"I am very sorry for you," he said. "To-day very early plenty people come, Tanaka San and two Japanese girls. Very plenty talk. _Okusan_ cry tears. All nice kimono take away very quick." "Then Tanaka, where is he?" "Go away with _okusan_" the boy grinned again, "I am very sorry--" Geoffrey slammed the door in the face of his tormentor. He staggered into a chair and collapsed, staring blankly. What could have happened? Slowly his ideas returned. Tanaka! He had seen the little beast in Yaé's motor car at Chuzenji. He must have come spying after his master as he had done fifty times before. He and that half-caste devil had raced him back to Tokyo, had got in ahead of him, and had told a pack of lies to Asako. She must have believed them, since she had gone away. But where had she gone to? The _boy san_ had said "two Japanese girls." She must have gone to the Fujinami house, and to her horribly unclean cousins. He must find her at once. He must open her eyes to the truth. He must bring her back. He must take her away from Japan--forever. Harrington was crossing the hall of the hotel muttering to himself, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, when he felt a hand laid on his arm. It was Titine, Asako's French maid. "_Monsieur le capitaine_" she said, "_madame est partie_. It is not my fault, _monsieur le capitaine_. I say to madame, do not go, wait for monsieur. But madame is bewitched. She, who is _bonne catholique_, she say prayers to the temples of these yellow devils. I myself have seen her clap her hands--so!--and pray. Her saints have left her. She is bewitched." Titine was a Breton peasant girl. She believed implicitly in the powers of darkness. She had long ago decided that the gods of the Japanese and the _korrigans_ of her own country were intimately related. She had served Asako since before her marriage, and would have remained with her until death. She was desperately faithful. But she could not follow her mistress to the Fujinami house and risk her soul's salvation. "_Monsieur le capitaine_ go away, and madame very, very unhappy. Every night she cry. Why did monsieur stay away so long time?" "It was only a fortnight," expostulated Geoffrey.