The Secret of the Buddha's Diamond

Zenji the priest gazed thoughtfully at the huge gold-plated wooden statue of seated Buddha, set in the inner room of the temple. On the Buddha's forehead was a round empty hole. Many years ago a priceless diamond had been mounted there, but one night it vanished. Strangely, there had been no sign of damage to the locked temple doors. Zenji called in the best detectives to solve the mystery, but with no success. Without its sparkling diamond the temple became deserted by visitors. But Zenji never complained.
One day there was a terrible snowstorm, and the bamboo grove behind the temple was almost bent double. Zenji vigorously swept the gathering snow from the wooden porch. The howling of the wind drowned the noise of the little waterfall across the garden.

But was it just the wind? No, he could also hear a faint high-pitched wailing. It seemed to be coming from underneath the snow, underneath him. Zenji jumped down to put his ear next to the floorboards. There it was again. He lept off the porch, feverishly scooping away the snow with his bare hands. Soon he had cleared his way to the space under the temple, which was raised up by sturdy columns of wood from the ground. "By the tooth of Buddha! he cried. There he saw a shivering blue-eyed baby, only a few days old, huddling in a pile of dry leaves.

Zenji took great care of the baby, who was as bald as he was. He named her Ginko because he found her lying in the leaves of the gingko tree. In the daytime she would crawl around the temple and in the evening curl up on a large round cushion really meant as a gong-stand.
When she got a bit older Zenji took her into the temple garden. She cautiously approached the edge of the pond lined with rocks and peered into the calm water. She could see her wide-eyed face staring back at her, which moved when she moved.
Zenji explained. "When it's still, the pond is like a mirror, and light bounces off the water surface. So you see your own face. Look!" And Zenji threw a small stone into the middle of the pond. Ripples spread out over the water in bigger and bigger circles. "Light moves like those ripples on the water. It is also a type of ripple or tiny wave. Each ripple travels in one direction, in a straight line."
The water waves hit the side of a large rock sticking out of the middle of the pond. "See how the waves change direction when they bounce off the rock. We say they are reflected. Just like the water waves and the rock, the light waves from your face bounce back from the surface of the water into your eyes. So you see your face."
"Oh! My face is wobbling," she cried.
"The water ripples from the stone I threw in have arrived here, and so the water here is moving. The ripples make the water surface just like the wiggly tiles on the temple roof. Instead of one mirror the water is now like lots of little wobbling mirrors, and that's what makes your face in the water wobble," said Zenji.
Ginko giggled and watched her face stretch and squash in the water. "But how fast do light waves move?"
Compared to water waves, very, very much faster, so fast that you cannot see them move with your eyes."
Ginko dabbed her finger in the pond. "Poor little water ripples! You'll never catch up with the light. It's like the pond turtles compared to the birds."
She was interrupted by Zenji, who had decided to surprise her by throwing an enormous boulder into the middle of the pond. Sploosh!

