 Log entry, catch Scarlet Queen, Philip Conny master, position 123 degrees 12 minutes west, 38 degrees 15 minutes north, gyro compass course 168, wind fresh, sky fair, remarks departed Tianjin, China, 2.30 am, sailing delayed 12 hours due to imprisonment of officers and crew, reason for imprisonment, the White Cargo Act and our sin, it was a few hours after a searing sunrise that I noticed the water over the side losing its clearness as it filled with the yellow mud of the Hun Ho River, sweeping out from the troubled valleys of Inner Mongolia. The Scarlet Queen limped into the current under power again, rudderless bullet scarred and carrying in her hold $10,000 worth of Jin Sang roots, the cargo that had been the cause of all her wounds. I had my personal troubles too based on the same thing, two passengers, one wrapped in sail cloth, dead from a bullet through his brain, the other, the woman who'd killed it. As we passed over the bar at Taku and swung up the Hun Ho toward Tianjin, the stream was jammed from bank to bank with the traffic of Chinese rivers, junks, barges and refuges, curious dark eyes swept as we passed. Naked girl babies were held up to the sails and jabbered curses were thrown when we shook our heads and we inched up against the wash and flow of China. In spite of her slow limping progress through the rabble of rivercraft, the Queen did her best to live up to her name. The Scarlet figure under her bow sprit swung heartily across the stern of a fish barge. A swell lifted her nose as she turned disdainfully away from it. But after she was secured to a dock, she seemed to lean wearily against the rope fenders we hung over the side for. Her crew was tired too. The way I felt that cargo of Jin Sang wasn't worth ten thousand dollars pesos or glass beads. All I wanted was to get rid of it and everything that went with it. She'd sleep for about seventy two hours. But that particular Tianxin day wasn't cut out for rest. A squad of Chinese military police marched around the corner of a building and were shouted to a halt on the dock. A stocky bullet headed Chinese colonel dripping with gold grade pounded up the gangway and came aboard. Your ship. Yeah but I don't deserve the honor guard. What's it for? You will speak only an answer to my question. You, your first officer and your crew are under military arrest. And so mutual continues the voyage of the Scarlet Queen written by Gildowd and Bob Tolman and starring Elliot Lewis. The Scarlet Queen brought a ship to plow the seas bound for uncharted adventure. Every week a complete entry in the log and every week a league further in the strange voyage of the Scarlet Queen. In two minutes flat Chinese centuries was stationed at the wheel of Haasers and pacing the dock with rifles and fixed bayonets. Two of them flattered Gallagher and me into the cabin. And the colonel slapping the palm of his hand with a writing prop for emphasis went to work on it. Your registry. The Scarlet Queen, San Francisco, California, USA. Your destination. Look, Colonel, what is all this? Your destination. No set destination. It's an island trading voyage. Your cargo. General trading cargo. Your cargo. Jen Singh roots, number two hold. I will see Bill relating. This is pepper, no good. Fine by that woman. You know the answers to all these questions. Why don't you come to the point? You carry a passenger. Yeah, one. You'll leave just them with full when they're dead. They aren't passengers. They're cargo. I will see dead one. Where is it? Gallagher? Go get him. Bring him here. Hey, wait a minute. I'm no morgue attendant. Let him carry his own stiff. Go get him, Red. Okay, skipper. That's your order, eh? Yeah, your fat head. That's my order. Get out of here. Shove off. Where is woman passenger? In the cabin across the companion. You're welcome. She's in there. What mother, she's sick? Tiva? Yeah, smallpox. You still want to go in? You're too lost. But Alice was screaming was natural enough, but the rest wasn't. The clothes were torn, her face was scratched. She was towering in a corner, and the look of horror on her face was directed toward me. She dragged herself across the cabin floor like a second road company of white cargo, and clutched imploringly at the Colonel's free hand. Her act was so bad that it was funny, but the Colonel had never seen white cargo. Please, you're a good and kind man. You're not letting her hurt me anymore. He killed my husband. He saw everything we had in the world, our ginseng. Now he torches me to sign a ransom note. Very sad, a mark on woman. Oh, yeah. Very sad, American woman. Saddest I ever saw. You will not talk. Saddest of pigs. Okay, you've got the guns, but she's making