The Deformed Devil

It was already past one o'clock at night. As one would expect, pedestrian traffic had ceased by that time in Asakusa Park, and one felt the loneliness all the more keenly because the place had been so congested in the early evening. The area to the right as one enters Niōmon Gate, behind which the five-storied pagoda, sutra library, outdoor statue of the Buddha, and Benten-yama11 sit, was particularly deserted. It was strangely desolate, as if out of the whole spacious park only this place had been left behind.

Behind the five-storied pagoda, in the most desolate place of all, a huge tree, such as might even be revered as sacred, spread its branches. The light of the distant safety lamps barely reached even the front side of the five-storied pagoda, and there was not even a shadow in the darkness beneath the tree at its rear. Of the whole park, it was the place in which one would most expect demons to make their home. It was mysterious that, in this area, even the rattling of patrol sabers could be heard only two or three times a night.

That night, there was not even the light of stars in the sky, and it looked even darker and more dreadful than usual beneath the huge tree. At times, one could hear the ominous cry of a bird.

"Hey, boss, are you asleep?"

A low, gargling voiced welled up from the root of the huge tree. Then, a rotten straw mat, which lay discarded on the ground there, moved and rose up. At first glance it appeared to be only an abandoned rice mat, but actually a vagabond had flattened his body as much as he could and been sleeping beneath it.

"I'm awake," another voice answered from somewhere. It was the same sort of stifled whisper.

"Aren't they late? Those brats, I mean. They can't have bungled it, can they?"

"It's fine. You'll get used to it. You'd better get some sleep."

On that note, the voices ceased. The straw mat went back to being a discarded straw mat.

For a while, the silence continued. Rain clouds hung low, and the wind had died. It was an uncanny silence.

At last, the sound of something creaking began to be faintly audible. It stopped and started, stopped and started for more than ten minutes. The big doors of the five-storied pagoda slowly opened, and two young men snuck out of the pitch-black opening. They both wore kimono printed in large splash patterns and had on school caps.

"Who is it? Oh, it's you. I guess you've pulled another clever job."

The straw mat moved, and the first voice whispered.

"It wasn't clever at all. We only got a little today."

The young men stepped down onto the narrow, open-air veranda and walked to meet the straw mat.

"I don't mind, but you can't forget the share for Teikō here."

Another voice spoke. If one looked closely, the mouth of a still blacker hollow yawned under the base of the huge tree's black trunk. Inside that hollow, someone was eating alone.

"I know. Here, I've got these three bills. I'm worn out, so I went to take a short rest. This is it for me tonight."

The young men had been making a living detaching valuable metal fixtures from the tower's interior and selling them. A group of burglars had snuck into the five-storied pagoda, within the lively temple grounds of the Asakusa Kannon, and even the policemen in the police box not one hundred yards distant had failed to notice a thing.

"Hoo, hoo, hoo." The slightly shrill voice of a bird suddenly sounded.

"Hey, the signal! Look out," the straw mat muttered and became motionless. The young men hid themselves back behind the door they had come from in a great hurry. By the time the rattling of a saber began to be audible from the other side of the tower, no trace of the robbers remained.

Although by so doing they were able to escape the eyes of the policemen, there was one more pair of eyes that went unnoticed. From beneath the veranda of the pagoda, a man wearing a navy blue business suit had been covertly examining their affairs from the first.

"Hey, boss, is it true you haven't shown your face around here for a while because you've been breaking in somewhere else?" the straw mat said after waiting for the policeman's footsteps to recede.

"That's a lie. I've just been a bit busy. I'm holding back from mischief these days. Today, I wanted to see the red stuff again after so long," the voice inside the hollow answered.

"It's a fateful illness. By the way, has that matter of the arm been settled?"

"I don't like to think about it, but because it's you I'll tell anything and everything. Society is talking about it. Thanks to the seeds I've sown, the local news section in today's paper was buried in it. This time for sure, I want a trophy I can be proud of. I shouldn't have to tell you, but never say a word about this to anyone. Myself now, I put one foot into the drainage ditch in Senju, one foot into Hyōtan Pond here in the park, one hand into a display in a dry-goods store, and one hand into a small parcel I sent to some house." The voice trailed off in a chuckle.

"It's the talk of the town. Never felt better."

The demon in the hollow casually confessed these shocking facts. He let out a weird laugh, as if to say that he couldn't bear to be so very, very happy. The ghastly sound of grinding teeth was mixed in with the laughter. He was grinding his teeth in ecstasy.

The straw mat seemed to be too overwhelmed even to reply, and for a while no voice at all could be heard.

"Keep your mouth shut! If you try to tell, you'll suffer the consequences, understand?"

