Eighteen yellow oars rose and fell in silent precision, propelling a long, slim rowing-boat away from the wharf in front of Whampoa’s Inn of a Thousand Pearls, and moving through the floating vendors towards the China Flyer heeling at anchor in the afternoon wind. George Fanshaw sat rigidly in the stern, looking from the frigate lying directly in front of him to three Imperial war junks silhouetted against the far shore. He was paying two calls today: the first on his captain, Lothar Schiller; the second on the war junks which served the Imperial government as temporary prisons.
Twenty-four hours had passed since Fanshaw had spoken with Abutai, the Hoppo’s chief mandarin. In that time he had considered various courses of action and had decided on what he considered to be the safest, most foolproof way to secure the establishment of his new trading company in China—and ensure his own personal safety.
A hail rose aboard the China Flyer as Fanshaw’s narrow rowing-boat approached through the floating vendors. Lothar Schiller appeared at the side, shouting for his men to hurry and lower the ladder for their visitor.
‘I did not expect you until tomorrow, Mr Fanshaw,’ he greeted his employer at the port entry.
Fanshaw passed in front of Schiller impatiently fanning himself with his blue silk tricorn hat, as he ordered, ‘Let us speak alone.’
Schiller followed him to the foot of the quarter-deck ladder. ‘Bad news, Mr Fanshaw?’
Fanshaw spun round indignantly, spitting, ‘Did I not say the Bombay Marines were on our trail, Schiller?’
‘The East India Company?’
Fanshaw’s eyes moved to the three Imperial war junks across the harbour, but he held his tongue. Why tell Schiller more than he need know about the Bombay Marines and their whereabouts?
Guardedly he replied, ‘The Hoppo’s patrol captured the Bombay Marine two nights ago on the Pearl River. I learned it yesterday from the chief mandarin, Abutai.’
‘Does this change your plans, Mr Fanshaw?’ asked Schiller.
Fanshaw replied icily, ‘To the extent that I want you and the China Flyer out of Whampoa by nightfall. I can escape overland if events suuddenly turn against me. But I want the China Flyer free to sail for England when I give the order.’
Plans had indeed gone wrong for Fanshaw; Schiller could see it in his face as well as understand it from his words. Common sense told him, however, that close-lipped Fanshaw was not the man to confide many facts to him.
‘Shall I have trouble leaving here?’ he asked, looking around the harbour for patrol boats that might detain him. The only suspicious vessels were the three junks which had arrived yesterday and remained isolated offshore from the stilted pier houses.
Fanshaw stepped closer to Schiller. ‘Our cargo will provide you safe passage. The Hoppo accepted the cumshaw. Abutai agrees that you should deliver it in its entirety to the depot.’
‘The opium?’ asked Schiller, increasingly intrigued by Fanshaw’s air of mystery.
Fanshaw nodded, glancing at the idling crew, fearful of spies and eavesdroppers. ‘I’ve arranged for you to deliver the chests to Kam-Sing-Moon beyond the mouth of the Pearl River.’
‘I can sail back down to Macao?’
Producing a document from inside his frock-coat, Fanshaw explained, ‘Here’s your permission to sail. Take your time unloading the cargo. Wait for me off the island. I’ll be there one way or another by tomorrow night.’
‘Sir, there is one important matter we must first settle.’
Fanshaw pulled back indignantly. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The matter of pay.’
‘Pay?’
‘You said, sir, you would pay me in Whampoa.’
Fanshaw exploded. ‘Good God, Schiller, this is hardly the time or place to start badgering me about money. Haven’t you been listening to a word I’ve been saying? There’s a new change of plan, man!’
Schiller raised his voice in turn. ‘When will you pay me?’
Glancing back at the surrounding crew, Fanshaw lowered his voice. ‘Wait till I see you at Kam-Sing-Moon,’ he promised.
Schiller stubbornly crossed both arms across his chest. ‘You do not pay me now, Mr Fanshaw, I do not sail from Whampoa.’
Fanshaw mopped the perspiration from his brow. ‘I certainly do not have the money on me now. Be sensible. Do you want to risk the Chinese seizing this ship, so that you will be stranded in China? Is that what you want?’
He was right. Schiller hated to admit it, but there was logic in Fanshaw’s words.
Determined to get his money, however, he raised his fist, threatening, ‘You do not pay me at that opium island, Mr Fanshaw, you will regret it. I promise you that. You will regret it very deeply,’
* * *
Fanshaw went on his way to pay his second call. The rowing-boat sped towards the three reed-sailed vessels, skimming more quickly over the dark, filmy water once the oarsmen were free of the clamouring sampan vendors. The boat slowed as it reached the second junk, Fanshaw calling in Chinese that he carried the Co-Hung’s permission to board the Imperial vessel.
Two sentinels in black cloaks emblazoned with a red dragon waited at the top of the rope ladder. Fanshaw produced a document and announced haughtily in faultless Chinese that he had come to speak to their English prisoner.
One of the sentinels called to a guard seated in a group on the junk’s high poop-deck. The man who came towards them wore a leather tunic and helmet and a large ring of keys dangling from a thick belt round his waist. He studied Fanshaw’s document and, satisfied as to its authenticity, beckoned him to follow, making for the cabin on the junk’s main deck.
The guard unlocked the low, iron-banded door and Fanshaw asked him to wait outside, since he wished to speak to the prisoner alone. Inside, he saw a lean man seated cross-legged in a pallet stretched beneath the low windows to one side of the door.
‘Adam Horne?’ he asked.
‘Whom do I have the honour of addressing?’ asked Horne, not rising from the pallet.
Fanshaw studied Horne. The Marine was confident and self-assured, handsome in a rugged, wind-burned, buccaneer manner. But his accent was educated, obviously the product of wealth and good breeding. Certainly no run-of-the-mill, rough-and-tumble Bombay Marine. Not the man Fanshaw had expected him to be.
‘Why have you come to China, Mr Horne?’ he demanded.
‘If you know my name, sir, you have apparently read my orders.’ Horne still wore the breeches and shirt he had grabbed when the hooded raiders had surprised him aboard the Huma.
‘Documents are easily forged, Mr Horne,’ Fanshaw reminded him, enjoying the power he held over a man born to the class to which he merely aspired.
Governor Pigot’s description of George Fanshaw fitted this pinched-faced, self-important, over-dressed Englishman. Horne was certain he was Fanshaw. He decided that the man must enjoy the favours of the Chinese Hoppo if he was able to visit him aboard this floating prison.
He challenged him. ‘I sailed from Fort St George on a mission for the East India Company and it is proceeding exactly as I expected.’
‘Indeed, Mr Horne, do your orders include being arrested and imprisoned?’
‘My orders, sir, are to find you.’
‘Me?’
‘George Fanshaw. Servant of the Honourable East India Company.’
Horne’s certainty amused Fanshaw. ‘If I am the man you claim you are looking for, Mr Horne, what do you propose to do now that you have found me?’
‘You sail aboard the China Flyer, do you not, sir?’ Horne nodded towards the row of windows behind him, and the English frigate beyond.
‘From?’
‘Madras.’
‘Destination?’
‘Whampoa.’
‘Reason?’ Fanshaw appeared to be amused by this verbal fencing.
‘You have come to China, Mr Fanshaw, to secure a place on the Hoppo’s Privileged Trading List for a rival trading company.’
‘Rival to whom, Mr Horne?’
Horne was working on the theory he had developed since leaving Fort St George. ‘Sir, the only Britons chartered to trade with China are the Honourable East India Company.’
‘If I were here for such a reason, Mr Horne, why should I be sailing a Company ship?’
‘That, sir, is precisely the reason I am taking you back to Madras.’
