o the inner
apartments. At the outer ward he stumbled in the darkness against some
object. "Are! The Tono Sama!" With a cry of alarm up sprang the sleeping
O'Han. She would have outstripped him in a race to the inner rooms, but
Shu[u]zen was too quick for her. With hand over mouth he dragged her to
the garden side. She would have cried out, and made resistance. Then he
changed her tune. Lacking confession he held her flat and prostrate
under him. Firmly grasping both wrists tight together, he forced his
dagger between the hands, and began to twist the keen blade. Unable to
resist the torture she soon told all she knew, confessed her own part of
watch and ward in the offense. This done, he drove the weapon through
her throat and left her pinned to where she lay, the limbs feebly
twitching in the last throes.

Assured of his suspicions Shu[u]zen now sought to surprise the lovers.
Cautiously he approached the sleeping room of her ladyship from the
inner side. There was no doubt of it. In the very throes of her passion
O'Hagi was without disguise. Shu[u]zen threw back the screens on this
vileness. "Lechers! For this disloyalty Shu[u]zen finds revenge! Make
ready!" Nishioka Shintaro[u] sprang to his feet, only to sink down in a
pool of blood which soaked the bed he had dishonoured. Severed from
shoulder to pap he died forthwith. With wild screams O'Hagi fled to the
corridor. As she reached it the point of the weapon was thrust through
her back, to come out at the navel. As she writhed and twisted on the
floor, Shu[u]zen measured the blow and nearly cut the body in twain.
"Ah! In good season the old bawd presents herself." In fright the old
woman's head had been thrust between the screens into the room close by
the master. An easy mark it fell severed to the ground, the blood
spouting its powerful streams from the arteries as from a pump. The
woman O'Tsugi was a sterner task. Aroused by the noise she came stalking
into the middle of the room, still rubbing eyes confused by sleep. "Ah!
The villainous cuckold. He has murdered these, and now would add the
next (_tsugi_). Not so!" With her wild jest she threw herself upon him.
Trained soldier as he was Shu[u]zen found the contest no easy one
against this virile woman. Getting the worst of it, she fastened her
teeth deep into his hand. Grunting with pain Shu[u]zen flung her off,
and quickly brought down the sword. Prostrate she lay, the blood stream
pouring over the real lord of t