***

One fine autumn afternoon Ginko—now a little girl—was playing in the bamboo grove behind the temple. She crunched uphill through the dead leaves, watching the patterns of shadows and sunlight making shapes on the ground. Soon, perched on a conveniently large rock, she was looking down at the shiny tiles of the gently curved temple roof.
Suddenly there was a rustling sound, and a pair of whiskers and a wet black quivering nose poked up through the leaves at the base of the rock. After a long snuffle, a stripy head appeared. Its beady black eyes looked Ginko up and down. Then the head shook itself vigorously and the whole body popped out. It was a little raccoon. Standing up on his hind legs, he goggled at Ginko's woolly green-and-white shorts.
"Oooooh, what a strange pattern," he said.
"I'm Ginko from the temple," said Ginko.
"I'm Raku Ri, but you can call me Raku," babbled the raccoon, shyly plucking at some dead leaves in his fur. ""I've been wanting to meet you for ages. You humans know so many secrets—but come with me". And he scuttled off into the bamboo trees.
Ginko slid off the stone and dashed after the bobbing tail, which was almost disappearing among the thick green trunks. Raku raced down the hill, out of the forest and across some rice paddies. After a breathless chase she arrived at a wide river lined with rushes and cherry trees. Raku stamped with his hind legs on the river bank. Two small round eyes rose slowly out of the still water among the reeds.
"Here's Foggy the Frog!" he announced. The eyes rose out further, and a slippery green head appeared. The frowning frog made a feeble gulping noise.
"Look how dirty the water is," said Raku.
Green, blue, red, purple ... the calm water surface was covered with a oily skin. "These nasty colours came a few days ago, and all the insects are dying."
Foggy nodded gloomily.
Ginko stared curiously at the swirling colours on the water. "I'll ask Zenji how to bring back the insects," she said gently to Foggy, who seemed to shed a tear of grief. With a "bloop" Foggy vanished under the surface.
Raku sat back on his hind legs in deep thought. "The world is so complicated," he burst out. "I don't even understand the simplest things. Look, why do all the reeds bend when they come out of the water, but when you pull one out it is not bent?"
"Oh," replied Ginko. "They aren't really bent. I learnt that at the temple. They just look bent. The light changes direction when it comes out of the water, so the reed seems bent. Zenji told me another funny thing too. Can you pick up that pebble from the bottom of the river?" she said, pointing to one.
"That's easy," said Raku as he leaned over and put his paw in the water. But, reaching in as far as he could, he couldn't touch it. "Humph! That's odd, it doesn't look so deep," he said, shaking a soggy paw.
"The light rays bend when coming out of the water, so the bottom looks shallower than it really is," laughed Ginko, scratching a diagram in the muddy river bank.
"The light is trying to cheat me. How cunning!" whined Raku, licking his paw.
It was getting late. "I had better go now," said Ginko. "I'll see you again tommorrow."
They said goodbye. Raku waddled off and Ginko walked slowly back to the temple.

***

It was supper time when she got back. They sat down in the room by the garden. It was a warm evening, and the moon and stars were framed in the open sliding doors. Fireflies were flitting around the pond. Munching on pickles, Ginko told Zenji about the frog and asked about the strange colours on the water.
"Aah!" broke in Zenji. "I think I can explain." He strode into the kitchen and brought back some soap liquid and a wire normally used to thread his beads on, which he bent into a small ring. Dipping the ring in the liquid he started to blow bubbles into the garden. Soon hundreds of bubbles of all tints were slowly drifting into the night, mingling with the hovering fireflies.
"A bubble is made of a very thin skin of liquid soap. The colours in a bubble are made when white light from the light bulb in this room bounces off the bubble's skin," said Zenji.
Ginko tried to catch one, but it popped leaving tiny droplets on the table. "But how are the colours made?"
"White light looks white, like the rice in my bowl, but it's really a mixture of lots of coloured light. Some colours bounce off the skin of the bubble more strongly than others, so we see colours. And..."
"Wait a minute. Tell me. Why is it that some colours bounce off better than others?"
"Remember, light is like ripples or waves. They can be close together, like when you throw a tiny pebble in the pond, or much further apart, like when you throw in a big stone. Blue light has shorter ripples, and red light has longer ripples."
"That's silly, Zenji. I've never seen any ripples of light."
"That's because they are too short to be seen one by one. They're far shorter than water ripples, far shorter even than the size of a flea. But our eyes can see their colour, and tell the difference between the short, blue ripples and the longer, red ripples," said Zenji. "And some ripples bounce off the bubble better than others. So..."
"Zenji, stop! I can't think that fast. Why do some light ripples bounce off better?"
"When a light wave bounces off the soap bubble skin it splits into two waves, one from the front and one from the back of the soap skin. If the soap skin is just the right thickness for the red waves, the two red waves bouncing off the skin join together perfectly, like this," and he drew a picture to show her.
"Oh, you mean the red wiggles come exactly together."
"Yes. Then you see a red colour. For the other colours the two waves always destroy each other because they don't come off the bubble together. So the red colour wins."
"Clever red waves!" said Ginko.
See, look what happens to the blue light." Zenji again drew a picture. "The waves don't come together, and the blue light can't get to your eye."
"But sometimes I do see blue in the bubbles."
"Yes, that's when the skin of the soap bubble is a bit thinner, just right for the length of blue waves. Then the blue waves come together and the other colours don't. It's fantastic magic isn't it! Abracadabra! Bubbly, bubbly...!"
"Zenji!" interrupted Ginko. "I love bubbles. But it wasn't bubbles I asked you about. It was the colours on the river!"
"Ah! I was coming to that. They are caused by a skin of oil. Just like the thin skin of a soap bubble, a thin skin of oil on water also produces lots of colours. That river isn't very clean. You see there's an factory called an oil refinery upstream, a nasty place with leaky oil tanks," said Zenji.
"Oh no! So what shall we do about Foggy then?" said Ginko.
"Bring him to the temple pond to live!"
"Oh, let's do that." Ginko snatched at a firefly. Then, letting the firefly go, she watched it join its friends above the pond and continue its dancing.
She was interrupted by the chuckling Zenji, who blew and popped a huge bubble on her nose.

