"It seems to me that ill shall come of this," he said, and wiped his ax clean.
Brian laughed shortly and dismounted. He found that the wagons contained powder, stores, and muskets; so after placing the wounded in them, he rode north to Corrofin that day with close to two hundred men at his back. Staying that night at Corrofin, he hanged ten of the Scots for plundering, rested his horses for two days, and set his face homeward with the surety that his men knew him for master.
The storm of men was gathering fast.
CHAPTER VI.
BRIAN TAKES CAPTIVES.
"Failte abhaile! Welcome, Yellow Brian!"
"So you won back before me, eh?" Brian swung down from his horse and gripped hands with old Turlough Wolf. "Get the men camped, Cathbarr, then join us."
Turlough's cunning eyes rested on the wagons and weary horsemen, and he nodded approvingly as Brian told him of what had chanced.
"Said I not that you were a master of men?" he chuckled quietly, as he turned to follow into Cathbarr's tower. "But it is easier to master men than women, Brian. I bear you a bitter rede from the Bird Daughter, master."
"Hard words fare ill on empty stomachs," quoth Brian. "Keep it till I have eaten."