verybody was partaking of
breakfast, and everybody seemed to be enjoying it, especially Judson,
who was attacking his neatly arranged bamboo sprouts, pickled eels, and
snowy rice with avidity.

"This is a bit of all right, sir," he said with enthusiasm. "Shall I
fetch you a box, sir!"

Percival lifted a protesting hand. And yet the pungent odor of the
pickle and the still smoking rice was not unpleasant. He watched with
increasing appetite the disappearance of the various viands. There were
occasions when a man might even envy his valet.

At the Kioto Hotel there was no record of the Weston party, so he
snatched a hasty bite, and rushed on to the other large hotel. It was
on a hillside well out from the city, and two coolies were required for
each jinrikisha. Seeing that they had a newly arrived tourist, they were
moved to show him the sights, much to Percival's annoyance.

"San-ju-san-gen-do Temple," the man in front said, putting down the
shafts of the jinrikisha confidently. "Thirty-three thousand images of
great god Kwannon. Come see? No? So desu ka?"

Later he stopped at a flower-girt tea-house.

"Geisha maybe! Very fine dancers. Come see? No? So desu ka?"

So it continued, the two small guides trying in vain to arouse some
interest in the stern young gentleman who sat so rigidly in the
jinrikisha, with his mind bent solely on reaching the Yaami Hotel in the
shortest possible time.

On his arrival, he met with disappointment. The effusive proprietor
informed him that a party of five, "one single lady, and two young
married couples, he thought," had breakfasted there and left immediately
with Dr. Weston for Hieizan. They would not return until night.

"What, pray, is Hieizan?" Percival asked, dimly remembering Mrs.
Weston's outlined plan.

"Very grand mountain," said the proprietor; "view of Lake Biwa. Biggest
pine-tree in the world."

The last thing that Percival desired to see was a big pine-tree, but the
prospect of sharing the sight of it with Bobby Boynton spurred him to
further inquiry.

"But they must come back, mustn't they? Perhaps I could meet them
halfway?"

"Oh, yes. They go by _kago_ over mountain; you go by 'rickisha to
Otsu, and wait. Very nice, very easy. All come home together. I furnish
fine jinrikisha and very good man, Sanno; spik very good English."

Percival had an early lunch, and, leaving Judson sitting disconsolately
among the hand-bags, started for Otsu. From the first his