CHAPTER XI. THE VILLAGE OF YOKA
FOR several minutes Barbara Harding lay where she had collapsed afterthe keen short sword of the daimio had freed her from the menace of hislust.
She was in a half-stupor that took cognizance only of a freezing terrorand exhaustion. Presently, however, she became aware of her contact withthe corpse beside her, and with a stifled cry she shrank away from it.
Slowly the girl regained her self-control and with it came therealization of the extremity of her danger. She rose to a sittingposture and turned her wide eyes toward the doorway to the adjoiningroom--the women and children seemed yet wrapped in slumber. It wasevident that the man's scream had not disturbed them.
Barbara gained her feet and moved softly to the doorway. She wonderedif she could cross the intervening space to the outer exit withoutdetection. Once in the open she could flee to the jungle, and thenthere was a chance at least that she might find her way to the coast andTheriere.
She gripped the short sword which she still held, and took a step intothe larger room. One of the women turned and half roused from sleep. Thegirl shrank back into the darkness of the chamber she had just quitted.The woman sat up and looked around. Then she rose and threw some sticksupon the fire that burned at one side of the dwelling. She crossed to ashelf and took down a cooking utensil. Barbara saw that she was about tocommence the preparation of breakfast.
All hope of escape was thus ended, and the girl cautiously closed thedoor between the two rooms. Then she felt about the smaller apartmentfor some heavy object with which to barricade herself; but her searchwas fruitless. Finally she bethought herself of the corpse. That wouldhold the door against the accident of a child or dog pushing it open--itwould be better than nothing, but could she bring herself to touch theloathsome thing?
The instinct of self-preservation will work wonders even with a frailand delicate woman. Barbara Harding steeled herself to the task, andafter several moments of effort she succeeded in rolling the dead managainst the door. The scraping sound of the body as she dragged it intoposition had sent cold shivers running up her spine.
She had removed the man's long sword and armor before attempting to movehim, and now she crouched beside the corpse with both the swords besideher--she would sell her life dearly. Theriere's words came back to hernow as they had when she was struggling in the water after the wreck ofthe Halfmoon: "but, by George, I intend to go down fighting." Well, shecould do no less.
She could hear the movement of several persons in the next room now. Thevoices of women and children came to her distinctly. Many of the wordswere Japanese, but others were of a tongue with which she was notfamiliar.
Presently her own chamber began to lighten. She looked over her shoulderand saw the first faint rays of dawn showing through a small aperturenear the roof and at the opposite end of the room. She rose and movedquickly toward it. By standing on tiptoe and pulling herself up a triflewith her hands upon the sill she was able to raise her eyes above thebottom of the window frame.
Beyond she saw the forest, not a hundred yards away; but when sheattempted to crawl through the opening she discovered to her chagrinthat it was too small to permit the passage of her body. And then therecame a knocking on the door she had just quitted, and a woman's voicecalling her lord and master to his morning meal.
Barbara ran quickly across the chamber to the door, the long swordraised above her head in both hands. Again the woman knocked, this timemuch louder, and raised her voice as she called again upon Oda Yorimototo come out.
The girl within was panic-stricken. What should she do? With but alittle respite she might enlarge the window sufficiently to permit herto escape into the forest, but the woman at the door evidently would notbe denied. Suddenly an inspiration came to her. It was a forlorn hope,but well worth putting to the test.
"Hush!" she hissed through the closed door. "Oda Yorimoto sleeps. It ishis wish that he be not disturbed."
For a moment there was silence beyond the door, and then the womangrunted, and Barbara heard her turn back, muttering to herself. The girlbreathed a deep sigh of relief--she had received a brief reprieve fromdeath.
Again she turned to the window, where, with the short sword, shecommenced her labor of enlarging it to permit the passage of her body.The work was necessarily slow because of the fact that it must proceedwith utter noiselessness.
For an hour she worked, and then again came an interruption at the door.This time it was a man.
