"The fact is, grandma," he said as he lit a new cigar, "that I came to ask you to tell a fortune."
"Fortunes? I've decided not to tell fortunes for a while." She glanced at him sharply, as though mocking him. "That's because there have been a lot of people lately who wouldn't reward me adequately, even though I'd gone to great effort for them."
"I'll pay you, of course," the American said with no hint of reluctance, and he tossed a check for $300 in front of her. "Take that for now. If what you tell me turns out right, I'll pay you more then, so . . ."
The old woman looked at the $300 dollar check and immediately became more amenable. "I'm sorry to ask you for so much. What sort of divination do you want this time?"
"What I want you to learn . . ." The American puffed on his cigar before a crafty smile came to his lips. ". . . Is just when war will break out between Japan and the United States. A businessman could make a lot of money in a short time if he just knew that one thing."
"Come back tomorrow, then. I will be divining until then."
"I see. Just make sure there are no mistakes."
The old Indian stuck her chest out confidently. "My divination has never failed once in 50 years. That is because the god Agni/1 has made me his oracle."
When the American was gone, the old woman went to the door of the next room. "Huilian!" she called. "Huilian!"
In response to her voice, a beautiful Chinese girl came out. Her swollen cheek was red as sealing wax, as though she suffered some great difficulty.
"What took you so long? You are really the most impudent girl there is! Have you been day-dreaming in the kitchen again?"
No matter how much she was scolded, Huilian stood still and silent, her head hung down.
"Listen well, you. It has been a while, but tonight I will invoke the god Agni again. I need you for that."
The girl lifted her sad eyes to the old woman's black face. "Tonight?"
"Tonight at midnight. Understand? Don't you forget!" The old Indian raised her finger threateningly. "If you give me any difficulty like last time, it will mean your life! If I decided to kill something like you, it would be easier than wringing a chick's neck."
The old woman grimaced as she spoke. Suddenly she realized that The girl had gone to the window, and was gazing through the glass at the lonely street below.
"What are you looking at?"
Huilian turned pale, and looked up at the old woman's face again.
"All right, if you want to make fun of me, it means you have not tasted enough pain yet!" The old woman's eyes flashed with anger, and she brandished a broom.
Just at that moment someone approached from outside, and violent pounding was heard at the door.
"Hey! Hey! Who lives on the second floor there? Do you know?"
On getting this sudden demand from the Japanese, the rickshaw man looked up at the second floor without loosing his grip. "Up there?" he asked. "An old Indian woman of some sort lives up there." His reply was uncomfortable, and he looked as though he wanted to hurry off.
"Please wait. This old woman, what business is she in?"
"A fortune teller. But there's gossip in this neighborhood that she uses magic. If your life matters to you, you'd do better not to go anywhere near that old lady."
When the Chinese rickshaw man had gone, the Japanse stood with his arms folded, thinking. Finally he made up his mind, and went into the house. As soon as he did, he heard the abusive voice of the old woman mixed with the cries of the Chinese girl. Accelerated by the voices, the Japanese dashed up the dimly-lit staircase two and three steps at a time. Then he pounded with all his force on the door to the old woman's room.
The door soon opened. But as the Japanese looked in there was only the old Indian woman. There was no shape nor shadow of the Chinese girl to be seen; she must have been hidden in the next room.
"What do you want?" The old woman stared suspiciously at his face.
"You're a fortune teller?" The Japanese glared back, his arms folded.
"That is right."
"In that case you shouldn't have to ask things like what I want, should you? I came to ask you for some divination."
"What do you want me to look for?" The old woman looked at the Japanese even more suspiciously.
"The daughter of my master went missing in the spring of last year. I'd like you to look at that case, but . . ." The Japanese spoke with emphasis on each word. "My master is the Japanese consul in Hong Kong. The young lady's name is Taeko-san. I'm Endo, a student lodger-- How about it? Where is the young lady?"
As Endo spoke, he slipped into his jacket and pulled out a pistol. "Isn't she in this neighborhood? According to the investigations of the Hong Kong police, the young lady's abductor appeared to be an Indian-- it won't do you any good to deny it."
The old Indian, however, did not look frightened in the least. Far from it-- a mocking smile came to her lips. "What are you talking about? I have never seen that young lady or anyone like her."
"You're lying. That was definitely the young lady Taeko-san that I saw through the window just now." Still holding the pistol in one hand, Endo pointed with the other at the door to the next room. "If you're going to be obstinate about it, just bring out the Chinese girl in there."
"That is my foster child." The old woman continued to leer at him with a mocking smile.
"One look will show whether she is your foster child or not. If you don't bring her out here, I'll go in there and see."