a fool out of you. Are you a coolly? Does the woman rule your house? Poor sad American lady, do not kneel before humble Chinese. You are strong enough to stand on feet, poor sad American lady. Yes. Yes, you've given me courage. I lean on your splendid strength, my Colonel. I will gladly save life of poor sad American lady molested my city by her unworthy countryman, so forced to turn to a Chinese officer for Shiborah's aid. For as many years as I have before me, I will thank you 10,000 times each minute. I am unworthy. One tank will be sufficient in this manner. You'll come to my headquarter. The summoning scribe of English-language newspaper China tell Hall's hot story of Shiborah's aid. It is as nothing. You will gain the military promotion you so richly deserve. I have powerful friends in Nanjing. You will have powerful cargo here, Tianxin. $10,000. Poor sad American lady. Your greed is as great as your shivalry. It's much only by your tanks. The forest, sad lady. I love too, Captain Carney. How about laughing some of these guns off my ship? Oh, no. I'm not laughed loud enough for that. I laugh because girls and tanks of poor sad American lady will buy many balls of rice for empty bellies in my village. I laugh because costs so little. Only two lies. Yours, Captain Carney. Your first officer. You make good sense up to a point, Colonel, but you're taking a pretty long chance executing a couple of American nations. We are only honoring requests from your own people in Korea to hold you for extradition because of that woman in Jinxin. You will be shot while trying to escape. As the Colonel's bodyguards hustled my semen and me across the gangway and into a lend-lease ambulance fitted out with bars, the storm broke over Tianxin. I took a long last look at the coin as we pulled out. A sudden squall swept down the river and across a bow. He shivered a little. He tugged at her moorings. No one has ever really been in jail until they've made the Chinese variety. Alcatraz is a Sunday school summer camp in comparison to Jinxin's. The place is sewerless and the wind moving heavily in from the dumping ground near the river never let you forget it. I hope my crew was faring better than I was. I was shoved into a cellar that had been dyed in more than once and left to examine what I could see of my future, which wasn't much. I was pinning all my hopes on one possibility that Gallagher had caught my cue to shove off and had gone over the side into the river when he left the cabin. I finally gave up worrying about it and stretched out on a stinking, rat-chewed, read mat in the corner of my cell. He fell asleep. When I woke up, I didn't know whether it was day or night and I didn't care. Day or night, the place would smell the same. Then I heard the door at the end of the long car to close. Something that sounded like a woman's footsteps. As they drew nearer, I heard the rustle of heavy silk. A strong odor of jasmine clipped into my cell. As the key turned on the lock, I braced myself for Alice, probably playing the part of the dragon lady. The door swung open. The first thing that came in was a blast of perfume that lifted me to my feet. Then a small flickering lantern held aloft by a delicately dimpled hand. The brocade-wrapped mountain of flesh behind it had a face with small childlike features that were almost lost in the billowing fat that surrounded them. He looked Chinese, but he sounded like Charles Lawton. Well, now that I've seen you, I don't wonder that she's half out of her mind. Who are you, Stinky? Yes, how true. I always put on an extra dash of scent when my business brings me into this foul penal institution, which is rather oftener than I would care to admit. When I use a little bail-bond broker or something? Among other things, yes. In this instance, as you see, I am carrying a lantern. Like diogenes, I am looking for an honest man. And you know why? Tell me anyway. Because quite frankly, sir, I myself have a most untrustworthy person. I advise you to remember that in our future dealings. We do have dealings, is that right? We do indeed, sir, but I suggest we discuss them in more pleasant surroundings. By the way, did I tell you my name? Our sin. I believe it has quite another meaning in English. Shall we go, sir? Shall we go, sir? I followed him up the long corridor, reeling in the backwash of jasmine that swelled out in his wake. The door of the cell block swung open, and he spotted out through the jailer's office, nodding benevolently at the guard, who bowed from the waist and accepted the lantern from the dimpled hand. We jogged on out to the street without slackening pace. A mob of beggars raised a clamor as our sin appeared. He