"Oda Yorimoto still sleeps," whispered the girl. "Go away and do notdisturb him. He will be very angry if you awaken him."
But the man would not be put off so easily as had the woman. He stillinsisted.
"The daimio has ordered that there shall be a great hunt today for theheads of the sei-yo-jin who have landed upon Yoka," persisted the man."He will be angry indeed if we do not call him in time to accomplishthe task today. Let me speak with him, woman. I do not believe that OdaYorimoto still sleeps. Why should I believe one of the sei-yo-jin? Itmay be that you have bewitched the daimio," and with that he pushedagainst the door.
The corpse gave a little, and the man glued his eyes to the aperture.Barbara held the sword behind her, and with her shoulder against thedoor attempted to reclose it.
"Go away!" she cried. "I shall be killed if you awaken Oda Yorimoto,and, if you enter, you, too, shall be killed."
The man stepped back from the door, and Barbara could hear him in lowconverse with some of the women of the household. A moment later hereturned, and without a word of warning threw his whole weight againstthe portal. The corpse slipped back enough to permit the entrance of theman's body, and as he stumbled into the room the long sword of the Lordof Yoka fell full and keen across the back of his brown neck.
Without a sound he lunged to the floor, dead; but the women withouthad caught a fleeting glimpse of what had taken place within the littlechamber, even before Barbara Harding could slam the door again, andwith shrieks of rage and fright they rushed into the main street of thevillage shouting at the tops of their voices that Oda Yorimoto and HawaNisho had been slain by the woman of the sei-yo-jin.
Instantly, the village swarmed with samurai, women, children, and dogs.They rushed toward the hut of Oda Yorimoto, filling the outer chamberwhere they jabbered excitedly for several minutes, the warriorsattempting to obtain a coherent story from the moaning women of thedaimio's household.
Barbara Harding crouched close to the door, listening. She knew that thecrucial moment was at hand; that there were at best but a few momentsfor her to live. A silent prayer rose from her parted lips. She placedthe sharp point of Oda Yorimoto's short sword against her breast, andwaited--waited for the coming of the men from the room beyond, snatchinga few brief seconds from eternity ere she drove the weapon into herheart.
Theriere plunged through the jungle at a run for several minutes beforehe caught sight of the mucker.
"Are you still on the trail?" he called to the man before him.
"Sure," replied Byrne. "It's dead easy. They must o' been at least adozen of 'em. Even a mutt like me couldn't miss it."
"We want to go carefully, Byrne," cautioned Theriere. "I've hadexperience with these fellows before, and I can tell you that you neverknow when one of 'em is near you till you feel a spear in your back,unless you're almighty watchful. We've got to make all the haste we can,of course, but it won't help Miss Harding any if we rush into an ambushand get our heads lopped off."
Byrne saw the wisdom of his companion's advice and tried to profit byit; but something which seemed to dominate him today carried him aheadat reckless, breakneck speed--the flight of an eagle would have been alltoo slow to meet the requirements of his unaccountable haste.
Once he found himself wondering why he was risking his life to avenge orrescue this girl whom he hated so. He tried to think that it was for theransom--yes, that was it, the ransom. If he found her alive, and rescuedher he should claim the lion's share of the booty.
Theriere to
o wondered why Byrne, of all the other men upon the Halfmoonthe last that he should have expected to risk a thing for the sake ofMiss Harding, should be the foremost in pursuit of her captors.
"I wonder how far behind Sanders and Wison are," he remarked to Byrneafter they had been on the trail for the better part of an hour. "Hadn'twe better wait for them to catch up with us? Four can do a whole lotmore than two."
"Not wen Billy Byrne's one of de two," replied the mucker, and continueddoggedly along the trail.
Another half-hour brought them suddenly in sight of a native village,and Billy Byrne was for dashing straight into the center of it and"cleaning it up," as he put it, but Theriere put his foot down firmly onthat proposition, and finally Byrne saw that the other was right.