When Endo stepped toward the next room, the old Indian woman stood in the doorway to block him.
"This is my home! Why should I let in someone like you that I don't know and have never seen before?"
"Get out of the way! If you don't move, I'll shoot you dead."
Endo raised his pistol. Or rather, he tried to raise it. But at that moment the old woman cried out with the voice of a raven and he was hit by what felt by an electric shock. The pistol fell from his hand. Endo, who had been so brave till that moment, felt the courage drained out of him. For a brief moment he stood looking around in awe.
But suddenly he regained his bravery. "You witch!" he cursed, and he lept at the old woman like a tiger.
The old woman was not an easy target, though. She nimbly sidestepped him, and swept some dust from the floor up into Endo's face as he tried again to grab her. The dust became fireworks that stuck, burning, to Endo's eyes, mouth, and all over his face.
Endo could not bear it, and driven by the whirlwind of fireworks he fled to the open air.
"Now that I've managed to locate the young lady, it would be a shame if I couldn't get her back. I wonder if I should go to the police? No, even the police in Hong Kong are fed up with the slackness of the Chinese police. If she does get away this time, it will be nearly impossible to find her again. Still, even a pistol is useless against her magic . . ." As Endo was thinking thoughts like these, he noticed a scrap of paper fluttering down from the second story window.
"Ah! A piece of paper has fallen! Could it be a letter from the young lady?" he muttered. Picking up the scrap, he slipped a flashlight from his pocket, and held the paper in the circle of light. The barely visible pencil marks on the paper were certainly Taeko's writing.
Endo-san. The old woman in this house is a magician to be feared. Sometimes in the middle of the night she has an Indian god named "Agni" take over my body. When he is in control I am like dead, and so I don't know what he does. From what the old woman says, the god Agni borrows my mouth to make predictions about different things. Tonight at 12:00 the old woman will summon the god Agni again. Usually I'm unconscious and my mind is far away, but before that happens tonight, I'll pretend that her magic has taken effect. Then I can say that the god Agni will kill the old woman unless she returns me to my father. The old woman fears the god Agni more than anything else, so she's sure to send me back if she hears that. Please come to the old woman's house again tomorrow morning. This plan is the only way I can escape from the old woman's grasp. Goodbye.
When Endo had read the letter, he checked his pocket watch. It was five minutes to midnight. "It will be time soon," he said. "Her opponent is that strong a magician, and the young lady is still a child. If luck isn't on her side . . ."
Before Endo could finish speaking, it was time for the magic to begin. The second story window that had been lighted suddenly went completely dark. At the same time the aroma of an unusual incense drifted silently into the street, strong enough to seep into the cobbles of the street.
In front of the woman a worried-looking Huilian-- or rather Taeko in a Chinese dress-- was sitting still in a chair. She wondered if the letter she had dropped out the window had made it safely into Endo-san's hands. She had seen someone on the street that she thought looked like Endo-san, but what if she had been mistaken? She felt she could not contain her anxiety. That mood might catch the old woman's attention, and that would ruin the plan which was her last chance to excape this frightful magician's house. And so Taeko joined her trembling hands and put all her attention, as she had planned earlier, into waiting for the approaching moment when whe would pretend that the god Agni had come.
When the old woman finished intoning the spell, she began walking around Taeko making hand gestures. At times she would stand in front with both arms raised, and at other times she would come around behind and place her hands on Taeko's head as though to cover her eyes. If someone outside the room were to observe the old woman just then, he would be reminded of a large bat flying about in the pale light of the incense burner.
In the meantime, Taeko was becoming drowsy, as she always did. But she knew that if she fell asleep, her precious plan would come to nothing. If that happened, there would of course be no chance to ever return to her father's home again.
"Oh Gods of Japan, please protect me from going to sleep. If you do and I can see my father's face again, even a single glance, then I'll be ready to die. Please give me strength, Gods of Japan, to somehow deceive this old woman."
She repeated this prayer over and over in her heart. But the drowsiness gradually grew stronger. At the same time, there was a ringing like a gong in her ears, and a mysterious musical voice began to come faintly to her. This is something she always heard when the god Agni came down from the sky.
Once that happened, there was no way to stay awake, no matter how hard she tried. The incense burner in front of her and the form of the old woman disappeared from her view like a bad dream fading away.
"Lord Agni! Lord Agni! Please attend to the words I speak." When the old woman, laying prostrate on the floor, finally spoke these words, Taeko was seated in the chair, sound asleep and looking as much dead as alive.