pulled from his roll the huge silk purse, hanging at his waist and reached into it. Still on the run, he fluttered his hands in and out of the purse, and a continuous shower of small brass coins fell into the street on either side of us. The crowd parted like the Red Sea, and I saw the finishing touch. A Rolls Royce town car waited at the curb. Up to you, sir. Yeah, thanks. What am I supposed to do now? Ask you where we're going? And my dear fellow, you are at liberty to go any place you like. Well, and I'd like to get back to my ship. Very well. If you can find it. What do you mean? What happened to it? I've had it moved. Oh, wait a minute. Who told you you could move my ship? Now, please, sir, don't excite yourself. Your ship is quite safe. Yeah, I'll believe that when I'm on her decks and out of here. You will be, one way or another. Now you said something over that Colonel's dead body. And maybe yours, too. Well, we must all die some time. But how appropriate that you should mention the Colonel. He met with an unfortunate accident an hour ago. He fell down. And cut his throat. Outside Tianxin, the limousine turned away from the river and climbed into the hills. We rolled through the gates of a high-world estate and stopped in front of a pink stucco western-style mansion. Inside, we dog-trotted through a series of huge rooms and into a small chromium-fitted bar overlooking Arsene's terraced Chinese gardens and the city and the writhing hun-ho far below. I didn't waste any time on the view. Alice was sitting on one end of a couch and squalled out on the rest of it was a sandy-haired white man. He was cleaning a frontier-modeled court. Well, see, he didn't have no trouble round him up, Arsene. Phil, Phil, darling, thank heaven you're all right. Well, if it isn't the poor, sad American lady, where'd you find her, Arsene? I would say she's quite easy to find, wouldn't you? And this gentleman is my confidential secretary, Mr. Mangan. All right, Kim. Yeah, all right, we're all here. Let's have it, Arsene. Oh, yes, indeed. Alice, would you make your friend comfortable, fetch him a Ricky Splash? Never mind the Splash. Bring the bottle. Well, sir, as you say, here it is. I am a merchant. I deal in a little bit of everything, a jack-of-all-trades, you might say. Countations in the islands, curling, trade in general. I find it worthwhile to keep tabs on my competitors. While doing so yesterday, I intercepted a cable addressed to Mr. Kang of Shanghai and signed by your chief officer, Mr. Gallagher. You're quite an operator. Thank you. To continue. Before you do. I happen to know that Mr. Kang is a very canureous man. Since Mr. Gallagher demanded not requested assistance from him, I assume that you are in a position to put him in the way of a rather handsome prophet. I thereby took immediate steps to obtain your release from prison. I did not know then the true nature of your enterprise. I don't get that. You will. Because you see, quite by coincidence, this lovely young lady approached my confidential secretary and so impressed was he by what she had to tell him that he brought her directly to me. She advises us that the voyage of your Scarlet Queen is being financed by Kang and Company to recover a treasure of very considerable value. What was the figure, Mankin? Ten million bucks. And you can take off that poker face on him. We ain't trying to horn in on you. Our sense got a real business proposition. You just listen to me. Very concisely put, Mr. Mankin. To continue, I am also aware that a new syndicate headed by a Portuguese gentleman, Mr. Constantino, is interested. I have contacted both Mr. Kang and Mr. Constantino and have received their replies. To wit, Mr. Kang offers $5,000 ransom for you and will reimburse me for the expenses involved in getting rid of that troublesome kernel. Mr. Constantino, on the other hand, has offered me $10,000 cash to release you into the custody of one of his agents. So here you find me on the horns of a dilemma. $10,000 against $5,000? What are you waiting for? Well, sir, there is still another possibility. If you and I were to go in together on a full partnership basis, I remind you, forgetting both Mr. Kang and Mr. Constantino, well, Mr. Kang. I'll make it easy for you, Arsene. The answer's no. Why? Because there's something wrong with your story. Alice here never knew anything about the voyage of the Scarlet Queen until one of you told her. Well, what about Mankin? He's bluffing. Yes, of course. Uh, is that right, Mr. Kang? I'm not bluffing. Alice? He's not being truthful. He made violent love to me on his ship. He told me everything. He did, eh? Well, Mr. Kang, majority rule, no rush, he must, and