"What you doin' on the dock, Togi?" I asked, eying him humorously.
"If your august presence will listen, I'll tell you," he answered easily.
"Sure, Michael, let her go, and don't mind my gigantic—er—august self," I sniggered.
"In the first place," he said, "I'm not sonny, being, if your honorable temper allows, a man of forty. If fine schooner says so, I go with you as far as Tokyo. There I am the humble cousin of the Honorable Baron Komuri, son of a Samurai, under the former emperor. I should like indeed to sail with you, and will——" Here he stopped a moment, hesitating.
"Go on, king, old man; don't let anything stop you from telling your yarn. Sing it out, and I'll listen if it breaks a bone."
"No, no; not king, old man; just Mister Komuri—if your presence allows me to correct. Your humble servant is but a plain man. Better be plain man than dead lion, as your excellent books say. I accept plain man, and go that way if so ship says."
"We are not going to Tokyo, but if you see the skipper he'll take you clear to Manila for a hundred or two yen. You savvy him yen. Must pay, you know."
"Ah, that is of what I wish to tell your honorable self. Allow me to make myself so humble to tell I have not the yen you ask. I have not anything——"
"Nothing doing, kiddo; on your way," I said remorselessly.
"But I sit on dock end waiting——"