craftily, found he was alone, and took from under his cloak a
small, brass crucifix. With this he touched the skin, found that nothing
happened, and rose with a nod. The dawn was just breaking in the east.

"There is no sorcery in it, at least," he muttered; "but I think it
bodes no great good to us. Ho, Brian!"

Brian woke and sprang up. Turlough handed him the strip of skin, saying
no word, and when Brian had held it to the light of the embers, he
looked up suddenly.

"Whence came this?"

"What does it say first?" returned Turlough uneasily.

"News!" cried Brian, his blue eyes aflame with eagerness. "It says that
O'Donnell bides alone by the Black Tarn, and that his horsemen from the
north are camped two miles beyond the mountain, waiting for him, and
that he has made pact with the Millhaven pirates and they have left for
their stronghold. Answer me--whence came this? It is written in good
English writing, man!"

Then Turlough told of what had chanced, and when he had done, Brian
stared into his gray eyes with a great wonder. Twice he tried to speak,
but his lips were dry.

"The Black Woman!" he muttered thickly. "Can it be, Turlough? Who is
she?"

"That was my thought, master," said Turlough. "Who she is none know save
herself; but she deals with no good. This may be a trap; let us ride
south again, and at once, lest evil come upon us."

"South? Not I," laughed Brian, though his face was pale. "To horse,
men!"

And at his ringing shout the camp awoke, and Brian saw his vengeance
drawing near.

CHAPTER XV.

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE TARN.

It had been long, indeed, since Brian had given thought to his meeting
with the Black Woman on the other side of Ireland. In that brief
meeting, the Black Woman had spoken of seeing the old earl, his
grandfather, in his youth. Yet it was forty years since the two earls,
O'Donnell and O'Neill, had fled together from Ireland, and even then
Tyr-owen had been an old man. Unless this Black Woman was close on a
hundred years of age, Brian could not see how she had known Hugh O'Neill
in his youth.

The mere fact that she had recognized him there in the moonlight was
proof of her true speaking, however. Brian could no longer hide from
himself that her words had some strange prophecy in them. She had
foretold his meeting with Cathbarr and with the Bird Daughter, though,
indeed, she might have been attempting only to guide him on the path
which he had afterward followe