it was the handiwork of Jiuyémon; so she determined to kill him, were
it only that she might die with Hichirobei. So hiding a kitchen knife
in the bosom of her dress, she went at midnight to Jiuyémon's house,
and looked all round to see if there were no hole or cranny by which
she might slip in unobserved; but every door was carefully closed, so
she was obliged to knock at the door and feign an excuse.

"Let me in! let me in! I am a servant-maid in the house of Kajiki
Tozayémon, and am charged with a letter on most pressing business to
Sir Jiuyémon."

Hearing this, one of Jiuyémon's servants, thinking her tale was true,
rose and opened the door; and Kashiku, stabbing him in the face, ran
past him into the house. Inside she met another apprentice, who had
got up, aroused by the noise; him too she stabbed in the belly, but as
he fell he cried out to Jiuyémon, saying:--

"Father, father![48] take care! Some murderous villain has broken into
the house."

[Footnote 48: The apprentice addresses his patron as "father."]

[Illustration: "GOKUMON."]

And Kashiku, desperate, stopped his further utterance by cutting his
throat. Jiuyémon, hearing his apprentice cry out, jumped up, and,
lighting his night-lamp, looked about him in the half-gloom, and saw
Kashiku with the bloody knife, hunting for him that she might kill
him. Springing upon her before she saw him, he clutched her right
hand, and, having secured her, bound her with cords so that she could