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The thought that she might be right, in spite of the circular and Kobu, gave me so much comfort that the tears flowed unchecked. My companion looked at me critically for a moment, then left the room. She returned shortly bearing a heaped-up tray, which she arranged before me. "Honey, you can't be hopeful when you are hungry. You told me so yourself. I don't believe you've eaten since morning.
"Do you mean that clean, raggy little man who looked through you, but not at you?" she questioned. "Star of my Sapphire, you have made a hit. That was Kobu, the keenest detective the flag of the Rising Sun ever waved over. I thought you knew. He has been here a week trying to pry information out of Lady Jinny. You should hear their interviews.
But Kobu was truly Japanese in his comprehension of a father's love. He masked his chagrin with a smile and paid unstinted praise to the man who had tirelessly searched for his only son. With many bows and indrawings of breath the detective made a profound adieu to each of us and took his leave. As the sound of the closing lodge gates reached us something in Jane's attitude caught my attention.
They were not happy days, and it was with undefined emotions that I saw life and strength come slowly to the sick man. By daily visits Kobu kept himself advised of the patient's condition, and kept us informed of the swift approach of the Vancouver steamer and its dreaded passenger. He announced that he had received information that the steamer had docked at Yokohama that morning.
Fearing he had been waylaid or was held for ransom I offered the reward through my Chicago bankers. The months at sea of course blocked us. The suspense was growing intolerable when the information came from Mr. Kobu; that brought me here." All this time the detective had been silent. But no word or look of the others escaped him. At last the thing was forced upon him.
The hills had scarcely ceased the echo of the shrieking engine, it seemed to me, when I heard the tap of the gong at the entrance. Kobu and his companion were ahead of me. The brilliant light of a sunny afternoon softened as it sifted through the paper shoji, suffusing room and occupants in a tender glow. "A thief!" he cried. "Somebody's going to get hurt in a minute. He's my son.
He asks the subtlest questions, and Jane Gray doesn't do a thing but let her tongue get locomotor ataxia, and Kobu can make nothing of her answers. It's as good as vaudeville to hear them. He'd just as well leave her alone. Torture wouldn't make her tell what she knows, and she doesn't have to either! He did me too. What does it matter? I told him all I knew. That is most all.
He had missed the much-wanted cashier whose capture meant a triumph over the whole detective world. Descriptions and measurements were so alike. Both from the same city, one with the name of Hamilton, the other with that of Hammerton. Kobu, those names are enough alike to be brothers, though I'm glad they are not." But Kobu was not to be coaxed into any excuse for himself.
"Miss Jenkins, please tell me just what the poster said," asked Jane. The printed words I had read that morning seemed burned into my brain. I repeated them exactly. "No, Jane, it didn't; only it was signed by the Chicago Bank. He has cabled the authorities to come." "He has cabled, has he? He knows, does he? Kobu has himself going to another thought. Isn't that what Zura says?
I took Zura by the hand, pulled Jane's sleeve, motioned Kobu toward the door, and together we went softly away. An hour later, when Mr. Hamilton came in, the happiest spot in all the Flowery Kingdom was the little living-room of "The House of the Misty Star." The explanation was all so simple I felt as if I should be sentenced for not thinking of it before.
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