Hideyoshi suddenly stood up in the hemp patch.

Starded, the young man stared at Hideyoshi. At length he murmured, "What's goin on? I thought someone was out there. Are you a samurai from Kashihara?"

Hideyoshi did not answer, but turned around and signaled the men hiding behind him with a wave of his hand. "Surround the hut! If anyone runs out of it, cut them down!" The warriors jumped up from the hemp patch and surrounded the hut in an instant.

"Surrounding my house with all this show," Mosuke said, almost as a challenge to Hideyoshi, who had now walked up to the house. "My mother and I are the only two people here. There's nothing here worth surrounding with so many people. What's your business here anyway, samurai?"

His attitude, as he stood on the porch, was anything but confused. On the contrary, it was almost too calm. He was obviously looking down on them with contempt.

Hideyoshi sat down on the edge of the porch and said, "No, young man, we're just being careful. We didn't mean to frighten you."

"I'm not frightened at all, but my mother was startled. If you're going to apologize you should apologize to my mother." He spoke fearlessly. This boy did not appear to be a simple peasant. Hideyoshi looked around inside the hut.

"Come, come now, Mosuke. Why are you being so rude to a samurai?" the old woman said. Then she turned and spoke to Hideyoshi. "Well, I don't know who you are but my son never mixes with worldly society and is just a willful country boy who doesn't know his manners. Please forgive him, sir."

"Are you this young man's mother?"

"Yes, sir."

"You say he's just a country boy who doesn't know his manners, but judging from your speech and his countenance, I find it hard to believe that you're ordinary farmers."

"We scrape out a living by hunting in the winter and making charcoal and selling it in the village in the summer."

"That may be so now, but not formerly. At the very least, you certainly belong to a family of pedigree. I'm not a retainer of the Saito, but due to certain circumstances, I'm lost in these mountains. We have no intention of harming you. If you don't mind, would you please tell me who you are?"

Mosuke, who had sat down next to his mother, suddenly asked, "Master samurai, you speak with an Owari accent too. Are you from Owari?"

"Yes, I was born in Nakamura."

"Nakamura? Not far from us. I was born in Gokiso."

“Then we're from the same province."

“If you’re a retainer from Owari, I'll tell you everything. My father's name was Horio Tanomo.  He served Lord Oda Nobukiyo at the fortress of Koguchi."

“How strange, if your father was a retainer of Lord Nobukiyo, then you would also be a retainer of Lord Nobunaga." I've met a good person here, Hideyoshi thought happily.

After he had been made governor of Sunomata, he had searched out men of ability to serve him. His way of handling men was not to employ them first and then make his judgment. If he trusted a man, he would immediately employ him, and then gradually put him to use. He had acted in the same way when he took a wife. He had an unusual talent for distinguishing true talent from mimicry.

"Yes, I understand. But I think, as Mosuke's mother, you don't want him to live out his life as a charcoal burner and hunter. Why don't you entrust your son to me? I know it will be taking all that you have. My status isn't high, but I'm a retainer of Lord Oda Nobunaga, Kinoshita Hideyoshi by name. My stipend is low, and I think of myself as some­one who is going out into the world armed with but a single spear. Will you serve me?" Hideyoshi asked, watching mother and child.

"What? Me?" Mosuke's eyes opened wide.

So happy she wondered if it was a dream, the old lady's eyes filled with tears. "If he is able to serve as a retainer to the Oda clan, my husband—who died dishonored in bat­tle—would be so happy. Mosuke! Accept this offer and cleanse your father's name."

Mosuke, of course, made no objection, and immediately swore the oath of allegiance of a retainer.

Then Hideyoshi gave Mosuke his first order: "We are making our way to the rear of Inabayama Castle. We have a map of the mountains, but cannot find the right path. It's a rather difficult task for your first act of service, but you must guide us there. I'm counting on you."

Mosuke studied the map for a while, folded it up, and gave it back to Hideyoshi. "I understand. Does anyone need to eat? Did you bring along enough for two meals each?"

Having lost their way, they were just at the point of exhausting the rations they had carried along.

"It's only two and a half leagues to the castle, but we'd still better bring enough for two meals."

Mosuke quickly cooked rice and mixed in millet, bean paste, and salted plums, enough for ten men. Then he shouldered a single coil of hemp rope, and fixed flint and tinder and his father's sword at his side.

"Mother, I'm leaving," Mosuke said. "To go to battle is an auspicious start in serving my lord, but depending on my fate as a samurai, this may be our last farewell. If that should come to pass, please resign yourself to the loss of your son."

It was time to leave, but mother and child were naturally unwilling to part. Hideyoshi could hardly bear to watch. He walked away from the house and looked at the pitch black mountains.

Just as Mosuke was leaving, his mother called him back. She held out a gourd. "Fill this with water and take it along," she told him. "You're bound to be thirsty along the way."

Hideyoshi and the others were pleased. Until now, they had suffered from lack of water more than once. There were only a few places where springs bubbled up in the rocky crags. But the closer they came to the peak, the less water there would be.

When they reached a cliff, Mosuke tossed his rope, tied it to the base of the root of a pine, and scrambled up first, then pulled the others up behind him.

"From here on, the path becomes even more difficult to follow," he said. "There are a number of places, like the guardhouse at Akagawa Cave, where we might be caught by the guards." Hearing that, Hideyoshi understood the extent of Mosuke's prudence when, having been shown the map of the mountain, he had looked at it for a moment, not giving any quick reply. There was still something of the child about Mosuke, but he thought things out thoroughly, and Hideyoshi felt all the more affection for him.

The water in the gourd eventually became sweat on the ten men. Mosuke wiped a torrent of perspiration from his face and said, "We'll hardly be able to fight if we're this tired. Why don't we sleep here?"

"It would be good to sleep," Hideyoshi agreed, but then asked how much farther it was to the rear of the castle.

"Just down there," Mosuke said, pointing directly into the valley.

They were all excited, but Mosuke silenced them with a wave of his hand. "We can't speak out loud anymore. The wind may carry our voices in the direction of the castle."

Hideyoshi peered down into the valley. The dark trees enveloping the valley looked like an unfathomable lake. But when he looked long and hard, he could just make out the outline of a wall made of huge rocks, a stockade, and something like a storehouse be­tween the trees.

"We're straight above the enemy here. All right, let's sleep until dawn."

The men slept on the ground, and Mosuke wrapped the now-empty gourd in a cloth and put it under his master's head. While the others slept for about two hours, Mosuke was awake, standing guard a little way off.

"Hey!" he called out.

Hideyoshi lifted his head. "What is it, Mosuke?"

Mosuke pointed to the east. "Sunrise."

Indeed, the night sky was beginning to show a tint of white. A sea of clouds covered the peaks. The valley behind Inabayama Castle, which was immediately below them, could not be seen at all.