"Are you a spy?" asked Mary, so innocently that even the imperturbable
Yoritomo laughed.

"I am, in the sense of being a patriot," he answered. "There is nothing I
would not do for Japan."

"Are you a Samurai?" asked Billie, hardly understanding the meaning of
the word.

"My grandfather was. There are no real samurai now. Only descendants."

"But what were they?"

Yoritomo's face became strangely animated.

"A samurai was a soldier," he said. "He was brave and feared neither
death nor suffering in any form. He carried two swords, a long one for
fighting and a short one for defense. The sword was the emblem of the
samurai spirit. He took pride in keeping it sharp and bright."

"Aren't some of the descendants of the old warrior samurai rather
fanatical?" asked Reginald. "That is, I mean--" he hesitated, seeing a
peculiar gleam in Yoritomo's eyes, "aren't some opposed to the entrance
of foreigners into Japan, and the invasion of foreign ideas--perhaps that
feeling has died out now?"

"The old samurai defended his country against the foreigner and no
descendant of a samurai, either now or ever, would endure for a foreigner
to learn the secrets of his country. But that is not fanaticism. That is