Bab Bab 11 · The next morning on awakening I felt pains all over my body, due

brought me a copy of the Shikoku Shimbun. I felt so weak as to

need some effort even reaching for the paper. But what should be man so

easily upset by such a trifling affair,—so I forced myself to turn in

bed, and, opening its second page, I was surprised. There was the whole

story of the fight of yesterday in print. Not that I was surprised by

the news of the fight having been published, but it said that one

teacher Hotta of the Middle School and one certain saucy Somebody,

recently from Tokyo, of the same institution, not only started this

trouble by inciting the students, but were actually present at the

scene of the trouble, directing the students and engaged themselves

against the students of the Normal School. On top of this, something of

the following effect was added.

“The Middle School in this prefecture has been an object of admiration

by all other schools for its good and ideal behavior. But since this

long-cherished honor has been sullied by these two irresponsible

persons, and this city made to suffer the consequent indignity, we have

to bring the perpetrators to full account. We trust that before we take

any step in this matter, the authorities will have those ‘toughs’

properly punished, barring them forever from our educational circles.”

All the types were italicized, as if they meant to administer

typographical chastisement upon us. “What the devil do I care!” I

shouted, and up I jumped out of bed. Strange to say, the pain in my

joints became tolerable.

I rolled up the newspaper and threw it into the garden. Not satisfied,

I took that paper to the cesspool and dumped it there. Newspapers tell

such reckless lies. There is nothing so adept, I believe, as the

newspaper in circulating lies. It has said what I should have said. And

what does it mean by “one saucy Somebody who is recently from Tokyo?”

Is there any one in this wide world with the name of Somebody? Don’t

forget, I have a family and personal name of my own which I am proud

of. If they want to look at my family-record, they will bow before

every one of my ancestors from Mitsunaka Tada down. Having washed my

face, my cheek began suddenly smarting. I asked the old lady for a

mirror, and she asked if I had read the paper of this morning. “Yes,” I

said, “and dumped it in the cesspool; go and pick it up if you want

it,”—and she withdrew with a startled look. Looking in the mirror, I

saw bruises on my cheek. Mine is a precious face to me. I get my face

bruised, and am called a saucy Somebody as if I were nobody. That is

enough.

It will be a reflection on my honor to the end of my days if it is said

that I shunned the public gaze and kept out of the school on account of

the write-up in the paper. So, after the breakfast, I attended the

school ahead of all. One after the other, all coming to the school

would grin at my face. What is there to laugh about! This face is my

own, gotten up, I am sure, without the least obligation on their part.

By and by, Clown appeared.

“Ha, heroic action yesterday. Wounds of honor, eh?”

He made this sarcastic remark, I suppose, in revenge for the knock he

received on his head from me at the farewell dinner.

“Cut out nonsense; you get back there and suck your old drawing

brushes!” Then he answered “that was going some,” and enquired if it

pained much?

“Pain or no pain, this is my face. That’s none of your business,” I

snapped back in a furious temper. Then Clown took his seat on the other

side, and still keeping his eye on me, whispered and laughed with the

teacher of history next to him.

Then came Porcupine. His nose had swollen and was purple,—it was a

tempting object for a surgeon’s knife. His face showed far worse (is it

my conceit that make this comparison?) than mine. I and Porcupine are

chums with desks next to each other, and moreover, as ill-luck would

have it, the desks are placed right facing the door. Thus were two

strange faces placed together. The other fellows, when in want of

something to divert them, would gaze our way with regularity. They say

“too bad,” but they are surely laughing in their minds as “ha, these

fools!” If that is not so, there is no reason for their whispering

together and grinning like that. In the class room, the boys clapped

their hands when I entered; two or three of them banzaied. I could not

tell whether it was an enthusiastic approval or open insult. While I

and Porcupine were thus being made the cynosures of the whole school,

Red Shirt came to me as usual.

