www.freeclassicebooks.com

Still the daimio shook his head negatively.

A hundred thousand--name your own price, if you will but not harm me."

Silence!" growled the man. "What are even a million koku to me who only know

the word from the legends of my ancestors. We have no need for koku here, and

had we, my hills are full of the yellow metal which measures its value. No! you are

my woman. Come!"

Not here! Not here!" pleaded the girl. "There is another room--away from all these

women," and she turned her eyes toward the door at the opposite side of the

chamber.

Oda Yorimoto shrugged his shoulders. That would be easier than a fight, he

argued, and so he led the girl toward the doorway that she had indicated. Within

the room all was dark, but the daimio moved as one accustomed to the place, and

as he moved through the blackness the girl at his side felt with stealthy fingers at

the man's belt.

At last Oda Yorimoto reached the far side of the long chamber.

Here!" he said, and took her by the shoulders.

Here!" answered the girl in a low, tense voice, and at the instant that she spoke

Oda Yorimoto, Lord of Yoka, felt a quick tug at his belt, and before he guessed

what was to happen his own short sword had pierced his breast.

A single shriek broke from the lips of the daimio; but it was so high and shrill and

like the shriek of a woman in mortal terror that the woman in the next room who

heard it but smiled a crooked, wicked smile of hate and turned once more upon

her pallet to sleep.

Again and again Barbara Harding plunged the sword of the brown man into the

still heart, until she knew beyond peradventure of a doubt that her enemy was

forevermore powerless to injure her. Then she sank, exhausted and trembling,

upon the dirt floor beside the corpse.

When Theriere came to the realization that Barbara Harding was gone he jumped

to the natural conclusion that Ward and Simms had discovered the ruse that he

had worked upon them just in time to permit them to intercept Miller and

Swenson with the girl, and carry her back to the main camp.

The others were prone to agree with him, though the mucker grumbled that "it

listened fishy." However, all hands returned cautiously down the face of the cliff,

expecting momentarily to be attacked by the guards which they felt sure Ward

The Mucker