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Updated: June 7, 2025
"And the large hut in the center of the village street is the palace of Oda Yorimoto?" guessed Theriere shrewdly. "It is." The Frenchman was not unversed in the ways of orientals, and he guessed also that if the white girl were still alive in the village she would be in no other hut than that of the most powerful chief; but he wished to verify his deductions if possible.
On the second trip Divine and Theriere each carried a burden up the cliffs, Miller and Swenson following with Barbara Harding, and as they came Oda Yorimoto and his samurai slunk back into the shadows that their prey might pass unobserving. Theriere had the bulk of the loot hidden in a rocky crevice just beyond the cliff's summit.
Once within the warren the two samurai who had guarded Barbara upon the march turned and withdrew she was alone with Oda Yorimoto and his family. From the center of the room depended a swinging shelf upon which a great pile of grinning skulls rested. At the back of the room was a door which Barbara had not at first noticed evidently there was another apartment to the dwelling.
Then she explained that they held the son of Oda Yorimoto prisoner, and that his life would be the price of any further attack upon them. The samurai conferred together for a moment, then one of them called out that they did not believe her, that Oda Iseka, son of Oda Yorimoto, was safe in the village. "Wait!" replied the girl.
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.
One of the women awoke at the sound of the man's voice. She looked up at Barbara in sullen hatred otherwise she gave no indication that she saw anything unusual transpiring. It was as though an exquisite American belle were a daily visitor at the Oda Yorimoto home. "What do you want of me?" cried the frightened girl, in Japanese. Oda Yorimoto looked at her in astonishment.
Both men turned toward the village, where a jabbering mob of half-caste Japanese had suddenly appeared in the streets, hurrying toward the hut of Oda Yorimoto. "Somepin doin', eh?" said the mucker. "Well, here goes s'long!" And he broke from the cover of the jungle and dashed across the clearing toward the rear of Oda Yorimoto's hut.
And then there came a knocking on the door she had just quitted, and a woman's voice calling her lord and master to his morning meal. Barbara ran quickly across the chamber to the door, the long sword raised above her head in both hands. Again the woman knocked, this time much louder, and raised her voice as she called again upon Oda Yorimoto to come out. The girl within was panic-stricken.
Oda Yorimoto watched the white men upon the beach. Also, he watched the white girl even more, possibly, than he watched the men. He saw the shelter that was being built, and when it was complete he saw the girl enter it, and he knew that it was for her alone. Oda Yorimoto sucked in his lips and his eyes narrowed even more than nature had intended that they should.
When he was directly opposite the watchers Theriere sprang suddenly upon him, clapping a silencing hand over the boy's mouth. In Japanese he whispered a command for silence. "We shall not harm you if you keep still," he said, "and answer our questions 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."
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