n the encroaching day. His sullen look fastened itself
upon the amado beneath the plum tree. The panels were now tightly
closed. The house itself, soundless and gray in the fast brightening
space, mocked him with impassivity.

A little later, when the neighborhood reverberated to the slamming of
amado and the sharp rattle of paper dusters against taut shoji panes;
when fragrant faggot smoke went up from every cottage, and the street
cries of itinerant venders signalled domestic buying for the day, Mata
discovered the wild man in the garden, and roused her sleeping master
with the news. She went, too, to Ume's room, and was reassured to see
the girl apparently in slumber within a neat bed, the andon burning
temperately in its corner, and the whole place eloquent of innocence
and peace, Kano shivered himself into his day clothes (the process was
not long), and hurried out to meet his guest.

"O Haiyo gozaimasu!" he called. "You have found a good spot from which
to view the dawn."

"Good morning!" said Tatsu, looking about as if to escape.

"Come, enter my humble house with me, young sir. Breakfast will soon
be served."

Tatsu rose instantly, though the gesture was far from giving an effect
of acquiescence. He shook his cramped limbs with as little ceremony as
if Kano were a shrub, and then turned, with the evident intention of
flight. Suddenly the instinct of hunger claimed him. Breakfast! That
had a pleasant sound. And where else was he to go for food! He
wheeled around to his waiting host. "I thank you. I will enter!" he
said, and attempted an archaic bow.

Mata brought in to them, immediately, hot tea and a small dish of
pickled plums. Kano drew a sigh of relief as he saw Tatsu take up a
plum, and then accept, from the servant's hands, a cup of steaming tea.
These things promised well for future docility.

It could not be said that the meal was convivial. Ume-ko had received
orders from her father not to appear. Tatsu's eyes, even as he ate,
roamed ever along the corridors of the house, out to the garden, and
pried at the closed edges of the fusuma. This restlessness brought to
the host new apprehension. Such tension could not last. Tatsu must be
enticed from the house.

After some hesitation and a spasmodic clearing of the throat, the old
man asked, "Will you accompany me, young sir, upon a short walk to the
city?"

"Why should I go to the city?"

"Ah--er--domo! it is, as you know, the