Clarence Budington Kelland

“ As different as a darning-needle is to a crowbar or a weasel to a hippopotamus. “There may be one other, but he will think, not act,” says Motu. “Him we should dread.”
“One of those thinkers, is he?” says I. “Well, I guess we can match him. Huh! Wait till Mark Tidd gets to playin’ checkers with your thinker, and we’ll see.”
“Ah,” says Motu, looking at Mark again, this time like he was sort of weighing him and measuring him. “The one who will come has a cunning brain. Many plots he has made.” ”

“ He didn’t seem to realize that the time had come to arbitrate, so he took another lick at the porcupine, who was just beginning to move off as if it figured its day’s work was done.
This time the dog stuck to it as long as he could, but that wasn’t very long, and when he backed off he did it with his whole heart. He backed off so hard that he sat right up on his tail for a minute and then rolled over backward. If he could have seen himself he’d have been so ashamed he wouldn’t have shown his face for a week, like proud dogs do when something makes them look ridiculous. ”

“ Think of us there, and then think about the hotel being shut up and ready to fall down—and us hungry and likely to keep on being hungry, with no chance to get anything to eat. It had cost each of us close to twenty dollars railroad fare to get there, and it would cost that much to get home again—with nothing to show for it. Why, the jokers at the grocery would never have done laughing at us! Life would be close to unbearable, and Mark Tidd’s reputation for smartness would be hit so hard it would pretty nearly be a total wreck. ”

“ You’ll notice Binney didn’t ask me nor Plunk to think up a scheme. No, sir, it was Mark he asked. And Mark was pleased. He wasn’t the least bit swell-headed, but he did like to have credit for what he did and for the kind of brains he had. He deserved it, too. I don’t suppose there are a dozen boys in the United States with just the kind of planning, scheming brain that Mark Tidd has. He’s always scheming. Just give him something to plot over and he’s happy. If there isn’t anything for him to plan about really he’ll imagine something. ”

“ Dear Sir,—Are you interested in a Japanese boy named Motu, who owns a short sword with things carved on the blade of it? He is a Samurai, I guess. Anyhow, he talks about them. He is here in an old hotel on Lake Ravona with four American boys. They are besieged by five Japanese men who want to capture Motu. So far we have beaten them. The leader of the enemy is a Japanese man who wears one round eyeglass and carries a cane and wears a Bankok hat and dresses like a dude. He is dangerous, all right. If you are interested you had better hurry along, because things are getting pretty shaky. ”

“ After lunch we made a live-box to keep our fish in. It wasn’t a first-class live-box, but it was enough to keep the fish from getting away. We made it by piling stones in the water close to the kitchen door, and when it was done we took our fish off the string and dumped them in. One was dead and one wasn’t very lively, but the others seemed as good as new. We skinned the dead one and the poorly one and rubbed salt on them to have for supper. Binney and Plunk pretty nearly let their eyes pop out when they saw Mark’s big bass. ”

“ But my mission was discovered by traitors who desire war because it will be of profit to them. They want to see battle-ships built and cannon manufactured—and men slain. Well they knew the state of the public mind, how a spark might cause an explosion that even the Emperor could not withstand. ”

“ Here was a boy smaller than me, and a foreign minister went down on his knees and risked getting a sliver in his nose at sight of him. I felt all fluffy inside. None of us had ever seen a great man before—a man great enough to be the representative of an empire at the capital of our country—and now that we saw him we discovered we’d been hobnobbing with and bossing and fooling around with a fellow that such a man bowed and scraped to. It was sure amazing.
Motu went on speaking: “These four, Count,” says he, “are the best and bravest friends I have ever known. ”

“ I was sitting on the porch at the time with Mark Tidd. Down the road a couple of hundred yards we saw a man coming. He was a little man, and even at that distance we saw he walked sort of jaunty, swinging his shoulders and switching off leaves with a slender cane. He looked all dressed up.
When he got closer we saw he was all dressed up. Dressed up? Wow! I should say he was. He was a regular dude. Sticking in one eye was one of those funny spectacle things like Englishmen wear in funny pictures. ”

