“Mercy, mercy....”
“Come, speak up or you are a dead woman!”
Kyūsuké, in his hiding in the wood-shed, could imagine the scene.
“This is terrible!” he thought. “How could I be such a fool as to forget my hat! It may cost the woman her life!”
The noise in the cottage increased, mingled with the shrieks of the poor woman and the threats of her enraged husband. Kyūsuké stole out of his hiding place and peeped cautiously through a crack in the door. To his horror he found the man was dragging his wife round the room by her long hair with one hand, while he repeatedly struck her with the other. At this sight Kyūsuké forgetting his own fears burst in.
“Sir, sir, all the money I have about me I will give you! The woman is not to blame,—spare her!”
“Who spoke?”
The infuriated man checked his wrath for a moment to stare in astonishment at the unexpected apparition.
Taking advantage of the lull, Kyūsuké quickly produced his hundred ryō along with what remained of the money his master had given him for the journey and the little gift.