on't believe, now, it will be otherwise. I have got you in
too deep a hole."

Jones laughed hoarsely at his own cunning.

Arisuga received the suggestion as he would have received an unimportant
business proposition.

"I will consider and let the enlightened eijinsan know," he said. This,
also, as if it were the mere oriental courtesy of bargaining--the sloth
which is polite.

"I guess it will be all right," laughed Jones. "Take your time. No one
is proof against the blandishments of American gold. Even oriental
virtue yields to it. Don't you think it will be all right?"--a bit
anxiously.

"Let the honorable American lord so think," said Arisuga. "I will
consider."

"I shan't be niggardly, understand. If you are not satisfied with a
couple of thousands, we'll make it a quartette. She is about the dearest
little morsel I have ever seen."

"Ha, ha!" laughed Arisuga, with American politeness, this time.

"Ha, ha!" laughed Jones.

And Hoshiko, taking her cue, laughed too, out of the palest face she had
ever had. For she was present--though she was not thought to know
English enough to understand what was said.

But that night Jones was awakened by something strange at his throat. It
was a steel blade--and an ominous Arisuga. In one hand he had a candle.
In the other Hoshiko's sharp little sword--close against his skin.

"Ha, ha!" laughed Arisuga.

Jones was in no laughing mood.

"Laugh!" said Arisuga.

Then Jones brought forth a sickly cachinnation which stopped at the
first note; for it made the sword to penetrate his skin.

"Lie still--quite still!" admonished the Japanese, with deadly quiet,
and Jones did not move a muscle for a moment, which seemed years.

Then the light went out and Jones expected death. But nothing happened.
He waited long. The sweat poured out until his bed was wet. He was
certain that he felt that blade still at his throat--and the little
stream of blood from it. But there was no more. He was not dead. At last
he cautiously put his hand out. It encountered nothing. Then he raised
it to his throat. Nothing was there. He leaped out of bed on the other
side. Nothing further happened. He did not even call for the police.

So the opportunity which Jones had seemed to offer for preparation to
return to Japan when the call came vanished, leaving only the vain thing
he had taught Arisuga--his little skill at cards. This he still tried to
use. But though he sometimes won, he more often