“ Mark pretended to look all over except where Motu was standing. “I don’t calc’late to see any Japanese boy.”
“Of course certainly not. Why should you see Japanese boy? For not any reason. Let us imagine to suppose there is no Japanese boy. Eh?”
“I’m perfectly willin’.”
“Then if there is not any why do you have bridge up in the air, for lighting on by birds?”
“We just put it up to see if it would w-w-work—and it did.” Mark added that last with an aggravating kind of a grin, but the Jap grinned right back.
“I have select friends together here with me. We take pleasure if we can come across. ”

“ He likes compliments, but the ones that tickle him most are the ones about his head. Mark Tidd would rather think up a great scheme than win the hundred-yard dash in the Olympic games—and I never could understand it. I guess it’s because I’m stronger in the legs than inside the skull.
“The Man Who Will Come,” says Binney, pronouncing it impressive, as if every word commenced with a capital letter. The way he said it made you sort of worry. The Man Who Will Come! ”

“ Russia was not weak, but those who talk war most go to war least. A little fear would make them cautious. So I wish all could know the warrior spirit that sleeps in America, that they might never awake it.”
“Me, too,” says I. “If all Japanese were like you, Motu, I guess there wouldn’t be any row at all.”
Motu smiled. “Not all have the advantage to see America and England and the world that I have. They live at home and their vision is narrow. They cannot understand. ”

“ About fifty feet from us he caught up with the little animal and made a jump for it. Well, sir, you never saw anything so funny in your life. The dog no sooner touched the little animal than he sat right back on his haunches like he was too astonished to live, and let out the dismalest howl you ever heard. Yip-yip-yi! he yelled. The little animal didn’t run any more, but kind of curled up and waited. We went running over to see the fight.
“What is it?” says Binney.
“Porcupine,” says Mark.
He was, and a fat old whopper, too, with enough quills on him to satisfy a dozen dogs. ”

“ From what I’ve read of princes it ain’t exactly a habit with them to be ten t-thousand miles from home alone, in borrowed pants.”
“You shall know, Mark Tidd, for it is your right. The story reflects small credit on a part of my countrymen. You know, Mark, that of late there has been talk of war between your land and mine. It has made the heart of my uncle heavy with sorrow, for he knows much of your United States and his friendship is truly yours. But misunderstandings have arisen. Our people have been inflamed against you by men who are no better than traitors. ”

“ Motu bowed. “The matter is in your hands,” he said. There was a twinkle in his eye, too.
The farmers talked together a minute. Then they carried their prisoners out on our dock. One farmer got ahold of the head and one of the feet of The Man. “One, two, three,” called out the leader, and The Man went whirling through the air, head over heels, till he splashed down in the lake. Right after him came one of his men. As fast as one crawled back on to the dock the farmers would jerk him up and duck him again. I laughed till I almost busted my belt. Even the Japanese minister was smiling a little. ”

“ But some there are who have hot heads—just as you have hotheads in America. They see insults where there are no insults. They blame all America for what one part of America does. It hurts Japanese pride to be treated as we are by California—yet California has reasons. Thinking men know that. So I wish all hotheads might know how great America is and what fighting-men she raises.” Motu stopped a moment and raised his head in a dignified kind of way. ”

“ Binney and I held our fire till they were a hundred feet off, then we let fly. We didn’t hit any fingers at that distance, but we knocked some dust out of a couple of pairs of pants. We could see the Japanese jump and squirm, for those pebbles hit plenty hard and stung enough to make anybody wish he had on a suit of armor.
We kept up a steady fire, and Plunk joined in while they were too far away to reach with his pole. None of us bothered with The Man Who Will Come. It was the machinery we wanted to damage, and the two rowers were the engine. ”

“ Every once in a while one of them would swing up his leg and catch a Japanese right where his pants were tight—and that Japanese would pretty nearly double the distance he was planning on for the next jump. We watched them, our sides aching so we didn’t dare laugh again, until they disappeared.
“American justice,” said the count, his eyes all twinkly. “We do it differently in Japan—but maybe we could learn from you.... It has the advantage of being sudden.”
We got in the big automobile and went to the count’s summer home and stayed there three weeks. Then we had to go home, and so did Motu. ”

“ The more fighting the more bother, was my notion. I’d had plenty. My appetite was fed up, and I didn’t have any use for a second helping. But I didn’t come of a race of warriors. I expect my way of looking at it is the American way. We don’t fight for glory, but only when it’s necessary, and then we want it over with and done as soon as possible, just as we do any other disagreeable job that may come along.
“Look,” says Binney.
Around the corner of the hotel came four Japanese, carrying a sort of fence made of an old strip of carpet nailed on posts. ”

