A bit of a fracas

Excerpts from the notes of Mr Benton Frazer, Senior Evidence Clerk, London Metropolitan Detective Department

3 May, 1875

Mrs Cuthbert warned me that the children would be unsettled by the previous evening's dreams. She was correct. Though Robert asked the most emphatic questions about orphan asylums, Caroline asked the most pointed. I believe I calmed their fears. They certainly seemed to enjoy the story of the Walrus and the Fisherman, and were all distracted trying to outdo each other in the pronunciation of some of the pertinent Chukchee words. Miss Salmalin seems to have inherited her mother's knack for such things, and was soon causing poor Turgenov great confusion.

The language lesson was interrupted by a call from the Foxglove's crow's nest. Skylark was visible on the north horizon. As the ship became visible, a second ship was revealed following close behind. The second ship appeared to by Arabis. Except we knew, from our communications with Albert and Mrs Cuthbert that Arabis had been stolen by Captain Tiberius.

Sir Cosmo ordered both Selene and Foxglove to prepare to depart at once, so we might intercept Arabis if she chose to flee. Skylark, meanwhile, semaphored that they had located Pellew and his missing ship.

Through a spyglass we could see the men manning the Arabis. The man giving the orders was not Lt. Pellew. He bore a rather unsettling resemblance to myself. He was wearing a uniform which included a Royal Navy jacket. Many of his crew had elements of standard Royal Navy gear, as well. One of his chief lieutenants bore an equally unsettling resemblance to Mr O'Flaherty.

Sir Cosmo asked me to semaphore to the commander of Skylark; something appropriate without tipping our hand to the pirates. I was in the middle of the message when Turgenov drew my attention to a strange noise. It was a roaring, mechanical sound. With overtones of human shouts.

Further to the north another boat became visible, approaching rather quickly, and was churning up a lot of water in its wake.

We were just getting underway ourselves. Arabis began to turn away, perhaps preparing to run.

On the faster vessel I could now make out a British flag. Father said, "Ah, there's Ruth and the others at last." And then he was gone.

As Arabis turned west, the new vessel veered to intercept. Selene and Foxglove were picking up speed, as well.

The new vessel passed close on one side of Arabis. A tall man and a smaller man leapt from the rigging of the new vessel. A bugler sounding a charge could be heard. As the two men swung around Arabis's rigging, tangling the sails, some sort of explosion went off on the deck. The new vessel continued on its way. As it flew past, I recognized Ruth, Mrs Wooster, and several others of our company in rows of seats on the foredeck, while Lt. Wooster gripped the wheel, and Wilhelmina and George were busy with controls of the strange engine.

The boat had a large opening in the front, into which the sea water flowed as the boat moved forward. Steam and water flew from the back of the vessel, in a great plume. I recalled a conversation I had overheard several days earlier between Wilhelmina and Sir Cosmo about a notion she had for a steam ram engine, and wondered if that was what this was.

Then they were away, not showing any sign of slowing.

We were approaching Arabis. Chaos and confusion had broken out on her deck. A cloud of brownish smoke enveloped the entire ship, though the wind was beginning to disappate it. An extremely strong scent of cinnamin was unmistakeable.

The larger of the two men had dropped to the wheel deck. Even from our distance, his shout of, "Surrender my ship!" could be heard. It was clear that the tall man was Pellew, and the smaller man, who was swinging back and forth through the crew men, incapacitating several on each swing, was Albert.

Pellew had wrapped his head with several layers of cloth, apparently to neutralize the effects of the cinnamin cloud. Being unable to see did not seem to hamper his combat abilities at all. He was engaged with both their O'Flaherty and Tiberius, and seemed to be, for the moment, holding his own. Albert, meanwhile, had become embroiled in combat with a member of the pirate crew who was fighting in a manner not unlike Mrs Wooster, with a sword in each hand. Albert had a cutlass and two katar knives on his limbs, using only one foot to keep a grip on his rope.

