"No. The procurator's examination has not yet taken place. After that, sometimes permission can be granted. That is the law."
She was left waiting in a stone-flagged guard-room, where eight or nine policemen stared at her impertinently.
"A pretty face, eh?" they said, "it looks like a geisha! Who is taking her to the court? It is Ishibashi. Oh, so! He is always the lucky chap!"
A rough fellow thrust his hand up her kimono sleeve, and caught hold of her bare arm near the shoulder.
"Here, Ishibashi," he cried; "you have caught a fine bird this time."
The policeman Ishibashi picked up the loose end of the rope, and drove Asako before him into a closed van, which was soon rumbling along the deserted streets.
She was made to alight at a tall stone building, where they passed down several echoing corridors, until, at the end of a little passage a warder pushed open a door. This was the "sty," where prisoners are kept pending examination in the procurator's court. The floor and walls were of stone. It was bitterly cold. There was no window, no light, no firebox, and no chair. Alone, in the petrifying darkness, her teeth chattering, her limbs trembling, poor Asako huddled her misery into a corner of the dirty cell, to await the further tender mercies of the Japanese criminal code. She could hear the scuttering of rats. Had she been ten times guilty, she felt that she could not have suffered more!
* * * * *
Daylight began to show under the crack of the door. Later on a warder came and beckoned to Asako to follow him. She had not touched food for twenty hours, but nothing was offered to her. She was led into a room with benches like a schoolroom. At the master's desk sat a small spotted man with a cloak like a scholar's gown, and a black cap with ribbons like a Highlander's bonnet. This was the procurator. At his side, sat his clerk, similarly but less sprucely garbed.
Asako, utterly weary, was preparing to sit down on one of the benches. The warder pulled her up by the nape of her kimono. She had to stand during her examination.