"
"You are in no condition to carry him at all," said the girl.
"I doubt if you can go far even without any burden."
The mucker grinned.
"Youse don't know me, miss," he said, and stooping he
lifted the body of the Frenchman to his broad shoulder, and
started up the hillside through the trackless underbrush.
It would have been an impossible feat for an ordinary man
in the pink of condition, but the mucker, weak from pain and
loss of blood, strode sturdily upward while the marveling girl
followed close behind him. A hundred yards above the spring
they came upon a little level spot, and here with the two
swords of Oda Yorimoto which they still carried they scooped
a shallow grave in which they placed all that was mortal of
the Count de Cadenet.
Barbara Harding whispered a short prayer above the new-made
grave, while the mucker stood with bowed head beside
her. Then they turned to their flight again up the wild face of
the savage mountain. The moon came up at last to lighten the
way for them, but it was a rough and dangerous climb at
best. In many places they were forced to walk hand in hand
for considerable distances, and twice the mucker had lifted the
girl bodily in his arms to bear her across particularly dangerous
or difficult stretches.
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