"You're not really so different, then, are you?" said Blair.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Never mind. I have to leave now. It doesn't matter."
Naito looked at him with a dark, porcelain eye. "I sense in you an enemy, Mr. Blair."
"Yes," said Blair. "Perhaps you're right."
Naito looked about, glancing at some of the others strolling about the shrine. For a moment Blair thought the man would try to forcibly detain him. Blair stiffened himself and hardened his muscles; magic or no magic, the old bald fellow would have a scrap on his hands if he tried any kind of violence.
Naito then said abruptly, "But not a powerful enemy, Mr. Blair. You will make fun of us in your newspaper article, I suppose. But it won't really change anything. You may as well leave now, if you are so anxious to go. Yuki will take you down the mountain again."
"Thank you for your time and trouble," said Blair, stiffly, politely.
Again he was on the trail, descending, and the shrine and the mountain top were moving back into the blueness of the sky. The girl walked a little ahead. He watched her for a while, still admiring her, and presently he spoke.
"He knew what I meant," he said.