We had not quite gotten close enough to board when our Mr O'Flaherty leaped over to the ship, just as Sergeant Jayne was firing the grapples. I went across with the marines.

Mr. O'Flaherty had already cleared a path for us, knocking at least half the remaining pirates unconscious as he made his way to the wheel deck. As Sergeant Jayne and the marines began to engage the rest, I attempted a bit of subterfuge, and ordered the pirates to surrender. This caused enough confusion that the marines were able to incapacitate several more pirates without difficulty.

I followed Mr. O'Flaherty. Pellew and their Mr O'Flaherty were slugging it out rather furiously at that point. While our Mr O'Flaherty distracted theirs, I demanded that the captain identify himself. When he did, I informed him that he was under arrest.

He made an irrelevent observation. I continued to recite the charges. Father made an even more irrelevant observation. When I asked him to not interrupt, Captain Tiberius appeared to be doing the same thing, except he was not looking at Father. As I turned my gaze back to Tiberius, I perceived, faintly, the phantasm of a Sergeant Major wearing the insignia of 93rd Sutherland Highlanders Regiment of Foot standing beside Captain Tiberius.

My grandfather's regiment.

I gathered from Tiberius' expression that he had, in turn, recognized the ghost of my father. His smile seemed somewhat impertinent.

I asked if he would come along quietly.

By way of answer, he yelled out a command to the remainder of his men to surrender. He had to say it three times before his O'Flaherty stopped fighting. By this point Sir Cosmo, Inspector MacGreggor, and other members of our company had boarded Arabis.

Pellew expressed his disappointment with Tiberius, as the latter had given his parole. Tiberius replied that he gave his parole before learning that agents of the British Colonial Office had tortured and killed some of his men, who had given their parole when they surrendered to the crew of HMS Icarus.

We took the prisoners to Skylark, since she has more brig space than Foxglove. Tiberius asked to speak privately with Sir Cosmo and Sir Spencer, once he had gleaned the chain of command. A private meeting was not granted, though he was allowed to speak with them, and ourselves, in Skylark's wardroom. Tiberius then explained that he was not a pirate, but rather a privateer, and he produced a Letter of Marque, signed by the President of the United States.

The document appears to be authentic. Sir Cosmo and Sir Spencer took note of it, and explained that a Letter of Marque does not necessarily protect one from prosecution by governments other than the one issuing it. It may be worth noting that the document identifies the holder of the marque as "Captain Tommaso Tiberius, also known as Tiberius Tommaso Frazer, Tom Frazer, or Tom Tiberius."

He and his men were taken below and locked away.

The new vessel, we learned, is Wilhelmina's design. It was assembled overnight by the Oompah-loompahs, who are some sort of Faerie creatures. They built the ship from the hull which Pellew and his men had been building various parts salvaged from shipwrecks. There are a rather large number of derelicts in the swamps to the north of the Oompah-loompah village. At Wilhelmina's suggestion, the ship has been named Slice, and Pellew considers it property of the Royal Navy since he and his crew laid the keel.

It can be powered by either sail or its unusual steam engine, though not both at the same time. Wilhelmina believes it is capable of reaching speeds in excess of 80 knots, though she is is unsure whether the Loomph-built boiler, made primarily of bronze and brass, rather than steel, could do so safely.

In addition to Pellew, the crew of the Arabis, and our colleagues, the Slice had also transported Mr. William Wonka, his assistant Mr Davey Hawkins, and Prof. Irving Oddbody. All three had been passengers aboard Black Rock, though they had not realized at the time they were booking passage aboard a privateer.

Once our comrades had been de-brief, Sir Cosmo and Sir Spencer asked the Inspector, Mr O'Flaherty, and myself to interrogate the pirates.

We questioned them separately, as as much as possible given the limitations of Skylark's facilities, prevent them from speaking with each other between the interviews.

