They had been on the street less than a minute before the couple became swarmed by a mob of children, all patting their bodies, asking for money. Sigmund did his best to shoo the urchins off, but one of them found Missy’s locket before he scattered them. Helena beamed happily, she loved the children. In her mind, they were just a little younger than her and wanting to play. Then one of them screamed, the others ran while Helena turned to find that Sigmund had picked a tiny child up by the scruff of her neck and held her feet off the ground.
“Sigmund, what you doing? Don’t hurt her,” Helena hissed through her teeth, “People are looking.” People really weren’t looking that sort of thing happened all the time. The pickpockets would mob an unsuspecting tourist, or sailor or anyone that looked fresh off the boat and steal whatever they could. Pick them clean if they weren’t careful.
“Give it back, or I’ll snap your neck like a twig and take it off your dead body,” Sigmund directed towards the little girl. In a much calmer voice he looked at Helena, “She lifted the locket, if you ever want to find Missy, we will need that locket.”
“Set her down. Let me try, just keep her from running,” Sigmund did as ordered, the last thing he wanted was to have the police involved.
Helena started talking to the mousy little girl, kneeling to be at her level, “Honey I’m looking for a lost girl, and I need that locket to be able to find her. If you were lost, and somebody came looking for you wouldn’t you want them to have every chance of success? If you give me the locket, I will give you a dollar, does that sound like a fair trade?”
The silent little girl shook her head yes and rapidly produced the locket from one of the many folds concealed in her rags that passed as clothing.
Once Helena had the locket firmly in her grip, she turned her back to the street and put it somewhere no one would, be able to find it. Turning towards Sigmund, “Give her a dollar.”
He looked ready to complain but shrugged like that would be a battle for later. He produced a shiny silver dollar from a chained coin purse under his coat. The young girl grabbed it, and as soon as Sigmund loosened his grip, she ran off like a shot.
Helena turned seeing the group of children that had helped to rob her. “Sigmund, those children look hungry, we need to buy them some food.”
Lane came from around the corner and said, “What’d I miss?”
“You have come back in time to go feed those children,” Sigmund pointed to the group Helena had indicated, giving Lane a dollar to handle the cost.
Unknown to the trio no less than ten pairs of eyes watched the entire episode. Some watched from sewer grates, their actions noted.
Chinatown:
Helena grew angry by how rude the passersby acted, Lane started looking for the school by asking Westerners walking by about a Chinese Girls’ School. Most people passed without answering, those that did respond, didn’t know. After Lane failed, Sigmund, on the other hand, asked the first Chinese person, and they rattled off something Helena didn’t understand, but they pointed in the correct direction. Helena watched the two former soldiers, Lane bowing to Sigmund and motioning for him to take the point. It required two more inquiries, and they stood at the head the very dark alley.
Not wide enough for a wagon, Helena followed Sigmund down the narrow gap between structures, colorful laundry hung over their heads, like flags of celebration. No more than forty paces in the tunnel and it opened onto a small courtyard. Helena watched pony-tailed girls playing some sort of hopscotch-jump-rope-game, a thin line suspended between the four legs of two girls a third jumping patterns into the line with her feet.
“Stay behind me Miss until we find out if we’re in the right location,” Sigmund said.
Helena did her best to peek around Sigmund’s bulk. She could see what looked like a handsome white man with black curly hair speaking to a gracefully dressed Chinese woman on the stairs leading into a building across the courtyard.
“Who’s that?” Helena asked.
“I’m not sure, but we will find out presently,” Sigmund led the way into the square with Helena following close behind. They hadn’t gone ten paces when the girls in front of them screamed and started running away, leaving their string lying on the ground.
“Good job Sigmund, you scared the little girls,” Helena said.
Before Sigmund replied, the pair heard a rapid-fire voice speaking Chinese with a furious tone coming from behind.
The couple spun around to face three aggressive men behind them, Helena instinctively getting behind Sigmund. “This can’t be good,” he said.
After a quick glance behind, “What do they want?” she asked, noticing that everyone had disappeared from the small yard.
Sigmund answered, “I’m not sure, but they don’t look pleased,” speaking to the three Chinese men, “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“Where’s Lane?”
Before Sigmund could reply the three men rushed the pair, each carried a three-foot-long piece of wood meant for guiding cattle.
Both knelt into a fighting crouch. Helena thought: not very fair three against two, just before the man on the right cleaved straight down towards her head. Helena’s fencing training did her well, even without a saber she still had better footwork than her attacker.
