The guards turned out to a ceremony or drill on the road, guided by bellows from Sakashita. Then they went out the gate at various paces until finally they were into the goose step, which is always incongruous when transferred from Germans to Japanese.
Several outside families waited at the gate with bags of food hoping that Meiji-setsu holiday would get them by but it did not. Minus bags which were finally taken in, due to pleading of Miss McKim, the families waved forlornly to three husbands who were straining their eyes from a point behind Baby House. The mountains were beautiful, blue and distant and unmoved by human longing and disappointment.