"If I don't come back the marines will find
you sooner or later, or you can make your way to the coast,
and work around toward the cove. Good-bye, Miss Harding."
"Where are you going?" cried the girl.
"To get your father--and Mr. Mallory," said the mucker.
CHAPTER XVI
THE SUPREME SACRIFICE
THROUGH the balance of the day and all during the long
night Billy Byrne swung along his lonely way, retracing the
familiar steps of the journey that had brought Barbara Harding
and himself to the little island in the turbulent river.
Just before dawn he came to the edge of the clearing
behind the dwelling of the late Oda Yorimoto. Somewhere
within the silent village he was sure that the two prisoners lay.
During the long march he had thrashed over again and
again all that the success of his rash venture would mean to
him. Of all those who might conceivably stand between him
and the woman he loved--the woman who had just acknowledged
that she loved him--these two men were the most to be
feared.
Billy Byrne did not for a moment believe that Anthony
Harding would look with favor upon the Grand Avenue
mucker as a prospective son-in-law. And then there was
Mallory! He was sure that Barbara had loved this man, and
now should he be restored to her as from the grave there
seemed little doubt but that the old love would be aroused in
the girl's breast.
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