Tiberius claimed to have been operating for the United States government in various capacities for several years, originally commissioned during the American's Civil War. Their mission the last several years has been to track down pirates that have raided ships operating under the U.S. flag and, where possible, bring the perpetrators to a U.S. port, or failing that, recover as much of the goods as possible, and prevent the perpetrators from repeating their crimes. He admitted that most of his crew were unaware of this arrangement. Only Mr Quaid O'Flaherty, the first mate, and Mr Sylvester Curry, the second mate, were in the know. Tiberius claimed further that he and his men have never attacked a ship that was not acting as a pirate or smuggler or both.

Tiberius was seeking the island originally as a means to capture Captain Sparrow. Then, as evidence mounted that Wu Chang was looking for the island, Tiberius sought to prevent Wu Chang's fleet from using the island as a base to perpetrate more heinous crimes. During his research, Tiberius became convinced that Wu Chang believed the legends of the Chandrahas (Moon-blade), and intended to use the sword to make himself emporer of all Asia. Or at least use it to sway the credulous and superstitious to rally to his cause. He quoted some lines that sounded like poetry, or another of these prophecies:
The lion is slain when sword is drawn
The eagle will fall when shield meets dawn
The dragon will rise when star crosses path
And the bull will rampage from Sarnath.

He said he interpretted the bull from Sarnath as a reference to a sacred pillar in the old holy city of Sarnath, in northern India. The bull is said to symbolize either the base desires of humans before enlightenment, or one of the ancient legendary kingdoms of the sub-continent.

After arriving at the island, Tiberius and his crew split into two parties. Tiberius' party was captured by Pellew and the crew of the Arabis, where Tiberius gave his parole. He made an allusion to the fable of the mouse and the frog, before continuing to explain how he had every intention of remaining peacefully in Pellew's custody, as he expect to eventually be turned over to Admiral Naismith. He planned to present the Letter of Marque to the Admiral, and offer information he had concerning Wu Chang and his relationship to various revolutionary groups in British territory in exchange for the lives of his crew.

Tiberius lost his trust in British officers when one of Tiberius' crewmembers came to the Loompah village late at night, telling the tale of having been captured by an expedition led by Sir Ephraim Sloane. According to the crewman, after surrendering and giving their parole, the pirates were subjected to intense questioning upon the subject of the Moon-blade. The questioning escalated to torture, and when that failed to yeild the desired information, several members of the crew were executed in a most cruel fashion, in full view of the remaining members of the crew.

When they continued to profess ignorance, Sir Ephraim order them locked away in Icarus' brig. The one crewmen managed to escape during the transfer, and having overheard a discussion between Sir Ephraim and his subordinates about who else was on the island, made his way to the Loompah village.

Thus warned, and believing that even if Pellew were not acting under the same orders as Sir Ephraim, that Pellew would be forced to relenquish custody of the Black Rock crew to Sir Ephraim when the latter came to the village, Tiberius roused his men and stole Arabis.

I explained at this point that if his crewmembers had indeed been interrogated as described, it would be a clear violation of the Habeas Corpus Act of 1640. As such, Commander Pellew, operating under the Manual of the Provost Marshall, first drafted by the Duke of Wellington in 1809, but formalized in the Army and Navy Law Act of 1829, would have been legally obligated to ensure the safety of his prisoners until such time as the prisoners could be surrendered to his own commander.

He made a reference to a fable, with which perhaps I am not fully familiar, and continued his tale.

He and his men set sail due east, expecting to reach the Phillipines. Four days later, they found themselve approaching the east coast of the island. This would seem to imply that in only four days they had circumnavigated the globe without encountering any other land mass. Which is, of course, impossible. During our subsequent report to Sir Cosmo and Sir Spencer, Captain Sparrow made one of his usual humorous and cryptic remarks. Wilhelmina and Pellow, on the other hand, began discussing Bolyai-Lobachevsky geometry, which very nearly devolved into a long discussion of recent mathematical papers which Wilhelmina has read, but with which her father is unfamiliar.

Tiberius and his men saw Icarus in port on the southeast coast of the island, and turned north before they were sighted themselves. They encountered Skylark off the northeast coast. Which is where Tiberius perpetrated the fraud of claiming to be Commander Pellew.

He says he has not seen any of Wu Chang's ships in the vicinity of the island. Before coming to the island, however, he had reason to believe that Wu Chang was aware of the location of Captain Sparrow's cache of stores, near the river that empties into the sea on the south coast of the island. If he were to make a guess as to where Wu Chang's ships were, that is the location.

Quaid O'Flaherty's story bears out Tiberius' in all significant respects. He seemed more concerned with explaining to his nephew, our Mr O'Flaherty, why he had concealed the true nature of his seafaring carreer from his family--who have all been led to believe that he is working aboard a whaler.

Sylvester Curry's story also seems to corroborate Tiberius's in all important respects.

Our flotilla set sail south.

We were delayed briefly in the vicinity of the Colossus by the discovering of some wreckage. A junk had been destroyed relatively recently, given that flotsam was still gathered in an area of relatively small radius, and how little of the sea water had penetrated the woodgrain of some of the objects retrieved.

Mrs Salmalin and Mrs Cuthbert investigated in their unique manner, and determined that the ship, which may have been sent scouting for our location, had been attacked from below the waves. A steel vessel resembling the descriptions given of Captain Nemo's Nautilus surfaced, collected the one survivor, then disappeared below water again.

Wilhelmina was extremely agitated by this news and appeared torn between a desire to search the area for further signs of Nemo, and our more pressing need to locate Wu Chang.

The battle went surprisingly well. Sir Cosmo modified one of the Ship Rescue Rockets to scatter a number of Mr Wonka's explosive cinnamin charges over a wide area. The rocket normally has a range of two miles, giving us a substantial advantage over the junks. The cannons aboard Skylark and Foxglove, being 32 and 68 pounders, have a considerable range advantage over the 12 and 18 pound guns typical on the junks.

There were a few close calls. Several of the junks caught fire, and two of the magazines exploded.

Wu Chang was hit by a rather large number of bullets before he finally went down. Unfortunately none of us had a chance to examine him closely before the sea dragon swallowed him whole, and swam away.

The dragon had been summoned by a sorcerer in Wu Chang's employ. According to Pellew and Sparrow, Li Tsin is Wu Chang's brother. Li Tsin has been severely wounded and captured.

We examined the papers in both Wu Chang and Li Tsin's quarters. Though cryptic, they reveal enlightening details.

Wu Chang has collected many of the same legends, prophecies, and folkloric riddles as our group. Li Tsin had an even more voluminous collection, as well as a curious series of portraits hidden in a compartment within a laquered table. One of the portraits appears to be the boy, Lobsang Lu, and is labeled as "youngest, doom, fate."

A scroll that was hidden with the portraits, appeared to be hand-brushed by Li Tsin. My translation of the scroll is:
Rain falls, winds blow
Heal heart, drowns woe
Under waves rests moon
Between evil and virtue
Eight arms, four fingers
Stone steams, compass lingers
Find sword, win crown

Which bears a vague resemblance to some of the other writings and oracles we have uncovered. As I was discussing this with Ruth and the others, I realized I may have translated the fourth line incorrectly. Yu zheng, which literally means "the correct way" often implies virtue and justice, however, it also can mean the right-hand side (just has Yu Show means literally the hand on the right), and Yuan Bu Ya literally refers to a fundamental wrong or injustice, it contains the root character for the sole of the foot, and metaphorically refers to the foot on the left or wrong side.

The four fingers may refer to the hand with only three fingers and a thumb depicted on the colossus, whose right foot rests on the shore of the island, but whose left foot rests on a rock off-shore. So there are waves between the "right side" and "left foot" of a four-fingered thing.

If the moon is guarding the sword, as some of the clues indicate, and if the moon is resting beneath waves between a left and right, we should look beneath the colossus.

The Inspector and I went aboard Skylark to question Li Tsin about this scroll. He was not at all helpful.