“Too bad, my friend; I am very sorry indeed for you gentlemen,” he said

in a semi-apologetic manner. “I’ve talked with the principal in regard

to the story in the paper, and have arranged to demand that the paper

retract the report, so you needn’t worry on that score. You were

plunged into the trouble because my brother invited Mr. Hotta, and I

don’t know how I can apologize you. I’m going to do my level best in

this matter; you gentlemen please depend on that.” At the third hour

recess the principal came out of his room, and seemed more or less

perturbed, saying, “The paper made a bad mess of it, didn’t it? I hope

the matter will not become serious.”

As to anxiety, I have none. If they propose to relieve me, I intend to

tender my resignation before I get fired,—that’s all. However, if I

resign with no fault on my part, I would be simply giving the paper

advantage. I thought it proper to make the paper take back what it had

said, and stick to my position. I was going to the newspaper office to

give them a piece of my mind on my way back but having been told that

the school had already taken steps to have the story retracted, I did

not.

Porcupine and I saw the principal and Red Shirt at a convenient hour,

giving them a faithful version of the incident. The principal and Red

Shirt agreed that the incident must have been as we said and that the

paper bore some grudge against the school and purposely published such

a story. Red Shirt made a round of personal visits on each teacher in

the room, defending and explaining our action in the affair.

Particularly he dwelt upon the fact that his brother invited Porcupine

and it was his fault. All teachers denounced the paper as infamous and

agreed that we two deserved sympathy.

On our way home, Porcupine warned me that Red Shirt smelt suspicious,

and we would be done unless we looked out. I said he had been smelling

some anyway,—it was not necessarily so just from to-day. Then he said

that it was his trick to have us invited and mixed in the fight

yesterday,—“Aren’t you on to that yet?” Well, I was not. Porcupine was

quite a Grobian but he was endowed, I was impressed, with a better

brain than I.

“He made us mix into the trouble, and slipped behind and contrived to

have the paper publish the story. What a devil!”

“Even the newspaper in the band wagon of Red Shirt? That surprises me.

But would the paper listen to Red Shirt so easily?”

“Wouldn’t it, though. Darn easy thing if one has friends in the

paper.”[P]

“Has he any?”

“Suppose he hasn’t, still that’s easy. Just tell lies and say such and

such are facts, and the paper will take it up.”

“A startling revelation, this. If that was really a trick of Red Shirt,

we’re likely to be discharged on account of this affair.”

“Quite likely we may be discharged.”

“Then I’ll tender my resignation tomorrow, and back to Tokyo I go. I am

sick of staying in such a wretched hole.”

“Your resignation wouldn’t make Red Shirt squeal.”

“That’s so. How can he be made to squeal?”

“A wily guy like him always plots not to leave any trace behind, and it

would be difficult to follow his track.”

“What a bore! Then we have to stand in a false light, eh? Damn it! I

call all kinds of god to witness if this is just and right!”

“Let’s wait for two or three days and see how it turns out. And if we

can’t do anything else, we will have to catch him at the hot springs

town.”

“Leaving this fight affair a separate case?”

“Yes. We’ll have to his hit weak spot with our own weapon.”

“That may be good. I haven’t much to say in planning it out; I leave it

to you and will do anything at your bidding.”

I parted from Porcupine then. If Red Shirt was really instrumental in

bringing us two into the trouble as Porcupine supposed, he certainly

deserves to be called down. Red Shirt outranks us in brainy work. And

there is no other course open but to appeal to physical force. No

wonder we never see the end of war in the world. Among individuals, it

is, after all, the question of superiority of the fist.

Next day I impatiently glanced over the paper, the arrival of which I

had been waiting with eagerness, but not a correction of the news or

even a line of retraction could be found. I pressed the matter on

Badger when I went to the school, and he said it might probably appear

tomorrow. On that “tomorrow” a line of retraction was printed in tiny

types. But the paper did not make any correction of the story. I called

the attention of Badger to the fact, and he replied that that was about

all that could be done under the circumstance. The principal, with the

face like a badger and always swaggering, is surprisingly, wanting in

influence. He has not even as much power as to bring down a country

newspaper, which had printed a false story. I was so thoroughly

indignant that I declared I would go alone to the office and see the

editor-in-chief on the subject, but Badger said no.

