it was a very dark night, and there was neither moon nor star to light watanabe on his way. to make the darkness worse a storm came on, the rain fell heavily and the wind howled like wolves in the mountains. any ordinary man would have trembled at the thought of going out of doors, but watanabe was a brave warrior and dauntless, and his honor and word were at stake, so he sped on into the night, while his companions listened to the sound of his horse's hoofs dying away in the distance, then shut the sliding shutters close and gathered round the charcoal fire and wondered what would happen and whether their comrade would encounter one of those horrible oni.