From inside the hollow, the weird laughter came again.

"What a thing to say. Aren't you and me friends? I won't talk, even if my mouth rots. Besides, aren't you always stirring up trouble?"

"I suppose. I have to do it. Myself now, Teikō, even I understand. I was born with a fateful body, and I'm going mad from the prejudice. I can't help hating the contented, healthy people of society. It's natural for them to be my enemies too. I'm only saying this because it's you. It's not for just anyone to hear. After this, I mean to commit still more evil deeds. I'll do as much harm as is in my power to do until my luck runs out and I get trampled down."

The stifled voice, which rose along with the sound of grinding teeth, resounded frightfully within the hollow.

Again, silence continued for a while.

"Hey, boss, it's the fire bell! Sounds like they pulled it off."

If one cleared one's ears, the voice of the bell was distantly audible.

"Teikō, is there anyone here?"

"Don't worry about it."

Hearing that, the demon sluggishly emerged from his hollow for the first time. It was the ugly dwarf. After looking cautiously around the area, he clambered up the trunk of the huge tree, passing from branch to branch with a speed unbefitting a cripple, and vanished among the overgrown leaves. To compensate for the deficiency of his short legs, he moved with the complete mastery of an acrobat. It was just like a monkey climbing a tree.

"Burning! It's burning! There's no wind, but as things stand ten houses will burn for certain."

The demon's cursing voice resounded in the treetop, but he was afraid that the neighborhood would hear and spoke so low that he could barely be heard.

The fire lay to the west of the park and appeared to extend over nearly ten blocks. The sound of the fire bell and the echoes of the steam pump's siren came to them across the theater district. At times, the ecstatic howls of the deformed child in the treetop could be heard mingled with the sounds of the fire.

At last, with the faint flapping of cloth and the sound of stealthy but hurried footsteps, two dirty boys came dashing into the rear of the tower.

"Is that your work?"

"Yes," One boy answered the straw mat's question, a note of challenge in his voice. "It went splendidly. There's no wind, but we got ten houses for sure."

The leaves of the huge tree chattered, and the monkey-like deformed child, perhaps catching the sound of those voices, flew down to earth.

"Sounds like it went well. Teikō, I'll be going out again for a little while to watch, so let those damn brats know that for me, will you?" Hurriedly pulling a bill from his pocket, he whispered rapidly while a hand emerged from the straw mat and took hold of the money.

Then, his small body jumping up and down, he vanished into the darkness. Without giving the remaining vagrants another look, the man in the business suit, who was hiding beneath the veranda of the pagoda, crawled out on the opposite side and followed after the dwarf.

When they left district six12 and came out onto a wide avenue, here and there they could see high-spirited rubberneckers breaking into a run, despite the lateness of the hour. There were also people who loitered near buildings and gazed at the red sky. The dwarf and his shadow ran in among the rubberneckers. No one would take any notice of the deformed child at a time like that. The shadow, too, was able to run without worry of being noticed by his quarry, and he drew considerably closer.

The fire had passed the Kappa Bridge Station, gone two or three blocks, and was now in the back streets of Kyoshima. The police were still short-handed, so the rubberneckers were able to freely approach the scene of the fire. The burning buildings were mostly houses that had been divided into tenements. Five or six houses were already surrounded by flames.

Apart from the sound of the steam pump sucking water and the desperate shouts of the firefighters, the scene was strangely silent. A great number of the spectators kept quiet and huddled together in isolated groups. The fire burned mutely. Because there was no wind, most of the flames rose vertically, and the sparks came falling on the heads of the onlookers. The water from the pumps climbed like stripes within a bright red whirlpool.

Due to the water escaping the hoses, the road was as muddy

as after a long rain. The ecstatic dwarf ran and darted about, mixing with the firemen going every which way. His weird face was painted deep red on account of the flames and his large mouth was twisted into a ghastly sneer across it. It was enough to make one wonder if he were not, after all, a small demon come bearing fiery disaster to this world.

The man in the business suit mingled with the crowd, and his gaze never left his quarry. His face, too, was painted in the color of flames, and it showed an abnormal mental strain.

But at last the influence of the steam pump gradually subdued the raging fire. The onlookers, perhaps feeling equally relieved, departed by ones and twos, and the number of people slowly dwindled.

The dwarf had been completely exhausted by his frenzy, but also appeared to be thoroughly satisfied. He mingled with the line of the crowd and retraced his steps down the street from which he had originally come. Needless to say, the man in the business suit continued to shadow him.

The dwarf wove his way down dark streets, darting from shadow to shadow under the overhanging roofs and running as quickly as a weasel. It was a shocking pace for one with such extremely short legs. On top of that, he was as short as a child and blackish hue of his kimono acted camouflage, so that he seemed to appear and disappear at will, like a flickering specter, and one was apt to lose sight of him. The man in the business suit continued his pursuit at the cost of great exertion.

The deformed child cut straight across the park, sticking to dark places, and passed over Azuma Bridge. After turning down a great number of the complicated streets of Honjo district, he vanished inside the lattice door of an oddly styled house.

On the somewhat narrow street, among a row of old-fashioned stores and houses, which seemed to have been forgotten by the world, the house he entered was deliberately eccentric. A portion of the lattice windows which merged into the overhang of an ordinary, non-commercial household had been modified into a small show window, and behind its glass was a row of three or four large doll heads. The head of a red ogre with eyes painted gold, the face of the god of wealth looking toward one and smiling as if alive, and the pale head of a terrific beauty were lined up behind the dust-covered glass like antique curios and dimly illuminated by a five-candela electric lamp. The fact that the other shops and houses had their doors thoroughly shut, and aside from their door lamps no light leaked out of them, caused this shabby show window, without even a door, throwing dream-like stripes of light onto the street to give a still more terrible impression.

The man in the business suit surveyed that mysterious house, his face pale. He appeared to find it surprising that the dwarf had entered such a place. Looking at the nameplate, he was barely able to make out the words "Yasukawa Kunimatsu, doll maker."

After entering the lattice door and shutting it behind him, the dwarf let out a sigh of relief. But he was completely unaware of his shadow. He appeared to have almost forgotten himself in an excitement that had the appearance of madness.

The entranceway continued to a dirt-floored passage, longer than it was wide, and to one side of that there was a wide, doorless shop room, which reminded one of an old-style mercantile house. In one corner, a box and other tools used for crafting dolls were piled up in confusion. Beneath an upright octagonal clock, a surprisingly large earthenware Kewpie doll was illuminated by the electric light, its eyes directed toward the entrance in the manner of a sentry. A person who caught an accidental glimpse of it might think for a moment that a living human was glaring in their direction. Among the tatami mats and other old-fashioned furnishings, which had already become discolored, this doll alone was conspicuously new, and its peach-colored skin shone brightly.

The deformed child opened a hinged door at the end of the hallway and entered a narrow garden, which extended to the rear of the property.

"Who is it?" a half-asleep voice inquired from behind the sliding paper door beside him.

"It's me," the dwarf answered simply and speedily walked off. The person behind the paper door made no attempt to challenge him. Like that, the monster vanished completely into the darkness within the garden.

Left behind in the street outside, the man in the business suit peeped into the house through a crack in the door and circled around the block to investigate the its rear. He peered at nameplates here and there, made sure of the street names and house numbers and recorded them in a notebook. He prowled tenaciously around that area for almost two hours. Finally, around the time the east grew light, he seemed to give up hope and dragged his tired feet back down the streets along which he had originally come.

Passing over Azuma Bridge, he entered a public telephone booth there as if struck by a sudden realization, glanced briefly at his notebook and called the number of the Kikusui Inn in Akasaka. Approximately ten minutes passed before someone came to answer the phone on the other end.

"Mrs. Kikusui?" he said enthusiastically. "I'm sorry to wake you so early. I think Mr. Akechi is in. There's something I would like to let him know as soon as possible. He's probably still sleeping, but could you wake him? Me? I'm Saitō."

He stamped his foot as he waited for Akechi to come to the phone.

It was already the third day since Kobayashi Monzō had called on Akechi and been surprised by his various pieces of evidence, Komatsu the maid was found to have absconded, and Michiko's murder finally became a police matter.

Within that time several significant events had taken place. In the shadows, the man called Saitō had witnessed the extremes of brutality of which the dwarf was capable. On the surface, the ever-practical police, acting on Akechi's evidence, had first tracked down Kitajima Haruo, who had sworn vengeance against Michiko, as the prime suspect, and then arrested him without difficulty in a certain cheap lodging house where he was in hiding. Although Kitajima was still being investigated and his guilt had not yet been decided, he could not establish an alibi for the night of Michiko's violent death. He had been staying at a cheap lodging house under an assumed name, and, aside from that, there were many vague points in his statement, so that, unless another likely suspect should appear, the ex-convict was without a doubt the most suspicious person in the case. At the same time they were arresting Kitajima, the police were searching for Komatsu the maid as the number two suspect. They expected that Komatsu, who had no relations at all, had gone to depend on her lover, Fukiya, who had returned to his parents' home in Osaka, so a request to investigate was made to the Osaka police and, in addition, a detective was sent there by express from Tokyo. The result was only to confirm that Fukiya had not been at his parents' home for several days and that there was no sign that Komatsu had visited. More than that was not yet known.

