“His name is Sennoske Mutto, from Kuwana, and he is just returning home from the war,” was the reply. “This is a Muramasa sword, which he values highly, and he will begin to be anxious about it; so please give it back to me at once,” pleaded the old man. He was still partly under the influence of wine; and this fact, together with the mortification of his position and the anxiety and irritation under which he labored, had made him forget discretion, common sense, and his dignity as a samurai, all other considerations being merged and lost in his impatient eagerness to regain possession of the cherished weapon.
“A Muramasa sword, and your master intrusts it to a drunken fool like you!” said another of the party, who until now had been sitting in the rear of his companions, but who now moved forward to where the light fell fully upon him. “Does he attach so little value to it, in spite of what you say, as to leave it like a toy in the hands of one who in his cups would not mind trading it off for a measure of wine? His opinion differs from mine as to the care which he ought to bestow upon it. Be off! and tell your master that if he wants this sword he must come for it himself.”
What was it which, at the sight of the new speaker and at the first word uttered by him, made the old man look as if petrified with horror and stupefaction, clammy perspiration bathing his face, while his hair literally stood on end? Only his eyes spoke; and although fastened with almost stony fixedness upon the man who had just addressed him, they yet had an expression of such intense, deadly hatred that the other, as he fairly caught sight of it, involuntarily recoiled a step and laid his hand on the sword he carried at his side.
YAMAGAWA DISCOVERING HIS MISTAKE.
Gradually, by a series of sharp, convulsive movements, Yamagawa’s form and features relaxed from their rigid cast, and it was evident that a full consciousness of his position and surroundings was slowly taking hold of him, and that as it did so he was making powerful efforts to regain his self-control. Every trace of drunkenness had disappeared, and it was only extreme mental and nervous excitement which made his voice tremble when he again spoke:—
“Give me back the sword, Taka Suke; and after returning it to my young master, I will try to refrain from telling him or his father that I have again met you. Perhaps I am selfish enough not to wish to stand disgraced before one in the service of whose family I have become old and gray, whose welfare has occupied every thought of my mind, to whom every fibre of my body is devoted, and for whose sake I would willingly shed my blood drop by drop. Perhaps I have become too feeble in mind as well as in body fully to realize the duties of a samurai, for I would fain save my young master from facing one who has been the curse of his house, instead of doing my utmost to bring about a meeting, so that he could either kill you or fall as a samurai should. As for me, I know I shall not long be able to endure the thought of having met you and not only failed myself to take vengeance, but even shielded you against punishment by those whose right and duty it is to inflict it. For twelve years there has never been a day when you have been absent from my thoughts, and I could never think of you without cursing you. Yet all the sufferings I have so far endured are as nothing compared with the humiliating misery of this hour, when I find myself compelled, through my own fault, to plead to one who has caused blight and ruin to fall upon those I love and hold dear.”
“I will give you still further reason to curse me, then,” said the other. “The gods seem kind to me; for although our cause has failed, I am still able to strike at the only one whom, from some foolish whim, I spared, leaving him life and liberty when I had the power to take both. So Numa is still alive, and you now serve his son. Well, the brat has his father’s courage, as he showed in the war; and I have no doubt he has also the same conceit. Curse you all, with your pretended fine feelings and virtues, which you constantly flaunt before our eyes! They will not impose upon me, however. Go, and repeat to your master what has been told to you here; go, and tell him that if he knows a samurai’s duties, of which his father always prated so much, he must be aware that a drunkard is not fit to be intrusted with a sword, least of all with one like this. Go, and tell him that if he cares for it more than you seem to have done, he must come and humbly beg for it himself.”