From the diary of Post-captain the Hon. Ivan Pyne, Royal Navy:
18 April, 1875
Wooster! Married! It boggles the mind.
And she was some sort of fencing teacher. I figured she had taught at one of those radical reform women's schools, or one of those schools where the new money families send their daughters to learn how to pass when they marry impoverished sons of the gentry. Then I found out she's the woman who was made an Honorary Bombard for, among other things, defeating Count Rugen in a sword fight.
Count Rugen. Half-wit Wooster has married a woman who beat Rugen in a sword fight.
And the worst part is, Wooster doesn't even realize it. His version of the story was all about an exploding pistol, getting slapped in a closet, and Barmy Phipps. He couldn't remember the name of the guy they fought. Fortunately Sir Spencer knew the name.
Sir Spencer is the Major General's nephew. He came here to assist in this search for Arabis. The bright boys in the Foreign Office and the Admiralty think we need help finding a lost sloop in waters we've sailed for months. They've sent Sir Cosmo Cowperthwaite and Sir Spencer Cuthbert out to do just that. An eccentric inventor and a big game hunter. When Miles told me who they were sending I was skeptical. Did we really need help, I asked. Miles pointed out that we haven't found Pellew and his men, yet. So maybe we did.
I hate it when he's reasonable.
They sailed out in a pair of yachts. Selene, Sir Cosmo's yacht, seems a decent pleasure craft. A bit broad of beam, but what do you expect from a baronet's yacht? Foxglove, Sir Spencer's ship, now that's a fine ship. It was originally a 34-gun frigate. Built by someone hoping to sell it to the Americans during their recent spat with themselves. Apparently saw very little action before the war was over. Very nice lines--a fast ship. And I've noticed that he's kept a few of the cannons.
Wooster came with them. Flag Lieutenant, now, carrying dispatches to Miles. There's a job. A life so easy, you have time to enjoy the good things in life. Not expected to make life and death decisions for other people, but a nice bit of gold braid on the cuff, just enough to dazzle the lubbers, and most of the time a simple desk job. That's what I thought I'd be getting when I was ordered to accompany Miles out here.
Not that Paladin isn't a fine ship. She's more than fine. She's a dream. Sails as gracefully as an angel, yet vicious as all three Furies in battle.
I just didn't realize how grueling command could be.
The two ships arrived today, and it was soon obvious that Sir Cosmo and his ward were Miles' kind of people. They are traveling with a rather large household. In addition to Sir Cosmo's wife, young son, and ward, they've got a tutor, secretary, and a dozen servants. Sir Spencer's niece has come along, as well as a London police inspector and some sort of police clerk--and they both brought their wives as well.
Several of them were soon busy going through all those papers and charts Pellew left behind, with Cunningham trying to fill in the missing details. The others were meeting with Sir Joseph and Captain Craddock to discuss police matters. Once I finished with some business of my own, I invited Wooster to drinks at the Albion. He was having a jolly conversation with Lord Henry. Turns out Lord Henry is Wooster's godfather. Who knew? We asked Lord Henry to join us, and along the way persuaded Sir Spencer and the Major General to come along as well.
We had a nice conversation with a few drinks at the club. It was a bit quiet in there for Wooster's taste. After I explained that the Albion was the only club in Port Victoria, Wooster lamented the fact that it was Sunday, so we couldn't show him the more interesting nightlife in the city. I was happy to tell them that things are a little different out here in the tropics. The previous governor and his legislative council decided that all his hindoo and chinese merchants and workers were going to ignore the English notions about the sabbath--so certain pubs have been allowed to operate on Sunday. Including the ever entertaining Broken Regiment Drum.
Soon we were tipping back at the Broken Regiment Drum. It didn't look like an especially raucus night, but appearances were decieving. We were on the third round, I think, when Wooster noticed Inspector MacGregor enter the pub. The Inspector was sent in response to Miles' dozens of requests for some assistance on the policing front.
We called him over to the table and invited him to join us in a round. He seemed to be trying to politely decline without actually declining. Before we had gotten the barmaid's attention, he pointed out that someone seemed to be taking a customer prisoner. Press-gangs in Port Victoria! We truly are becoming more like Singapore every day.
We stopped them, despite there being four of them armed to the teeth. They had been read with a wagon to carry their prisoner away, and they only seemed to be after the one man. Which doesn't sound like any press gang I've seen before.
And the man they were after was none other than Mr Gideon Spilett. One of the loonies Brittanic picked up clinging to those rocks in the middle of nowhere, with their wild story about being blown by a storm from the Atlantic shore of America to the middle of the Pacific. They were so willing to tell their tale until one of their group turned out to be a highwayman, smuggler, kidnapper, and escaped prisoner. Miles sent Griffin to pick him up, and none of them want to answer Pellew's questions.
Funny, Captain Rodgers offers him free passage from Australia, which he declines, but then he comes here on his own, and manages to get mixed up in something to do with Captain Tiberius.
I should have known. Two Irishman taller than Goliath named "O'Flaherty"? There had to be a connection. I didn't get the whole story from the Inspector, who's more close mouthed than my uncle Falco, let me tell you. But I found out enough from the Constables and Cunningham. Wooster's friend, Seamus O'Flaherty, appears to be the nephew of our old friend, Quaid O'Flaherty. And Mr S.O'F found an old sailor who claims to have been a crewmate of Mr Q. O'F, and while the Inspector was checking up on him, he found Spilett nosing around, so he followed him.
Which is how they both wound up at the Broken Regiment Drum.
Somehow the Clerk who came along with the Inspector (and the wife of the Clerk) were taken prisoner by Zing and Bong, taken back to one of the Dragon's hideouts, and got themselves questioned about Captain Tiberius. They've been sprung (and we got a free fireworks show out of it), though the Lady eluded capture again.
When I last saw Miles he was muttering to himself with that gleam in his eye. I just know the trouble has hardly begun.
Proceed to There must be
some way
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