He led the way to his private office and when the door was closed he said angrily, "Didn't the F.o. teach you anything? Are you totally without brains? Don't you have enough sense to have a poker face at diplomatic meetings? Are your brains addled?"
Tyrer was in shock at the venom. "Sorry sir very sorry sir I was just so pleased at your victory I cou--"
"It wasn't a victory, you idiot! It was just a delay, albeit heaven sent!" Sir William's relief that the meeting was over and had, against his expectations, achieved much more than he could have wished for, fuelled his irritability.
"Are your ears filled with mildew? Didn't you hear the "what appears to be a just complaint"-- that's the biggest hole they could ever leave, by God!
We achieved a delay, that's all, but it happens to suit me perfectly and if the Yedo meeting takes place in thirty days I'll be astounded. The next time DON'T let your feelings show, for God's sake, and if you ever become an interpreter... you just better learn Japanese quickly or you'll be on the next boat home with a note on your record that will get you a posting to Esquimoland for the rest of your life!"
"Yes sir."
Still steaming, Sir William saw the young man staring at him stoically and wondered what was different about him. Then he noticed his eyes.
Where have I seen that look before--the same, almost indefinable strangeness that young Struan also had?
Ah yes, of course, now I remember! In the eyes of the young soldiers coming back from the Crimea, the untouched as well as the wounded--allied or enemy. War had torn the youth out of them, torn out their innocence with such obscene speed that forever after they were changed. And it always shows not in their faces but in their eyes. How many times was I told: before the battle a youth, a few minutes or hours later, adult--British, Russian, German, French, or Turk the same.
I'm the idiot, not this young chap. I'd forgotten he's hardly twenty-one and in six days he's almost been murdered and been through as violent an experience as any man can have. Or woman, by Heaven! That's right, there was the same look in the girl's eyes too. Stupid of me not to realize it. Poor girl, isn't she barely eighteen?
Terrible to grow up so fast. I've been so lucky.
"Well, Mr. Tyrer," he said gruffly, envying him--that he had come through his baptism of fire bravely, "I'm sure you'll be all right. These meetings are, well, enough to try the patience of Job, eh? I think a sherry is in order."
Hiraga had had great difficulty escaping from the garden through the circles of samurai, and sneaking back to the Inn of the Forty-seven Ronin. When he reached it, long overdue, he was shocked to discover the assassination party had already left for the ambush.
Ori said helplessly, "One of our people reported that the Delegation had come out of the castle exactly as yesterday, banners as yesterday, that there were five palanquins as yesterday, so we presumed Lord Yoshi would be in one."
"Everyone was supposed to wait."
"They did, Hiraga, but if... if they hadn't left when they did they would never be in place in time."
Rapidly Hiraga changed into a cheap kimono and collected his weapons. "Did you see the doctor?"
"We, the mama-san and I, we thought it too dangerous today. Tomorrow will be fine."
"I'll see you in Kanagawa then."
"Sonno-joi!"
"Go to Kanagawa! Here you're a hazard!"
Hiraga slipped over the fence and went by back alleys and little-used paths and bridges, circling for the Castle. This time he was lucky and avoided all patrols.
Most of the daimyo palaces outside the castle walls were deserted. Using cover well, he picked his way from garden to garden until he reached the burnt-out wreckage of what had been the daimyo's palace destroyed during the earthquake three days ago. As planned, his shishi friends were gathered for the ambush near the broken main gate that fronted the main pathway to the castle gate. There were nine of them, not eleven.
"Eeee, Hiraga, we'd given you up!" the youngest, the most excited, whispered. "From here we'll kill him easily."
"Where are the Mori samurai?"
"Dead." His cousin, Akimoto, shrugged.
He was the oldest amongst them, a burly twenty-four. "We came by separate ways but I was near them and the three of us ran into a patrol." He beamed. "I fled one way, they another, I saw one take an arrow and go down.
I never knew I could run so fast, forget them, when will Yoshi pass by?"
Their disappointment was vast when Hiraga told them their prey was not in the cortege. "Then what shall we do?" a tall, very handsome youth of sixteen asked. "This ambush is perfect--half a dozen important Bakufu palanquins have gone by with hardly a guard around them."
"This place is too good to risk for no special reason," Hiraga said. "We'll leave one at a time. Akimoto, you firs--"
The shishi on guard whistled a warning.
Instantly, they went deeper into cover, eyes pressed to openings in the broken fences. An ornate, covered palanquin with eight half-naked bearers and a dozen samurai banner guards was thirty-odd yards away, heading leisurely for the castle gate. No one else was in sight, either way.
Instant recognition of the emblem: Nori Anjo, head of the Council of Elders. Instant decision, "Sonno-joi!"
With Hiraga in the lead they rushed as one man to the attack, slaughtered the front two ranks of guards and hurtled for the palanquin. But in their excitement they had misjudged by a few seconds and that allowed the remaining eight guards, hand-picked warriors, to recover. In the frantic melee, the bearers squealed with fright, dropped their poles and fled--those who escaped the first violent onslaught--and this gave Anjo the moment he needed to slide the palanquin's far door open and roll out as Hiraga's sword went through the soft wood to impale the cushion where he had been a second before.
Cursing, Hiraga jerked the sword out, whirled in defense as he was menaced from the back, killed the man after a searing clash of swords, then leaped over the poles for Anjo who had scrambled to his feet, his sword out and now covered by three guards. Behind Hiraga, five of his friends were duelling with the other four samurai, one shishi was already dead, one helpless on the ground mortally wounded and another, screaming with bloodlust, misjudging his adversary, slipped on the body of a sobbing bearer, and took a terrible cut in his side. Before his assailant could recover, a shishi slashed at the guard with total ferocity and the samurai's head rolled in the dust.
Now it was seven against six.
At once Akimoto broke off his fight and rushed to support Hiraga who had hurled himself at Anjo and his three guards and was being overwhelmed. Feinting brilliantly, Hiraga forced one of the guards off balance and impaled him, withdrew and darted to one side to draw off the other two, giving Akimoto the opening he needed to dispatch Anjo.
At that moment there was a warning shout. Twenty castle guards had rounded the corner fifty yards away and were charging to Anjo's support. The barest hesitation from Akimoto gave a guard time to parry the ferocious blow that would have killed Anjo, allowing him to scramble and flee towards the reinforcements. Now the shishi were completely outnumbered.
No way to get Anjo! No way to overcome!
"Retreat!" Hiraga shouted and, again as one man, the maneuver rehearsed many times, Akimoto and the remaining four broke off their duels and charged back through the damaged main gate, Hiraga last--the badly wounded youth, Jozan, hobbling after them. Momentarily the guards were thrown into confusion. Then they collected themselves and, heavily reinforced, hurtled in pursuit while others intercepted Jozan, at bay, sword high, reeling, blood pouring from his side.
Akimoto was leading the pell-mell retreat through the damaged castle, their line of pullback already well reconnoitered. Hiraga was rearguard, the enemy gaining on him. He waited until he reached the first barricade where Gota waited in ambush to support him, stopped suddenly and the two of them whirled to counterattack, chopping and hacking viciously, mortally wounding one man, forcing the next to fall and bring down another.