It need not be said that, owing to the items discovered in her closet, Mrs. Yamano was also subjected to an investigation. But she had no memory of the things and insisted that someone must have planted them in order to frame her. First of all, if she were the criminal, then her reasons for having voluntarily requested the aid of the police and called in an amateur detective were incomprehensible. In addition to that, to everyone's surprise, a truly potent witness appeared to defend her. That is to say that the still-ill Mr. Yamano Daigorō declared that, on the night of the murder, she had not left their bedroom even once. With that, Mrs. Yamano appeared to have been cleared of suspicion for the present.

But Kobayashi Monzō, at least, was unable to believe in Mrs. Yamano's innocence. It was natural enough that Monzō had not revealed anything regarding the suspicious house in Nakanogō's O. Street, but for some reason Akechi seemed to be maintaining his silence as well; the police appeared to know nothing whatever of Mrs. Yamano's clandestine meeting with the mysterious lame man. Monzō privately rejoiced at that for the lady's sake, but the more goodwill he felt for her, the deeper his terrible doubts concerning the lady grew.

That the daily newspapers wrote about the strange happenings of the Yamano family goes without saying. What with the unprecedented, strange incident of the arm in the department store, the fact that the victim was a young lady, the unclear identity of the perpetrator, and the ghost story of the dwarf, it was really only natural that the affair would create a sensation.

Of course those connected with the Yamano family worried as the incident gained publicity, but Mr. Yamano took it especially hard. This shock, added to the sorrow of losing his only daughter, caused his condition to suddenly worsen, and that became another source of worry to his household.

Shockingly, in the midst of all this Mrs. Yamano again acquiesced to the invitation of that bizarre man, and this time was actually daring enough to take leave of her home in broad daylight for the purpose of attending a second clandestine meeting. As usual, she claimed that she was going to Katamachi when she went out, but when Monzō heard that, he realized the possibility, and the a secretly made telephone call to her uncle's home in Katamachi confirmed his suspicions. Apart from Monzō, there was no one who knew the truth.

But then, just as if it had been awaiting that opportunity, something truly dangerous to the lady occurred. It seemed the time had finally come for her secret to be revealed.

Although Monzō had confirmed by telephone that the lady was not going to Katamachi, he did not have the courage to immediately pursue her as he had before. On the one hand he was anxious for the lady's safety, but on the other, when he remembered how he had been outwitted on that other night, it seemed ridiculous to even worry. A queer feeling, somewhat like envy, made him terribly melancholy.

Monzō had no doubt that the lady's destination was that house in O. Street, Nakanogō, but he felt that, if he were to go there and witness something unpleasant, he might not be able to bear it. But waiting for the lady's return in the houseboy's room and exchanging glares with him would be still more painful. In any case, he left the Yamano residence and set off toward the train tracks.

For now, I'd probably better take my mind off this by visiting Akechi. It's been three days since we've seen each other, so I'm sure the detective has been making a great deal of progress. Besides, he's been trying to hide it, but somehow or other he seems to have grasped the secret of the house in O. Street, so I'll try to get a full account out of him.

Monzō suddenly thought along those lines. That is to say, he wanted to hear the role the lady had played in the case from Akechi's lips at once.

Akechi was in his lodgings again that day. He was the type of man who never let others know when he did his work.

"Oh good, you've come at just the right time."

Following the maid into the room, Monzō found Akechi smiling as usual.

"As a matter of fact, Michiko's case is just about settled. It's at a point where I'd like to inform you as well."

"Then you know who the criminal is?" Monzō asked in surprise.

"I figured that out a long time ago, but there was a reason I couldn't present what I know until today. Speaking of which, I'm actually going out after this for the arrest. Even, now a group from the Metropolitan Police Department is coming to pick me up. I'm to be the commander. And today the chief detective himself will be going with us in person. He's a good friend of mine, so I dragged him out. That's how much this arrest is worth. You see, our opponent is a villain without precedent. There actually exist in the world people more terrifying than anything one could imagine."

"You don't mean that dwarf?"

"That's right. But he's no mere cripple. Most of those born deformed like him are idiots or feeble-minded children, but he alone, rather than a feeble-minded child, is a truly terrifying genius. He's a rare villain. Have you ever read Stevenson's novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? It's just like that. During the day he disguises himself and pretends to be a good man, and when night falls he prowls about from street to street in the form of a demon, committing every evil deed you can name. It's the curse of a vengeful cripple. In his world of darkness, he has been scattering murder, robbery, arson, and other mischief besides. That has been his one and only pastime."

