The shoya shook his head, his face ashen. This was the first time there had been a major disturbance with so many gai-jin on the rampage. And he was directly involved: had he not harbored this shishi? Even the maniac ronin had been in his house and he had not reported them as he was obliged to do--not only them but any strangers?
"There's bound to be a Bakufu investigation," his wife had moaned an hour ago, "we are bound to be called before them to testify. Enforcers are still at the guard houses.
We will lose everything, including our heads, Namu Amida Butsu!" She and their eldest daughter had been shopping at the vegetable market when the first of the mob had rushed through the village shouting threats, upsetting crates, barging and jostling shoppers and causing them to run home in panic.
"So sorry, Sire," the shoya managed to say, "we are surrounded--there are more gai-jin in the back alley."
Apart from the dozen-odd men outside confronting them, most of the population of the Settlement was collected on both sides of No Man's Land. The majority had begun as onlookers out for a lark, but now many were well whipped up by a hard core of rioters wanting revenge. Behind those in the village street were twenty samurai from the North Gate guarding the village. In front were those from the South Gate. None of the samurai had their swords out but all had their hands on their hilts, officers to the fore. The same was true with the troops confronting them, rifles ready, the dozen cavalry sitting on their horses waiting for orders, the General nearby--everyone confidently and noisily spoiling for a fight.
Once again the senior Japanese officer shouted above the clamor for the gai-jin to disperse and once again the General shouted imperiously--to a following roar of approval--the samurai were ordered to disperse, neither side understanding the other, or wanting to understand.
Hiraga could just hear the General among the shouts and counter shouts. Fool, he thought, seething, but he is not as big a fool as madman Ori. Good that he's dead, very good!
Stupid to do what he did to achieve nothing but trouble, stupid! I should have killed him the moment I caught him wearing her cross--or in the tunnel.
When her warning screams had broken the night's quiet, immediately followed by rifle fire, he and Akimoto had been hunched down in the alley near Struan's, wearily lying in wait for Ori, hoping to intercept him--they had not seen Angelique go to the Legation so presumed him to be somewhere nearby, perhaps even inside the Struan Building.
In the confusion that followed, they had joined the growing mass of half-dressed men converging on the Legation, their laborer's clothes and caps camouflaging them.
In shock Hiraga and Akimoto saw the two doctors arrive and then, in a little while, Ori's body dragged out into the light. At once Hiraga motioned to Akimoto and they slid nervously into the night, and the moment they were in their village hideaway, Hiraga burst out, "May Ori be reborn gai-jin filth not samurai! This will stir up a hornet's nest.
Sneak back to the Yoshiwara at once, use the tunnel and hide until I send word or come to find you."
"And you?"' "I am one of them," he had said with a twisted smile. "Taira is my protector, so is the gai-jin leader, everyone knows so I am safe." But I was wrong, he thought bitterly, the mood of the men outside becoming even rougher.
A couple of hours ago, the moment Pearl was spotted on the horizon, he had left the village and walked along High Street heading for the British Legation with a whole list of phrase translations Tyrer had asked to be done while he was away. He was lost in thought, more than a little anxious to hear firsthand about the Yedo meeting when furious gai-jin faces jerked him out of his reverie.
"It's Tyrer's Jappo..."
"Isn't he samurai..."
"Hey, monkey, you-ah, you samurai heya..."
"He certainly looks like the other bugger..."
"Jesus, that's a fact... same hair style..."
"We'll teach you lot to interfere with our women ..."
Without warning someone shoved him in the back, knocking him down, sending his top hat rolling away to be stomped into the mucked roadway to roars of laughter while others began to kick him, banging into each other in their haste. This gave him a second's respite and, using his superior physique and youth, he had scrambled up and broke through the cordon with them in ponderous pursuit.
Down the alley by Struan's into the village area, samurai guards running in from both gates to see what was going on. More men blocked access to his hideaway where he had hidden his pistol so he darted into the shop of the shoya, grabbed some inadequate swords and whirled to the attack. His berserk charge caught his assailants unawares, scattering them, three went down, one wounded, and the others fled out of range. Somewhere down the street a man fired a musket, the bullet passed harmlessly, and more men with guns started collecting, and in the jumbled melee of samurai and gai-jin, he and the ashigari had somehow retreated with him into the shop.
The three men ducked as a bullet came out of nowhere to shatter an ornate vase. From the back part of the house a child moaned only to be quickly hushed.
Outside the shouting increased. Lunkchurch, well heated and in his usual afternoon brandy haze, bellowed, "Let's fire them... burn the buggers out..."
"Are you off your rocker? All Yokopoko could catch f--"
"Burn 'em out, by God! Who's got a match?"
When the Struan cutter swung alongside the Drunk Town wharf, everyone piled out and ran down its length into the square, marines in front.
Ahead they saw the backs of the samurai confronting this portion of the mob. At once the Captain put their plan into operation. On his command his men formed into a wedge, rifles at the ready, and charged into the space between the two sides and wheeled, the point of the wedge threatening the Drunk Town people who began to give away and split into two groups, shouting and alarmed. Tyrer had rushed over to the samurai who was equally alarmed by the sudden appearance of the disciplined soldiers, bowed and called out loudly in Japanese, "Please, Sir Officer, all men to stay here safe, Please to salute my Master, Lord of Gai-jin."
Automatically the nonplussed samurai bowed back to Tyrer and as he straightened, Sir William, flushed from his unaccustomed run, stopped for a moment and faced the samurai. Immediately Tyrer bowed to him, calling out, "Salute!" The officer and all his men bowed, Sir William bowed back and now the samurai were back in control.
At once Sir William turned and went into the wedge that was gaining ground, the people closest to the marines being shoved back by the rifles.
"Get out of the way! Get back... back!" the young Captain was shouting, his adrenaline pumping.
He was just behind the point of wedge, and when the way did not clear fast enough for his liking he shouted, "FIX BAYONETS!"
As one man the marines stepped back two paces, fixed bayonets, levelled them at the crowd, each marine picking a target, each becoming a graven, waiting cog of a killing machine that was famed and feared throughout the world.
"PREPARE TO CHARGE!"
Sir William, Tyrer, and McFay stopped breathing. Along with everyone else. Immediate silence. Then the evil spirit that all mobs contain vanished and the men here became just a rabble that broke and fled in all directions.
The Captain did not wait. "Port rifles, follow me!" He led the way at a run towards the village where the majority of traders, soldiers, a dozen cavalry, and samurai were gathered, all of them still oblivious of Sir William and his marines.
Again the wedge formed but as they came up to the back of the shouting mass, they heard the General shouting, "For the last time I order you out or I will throw you out..." to be drowned under a roar from a crowd that was clearly ready to explode. The Captain decided there was no time to waste.