Rector had never been able to find out much about Hino's past. Hino talked very little about himself except for the infrequent times when he used a personal illustration in connection with another subject. Putting the pieces of this mosaic together, Rector had the vague outlines of a biography. Hino was the fourth son of an elderly farmer who lived on the coast, in Chiba, and divided his life between the land and the sea, supplementing the marginal livelihood on his small rented farm with seasonal employment on a fishing boat. Without exception Hino's brothers turned to either one or both of their father's occupations, but Hino showed a talent for neither and instead spent most of his time on the beach where he repaired nets and proved immensely popular as a storyteller. He had gone into the Japanese navy, had been trained as an officer, had participated in one or two battles -- he never went into detail regarding his military experience -- and at the age of twenty-five, quite as a bolt out of the blue, he had walked into the mission as if he belonged here and had become a Christian. Rector was often curious; often tempted to ask questions but he never did. If and when Hino decided to tell him about his experiences, he would do so unasked.

Rector had no doubt that Hino would come back from the village bursting with information, ready to impart it with his customary gusto, liberally embellished with his active imagnation. When the telephone rang on the day after Hino went down to the village, Rector had a hunch it would be Hino with some morsel of information too important to wait until his return, for there were few telephones in the village and the phone in Rector's office rarely rang unless it was important. He was surprised to find Kayabashi's secretary on the other end of the line. He was even more startled when he heard what Kayabashi wanted. The oyabun was entertaining a group of dignitaries, the secretary said, businessmen from Tokyo for the most part, and Kayabashi wished to show them the mission. They had never seen one before and had expressed a curiosity about it.