“Thank you for saving me, Samurai-sama,” Goro said. “I will be eternally grateful.”
“Thank you for saving my friend,” Hanzo said. “I am sorry my foolish act caused you so much trouble.”
“Get up,” Kaze said gruffly. “I didn’t want Goro’s dead body stinking up the river, so I had to save him before he drowned.”
Surprised, the two peasants looked up. When they saw the small smile on Kaze’s face, they both started laughing.
Kaze’s kimono was barely dry when they pushed the cart around a corner and were confronted by a half dozen armed men waiting a good distance up the narrow road. At the sight of the pushcart, the men started advancing, swords and spears at the ready.
“That old man must have betrayed us,” Hishigawa said. “He told them we were heading back to the mountain path.”
“Probably,” Kaze said. “Wait here.” He walked behind the cart a short distance until he could get a clear view of the twisting road behind them. Coming up the mountain path were four men. They were armed with swords and spears, too.
They were trapped.
Kaze approached the cart. “There are men coming up the path, too.”
Hishigawa looked at the narrow path, with the mountain on one side and the steep slope down to the river on the other. There was no place to move the cart, except either up or down the path. Looking at the samurai with terror in his eyes, he asked, “What should we do?”
“Hurry,” Kaze said, “we only have a few minutes.”
“What is it?”
“With the men coming up the trail and the six ahead of us, there are ten men to fight.”
“You’ll fight ten men?” the merchant said, incredulous.
“If I must. I hope not to.” He took out his sword.
“Are we going to fight, too?” Hanzo said, with a quiver to his voice. “I said we weren’t fighters.”
“No, you’re not going to fight. Just keep out of the way. I have an idea. Perhaps none of us will have to fight.”
“What is it?” Hishigawa asked.
“Just watch.”
Kaze walked to the cart and used his sword to cut the ropes holding the strongbox to the cart. As he finished, the two groups of men coming up and down the path saw each other, the cart trapped between them.
“Help me,” Kaze said urgently. He grabbed one end of the heavy strongbox. Hanzo, still not understanding Kaze’s plan, rushed to take the other end.
“Now, what, Samurai-sama?” he asked.
“Help me move it away from the cart.”
“What are you doing?” Hishigawa said, a touch of alarm in his voice.
“Just watch,” Kaze answered.
Kaze and Hanzo staggered to the edge of the road just as the two groups of men converged on the cart.
“Give us the gold,” one of the bandits shouted.
“If you want the gold, you must work for it,” Kaze said.
Kaze suddenly took his end of the box and dropped it over the edge of the road. Hanzo, who was unable to hold the box on his own, gave a cry and almost dove off the road to try to catch the box. Kaze grabbed him by the collar of his kimono and shouted to the ban-dits,“You better go after it before the gold gets washed away in the river.”
Hishigawa gave a cry of pain, and Goro stood horrified as the box tumbled down the mountainside, end over end, making its long way down to the bottom of the mountain and into the river with a splash. The bandits stood mesmerized as the box somersaulted its way down the slope. The men formed a frozen tableau, watching the gold receding from their grasp. Suddenly, all the bandits started scrambling down the slope, some slipping in the loose dirt, one actually falling and sliding down the slope on his face.
“My gold!” Hishigawa sobbed.
“Samurai-sama, why did you do that?” Hanzo cried.
Kaze, seeing the road ahead was clear, said, “Quick, let’s get out of here.”
He reached over and grabbed one of the shafts of the pushcart.
“Why are you taking the cart?” Hishigawa said. “It’s worthless now that you’ve gotten rid of the gold.”
Kaze commanded, “Do as I tell you. Take the cart. Come on, let’s go!”
Looking bewildered, Goro and Hanzo resumed their positions behind the cart pushing, but Hishigawa refused to grab on the cart’s shaft to pull.
“It’s still heavy,” Goro grunted.
“But not as heavy as when that strongbox was on the cart,” Kaze said. “Come on, let’s hurry.”
CHAPTER 9
Part the curtain and
disclose the trick. The magic
of revelation.
It’s the barrier!” Hanzo cried out.
For centuries Japanese roads had barriers across them. They acted as checkpoints, taxing stations, and helped to regulate commerce. Since the Tokugawa victory at Sekigahara, the Tokugawa forces had manned the barriers on the Tokaido Road and other major highways. As a result, Kaze usually cut across country to avoid the barriers. Now he had no choice but to go through the barrier. He wondered if one of the warriors at the barrier would recognize him from the days when he fought against the Tokugawas.
The barrier was a sturdy fence of large bamboo that stretched for a long distance on both sides of the road. In the middle of the barrier, straddling the road, was a pair of large bamboo gates. Next to the gate were a guard barracks, an area for doing business, a teahouse, stands selling refreshments, and a stable where horses were kept for the Tokugawa messenger service. The messenger service used relays of horses and riders to speed messages from Edo to all points on the main island of Honshu.
As they approached the barrier, Kaze said to the disconsolate Hishigawa, “You should report the bandits. Then we should get an armed escort that will take us to Kamakura. You can continue on to Edo later.”
Hishigawa looked at Kaze, his eyes flashing with anger, “What for? You threw the gold off the cart and down to the river below! By now the bandits would have retrieved it. All is lost.”
Kaze sighed. “Stop the cart for a few moments,” he said to Goro and Hanzo. The two peasants stopped pushing, glad to have a short breather while the samurai and the merchant seemed to be settling something. For once, others were fighting instead of them.
“What good is getting guards now?” Hishigawa screamed, his fury rising.
Kaze stopped for a minute and looked at the merchant. Seeing the steady set of Kaze’s eyes, the merchant stifled his anger. When the merchant had himself under control, Kaze said, “Good. Now watch.”
He pulled the dead man’s sword from his scabbard in a smooth fluid motion. Without using his full force, he brought the blade down on the edge of the large bamboo rail that made up the framework of the cart. The blade cut into the bamboo, knocking out the mud plug that filled the end of the hollow shaft.
Hishigawa, Hanzo, and Goro watched Kaze’s actions with puzzled looks on their faces, uncertain as to what the samurai was doing. Kaze took the blade of his sword and twisted it, splitting the bamboo and opening a gap to reveal what was inside.
“There’s your gold,” Kaze said.
Hishigawa walked to the split rail of the cart and looked into the gap. There, at the core of the bamboo, was a long plug of mud holding together large clumps of oblong oban gold coins.
“What?” Hishigawa asked, stunned.
“There’s your gold,” Kaze repeated.
“How?” Hishigawa said, shaking his head in befuddlement.
“When you went to get Goro and Hanzo, I opened your strongbox. Then I cored out this bamboo and dropped the gold coins from the strongbox down the bamboo. I used your pot for tea water to pour mud into the shaft so the coins wouldn’t move around or make noise. Most of your gold is in this shaft, but the other shaft also has some. I put rocks in the strongbox so it would be heavy and tied it up again.”