"I'll have to bury him close by," replied the mucker."Idon't tink I could pack him very fer tonight--I don't feel jest quite fit agin yet.You wouldn't mind much if I buried him here, would you?""There is no other way, Mr.Byrne," replied the girl."You mustn't think of trying to carry him far.We have done all we can for poor Mr.Theriere--you have almost given your life for him already--and it wouldn't do any good to carry his dead body with us.""I hates to tink o' dem head-huntin' Chinks gettin' him,'
replied Byrne; "but maybe I kin hide his grave so's dey won't tumble to it.""You are in no condition to carry him at all," said the girl.
"I doubt if you can go far even without any burden."The mucker grinned.
"Youse don't know me, miss," he said, and stooping he lifted the body of the Frenchman to his broad shoulder, and started up the hillside through the trackless underbrush.
It would have been an impossible feat for an ordinary man in the pink of condition, but the mucker, weak from pain and loss of blood, strode sturdily upward while the marveling girl followed close behind him.A hundred yards above the spring they came upon a little level spot, and here with the two swords of Oda Yorimoto which they still carried they scooped a shallow grave in which they placed all that was mortal of the Count de Cadenet.
Barbara Harding whispered a short prayer above the newmade grave, while the mucker stood with bowed head beside her.Then they turned to their flight again up the wild face of the savage mountain.The moon came up at last to lighten the way for them, but it was a rough and dangerous climb at best.In many places they were forced to walk hand in hand for considerable distances, and twice the mucker had lifted the girl bodily in his arms to bear her across particularly dangerous or difficult stretches.
Shortly after midnight they struck a small mountain stream up which they followed until in a natural cul-de-sac they came upon its source and found their farther progress barred by precipitous cliffs which rose above them, sheer and unscalable.
They had entered the little amphitheater through a narrow, rocky pass in the bottom of which the tiny stream flowed, and now, weak and tired, the mucker was forced to admit that he could go no farther.
"Who'd o' t'ought dat I was such a sissy?" he exclaimed disgustedly.
"I think that you are very wonderful, Mr.Byrne," replied the girl."Few men could have gone through what you have today and been alive now."The mucker made a deprecatory gesture.
"I suppose we gotta make de best of it," he said."Anyhow, dis ought to make a swell joint to defend."Weak as he was he searched about for some soft grasses which he threw in a pile beneath a stunted tree that grew well back in the hollow.
"Here's yer downy," he said, with an attempt at jocularity.
"Now you'd better hit de hay, fer youse must be dead fagged.""Thanks!" replied the girl."I AM nearly dead."So tired was she that she was asleep almost as soon as she had found a comfortable position in the thick mat of grass, so that she gave no thought to the strange position in which circumstance had placed her.
The sun was well up the following morning before the girl awakened, and it was several minutes before she could readjust herself to her strange surroundings.At first she thought that she was alone, but finally she discerned a giant figure standing at the opening which led from their mountain retreat.
