"Yes, your Dana San."
Yuki sat for a moment in bewilderment, then the color came back to her face and she leaned forward eagerly.
"But, my lord, my lord, he could not have done it! He is so kind, so good, he never hurt a thing in all his life."
The man leaned forward, gazing intently into her eyes.
"Has this stranger made you forget your father? Have you forgotten your oath, your oath? Have you forgotten why your father is now in the Land of Shadows?" He pointed to the shrine.
"Look, there is his tablet within that shrine. But the doors are closed. In our home, in our family temple are tablets. The doors of the shrines have never been opened. His spirit has not had the incense to help him on the way. The morning offering has not been his. He has been compelled to travel alone on the way to the gods, because we, his family—you and I—have not avenged his death.
"No, do not speak," he continued, as Yuki was about to interrupt. "He was murdered, and until the man who sent him on his way joins him in his journey, his spirit can have no peace. And you, his daughter, dare not, for fear of the gods, open the shrine to make the offering that the poorest peasant makes to his dead! But to-night I bring you the final word of the clan. To give you the honor of doing the deed that will wash the stain from our name. You know that a servant must avenge the death of his master, a son that of his father, a Samurai the death of his overlord, and I come to give you—a girl, an inheritance that will make you envied of men."
"I do not understand—my lord, you mean——"
"Yuki San, he killed your father, the head of our house, and he must die to-night."
Yuki rose and went to the man. Taking him by the arms she looked up into his face piteously, with wide, frightened eyes.