Tokyo Bay Page 23

  A shadow of suspicion appeared in the eyes of the interpreter, and his voice hardened. ‘Your officer has gone ashore to spy on the people of Nippon! You wish only to mislead us!’

  ‘No, quite the contrary - I’m telling you the truth,’ continued Armstrong patiently. ‘His disappearance is most unfortunate. Because he has acted foolishly, and without authority we seek your assistance in tracing him and restoring hint under restraint to this ship.’

  ‘If he has gone ashore, he will be found by our fighting men: said the interpreter nervously. ‘And without any question he will be killed.’

  Armstrong hesitated, frowning, then spoke with an obvious reluctance. ‘I am instructed to say further that if our officer is harmed in any way during your attempts to capture him, or even if he meets his death, no protest whatsoever will be made by us.’

  The interpreter’s eyes narrowed in surprise as he absorbed the significance of Armstrong’s words. The Governor of Uraga had already descended the gang- ladder and was now seated in the boat below with the rest of his entourage. Seeing this, Haniwara made a sudden move towards the entry port.

  ‘I shall convey what you have told me to our authorities,’ he said coolly. ‘But I fear they will regard this as a very serious matter - and not one where leniency is appropriate.’

  Armstrong laid a hand politely on the arm of the Japanese to restrain him. ‘What I’ve told you so far, sir, I was asked to say officially. But I would like to make one last personal plea. .

  ‘Please be quick: said Haniwara uncomfortably, aware that all eyes in the boat below were upon them. ‘We are delaying the governor’s departure.’

  ‘Our missing lieutenant is somewhat impetuous, and very idealistic,’ continued Armstrong in an urgent whisper. ‘But he’s a fine young man. He has learned something of your language and at this time of great danger for us all I believe he thought by going ashore he could somehow prevent fighting between our countries. His name is Eden, Lieutenant Eden, and I ask you to urge that his rashness be looked on with compassion - and above all please try to ensure that his life is spared . .

  ‘I can give you no such undertaking,’ replied

  Haniwara distantly, drawing away and turning towards the ladder. ‘No barbarian spy can go undiscovered for long among the people of Nippon... It’s probably already too late to save the life of your Lieutenant Eden.’

  24

  LONG CARAVANS OF packhorses laden with rice and vegetables climbed slowly up a steep, zigzag trail that wound through a wooded ravine thirty miles south of Mount Fuji. The animals, roped together nose and tail, sometimes stumbled under the weight of the produce as they toiled up the long scarp; their teams of drivers, who were transporting supplies to the growing hordes of fighting men lining Yedo Bay, were shouting loudly and from time to time they flailed at the hindquarters of the horses with slender bamboo switches to urge them on.

  The ravine rang repeatedly with the cries of the drivers and the neighing of the animals but, inside a shallow cave that opened onto a ledge eighty feet above their heads, Robert Eden heard nothing of the noise; stretched full-length on a rough bed of ferns which he had cut from the nearby woodland, he was sleeping soundly, his head resting on a bundle of clothing. He lay on his back with one arm flung across the makeshift pillow in an easy, relaxed posture and although the sinking sun was beginning to dapple his face through overhanging foliage, he slept on, oblivious to his surroundings.

  He still did not stir, even when a crouching man moved silently into the mouth of the cave, casting a shadow slantwise across his body. Small and lithe in build, the man was wearing a broad straw hat, and he looked down at the sleeping figure of the American in silence. Twenty or thirty yards away, Eden’s tethered horse was quietly puffing at the sparse clumps of grass that sprouted around the foot of the rocks. Pricking its ears, the horse raised its head to listen to the sound of the packhorses passing below the ledge; but it paid no attention to the crouching man’s presence, and soon resumed its contented cropping of the grass.

  As the man ducked down to move inside the low- roofed cave, his shadow fell across Eden’s face, and in that instant the American awoke with a start. Because the sun was shining into his eyes, he saw only a dark silhouette of head and shoulders close before him and with a stifled exclamation of surprise he rolled himself away towards the back of the cave, groping frantically for his sword.

