Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa [179]
As they were shouting and shaking out their carpet, one of them happened to glance skyward.
“Up there! That monkey has them!”
The other passengers, welcoming still another diversion, all looked up at the simian in question, which was perched at the very top of the thirty-foot mast.
“Ha, ha!” laughed one. “Quite a monkey—stole the cards, he did.” “He’s chewing them up.”
“No, he’s making like he’s dealing them.”
A single card came floating down. One of the merchants swept it up and said, “He must still have three or four more.”
“Somebody get up there and get the cards! We can’t play without them.” “Nobody’s going to climb up there.”
“Why not the captain?”
“I guess he could if he wanted to.”
“Let’s offer him a little money. Then he’ll do it.”
The captain heard the proposal, agreed, and took the money, but apparently felt that as the master of the ship, he must first fix responsibility for the incident. Standing on a pile of cargo, he addressed the passengers. “Just who does that monkey belong to? Will the owner please come forward?”
Not a soul answered, but a number of people who knew the monkey belonged to the handsome young man eyed him expectantly. The captain also knew, and his anger rose when the youth did not reply. Raising his voice still higher, he said, “Isn’t the owner here? … If nobody owns the monkey, I’ll take care of him, but I don’t want any complaints afterward.”
The monkey’s owner was leaning against some luggage, apparently deep in thought. A few passengers began to whisper disapprovingly; the captain looked daggers at the youth. The cardplayers grumbled malevolently, and others began to ask whether the young man was deaf and dumb or just insolent. The youth, however, merely shifted his position a little to the side and acted as though nothing had happened.
The captain spoke again. “It appears that monkeys thrive on sea as well as on land. As you can see, one has wandered in on us. Since it is ownerless, I suppose we can do whatever we wish with it. Passengers, be my witness! As captain, I have appealed to the owner to make himself known, but he hasn’t done so. If he later complains that he could not hear me, I ask you to stand by me!”
“We’re your witnesses!” cried the merchants, who by this time were verging on apoplexy.
The captain disappeared down the ladder into the hold. When he reemerged, he was holding a musket with the slow-burning fuse already lit. There was no question in anybody’s mind but that he was ready to use it. Faces turned from the captain to the monkey’s owner.
The monkey was enjoying himself immensely. High in the air, he was playing with the cards and doing everything he could to annoy the people on deck. Suddenly he bared his teeth, chattered, and ran to the yardarm, but once there he did not seem to know what to do.
The captain raised the musket and took aim. But as one of the merchants pulled at his sleeve and urged him to fire, the owner called out, “Stop, Captain!”
It was now the captain’s turn to pretend not to hear. He squeezed the trigger, the passengers bent down with their hands over their ears, and the musket fired with a huge bang. But the shot went high and wide. At the last instant, the young man had pushed the barrel of the gun out of line.
Screaming with rage, the captain caught hold of the young man’s chest. He seemed for a time almost to be suspended there, for though he was strongly built, he was short by the side of the handsome youth.
“What’s the matter with you?” shouted the young man. “You were about to shoot down an innocent monkey with that toy of yours, weren’t you?”
“I was.”
“That’s not a very nice thing to do, is it?”
“I gave fair warning!”
“And just how did you do that?”
“Don’t you have eyes and ears?”
“Shut up! I’m a passenger on this ship. What’s more, I’m a samurai. Do you expect me to answer when a mere ship’s captain stands up before his customers and bellows as though he were their lord and master?”
“Don’t be impertinent! I repeated my warning three times. You must have heard