he'd come around. Let him sleep on. Whatever you say, Mr. Mankin. The servant will show you to your room, Mr. Kang is. I followed the silent poker face boy out of the room and up to the second floor. He unlocked the door of the room and patted back down the hall without opening it as if he was scared of something inside. I opened the door, saw what it was. The room looked like a typhoon had hit it. Every stick of furniture was broken and the floor was strewn with fragments of crockery. In the middle of the mess with a bed post, clutched in his hand like a club stood my chief mate, Red Gallagher. Oh. Oh, it's you, Skipper. I was expecting that hunk of perfume blubber that had me locked in here. How'd you find it? I didn't find you, Red. I was brought here myself. Did they tell you I was here? No. Well, they told me you were. That's why I came. Well, I'm here now. All of that out. What? Yeah, I'm a lot of help. Now we're both locked. Go on, break up some furniture, Skipper. It'll make you feel better. I would save them a couple of tables, but go ahead. You can have them. I didn't get to the furniture breaking stage for a couple of hours. Then Gallagher took one of the tables and I took the other. Then we pulled the mattress out from under the pile of lumber in the middle of the room and stretched out on it. It was better than the Tien Sin jail. A lot better. I went right to sleep. When I woke up this time, I knew it was after dark. I could see stars through the window grill. But except for that, I might have been back on the read map in my jail cell. The footsteps were the same as they came closer, the rustle of silk, the smell of perfume. This time I was ready for our sin, behind the door with Gallagher's club. Okay, calm down. I thought you were somebody else. And you mean you aren't angry with me? No, I mean I can't knock your brains out because you haven't got it. Listen, my darling, I know a way out of here. Yeah, and to what this time? Please, you must believe me. I had to act the way I did. Don't you see how it's worked out? Yeah, you're a great little politician, gorgeous. You stand on your record, you really do. Look, I came here to sell the dim things so I could get you out of jail, but Mangan had this plan. He works for Constantino on the side, but our sin doesn't know it. He said if I'd tell that story about the treasure to our sin, he'd promise he'd get you out of jail. I don't know why it worked, but it did. Doesn't make any sense, does it? That's the first thing I've heard you say that does make sense. Darling, we haven't got much time. I found out where the scarlet queen is and the repairs are all done now. Our sin smoked three pipes after dinner so we won't have to worry about him. Mangan is out and won't be back until after midnight. And I've grabbed the chauffeur to drive us into town. The car's waiting now. Where's Red? He's asleep. I'll wake him. I'm awake, Gipper. I've been listening to that yawn, too. You believe it? No, do you? No, but it's the way out. I think we should take... No! But let's go! The story's okay so far, Gipper. Yeah, so far. What do I have to do to convince him? I said I'll bring you to the scarlet queen and where she is. Yeah, with the light in her cabin. Come on, Gorgeous. Introduce us to your friend. Still don't go in there. I don't know. I can't go through with it. Please. Get out of the way, Gorgeous. What are you pulling now? Please, Phil. I mean it. Don't open that door. Get away from me. Phil! No, the honor's his brother. Skip the introduction. Anything you say. Darling, get a hold of Miss Alice here and throw over the side. Leave she here. Have yourself a chair, Kevin. Thanks. You're in my chair. I'll stand up. There ain't nothing to that thinking better while you're on your feet. Take me. I've done some of my best shooting from an easy chance. Yeah, women in the back. Your mate looks like he's fixing to jump me. Better tell him to sit down. Take it easy, Rat. She took that slug for you, Skipper. She pushed you out of the way. You're gonna stand here and take this. Let go, Rat. I figured you right. Didn't I, Corny? I ain't nobody like a Yankee ship captain to putt business first. That's right, Mankin. What's your proposition? Well, first thing, you're gonna sit down right a little old letter to Mr. Kang. You're gonna tell him that you're signing on a new chief mate. Yeah, the best is yours. I'm fed up with it. Mind your manner. As I was saying, Captain, a new chief mate and your plum fed up with the drunks in your crew so you're fixing to sign on some nice, steady Chinese thing. What for? Well, I don't want to throw no surprise at that Mr. Kang when he comes aboard a Chang. How do I? What