“You have been wandering around in a black wilderness all of your life; you do not know what it is, my poor little one, to see the sun! But, with God’s good help, I am going to lead you out of the wilderness—into the light!”
“You are the light!” she said, throbbingly, and slipped to her knees, putting her face against his hand.
Something bounded against the wall and came whistling through the shoji. It grazed the cheek of the kneeling fox-woman, and imbedded itself against the woodwork of the opposite wall. She put up her hand with a quick, startled movement, but though she turned a questioning, fearful face upon the great Tojin, she could not see how deathly white he had become. He bent suddenly above her.
“Make me a promise. Repeat after me, that no matter what might befall us, you will remain with me—you will not desert me!”
With her face pressed against his hand, her eyes fervently closed, she repeated the words as a veritable prayer.
XVI
In the sunken garden directly beneath his rooms he saw that sinister thing below, waiting in a throbbing silence. It seemed as if his gardens were alive with them. Who had summoned them? For what were they waiting?
From his elevation above them he spoke, his clear voice booming out above their heads.
“Genji Negato, I desire your services.”