FLIGHT TO OSAKA

XIX.

FLIGHT TO OSAKA.

We arrived in Nagoya towards evening. I stayed there over night, and early in the morning started out to commit some new crime. As I was passing the gate of the Nishihonganji temple I noticed four or five beggars sitting together in very earnest conversation. I had no special intention of listening, but could not help overhearing, and I learned that they were talking about the crimes I had just committed in Toyohashi and Okazaki. I made some casual inquiries of them, and was told that two or three days before, robberies had been committed at both Toyohashi and Okazaki, that two policemen had been injured, and that the robber had escaped. The thief was supposed to be in Nagoya, and the police in searching for him had been bothering these very beggars.

Under these circumstances Nagoya seemed a rather dangerous place for me, especially as I had no visible means of support. So I bought a scissors-grinder's outfit, and set out with it along the Tokaido railroad towards the west. I journeyed on, passing through Kyoto to Osaka, where I remained about ten days. I here recalled the insult I had received from the bathhouse man and his wife at Amagi, and as the place was near by, I decided to go over and wreak vengeance on them as I had planned. What an awful heart I had!

I want to tell here how the police came to know

that I had hidden a dagger in the mountain near Okazaki, and so had lain in wait for me. That very day a farmer of the neighbourhood had found it in the rice straw where I had hidden it and notified the police at once. The police had the dagger already in their possession and were guarding the place when I encountered them.

I shall now go on with my story. I left Osaka and got as far as Kobe when once more the judgment of Heaven fell upon me. My eyes gave out and I became almost blind, so that for some time I could do no more mischief. Nevertheless I was determined that somehow or other I was going to get to that bath-house, and I set out, although I could scarcely see. I got as far as a place called Akashi, when my eyes got very much worse and I could go no further. I got some eye medicine, but it did me no good, so I decided to go back to Tokyo. I sent a letter to Sekiguchi asking him to send me five yen, and towards the end of October I returned by train to Tokyo.

The condition of Sekiguchi's home was unspeakable in its misery. Not only had he pawned the stolen goods I had sent him from the country, but the very clothes of his wife and child were gone. There was not a single change of clothing in the house. My eyes were still weak and I could not go out and steal anything for them, so I sold all the spare clothing I had and gave them the money to help them out. I went to the Mitsui Charity Hospital for treatment, and by the beginning of November I was fairly well again.

FIRST CRIME IN TOKYO

XX.

FIRST CRIME IN TOKYO.

One day Sekiguchi said to me, "Ishii San, I am desperate! I cannot pay this month's bills, and I must get money somehow. Let us start out and see what we can do in Tokyo." Now my eyes were still troubling me, and besides, I hesitated to do anything in Tokyo for fear the results would recoil on Sekiguchi's innocent wife and child. Also I had never committed a crime within the city and I was unwilling to begin.

I agreed to help Sekiguchi provided it were outside the city, but he assured me there was not the slightest danger of getting caught. I could not very well go alone into the country with my eyes in their present state, and as I saw the suffering of the family every day before my very eyes, I finally agreed to help Sekiguchi inside the city. In so doing I only added sorrow to his wife and child, and as I look back now, I feel a very deep compassion for them.

One night Sekiguchi and I went together to Fukagawa ward and attempted to enter a certain house. The servant was aroused, however, and began to throw things at us until we were obliged to flee. I was so angry that I determined to return some day and burn the house down. Looking back now I cannot but think what a mean wretch I was! The servant, mindful only of his duty to his master, surely showed a

loyal spirit in protecting his master's belongings from the thieves who broke into the house, and yet I had no other feeling than hate for him. What a fool I was!

CONFESSION OF OHARU'S MURDER

XXI.

CONFESSION OF OHARU'S MURDER.

After this it was not safe for either of us to go back to Sekiguchi's house, and on the eighth of December we decided to start off together for the country. But the wrath of Heaven overtook us. That evening when we returned to our lodgings, five policemen were waiting for us. Caught unawares, we were soon arrested and taken to the police station. We were arrested on suspicion for our attempted burglary in Fukagawa ward; but as there was no special evidence against us, I thought I could easily deceive the authorities as I had so often done before, and get free again.

I was put into a police cell with seven or eight other men who were talking among themselves about some murders that had been committed around Tokyo. This and that murderer had been arrested, they said, and among them they mentioned a man named Komori who was being tried for the murder of a geisha at Suzugamori. When I heard this, I said to myself, "How can they be trying Komori for this murder, when it was I who did it?" For a moment I doubted my own ears, but upon inquiry found that the men knew the facts, and that it was actually true that an innocent man was being tried for the Oharu murder.

I began to think. When I was arrested and sentenced for my crimes I hated policemen and detectives, judges and procurators, and was always dissatisfied with the sentences I received, in spite of the fact that