The coolies looked at each other, and wouldn’t take the money up into their hands, while the lad stood firmly grasping the hilt of the dagger of Kiku-ichi-monji within his pocket, ready to fight it out in case they might treat him roughly.
They were thoroughly outwitted by the audacity of the lad, and said: “Where have you come from?”
“Kumano is my home.”
One of them turned pale. “Why, maybe he is the Shark-Boy!”
“Yes, I am that very boy,” retorted the lad.
No sooner did the coolies hear this than they cried with one voice: “Let us up and be gone!” As they were about to turn on their heels, Bunkichi said, as he drew his dagger:
“If you run off I will cut you in two.”
As though they were stricken by thunder at the boy’s words, down they tumbled on the ground, and could not rise in spite of themselves. “Only spare our lives, if you please!”
As they begged for mercy, the lad coldly smiled, saying: “What is it you fear?”
“Please spare us! We cannot bear the thought that you will finish us off as you did the wanizame,” they gasped in a trembling voice. These coolies had heard of his brave deed in killing the shark, and they thought that he had killed it by a feat of swordsmanship, and that he was a warrior general like him of Ushiwaka-maru[[19]] of old. He at once perceived what was the cause of their fear, and said: