Ahead they saw the backs of the samurai confronting this portion of the mob. At once the Captain put their plan into operation. On his command his men formed into a wedge, rifles at the ready, and charged into the space between the two sides and wheeled, the point of the wedge threatening the Drunk Town people who began to give away and split into two groups, shouting and alarmed. Tyrer had rushed over to the samurai who was equally alarmed by the sudden appearance of the disciplined soldiers, bowed and called out loudly in Japanese, "Please, Sir Officer, all men to stay here safe, Please to salute my Master, Lord of Gai-jin."

Automatically the nonplussed samurai bowed back to Tyrer and as he straightened, Sir William, flushed from his unaccustomed run, stopped for a moment and faced the samurai. Immediately Tyrer bowed to him, calling out, "Salute!" The officer and all his men bowed, Sir William bowed back and now the samurai were back in control.

At once Sir William turned and went into the wedge that was gaining ground, the people closest to the marines being shoved back by the rifles.

"Get out of the way! Get back... back!" the young Captain was shouting, his adrenaline pumping.

He was just behind the point of wedge, and when the way did not clear fast enough for his liking he shouted, "FIX BAYONETS!"

As one man the marines stepped back two paces, fixed bayonets, levelled them at the crowd, each marine picking a target, each becoming a graven, waiting cog of a killing machine that was famed and feared throughout the world.

"PREPARE TO CHARGE!"

Sir William, Tyrer, and McFay stopped breathing. Along with everyone else. Immediate silence. Then the evil spirit that all mobs contain vanished and the men here became just a rabble that broke and fled in all directions.

The Captain did not wait. "Port rifles, follow me!" He led the way at a run towards the village where the majority of traders, soldiers, a dozen cavalry, and samurai were gathered, all of them still oblivious of Sir William and his marines.

Again the wedge formed but as they came up to the back of the shouting mass, they heard the General shouting, "For the last time I order you out or I will throw you out..." to be drowned under a roar from a crowd that was clearly ready to explode. The Captain decided there was no time to waste.

"Halt! One round over their heads, FIRE!"

The volley blew away the noise and the fury and got immediate attention, even from the equally unprepared cavalry. Everyone had whirled or ducked and in the silence Sir William, red with rage, stalked into the space between the two sides. Further down the street Lunkchurch and the others were transfixed. He held a second burning rag in his hand, poised to throw, the first was already on the veranda against the wooden wall, flames spreading. Seeing Sir William and the marines, they evaporated into side streets, rushing pell-mell for home.

All other eyes were on Sir William.

He settled his top hat more firmly and took a paper out of his pocket. In a loud grating voice he began: "I am reading you Her Majesty's Riot Act: if this unauthorized assembly does not disperse instantly, every man woman or child is liable for arrest and..." His next few words were lost under general grumbling and curses but, instantly, the rabble began to dissolve.

The Riot Act of 1715 had been promulgated by Parliament after the Jacobite Rebellion that only ruthlessness had contained and obliterated. The new law was designed to stop any unauthorized dissension at source. It granted all Magistrates or Justices of the Peace the right and duty to read the Act out to any group of more than twelve persons considered a threat to the peace of the realm, the onus on the rioters to hear and obey. Anyone who did not disperse within forty-five minutes was liable to immediate arrest, incarceration, and, if proven guilty, to either a sentence of death or to being sentenced to transportation for life at Her Majesty's pleasure.

There was no need for Sir William to finish reading. The village street emptied but for the troops and the General, and the samurai.

"Phillip, deal with them, tell them to go home please." He watched for a moment as Tyrer went over and bowed and the officer bowed back. He's a good lad, he thought, then turned away to put a bleak eye on the General who was flushed and sweating. "'Morning, Thomas."

"'Morning sir." The General saluted.

Smartly--but only because of the soldiers around him.

Sir William did not raise his hat in reply. Stupid berk, he was thinking.

"Pleasant day, what?" he said easily. "I suggest you dismiss the men."

The General motioned to the cavalry officer who was, secretly, more than a little pleased that Sir William had arrived when he did, knowing too that the Japanese were not at fault and he should have been walking his horses into the rabble of traders. What a bunch of ill-disciplined scum, he thought.

"Sergeant!" he called out. "All the men back to barracks and dismiss them. Now!"

The soldiers began sorting themselves out. Tyrer bowed a last time to the samurai officer, feeling very pleased with himself, then watched them amble away up the street towards their North Gate.

"Damn good show, Phillip, you did very well," Jamie McFay said.

"Oh? Didn't do a thing really," Tyrer said, pretending diffidence.

Jamie McFay grunted. He was sweating, his heart thumping, he had been sure that someone would pull a trigger or jerk out a sword. "That was bloody close." He glanced over at Sir William who was deep in a one-sided conversation with the General, now even more flushed. "Wee Willie's giving the bugger hell," he said softly, smiling. "Stupid clot!"

"He's..." Tyrer stopped as their attention was diverted up the street. Samurai were sprinting towards a shop on the east side that had caught fire. "Good God, that's the shoya's house..." He was already running, McFay at his heels.

Several of the samurai had jumped up onto the veranda and began beating out the flames while the others hurried to the big water barrels with their ring of buckets that were kept at intervals everywhere against such emergencies. By the time Tyrer and McFay had reached there the fire was under control.

Half a dozen more buckets and the last of the flames sizzled and died. The outer shop wall was gone. Inside they saw the shoya, beside him an ashigaru, a foot soldier. Both of them stepped out onto the veranda. The shoya knelt and bowed, the ashigaru bowed. They muttered thanks.

To McFay's astonishment there was no sign of Hiraga, the man he and Tyrer knew only as Nakama. But before either of them could say anything the officer had begun questioning the shoya and the foot soldier.

"How did the fire start?"

"A foreigner threw a rag against the wall, Sire."

"Dog's shit, all of them! You will make a report and explain the cause of this disturbance.

By tomorrow, shoya."

"Yes Sire."

The officer, a pockmarked man of thirty-odd, peered into the shop. "Where's the other man?"

"Sire?"

"The other man. The Japanese who was chased in here by the gai-jin?" he said irritably. "Hurry up!"

The ashigaru bowed politely, "So sorry, sir, there was no one else here."

"I distinctly saw him rush in here--he was carrying swords." He turned to his men.

"Who saw him?" They stared back at him uneasily and shook their heads. His face reddened. "Search the shop at once!" The search was thorough and produced only the shoya's family and servants who knelt and bowed and stayed kneeling. They denied seeing anyone. A moment of silence then Tyrer and McFay were dumbfounded to see the officer suddenly lose his temper and begin raving at them.

Stoically the ashigaru and all the soldiers stood at attention, rigid, the villagers on their knees, heads to the ground, trembling under the tongue-lashing. Without warning he stepped up to the ashigaru and belted him backhanded around the face.