e piercing voice of the Dark Master,
and with a flame of rage hot in his mind he sped forward and found
himself confronted by a yelling mass of O'Donnells.

Then fell a sterner battle than any Brian had waged. In the lessening
obscurity it was hard to tell friend from foe, since the mist was
swirling in off the water and holding down the powder-smoke. Brian saved
his pistols, and, with Cathbarr at his side, struck into the wild,
shaggy-haired northern men; they were armed with ax and sword and skean,
and Brian soon found himself hard beset despite the pikemen behind.

The Spanish blade licked in and out like a tongue of steel, and Brian's
skill stood him in good stead that morn. Ax and broadsword crashed at
him, and as he wore no armor save a steel cap, he more than once gave
himself up for lost. But ever his thin, five-foot steel drove home to
the mark, and ever Cathbarr's great ax hammered and clove at his side,
so that the fight surged back and forth among the huts, as it was
surging on the other side where was the Dark Master, holding off the
main attack.

Little by little the mist eddied away, however, and the day began to
break. A fresh surge of the wild O'Donnells bore down on Brian's party,
and as they did so a man rose up from among the wounded and stabbed at
Brian with his skean. Brian kicked the arm aside, but slipped in blood
and snow and went down; as a yell shrilled up from the pirates, Cathbarr
leaped forward over him, swinging his ax mightily. With the blunt end he
caught one man full in the face, then drove down his sharp edge and
clove another head to waist. For an instant he was unable to get out his
ax, but Brian thrust up and drove death to a third, then stood on his
feet again.

At the same instant there came a roar from across the camp where his
main body of men were engaged, and Brian thrilled to the sound. As he
afterward found, it was done by Turlough's cunning word; but up over the
din of battle rose the great shout that struck dismay to the pirates and
heartened Brian himself to new efforts.

"Tyr-owen! Tyr-owen!"

With a bellow of "Tyr-owen!" Cathbarr went at the foe, and Brian joined
him with his own battle-cry on his lips for the first time in his life.
The shout swelled louder and louder, and among the huts Brian got a
glimpse of the Dark Master. In vain he tried to break through the
Millhaven men, however; they stood like a wall, dying as they fought,
but giving no ground until th