***

The next day, as they were having breakfast, the sun shone into the room. Eating her seaweed she watched the goldfish in their round bowl. The sunlight made a bright spot on the wall just behind it. She asked why.
"Well, you know that light changes direction when it goes into the water. That's what makes the reeds look bent in the river. The round bowl shape makes the light bend so that it is gathered together behind the bowl."
"But you never told me why light bends when it goes into the water?"
"Ah, haa! Wait a minute." Zenji raced to his study and came back with a cotton reel and a magnifying glass. "First look at this cotton reel. Look what happens when I roll it along the wooden floor and onto the carpet." He rolled the cotton reel in a slanting direction towards the carpet. "See, it changes direction when it rolls onto the carpet. That's because it travels more slowly when it's on the carpet."
"But what's that got to do with light?" said Ginko.
"Well, light is like a cotton reel. Light travels more slowly in water. So when light goes into the water from a slanting direction, it bends—it changes direction."
"Oh, so that's why. But what are you holding?" said Ginko.
"It's a magnifying glass. It has a curved surface like the goldfish bowl." He held it up in front of the wall and made a bright spot. "A magnifying glass is very useful for collecting light together, just like the goldfish bowl does. The light from the sun is bent by the curved glass, and all the light is collected at a single spot. Your round eye works in exactly the same way. And look at this!" He showed her how to use the magnifying glass to read the small letters of the newspaper. "It also makes things look bigger. We say it magnifies them. And detectives sometimes use them to look for clues to solve a mystery."
"Oh you mean like the mystery of the missing Buddha's diamond?"
"Exactly."
"Can I use it too?"
"Of course," replied Zenji, making a face at her like a goldfish with the magnifying glass held in front of his face.
They finished breakfast and Zenji went off the wash up the dishes.
"Why don't I start by looking for clues for the missing diamond?" Ginko thought. She slid back the heavy sliding doors of the inner room containing the statue. There were no windows, so she switched on the dim lights. The Buddha's face smiled down at her. The floor creaked as she approached. She examined the base of the statue with the magnifying glass. The gold plating was wearing off in places. Delicately, she climbed barefooted up onto the lotus-petal base of the statue. Pulling herself up onto the Buddha's hands the beaming, round face was right in front of her eyes. She felt a cold draught on her face. She imagined for a moment that the Buddha was breathing—but no, it must have been the open door of the room. The hole in the forehead was a neat six-sided shape, a hexagon, big enough to fit a large plum into. She held up the magnifying glass to see. There was no sign of glue. The diamond must have been a perfect fit. But how could it have been pulled out? Ginko peered through the magnifying glass. Around the edges the gold plating was in perfect condition. The hole was dark and deep. All around the inside were scratch marks. Could these be the marks of a tool used to remove the diamond? She looked at the rest of the head. There were no other scratches, so she climbed down.
Ginko started to look around the room. The door had been locked on the night of the theft, and so it seemed impossible for the diamond to have gone. Was there a secret door? She stamped on the thick, tightly fitted floorboards and tapped on the walls. Everything felt very solid. She checked behind a scroll hanging on the wall for hidden windows or cracks. Nothing. The room had no exit except the door.
Ginko went to Zenji and reported the discovery of the scratches.
"Well, the detectives had examined the hole too. They thought the diamond had been sucked out with some tool," he explained. "Maybe that's how the scratches were made." But Ginko wondered.

