THE FIGHT IN THE PALACE
BARBARA HARDING heard the samurai in the room beyond her prison advancing toward the door that separated them from her.She pressed the point of the daimio's sword close to her heart.A heavy knock fell upon the door and at the same instant the girl was startled by a noise behind her--a noise at the little window at the far end of the room.
Turning to face this new danger, she was startled into a little cry of surprise to see the head and shoulders of the mucker framed in the broken square of the half-demolished window.
The girl did not know whether to feel renewed hope or utter despair.She could not forget the heroism of her rescue by this brutal fellow when the Halfmoon had gone to pieces the day before, nor could she banish from her mind his threats of violence toward her, or his brutal treatment of Mallory and Theriere.And the question arose in her mind as to whether she would be any better off in his power than in the clutches of the savage samurai.
Billy Byrne had heard the knock upon the door before which the girl knelt.He had seen the corpses of the dead men at her feet.He had observed the telltale position of the sword which the girl held to her breast and he had read much of the story of the impending tragedy at a glance.
"Cheer up, kid!" he whispered."I'll be wid youse in a minute, an' Theriere's out here too, to help youse if I can't do it alone."The girl turned toward the door again.
"Wait," she cried to the samurai upon the other side, "until I move the dead men, then you may come in, their bodies bar the door now."All that kept the warriors out was the fear that possibly Oda Yorimoto might not be dead after all, and that should they force their way into the room without his permission some of them would suffer for their temerity.Naturally none of them was keen to lose his head for nothing, but the moment that the girl spoke of the dead "men" they knew that Oda Yorimoto had been slain, too, and with one accord they rushed the little door.
The girl threw all her weight against her side, while the dead men, each to the extent of his own weight, aided the woman who had killed them in her effort to repulse their fellows; and behind the three Billy Byrne kicked and tore at the mud wall about the window in a frantic effort to enlarge the aperture sufficiently to permit his huge bulk to pass through into the little room.
The mucker won to the girl's side first, and snatching Oda Yorimoto's long sword from the floor he threw his great weight against the door, and commanded the girl to make for the window and escape to the forest as quickly as she could.
"Theriere is waiting dere," he said."He will see youse de moment yeh reach de window, and den youse will be safe.""But you!" cried the girl."What of you?""Never yeh mind me," commanded Billy Byrne."Youse jes'
do as I tells yeh, see? Now, beat it," and he gave her a rough shove toward the window.
And then, between the combined efforts of the samurai upon one side and Billy Byrne of Kelly's gang upon the other the frail door burst from its rotten hinges and fell to one side.
The first of the samurai into the little room was cleft from crown to breast bone with the keen edge of the sword of the Lord of Yoka wielded by the mighty arm of the mucker.The second took the count with a left hook to the jaw, and then all that could crowd through the little door swarmed upon the husky bruiser from Grand Avenue.
Barbara Harding took one look at the carnage behind her and then sprang to the window.At a short distance she saw the jungle and at its edge what she was sure was the figure of a man crouching in the long grass.
"Mr.Theriere!" she cried."Quick! They are killing Byrne,"and then she turned back into the room, and with the short sword which she still grasped in her hand sprang to the side of the mucker who was offering his life to save her.
Byrne cast a horrified glance at the figure fighting by his side.
"Fer de love o' Mike! Beat it!" he cried."Duck! Git out o'
here!"
But the girl only smiled up bravely into his face and kept her place beside him.The mucker tried to push her behind him with one hand while he fought with the other, but she drew away from him to come up again a little farther from him.
The samurai were pushing them closely now.Three men at a time were reaching for the mucker with their long swords.
He was bleeding from numerous wounds, but at his feet lay two dead warriors, while a third crawled away with a mortal wound in his abdomen.
Barbara Harding devoted her energies to thrusting and cutting at those who tried to press past the mucker, that they might take him from behind.The battle could not last long, so unequal were the odds.She saw the room beyond filled with surging warriors all trying to force their way within reach of the great white man who battled like some demigod of old in the close, dark, evil warren of the daimio.
She shot a side glance at the man.He was wonderful! The fire of battle had transformed him.No longer was he the sullen, sulky, hulking brute she had first known upon the Halfmoon.Instead, huge, muscular, alert, he towered above his pygmy antagonists, his gray eyes gleaming, a half-smile upon his strong lips.
She saw the long sword, wielded awkwardly in his unaccustomed hands, beat down the weapons of his skilled foemen by the very ferocity of its hurtling attack.She saw it pass through a man's shoulder, cleaving bone and muscle as if they had been cheese, until it stopped two-thirds across its victim's body, cutting him almost in two.
