A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

The Story of Kwashin Koji 43
offer up that picture to the Lord Nobunaga, we
shall this time overlook your fault. Otherwise
we shall certainly inflict upon you a very severe
punishment."
At this menace Kwashin Koji laughed in a be-
wildered way, and exclaimed : — "It is not I who
have been guilty of deluding people." Then,
turning to Arakawa, he cried out : — " You are
the deceiver ! You wanted to flatter the lord by
giving him that picture ; and you tried to kill me
in order to steal it. Surely, if there be any such
thing as crime, that was a crime ! As luck would
have it, you did not succeed in killing me ; but if
you had succeeded, as you wished, what would
you have been able to plead in excuse for such an
act ? You stole the picture, at all events. The
picture that I now have is only a copy. And
after you stole the picture, you changed your
mind about giving it to Lord Nobunaga; and
you devised a plan to keep it for yourself. So
you gave a blank kakemono to Lord Nobunaga
and, in order to conceal your secret act and pur-
pose, you pretended that I had deceived you by
substituting a blank kakemono for the real one.
Where the real picture now is, I do not know.
You probably do."
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