Adventure, December 1914 — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

32 dealer in keeping us to the open and avowed purpose of our visit to his shop, and, though he did not betray it, I knew how chagrined Kennedy must be at every baffling turn. We rose to continue our inspection of the place. There were ivories of all descrip- tions. Here was a two-handed sword of the Samurai, with a very large ivory handle, a quaint scabbard and a wonderful steel blade. . Kennedy seemed keenly interested in the collection of warlike implements on this side of the shop. He reached over and picked up a bow. It was short and very strong. He held it horizontally, as if for shooting, and twanged the string. Then he examined with interest an arrow, about twenty inches long, and thick—made of cane with a point of metal very crudely fastened to it. He fingered the deep blood groove in the scoop-like head of the arrow and looked intently at a reddish brown in- crustation on it. Nichi was watching him keenly, too. “I thought the Japanese law prohibited that?’”? remarked Kennedy, balancing the arrow. : “It does,” hastened Nichi. ‘Such ar- rows are rapidly growing extinct. I see you are well acquainted with things Japan- ese. That is what makes it valuable.” Kennedy considered the arrow and bow critically, holding them up together to get the effect, as if they were hung on a wall. “Tt is a bargain,” replied Nichi, as Craig inquired the price. “T’ll take it,” agreed Kennedy, laying it down as if he were not quite satisfied and wanted to buy something more expensive but had not the money. “It will be just the thing for my den. I like things that are odd and different from what others buy.” ‘‘Where shall I send it?” inquired Nichi. “Oh, never mind sending it,’ said Ken- nedy. “It is light and I am going directly home. I can carry it just as well.” We spent five or ten minutes more look- ing about and then, as some other customers appeared in the doorway, we bowed our- selves out, promising to come when again Nichi received a new consignment which he had been expecting from the Orient. We walked away, Kennedy carrying his purchase carefully under his arm. “That other Jap was a strange chap,” I observed. “He wasn’t a Jap,” corrected Kennedy. Adventure “He was an Aino, one of the aborigines who have been driven by the Japs northward, into the island of Yezo.”’ I had heard of the race, but only knew of them indistinctly. “They are not Japs, then?” I asked. “No. Most ethnologists, I believe, think of them as a white race, nearer akin to Europeans than to the Asiatics. The Jap- anese have pushed them northward and now they are trying to civilize them.” “Otaka looked comparatively civilized for an aborigine,” I ventured, ‘‘except for that peculiar ceremony with the saki.”’ “Perhaps. But on their native heath they are a dirty, hairy race. Evidently when they are brought under civilizing in- fluences they adapt themselves to the new environment. They say they make very good servants. Still, they are really of the lowest type of humanity—of the very dregs!”’ ‘“‘Are they dangerous?” I asked. “No,” he replied. ‘I have been told that they are a most inoffensive and peaceable people, good-natured and amenable to au- thority. But they become dangerous when they are driven to despair by cruel treat- ment, which probably accounts for some oi the notions that exist about their barbarity. The Japanese Government has lately be- come very considerate of them—though I don’t believe all Japanese are. Still, they say the Japs like the Aino women for wives.” We took a surface car uptown again to the laboratory where, sticking in the letter-slot of the door, we found a message from Burke. It read: ; I have a line on our friend downtown. Meei me at eight in Bowling Green. ‘Morelos!’ interpreted Kennedy immedi- ately. ‘“‘Walter, there is no use of your wasting time the rest of the day. I have a lot oi things to do here in the laboratory. I see Dr. Leslie has sent up the materials he promised, too. Incidentally drop in and see McBride at the Vanderveer. Don’t tell him too much, but just let him know that we are making progress. “Don’t forget— eight o’clock — Bowling Green,’”’ he concluded, his coat off already, plunging into the investigations he had planned in his workshop of scientific crime., comicloool C©