Chapter 7

Jason showed up at Smallboar's business precisely at 8:00 PM. The door was opened by Henry James, who led Jason into Smallboar's office. The two men shook hands, and Jason sat down. He took the proffered cigar, but turned down the brandy. James had left the office, presumably to return to his desk in the front room.

The two men talked about trivialities for a few minutes before getting down to business. Jake took some papers from a folder on his desk and said, "Well, Mr. Fortesque, I have the contract here for your signature. I hope you brought the bank draft with you."

"Oh, yes, I most certainly did. May I read the contract before I sign it?"

"Of course, of course. Here it is. Please take your time. Feel free to ask any questions as you read through it."

"Harold Fortesque" read the contract which purported to award him a 40% interest in the profits from the run of the ship Columbine to Shanghai, China, and back. The cargo going out was finished wood planks and tea on the return trip. There was a guarantee of a minimum return of $20,000, no matter what the profit might actually be. After studying the contract for a while, Harold said that he was ready to sign and asked for a pen. Jake dug out a pen and an ink bottle and exchanged them for the bank draft for $10,250. Harold signed with a flourish and handed the contract back to Jake.

Jake reached for the contract, and, as he put out his hand, Jason grabbed his wrist in a vise-like grip. Jason had been using his staff as a gentleman's cane, so he had it immediately to hand. He pressed a mermaid's breast and a blade jumped out of the end of the staff.

Jason had Jake pulled across the desk so that he was immobilized. Jason placed the point of the blade against Jake's neck and said, "I am fully aware that there is no such ship as the Columbine, so I know that you were planning to cheat me. Actually, I could not care less, since that bank draft is worthless. I am really here to find out from you the name and location of your boss in the Rabbits gang.

"If you tell me what I want to know, I will let you live. However, I have no compunction about killing you if you lie to me. If you don't tell me what I want to know, I also have no compunction about torturing you until you do. Now, what will it be? Will you answer my question, or will you force me to get very unpleasant with your tender parts?"

At that moment, Jason heard the door open and James come into the room. James was moving remarkably fast and was able to jam a knife into Jason's back over his right kidney. The knife hit the chain mail that Betty had insisted that Jason wear, so there was no significant penetration. Nevertheless, the small penetration was painful and did break the skin.

Jason reacted the only way he could. He spun around and swept the blade of his staff across James' throat. The blade caught only the front part of the assailant's throat, so it did not remove his head. However, there was no question that James was dead, even if his body did not know it yet. James fell to the floor, spouting blood in a multitude of directions.

Jason had never turned loose of Jake's wrist during the whole affair, so Jake was not given an opportunity to escape. Jason applied a little psychological pressure on Jake by wiping the blood from his blade on Jake's coat sleeve where Jake could see what was going on.

With a bit of a sneer in his voice, Jason said, "Now, back to where we were before we were so rudely interrupted. Tell me about your boss or you are a dead man, and I assure you that your death will be very painful."

Jake said, "Fuck you, you bastard. You can't make me talk."

"Oh, but I can. We'll start with this." Jake's hand was splayed across his desk, and Jason brought the butt end of his staff down on the back of Jake's hand so hard that a number of bones were shattered. Jake screamed and fainted. There was a pitcher of water on a side table, and Jason poured the water in Jake's face. This was enough to wake him up.

"Now, will you tell me what I want to know?"

"No I won't, you bastard. You are a dead man as soon as I report you to my boss."

"You will never get a chance to do that if you don't tell me what I want to know. Now, one more time. Who is your boss and where can I find him?"

"I'll never tell you, you OWWW!" Jason had brought the shaft of his staff down on Jake's forearm, breaking both bones.

"You are rapidly running out of bones that I can break on this side. I'll be starting on the other side pretty soon if you don't answer my question."

"He's Abe Smedly. His office is in the building at 313 Easom St."

"Thank you, Mr. Smallboar. Now, I'll collect the evidence of the contract and the phony draft and leave you to call your people for help." Jason picked up the papers he had mentioned and was straightening up when Jake tried to pull out a Derringer with his left hand. Jason said, "Naughty, naughty," as he stabbed Jake in the heart with the blade projecting from the end of his staff. Jake was fumbling so much that he had not yet cocked his Derringer, so Jason was in no great danger from the pistol. Jason dropped a "The Ghost" card on the desk as he let himself out of the office and headed to see Big Ass Betty.

Jason did not go after Smedly immediately, since he needed to take a look at the building at 313 Easom St. before he committed to entering it. Planning was necessary if he was not to be trapped through his own carelessness. Betty was happy that he was going to take some time off and spend it with her this evening.

They retired to the bedroom, and that's where Betty saw the blood on Jason's shirt. She immediately reacted with near hysterics. "Why didn't you tell me you were wounded? How did it happen? My Lord, we must get a doctor in immediately to tend to it!"

"Please, Betty, calm down. I didn't mention it because I had forgotten about it. It's such a small wound because I followed your advice and wore my chain mail. If you look closely, you will see that it is hardly a scratch deep enough to even draw blood. Please relax, dear Betty. If you will wash it for me and make sure that it is clean, that is all of the treatment that the scratch will need."

"Well, if you are sure. I don't want to lose you, now that I have found you. Please promise me that you will always wear that mail shirt whenever you go out on one of your adventures."

"You may rest assured, dear Betty, that I will always wear that mail whenever I go out to chase the bad guys. After all, I don't want me to die any more than you do!" Jason smiled at this, and Betty did too. Betty didn't forget the incident, but did stop nagging about it.

The next day, Jason put on some workingman's type of clothes and went to survey the building at 313 Easom St. He wandered around as if he were just another idler killing time until a gambling house or cheap brothel opened for business.

There was nothing special about the building, it had three storeys and was sandwiched between two buildings that were only two stories tall. At least, it looked like The Ghost would have an easy time in reaching the roof of the building he was interested in later that night. Fortunately, the building had a number of windows on every side, so he should have many choices of escape routes to the alley which ran behind the building. There was an entrance from the alley, but he expected that door to be locked when it got dark.

Jason walked along the front of the building on the sidewalk and looked for some hint of where he could find Smedly, at least which floor. But there was no hint of a sign mentioning Smedly's name, so Jason got no help there. Strangely, the building had an abandoned look about it in the daylight, so Jason wondered if Smallboar had lied to him. Well, Smallboar and James were dead, so he couldn't go back for more information. No way around it, The Ghost was just going to have to break in and look the place over for himself.

Shamus O'Malley was beside himself with rage! "Find me this Ghost character and I'll hang him up by his balls. We can't have somebody going around bumping off our people like that. I don't care about James, so much, but Smallboar is going to take a while to replace. I want guards placed with every one of our bosses until we can catch this Ghost bastard."

That night, The Ghost was ready to make his attack on Abe Smedly, assuming that he was where he was supposed to be. The Ghost was now wearing a hood all of the time, since he didn't want his description to get around to the Sidney Ducks. There was considerable advantage to remaining anonymous.