CHAPTER XXIII

Ishida and Masuda lingered longer than usual at the cups, on a dark night soon after, while their conversation, heated and close, kept rhythm to the customary “whack, whack,” their metal pipes ringing and the hours lessening.

“Then it is true that Jokoin really bore a son, this Hachisuka, to whom Ieyasu has just now married his granddaughter, Ogasa,” queried Masuda. “I wonder how long it will be till he, himself, has taken Yodogima for wife? He seems to have ignored the taiko’s enjoinder, altogether: perhaps he may have convenient some other granddaughter or such like for Hideyori: what chance shall there be for the rest of us then? I really believe he aims at succeeding Hideyoshi in authority.”

Ishida shifted uneasy.

“They say he was, once, in love with the princess.”

“Love! He’s too cold for that: I should sooner think him in quest of the treasure stored away there, at Ozaka, in Maeda’s keep.”

“Do you know,” continued Ishida, without further reference to Yodogima, “that two of them, Ieyasu and Maeda, united, are competent and capable of doing about as they like? They must be antagonized, and you and I shall do it; ally yourself with the former, and I will attend the latter.”

“But Yodogima is friendly to both of them, in some measure.”

“So much the better, for Oyea is as hot against her, and if we fail at the one, why, then we have a surer remedy.”

Thus they separated, and Ishida calling at the castle convinced Maeda that it were high time for Ieyasu to pay his respects to Hideyori, their rising superior. Maeda, the guardian, without any suspicion as to motive or consultation with Yodogima, issued the invitation, and Masuda as soon advised Ieyasu that Maeda plotted to kill him.