  ‘Keep your distance!’ snarled Eden in Japanese, struggling to his knees and raising the sword in his right hand. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘It’s all right, master! It is only me - your friend Sentaro!’

  ‘Sentaro!’ Eden exhaled explosively in relief and threw down his sword. ‘What are you doing here?’

  The former castaway bowed low, his face distraught. ‘Forgive me, master, for disobeying you. When I watched you ride away into the moonlight, I meant to return to the ship - but, soon after I started out, I knew I couldn’t go on. So I turned round and rode after you. ..‘

  Eden shook his head in disbelief, but his face showed no anger.

  ‘I followed you all the time and left my horse higher up the hillside to watch this cave while you slept. And with the silver coins you gave me, I went to buy a new hat for myself and food for us both. Look! Eggs and rice and pickled cucumber...’ He held out the food wrapped in large green palm leaves. ‘You must be hungry, master.’

  Eden smiled, slowly and nodded. ‘Yes, I’m very hungry.’

  ‘Then eat, master, now’ Sentaro placed the food eagerly on the floor of the cave in front of him. ‘I have also brought some feed for our horses. It is still quite a long journey to Fuji-san.’

  ‘What made you decide to follow me?’ asked Eden, beginning to eat. ‘You could have been safely on board the Susquehanna by now’

  The castaway thought for a long time in silence before replying. ‘I think I felt ashamed suddenly. . .‘

  ‘Why ashamed?’

  ‘This is my country master, which I love! This is my country which I have been away from for too many years - and I was running back to your ship like a frightened rabbit to sail back to America without even seeing my family. And although the odds against you were great, you were bravely riding towards Fuji-san. . . I felt ashamed because you were showing courage, and I was being a terrible coward.’

  ‘That isn’t true, Sentaro,’ said Eden quietly. ‘And you know it.’

  ‘It is true, master! You made me think very hard

  - and I realized it was me who should be climbing Fuji-san to pray to the great kami - before going home to Yurutaki!’

  ‘So you’ve decided to risk going home after all?’

  ‘Yes, master, but only after I have climbed our most sacred mountain myself. As I watched you ride off I knew deep inside me it was best for me to go to Fuji-san too - to give thanks for my safe return and to beg the greatest kami of all to protect my future life here. ..‘

  Eden looked at the castaway, searching his face for signs of doubt; but this time he saw none. ‘If your mind is really made up, Sentaro, it will be good to have you with me on the climb.’

  The castaway nodded. ‘My mind is made up, master - and at peace with itself for the first time in many years! Your example inspired me. I know truly now what I wish to do.’

  Eden ate in silence for a while, looking thoughtful. Through the branches which overhung the mouth of the cave, the hills and the plain above which Mount Fuji towered were clearly visible in the pale evening sunlight. The daytime haze that often shrouded the volcano was beginning to fade, and a blurred outline of the high peak was becoming more apparent as the sun sank towards the horizon; but in partial obscurity the cone itself again seemed curiously small and distant.

  ‘How far are we now from Fuji-san?’ asked Eden quietly. ‘It seems to have moved further away.’

  ‘From here, perhaps twenty ri - about thirty American miles.’

  ‘Then we can reach the foot of the mountain under the cover of darkness. And begin our c
limb tomorrow’

  ‘Yes, master.’ Sentaro grinned his approval. ‘It was good that you found a place to hide and rest before the full heat of the day. You will need all your strength on Fuji-san.’

  ‘I slept much longer than I intended.’

  ‘But that is good too. While you slept I found the best route forward from here. For safety’s sake we should wait until darkness falls before we continue. .

  Eden nodded his agreement, then gestured towards the food and looked up enquiringly at the castaway.

  ‘No thank you, master. I have taken food myself. That is for you.’

  ‘You seem to have been very busy today. Have you slept?’

  Sentaro shook his head and grinned again. ‘A Japanese fisherman, master, learns to sleep whenever he can. There was no time today

  ‘Then sleep for an hour or two now. I’ll keep watch, and feed the horses.’ Eden gestured towards the soft heap of ferns. ‘Take my luxury bed. It’s very comfortable.’

