"Haaha! Main God as my witness! Chief of the big ship, trade me that largest horse! I'll give you ten gold cakes. Take them!..."
"Hm? What's that look on your face? Not talking, eyes wide, not moving? Is it still not enough?... Then I'll give you ten more!..."
"Eh! Chief of the big ship, even your eyes have gone red! You still won't agree? Then these last ten are all yours too! This bag of thirty gold cakes, they're all yours! Yes! All yours!... Haaha! I only want that big horse!..."
Before the camp amid the snow, gold cakes shimmered with the most tempting golden gleam, piled into a small heap. They were like the Buddha's most generous gift, like golden fruit borne by a golden bodhi tree! That dazzling golden light reflected in the eyes of the Wagoku men, shaking their hearts, and seemed almost to redeem their souls!
Faced with a full thirty catties of gold cakes, the ship magistrate Murakami Suemichi's eyes were red, his emotions surging violently, and he could no longer speak. A full thirty catties of gold lay before him; though it was only a small heap, in his heart it was a colossal fortune of 2,400 kan! And if this enormous wealth were exchanged for rice, it would be more than 3,400 koku, enough for the two or three thousand Wajin in all of Southern Ezo to eat rice for a whole year!...
"Buddha above! A full thirty catties of gold!... If I can bring it back to Katsuyama Castle... Ah! Then Lord Nobuhiro's reward!..."
The ship magistrate Murakami Suemichi stared with bloodshot eyes, the dazzling golden light shining in them, his mind filled with one fancy after another. Even at this moment, what he thought of was still offering this gold to