“On neither, nor was it at Nagasaki.”
“Where was it?” queried the first judge.
“That is not to be told,” replied my friend.
The magistrates conferred together in low murmurs. After a time one of them signed with his fan to the torturers. As the men advanced, Yoritomo folded his arms and faced them. Though I knew his hand was gripped on the revolver under the edge of his robe, there was no shade of change perceptible in his serene face. I folded my arms and reached in to grip my own revolver.
The magistrate nearest Midzuano Echizen-no-kami leaned towards him as though to catch some faintly whispered remark. The leading torturer reached out to grasp Yoritomo’s shoulder. The magistrate raised his fan in a restraining gesture, and said authoritatively: “Let the point rest for the present. The prisoner has confessed to the first charge. Make note that, according to his own statement, he left the shores of Nippon. He was not driven to sea by storm, but boarded a ship of the tojins and sailed from Nippon of his own free will.”
“Under the guidance of the gods and for the sake of the holy Mikado,” added Yoritomo.
One of the judges murmured a protest, but the last speaker signed to the secretaries. “Write down the claim of the prisoner,” he ordered. “Regarding the second charge, it is proved by the confession of the first. Yoritomo, son of Owari dono, left the shores of Nippon. He now stands before us. Therefore he has returned to Nippon. There remains the third charge.”
“First, as to my return to Nippon,” replied Yoritomo, “I make defence that, having learned much of the tojin peoples and their power, I come back, not in defiance of the edict, but as a loyal subject, to counsel the Shogunate against the mistakes of misinformation.”
“Make note that the prisoner confesses his return to Nippon for the purpose of counselling the Shogunate with the forbidden knowledge of the barbarians,” said the magistrate nearest Midzuano. He turned to Yoritomo and repeated: “There remains the third charge.”
“The third charge is false,” replied my friend. “Adamisu Woroto, my august tojin kinsman, is not a member of the evil sect.”