"The trail leads straight toward that place," said Theriere, "so Isuppose here is where they brought her, but which of the huts she's innow we ought to try to determine before we make any attempt to rescueher. Well, by George! Now what do you think of that?"
"Tink o' wot?" asked the mucker. "Wot's eatin' yeh?"
"See those three men down there in the village, Byrne?" asked theFrenchman. "They're no more aboriginal headhunters than I am--they'reJaps, man. There must be something wrong with our trailing, for it's ascertain as fate itself that Japs are not head-hunters."
"There ain't been nothin' fony about our trailin', bo," insisted Byrne,"an' whether Japs are bean collectors or not here's where de ginks datcopped de doll hiked fer, an if dey ain't dere now it's because dey wentt'rough an' out de odder side, see."
"Hush, Byrne," whispered Theriere. "Drop down behind this bush. Someoneis coming along this other trail to the right of us," and as he spoke hedragged the mucker down beside him.
For a moment they crouched, breathless and expectant, and then the slimfigure of an almost nude boy emerged from the foliage close beside andentered the trail toward the village. Upon his head he bore a bundle offirewood.
When he was directly opposite the watchers Theriere sprang suddenlyupon him, clapping a silencing hand over the boy's mouth. In Japanese hewhispered a command for silence.
"We shall not harm you if you keep still," he said, "and answer ourquestions truthfully. What village is that?"
"It is the chief city of Oda Yorimoto, Lord of Yoka," replied the youth."I am Oda Iseka, his son."
"And the large hut in the center of the village street is the palace ofOda Yorimoto?" guessed Theriere shrewdly.
"It is."
The Frenchman was not unversed in the ways of orientals, and he guessedalso that if the white girl were still alive in the village she would bein no other hut than that of the most powerful chief; but he wished toverify his deductions if possible. He knew that a direct question as tothe whereabouts of the girl would call forth either a clever orientalevasion or an equally clever oriental lie.
"Does Oda Yorimoto intend slaying the white woman that was brought tohis house last night?" asked Theriere.
"How should the son know the intentions of his father?" replied the boy.
"Is she still alive?" continued Theriere.
"How should I know, who was asleep when she was brought, and only heardthe womenfolk this morning whispering that Oda Yorimoto had brought homea new woman the night before."
"Could you not see her with your own eyes?" asked Theriere.
"My eyes cannot pass through the door of the little room behind, inwhich they still were when I left to gather firewood a half hour since,"retorted the youth.
"Wot's de Chink sayin'?" asked Billy Byrne, impatient of theconversation, no word of which was intelligible to him.
"He says, in substance," replied Theriere, with a grin, "that MissHarding is still alive, and in the back room of that largest hut in thecenter of the village street; but," and his face clouded, "Oda Yorimoto,the chief of the tribe, is with her."
The mucker sprang to his feet with an oath, and would have bolted forthe village had not Theriere laid a detaining hand upon his shoulder.
"It is too late, my friend," he said sadly, "to make haste now. Wemay, if we are cautious, be able to save her life, and later, possibly,avenge her wrong. Let us act coolly, and after some manner of plan, sothat we may work together, and not throw our lives away uselessly. Thechance is that neither of us will come out of that village alive, butwe must minimize that chance to the utmost if we are to serve MissHarding."
"Well, wot's de word?" asked the mucker, for he saw that Theriere wasright.
"The jungle approaches the village most closely on the oppositeside--the side in rear of the chief's hut," pointed out Theriere. "Wemust circle about until we can reach that point undetected, then we mayformulate further plans from what our observations there develop."
"An' dis?" Byrne shoved a thumb at Oda Iseka.
"We'll take him with us--it wouldn't be safe to let him go now."
"Why not croak him?" suggested Byrne.
"Not unless we have to," replied Theriere; "he's just a boy--we'lldoubtless have all the killing we want among the men before we get outof this."
