"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 pa.s.sed 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 j.a.panese," 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 b.u.t.tons."
Monsieur"s hands, bandaged though they were, found the packet and drew it eagerly forth. "Thank G.o.d! thank G.o.d!" 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 j.a.panese, 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "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 G.o.d but to some of the heathen ones as well for sending him back to her.
CHAPTER X
LATE in the summer, when the tiny maple leaves were turning blood-red and the white lotus was filling every pond and moat, June and Seki San journeyed back to Yokohama. They were going to meet the big steamer that was on its way from China to America, and June was to join his mother and father and go back with them to California. He was so happy over the prospect that he could not sit still a minute, but kept hopping from one side of the car to the other and asking Seki more questions than she could possibly answer.
"Do you s"pose my mother"ll know me now I"ve got so fat? Has my father grown any since I saw him? Will he carry a sword? What do you s"pose they will bring me?" and so on until there were scarcely any questions left to be asked.
"One more day," said Seki San sadly, "and Seki will have no more little boy to hold her sleeves behind and tease and tickle her under her necks.
She will have a very, very lonely heart."
June"s merriment ceased for a moment and he looked serious. The fact that Seki could not go back with him had been a misfortune that he had not yet faced.
"I"m going to get my father to come back for you next year," he said at last, "you and Tomi and Toro, and your mamma with the black teeth too.
We will have a little j.a.panese house on the ranch, and Toro can ride my pony."
But Seki shook her head and wiped her eyes.
"You will go back to your dear, affectionate home," she said, "and be big mans when I see you once more. But I will hear your lovingest little boy voice down in my heart alway!"
It was a happy meeting the next day on the steamer when June actually saw his mother, and clung about her neck as if he would never let go again. Then he had to be taken up on the shelter deck and introduced to a strange, pale man reclining in a steamer chair, who they said was his father. At first it was a dreadful disappointment, and he submitted to being kissed with an effort. But when the man lifted one eyebrow and puckered his mouth into a funny shape, and said, "Why, Mr. Skeezicks, you haven"t forgotten your old Pard?" a dark spot seemed suddenly to go out of June"s mind and in its place was a memory of the jolliest, funniest playfellow he had ever had in his life. With a rush he was in his lap. "You used to tell me about the Indians," he cried accusingly, "I remember now. What became of Tiger Tooth and the little white child?"