“My name, sir, is Jiuyemon, at your service; and I have come to beg your assistance in a matter of some delicacy.”

“What can I do to oblige you, sir?” replied Chobei, who felt bound to be more than usually civil, as his visitor was the chief of the Otokodate.

“It is a small matter, sir,” said Jiuyemon.  “Your younger brother Hichirobei is intimate with a woman named Kashiku, whom he meets in secret.  Now, this Kashiku is the mistress of the son of a gentleman to whom I am under great obligation:  he bought her of her parents for a large sum of money, and, besides this, he paid your brother thirty ounces of silver some time since, on condition of his separating himself from the girl; in spite of this, it appears that your brother continues to see her, and I have come to beg that you will remonstrate with your brother on his conduct, and make him give her up.”

“That I certainly will.  Pray do not be uneasy; I will soon find means to put a stop to my brother’s bad behaviour.”

And so they went on talking of one thing and another, until Jiuyemon, whose eyes had been wandering about the room, spied out a very long dirk lying on a cupboard, and all at once it occurred to him that this was the very sword which had been a parting gift to him from his lord:  the hilt, the mountings, and the tip of the scabbard were all the same, only the blade had been shortened and made into a long dirk.  Then he looked more attentively at Chobei’s features, and saw that he was no other than Akagoshi Kuroyemon, the pirate chief.  Two years had passed by, but he could not forget that face.

Jiuyemon would have liked to have arrested him at once; but thinking that it would be a pity to give so vile a robber a chance of escape, he constrained himself, and, taking his leave, went straightway and reported the matter to the Governor of Osaka.  When the officers of justice heard of the prey that awaited them, they made their preparations forthwith.  Three men of the secret police went to Chobei’s wine-shop, and, having called for wine, pretended to get up a drunken brawl; and as Chobei went up to them and tried to pacify them, one of the policemen seized hold of him, and another tried to pinion him.  It at once flashed across Chobei’s mind that his old misdeeds had come to light at last, so with a desperate effort he shook off the two policemen and knocked them down, and, rushing into the inner room, seized the famous Sukesada sword and sprang upstairs.  The three policemen, never thinking that he could escape, mounted the stairs close after him; but Chobei with a terrible cut cleft the front man’s head in sunder, and the other two fell back appalled at their comrade’s fate.  Then Chobei climbed on to the roof, and, looking out, perceived that the house was surrounded on all sides by armed men.  Seeing this, he made up his mind that his last moment was come, but, at any rate, he determined to sell his life dearly, and to die fighting;