***

Later on, Ginko got a bucket from Zenji, and set off to meet Raku. Together they marched to the river. After much coaxing, Foggy jumped into the bucket and sat very still.
On the way back Ginko told them all about the lost diamond.
"And the curious thing is that there seemed no way for the thief to get in or out. And there were the scratches," she said, "Thin scratches inside the hole."
"Well the animals which scratch the most are...," Raku said, tilting his head to think.
"Water rats," said Foggy.
Raku suddenly lowered his voice. "There is Mogu the mole, the fiercest scratcher and biter around. He comes out only in the dark dark night. He kills for pleasure and drags the dead bodies down into his hole with his razor sharp claws and teeth. No-one goes near his hole near the stone statues in the woods over there on that hill." Shuddering, he pointed to the hill behind the bamboo forest.
Ginko wondered how a small creature could get into the temple, take the diamond, and escape without leaving a trace? "How can I find out more about this mole?" she asked Raku.
"Follow me," he said, and lead them into the bamboo grove. He stopped by a withered tree. Raku stamped on the ground. Presently a small black nose appeared from a burrow nearby. It was a young mole with her eyes almost closed in the bright daylight.
"Milly, these are friends," said Raku. "We've come to ask you if Mogu could have stolen a diamond from the temple."
Milly stiffened. "If Mogu has it, it will be stored at the bottom of his hole with the skeletons of all the creatures he's devoured down there," squeaked Milly, rubbing her eyes. "And even I wouldn't be able to find it. It's totally dark in a mole hole and it's like a maze. You can only feel your way." Quivering, Milly disappeared underground.
"Gone!" shrugged Raku.
They were near Raku's home, so he trotted off. Ginko made her way with the bucket to the temple pond. Spying the water, Foggy made a great leap and was gone with a little splash. She watched the ripples spreading out in circles.
It was late afternoon but still light. Ginko approached the balcony facing the garden. I haven't searched under the temple yet, she realised. She went to fetch a torch from indoors. Then she slowly started to crawl along underneath between the gloomy pillars, over crackling gingko leaves and through sticky cobwebs.
She came to the centre, directly below the inner room. Shining the light upwards she peered and poked at the floorboards. The tangled cobwebs tickled her nose. Sneezing and groping she felt a little hollow near a wooden post. There was an uneven hole the size of a plum, with scratch marks all around it. It was too dark to see through the hole, even with the torch. Pulling the cobwebs off her face and wiping her hands on her shorts, she went back into the temple.
Ginko walked softly over to the inner room, and started to look around. There was no hole in the floor to be seen. Nothing. Just thick, strong floorboards. She needed time to think about this puzzle. She would find a way of searching for the diamond, starting with the burrow of that mole Mogu. Leaving the room quietly, she went to have a bath before dinner. Her face was still smudged with cobwebs.

***

At dinner on the balcony Ginko wasted no time asking all the questions that had been popping up in her mind. "Will Foggy be all right in our pond?"
"Oh yes," replied Zenji.
"But will the river get better?"
"It will probably get worse." Zenji shook his head sadly.
"Can't we do anything?"
Zenji rubbed his bald head. "If enough people in the town agree with us, we could do something. But they are all so busy and don't even come to the temple these days. Maybe only a demonstration, a big meeting outdoors to complain, would do the trick."
"How many people do you need?" she asked.
"It doesn't really matter, but if you are lucky and can get in the newspapers, then lots of people will get to know about it."
Ginko was now thinking about finding the diamond. "How can you get light into dark places, or see things in a hole too small to climb into?"
"Well, you could use a torch as you know, or if there is no room, you could use...Ah, haa! Optical fibre."
"Optical fibre?"
"Yes, a thin thread of clear plastic or glass that light can travel down. Just a minute. I'll show you." Zenji rushed off to his study and bounded back with a torch, a magnifying glass and a long thin coil. "This is a plastic optical fibre," he said, unrolling part of the coil. He held the torch at one end of the fibre and shouted "Now look at the other end".
Ginko picked up the loose end. A bright glow was coming from it.
"It's like a pipe. The light travels in the clear plastic like water in a pipe," Zenji explained. "Using optical fibres we can send light wherever we want, even to other countries. And we can signal to people by switching the light on or off."
Ginko bent the thin fibre. The light still came out of the end. Then Zenji used the magnifying glass to gather the light from the torch onto the end of the fibre. The other end now glowed very brightly.
"Ooh, can I try," said Ginko.
She practised shining the light into the fibre. "Why does the light follow the fibre even if it's bent?"
"Well, light travels in straight lines, but the light hitting the walls of the bent plastic fibre bounces back into the plastic. It can't escape, so it always follows the inside of the fibre."
Zenji fetched the dessert, an orange jelly with a cherry on top. Ginko experimented by sticking the end of the fibre into the jelly so that it lit up with an orange glow. Zenji in turn stuck the cherry on the fibre to make a tiny red lamp. They sat laughing on the balcony. A warm wind was rustling the reeds of the pond. Ginko was happy to think of their new visitor swimming there. She yawned. It had been a long day, so and she went upstairs to have an early night.

