HOW long June slept there he did not know, but he was awakened by
someone shaking his arm and holding a paper lantern close to his face.
When he got his eyes open he found that it was a jinrikisha man and that
he was talking to him in Japanese.
"Where's Seki?" June asked, looking about him in bewilderment.
The man shook his head and continued to talk excitedly in Japanese.
"I want to go to Monsieur Carre's," said June very loud as if that would
help the man to understand.
"Wakarimasen," said the man.
"Monsieur Carre!" shouted June, and again the man shook his head and
said, "Wakarimasen."
Over and over June repeated "Monsieur Carre," and pointed down the
moonlit road. Finally in desperation he scrambled from his perch and
seizing a stick thrust it under his arm like a crutch, then he humped
his shoulders, drew down his brows, and limped along saying with a
groan, "Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!" as he had heard Monsieur say it.
In an instant the man clapped his hands and laughed. "Hai, Hai," he said
and when the jinrikisha was wheeled about and June was invited to get
in, you may be sure he lost no time in doing so. He even forgot to give
a good-by look to Jizo, who sat smiling out into the moonlight with the
little pebbles on his head.
It was a wonderful ride, through the soft shiny darkness, with only the
pitter patter of the kurumaya's sandals to break the silence. June,
curled up on the seat, was not thinking of poor Seki San and her anxiety
concerning him, neither was he thinking of the mother and father who
would soon be coming to him over the sea, nor of Monsieur with the guard
at his door. He was wondering if the stars were the moon's children, and
who woke the sun up in the morning.
And all the time a light at the foot of the hill was getting closer and
closer, and before he knew it, they had stopped at the little brown
house where the windows peeped through the vines.
A voice spoke sharply in the darkness and before June could get down a
man in uniform with a star on his breast, stopped him. The jinrikisha
man seemed to be explaining and the soldier to be asking questions, and
while they talked June sat very still with his heart beating furiously
against the long envelope in his blouse.
He was just as frightened as he had been back in the woods when the
hob-goblins were after him, only it was different. Then he cried and ran
away, now he was not thinking of himself at all, but of Monsieur who
might have to go to prison and die if he should fail to get the papers
to him.
After what seemed to him hours of time, the guard evidently came to the
conclusion that a sleepy little boy who had lost his way could do no
harm, so he lifted him down and took him up the path.
June was too full of anxiety even to glance at the goldfish as he passed
them. He walked straight up the path and into the room where Monsieur
lay. On the bed was an old man who looked as if he might have been
Monsieur's father; his body seemed to have shrunk to half its size and
his face was old and white and drawn. Only the eyes made June know that
it was Monsieur himself, and the fierce startled look in them recalled
the day he had stumbled over him in the Daimyo's garden.
"I was coming to see you and I got lost," began June, but Monsieur held
up a warning hand.
"The guard will inform me in Japanese," he said so coldly that June
wondered if he were angry with him.
After a great deal of talk, the guard went away leaving June sitting
half asleep on the floor with his head against the bed. In an instant
Monsieur was leaning over him shaking his shoulder.
"Tell me!" he demanded, "tell me quickly why did you come?"
June rubbed his eyes and yawned; at first he could not remember, then it
began to come back:
"I made the 's's' the wrong way," he murmured, "and when I tried to fix
them I spoiled your letter."
"Yes, yes," cried Monsieur, now out of bed and on his knees before the
child, "and you tore it up, you destroyed it?"
June shook his head wearily, "It is inside here, but I can't undo the
buttons."
Monsieur's hands, bandaged though they were, found the packet and drew
it eagerly forth. "Thank God! thank God!" he whispered, pressing the
unbroken seal again and again to his lips.
"Did I save your life?" asked June making a mighty effort to rouse
himself, and enjoy his reward.
"Not my life, boy; that did not matter; it is my honor you have saved,
my honor." And Monsieur lay back upon the bed and sobbed like a little
child.
"He's coming!" warned June, and Monsieur had only sufficient time to
wipe away the tears from his withered old cheeks before the guard
returned with the jinrikisha man.
After a consultation in Japanese, Monsieur said to June, "I have told
the man how to take you home. They will be very anxious about you. You
must start at once."
"I'm hungry," said June, "I'd like some of those little crackers that
you gave me before."
The guard, obligingly following directions, produced a paper bag from
the table drawer.
"I wish they were animal crackers," said June, "I like to eat the
elephant first, then he gets hungry and I have to eat the bear, then the
bear gets hungry and I have to eat the pig, and the pig gets hungry and
I have to eat the rabbit until there aren't any left in the bag."
"You have not spoken to any one about the letter?" whispered Monsieur as
he pretended to kiss June good-by.
"'Course not!" declared June indignantly. "It's a secret!" Then as if
remembering a lost opportunity he added: "Oh! you couldn't tell me a
story, could you? Just a teeny weeny one?"
"Not to-night," said Monsieur laughing, "why, it is eleven o'clock now.
But to-morrow, next day, always when you come, the stories are waiting,
all that my brain and heart can hold."
And with this promise June was bound to be content.
It was hard to believe that the way back was as long as the way he had
come, for before he knew it the wall beside the moat appeared by the
roadside, then the parade grounds dim and shadowy in the moonlight, then
the crowded streets of the town. He did not know that he was the chief
cause of the commotion, that for two hours parties of searchers had been
hurrying along every road leading out of town, that people were telling
where they had seen him last, and that anxious groups were looking over
the low wall into the black waters of the moat.
He only knew that from the moment he reached town a crowd followed his
jinrikisha, that his kurumaya could scarcely push his way through the
questioning throng, and that at last they stopped and a shout went up,
the crowd parted, and through the opening dashed Seki San, her hair
hanging limply about her face, her eyes full of joy, and her arms
out-stretched.
"Oh! My little boy darling!" she cried. "You have given me many
troubles. Where you been, where did you go?"
But June attempted no explanation; the papers were safe with Monsieur
and he was safe with Seki San, and whether or not he had done right was
too big a problem to wrestle with.
After Seki had fed him and bathed him, and kissed his many bruises to
make them well, he put his arms about her and gave her a long, hard hug.
"I am awful sorry I had to run away," he said and Seki's English was not
good enough to understand just what he meant.
[Illustration: "Long after he was asleep she sat beside him."]
Long after he was asleep she sat beside him on the floor, crying softly
into her sleeve, and holding fast to his hand while she gave thanks not
only to her new Christian God but to some of the heathen ones as well
for sending him back to her.