After the girl's announcement the mucker had continued to sit with bowed head staring at the ground. Afternoon had deepened into evening, and now the brief twilight of the tropics was upon them—in a few moments it would be dark.
Presently Byrne looked up. His eyes wandered about the tiny clearing. Suddenly he staggered to his feet. Barbara Harding sprang up, startled by the evident alarm in the man's attitude.
“What is it?” she whispered. “What is the matter?”
“De Chink!” he cried. “Where is de Chink?”
And, sure enough, Oda Iseka had disappeared!
The youthful daimio had taken advantage of the preoccupation of his captors during the last moments of Theriere to gnaw in two the grass rope which bound him to the mucker, and with hands still fast bound behind him had slunk into the jungle path that led toward his village.
“They will be upon us again now at any moment,” whispered the girl. “What can we do?”
“We better duck,” replied the mucker. “I hates to run away from a bunch of Chinks, but I guess it's up to us to beat it.”
“But poor Mr. Theriere?” asked the girl.
“I'll have to bury him close by,” replied the mucker. “I don't tink I could pack him very fer tonight—I don't feel jest quite fit agin yet. You wouldn't mind much if I buried him here, would you?”