You dream
not of the hurt you give."

"I give no hurt at all that I cannot more than heal," cried Tatsu, in
his masterful way. But Ume's lips still quivered, and she turned her
face from him.

In the silence that followed, the water among the willow roots gave out
a rush and gurgle, a sound of liquid merriment,--perhaps the laugh of a
"Kappa" or river sprite, mocking the perplexities of men. Ume-ko
leaned over instantly, staring down into the stream.

[Illustration: "Ume-ko leaned over instantly, staring down into the
stream."]

"How deep it is, and strong," she whispered, as if to her own thought
"That which fell in here would be carried very swiftly out to sea."

Tatsu smiled dreamily upon her. In his delight at her beauty, the
delicate poise of body with its long, gray drifting sleeves, he did not
realize the meaning of her words. One little foot in its lacquered
shoe and rose-velvet thong, crushed the grasses at the very edge of the
bank. Suddenly the earth beneath her shivered. It parted in a long
black fissure, and then sank, with sob and splash, into the hurrying
water. Ume tottered and clung to the tree. Tatsu, springing up at a
single bound, caught her back into safety. The very branches above
them shook as if in sentient fear. Ume felt herself pressed,--welded
against her husband's side in such an agony of strength that his
beating heart seemed to be in her own body. She heard the breath rasp
upward in his throat and catch there, inarticulate. He began dragging
her backward, foot by foot. At a safe distance he suddenly
sank--rather fell--to earth bearing her with him, and began moaning
over her, caressing and fondling her as a tiger might a rescued cub.

"Never go near that stream again!" he said hoarsely, as soon as he
could speak at all. "Hear me, Ume-ko, it is my command! Never again
approach that tree. It is a goblin tree. Some dead, unhappy woman,
drowned here in the self-death, must inhabit it and would entice you to
destruction. Oh, Ume, my wife,--my wife! I saw the black earth
grinning beneath your feet. I cannot bear it! Come away from this
place at once,--at once! The river itself may reach out snares to us."

"Yes, lord, I will come," she panted, trying to loosen the rigid arms,
"but I am faint. This high bank is safe, now. And, lord, when you so
embrace and crush me my strength does not return."

Tatsu grudgingly relaxed his hold. "Rest here then, close beside me,"