“If you go there and have a blowup with the editor,” he continued, “it

would only mean of your being handed out worse stuff in the paper

again. Whatever is published in a paper, right or wrong, nothing can be

done with it.” And he wound up with a remark that sounded like a piece

of sermon by a Buddhist bonze that “We must be contented by speedily

despatching the matter from our minds and forgetting it.”

If newspapers are of that character, it would be beneficial for us all

to have them suspended,—the sooner the better. The similarity of the

unpleasant sensation of being written-up in a paper and being

bitten-down by a turtle became plain for the first time by the

explanation of Badger.

About three days afterward, Porcupine came to me excited, and said that

the time has now come, that he proposes to execute that thing we had

planned out. Then I will do so, I said, and readily agreed to join him.

But Porcupine jerked his head, saying that I had better not. I asked

him why, and he asked if I had been requested by the principal to

tender my resignation. No, I said, and asked if he had. He told me that

he was called by the principal who was very, very sorry for him but

under the circumstance requested him to decide to resign.

“That isn’t fair. Badger probably had been pounding his belly-drum too

much and his stomach is upside down,” I said, “you and I went to the

celebration, looked at the glittering sword dance together, and jumped

into the fight together to stop it. Wasn’t it so? If he wants you to

tender your resignation, he should be impartial and should have asked

me to also. What makes everything in the country school so dull-head.

This is irritating!”

“That’s wire-pulling by Red Shirt,” he said. “I and Red Shirt cannot go

along together, but they think you can be left as harmless.”

“I wouldn’t get along with that Red Shirt either. Consider me harmless,

eh? They’re getting too gay with me.”

“You’re so simple and straight that they think they can handle you in

any old way.”

“Worse still. I wouldn’t get along with him, I tell you.”

“Besides, since the departure of Koga, his successor has not arrived.

Furthermore, if they fire me and you together, there will be blank

spots in the schedule hours at the school.”

“Then they expect me to play their game. Darn the fellow! See if they

can make me.”

On going to the school next day I made straightway for the room of the

principal and started firing;

“Why don’t you ask me to put in my resignation?” I said.

“Eh?” Badger stared blankly.

“You requested Hotta to resign, but not me. Is that right?”

“That is on account of the condition of the school……”

“That condition is wrong, I dare say. If I don’t have to resign, there

should be no necessity for Hotta to resign either.”

“I can’t offer a detailed explanation about that……as to Hotta, it

cannot be helped if he goes…… ……we see no need of your resigning.”

Indeed, he is a badger. He jabbers something, dodging the point, but

appears complacent. So I had to say:

“Then, I will tender my resignation. You might have thought that I

would remain peacefully while Mr. Hotta is forced to resign, but I

cannot do it.”

“That leaves us in a bad fix. If Hotta goes away and you follow him, we

can’t teach mathematics here.”

“None of my business if you can’t.”

“Say, don’t be so selfish. You ought to consider the condition of the

school. Besides, if it is said that you resigned within one month of

starting a new job, it would affect your record in the future. You

should consider that point also.”

“What do I care about my record. Obligation is more important than

record.”

“That’s right. What you say is right, but be good enough to take our

position into consideration. If you insist on resigning, then resign,

but please stay until we get some one to take your place. At any rate,

think the matter over once more, please.”

The reason was so plain as to discourage any attempt to think it over,

but as I took some pity on Badger whose face reddened or paled

alternately as he spoke, I withdrew on the condition that I would think

the matter over. I did not talk with Red Shirt. If I have to land him

one, it was better, I thought, to have it bunched together and make it

hot and strong.

I acquainted Porcupine with the details of my meeting with Badger. He

said he had expected it to be about so, and added that the matter of

resignation can be left alone without causing me any embarrassment

until the time comes. So I followed his advice. Porcupine appears

somewhat smarter than I, and I have decided to accept whatever advices

he may give.