***

The next day was cloudy. It was nearly dawn and Ginko had a plan. She crept out of the temple, and ran up the hill to see Raku.
"Let's begin at once!" cried Ginko. "All the raccoons you know. We'll go to town to complain about the river." It took some time to persuade the quivering Raku, who was used to his forest life. But he finally agreed.
"Lots and lots of rabbits, mice and weasels too?" he babbled.
"Let's meet up at the temple after lunch."
Raku darted off silently through the bamboo. Ginko went back to the temple and tiptoed to her room.
After lunch Zenji went back to his studies and Ginko simply said she would go out and play. A faint rustling was coming from the bamboo grove. Raku appeared. "They're all here," he said . "Come inside and see."
She went in. A great throng of animals went scuttling to hide behind the bamboo trunks. The animals peeped out goggle-eyed at her, twitching their whiskers.
Ginko quickly took control. "Walk at the side of the road, keep away from cars and stay together!"
There was a loud whispering. Some of the younger animals didn't know what a car was. A loud croaking interrupted them. They were joined by Foggy and a group of frogs from the pond. Shouting "Follow me!" to all the animals Ginko stepped through the temple gates, onto the road and towards the town.
The long line of animals eventually reached the main square in front of the town hall. Ginko handed out lots of little mirrors from her cloth bag. "The sunlight bounces off these," she explained, "And attracts the people's attention." She then gave some large sheets of white cloth for the raccoons to hold. In huge letters she had written 'Save the Frogs' and 'Clean up the River'. Ginko started them squeaking and croaking, and they jiggled their mirrors to make moving spots of sunlight on the walls of the town hall.
Soon a crowd of curious onlookers had gathered. Cameras flashed and journalists pushed their way towards the animals. They shouted an endless stream of questions. Ginko couldn't get a word in, and she turned to Raku. But Raku and the animals had gone! They were scurrying down the road towards the temple followed by a camera-clicking crowd. The ground was littered with broken mirrors.
When Ginko reached a bridge over the river near the temple, she pointed out the oily water to the group of people who had gathered there. Then she rushed to catch up with Raku who was now at the edge of the woods.
"Whew, that was scary," he panted.
Ginko whispered in his ear, "I have a plan. I'll come to meet you and Milly at midnight, and we'll go to Mogu's burrow to look for the diamond!" Raku's whiskers twitched rapidly. He nodded and disappeared with the other animals into the forest.
Zenji was out in front of the temple gawping at what was going on.
"By the hair of Buddha!" was all he could say, throwing his beads high up into the air and catching them again. Telling the people that the temple was closed for today, he went inside with Ginko.
"Excellent work. Now let's see what happens," he said, rubbing his hands together.

***

The next morning was rainy. They sat relaxing with the sliding doors to the balcony open. A loud croaking greeted them above the sound of the gushing rain. "The frogs' symphony," mused Zenji, never repeats the same music." The sun broke through the clouds and a rainbow appeared in the distance.
"Why do we see such beautiful colours?" said Ginko.
"What? Ah! Well, the sunlight hits the rain drops, enters them, and is split into all the colours by the water in the drop. You remember, white light is a mixture of lots of different coloured light."
"Like the colours of the soap bubbles or the oil on the river," said Ginko.
"That's right. The light from the sun hits the drops and the different coloured light waves leave the drop and come back to us. That's why the rainbow lies in the opposite direction to the sun. The sun is in the East now so we see the rainbow in the West."
"But the raindrops are falling," said Ginko.
"Yes, but new raindrops are always arriving from the clouds to take their place," Zenji continued. "Transparent things like water or glass can split light into its different colours. Look I'll show you." And he sprinted back with a triangular glass paperweight from his study. "If I shine the torch through this paperweight I can make the white light split into the colours you can see on the wall. Glass and water can split light into colours. Blue light is bent the most and red the least. That's because blue light travels more slowly than red light in glass."
"I wish you would slow down a bit too! What thing splits colours best?" said Ginko.
"One of the best is diamond. That's exactly why people buy them. Diamonds split white light up beautifully into different colours. The Buddha's diamond was exquisite. But, anyway, look at this. Weeee!" Zenji violently spun his paperweight on the table, scattering colours all around the room.
At that moment the newspaper dropped through the door. There was the headline "Animals demand cleanup" and a large photograph of Ginko and Raku with the other animals in the background.

