to make head against the
giant, but he swept through them like a whirlwind, awing them more by
his ferocious aspect and his mad rage than by the half-seen effect of
his terrific strength.

Little by little they eddied out from the door. Men lay all about,
tables were overturned, and through the crowd swirled the terrible ax,
leaving a path of dead in its wake. Brian staggered to the motionless
form of Colonel Vere, and reaching down drew a pistol from the dead
man's belt. His strength was flooding back to him, and in spite of the
agony caused by every movement, he clanked slowly down toward the door.
At sight of his chained and bandage-swathed figure a wild shriek welled
up, and when he laughed and fired into the midst of them all opposition
ceased.

Cathbarr still sought the Dark Master, raging back and forth, smiting
and smiting with never a pause in the flaillike sweep of his long arms.
He saw Brian standing there, and emitted a wild bellow of joy, but never
ceased from his smiting. Out through the door poured a stream of
maddened figures, for blind panic had come on every man there, and
Cathbarr's was not the only weapon that drew blood as the men fought for
exit.

Brian laughed again, for now he knew that he would die in no long time,
but it would not be under the torturers. Cathbarr cleared the hall, sent
the last man flying out with an arm lopped from him, and swung to the
huge doors after kicking two or three bodies from his way. When the beam
had dropped into place and they were alone with the dead and dying, he
turned to Brian and flung out his arms.

"Careful!" exclaimed Brian, seizing his hand. "None of your bear-hugs,
old friend," and he swiftly told of his tortures. Tears ran down the
giant's blood-strewn face as he listened, and with the tenderness of a
woman he picked up Brian and carried him back to a table, setting him on
it.

"First for these c