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when "the evening and the morning were the third day." An American girl of the

highest social caste borne in the arms of that most vicious of all social pariahs--

the criminal mucker of the slums of a great city--and defending them with drawn

revolver, a French count and soldier of fortune, while in their wake streamed a

yelling pack of half-caste demons clothed in the habiliments of sixteenth century

Japan, and wielding the barbarous spears of the savage head-hunting aborigines

whose fierce blood coursed in their veins with that of the descendants of Taka-mi-

musu-bi-no-kami.

Three-quarters of the distance had been covered in safety before the samurai

came within safe spear range of the trio. Theriere, seeing the danger to the girl,

dropped back a few paces hoping to hold the brown warriors from her. The

foremost of the pursuers raised his weapon aloft, carrying his spear hand back of

his shoulder for the throw. Theriere's revolver spoke, and the man pitched

forward, rolling over and over before he came to rest.

A howl of rage went up from the samurai, and a half-dozen spears leaped at long

range toward Theriere. One of the weapons transfixed his thigh, bringing him to

earth. Byrne was at the forest's edge as the Frenchman fell--it was the girl,

though, who witnessed the catastrophe.

"Stop!" she cried. "Mr. Theriere is down."

The mucker halted, and turned his head in the direction of the Frenchman, who

had raised himself to one elbow and was firing at the advancing enemy. He

dropped the girl to her feet.

"Wait here!" he commanded and sprang back toward Theriere.

Before he reached him another spear had caught the man full in the chest,

toppling him, unconscious, to the earth. The samurai were rushing rapidly upon

the wounded officer--it was a question who would reach him first.

Theriere had been nipped in the act of reloading his revolver. It lay beside him

now, the cylinder full of fresh cartridges. The mucker was first to his side, and

snatching the weapon from the ground fired coolly and rapidly at the advancing

Japanese. Four of them went down before that deadly fusillade; but the mucker

cursed beneath his breath because of his two misses.

Byrne's stand checked the brown men momentarily, and in the succeeding lull

the man lifted the unconscious Frenchman to his shoulder and bore him back to

the forest. In the shelter of the jungle they laid him upon the ground. To the girl it

seemed that the frightful wound in his chest must prove fatal within a few

moments.

The Mucker