For a split second the youthful samurai hesitated, exulting in the killing moment, then leapt. Helplessly, Tyrer tried to back away. Then the explosion happened, the bullet thrust the man sprawling and the sword failed, cutting Tyrer in the arm but not badly.

For a moment Tyrer did not believe that he was still alive then he saw Struan reeling in his saddle, blood seeping from the wound in his side, the gun levelled at the other samurai, his frenzied pony twisting and cavorting.

Again Struan pulled the trigger. The gun was near the pony's ear. The explosion blew away her control and she took the bit and charged off, Struan barely able to hold on. At once the samurai rushed after him and this moment gave Tyrer the chance to dig in his spurs, spin away from the road and race in pursuit, northwards.

"Sonno-joiiii!" the samurai shouted after them, enraged that they had escaped.

John Canterbury was writhing and moaning in the dirt near some petrified travellers, all of them still kneeling, heads down and frozen.

Angrily the youth kicked Canterbury's top hat aside and decapitated him with a single blow.

Then, with great care, he cleansed his blade on the frock coat, and replaced it in its scabbard.

And all the while the cortege continued to pass as though nothing was happening, that nothing had happened, eyes seeing everything but nothing. Nor did any of the foot travellers move their heads from the earth.

The other younger samurai was sitting cross-legged on the ground, nursing his shoulder, using his bunched kimono to stop the flow of blood, his sword, still stained, in his lap. His compatriot went over to him and helped him up, cleansed the sword on the kimono of the nearest traveller, an old woman, who shivered in terror but kept her head pressed to the earth.

Both men were young and strongly built. They smiled at each other, then, together, examined the wound. The bullet had gone right through the muscle of his upper arm. No bone touched. Shorin, the older said, "The wound's clean, Ori."

"We should have killed them all."

"Karma."

At this moment the massed samurai and the eight terrified porters carrying the palanquin began passing, all pretending the two men and the corpse did not exist. With great deference, the two youths bowed.

The tiny side window of the palanquin slid open, then closed again.

"Here, Mr. Struan, drink this," the doctor said kindly, towering over the camp bed. They were in the surgery of the British Legation at Kanagawa and he had managed to stanch most of the blood flow. Tyrer sat on a chair near the window. The two of them had arrived half an hour ago. "It will make you feel better."

"What is it?"

"Magic--mostly laudanum, that's a tincture of opium and morphine of my own devising. It will stop the pain. I have to patch you up a little but not to worry, I will use ether to put you quite to sleep."

Struan felt a sick fear rush through him.

Ether for surgery was a recent innovation, much heralded, but still experimental. "I've, I've never had one or an, an operation and, and I don't... think..."

"Don't worry yourself. Anesthetics are really quite safe in the right hands." Dr. George Babcott was twenty-eight, well over six feet five and equally proportioned. "I've used ether and chloroform many times over the last five or six years, with excellent results.

Believe me, you won't feel anything, and it's a godsend to the patient."

"That's right, Mr. Struan," Tyrer said, trying to be helpful, knowing he was not. His arm already had been swabbed with iodine, sewn up and bandaged and in a sling and he was thanking his luck that his wound was relatively superficial. "I met a fellow at university who told me he had had his appendix out with chloroform, and it didn't hurt a bit." He wanted to sound reassuring, but the idea of any operation--and the gangrene that all too often followed--frightened him too.

"Don't forget, Mr. Struan," Babcott was saying, masking his concern, "it's almost fifteen years since Dr. Simpson first used chloroform in surgery and we've learned a lot since then. I studied under him at the Royal Infirmary for a year before I went out to the Crimea." His face saddened. "Learned a lot there too. Well, that war's over so not to worry, lovely laudanum will give you some erotic dreams too, if you're lucky."

"And if I'm not?"

"You're lucky. You're both very lucky."

Struan forced a smile through his pain. "We're lucky we found you here and so quickly, that's certain." Instinctively trusting Babcott he drank the colorless liquid, and lay back again, almost fainting from the pain.

"We'll let Mr. Struan rest a moment,"

Babcott said. "You'd better come with me, Mr.Tyrer, we've things to do."

"Of course, Doctor. Struan, can I get you anything, do anything?"

"No... no, thanks. No, no need for you to wait."

"Don't be silly, of course I'll wait." Nervously Tyrer followed the doctor out and closed the door. "Is he going to be all right?"

"I don't know. Fortunately samurai blades are always clean and they cut as beautifully as any scalpel. Excuse me a minute, I'm the only official here this afternoon so now that I've done everything medically possible, I'd better act like Her Britannic Majesty's representative." Babcott was Deputy to Sir William. He ordered the Legation cutter across the bay to Yokohama to sound the alarm, sent a Chinese servant to fetch the local Governor, another to find out what daimyo, or prince, had passed through Kanagawa a couple of hours ago, put the six-man detachment of soldiers on alert, and poured Tyrer a large whisky. "Drink it, it's medicinal. You say the assassins shouted something at you?"

"Yes, it, it sounded like "sonoh... sonnoh-ee."

"Means nothing to me. Make yourself at home, I'll be back in a moment, I've got to get ready." He went out.

Tyrer's arm was aching, with seven stitches in it.

Though Babcott had been expert, Tyrer had been hard put not to cry out. But he had not and that pleased him. What appalled him were the currents of fear that continued to shake him, making him want to run away and keep on running.

"You're a coward," he muttered, aghast at the discovery.

Like the surgery, the anteroom stank of chemicals making his stomach heave. He went to the window and breathed deeply, trying unsuccessfully to clear his head, then sipped some of the whisky. As always the taste was raw and unpleasant. He stared into the glass. Bad pictures there, very bad. A shudder went through him. He forced himself to look just at the liquor. It was golden brown and the smell reminded him of his home in London, his father after dinner sitting in front of the fire with his dram, mother complacently knitting, their two servants clearing the table, everything warm and cozy and safe, and that reminded him of Garroway's, his favorite Coffee House on Cornhill, warm and bustling and safe, and of university exciting and friendly but safe. Safe. His whole life safe but now?

Again panic began to overwhelm him. Jesus Christ, what am I doing here?

After their escape but still not far enough away from the Tokaido, Struan's bolting pony had shied as her half-severed shoulder muscle gave out and Struan tumbled to the ground. The fall hurt him badly.

With great difficulty, still weak with fear, Tyrer had helped Struan onto his own pony but he had been barely able to hold the taller heavier man in the saddle. All the time his attention was on the disappearing cortege, expecting any moment to see mounted samurai. "Can you hold on?"' "Yes, yes I think so." Struan's voice was very weak, his pain great.

"Angelique, she got away all right?"' "Yes, yes she did. The devils killed Canterbury."

"I saw that. Are... are you hurt?"' "No, not really. I don't think so. Just a gash in my arm." Tyrer tore off his coat, cursed at the sudden pain. The wound was a neat slice in the fleshy part of his forearm. He cleaned some of the blood away with a handkerchief, then used it as a bandage. "No veins or arteries cut--but why did they attack us? Why? We weren't doing any harm."