“ ‘I have obeyed.’
“ ‘What have you learnt?’
“ ‘That there is no death. It is more life, but life as we have made it. As a man has sown he reaps in life after life.’
“ ‘Until what time?’
“ ‘Until the time when he sows good grain.’
“ ‘Do you repent your past?’
“ ‘I do not look back. I go forward. It is forgotten. The man who did the deed died with it. Now I would be a teacher of jujutsu.’
“ ‘Well said! You have learnt to defend yourself from yourself and you would teach others. I will give you fresh orders.’ Kazuma stood like a soldier before his general.
“ ‘Teach what you have learnt. Then come back, and in this place of desolation where you fought and conquered more than you knew make a garden and build a bridge. Go now,—in power!’
“He bowed low, Kazuma also. ‘My friend!’— As the words met his ear they melted in a confused murmur of human voices and he struggled back to consciousness in the school of jujutsu in Yedo. Men knelt and stooped about him fearful lest he had gone so far on the way of death that even the powerful shout of kiai could not reach him. But he rose and gravely thanking his executioner went and stood before his master.