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Dikko Henderson esture with his left hand Bond decided that Dikko was getting cheerfully tight He had found a Paloh in Tokyo They were both past the eighth flask of sake, but Dikko had also laid a foundation of Suntory whisky in the Okura while he'd been waiting for Bond to write out an innocuous cable to Melbourne with the prefix 'Inforht, to announce his arrival and give his current address But it was all right with Bond that Dikko should be getting plastered He would talk better and looser and, in the end, wiser that way And Bond wanted to pick his brains

Bond said, 'But what sort of a chap is this Tanaka? Is he your enemy or your friend?'

'Both More of a friend probably At least I'd guess so I aot things in cohts of sareat cocks-ed to keep hier is he alants tocock-tax, that's alimony in the Australian vernacular, to three already So he's acquired an ON with regard to ation - almost as important in the Japanese way of life as "face" When you have an ON, you're not very, happy until you've discharged it honourably, if you'll pardon the bad pun And if a man makes you a present of a salot to be with an equally larg« saler if possible, so that then you've juard to you, and you're quids in morally, socially and spiritually - and the last one's the er's ON towards e He's paid little slices of it off with various intelligence dope He's paid off another big slice by accepting your presence here and giving you an interview so soon after your arrival If you'd been an ordinary supplicant, -it iven you a fat dose of shikiri-naoshi - that's reat stone face The su to make an opponent look and feel small in front of the audience Got it? So you start with that in your favour He would be predisposed to do what you want because that would re, stick a whole packet of ON on my back towards him But it's not so simple as that All Japanese have permanent ON towards their superiors, the Eods This they can only discharge by doing "the right thing" Not easy, you'll say Because how can you knohat the higher echelon thinks is the right thing? Well, you get out of that by doing what the bottoht - ie your iically, on to the , Eods But that's all right with hiet on with dissecting fish, which is his hobby, with a clear conscience Got it? It's not really as mysterious as it sounds Much the sa corporations, like ICI or Shell, or in the Services, except with them the ladder stops at the Board of Directors or the Chiefs of Staff It's easier that way You don't have to involve the Alrandfather in a decision to cut the price of aspirin by a penny a bottle'

'It doesn't sound very demokorasu to me'

'Of course it isn't, you duet it into your head that the Japanese are a separate hu as a civilized people, in the debased sense we talk about it in the West, for fifty, at the most a hundred years Scratch a Russian and you'll find a Tartar Scratch a Japanese and you'll find a samurai - or what he thinks is a samurai Most of this samurai stuff is a ht up on, or your knights in shining ar Arthur's court Just because people play baseball and wear bowler hats doesn't etting rather tight -not drunk,to reap the father andunquote the colonial peoples Give 'eive 'e theuns Just you wait for the first one to start crying to high heaven for nuclear fission Because they must have quote parity unquote with the lousy colonial powers I'll give you ten years for that to happen,round and sit in it'

Bond laughed 'That also doesn't sound very demokorasu?

' "I fornicate upon thy deovernment by an elite' Dikko Henderson downed his ninth pint of sake 'And voting graded by each individual's rating in that elite And one tenth of a vote for ree with et on to politics? Let's go and get soinal common sense in what you say'

'Don't talk to ines! What in hell do you think you know about the aborigines? Do you know that in allop, to give the aborigines the vote? You poive me any more of that liberal crap and I'll have your balls for a bow-tie'

Bond said mildly, 'What's a poofter?'

'What you'd call a pansy No,' Dikko Henderson got to his feet and fired a string of what sounded like lucid Japanese at the o and eat eels-place where you can get a serious bottle of plonk to ht" After that, I will give you my honest verdict, honestly coaroo bu as they're not jellied I'll pay for them and for the later relaxation You pay for the rice wine and the plonk, whatever that is Take it easy The wingy at the bar has an appraising look'

'I come to appraise Mr Richard Lovelace Henderson, not to bury him' Dikko Henderson produced a wad of thousand yen notes and began counting them out for the waiter 'Not yet, that is' He walked, with careful ro in a plum-coloured coat behind it 'Melody, be ashanity, out of the bar