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CHAPTER VI. THE MUCKER AT BAY

WHAT has this man said to you, Miss Harding?" cried Theriere. "Has he offered

you harm?"

"I do not think that he would have dared strike me," replied the girl, "though he

threatened to do so. He is the coward who murdered poor Mr. Mallory upon the

Lotus. He might stoop to anything after that."

Theriere turned angrily upon Byrne.

Go below!" he shouted. "I'll attend to you later. If Miss Harding were not here I'd

thrash you within an inch of your life now. And if I ever hear of your speaking to

her again, or offering her the slightest indignity I'll put a bullet through you so

quick you won't know what has struck you."

"T'ell yeh will!" sneered Billy Byrne. "I got your number, yeh big stiff; an' yeh

better not get gay wit me. Dey ain't no guy on board dis man's ship dat can hand

Billy Byrne dat kin' o' guff an' get away with it--see?" and before Theriere knew

what had happened a heavy fist had caught him upon the point of the chin and

lifted him clear off the deck to drop him unconscious at Miss Harding's feet.

"Yeh see wot happens to guys dat get gay wit me?" said the mucker to the girl,

and then stooping over the prostrate form of the mate Billy Byrne withdrew a

huge revolver from Theriere's hip pocket.

I guess I'll need dis gat in my business purty soon," he remarked.

Then he planted a vicious kick in the face of the unconscious man and went his

way to the forecastle.

"Now maybe she'll tink Billy Byrne's a coward," he thought, as he disappeared

below.

Barbara Harding stood speechless with shock at the brutality and ferocity of the

unexpected attack upon Theriere. Never in all her life had she dreamed that there

could exist upon the face of the earth a thing in human form so devoid of honor,

and chivalry, and fair play as the creature that she had just witnessed

threatening a defenseless woman, and kicking an unconscious man in the face;

but then Barbara Harding had never lived between Grand Avenue and Lake

Street, and Halsted and Robey, where standards of masculine bravery are strange

and fearful.

The Mucker