The Doctor"s gaze was drawn back indoors. "You"re right, of course."
"Stay quiet. Just in case."
"As you say."
The Doctor disappeared into the sprawling surgery and Kei-Ying seated himself comfortably on a stool on the veranda.
Presently, there was a knocking on the gates at the far side of the courtyard. One of Kei-Ying"s students rushed across to see who it was.
"That will be the British army," Kei-Ying called out to him.
Let them in, then tell Cousin Yee to bring tea and yum cha." yum cha."
The student paused only to bow before opening the gates.
The visitors were indeed soldiers. The enlisted men looked nervous, but their rifles were slung over their shoulders and not in their hands. In the lead were two officers. The younger one had a plume on his helmet and a Vand.y.k.e beard. The older man had some sort of cloth wound round his helmet in lieu of a plume, and a handlebar moustache.
"Master Wong?" the bearded one asked. Kei-Ying nodded.
"I"m Captain Logan. We have been given information -"
"Suggestions and supposition, perhaps, but not information."
"We"ve been told that you are holding some English prisoners."
"Prisoners?" It was all Kei-Ying could do not to laugh.
"That"s insane."
"We have a reliable witness. He says that there"s a beaten man, and possibly female hostages as well."
"There are no Englishwomen here."
"And Englishmen?"
"There are six standing in front of me, so I can hardly deny that."
"Perhaps if we could look around inside?"
Kei-Ying shook his head with a smile. "I"m sorry," he said, and meant it. "But I have patients who must not be disturbed."
"Master Wong, you strike me as an honourable man, yet you"re shooting yourself in the foot here. If I didn"t know better, I"d think you were trying to get me to take you back for questioning." The captain sighed. "All right, we do need to ask you a few questions, if only to determine how honest our informant is. I have no choice but to place you under arrest for the moment."
Kei-Ying had expected no different from such a professional man. He admired professionalism. "I can only tell you the truth, Captain, and you won"t believe it when I do. So you will be arresting me whatever happens."
"We don"t know that. You"re well respected by the Kwantung militia, and I sure as h.e.l.l don"t want to arrest you.
So why not try me?"
Kei-Ying nodded. Fate couldn"t be cheated. "Some men attacked an Englishman at the Hidden Panda. Cheng brought him here for treatment."
"Where is he now?"
Kei-Ying took a deep breath. "Standing next to you."
Inside, in the shadowed coolness of the hall, the Doctor had been listening. He looked through the interior door to where Ian lay unconscious, then peered through the latticework shutters at the soldiers.
The major turned and the Doctor could finally see his face.
His hair had a few streaks of grey in it, and he had a handlebar moustache the shade of faded ink, but it was a face the Doctor had become accustomed to over the last couple of years.
The Doctor"s eyes widened slightly, and he whispered, "Chesterton."
5.
Major Chesterton had been sweating under the sun, as much from the heat inside his skull as from the heat outside. He had been perfectly content to let Logan do the talking so far as he didn"t trust himself to avoid slurring his words, forgetting them altogether or betraying his mental fogginess.
And then Wong Kei-Ying had pointed to him. Chesterton couldn"t quite deny what he had said, though Logan and Anderson clearly expected some such outright dismissal.
"I don"t think I"ve ever been treated by you, Master Wong.
I"m sure I would have remembered."
Kei-Ying looked him up and down, and his lip curled as if he was suppressing a pain. "I don"t know how or why you don"t remember, but I treated you last night."
Chesterton hesitated. Wong looked and sounded sincere, and if he"d made this statement about someone else he would certainly have believed him. But since Chesterton knew he had been with Logan and Anderson and the rest of the garrison last night, he knew Wong was lying. He suddenly felt a tinge of admiration for the man"s barefaced cheek.
"You have to come with us, I"m afraid," he said.
"I told you so," Kei-Ying said. He looked around at the students, who were starting to gather around the courtyard.
"Might I give instructions to my staff to look after the surgery and school while I"m with you?"
Chesterton agreed immediately.