***

At midnight Ginko crept downstairs. Into her favourite little cloth bag she put the large roll of plastic optical fibre, the torch, the magnifying glass and some thick string. Slinging her bag over her shoulder she stepped softly outside. The rain clouds had disappeared and the full moon had come out. In the forest she took out the torch to see better. Nearing Raku's rock she could make out four eyes shining like little mirrors. The light from the torch was bouncing out of the back of Raku and Milly's eyes.
"Ow, we can't see!" they complained.
"Sorry," said Ginko, and switched off the torch. "Let's find the diamond, now, while Mogu is out."
Milly squeaked. "But I won't be able to see anything. A mole's burrow is very complicated and diamonds don't have any smell."
"Don't worry. I have a way for you to see in the dark."
Milly's curiosity took over. "We must finish looking before sunrise when Mogu comes back. Follow me." And Milly's paws padded swiftly over the leaves as she ran off.
Raku set off after Milly into the forest. He could see her easily with his raccoon eyes. Holding his tail, Ginko followed. They walked steadily for a long time, descending the hill, crossing a gurgling stream and then climbing uphill again. Only an owl's hooting broke the silence. The forest became thicker and the branches brushed Ginko's face. After a few minutes of climbing, Raku stopped.
"It's just over there," Milly hissed. "See, near the stone statues."
They moved forward very slowly. Ginko could see the shapes of six weathered mossy statues with large heads.
"I'm not going in the dark. You must show me how to see down there!" Milly demanded.
Ginko unloaded her bag. She shone the torch through the magnifying glass and into one end of the fibre. Raku and Milly's faces were lit up by the other end of the fibre.
"You see!" said Ginko.
It took Milly a long time to get used to the light. "Won't it burn me?" she said eventually, opening one eye a little.
"No it's only light," replied Ginko reassuringly.
Then Ginko tied a loop of string near the end of the fibre.
"Wear this," she said. And she put the loop of string around Milly's body. "The fibre will be pulled down the hole with you." Then Ginko shone the light in again. Milly took a few timid steps. The bright end of the fibre stayed in front of her nose.
"It works," she squeaked. Milly lead them over to a enormous tree. The roots spread out above the ground like bloated veins. "It's here," she whispered, pointing to the space between two of them. "Let's make a noise to be really sure that he's out."
They stamped firmly on the ground. Milly rushed to hide behind a statue. They waited for a long time, but nothing happened.
Ginko shone the light into the fibre. Edging cautiously between the roots, Milly entered the hole. Ginko told Raku to slowly unroll the fibre. A dull glow came out of the hole for a while as Milly went deeper and deeper, pulling the fibre in after her.
Milly couldn't stop her whiskers from shaking. The black, wet walls of the tiny tunnel glistened in the beam of light coming out of the fibre. She pulled the fibre in after her without much effort. The tunnel sloped down steeply. Advancing warily, her little pink paws gripped the walls strongly. After what seemed a long time the passage widened into a large chamber, big enough for fifty moles. Milly drew a sharp breath. In the hazy light she could see what she had imagined. The floor was covered with the bones of small animals mixed with mole droppings. An overpowering stench filled the air. Milly padded into the middle of the chamber, her feet making a crunching sound. She could make out a tunnel leading out of the chamber on the far side. The roof of the chamber was decorated with small objects that had been forced into the earth, nut shells, pebbles and grinning skulls. She walked around, looking in every corner. There was nothing else to be seen. I must go deeper. She shuddered. Looking back to the tunnel she had climbed down, she could see the long, thin fibre disappearing up and out of sight. I hope it's long enough, she thought. But it comforted her a little to think of the others kindly shining the light in at the other end.
Milly entered the small hole at the far side of the chamber. It lead her deeper and deeper. The passage turned and twisted, and the fibre pulled the string tighter round her waist. She stopped for a little rest. Water was dripping, plop, plop, plop, from the tunnel roof. Her breath came out in quick, misty bursts. She moved the end of the fibre so the water fell on it. That should keep it clean, she thought. The light made strange flickering patterns on the walls, like dancing devils she imagined. She moved on, her feet firmly pushing against the floor. What was that? She stopped abruptly. Wasn't that a hissing noise? She strained her ears. Plop, plop, plop, only the sound of the water behind her. It must have just been the fibre scraping against the walls.
The tunnel lead her down and down, and she came to another chamber. She looked in awe at the immense cavern. A rocky floor lay in front of her, sloping up toward the centre of the chamber. It was covered with little stones, pieces of china, glass, and a few coins. The lofty ceiling was hardly visible way above her head. She advanced with some difficulty, trying to avoid the broken glass, heaving on the fibre to pull it with her. Looking up, a sparkle of light caught her eye. It came from the highest point of the floor. On the top of a large mound of pebbles she saw a beautifully cut, clear gemstone. "This must be the diamond", she gasped. "I thought so." She started to climb the mound. The little pebbles rolled under her feet, but she managed to struggle up to the top. She moved her nose close in so that the fibre touched the diamond. A dancing pattern of coloured squares and triangles lit up the roof of the chamber far above her head. She reached out, taking it gently in her front paws. Then she lifted it to her mouth. It was just big enough to bite on. Holding it in her mouth, she looked around at the dingy chamber. Several more tunnels were visible around the edge. I've come far enough, she thought, even if there are a hundred more diamonds.