"Then that cripple is Michiko's killer after all?"

"No, he isn't the murderer. As I said the other day, the criminal lies in a different direction. But he is a villain many times worse than the real criminal. No matter what else happens, we must destroy him. I have waited until now to do so in order not to let the criminal directly responsible escape, but the worry of that is now gone."

"Just who is it, then?" Monzō asked, holding his breath. Mrs. Yamano's beautiful, smiling face flitted before his eyes.

Just then, the maid came in and handed Akechi a business card.

"Ah, the chief detective's group has turned up. I must set out at once. Would you like to go with us as well? We can finish our conversation in the car."

Akechi was already standing and had begun to dress.

A large automobile from the Metropolitan Police Department was parked before the gate of the inn. Aside from the chief detective, the party consisted of two detectives in plain clothes. Akechi and Monzō joined them in the car.

"Because of your warning, I've requested arrangements from Haraniwa Station as well. But I suppose there couldn't really be anything dangerous."

In spite of his advanced position, the chief had not yet grown fat. He was a thin man with the air of a fox. He seemed thoughtless at first glance, but on closer inspection a queer wildness showed through. As one would expect of a person who did not normally come out for a situation of this sort, he gave an impression of being somewhat unsuited to the task.

"I can't really say. He's a cripple, but he's also a villain like a demon come crawling out of Hell. He's truly inhuman. Despite being a little person, he is terribly fast, and he's as skilled as a monkey when it comes to climbing trees. If he were alone that would be one thing, but he has comrades," Akechi said as he seated himself in the motorcar.

"But he won't suspect something and make a break for it, will he? I suppose the lookout is all right?"

"It's fine; three of my subordinates are securing the place from three directions. They're all men who can be trusted."

Once the automobile sped off, it became difficult for conversation to pass between the front and rear seats. Akechi naturally conversed with Kobayashi Monzō, who sat beside him.

"That house in O. Street, now. You tried to investigate the place afterwards, didn't you? For a long time that house was a kind of prostitute's den. It was an extremely secret place that looked after amateur girls and married ladies. They were quite famous among the well-informed, but no one in the neighborhood ever knew a thing about it. Later on, that monster rented it. Because of the house's history, there is a secret escape route from the second storey, as there often is in places of that sort. A means of retreat in the unlikely event of a police raid. It begins inside a closet, passes between the side of the neighboring house and the wall and comes in quite an unexpected place. It's only natural that they slipped past your watch."

"I had no idea. How absurd. Where on earth does it come out, then?" Strangely, Monzō did not feel taken aback.

"It comes out at the back of Yōgen Temple. You might not have noticed it, but Yōgen Temple is on A. Street in Nakanogō, and Isn't A. Street back to back with O. Street? In other words one can enter Yōgen Temple on A. Street and come out in O. Street. And from that house in O. Street it is also possible to go through Yōgen Temple and come out in A. Street. They are separated by two or three blocks if one goes around on the main road, but by the escape route they are next door to each other. By the way, speaking of Yōgen Temple, that's the temple you once saw the dwarf enter. So, I think you have a rough idea of the situation. This is the secret of his conjuring trick."

"I see. They touch each other back to back, don't they? I didn't notice at all."

"But he has one more escape route. It's in the rear of Yōgen Temple's cemetery, which is also on A. Street. This one runs back to back as well, but with a queer doll maker's shop. I have learned that the cripple also gets in and out through the house there. In other words, this means that his dwelling possesses three entrances and exits on different streets. It could be said to be entirely on account of these elusive entrances and exits that he has been able to commit such evil deeds and yet preserve his secret until today."

"Then, the head priest of Yōgen Temple and that doll maker must be his accomplices."

"Of course. They are probably more than that." Akechi was speaking in that irritatingly vague way of his. "So today we will mount a siege from all three entrances."

"So, who is the man who went into the house in O. Street with Yamano's wife?" Monzō inquired. "I suppose he must be another member of the gang?"

"That man was lame, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he was."

"Well then, he was that dwarf. Didn't you recognize him by his face?"

"It was hidden by a hunting cap and large glasses. Besides, it was dark, so I couldn't see clearly. But how could a dwarf become such a large man?"

"There it is. That is another reason his evil deeds were never exposed. He is a dwarf only in the world of darkness, and during the day he is an ordinary human. It is a fearsome conjuring trick."

"But how was he able to do such a thing?"

"He lets out that he was injured when he was a child and had a major operation on both legs. In other words, he puts on artificial legs. 'Little people' like him have heads and torsos no different from those of normal humans. Try to think of him as someone who just has unnaturally short legs."

