The Breath of the Gods Part 55

Count Ronsard should, after all, acknowledge him a man. The smooth, cool tones of the other now flowed like a refres.h.i.+ng liquid through his brain.

"Am I right in thinking this your first visit to j.a.pan, Monsieur?"

Pierre, half dazed, answered, with instinctive politeness, "My first, yes. But I have for years been interested."

"May I venture to ask what special phase of our civilization has been honored with your interest?"

Pierre's demon nudged him. "It's woman," he said, with a short, ugly laugh.

Hagane's smile grew almost fatherly. "In that you are no exception to the majority of your countrymen, Monsieur."

"To be accurate I should have said--_a_ woman."

The n.o.bleman took a long whiff at his cigarette before remarking thoughtfully, "It is an unending source of wonder to our students, Monsieur, that you of the West, even your greatest thinkers, take women so seriously. Now with us, apart from the one function of becoming the mothers of our sons, they are to men as playthings to children,--as flowers, or bright-colored birds."

"Am I to infer, then, that to your Highness one woman would be about as desirable as another?"

"Ah, Monsieur! You are caustic. Not quite that, I protest. There is discrimination, even in playthings. And we must always take into account the effect of physique,--and character,--upon possible sons."

At repet.i.tion of this sickening thought Pierre's rage gave a convulsive bound. The veins in his temples burned the skin. His delicate hands clenched themselves into steel. He grasped the pistol, brandished it wildly, and putting his face close to Hagane hissed, "Leave out the name of Yuki, and your satyr's thoughts of her, if you expect to live!"

The prince's raised hand concealed an expression of amus.e.m.e.nt. Sadness, not altogether convincing, took its place. Pierre sank back to his chair sulkily, ashamed of his violence.

Hagane's eyes lowered themselves, as if in embarra.s.sment, to the table.

He toyed with the brittle stem of a wine-gla.s.s. "It is unfortunate you are so excitable. For it was just about--Yuki--no, never mind the pistol--that I was thinking to take you into my confidence."

Le Beau stared. The prince continued thoughtfully: "You have been her friend--"

"I _am_ her friend!"

"Exactly. I thought you ought to be told. After to-day there will be--_no_ Princess Hagane. She leaves my roof and must publicly relinquish my name."

The prince spoke blandly. Pierre's eyes seemed to protrude. The shock of this menace counteracted the coffee. "She is innocent--" He corrected himself. "Why? What has she done?"

Hagane smiled pleasantly. "Her innocence, as you call it, is too dangerous. My duties, you know. She distracts me, tires me. A mere child!"

"You never cared for her. You took her from me to show your h.e.l.lish power. Now you will cast her out, dishonor her--relentlessly, for a new whim!"

"Monsieur should know best why I cannot trust her."

A wild thought leaped like flame about Pierre's distorted fancy. "Can you mean that she goes utterly free--free to be happy--back to her father's home?"

Hagane lowered his eyes. When he spoke his tone was conciliatory, even regretful.

"Onda, being my kerai, will scarcely consent to receive her."

"Monsters! both of you. I see--I might have known. But the Todds, thank G.o.d, are her friends!"

Hagane half lifted heavy lids. "Minister Todd,--who has signed that stolen paper,--may--er--hesitate."

"Mother of Christ! What will you have me think? What is to be her fate?

Some foul black thought still bubbles behind those reptile eyes of yours! Out with it! Is she to be cast forth helpless, friendless, at the mercy of the first charitable stranger--"

Hagane lifted a hand. "Now we approach reason though by a somewhat frenzied path. You are the succoring knight. Merely return to me, with unbroken seal, the doc.u.ment I saw you take, and for reward I ask you to receive free, and untrammelled, the person of the present Princess Hagane."

Suspicion drove back into shadow a host of eager thoughts. After one incredulous look Pierre burst into a clamor of mirthless laughter. "So it is a bribe! What fools you must truly think all foreigners. Give the princess to me bodily? This is melodrama. Even had I the paper and should return it--I still deny, d.a.m.n you!--you would take powerful precaution that she did not come."