She turned to climb back down the way she had come. Walking down, a loop of fibre slowly grew in length behind her. It sometimes got caught on a pebble and she had to shake it loose. Reaching the tunnel she had come out of, she took a last look back to check that the fibre would not get stuck. Then she entered. At first it was an easy climb. The fibre stretched up the tunnel in front of her. She avoided stepping on it for fear of cutting it with her claws. After a while she felt the string tighten round her waist. The fibre is heavy when you're climbing uphill, she thought. The string tightened even more and her paws started to slip on the wet earth. She stopped, and was just thinking whether she should undo the string, when suddenly the light went out.
What on earth's going on, she wondered, what are they doing up there? Then to her utter surprise she realised it was not totally dark in the tunnel. A faint light was reaching her, and it was not coming from the top of the tunnel, but from down below where she had just been. How odd, she thought.
Milly didn't know what to think. Where was the light coming from? Her curiosity overcame her fear. She turned round and climbed back down to see. After all it wasn't that far. As she descended the light got brighter and brighter, and then she saw, just at the entrance to the large chamber, two broken ends of the fibre with the light coming out of one of them. Of course, what a silly mole I am. The fibre broke in half, and now the light cannot travel in the broken part, she realised. She picked up the ends in her front paws. Then her black fur bristled all over her back. Instead of a neat break, the plastic ends of the fibres were gnawed away and covered with tooth marks. She looked out at the chamber. The hill of debris was gloomily lit. Nothing, except the pebbles and other objects. Then she heard it again, unmistakably a low hissing sound. She looked over to the edge of the chamber and she felt her tummy contract violently. There were two glowing red lights. They were the eyes of Mogu. The hissing turned into a loud snarl and now he was clearly visible, slowly approaching.
Milly couldn't move. Her paws felt like jelly. What should she do? How stupid of her to have assumed he was out when the burrow was so deep. No-one could hear anything at this depth, even if she screamed. Mogu moved closer. Now she could see his sharp fangs. He'll tear me apart just like the fibre, and stick my skull on the ceiling. For a while she looked on helplessly, still holding the diamond in her teeth. Then she noticed that Mogu had his eyes nearly closed. Immediately she had an idea, and energy flowed back to her limbs. Grabbing the bright end of the fibre in her front paws she pointed it straight at him. Mogu snarled and retreated a few steps. He is afraid of the light. I knew it. She picked up some nearby pebbles, propped up the fibre in front of the tunnel and rushed into it with the remaining length of fibre trailing behind her.
She scrambled up and up in total darkness. She came to the first chamber and raced across the floor, scattering the bones as she went. With her whiskers she desperately felt around in the dark walls chamber for the opening. Remembering the rough direction, she found it quite soon. Just as she entered the final section of tunnel she heard the noise of thumping paws. Mogu was in pursuit. She zipped up the tunnel with all paws working their utmost. But the string suddenly tightened round her waist, and she was brought to a sudden stop. Mogu's grabbed the end of the fibre, thought Milly, clawing helplessly at the wet earth. She tugged and tugged but she couldn't move. Now she could hear a ghastly growling and spluttering growing louder and louder. Spitting out the diamond, she sank her teeth into the fibre. In a few seconds she had bitten through it, but the noise seemed to come now from just below in the tunnel. Picking up the diamond she made a desperate dash upwards. It seemed ages before she popped out of the tunnel with enormous relief.
Ginko was sitting calmly, making sure that light was going into the fibre. Raku was still concentrating on holding the last remaining loops. Milly ran straight up Ginko's leg and into her pocket. She screamed "Quick, block the hole. Mogu's coming!" Ginko reacted immediately. Just as Mogu appeared at the entrance to the hole, she pushed the torch in. Mogu's howling snarl continued even when the torch was firmly in. Raku wailed in terror. Abandoning the fibre and the magnifying glass, Ginko grasped Raku's tail. He had already started to run down the hill. It was only after a few minutes that anyone could speak again.
"I got the diamond!" squealed Milly.
Ginko and Raku stopped.
"Here it is!" and she poked her head out of Ginko's pocket and held it up with her teeth.
Raku and Ginko hadn't noticed her carrying it when she had rushed out of the hole. In the faint moonlight Ginko pored over it. It was exactly the shape and size that would fit into the Buddha's head. There was no mistake. Ginko stroked Milly thankfully.
"It's all right now," replied Raku. "I should have known that Mogu would not go out in the light of the full moon.
"Please don't take me home!" pleaded Milly. I can't sleep in my burrow any more."
They left Raku at his home in the bamboo grove and headed for the temple. Entering silently they went straight to her room. She gently put Milly on the floor and the diamond under her pillow. Milly sniffed around the room for a while, and then jumped off the bed to join her. They fell into a deep sleep with Milly curled up on Ginko's tummy.