Porcupine finally tendered his resignation, and having bidden farewell

of all the fellow teachers, went down to Minato-ya on the beach. But he

stealthily returned to the hot springs town, and having rented a front

room upstairs of Masuya, started peeping through the hole he fingered

out in the shoji. I am the only person who knows of this. If Red Shirt

comes round, it would be night anyway, and as he is liable to be seen

by students or some others during the early part in the evening, it

would surely be after nine. For the first two nights, I was on the

watch till about 11 o’clock, but no sight of Red Shirt was seen. On the

third night, I kept peeping through from nine to ten thirty, but he did

not come. Nothing made me feel more like a fool than returning to the

boarding house at midnight after a fruitless watch. In four or five

days, our old lady began worrying about me and advised me to quit night

prowling,—being married. My night prowling is different from that kind

of night prowling. Mine is that of administering a deserved

chastisement. But then, when no encouragement is in sight after one

week, it becomes tiresome. I am quick tempered, and get at it with all

zeal when my interest is aroused, and would sit up all night to work it

out, but I have never shone in endurance. However loyal a member of the

heavenly-chastisement league I may be, I cannot escape monotony. On the

sixth night I was a little tired, and on the seventh thought I would

quit. Porcupine, however, stuck to it with bull-dog tenacity. From

early in the evening up to past twelve, he would glue his eye to the

shoji and keep steadily watching under the gas globe of Kadoya. He

would surprise me, when I come into the room, with figures showing how

many patrons there were to-day, how many stop-overs and how many women,

etc. Red Shirt seems never to be coming, I said, and he would fold his

arms, audibly sighing, “Well, he ought to.” If Red Shirt would not come

just for once, Porcupine would be deprived of the chance of handing out

a deserved and just punishment.

I left my boarding house about 7 o’clock on the eighth night and after

having enjoyed my bath, I bought eight raw eggs. This would counteract

the attack of sweet potatoes by the old lady. I put the eggs into my

right and left pockets, four in each, with the same old red towel hung

over my shoulder, my hands inside my coat, went to Masuya. I opened the

shoji of the room and Porcupine greeted me with his Idaten-like face

suddenly radiant, saying:

“Say, there’s hope! There’s hope!” Up to last night, he had been

downcast, and even I felt gloomy. But at his cheerful countenance, I

too became cheerful, and before hearing anything, I cried, “Hooray!

Hooray!”

“About half past seven this evening,” he said, “that geisha named

Kosuzu has gone into Kadoya.”

“With Red Shirt?”

“No.”

“That’s no good then.”

“There were two geishas……seems to me somewhat hopeful.”

“How?”

“How? Why, the sly old fox is likely to send his girls ahead[Q], and

sneak round behind later.”

“That may be the case. About nine now, isn’t it?”

“About twelve minutes past nine,” said he, pulling out a watch with a

nickel case, “and, say put out the light. It would be funny to have two

silhouettes of bonze heads on the shoji. The fox is too ready to

suspect.”

I blew out the lamp which stood upon the lacquer-enameled table. The

shoji alone was dimly plain by the star light. The moon has not come up

yet. I and Porcupine put our faces close to the shoji, watching almost

breathless. A wall clock somewhere rang half past nine.

“Say, will he come to-night, do you think? If he doesn’t show up, I

quit.”

“I’m going to keep this up while my money lasts.”

“Money? How much have you?”

“I’ve paid five yen and sixty sen up to to-day for eight days. I pay my

bill every night, so I can jump out anytime.”

“That’s well arranged. The people of this hotel must have been rather

put out, I suppose.”

“That’s all right with the hotel; only I can’t take my mind off the

house.”

“But you take some sleep in daytime.”

“Yes, I take a nap, but it’s nuisance because I can’t go out.”

“Heavenly chastisement is a hard job, I’m sure,” I said. “If he gives

us the slip after giving us such trouble, it would have been a

thankless task.”

“Well, I’m sure he will come to-night…—… Look, look!” His voice changed

to whisper and I was alert in a moment. A fellow with a black hat

looked up at the gas light of Kadoya and passed on into the darkness.

No, it was not Red Shirt. Disappointing, this! Meanwhile the clock at

the office below merrily tinkled off ten. It seems to be another bum

watch to-night.

The streets everywhere had become quiet. The drum playing in the

tenderloin reached our ears distinctively. The moon had risen from

behind the hills of the hot springs. It is very light outside. Then

voices were heard below. We could not poke our heads out of the window,

so were unable to see the owners of the voices, but they were evidently

coming nearer. The dragging of komageta (a kind of wooden footwear) was

heard. They approached so near we could see their shadows.