"Artificial legs? Could such an absurd thing really pass unnoticed?"

"The absurdity of it only made it safer. I just said 'artificial legs,' and I suppose it really doesn't seem likely, but I saw them myself. I know everything about it now. Besides, you're the only one who has seen the dwarf. As for the people of the Yamano household, the idea of a unique person such as a dwarf would never enter their heads. He has been passing as a cripple with artificial legs on from the start."

"Then, just who is this man who wears artificial legs?"

"The head priest of Yōgen Temple."

It was difficult to converse inside the automobile, and it was only with great effort that they were able to say this much. Monzō had not yet fully taken in what Akechi had said. Because the story was so strange, so seemingly ridiculous, he even wondered if Akechi might be playing a trick on him. But he could not confirm that suspicion, and before he knew it the car was stopped in front of the Haraniwa Police Station in Honjo.

Inside, the station chief and his men were awaiting their arrival. All present alighted from the car and, after making a few preparations, they added the Haraniwa detectives to the party and set out for the nearby O. Street on foot. The chief detective remained behind in the chief's office to await good news.

In the presence of the chief detective, the police detectives had to obey the directions of the amateur. They split into three parties—one to Yōgen Temple, one to the house in O. Street, one to the doll maker's dwelling—and placed a lookout at each entrance. Akechi's subordinates had been waiting for them there for some time.

"Until I give the signal, please don't let anyone whatsoever escape. No matter if it's a woman or a child, for the time being stop everyone who comes out of the house," Akechi requested repeatedly. He himself, accompanied by Monzō and one police detective, entered the gates of Yōgen Temple.

Opening the sliding doors of the priest's quarters, they found a dirty, old man doing something or other before the hearth.

"You're the old man from the sweet shop across the street, aren't you?" Akechi called out in greeting. "I suppose the chief priest is away from home?"

"Oh, he's in. But who might you gentlemen be?"

"Have you forgotten? I shopped at your store two or three days ago. Actually, I've come on police business today. Just call the head priest here for a minute."

The old man obeyed respectfully, and went into the interior of the building to search for the head priest, but after a while he came back with an odd look on his face.

"I don't see him anywhere. I didn't notice a thing, but perhaps he went out while I wasn't looking."

"Is that so? I'll have you let us in for a bit in any case. Because it's police business, you understand."

As he spoke, Akechi speedily removed his shoes and climbed up into the room. The old man was taken aback and did not even try to stop him. Monzō and the police detective followed Akechi's example and removed their shoes as well. Then, with a gasp of surprise, Monzō remembered something which he had not meant to forget, but had forgotten. The reason the head priest was nowhere to be seen must be that he had gone out the back to that house in O. Street, the house to which Mrs. Yamano was coming. He knew that if the head priest was found, the lady would be exposed to shame along with him, to say nothing of the inescapable evidence that would be seized.

At the same time, Monzō became aware of a startling fact. Until now he had not even known who the man threatening the lady was, so he had merely felt a species of envy for him. But according to Akechi's declaration, the man was none other than that ghastly dwarf. Whatever the lady's weakness was, when he thought of her continuing to have clandestine meetings with such a disgusting, abominable person, even she came to seem an unearthly creature in his eyes.

While Monzō was considering such things, Akechi was stepping rapidly in thedirection of the main temple building. Dusk was imminent, and it had advancedso far that they could not even see the discolored tatami in the deserted hall.Strange, thick pillars covered with carving, an enshrined wooden statue in onecorner with its lacquer wearing off, a line of large mortuary tablets, a weirdpainting on a hanging scroll, the smell of incense—these props engendered animmeasurable ghastliness. Of course, there was no sign of any person.

Akechi carefully peered into every corner and shadow in the hall, then passedthrough two or three more large rooms. Finally, he descended into the garden,and, after investigating every nook and cranny of the stone lanterns and pottedplants, he opened a hinged door in the wooden fence and went out toward thecemetery. Monzō and the detective put on garden sandals, which they found underthe veranda, and continued after him.

The cemetery had already become almost completely dark. Akechi's subordinate,still keeping watch, was intermittently visible through rents in the hedge onthe side facing the street. Monzō could not help remembering a night not longago, when he had snuck into the cemetery through those gaps.

"Look there. Doesn't that black board fence over there look thin and wornout? Just on the other side of that is the workplace of Yasukawa the dollmaker. Excuse me, but would you please keep watch over it for a while?"

Akechi turned toward the police detective and spoke politely. The policedetective could not possibly refuse, so he followed the instruction and walkedoff in the direction of the board fence. The side of that house in O. Streetmerged into a straggling bamboo fence, and it appeared that, with a littleeffort, one could get in and out through any part of it.

