"Do you apologize--yes or no?"

Norbert put both hands on the table, glaring down at Malcolm Struan who glared back, white with rage. "You were ordered back, you are twenty so still a minor before the law and that's hardly dry behind the ears. It's the truth and here's another: I could blow your head off or cut it off with one hand tied, you can't even stand straight so how you going to fight, eh?" he said, his voice jeering and heavy with scorn. "You're a cripple, young Malcolm, and that's the God's truth! Another truth, your ma runs Struan's, has for years, and she's running it into the ground--ask Jamie or anyone honest enough to tell you! You may call yourself tai-pan but you're not, and you're not Dirk Struan, you're not the tai-pan and never will be!

Tyler Brock's the tai-pan and, by God, we'll be Noble House before Christmas too.

Duel? You're mad but if that's what you want, any time." He stalked out. The door slammed.

"I'd, I'd like you both to be my seconds,"

Malcolm said, trembling with rage.

Dmitri got up shakily. "Malc, you're crazy. Duelling's against the law but okay.

Thanks for lunch." He left.

Struan tried to catch his breath, his heart hurting. He looked up at McFay who was staring at him as though he were a stranger. "Yes it's mad, Jamie, but then Norbert's the best of Brock and Sons, he's swamped you and--"

"I'm sorry th--"

"So am I. But more truth is I told no one about the miners, Vargas knew nothing about them, so it leaked through you. You're the best we've got in the company but Norbert will bury us here. A bullet in the bastard's head is the best way to deal with him--or any of the God-cursed Brocks."

After a pause McFay said, "Sorry I failed you, yes I am, very much, but... but sorry, I want no part of any duel, or your vendetta. It's insane."

Struan's pallor increased. "Let's talk about you. Either you keep your holy oath to support me, by God, or you're really finished. You've three days."

Earlier this morning Settry Pallidar and a troop of mounted dragoons led the procession across the bridge that spanned the first moat of Yedo Castle.

They clattered between ranks of impassive, uniformed samurai, shoulder to shoulder--thousands of others had lined the route--over the drawbridge, under the portcullis and through the massive iron-sheathed gates. Ahead were their guides, massed samurai carrying ten-foot-high banners bearing the ensignia of the roju, three entwined cherry blossoms.

Behind the dragoons were half a hundred Highlanders preceded by their twenty-man band and giant bandleader, pipes skirrling, then the party of Ministers and their staff, all mounted, Ministers in court dress--cocked hats, ceremonial swords, cloaks or frock coats against the stiff breeze--except the Russian who wore Cossack uniform and cape and rode the best horse in Japan, a brown stallion that had a personal covey of twenty stablemen to cherish and guard him with their lives. Phillip Tyrer and Johann were in attendance on Sir William, Andr`e Poncin on Henri Seratard. A company of Redcoats brought up the rear.

Two small horse-drawn cannon with their camions and gun crews remained the other side of the bridge. This had been the subject of days of wrangling, Sir William insisting that accompanying ceremonial cannon were an accustomed courtesy to royals, the Bakufu that any gai-jin arms were against the law and an insult to their revered Shogun. The compromise, after a week of impatient dickering--by Sir William --was that the cannon would stay outside the bridge, that royal salutes would not be fired until the unanimous roju gave the promised formal permission. "No ammunition to be landed, so sorry..."

This major hitch was resolved with the help of the French Admiral. During one of the interminable sessions he brought the flagship closer to shore and fired broadside after none too accurate broadside of shells and cannon balls that passed just beyond the Settlement to land harmlessly in the pa.i beyond, but petrifying every Japanese within hearing.

"If we can't land ammunition," Sir William explained sweetly, "then we will just have to make salutes from the sea like this--we did ask him to use blanks but somehow I suppose he misunderstood, language you know--and so sorry if his range falls short and hits your city, it will be your fault. I will have to explain this in detail to your Emperor Komei as the cannonade, and carrying our rifles for full royal honors, is only a token of respect to honor your Shogun and, when we see him, your Emperor Komei, which visit to Kyoto I have postponed three times to accommodate you, I will certainly reschedule the very moment my more powerful fleet returns from decimating most of the China coast inhabited by foul pirates who had the effrontery to pirate a small British vessel!"

Bakufu opposition crumbled. So all rifles were armed and all soldiers warned that though there might be a fight, under no circumstances and on pain of extreme punishment were any Japanese to be provoked. "What about H.m.s. Pearl, Sir William?"' the General had asked at the last briefing.

"She can deliver me and my party to Yedo, then return here, in case our hosts mount a surprise attack against the Settlement while we're away--she can cover an evacuation."

"Good God, sir, if you think there's a chance of that, why put yourself at risk?"' the General had said worriedly. "The other Ministers, well they'd be no loss but you, sir, if anything happens to you it would be an international incident.

After all, sir, you represent the Empire! You should not risk your person."

"Part of the job, my dear General."

Sir William smiled to himself remembering how he kept his voice flat, meaning it as a pleasantry, but the General had nodded wisely, believing it to be the truth. Poor bugger's a berk but then that goes with his job, no doubt that, he thought cheerfully then dismissed everything to concentrate on the castle and the coming meeting that was the culmination of months of negotiating, that would, in effect, give legality to the Treaty and the opening of the Treaty ports. It was those few French shells that worked the miracle, he thought grimly.

Damn Ketterer, but thank God his operation in China went well, according to dispatches, and that he'll be back soon. If he can bombard the coast of China why not here--damn him!

And damn this castle.

From afar it had not looked very imposing but the closer they got to it the more immense it became, with eight rings of barrack-like structures as its outer defenses. Then the castle itself, elegant and beautifully proportioned, he thought, its moat almost two hundred yards across, the towering outer walls thirty or forty feet thick and made of huge granite blocks. Even our sixty-pounders wouldn't dent those, he told himself awed. And inside God only knows how many fortifications surrounding the central keep. And the only way in through one of the gates, or over the walls, a frontal attack, and I wouldn't like to have to order that. Starve it out? God only knows how many storage places it would have--or how many troops could be billeted here. Thousands.

Beyond the gate the roadway angled into a narrow staging area dominated by bowmen massed in defensive slots or on the parapets thirty feet above. The gate was open and led to another confined courtyard that let out through another fortified gate into another, clearly to be repeated in a maze of passage ways that eventually would lead to the central keep but would always leave a hostile force at the mercy of the defenders above.

"We dismount here, Sir William,"

Pallidar said, riding up and saluting. He was Captain of the escort. With him were samurai officers on foot and they were pointing at a vast door that was being heaved open.

"Good. You're clear on what you have to do?"