scowls, exhibits surprise or fear, he apparently does these things with
his whole soul. Such facial plasticity provides far more effective
concealment of real emotions than the phlegmatic indifference of the
Briton, who, in the words of Emerson, requires "pitchforks or the cry of
'fire!'" to arouse him.

It is possible to throw an Englishman off his guard by a shrewd thrust;
but Mr. Numagawa Jiro was one of those persons whose lineaments would
reveal the same amount of pain over a cut finger as a broken leg.

Nevertheless, Brett's reply did unquestionably make him jump, and even
Mrs. Jiro's bulging features became anxious.

"Is that possible?" said the Japanese. "It is velly stlange the police
gentleman did not tell me about it."

"He did not know of it until to-day," explained Brett, "and that is why I
am here now. It is the motto of some important Japanese family, is it
not?"

"It is a plovelb," repeated Jiro, who evidently intended to take thought.

"So I understand, but used in this way it represents a family, a clan?"

"I do not know."

"What! A man so interested in his country's art as to go to an
out-of-the-way English provincial town merely to see a small knife, must
surely be able to decide such a trivial matter as the use of mottoes on
sword blades!"