On reading Taeko's letter, Endo had stood in the street for a time, wondering whether to wait for dawn. When he thought of the young lady's safety, though, he could not remain standing there. Finally he crept like a thief into the building, moved swiftly to the door on the second floor, and peered in.
Because this peering was, after all, through a keyhole, he had only a straight view of Taeko's corpse-like face by the pale light of the incense burner. Endo had no view of the desk, the magic book, or the form of the old woman prostrate on the floor.
Taeko didn't appear to breathe and her eyes remained shut, but her mouth suddenly began to move when the old woman said, "Lord Agni! Lord Agni! Please attend to the words I speak." The voice, however, was a harsh, masculine voice, not Taeko's girlish sound by any means.
"No, I will not listen to your request. You have always worked evil, turning your back on my dictates. I will ignore you after this night. No, in addition I will punish your evil works!"
The old woman was dumbstruck. For a moment she could not respond, but only made a gasping sound. Taeko continued to speak solemnly, paying no attention to the old woman.
"You have stolen this girl from the hands of a grieving father. If you have any regard for your own life, you will return this girl immediately-- not tomorrow, but tonight!"
Endo kept his eye pressed to the keyhole, waiting for the old woman's reply. Then the Indian stood up directly in front of Taeko, with a loathesome laugh probably intended to shock the girl.
"That is enough making fun of people. Just what do you think I am? I am not yet senile enough to be deceived by you. 'Return the girl to her father immediately!' He is not a policeman-- would the god Agni order such a thing?"
The old woman produced a knife from somewhere, and thrust it before Taeko's closed eyes.
"Give me a straight confession. You have gone too far by trying to copy the god Agni's voice."
From his earlier glimpse Endo could not tell whether Taeko was actually asleep. His heart began to pound as he realized the plan had been exposed. But Taeko still did not move an eyelid, and answered derisively.
"The time for your death is drawing near. Does my voice sound to you like that of a human? Even at it's quietest, my voice is that of the flame that burns to the heavens. Do you not know that? If you do not, then do as you wish. I will just ask one question-- will you return this girl right away, or will you turn your back on my dictates?"
The old woman seemed to hesitate. But suddenly she regained her courage. Grasping the knife in one hand, she grabbed Taeko by the back hair with the other and pulled her head back.
"You she-devil! Do you still feel obstinate? In that case I will take your life once and for all, as I promised."
The old woman raised the knife. If he delayed another minute Taeko's life would be ended. Endo lept to his feet and tried against all odds to open the locked entry door. The door did not break easily. However hard he pushed and pounded, he only succeeded in scraping the skin on his hands.
The sound of panels splitting, the reverberation of the lock-- the door was finally broken down. But even when he succeded in entering the room , there was no light but the flickering flame of the incense burner. No one could be seen.
Relying on that light, Endo looked around nervously.
The first thing he found was a corpse-like Taeko, still seated unmoving in the chair. For some reason there seemed to Endo to be something majestic about her, as though there were a nimbus about her head.
"Miss? Miss!" Endo stood beside the chair, with his mouth close by Taeko's ear, and yelled for all he was worth. But Taeko's eyes remained shut, and her mouth didn't move.
"Miss! Don't give up! It's Endo!"
Taeko finally cracked her eyes open, as though waking from a dream.
"Endo-san?"
"Right. It's Endo. Everything is okay, so please relax. But let's hurry up and escape."
Taeko spoke with a weak voice, as though still half dreaming. "I spoiled the plan. I couldn't stay awake-- please forgive me."
"It wasn't your fault the plan was exposed. Didn't you speak with the god Agni's voice, just as you promised me? But that doesn't matter-- let's get away quickly." Endo impatiently raised Taeko from her chair with both arms around her.
"No, that's not true. I fell asleep. I don't know what I said." Leaning against Endo's chest, Taeko muttered this mostly to herself. "The plan failed! There's no way I can escape now."
"That's not so. Come with me. We mustn't blunder this time."
"The old woman is here, isn't she?"
"The old woman . . ." Endo looked around the room once more. The book lay open on the table as before. Below that, collapsed on the floor and facing upwards was the old Indian woman. She lay in a pool of blood, with her own knife thrust into her own breast.
"What about the old woman?"
"She's dead."
Taeko looked up at Endo, her beautiful eyebrows knit with concern. "I don't know anything. Did you-- was it you who killed the old woman?"
Endo turned his gaze from the dead body to Taeko's face. It was at that instant that Endo realized that the evening's plan had failed, that because of the failure the old woman had died and he had retrieved Taeko, and that fortune had a mysterious force.
"It wasn't me that killed her. The old woman was killed by the god Agni who came here tonight," Endo whispered solemnly, with his arms still around Taeko.
(December 1921)