“Everything is all right now. We’ve got rid of the stumbling block.” It

was undoubtedly the voice of Clown.

“He only glories in bullying but has no tact.” This from Red Shirt.

“He is like that young tough, isn’t he? Why, as to that young tough, he

is a winsome, sporty Master Darling.”

“I don’t want my salary raised, he says, or I want to tender

resignation,—I’m sure something is wrong with his nerves.”

I was greatly inclined to open the window, jump out of the second story

and make them see more stars than they cared to, but I restrained

myself with some effort. The two laughed, and passed below the gas

light, and into Kadoya.

“Say.”

“Well.”

“He’s here.”

“Yes, he has come at last.”

“I feel quite easy now.”

“Damned Clown called me a sporty Master Darling.”

“The stumbling[R] block means me. Hell!”

I and Porcupine had to waylay them on their return. But we knew no more

than the man in the moon when they would come out. Porcupine went down

to the hotel office, notifying them to the probability of our going out

at midnight, and requesting them to leave the door unfastened so we

could get out anytime. As I think about it now, it is wonderful how the

hotel people complied with our request. In most cases, we would have

been taken for burglars.

It was trying to wait for the coming of Red Shirt, but it was still

more trying to wait for his coming out again. We could not go to sleep,

nor could we remain with our faces stuck to the shoji all the time our

minds constantly in a state of feverish agitation. In all my life, I

never passed such fretful, mortifying hours. I suggested that we had

better go right into his room and catch him but Porcupine rejected the

proposal outright. If we get in there at this time of night, we are

likely to be prevented from preceding much further, he said, and if we

ask to see him, they will either answer that he is not there or will

take us into a different room. Supposing we do break into a room, we

cannot tell of all those many rooms, where we can find him. There is no

other way but to wait for him to come out, however tiresome it may be.

So we sat up till five in the morning.

The moment we saw them emerging from Kadoya, I and Porcupine followed

them. It was some time before the first train started and they had to

walk up to town. Beyond the limit of the hot springs town, there is a

road for about one block running through the rice fields, both sides of

which are lined with cedar trees. Farther on are thatch-roofed farm

houses here and there, and then one comes upon a dyke leading straight

to the town through the fields. We can catch them anywhere outside the

town, but thinking it would be better to get them, if possible, on the

road lined with cedar trees where we may not be seen by others, we

followed them cautiously. Once out of the town limit, we darted on a

double-quick time, and caught up with them. Wondering what was coming

after them, they turned back, and we grabbed their shoulders. We cried,

“Wait!” Clown, greatly rattled, attempted to escape, but I stepped in

front of him to cut off his retreat.

“What makes one holding the job of a head teacher stay over night at

Kadoya!” Porcupine directly fired the opening gun.

“Is there any rule that a head teacher should not stay over night at

Kadoya?” Red Shirt met the attack in a polite manner. He looked a

little pale.

“Why the one who is so strict as to forbid others from going even to

noodle house or dango shop as unbecoming to instructors, stayed over

night at a hotel with a geisha!”

Clown was inclined to run at the first opportunity; so kept I before

him.

“What’s that Master Darling of a young tough!” I roared.

“I didn’t mean you. Sir. No, Sir, I didn’t mean you, sure.” He insisted

on this brazen excuse. I happened to notice at that moment that I had

held my pockets with both hands. The eggs in both pockets jerked so

when I ran, that I had been holding them. I thrust my hand into the

pocket, took out two and dashed them on the face of Clown. The eggs

crushed, and from the tip of his nose the yellow streamed down. Clown

was taken completely surprised, and uttering a hideous cry, he fell

down on the ground and begged for mercy. I had bought those eggs to

eat, but had not carried them for the purpose of making “Irish

Confetti” of them. Thoroughly roused, in the moment of passion, I had

dashed them at him before I knew what I was doing. But seeing Clown

down and finding my hand grenade successful, I banged the rest of the

eggs on him, intermingled with “Darn you, you sonovagun!” The face of

Clown was soaked in yellow.