"I never did have no use fer Chinks," said the mucker, as though inextenuation of his suggestion that they murder the youth. For someunaccountable reason he had felt a sudden compunction because of histhoughtless remark. What in the world was coming over him, he wondered.He'd be wearing white pants and playing lawn tennis presently if hecontinued to grow much softer and more unmanly.
So the three set out through the jungle, following a trail which ledaround to the north of the village. Theriere walked ahead with the boy'sarm in his grasp. Byrne followed closely behind. They reached theirdestination in the rear of Oda Yorimoto's "palace" without interruptionor detection. Here they reconnoitered through the thick foliage.
"Dere's a little winder in de back of de house," said Byrne. "Dat mustbe where dem guys cooped up de little broiler."
"Yes," said Theriere, "it would be in the back room which the boydescribed. First let's tie and gag this young heathen, and then we canproceed to business without fear of alarm from him," and the Frenchmanstripped a long, grass rope from about the waist of his prisoner, withwhich he was securely trussed up, a piece of his loin cloth being forcedinto his mouth as a gag, and secured there by another strip, torn fromthe same garment, which was passed around the back of the boy's head.
"Rather uncomfortable, I imagine," commented Theriere; "but notparticularly painful or dangerous--and now to business!"
"I'm goin' to make a break fer dat winder," announced the mucker, "andyouse squat here in de tall grass wid yer gat an' pick off any freshguys dat get gay in back here. Den, if I need youse you can comea-runnin' an' open up all over de shop wid de artillery, or if I getsde lizzie outen de jug an' de Chinks push me too clost youse'll be herewhere yeh can pick 'em off easy-like."
"You'll be taking all the risk that way, Byrne," objected Theriere, "andthat's not fair."
"One o' us is pretty sure to get hurted," explained the mucker indefense of his plan, "an, if it's a croak it's a lot better dat it beme than youse, fer the girl wouldn't be crazy about bein' lef' alone widme--she ain't got no use fer the likes o' me. Now youse are her kin, an'so youse stay here w'ere yeh can help her after I git her out--I don'twant nothing to do wid her anyhow. She gives me a swift pain, and," headded as though it were an after-thought, "I ain't got no use fer datransom eider--youse can have dat, too."
"Hold on, Byrne," cried Theriere; "I have something to say, too. I donot see how I can expect you to believe me; but under the circumstances,when one of us and maybe both are pretty sure to die before the day ismuch older, it wouldn't be worth while lying. I do not want that damnedransom any more, either. I only want to do what I can to right the wrongthat I have helped to perpetrate against Miss Harding. I--I--Byrne,I love her. I shall never tell her so, for I am not the sort of man adecent girl would care to marry; but I did want the chance to make aclean breast to her of all my connection with the whole dirty business,and get her forgiveness if I could; but first I wanted to prove
myrepentance by helping her to civilization in safety, and delivering herto her friends without the payment of a cent of money. I may never beable to do that now; but if I die in the attempt, and you don't, I wishthat you would tell her what I have just told you. Paint me as black asyou can--you couldn't commence to make me as black as I have been--butlet her know that for love of her I turned white at the last minute.Byrne, she is the best girl that you or I ever saw--we're not fit tobreathe the same air that she breathes. Now you can see why I shouldlike to go first."
"I t'ought youse was soft on her," replied the mucker, "an' dat's dereason w'y youse otter not go first; but wot's de use o' chewin', lesflip a coin to see w'ich goes an w'ich stays--got one?"
Theriere felt in his trousers' pocket, fishing out a dime.
"Heads, you go; tails, I go," he said and spun the silver piece in theair, catching it in the flat of his open palm.
"It's heads," said the mucker, grinning. "Gee! Wot's de racket?"
Both men turned toward the village, where a jabbering mob of half-casteJapanese had suddenly appeared in the streets, hurrying toward the hutof Oda Yorimoto.
"Somepin doin', eh?" said the mucker. "Well, here goes--s'long!" And hebroke from the cover of the jungle and dashed across the clearing towardthe rear of Oda Yorimoto's hut.