Part 25 (2/2)
”Mr Byrne?” she asked ”Where is Mr Byrne?”
”He is dead,” said Anthony Harding
The girl looked, wide-eyed and unco, at her father for a full minute
”Dead!” she moaned, and fell unconscious at his feet
CHAPTER XVII HOME AGAIN
BILLY BYRNE continued to fire intermittently for half an hour after the two men had left hiing himself to his hands and knees crawled laboriously and painfully back into the jungle in search of a hiding place where he ressed soive way beneath him He clutched frantically about for support, but there was none, and with a sickening lunge he plunged doard into Stygian darkness
His fall was a short one, and he brought up with a painful thud at the botto to catch their fleet-footed prey
The pain of his wounds after the fall was excruciating His head whirled dizzily He knew that he was dying, and then all went black
When consciousness returned to the ed hole that his falling body had broken in the pit's covering the night before
”Gee!” ht that I was dead!”
His wounds had ceased to bleed, but he was very weak and stiff and sore
”I guess I'ht
He wondered if the two men would reach Barbara in safety He hoped so
Mallory loved her, and he was sure that Barbara had loved Mallory He wanted her to be happy No thought of jealousy entered his ed” He didn't He was awith her bunch She would have been ashamed of him, and he couldn't have stood that No, it was better as it had turned out He'd squared himself for the beast he'd been to her, and he'd squared himself with Mallory, too At least they'd have only decent thoughts of hi He would be in the way He would be a constant embarrassment to them all, for they would feel that they'd have to be nice to hiht made the mucker sick
”I'd rather croak,” he murer, and toward evening the pangs of hunger and thirst drove hi place, and searching for food and water
He waited until after dark, and then he crawled, with ut of the natives since the night before, and now, in the open, there cae life across the clearing
Byrne dragged hi where poor Theriere had died It took hi time to reach it, but at last he was successful The clear, cold water helped to revive and strengthen hiht food Some wild fruit partially satisfied him for thehis steps toward ”Manhattan Island”
The trail that he had passed over in fifteen hours as he had hastened to the rescue of Anthony Harding and Billy Mallory required the better part of three days now Occasionally he wondered why in the world he was traversing it anyway Hadn't he wanted to die, and leave Barbara free?
But life is sweet, and the red blood still flowed strong in the veins of the ht, ”and not bother her; but I'll be dinged if I want to croak in this God-forsaken hole--Grand Avenue forin my checks Gee! but I'd like to hear the rattle of the Lake Street 'L' and see the dolls co down the station steps by Skidht”
Billy Byrne was homesick And then, too, his heart was very heavy and sad because of the great love he had found--a love which he realized was as hopeless as it was great He had the irl's arms about his neck, and her dear lips crushed to his for a brief instant, and her words--ah, those words! They would ring in Billy's head forever: ”I love you, Billy, for what you ARE”
And a sudden resolve came into the ain to himself ”I can't have her,” he said ”She isn't for the likes of me; but if I can't live with her, I can live for her--as she'd want ht If she ever hears of Billy Byrne again it won't be anything tohi him that she loved him”