do you think you'll do? Good nothing. What's the matter, Thad? Ain't nobody understands ransom money like the Chinese folks. Time he gets through visiting old Mr. Constantino down south in Hong Kong, why? He might even talk. Mr. Manga. What's he doing on you? A tummy. He'll go out to Caleddy. He'll not come back. Well, yeah, churn head, go look. Yes, miss, ma'am. Well, Captain Corny, what do you think about my little friend? That'll get funny. Well, yeah, we'll try it then just for last. Why, me and you... Stay right where you at. Don't try nothing. You find out I've got eyes in the back of my head. Now, Skipper. Yeah, Red, let's go. Mangan stood sideways in the door and the tension divided. His eyes were on us about half the time, but I could tell he was listening for a noise out on deck. When he heard it, he automatically swung the gun away from us. We started our rush, but we never finished it. Mangan straightened up. The gun dropped from his hand, and he staggered back into the cabin. Fun slowly around. He pitched forward on his face. As he went down, I saw what had happened. Like the Colonel, he had met with an accident. He had fallen down and cut his throat. Hear me, what say? Another accident. Oh, I say it's my secretary, Mr. Mangan. Oh, poor Chad. Yeah, don't go all to pieces now. Oh, I shall miss him. I really shall. He was so colorful. Ah, sin, you're an old scoundrel. What are you doing here? Yes. But first, a word of caution. I have not come alone. Oh, yeah. I sense that from the way people have been dropping dead around here. But Mangan bled such a lot. So untidy. And in your cabin, too. The debris. Take it out, out. Okay, stinky. It's your play again. The game is over. I am merely picking up my tricks. Now, what's the score? I've had my losses, but you know, I like you, Captain Connie, and you too, Mr. Gallagher, even though you did break up all the furniture in my guest bedroom. I was chipping day, very hard to replace. Oh, forget it. I just lost my temper. But you see, I have had my losses, and were I to emerge from these various dealings without profit, I should lose face because I am a very successful merchant. If you could see your way clear, even a thousand dollars. Look, we're working men. We don't have a thousand dollars to spend on your face. Well, then any little token, some trading goods for half. I need everything I have. You found us before that colonel did. We might have made a deal. Ah, indeed. What do you mean? Well, he confiscated a cargo, Jen sang. And if you had it, you would be willing to hand it over to me as payment for your safe passage. Brother, you could have it in wealth. And those would have been your sentiments too, Captain Connie. Exactly. Well, then, it's settled. Goodbye. Hey, wait a minute. What settles? Oh, I thought you would understand since your ship has been here in my repair yard. I understand less every minute. Well, I had the Jen sing put into my warehouse this afternoon, and since you've agreed that if you had it, you would gladly pay it for your clearance. I consider the matter closed. I've made my profit, my face is saved. And you may leave with my blessings as soon as I obtain the release of your crew from that wretched prison. But I will drench myself with jasmine. Never fear. In an hour, my crewmen were all aboard, smelling faintly of jasmine themselves. Without even waiting for dawn, we cast off from the dock and swung out into the southern corner of the Hun Hall. The eastern sky had blightened slightly by the time we crossed the Taku Bar, and the tops of the swells were shining in the faint light as we moved out into the yellow sea. Then the sunrise and the fresh morning westerly came at the same time, and I cut the motor. They didn't say to make sails! After their visit to the incense jail, perked up in the clean breeze and jumped to that station. The force seems to make sails! Gleamed on the haddiots with a will, and the mainsail climbed to its working position, still gleamed in the sunlight. To the 50th turn, marching it out! Then the mizons and the scarlet queen leaned onto the cars with a spirit, as though she understood that she was well again. I guess the rig will get us there, shipper. Getting us away from Tianjin, that's good enough for now. I know what you mean, but what's it taking us into? Zhang Hai. That isn't what I mean, and you know it. Expecting trouble, Red? On this trip, how can you miss? Drink, shipper. It's a little early, but after you, mate, after you! Log entry, catch scarlet queen, 5.30pm. Miles traveled, 7,885. Wind brisk, sky fair. Sea cresting with high crosswell. Mainsail and mizon reefed. Ship secure for night. Signed, Phillip Carney, master.