  He watched Sentaro stretch out on the ferns before turning away to squat at the mouth of the cave. He carefully scanned the zigzag track, up which more packhorse trains were straining, and spent several minutes making certain that nothing had attracted attention to their high, half-hidden shelter. Then, turning westward, he witnessed by chance the instant when the faint, day-long haze around Fuji cleared finally, and the majesty of the solitary violet cone re-etched itself with a dramatic sharpness against a sky beginning to flush rose-pink behind it.

  Awestruck by this new example of the mountain’s extraordinary and ever-changing beauty, Eden continued to squat on his haunches staring at the hypnotic vision until he heard Sentaro’s breathing become deep and even in sleep. Then he rose and slipped quietly away along the ridge to tend the two horses which would carry them through the night to the start of their climb.

  25

  AT THAT SAME moment the plangent notes of a samisen, plucked by the graceful kneeling figure of Matsumura Tokiwa, were reverberating softly through an open-sided pavilion thirty miles away to the south-east. In front of it, a small garden blended formal paved paths with groups of smooth rocks and dwarf trees; a miniature waterfall splashed into a carp pool spanned by an arched wooden bridge, and song- birds housed in tiny bamboo cages were beginning to sing sweetly to welcome the dusk. Designed with meticulous precision, the artificial garden had been constructed as a frame for the distant sunset image of Mount Fuji, which rose in perfect symmetry above the bridge. Prince Tanaka Yoshio of the southern Kago clan was seated cross-legged beside the pavilion’s open screens, fanning himself and gazing in meditative silence towards the volcano.

  ‘Our sacred peak has a different look this evening,’ he said suddenly, without turning his head. ‘Something has changed.’

  ‘In what way, O Kami-san?’ asked Tokiwa, plucking the strings of her instrument more softly.

  ‘Tonight the proud blush of sunset on its virgin snows looks more like a blush of shame!’

  Tokiwa was kneeling on the soft green tatami beside a small central table, the three-stringed instrument resting in her lap. Arrayed now in the full costume of the geisha, her face was whitened with delicate rice powder to accentuate the lines of her eyes and mouth, and her glossy black hair was elaborately coiffured high on her head in the traditional ‘split peach’ style. She was wearing an embroidered haori cloak over a blue-flowered summer kimono, and she stiffened slightly on hearing his words; but she did not raise her eyes, nor pause in her gentle, wistful playing.

  ‘Do you understand my meaning?’ asked Tanaka with sudden vehemence, turning from his contemplation of the mountain to look at her. ‘Do you know why I see shame in this sunset?’

  She continued plucking the samisen but, because she sensed what was coming, she did not reply or raise her head to look at him.

  ‘Give me an answer, O Tokiwa-san he commanded after an interval. ‘I asked you a question.’

  ‘I expect, O Kami-san, what you see is connected in your mind with Nippon’s helplessness against the ships of the foreign barbarians,’ she said uncertainly. ‘Perhaps it would be good to unburden yourself of those feelings, in the writing of a haiku.’

  She stopped playing and laid her instrument aside. Rising to her feet, she picked up from the table a small tray that held an inkstone, a brush, a tiny porcelain container of water and a tablet block of white paper suitable for practising the art of calligraphy. Without making a sound she crossed the pavilion, bowed formally, and knelt to set the tray down beside him on the tatami. With deft speed she mixed ink on the stone, arranged the writing tablet in front of him, and dipped a brush ready for his use. She bowed again, and was rising to retreat to her place by the table when he reached out suddenly and seized her by the wrist.

  ‘What you say is only partly true!’

  As he stared at her, his face was expressionless, but his glittering eyes revealed that he was struggling inwardly with a mixture of angry emotions. He was dressed in a kimono of yellow silk, over which he wore a shorter black jacket with wide, stiffened shoulders. A brown sash circled his waist, and on his feet he wore a pair of plaited straw zori edged with gold thread. He had laid aside his long sword on entering the pavilion a few minutes earlier, but now that she was closer to him she could see that the short sword which he retained at his left hip was protruding slightly from its sharkskin scabbard.