"Do you so greatly distrust your powers of attraction?"

"No, nor her love, G.o.d bless her! But I distrust you and your Oriental subtleties. She would come--she loves me--but you would not let her.

What guarantee can you offer?"

Hagane looked pained. "No one has ever doubted my word. But if you need it, take j.a.pan's most sacred oath--by the life of our Emperor! Prevent her? Oh, no. I shall urge--compel."

Pierre struggled to preserve his balance. "Even in this barbaric country--have even--_you_--such power? Can you not be called to some account?"

"I regret the necessity of being vulgar," said Hagane, in a composed voice, "but I see I must explain. It is my--what you call position--my--er--rank. It might not be possible to every j.a.panese, Monsieur. But as things are, the woman is as much mine as a French spaniel would be yours. Again I a.s.sure you, by the life of my Emperor, she will come. Again I ask, Do you accept my bargain?"

Pierre whispered to himself Count Ronsard's words, "Remember France!" He tried to keep his reason, but the wave of hope had surged high. He saw as in a vision Yuki, disgraced, rejected, wandering alone through the wind-swept streets. He saw her face sheltered upon his arm,--that little face so pure, so delicate, so well-beloved. Her desolation touched him for a moment with an unselfish grief. "She is proud--she is brave!" he cried aloud. "Even at your orders will she come?"

"I think so, Monsieur. She might possibly consider it a last chance to serve the country she has wronged."

"Yes, and she might prefer to die."

Hagane sent a curious, cold look to search the young man's thought. "Do Christians dare--to die?"

The acid scorn bit deep. "Yes," raved Pierre. "And they dare to live, and, sometimes, they dare to slay! I do not consent, remember. I believe it yet to be a trick, a mockery. If I find it so, I swear in the name of that Christian G.o.d whom you blaspheme--if I find that you are holding out the one bribe that you know I would sell my soul to the devil for--thinking to gloat over the new deviltry of s.n.a.t.c.hing it away--I'll--I'll--" He broke off, mouthing for words that would not come.

His hand unconsciously fingered the cold surface of the pistol. Again Hagane looked bored, and made a gesture of distaste.

"Don't sneer like that, you toad of h.e.l.l!" shrieked his companion. "You think this bl.u.s.ter,--but I mean it. I mean it terribly!" A sudden sound in the outer hall cut short the threat. Footsteps, in stockinged feet, or in the j.a.panese tabi, came swiftly. Both men by instinct fixed eyes upon the door.

Yuki walked straight to her husband and stood still. Their eyes met. "I thank the G.o.ds that you are safe," she said aloud. Her glance moved quickly to Pierre, surprising on his face a hurt, incredulous expression.

"Monsieur, be comforted. It is for the country, not for me," mocked Hagane.

"And now, Madame," he said, with bloodshot eyes on Yuki, "have you explanation for this new act of disobedience, of affront to my dignity?"

Yuki did not hasten to reply. Whether the power had grown from without or within that childish form, a new strength was now hers. She had the look of one who, after long wandering in a dangerous forest, has spied a path.

The gray robe, hastily caught back to decorous lines, showed traces of rough handling. Over her head she had thrown a light wrap called a dzukin. It hid her forehead with a nun-like band, was crossed under the chin, and knotted loosely behind the head. Not a strand of hair emerged.

Her face, in the dull silver setting, gleamed like a long white pearl.

Hagane observed the change in her. The repulsion left his eyes. He waited in patience, and with some curiosity, for her answer. "I came, your Highness," she vouchsafed at length, "because without me you cannot get the paper."

Hagane's eyes went instantly to Pierre.

"Yuki, for G.o.d's sake are you mad?" cried the Frenchman. "I know of no paper. I have a.s.sured him that I do not know of it!"