While I was bombarding Clown with the eggs, Porcupine was firing at

Red[S] Shirt.

“Is there any evidence that I stayed there over night with a geisha?”

“I saw your favorite old chicken go there early in the evening, and am

telling you so. You can’t fool me!”

“No need for us of fooling anybody. I stayed there with Mr. Yoshikawa,

and whether any geisha had gone there early in the evening or not,

that’s none of my business.”

“Shut up!” Porcupine wallopped him one. Red Shirt tottered.

“This is outrageous! It is rough to resort to force before deciding the

right or wrong of it!”

“Outrageous indeed!” Another clout. “Nothing but wallopping will be

effective on you scheming guys.” The remark was followed by a shower of

blows. I soaked Clown at the same time, and made him think he saw the

way to the Kingdom-Come. Finally the two crawled and crouched at the

foot of a cedar tree, and either from inability to move or to see,

because their eyes had become hazy, they did not even attempt to break

away.

“Want more? If so, here goes some more!” With that we gave him more

until he cried enough. “Want more? You?” we turned to Clown, and he

answered “Enough, of course.”

“This is the punishment of heaven on you grovelling wretches. Keep this

in your head and be more careful hereafter. You can never talk down

justice.”

The two said nothing. They were so thoroughly cowed that they could not

speak.

“I’m going to neither run away nor hide. You’ll find me at Minato-ya

on the beach up to five this evening. Bring police officers or any old

thing you want,” said Porcupine.

“I’m not going to run away or hide either. Will wait for you at the

same place with Hotta. Take the case to the police station if you like,

or do as you damn please,” I said, and we two walked our own way.

It was a little before seven when I returned to my room. I started

packing as soon as I was in the room, and the astonished old lady asked

me what I was trying to do. I’m going to Tokyo to fetch my Madam, I

said, and paid my bill. I boarded a train and came to Minato-ya on the

beach and found Porcupine asleep upstairs. I thought of writing my

resignation, but not knowing how, just scribbled off that “because of

personal affairs, I have to resign and return, to Tokyo. Yours truly,”

and addressed and mailed it to the principal.

The steamer leaves the harbor at six in the evening. Porcupine and I,

tired out, slept like logs, and when we awoke it was two o’clock. We

asked the maid if the police had called on us, and she said no. Red

Shirt and Clown had not taken it to the police, eh? We laughed.

That night I and Porcupine left the town. The farther the vessel

steamed away from the shore, the more refreshed we felt. From Kobe to

Tokyo we boarded a through train and when we made Shimbashi, we

breathed as if we were once more in congenial human society. I parted

from Porcupine at the station, and have not had the chance of meeting

him since.

I forgot to tell you about Kiyo. On my arrival at Tokyo, I rushed into

her house swinging my valise, before going to a hotel, with “Hello,

Kiyo, I’m back!”

“How good of you to return so soon!” she cried and hot tears streamed

down her cheeks. I was overjoyed, and declared that I would not go to

the country any more but would start housekeeping with Kiyo in Tokyo.

Some time afterward, some one helped me to a job as assistant engineer

at the tram car office. The salary was 25 yen a month, and the house

rent six. Although the house had not a magnificent front entrance, Kiyo

seemed quite satisfied, but, I am sorry to say, she was a victim of

pneumonia and died in February this year. On the day preceding her

death, she asked me to bedside, and said, “Please, Master Darling, if

Kiyo is dead, bury me in the temple yard of Master Darling. I will be

glad to wait in the grave for my Master Darling.”

So Kiyo’s grave is in the Yogen temple at Kobinata.

—(THE END)—

[A: Insitent]

[B: queershaped]

[C: The original just had the Japanese character, Unicode U+5927, sans

description]

[D: aweinspiring]

[E: about about]

[F: atomosphere]

[G: Helloo]

[H: you go]

[I: goo-goo eyes]

[J: proper hyphenation unknown]

[K: pin-princking]

[L: Procupine]

[M: celabration]

[N: wans’t]

[O: paper.]

[P: girl shead]

[Q: stumblieg]

[R: Rad]