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THE OATH OF THE SWORD
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with bright, inscrutable eyes, and when the dreaded exams came, walked off with most of the honors.
It was in the swimming-pool that Rogers Cornell, the 'varsity coach, first spotted Masao. The muscular, brown shape flashed thru the water like a speed-boat, and, mentally, the veteran coach clocked the remarkable swimmer.
"I'll spring a surprise on the boys," he chuckled, "at the next set of games."
"Here, you," he said, sauntering down to where Masao was climbing from the pool, "keep your fins out of the water until I give you the word."
The lithe, brown youth grinned in surprised amusement, and it was only when the famous coach visited his dormitory and hissed certain secret and sapient instructions into his ear that he fully understood.
With the coming of commencement week, old grads from all over the State poured into the grounds, and the campus took on the effect of a field of daisies, as frisky, white-gowned groups of the fair sex took possession of it. ■
The track, aquatic and field sports were the crowning excitement of the close of the college year, and Cornell had his athletes groomed to the fettle of race-horses.
"When the pistol was fired for the start of the quarter-mile swimming race, nobody noticed the little, brown man wedged in between the blond water-giants, in resplendent swimming-shirts. For the first half he doggedly faced the spray from their powerful strokes. At the turn he was swimming breast to breast with the 'varsity cracks. But it was only when within a hundred yards of the finish that Masao unleashed the fury of his trudgeon stroke and clove the waters of the bay like a darting tuna.
To the stupefaction of the audience, an unknown, undersized youth, with a shock of flat, black hair, climbed out upon the float and glanced back at his nearest competitors.
"You little fish!" cried Cornell, seizing his dripping hands; "I guess we needn't worry in the dual meet next year. '
So sprang the quiet Jap into college fame, the idol of a famous coach and of the army of enthusiastic youths back of him. As for the girls, they tried to lionize him, too, and one of
THE COLLEGE IDOL
them, a pretty, blushing creature, sent him flowers, which he promptly forgot.
And while their cheers echoed noisily over the waters, a far different thing was happening on the dreamquiet shore of the Bay of Enoura. For Gombei, the grandsire of Hisa, had been summoned to appear before his gods. On fresh mats of woven straw he laid himself down, commanding the girl to his side.
And when Hisa saw the wistful, prophetic look of his eyes and felt the grope of his fingers, she knew that his end was near.