Then the passion of O-Mine yielded to wonder and alarm; but she
was a subtle woman, and she devised immediately a plan to save
her husband by the sacrifice of her master. And she gave
Tomozo a cunning counsel,--telling him to make conditions with
the dead.

They came again on the following night at the Hour of the Ox; and
O-Mine hid herself on hearing the sound of their coming,--karan-
koron, karan-koron! But Tomozo went out to meet them in the dark,
and even found courage to say to them what his wife had told him
to say:--

"It is true that I deserve your blame;--but I had no wish to
cause you anger. The reason that the o-fuda has not been taken
away is that my wife and I are able to live only by the help of
Hagiwara Sama, and that we cannot expose him to any danger
without bringing misfortune upon ourselves. But if we could
obtain the sum of a hundred ryo in gold, we should be able to
please you, because we should then need no help from anybody.
Therefore if you will give us a hundred ryo, I can take the o-
fuda away without being afraid of losing our only means of
support."

When he had uttered these words, O-Yone and O-Tsuyu looked at
each other in silence for a moment. Then O-Yone said:--

"Mistress, I told you that it was not right to trouble this man,
--as we have no just cause of ill will against him. But it is
certainly useless to fret yourself about Hagiwara Sama, because