"An old dried-up man like you? I had rather try--" "Kyogoku?" "Yes; smart Alex; he has left a bit of ginger, if not as much audacity as--some others." "Oho, aha; I can, perhaps, also, place him." "Not on your life." "I wonder." "I don't; I've a sister." "So, so; and two of them. It's a pretty nest or nests, or something they build--I'm building. Hideyoshi! Whipped every man in Japan, that's worth the trouble, and three will-o'-the-wisps would set up housekeeping on results. Esyo denies me, Jokoin defies me, and Yodogima--you can go, young lady; you and I couldn't quarrel, should we try; but, remember, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush--I wonder, is Yodogima in a better mood?" "Don't do so much wondering. Just try your luck. You ought to know how." "I do; I do; I'll vow, you've made a new man of me." "And you've made me happy. What's the use--the priests: the exiles--" "There, now; run along; love and law--edicts must be obeyed. Hang the villains; the bonzes were a blessing; treachery is damnation!" Jokoin left him, standing in a rage; she knew very well that he was then on the way to plead his own cause in very different terms, if not with less success than she had met in a manner so unexpected and unthought. Two things, however, were accomplished in that short, saucy, and withal agreeable conversation; the kwambaku had been fairly warned as to Yodogima's real temper, and he himself wrought into the proper humor for his contemplated meeting: the fun of taunting, had recompensed Jokoin. "I'll have this thing settled, once and for all," muttered Hideyoshi, as Jokoin disappeared behind a moving cavalcade and he had turned to climb the hill where Yodogima marvelled and fretted the tardiness of his appearance. An old yashiki (mansion) afforded the princess temporary quarters farther up on the hillside and away from the hurry-skurry of the camp below. It was warm and restful, with a breeze blowing gently inland from the ruffled bay in front and the seething ocean beyond. Yodogima sat at the veranda's edge, high upon the stone-abutting wall that terraced here and there the hill's sharp incline or served as foundation to some house perched high in air. The skies were clear, and now and then a raven hawked his weird cry aloft the stilled hamlets in front or clusters of seagull reeled and fed in the distance.