poke behind him, harsh and as if half stifled with
the blood filling gorge and lungs--"Yai! Shintaro[u] has his way. He
murders Jisuke--not once, but twice. Deep the grudge! Deep the grudge!"
Then it broke into a wail, chilling in the helplessness of the malice
expressed. Nishioka sprang to his feet and whirled around. In the
uncertain light close by stood Jisuke. His hair in wild disorder, cheeks
fallen in and corpse like with the bluishness of clay, the _chu[u]gen_
grinned and threatened. The living man could match him with his pallor.
"Namu Amida Butsu! Get you hence vile spectre, or stay the test of
Nishioka's sword." He made a sweep with the weapon. The figure
disappeared. A mocking laugh resounded far and wide, followed by the
same chilling hopeless wail. In haste, and pursued by the wild laughter,
stumbling over stones and roots, Nishioka fled the wood, to make report
at the feet of her ladyship. For long the figure of the _chu[u]gen_,
crying, wailing in baffled malice, haunted the wood of the Ushinakizaka.
Men hastened to pass by, none would enter; and in time the apparition
became one of the seven marvels (the Nana-Fushigi) of the Bancho[u].

CHAPTER V

THE REPORT TO THE TONO SAMA

On the dull evening of the rainy season (June) Nakakawachi Shu[u]zen sat
looking out on the dripping plants and trees. The home coming had
brought no pleasure. The treachery of the favoured Shimo was assured.
The father himself admitted the search made for the lover; wept and
grovelled in shame and apology. O'Saku had seen him in person, when he
came to the _yashiki_ several weeks before the flight. O'Tsugi had heard
him call--"choi! choi!" had overheard O'Shimo's surprised
exclamation--"my lover! my lover!" After several mysterious absences, on
excuse to see her father lying ill, she had disappeared. On inquiry it
was found that Cho[u]bei had never known a day of illness. The excuse
was all a lie. "A case of the wild duck; the cock had come." Whose was
the child she bore? O'Hagi laughed, and her attendant woman smiled, at
his credulity.

Shu[u]zen never suspected the deceit. Something of a _dilettante_ for
the period he was learned in the Chinese tradition. Seventeen years, and
a woman has no heart. This Shimo was a debauched wench. Truly she had
foxed him with her superficial charms, picked him up thus easily in the
Bancho[u]. With gesture of weariness and disgust he turned to the papers
and scrolls on the desk before h