The merchant was taken aback at the reply, and said: “Isn’t that too cheap?”
“But if they rot away, you will get nothing. I am not over-keen to buy,” said the lad, coldly; “so if you don’t wish to sell, we need not have any further talk.”
“Just wait a minute,” and the merchant stayed the lad as he was about to leave. “I will sell at sixteen mon a box if you will buy up my whole stock.”
“Yes, the whole lot,” said Bunkichi. “I will buy as many thousand boxes as I can put into a large ship.” Thus he bought up the whole stock of that store and then went on to another, buying up the whole stock of each at a very low price. Then he sent a man to the orange farm and collected some more. Having procured a large stock, he put it all on board the Tenjin-maru so that, albeit the ship was one of a thousand koku burthen, its keel sank deep into the water.
CHAPTER VII
THE SEA-GIANT APPEARS
AS Captain Kichidayu sought for sailors by holding out to them promise of wages ten times more than they could get at other times, he soon picked up six sturdy fellows who did not set much value on their lives. Thereupon he reported his success to Bunkichi, who was rejoiced over it, and said: “Then all things are ready now; we shall settle to start in the morning, and I will send to the ship ten pieces of long square timbers. You will place them crosswise on the ship and attach to their ends heavy stones so that she will not upset easily,” he continued, with his usual audacity and resourcefulness. “For I have heard that ships which sail about those far-off islands, Hachijo and Oshima, and the like, are fitted out in this way and sail in safety even in heavy storms. That is why in Yedo they call those island-ships ‘sea-sparrows’: the weight being on both sides of the ship, they never upset.”
Kichidayu was much struck by his keen observation, and said: “Truly, it didn’t occur to my mind that those ships are fitted out as you say, but now I recollect having seen them off the coast of Izu Province. As they are thus constructed they never capsize, however much they are washed over by waves.”
“Now, Kichidayu San,” Bunkichi said, “this ship is called the Tenjin-maru, but our going out to sea this time may mean going to her destruction, so let us change her name into Iurei-maru, or ghost-ship, and let us imagine ourselves to be dead men by putting on white clothes. Thus nothing that may occur can scare the crew; for, being ‘dead’ men, they can have no fear of death.”