could take them. There were but four, and even if I bested only one, that left three and Barker could easily take twice that many on an average day. Then I felt the barrel of a pistol in my side and realized we had been jugged as neatly as a hare. I put my hands up.
“That is not necessary,” one of them said. “Please step this way.”
We were herded through an empty-looking warehouse to a spiral staircase going down a floor. After that we were ordered through a grate into a sewer tunnel. A feeling of dread came over me. Nothing would prevent them from shooting us in this godforsaken spot if something we had done had given them reason. I didn’t want to end my life in a sewer.
The tunnel, I noted, was dry and must have been blocked up and bricked over some time in the City’s past. It had been given a new life, however, as I noticed when we reached the end. Suddenly, the tunnel turned into a hallway, and I took in the incongruous sight of a floor rug and a table containing a small painting of a Chinese scene. It lent an aura of domesticity not in keeping with sewers and pistol-wielding Chinamen. We were waved down the corridor and I felt as if I were walking into someone’s home. We passed a room in which four elderly men, like sages come to life from an old painting, were playing mah-jongg. I only got a glimpse before I was prodded in the kidney with the pistol.
“Keep moving,” the Chinaman said.
Barker opened the door at the far end, and we followed him inside. A creature screeched as we entered and for a moment I was more afraid of it than the man behind me. I gasped, which must have frightened it, for the animal ran for its cage and flung itself inside. It was a monkey of some sort, with white tufts over each ear like an old Scotsman.
“You have frightened my marmoset,” the occupant of the room complained in an abstract way, as if it mattered little to him. I did not have to even look to realize both the voice and the monkey belonged to Mr. K’ing. His face was thin and intelligent, his narrow eyebrows complementing his mustache. He seemed completely at ease. He raised his silk-clad arms and the gunmen searched us and took possession of our weapons.
“My ward,” Barker dared command. “Produce her at once.”
“She is my guest until this matter is resolved,” K’ing answered. “I wanted to show you how vulnerable you are, sir.” He turned his cool eyes my way. “So this is the fellow who has caused all this trouble. Did I not see you staggering out of the Inn of Double Happiness with a friend a few nights ago? You are English?”
“I am Welsh,” I said, wondering what he meant about my causing all of the trouble.
“English, Welsh, whatever you are, you are not Chinese. I can produce a dozen witnesses who saw you display certain knowledge in Limehouse you could only have obtained in China or have learned from a master, such as the great Shi Shi Ji. I believe the incident involved a dog. Several residents were injured. He is your student, is he not, Mr. Barker?”
“He is,” Barker said. “The art I have taught him is not Chinese, however. It is Japanese.”
“Oh, come,” chided the unofficial leader of Limehouse, “are you telling me a dozen people could not tell a Chinese art from the inferior styles of the Japanese?”
“I do. The two arts are similar to a layman, and the fact that Mr. Llewelyn beat them all handily is proof that they were laymen. He is not yet advanced.”
“You make a good point,” Mr. K’ing conceded. “We shall come back to that later. I have a more important question to put to you, Mr. Barker.”
“I know the question. It is why you have brought me here.”
“May I ask it, then?”
Barker nodded his head.
“Thank you, Mr. Barker- Shi Shi Ji. Are you Chinese, are you a barbarian, or are you in fact of mixed parentage?”
The Guv did not reply but waited stoically, like Christ before Pilate.
“You will not answer?”
“Certainly not,” Barker said. “Having already said I am this lad’s teacher, if I admitted to being Chinese, I would be placing a death sentence on my own head. We both know is forbidden to teach the arts to ‘foreign devils.’ However, were I to admit to being either of the other two, I would thereby dishonor those living masters who have taught me in the past and likely place a death sentence upon their heads in place of my own. That I will not do.”
“So, we are at a…Forgive me, my English sometimes fails me.”
“An impasse.”
“Precisely. Thank you. We are at an impasse. Of course, the answer is very simple to find out. I will have my servants remove your spectacles.”
“More powerful men than you have tried to do so in the past, Mr. K’ing. I would consider the attempt an extreme insult and should be forced to defend myself. If you attempt to remove my spectacles, I can promise that at least five of us shall be dead in two minutes. I shall, of course, be one of them, but you, sir, shall be the first to go.”
“I see. Another impasse. You are leaving me with few alternatives.”
“I fail to see why this matter has become your responsibility, if I am not speaking inappropriately.”
“You have good manners, sir, whatever your nationality. I am speaking not as a subject of the imperial government but as the leader of a triad. One of my associates has informed me that you displayed the triad tattoo upon your arm the same day your assistant first visited this area. You are, therefore, under my jurisdiction. Before you object on the grounds that it was not the Blue Dragon Triad, I would remind you that the triads are one when rules have been transgressed.”
Barker bowed his head formally. “I would not think of contradicting you.”
“Very well,” K’ing said, leaning forward. “You see, I am trying to be fair. I hope for your sake that you actually are British. I do not wish to take your life or to see it taken, which is the same thing. I am giving you a chance to choose, rather than forcing an answer upon you and causing bloodshed. Which shall it be, Mr. Barker? Are you Chinese or English?”
“I think you know my answer, Mr. K’ing. You’ve known it for days. I choose the third option. I choose…trial by combat.”
The Chinese criminal leader gave a wolfish smile. “How do you know that is possible?”
“Of course it is possible,” Barker insisted. “It is my right as a member of the triads. The White Lotus Triad, the Green Dragons, and all of the other organizations accept such a trial. Surely the Blue Dragon must do so as well.”
“Are you certain this is the way you wish to proceed?”
“Of course,” Barker responded. “My other options are death and dishonor. But I am Shi Shi Ji. Can you locate a man on short notice who would stand in the ring with me?”
“I believe I have such a man. Very well, the matter is settled. Trial by combat it is. I shall need time to make arrangements.”
“And I, to prepare. May I be free to move about the city?”
“Yes, but I am afraid Bok Fu Ying and your associate must stay here as my guests to ensure your return.”
Guests? I thought, looking at Barker. He meant that we were prisoners.
“Agreed,” my employer said. “What time shall the trial begin?”
“Let us say midnight.”
“Very well. I shall return at eleven thirty.”
“Yes.” Mr. K’ing paused in thought. “As I recall the rules, we are talking about a fight to the death, are we not?”
Barker gave one of his chilling smiles. “Certainly.”
“I shall, of course, release Bok Fu Ying regardless of the outcome, but what shall I do with this young fellow, should you lose the fight?”
“That would be left to your discretion, sir.”
“Ah,” K’ing said, looking at me as if I were a bug to be trod underfoot.
“Until eleven thirty, then, Mr. Barker. It has been a pleasure to meet the great Shi Shi Ji face-to-face.”
Barker stood, which set off the marmoset again. I turned in my chair with a sense of dread. Barker was