***

The next morning Milly and Ginko fixed the diamond in the Buddha's head. The golden face seemed to twinkle as they admired it.
Ginko called Zenji, and when he came in she just said "Look!"
Zenji looked, and as he looked his eyes became very round. "By the feet of Buddha! The diamond—it's back!" he gasped...
Later, they sat round the table and Ginko explained what they had done.
"But how did a mole steal the diamond?" said Zenji. "Even a mole can't get through closed doors."
"Well, the answer came to me when I found a small hole gnawed away underneath the inner room. But when I went inside I couldn't find any trace of it. The only other clues I had were the scratches in the hole in the forehead. But the key to the puzzle was the cold draught of air I felt when I got near to this hole. That air was coming from inside the statue, from under the temple, because the statue is completely hollow. When I realised that, it was then easy to imagine what had happened. Mogu gnawed his way into the temple from underneath, entering just inside the hollow statue. Then he scratched out the diamond with his sharp claws and escaped with it."
"Well I never, never, never. That magnifying glass has turned you into a real detective," said Zenji. And I've got some good news for you too. They said on the radio this morning that the oil refinery will be made to clean up the dirty river and to stop the leaking oil."
"Hooray!" cried Ginko.
"And I want to show you something that will help prevent the diamond from disappearing again," said Zenji, producing a large rolled-up piece of cloth from his pocket. He carefully unrolled it on the table and took out a beautiful clear crystal. "Look at this," he said, placing it on a newspaper.
Ginko leaned over to look through the crystal. "Oh, I can see double."
"Yes, just like when you squint your eyes. This crystal is called calcite and it can bend light in two different ways," he said.
"But what's it got to do with the diamond?" said Ginko.
"Well, we can put this at the entrance to Mogu's hole, and when he finds it he will be so delighted that he will forget all about the diamond. And just to make completely sure, I will plate the bottom of the temple with copper to prevent any more little robbers from getting in," said Zenji.
"Oh good! And we won't have any bad dreams about Mogu, will we Milly!" said Ginko. And Milly gave a little squeak.

***

O. B. Wright, email assp@kino-ap.eng.hokudai.ac.jp

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