Part 17 (1/2)

Barbara Harding devoted her energies to thrusting and cutting at those who tried to press past the ht take hi, so unequal were the odds She saw the roo to force their ithin reach of the great white man who battled like some demiGod of old in the close, dark, evil warren of the dailance at the man He onderful! The fire of battle had transfor brute she had first known upon the Half, a half-s sword, wielded aardly in his unaccustomed hands, beat down the weapons of his skilled foe attack She saw it pass through abone and muscle as if they had been cheese, until it stopped two-thirds across its victi him almost in two

She saw a sauard in an atteer, and when she had rushed forward to thwart the fellow's design she had seen Byrne swing his ht well have felled an ox Then another leaped into closer quarters and she saw Byrne at the saed devil who looked more Malay than jap, and as the stricken man fell she saw the hilt of the rip by the dead body of his foe

The samurai who had closed upon Byrne at that instant found his eneht he struck full at the broad chest with his long, thin dagger

But Billy Byrne was not to be dispatched so easily With his left forear blade, and then catching the fellow by the shoulder swung hi him above his head hurled hih the narrow doorway

Al in the ranks before Billy Byrne, and with a little gasp of dise fellow pitched forward upon his face At the sa, and Theriere leaped past her to stand across the body of the fallen mucker

With the sound of the shot a samurai sank to the floor, dead, and the others, unaccustoain Theriere fired point-blank into the crowded room, and this time two men fell, struck by the same bullet Once more the warriors retreated, and with an exultant yell Theriere followed up his advantage by charging ly upon them They stood for a moment, then wavered, turned and fled from the hut

When Theriere turned back toward Barbara Harding he found her kneeling beside the mucker

”Is he dead?” asked the Frenchh that ?”

”It is the only way,” replied Theriere, ”and we ed it to the far end of the room, but despite their best efforts the tere not able to lift the great, inert h the tiny opening

”What shall we do?” cried Theriere

”We”I could never desert the ht for roaned

”Nor I,” he said; ”but you--he has given his life to save yours Should you render his sacrifice of no avail now?”

”I cannot go alone,” she answered simply, ”and I know that you will not leave him There is no other e must stay”

At this juncture the mucker opened his eyes

”Who hitstiff” Theriere could not repress a sain knelt beside the man

”No one hit you, Mr Byrne,” she said ”You were struck by a spear and are badly wounded”

Billy Byrne opened his eyes a little wider, turning theirl so close to his

”MR Byrne!” he ejaculated in disgust ”Forget it Wot do youse tink I am, one of dose paper-collar dudes?”

Then he sat up Blood was flowing fro slowly to the earth floor There were two flesh wounds upon his head--one above the right eye and the other extending entirely across the left cheek from below the eye to the lobe of the ear--but these he had received earlier in the fracas Froh his crimson mask he looked at the pile of bodies in the far end of the roorin cracked the dried blood about his mouth