“Sayonari.”

She struggled on, not knowing which way to go, until she had come within hearing of the mysterious voice of the hidden executioner, who called in rotation the names of those that were performing the honoured rite. She stole after him, and upon calling the name of her lord and master’s father she rushed ahead in time to greet him with the assurance that was to him a recompense for all his trials and sorrow.

Fortunately Takara did not see the sickening evidence of his prolonged and terrible suffering; his abused limbs had sunken into the mire, and she saw only that he had died the death of honour. And she felt happy that she had reached him in time, though Shibusawa knew not that she carried the message. Maido’s joy rewarded her.

The luckless woman’s captor rudely hurried her through the woods, and departing the scene she did not look back. She made no resistance, but obeyed the eager fellow’s command; nor did she think much of the consequences. She tramped along, and as they went the air grew more stifling. The hot breath of the forest rose and choked them, and upon reaching the open they found it there, too, suffocating.

Continuing toward the city, they presently reached the outskirts exhausted—the keeper more than his prisoner—and climbing to the top of a low hill halted for the night. Here there stood a temple, and near by a small tea house in which he undertook, because of his inability to go farther, to hold her captive; proposing to rest until morning, proceeding then to Ikamon’s dungeon, the intended place of her imprisonment. Having securely lodged the hopeful woman in a small detached room, the ponderous captor refreshed himself and lay down in front to keep guard.

The humbled daughter of a proud royalty had failed in her mission, yet in that failure fate had revealed to her the sweetest rite, the consoling of a dying friend. Maido’s lips had been sealed, but in that there arose a fresh desire, and had Takara been privileged to meet the living as she had parted with the dead, she would gladly have resigned herself to her doom. The new responsibility made imperative to her the seemingly hopeless task of again reaching Shibusawa.

CHAPTER XXX
THE EARTHQUAKE

Takara did not give much thought to her imprisonment or the disposition that might be made of her; she felt too tired for that, and had no sooner been left alone than she fell fast asleep. It was quite different though with Bansuro her keeper. He rested hardly any, and could think of nothing but the reward surely to be had for bringing to the high court a spy of so great consequence; for had he not, he reasoned, captured her while in the very act of conversing with the condemned? And would not Ikamon rejoice?