Second session, "Strange Tale of the Island Astray"

Too much confusion

From the notes of Mr Gideon Spilett, Correspondent for the New York Herald

A fine how-do-you-do. I am very nearly the victim of a press-gang, and the local constables lock me up in the next cell. For my own protection, so Captain Craddock told me. And Sergeant McNaughton. Even the so-called consultant, Inspector McGregor, repeated the unlikely story.

So they took my statement, made me wait until the Colonial Surgeon had examined me and pronounced me well. Seems there was some attempt at poisoning or drugging the fishy soup meant for the prisoners. Even though I insisted that I hadn't touch the foul-smelling stuff, they made me wait for the doctor. And another so-called expert.

There is a class of people back home who operate under the delusion that the English are, in every way, more civilized, more educated, and less prone to flights of imagination than the typical American. These people have never met some of the Englishman and women with whom I have recently become acquainted.

Mrs Elethea Cuthbert, widow, is a spiritualist and mesmerist. She fills her day convincing gullible people that she is in touch with their long dead relatives--when she isn't dispensing old wives' tales and home remedies for every imagined ache and pain of some hysterical woman. She is connected to the company of Sir Cosmo Cowperthwaite, who has come to Port Victoria in his capacity as "Royal Commissioner for Her Majesty's Scientific Expeditions Abroad." They are, allegedly, attempting to find the long lost Shaddrach Moriarty (also known as Lt. Shaddrach Pellew, of the Royal Navy). So far as I can tell, Mrs Cuthbert is only along because her uncle, Sir Spencer Cuthbert, as assisting in the search.

I am supposed to believe that it is purely a coincidence that yet another member of this family, Major General Godfrey Cuthbert, is the Commissioner for Roads, Public Works, and Water. Just as it is purely an accident of circumstance that Seamus O'Flaherty, Boston-born circus performer and boxer, and nephew of the notorious China Sea Pirate, Quaid O'Flaherty, has also arrived in Port Victoria.

Also among Sir Cosmo's party is Miss Wilhelmina Moriarty, the daughter of Shaddrach Moriarty. Strangely enough this young woman has been included in conferences with the Admiral and other officials discussing the mysterious disappearance of Shaddrach Moriarty's boat and crew. Why would a girl barely of marriagable age be included in such discussions?

Also among their number is Mrs Ruth (nee Sinclair) Frazer, who is primarily known for perpetrating a fraud upon the Naturalist community by penning a number of scientific articles under the name Peter Sinclair. She is married to Mr Benton Frazer, a Senior Evidence Clerk assisting Inspector McGregor. One wonders what the ethical standards are in the English Police Departments that allow someone to retain such a high office while being so connected to a known fraud.

There are so many other cases of coincidence that I begin to fear I'll never untangle this web of lies and find the truth.

I have wandered far afield. The Poisoning. I had to interview a number of people to piece this together, but here is what I believe happened:

Sunday, for reasons I am still trying to determine, ruffians in the employ of Lai Choi San (also known as Madame Deal or the Dragon Lady) captured Mr and Mrs Frazer and brought them back to one of her hideaways, located in the fireworks factory. They were interrogated until someone (I have still not determined who) effected an rescue. Nearly all the members of the Cowperthwaite party were seen in the vicinity, but then so were most of the constables, and even some members of the Admiral's household. I have not found a witness that can place any of them at the scene before the explosions.

A fire broke out in the factory, perhaps as a result of the rescue attempt, or perhaps as a ruse by the Dragon Lady to control her retreat.

A number of ruffians, most of them Chinese, were arrested at the sight. The Dragon Lady was not among those capture. Neither were her two most recognized minions, Zing and Bong. Those captured were brought to the jail, where I lay insensible after my own near capture by the same or allied criminals.

The woman who cooks for the jail, Mrs Han, was waylaid early Monday morning. Someone disguised as her came to the jail and made the day's food. Some drug or other substance was placed in the soup. The effects of the drug seems to be severe confusion and memory problems. Everyone who ate the soup, including two constables, has suffered the effects. This conveniently makes them unreliable as witnesses.

This disguised woman left before the effects of her poison was discovered. As those effects became apparent, the Colonial Surgeon was summoned. He could not determine the nature of the poison, though it seemed clear the effects were not fatal. The Inspector assisted in interviewing both the victims and witnesses. He summoned Mrs Cuthbert and other members of the Cowperthwaite party, who examined the scene. Then they accompanied the Inspector to the home of Mrs Han, where the woman was found drugged and insensible, but otherwise unharmed.

The constabulary and the Cowperthwaite party spent much of the rest of the day searching for the Dragon Lady and her co-horts. The Inspector even interviewed Captain Gillett, the quite elderly commander of the gunboat, and former Justice Commissioner.

Meanwhile, I wasted a rather lot of time attempting to interview Mr Seamus O'Flaherty.

Sir Cosmo accompanied the Colonial Surgeon out to Coal Point. Perhaps he thought to find some collaborators of the Dragon Lady in the prison camp. Or perhaps he feared the Dragon Lady had spread her poison there as well. The surgeon had been summoned because of several deaths at the camp. I have yet to find any evidence to link these deaths to either the poisoning or the Dragon Lady's other activities.

On Tuesday Mr O'Flaherty began wandering the marketplace, asking around for anyone who knew anything about Mr Quaid O'Flaherty and the ship he sails upon. From the conversations I overheard from the shopkeepers in his wake, they all seem to believe that he is Quaid O'Flaherty, and this whole thing is an elaborate ruse on Captain Tiberius' part. Though to what end they are uncertain.

Since I never met Seamus O'Flaherty before, and have never met Quaid O'Flaherty, I must admit I can't say that this theory is not true. While the boxer O'Flaherty was known to be performing and competing in America at times when the pirate O'Flaherty was known to be committing crimes on the China Sea, they cannot be the same person. But how can we be certain that this Mr O'Flaherty is the boxer?

I don't believe the man I have attempted to interview is old enough to be the pirate. But that is just may guess from his appearance. I will have to keep an eye on him.

The ladies of the Cowperthwaite party also went shopping, in groups. One group had the children with them, the other did not. They all met in the tea room of Mr Kwan Chow, where Mr O'Flaherty had settled. There was some sort of commotion while they were there, which I missed, though I have heard at least five conflicting descriptions.

Whatever transpired within the shop, Zing and Bong were captured by a Constable under extremely odd circumstances. It seems that they were following Mr O'Flaherty, or perhaps some other members of the party. They were seen and recognized. When they tried to flee something went horrible wrong and they managed to become entangled in a rope connected by a pully to a large awning. Before they could extracate themselves, a Constable had taken them into custody.

Captain Craddock won't allow me to interview them! I am quite certain they could shed light on several areas of this story.

HMS Griffin has returned to port. There was a dinner party at the Admiral's mansion where--along with the Cowperthwaite party, the usual colonial officials, and officers of both Griffin and Paladin--a visiting English Lord (Baron Beckett of Kirkdale, who is also a Commissioner of the Straits Colonies) was a guest.

The connections between the Dragon Lady's organization and this group travelling with Sir Cosmo Cowperthwaite are both suggestive and troubling on their own. But there are also clearly several connections between the Cowperthwaite party and the crew of the Griffin, as well between Sir Cosmo and Lord Beckett. I review all my notes and can make nothing of them. There is too much confusion.

Surely among all these sailors I will find someone who is willing to talk.

Proceed to Under the brave black flag

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