We got aboard the train and then stood waving to him and the count as long as we could see them. Pretty soon we went in and sat down and didn’t speak for a long time. We were thinking about the whole adventure, and what it had meant to us and to our countries.
“It beats all,” says Mark, after a while, “how h-h-history gets made or don’t get m-made. Who’d ever think we fellows had headed off a war with Japan?”
“Nobody,” says I.
Well, we got back to Wicksville, and in a couple of months the whole thing seemed like a dream. I was beginning to think it was a dream when one day what should happen but word from Mark Tidd to come right to his house. I hurried over and found Plunk and Binney and a Japanese gentleman from Washington there. He was some sort of attaché of the legation, and, you won’t believe it, but he had for each of us a piece of parchment covered with Japanese writing and big gold seals. He told us they made us some sort of nobles in Japan, and regular Samurai warriors. Besides that there was a present for each of us from Motu—beautiful short swords like the one of his we found that day at the hotel. They were all carved on the handles and engraved on the blades, and Motu’s note said they were hundreds of years old and had been carried by four of Japan’s greatest warriors. The note ended up:
Many men have worn these swords since they were forged, but none will own them more worthily than my four American boy friends. Whenever you look on these swords think of your friend Motu, who speaks your names every day and counts the hours till he shall see you again.
“I hope we do see him sometime,” says I.
“You bet,” says Mark Tidd. “B-bein’ a prince never hurt him a bit. I never knew a boy I l-liked better.”
“Nor me,” says I.
Then the messenger gave us another note, addressed to all of us on paper from the White House. It was short, but there was a name at the end of it that made it more valuable than a hundred pages from anybody else—for that name was the name of the President.
My dear Friends [says the note],—You have served your country well in the matter we know of, and your country thanks you. As your President I like to think there are thousands of American boys who would have acted as truly and wisely and bravely as you did.