Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa [508]
“I’ll tell you soon enough.” The pawnbroker readjusted his bulky frame on the seat at the waist of the boat. “I’d appreciate it if you’d hold a fishing pole out over the water.”
“Why?”
“It’s better if people think we’re fishing. Two people rowing out this far just to talk would look suspicious.”
“How’s this?”
“Fine.” He took out a pipe with a ceramic bowl, packed it with expensive tobacco and lit it. “Before I tell you what I have in mind, let me ask you a question. What do your neighbors say about me?”
“About you?”
“Yes, about Daizō of Narai.”
“Well, pawnbrokers are supposed to be skinflints, but everybody says you’re very good about lending money. They say you’re a man who understands life.”
“I don’t mean my business practices. I want to know their opinion of me personally.”
“They think you’re a good man, a man with a heart. I’m not just flattering you. That’s really what they say.”
“Don’t they ever comment on what a religious man I am?”
“Oh, yes, of course. Everybody’s amazed at how charitable you are.”
“Have men from the magistrate’s office ever come around inquiring about me?”
“No. Why should they?”
Daizō gave a little laugh. “I suppose you think my questions are foolish, but the truth of the matter is that I’m not really a pawnbroker.”
“What?”
“Matahachi, you may never have another chance to make so much money all at once.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Do you want to catch hold?”
“Of what?”
“The money vine.”
“Wh-what do I have to do?”
“Make a promise to me and carry it out.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all, but if you change your mind later, you’re as good as dead. I know the money interests you, but think hard before you give your final answer.”
“Just what do I have to do?” Matahachi asked suspiciously.
“You have to become a well digger. There’s nothing to it.”
“At Edo Castle?”
Daizō gazed out over the bay. Cargo boats loaded with building materials and bearing the flags of several great clans—Tōdō, Arima, Katō, Date, Hosokawa—were lined up almost prow to stern.
“You catch on quick, Matahachi.” The pawnbroker refilled his pipe. “Edo Castle is precisely what I have in mind. If I’m not mistaken, Umpei’s been trying to persuade you to dig wells for him. It’d be perfectly natural for you to decide to take him up on the offer.”
“That’s all I have to do? … How is becoming a well digger going to bring me that much money?”
“Be patient. I’ll tell you all about it.”
When they returned to shore, Matahachi was euphoric. They parted with a promise. That evening he was to slip away unobserved and go to Daizō’s house to receive an advance payment of thirty pieces of gold.
He went home, took a nap and awoke a few hours later with the image of the vast sum that would soon be his dancing before his eyes.
Money, a fantastic amount, enough to compensate for all the bad luck he had had up till then. Enough to last him for the rest of his life. Even more exciting was the prospect of being able to show people that they were wrong, that he had what it took after all.
With the money fever upon him, he could not calm down. His mouth still felt dry, even a little numb. Going outside, he stood in the deserted alleyway facing the bamboo grove behind the house and thought: “Who is he, anyway? Just what is he up to?” Then he began to go over the conversation with Daizō. The well diggers were presently working at the Goshinjō, the new castle in the western encirclement. Daizō had told him, “You’re to bide your time until the chance presents itself, and then you’re to shoot the new shōgun with a musket.” The gun and ammunition would be on the castle grounds, under a huge, centuries-old locust tree near the back gate at the bottom of Momiji Hill.
Needless to say, the laborers were under close surveillance, but Hidetada liked going around with his attendants to inspect the work. It would be simple enough to accomplish the objective.