“ Motu I was to them, and nothing more—a poor Japanese boy who needed friends. They took me in, fed me, gave me lodging. Then when he came”—here Motu nodded toward The Man Who Will Come—“they fought for me—fought for me like warriors of ancient days when men were greater and wiser and stronger than they are to-day.” Then he set to and told them the whole story from beginning to end. He didn’t omit a thing. He told about Mark Tidd’s strategy and about my swimming and about the bravery and faithfulness of Binney and Plunk, and everything. ”

“ I looked back in a few minutes and Motu was nowhere to be seen.
“Motu’s ducked,” says I to Mark.
“Yes,” says he. “He’s got some p-pretty good reason for keepin’ out of sight. He ain’t the kind to be afraid of nothin’. If he’s hidin’ it’s because there’s somethin’ to hide from.”
“I don’t like the whole business,” says I. “First here’s a Japanese boy all alone. Where’d he come from and what’s he doin’ here? Next that boy’s afraid of somethin’. What is it? Then we take him to live with us. If there’s somethin’ that’s like to hurt him ain’t it just as like to hurt us? ”

“ Without his reading hitched on to his imagination I guess those Japs would have had Motu and would have eaten him in a sandwich, for all we could have done to prevent it. I’ve come to see that imagination’s all right when you can compress it and shoot it into a cylinder with a piston in it like you do steam. Mark Tidd was a cylinder built to run on imagination. ”

“ After he’d watched a minute he rose up as high as he dared without tipping over, and began to wave like he had gone crazy. He flapped that pillow-case around his head in circles and back and forth and up and down, at the same time letting out a holler as if he was tickled to death about something. ”

“ All of a sudden Plunk let out a yell.
“Hey!” says he. “Git away from there! Git! I’ll lam you good!” he says.
Motu and I ran around the corner and saw Plunk poking his lance at somebody through the stairway. Just then Mark Tidd came out of the door, rolling a big barrel that he’d found. He frowned at us.
“Your p-p-place is in front,” says he. “Git back there quick.”
He was right about it. We had left our station unguarded.
“What’s the matter?” I yelled at Plunk.
“Man tryin’ to cut the rope that holds up the stairs,” says he, “and I’m pokin’ away his knife. He’s got it tied to a pole.” ”

“ You never saw an engine explode, I’ll bet you. Neither did I, but that’s the nearest I can imagine to what that mule did. He just naturally up and exploded. First he opened his mouth and let out a holler that was enough to raise the dead, and then he lashed out with all four feet and his tail, and tried to bite with his teeth. You can bet those Japanese backed off a little. The old fellow didn’t seem to mind a bit. He just spread his legs so the mule could kick free and waited. All at once the mule quit kicking and started off straight ahead. ”

“ But right now I’m more curious about Japanese.”
“Huh!” says he. “We m-m-might as well get as much pleasure out of this mix-up as possible. You can get p-pleasure out of sittin’ on a tack if you go at it right. We’ll pretend we’re cliff-dwellers in a stone castle up on a shelf on a m-mountain. The only way to attack us is to scale the cliff with ladders. A tribe of the enemy has come down on to us.”
“I’ve heard,” says Plunk, “that cliff-dwellers ate dogs.”
“Guess,” says Mark, with a grin, “we won’t pretend that far. Motu’s dog don’t look like he’d cut up into good steaks.” ”

“ By this time Mark Tidd was down-stairs, working over Binney. He knew all about first aid, and, by pumping and working Binney’s arms and one thing and another, it wasn’t long before Binney showed signs that he was alive. In half an hour he was able to sit up and move around sort of feeble. It was the first second we had had time to breathe.
Mark Tidd stood up and walked over to Motu with his hand out.
“Motu,” says he, “there ain’t any t-thanks that will do for a thing like you did. It’s somethin’ that can’t ever be paid for by words, or even by doin’ things. ”

“ You keep thinking every minute that what you’re waiting for will be along, and then when it don’t come you get impatient, and then you get irritable, and then you get mad, and after a long while you just sit there and chaw your knuckles and wish there was somebody to kick. ”