The prisoner's little brown arm, with a hand thin and brown as a
monkey's, went up; the recognised protest.

"Not the seventh, most noble Samurai," she said, anxiously; "Won't it
do from the strand?"

"I have spoken," replied the Eldest Statesman, inflexibly.

"Then I won't!" exclaimed Christian; "I--I couldn't! The river giddys
me so awfully when I stand still on the stones--"

"Prisoner!" returned Richard, "once the law is uttered, it can't be
unuttered! Off you go!"

"Well then, and I _will_ go!" said Christian, with a wriggle so
fierce and sudden that it loosed the grip of her guards. It is even
possible that the ensuing lightning dart for freedom might have
succeeded, but for the unfortunate fidelity of her allies, Rinka and
Tashpy. The one sprang at her brief skirt and caught it, the other got
between her legs. She fell, and was delivered again into the hands of
the enemy.

Richard was not a bully, but Mrs. Sarah Battle was not more scrupulous
than he in observing the rigour of the game. Christian was manacled
with the belt of her own overall, and was hauled along the golden, but
despised, gravel of the river strand, to the spot whence the
stepping-stones started.

"I'll do this much for you," said the Eldest Statesman, relaxing a