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CHAPTER XII. 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

The Mucker