“That fool Kutami aroused the Russians and we could not go on. We just barely got away. He spoiled it all, and probably was captured as well.”
Then he went in and reported, and when he finished, heard, like a voice in a dream, his captain’s comment:
“That is the spirit of Yamato Damashii!” (the soul of old Japan).
He turned and went out, with Kokan staring after him in speechless amazement.
XIV
There followed a few days of grateful inactivity for Soichi. The surgeon said he must rest and recover from the strain and exposure of his night’s work, and he found it very pleasant to lie in his blankets and smoke and receive the congratulations of his comrades. The story swept through the regiment and every man knew what he had done.
Kokan was not so comfortable. He was suffering from a mental difference with himself which urgently demanded adjustment. But pride stood in his way. He knew he had been wrong and he hated to admit it. His accusing self kept recalling to him the captain’s queer look that morning after Kutami had gone, when he turned to Kokan and said: