Dr. Huygens sat at the desk and bent over a cleared space surrounded by pages of foreign script and beautiful ink drawings of sea life. He evidently occupied his days with the study of nature, when he wasn’t acting as ship surgeon and his comrades didn’t require medical care. Ceramic dishes held grains of dirt and other specimens brought to him by the Deshima staff. Dr. Huygens held the scientific device upright by the flared end of the long bolt. Into a dish of clear water, he dipped a pick and transferred a drop to the device’s probe. He faced the window and brought the device to his eye. He looked through the glass while adjusting the screws on the probe and crosspiece. Then he turned to Sano, proffering the device.

Warily Sano grasped the bolt between his thumb and finger. The guards watched him with expectant smiles. Was this a joke? He raised the device to his eye, peered through the glass—and cried out in shock.

In the center of his field of vision squatted a lumpy green monster, rapidly spinning a wheel-like appendage. Around it floated long, undulating worms and prickly spheres.

Sano dropped the device and leapt backward. Dr. Huygens, with surprising agility for such a stout man, caught the instrument before it hit the floor. Sano snatched up the water dish and looked into it, but saw no sign of monsters. What kind of barbarian magic had he witnessed?

The guards and the doctor burst out laughing. Even Chief Ohira smirked. “The device is a magnifier, a magnifier,” Iishino explained with a superior smile. “It works on the same principle as Dutch spyglasses, making small creatures in the water look big.”

Embarrassment burned Sano’s face. “Get out,” he told the guards. Mustering his dignity, he glared at Iishino and Ohira.

The guards slunk away, hands over their mouths. The chief’s and interpreter’s expressions turned respectfully serious, but Dr. Huygens kept laughing. “Ho ho, hee hee, hoo hoo!” His belly shook; his face turned even redder.

“Shut up!” Sano commanded.

Then his eyes met the barbarian’s, and saw there good-natured enjoyment and pride in the scientific miracle, but not spite. And Dr. Huygens’s jolly foreign chortles were comical. Sano smiled, then laughed, too. Shared mirth formed a bond between them. Liking the Dutch physician, Sano regretted that Dr. Huygens was a murder suspect, whom he must incriminate if he could.

Chief Ohira frowned; Iishino shook his head in disapproval. Sano ended his laughter on a rueful sigh. “Honorable Doctor, I have bad news for you. And I must ask you some questions.”