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“The moon shone square in his face”

“How near were you to him?”

Eddison held up his large, wrinkled hand “Any closer, I’d have wrapped these fingers around his throat”

“What was there about him that seemed Japanese?”

“His eyes, his mouth, his nose, his lips, his hair,” the old man fired back

Again, Bell framed his skepticis the two races apart”

“Some people ain’t been to Japan”

“And you have?”

Eddison straightened up in his chair “I sailed into Uraga Harbor with Commodore Matthew Perry when he opened Japan to American trade”

“That’s sixty years ago!” If this wasn’t an ancient mariner’s tall tale, Eddison was even older than he looked

“’Fifty-seven I was a ate Susquehanna And I pulled an oar in the commodore’s launch Rowed the Old Man into Yokosuka We had Japs co out of our ears”

Bell suish Japanese from Chinese”

“As I said”

“Could you tell ht the prowler?”

“Alht him”