"Hey, look here for a moment."

Akechi suddenly halted and pointed to the root of a ginkgo tree in one cornerof the cemetery. There, in the shadow of the tree's trunk, was a large hole,inside which garbage was piled high in a heap.

"This seems like it has become the temple's garbage dumping ground, buttwo or three days ago I snuck in here and searched around in this garbage,tried opening the new graves and so on. I thought that Michiko's corpse mightbe hidden in this area." Akechi spoke as if this were a thing of noconcern. "I'm sure you also know that there is evidence that someonedisguised themselves as a garbage collector and made use of a garbage cart inorder to carry Michiko away from Yamano's estate. We lost track of that garbagecart in the vicinity of Azuma Bridge, but because of what I had heard from youof the dwarf, I wondered if that garbage might not possibly have been carriedhere. I quickly made inquiries in the vicinity of this temple, and I learnedthat a garbage cart had driven through the temple gate early that very morning.There's no safer place than a cemetery for concealing a corpse. I thought I hadhit upon something clever. But, when I searched, the body had already beenmoved somewhere else."

"Then, the man disguised as a garbage collector must have been the dwarfas well."

"No, that cripple couldn't haul a heavy cart or do anything of that kind.That wasn't him."

Akechi spoke in a low voice as he walked away in the direction of the bamboofence. Immediately past the bamboo fence there was a stone wall, whichcontinued for a long way, and after that the ground rose much higher. Akechiscaled the stone wall and emerged into the darkness of a narrow alley betweenthe overhangs of a board fence and a storehouse with thick earthen walls. Aftereleven or twelve yards that came to an end in another wall, which stoodblocking the path. Akechi pulled out a thin wire from his pocket, thrust itinto a point in the wall in front of him and wiggled it around. Before long, itmade a sound like a pivot hinge being dislodged, and a portion of the wallcreaked open. It was a hidden door.

Inside the hidden door was a space between the walls of two houses that hadbeen made into a corridor so narrow that a person could barely pass through it.They fumbled their way inside. Monzō suddenly remembered childhood games ofhide and seek. For that reason, rather than being terrified, he felt it somehowcharming.

After going a little way, Akechi, who was in front, warned Monzō that he hadcome to a ladder. They climbed the precarious ladder, taking care not to make asound. At the top was a long, narrow room with a wooden floor, and there thepath came to a dead end. There were only boards to either side, and it was sonarrow that they were forced to turn their bodies sideways.

"This place comes up exactly against the back of the closet," Akechiwhispered. "Be quiet."

For a while, they listened to each others' breathing in that narrow,pitch-black space. Imagining Mrs. Yamano on the other side of that closet,Monzō grew so anxious that his body went numb. He prayed that somehow she hadalready returned home, but at the same time he also had a desire, like an ache,to see the lady's flustered condition alongside that hideous dwarf.

For a while, no noise of any kind could be heard from the direction of theroom, but at last there came the sound of a sliding paper door closing with asmack.

"Yurie, no one could ever suspect you," a man's deep, coarse voicecould be heard. "But even still, when I peeked out the window just now,there were some strange fellows loitering about in the street. They'll betrouble. I've also heard that a queer youngster came up into the house theother day. Dangerous, dangerous. It's high time I abandoned this house. Butthey couldn't possibly know about the escape routes."

Because there was nothing but thin boarding and a sliding screen between themand the room, they could hear the voices from the other side of the partitionso clearly it seemed as if they could reach out and touch the speakers.

"Please get away quickly. If you are found, the damage will be trulyirrevocable." Although the tone was terribly abrupt, unlike her usualspeech, the voice was certainly Mrs. Yamano's.

"It's the same for me. But there's nothing to worry about just yet. Youknow what I'm capable of."

It felt strange to think that the deep voice, which seemed to press down uponthem, could be that deformed child's. That his voice alone was extraordinarilyimposing was both comical and horrible.

"Well then, shall we withdraw? Take care not to leave anythingbehind."

The voice gradually grew closer, along with the sound of footsteps on tatamiand of a sliding screen quietly opening.

Akechi signaled to Monzō by grasping his arm in the darkness, then laid hishand on a part of the boards and pulled it away without making a sound. Asquare hole opened wide and a faint light came shining through it. Suddenlyrealizing that he was about to come face to face with the dwarf, Monzō gave astart and shifted his stance in preparation for the meeting. But a number ofwicker trunks were piled up on the other side of the hole and their adversarywas not yet visible.