  ‘Do you know why it is only partly true?’ he asked quietly, still moving his fan back and forth with his other hand, so that the stirred air entered his looped sleeves. ‘Do you understand my thoughts at all?’

  He pulled her closer to himself, and she saw that his narrow sash was only slackly tied. His bare chest was visible within the loose folds of the kimono, indicating that he wore nothing beneath it and, when he tightened his grip on her wrist, she felt the physical tension in him. But still she said nothing, waiting instead in silence for him to continue, her head partly bowed.

  ‘Since you don’t answer, O Tokiwa-san, I will tell you,’ he continued fiercely. ‘It is your actions that have helped me to see shame in the sunset over Fuji- san!’

  ‘You are hurting me, O Kami-san,’ whispered Tokiwa, closing her eyes and wincing. ‘Please let go

  He relaxed his grasp a little, but he did not free her arm. Breathing quickly, he continued to stare at her, his eyes glittering more fiercely than before.

  ‘I find you lying in a barn at night in the embrace of a foreign barbarian! I find you almost entirely unclothed! Is it surprising that I should feel anger at the shame you bring on us? Is it surprising that my grip is fierce?’

  Tokiwa lifted her head, but she did not face him, and she kept her eyes resolutely closed. The tinkling of the miniature waterfall in the garden outside and the trill of the caged songbirds floated gently into the pavilion, but only his uneven breathing broke the grim silence that otherwise surrounded them.

  ‘Did you.. .‘ he began, but broke off, his demeanour uneasy. The silence between them lengthened once more; then he took another deep breath. ‘Did you... unfasten your sash for the foreign barbarian? Or did I arrive in time to prevent that?’

  Tears squeezed themselves suddenly from beneath her closed eyelids, and coursed down her powdered cheeks. But she did not move, and continued to kneel in the same straight-backed posture, her head held carefully erect.

  ‘You are still hurting my wrist, O Kami-san she whispered. ‘Please let me go

  He released her with a sharp gesture, and sat back, continuing to fan himself with quick, agitated movements.

  ‘Answer my question now, O Tokiwa-san,’ he demanded in an ominously low voice. ‘And be sure to tell me the truth!’

  ‘The past two days... have been a time of great confusion and upheaval, O Kami-san,’ she began unsteadily after another long silence. ‘I have been afraid and bewildered, like many other women of Nippon. But, remember, I did not seek to place myself in the position where you found me. There was much fear in my heart, for many reasons. And there was m
uch turmoil and shouting in the darkness. At times I was engulfed by doubts and confusion. Events happened by chance and ill fortune. Remembering that, you must judge me as you will...’

  ‘You are not answering me: snapped Tanaka. ‘You are evading the question!’

  ‘Your question conceals a dagger within, O Kami-san: replied Tokiwa softly, dropping her eyes once more. ‘I cannot answer in any other way without wounding myself upon the dagger in your eyes.’

  ‘You have not told me whether the foreign barbarian bade you to undo your sash - or himself forced its undoing!’

  Tokiwa lifted her head to look at him again, her expression uncertain. Then, as she spoke, tears brimmed again in her eyes and she spoke with a sudden impassioned intensity.

  ‘I was far from Yedo and the Yoshiwara pleasure district, O Kami-san, where I first had the good fortune to entertain your noble self But, as you know, there I have also entertained countless men of Nippon with dancing and songs and the playing of the samisen. I shall probably entertain many more in the future. .

  ‘This is a different matter,’ interrupted Tanaka angrily. ‘You seem to misunderstand deliberately.’

  ‘No, that is not true. Last night I was exhausted, and wearing the muddied cotton clothes of a peasant girl in the darkness of a region very strange to me. There were rumours that the foreign barbarians were great monsters. There were rumours that the black ships were smoking volcanoes! I had travelled many ri on foot - the second journey in two nights forced on me by their arrival...’

  ‘If you had stayed at the yadoya, you would have been safe!’

  ‘I have already told you, O Kami-san, I was afraid there.’ She raised her shoulders in a gesture of helplessness. ‘1 felt abandoned and alone. I didn’t know if there would be war, if you would return safely - or ever. I was frightened I would be left at the mercy of your guards. That’s why I fled.’