Bunkichi, who was much delighted at having gained his wish, said: “Then, sir, please let an apothecary prepare a lot of drugs which are likely to be the best poison for a wanizame, and I will go and have a lookout for the appearance of the monster.”
As he was about to start, the girl asked him, in a little voice of remonstrance, “But when will you make a dragon-fly for me, Bunkichi?”
“When I come back, miss,” was his reply.
“Come, come; he can’t be bothered about such a trifle now,” said her mother.
Meanwhile the two lads, Bunkichi and Sadakichi, hand in hand, went up to the Sumiyoshi bluff, which stood just outside the town on the eastern side of Kumano Bay. The mountain rose precipitously from the sea, whose fathomless water washed its southern base. A thick forest of pines covered the mountain, and the vibrating of their needle foliage in the breeze added a strange harp-like accompaniment to the perpetual roaring of the waves below. On reaching the summit, Bunkichi threw himself down on a knotty root of pine near the edge of a precipice and gazed out on the broad expanse of Kumano Bay. As far as his view reached, no shore could be descried; only the line where the dome of the azure sky circled the deep blue of the ocean.
After sitting thus in silent contemplation for a few minutes, Bunkichi suddenly turned round and said to Sadakichi: “Sea scenery is always fine to look at, isn’t it? I am fond of this sort of rough sea. I should like to have a swim in it.”
“Don’t talk such nonsense; you would no sooner get into it than you would be swamped,” was the reply.
“That’s just what I like. I should dive deep down into the water and get out of the whirlpool. And now, tell me where it is the wanizame generally pops out its head.”
“It generally comes out just below this headland,” the other answered, “at the mouth of the harbor.”
As the two boys were steadily gazing on the surface of the water, sure enough, up came the shark, and startled Sadakichi by cleaving the water with its back. Whether it was in frolic or in quest of prey, the monster swam to and fro, now showing its head and now its tail. Its rock-like back and its iron-like fins were horrible enough to inspire even men with awe.