Summary
A tremulous Pacific twilight, salt-stung and kerosene-lit, drapes the Bancroft naval manse where blueprints for a leviathan-class battleship flutter like wounded albatrosses. Lt. Clifford Bruce, a boyish officer whose moustache still smells of academy soap, wriggles out of the admiral’s window clutching not imperial secrets but a billet-doux smeared with Madeline’s violet ink—an illicit valentine that could sink more than ships. Enter Ito, the household’s manservant, a stoic with a gambler’s pulse; he palmed the plans not for emperor or gold but for the mirage that Madeline—ivory-shouldered, panther-eyed—might elope with him across a world that refuses mixed blood. In his candle-hive of a room, paper screens cast koi-shadows while he unveils the scrolls like a kabuki demon proposing marriage. Madeline, draping herself in borrowed kimono silk, plays the geisha of deceit, reaches for the documents, and in the scuffle a tantō finds the soft bowl of Ito’s abdomen; the blade’s withdrawal is a whispered haiku ending in crimson. Come dawn, the household agrees on ritual suicide, the admiral’s honour is laundered, the battleship will steam forward, and Madeline’s hand—still smelling of camellia and gunpowder—is given to Clifford as if nothing seeped into the tatami overnight.
Synopsis
When Rear Admiral Bancroft discovers the plans missing for his new battleship, suspicion falls on Lt. Clifford Bruce, his daughter Madeline's suitor, who was seen climbing out of the Admiral's window. In reality, Bruce, attempting to keep his courtship with Madeline a secret, was retrieving a love letter that he had written the Admiral's daughter. Madeline, suspecting Ito, the house servant, of stealing the plans, takes advantage of the fact that the servant is in love with her and visits his room that night. He shows her the plans which he boasts will bring him a fortune so that the two can elope. Madeline then attempts to gain possession of the papers, and in the ensuing struggle, Ito is stabbed to death. The supposition that he has committed "hari kari" avoids any further investigation, the plans are returned, and the lieutenant wins the consent of the admiral to marry Madeline.
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