Tiberius, on the other hand, attempted to interject himself into the conversation. Saying he had information relevant to the scroll. When we asked him to elaborate, he sang a nonsensical song.
The sword is sharp, the shield is bright,
The book, it runs where e'er it might.
The path, it twists, the star is strong,
And men no more shall suffer wrong.

A storm drives a dragon to sword and star,
A rock brings the book from land afar,
A theif leads wolves from path to place,
A giant finds the shield before his face.

The lion is slain when sword is drawn
The eagle will fall when shield meets dawn
The dragon will rise when star crosses path
And the bull will rampage from Sarnath.

When I asked him to explain, Tiberius repeated the line about a rock bringing the book. When the Inspector said it made no sense, Tiberius said it made the same kind of sense as the scroll.

Father insists that Tiberius is trying to lead us into a trap. The Inspector believes he is hinting at more knowledge in order to make a deal for his freedom. We both agree it is possible that he is simply mad.


Excerpts from the journal of Sergeant Robert A. Frazer, London Metropolitan Police (deceased)

Benton's taken the Black Sheep into custody. It needed to be done, and best that it's someone in the family. But not before he added impersonating an officer of the Royal Navy to his tally!

And he had the gall to try to claim none of his crimes were actually crimes! Has a Letter of Marque, does he? Issued by who? President of the United States? President of the Barely Stopped Themselves From Killing Each Other States is more like it.

I told Benton that if he was impersonating a British officer while acting under that Letter of Marque, that made him a spy. Which, as I recall is still a hangable offense. Benton said it wasn't relevant because Britain is not currently at war with the States. I think he ought to add it to the list of charges, and let a judge and jury sort it out!

I don't know how Benton expected to get any useful information from the prisoners. He was quite distracted, and kept suggesting that I should look in on Ruth and the children. I don't know how many times I had to remind him that there was nothing to worry about--the Squire was keeping an eye on them.

He needs to learn to keep his mind on his work.

He and the Inspector were quite busy. There were all those pirates arrested along with the Black Sheep. Later in the day we tracked another bunch of pirates to their lair, and after a bit of a fracas, arrested dozens more.

One of the leaders of the second group captured is a Chinese sorcerer by the name of Lee Sinn, or thereabouts. He and the Black Sheep seemed far too familiar with each other for my tastes. When Benton and the Inspector brought Sinn to the Brig of Skylark, the Black Sheep started spouted nonsense. He indicated he had information that Sir Spencer and Sir Cosmo would need in order to succeed at their mission. This was clearly a pretext to get him out of the cell. A criminal ruse to facilitate an escape.

He made several references to fables--the Frog and the Mouse, the Elephant and the Bee, and the Master and his Dog.

I suggested he should have paid more attention to the fable of Hermes and the Woodman. Or perhaps the Wolf and the Sheep.

He responded with an entirely irrelevant observation. As if my Father had more than a passing acquaintance with my upbringing! While he was off fighting wars and sowing his wild oats, my Mother was teaching me the value of honesty, hard work, and integrity, while holding hearth and home together! And I won't sit there and be lectured by one of those wild oats!

The children were being a bit of a handful, anyway. And they are more interesting and stimulanting conversationalists, by far.


Excerpts from the journal of Sergeant-Major Duncan R. Frazer, 93rd Sutherland Highlanders Regiment of Foot (deceased)

My eldest son has still not forgiven me. Even from this side, he still sees things from just one point of view. Everything was always feast or famine, friend or foe, righteous or wicked. He could never see any middle ground, let alone stand upon it.

But then, he never did understand the story of the prodigal son.

This grandson of mine seems to have a bit too much of his father in him.

Ah, well, no use crying over spilt milk.

Things are not going quite as Tiberius hoped. But then, what has in this affair? He's lost his ship, half his crew, and has been imprisoned. At least one of Wu Chang's lieutenants has been captured and is being held where Tiberius can keep him in his sights. Wu Chang was gobbled up by that sea monster.

I'd bet bobs to biscuits he's not dead, yet.

Proceed to I do sometimes wonder

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