Kei-Ying went into the hall and spotted the Doctor hovering in the doorway to Ian"s room, neither quite in one place nor the other.
"Doctor," he began, uncertain how to proceed. "That man outside... it"s him." He pointed to Ian.
"Yes, I saw. This is a most unfortunate turn of events, my friend. Unfortunate and dangerous."
Kei-Ying couldn"t disagree. "I will have to go. Somehow I must make that Chesterton...," he gestured to the major, "...
understand that I am not his enemy."
"I will come and speak to him later," the Doctor promised.
In the meantime, I have a favour to ask."
"Anything, Master Wong. My friends and I are... well, we are in your debt."
"Someone must take charge of Po Chi Lam while I am at Xamian. I would like you to do so."
"Me, sir?" the Doctor protested. "But I am -"
"You are a man of medicine, and of reason. Don"t worry about the gungfu gungfu school, my son will handle that side of things. But Po Chi Lam must stay open for people to visit it for help when they are ill." school, my son will handle that side of things. But Po Chi Lam must stay open for people to visit it for help when they are ill."
The Doctor drew himself up, clutching his lapels. "I shall do my best to honour your request, Master Wong."
"Thank you."
Barbara wanted to run all the way back to Po Chi Lam from the old temple, but her tired legs and feet would never have been up to the task. She suspected that Fei-Hung might have managed it - he seemed the athletic type - but in the end their pace was much the same as when they had walked to the temple.
As a result, they arrived at Po Chi Lam just in time to see a British captain with a Vand.y.k.e beard escorting Kei-Ying to a small carriage outside the gates. Another carriage filled with uniformed men was already rattling unsteadily away.
Barbara didn"t like the look of this at all.
"What the h.e.l.l?" Fei-Hung darted past her and ran down the street towards the gates. One of the soldiers levelled his gun at him as he approached, forcing the young man to raise his hands.
"It"s all right," Kei-Ying shouted, then repeated the words more calmly. "I won"t be gone long."
Fei-Hung couldn"t take his eyes off the gun, wondering just how fast a bullet would travel. "Is this the thanks you get for-"
"Never mind," Kei-Ying snapped. "There are issues here that I can"t explain. But the Doctor might be able to."
"The Doctor?"
"I"ve put him in charge of the surgery. You know the training schedule well enough to handle it?"
"Of course, but -"
"No buts, son. Talk to the Doctor. He"ll explain."
"Those gwailos gwailos are a curse on us, Father." Fei-Hung could feel his fists flexing of their own volition. are a curse on us, Father." Fei-Hung could feel his fists flexing of their own volition.
"Trust me," Kei-Ying said simply, and turned to step proudly into the carriage.
The men"s words had reached Barbara and Vicki faintly, but clearly. The women exchanged glances, each wishing to see whether the other comprehended the situation.
"What"s happening?" Vicki asked.
"They said the Doctor would know, and he usually does."
"But Master Wong helped us."
As Vicki watched Kei-Ying walk out under armed escort without showing any signs of being ruffled she could, for a moment, almost see a taller man in his place, proudly wearing the uniform of the Merchant s.p.a.ce Marine.
Lieutenant Commander Pallister would have responded exactly as Kei-Ying had. For the briefest of moments he was there, alive and on duty. Then he was gone, and Kei-Ying was boarding the carriage, and a tear was on Vicki"s cheek.
The abbot was walking down the gangplank even before it thumped on to the ground. He was glad to be on dry land again, and gladder still to be met by such a glorious sight.
Flame cleansed the buildings, while the ragged townspeople were being organised by his troops and formed into orderly parties, ready for work.
Zhao and Gao were already ash.o.r.e, helmetless but in full armour, poring over a scroll they had unrolled between them.
"Brothers," the abbot called out, "well done."
Gao looked round and snorted. "The men of this age are weak, but they still have some fire in their bellies."
"Especially when motivated properly," Zhao added with a sly grin.
"And the temple?" the abbot asked.
Zhao became more serious. "The local priests we interro-gated say it burnt down 150 years ago. A new Buddhist temple has been built on the site."