Fanshaw laughed. ‘Ah, so you sail in convoy, Mr Horne. That, or you expect reinforcement soon to help you take the China Flyer.’
‘As you know from reading my orders, sir, the Huma sails alone.’
‘If you intend to take the China Flyer unassisted, Mr Horne, you are either a very able seaman or a fool.’
‘Perhaps I am both,’ said Horne, adding, ‘Like Lothar Schiller.’
Fanshaw’s eyes dulled with anger. ‘For a man who thinks he knows so much, Mr Horne, you know very little. Perhaps I should tell you how little you know.
‘First, let me inform you that your ship, your beloved Huma, has been taken down river to Kam-Sing-Moon. The Hoppo is unloading your cargo of opium at the storage depot there. But your cumshaw will buy you no privileges, Mr Horne, as Governor Pigot obviously intended. The Hoppo has decided you are to be moved to an Imperial prison—after your trial.’
He smiled triumphantly. ‘Perhaps it would be more fruitful to speculate about your own future, Mr Horne. You can prepare the defence you will give to the Hoppo’s council when you appear before them next week.’
‘Your scheme will never work, Fanshaw,’ Horne said unexpectedly from the pallet. ‘No matter how well you think you have laid your plans, you will never succeed.’
Fanshaw turned away abruptly. He rapped on the iron-banded door, calling, ‘Guard! Open the door, guard. The interview is over.’
Horne jumped to his feet, insisting, ‘The East India Company will never let you rest, Fanshaw. Don’t be a fool. There’ll be other men following me. You’re a wanted man, Fanshaw.’
The door opened; the two Chinese sentries in black capes entered the cabin, the gaoler standing by the door with his keys.
Horne moved towards the Company agent. ‘Where are my men, Fanshaw?’ He pointed to a junk anchored between him and the shore. ‘Are they out here, too? Awaiting trial?’
From the doorway Fanshaw answered, ‘Mr Horne, the only thing you should concern yourself with is the defence you must give to the Hoppo next week for presenting false documents in Whampoa.’
‘Where are my men?’ Horne repeated, fists clenched at his side.
The guards stepped forward, pushing him back towards the pallet.
Half-in, half-out of the doorway, Fanshaw called over his shoulder, ‘Wherever your man are, Mr Horne, let’s hope for their sake that they are being more sensible than you.’
The door slammed in Horne’s face.
* * *
How much of what Fanshaw had said was true? Had the Huma really been taken down river to the opium depot? Was the Hoppo indeed planning to move him to a prison on land? Would he have to defend himself against allegations of presenting false documents in Macao? Or was it all a fabrication that Fanshaw wanted him to believe? Horne paced the cabin after the agent’s departure, his thoughts in turmoil.
Fanshaw had divulged nothing about himself, he realised. But the mention of Lothar Schiller’s name had angered him. Why? Had there been a rift between the two men?
Horne ran one hand through his tangled hair, his thoughts jumping to his Marines.
He looked to left and right out of the cabin’s double line of narrow windows. Were the men imprisoned in one or both of those other boats? Or had they been taken down river aboard the Huma … if there was any truth in that story.
Horne had last seen his men the night before last, when the Chinese Black Hoods had dragged them and Cheng-So Gilbert from the Huma, hurling them into one barge while they threw Horne into another and then brought him blind-folded up river. The crew had been left aboard ship.
Horne sank onto the pallet. He knew that the sensible thing to do was to prepare a defence for the Hoppo’s council … He tossed restlessly. Was that story, too, a red herring? Did Fanshaw want him to concentrate on one point so that he would ignore more important possibilities? Was the man as clever as Horne assumed him to be, or was he crediting him with too much guile and cunning?
One thing was certain: the scoundrel had courage. Fanshaw was challenging the largest, richest company in the history of the world. Whether for his own advantage or for the benefit of others, Fanshaw had singlehandedly tackled the might of the Honourable East India Company.