At last, the topmost wicker trunk was quietly pulled away, a single arm emergedfrom the opening created, and, grasping the cords of the second trunk, draggedit away into the room. Akechi's hand gripping Monzō's arm twitched.

The wicker trunks were removed. From the other side of the opening, theclose-shaven head of the high priest peeped out. Eight eyes collided at adistance of two or three feet.

There was a short exclamation of surprise. Four people had called out inunison.

The high priest suddenly turned and fled toward the inner four-and-a-half-matroom. Akechi kicked the wicker trunks aside and followed. Just outside thewindow of the four-anda-half-mat room there was an area for drying laundry. Dueto the presence of the lookouts on the ground floor, the roof was the onlyremaining escape. Quickly exiting the window, the deformed child made a stoolof the drying area's handrail and clambered up onto the roof of the secondstorey. Akechi, one step too late, grabbed the foot of his opponent, who wasdangling from the roof. But, after a moment of struggling, that foot came awaycleanly and remained in Akechi's hand. It was something like a doll's legencased in a white sock.

The top of a roof was the perfect refuge for the deformed child, who was asskilled in tree-climbing as a monkey. He rolled up the hem of his whitepriest's robe and clung to the steep-sloped roof.

"Kobayashi, go to that window and call the detectives for me."

Having left these instructions, Akechi also crawled up onto the roof. Thedeformed child's white robe and Akechi's black Chinese clothes tangled togetheras they ran along the ridge of the roof, with the twilight sky as background.

When the roof ran out, the deformed child used telegraph poles and walls asfootholds to moved on to the next one. Once, he even crossed over a gap of sixfeet, gripping a power line with both hands. The dwarf was an acrobat.

When it came to such things, Akechi was no match. Because he was unable toimitate the dwarf, he was forced to make wide detours around tiny gaps. In atwinkling, the distance between the two had grown farther apart.

The deformed child was desperate now that his true form had been exposed. Hehad no hope of successfully escaping, but neither did he have time to considersuch things. He was in a hurry, struggling to make it at least as far as thehouse of Yasukawa the doll maker.

At last, the large roof of a public bathhouse stood in the deformed child'spath. When he looked behind him, he saw that his pursuers had become two. Whilehe was hesitating, their numbers would probably continue to increase. Boldlyjumping down to the small roof over the veranda of the bathhouse, he shrunkagainst the wall and ran off along the eaves. But, when he finally made it tothe corner, he caught the sound of a disturbance. A detective who hadanticipated his movements came into view, leaping toward him from the otherside of the roof. Upon spotting him, the dwarf suddenly let out a loud cry. Hehad been driven into a corner.

The dwarf wrung out the last of his strength and climbed up along the gutter tothe main roof of the bathhouse. But he did not even have time to breathe a sighof relief on that conspicuously high ridge before his pursuers took possessionof both ends of the roof. There was no longer any place for him to flee. Hecould jump off and bash his head in or obediently accept the rope.

The pursuers approached him tile by tile, readying themselves. In the deformedchild's mad eyes, they looked like three huge lizards. He rolled his eyes restlesslyas he looked around in all directions. Then the bathhouse's chimney caught hiseye. The thick, black-painted iron cylinder grew skyward from the roof tilesright beside him. He suddenly clung to the chimney, swiftly scaling it thanksto his exceptional skill in climbing trees.

The pursuers were not foolish enough to try climbing the chimney in the sameway. They gathered beneath it and threw fragments of tile at the monkey up inhis tree. They intended to wait patiently for their adversary to tire.

But the deformed child had a different idea. The chimney, like the mast of aship, had thick wires emerging in all directions from its pinnacle. One ofthose passed over a narrow strip of vacant land and arrived at the roof of asqualid row house on its opposite side. He meant to glide along that wire likea cable car and cross over to the other roof. If that went well, because thestreets of that place were like a complicated maze, and because it was dusk, asuccessful escape would not be altogether impossible.

The desperate acrobatics began. The white-robed monster floated in the sky.Grasping the wire and separating his feet, he smoothly slid ten or twelve yardsin the time it took to think a gasp of surprise. The wire groaned, and thechimney bent like a bow.

The wire bit into his palms and rasped the bone like a file.

Before the deformed child had slid even halfway across, he became unable toendure the pain and no longer had the strength to grasp the wire. Accidentallylooking down, he saw that five or six people were in the vacant lot, looking upat the sky and making a din. Even if he slid all the way to other side, he hadno more chance of escape. Realizing that his situation was hopeless, hisfingers uncurled. For an instant, the world spun like a top before the deformedchild's eyes.

The fallen dwarf lost consciousness where he lay. The people in the vacant landraised their voices and approached the spot at a run.