Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 18, 2025
Nuala O'Malley had brought us some powder she was but a slip of a girl then. In the evening I was down at the ship when I saw her come from below, a hooded pigeon in her hands. She whispered in the bird's ear, set off the hood, and the bird flew into the night. I named her Bird Daughter, but no other man knew the name." "Then a woman did," chuckled Brian dryly.
The O'Malley cousins intended going south, since their affair had been so unexpectedly ended, and picking up a Spanish ship or two before returning home. "And now, what of your plans?" asked Nuala, as she and Brian sat together that night before the huge fireplace in the hall, where Brian had been burned and where Cathbarr had fought so well. "Of course, we can settle rents later on."
With her Kerry recruits, Nuala had a hundred and eighty men, so she had set to work to build a tower and small keep on the opposite island, that Gorumna itself might be more easily defended. Also she had taken some falconets and two bastards out of a large French ship, and had set about building a battery outside the castle that would overlook the harbor.
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. The Dark Master sat in his dark hall, brooding.
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.
When he was roused at dawn, he found the meaning of those noises, since a great storm was sweeping down out of the west, and the farther wore the day, the worse grew the storm. "Is Heaven itself fighting against us?" he thought bitterly, watching the sea from the battlements. "Against this blast Nuala cannot reach me, if she will." He got little time to brood, however.
Brian saw Turlough behind that tale, but Cathbarr was no man to carry it off with success. "Well," laughed the Dark Master, "none the less shall Brian be slain. Carry back that word to Nuala O'Malley." Cathbarr's mighty chest heaved like a barrel near to bursting. Brian was minded to break his promise, but Murrough's pistol was at his head, and he could but lie quietly and watch.
Once having reached their decision, they hastened it somewhat and sent men and muskets aboard the two ships at noon. Nuala wished to sail first to Gorumna Castle and make all safe there, then reach back for Slyne Head. She proposed that Brian take one carack and she the other, but at this Brian laughed. "No, lady I am no seaman, and I am your guest on this cruise, so I go with you."
"If we cut off those pirate ships on their way south he is not like to get much help from Galway." "Oh and I never thought of it!" cried Nuala, staring at him. Turlough chuckled. "That was spoken like a woman, mistress! If the rede seems good we could lay aboard men from here for fighting, and sail out with those two ships of yours."
Brian held up his hand, halting her suddenly, and silence fell on the men who had crowded around. For a moment he gazed into her deep eyes, then flung up his head and his voice rang clear and stern in the stillness. "Lady Nuala," he said quietly, "I promised you that when I slew the Dark Master I would tell you my name.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking