When we returned to Syrtis Major we found the news of our Knighthoods as in The Syrtis star. Maxfield went to do some investigations concerning Reg Eaton. As Mrs Eaton was still in shock over what happened to Reg, Tarquin and Myself were left having to arrange our own breakfast. We had just finished and were walking along the street when a cab drew up beside us. The driver turned out to be Joseph Buller, an ex cavalryman colleague of Traquin. He had heard we were working with Maxfield as investigators and wanted help, saying something bad had happened to his fiancée Emma White. She went missing two weeks ago. She had been on stage with the magician Chang at the Palace Theatre where he mesmerised her. Joseph said she had not been right when the show finished and disappeared shortly afterwards. Not being busy we agreed to see what we could discover knowing she was not the only woman to have gone missing recently from what we had read in The Syrtis Star.

We visited the police station where we were told Inspector Montgomery was running the case of the missing women and was currently with Professor Litefoot in the morgue. The missing women were:
Sarah Woods
Elva Carpenter
Francis Powell
Linda winters
Rita Cameron
Laura Whitley
Crystal Heath
Shauna Stanley

They had a body which had been pulled from the canal. She had died of a single stab wound to the heart then the body had subsequently been mauled. The body also appeared to have suffered from extreme dehydration and the stab wound appeared to have been from a low angle, suggesting the killer was someone of small stature or a child. Her clothing showed evidence that she had also been in the sewer. No other bodies had been found. We supposed the body had been dumped in the sewer and washed out into the canal.

I went to the Syrtis Major museum to see if I could identify the animal which left the bite marks on the body. The curator thought the bites were from a rat but far larger than any normal rat, which he estimated to have been 10-15ft long.

Tarquin booked tickets to the show at the Palace Theatre and in the evening we went to the show. There were four acts:
Henry Jago, a singer and comedian
Little Titch, a knife thrower
Tremendous Trio, acrobats
Chang and puppet Mr Sin, a magician.

Chang pulled Tarquin up onto the stage to help with a ‘bullet trick’ where Tarquin chose a card then Chang fired a gun and Tarquins card in the middle of the deck was shown to have a bullet through it. ‘The cabinet of death’ was then rolled onto the stage. Tarquin had to step into the cabinet then Chang drove swords through the cabinet. Tarquin reported afterwards he had dropped below the cabinet while the swords were being driven in.

After the show we went backstage. Chang was talking to his puppet and treating it as a person. Tarquin asked Chang if he would give a private mesmerism show, which he said he would consider. We managed to look round the cellars of the theatre afterwards. There we saw a spider the size of my fist which looked like an oversized money spider. I found a dirty ladies glove under rubbish monogrammed EW and a loose stone hiding a lever.

While we were pondering what to do, Maxfield showed up, and with him was Jean Luc who had just returned from a sightseeing tour of the telegraph poles of Lacrimonia. When we pointed out the lever Maxfield pulled it, causing a section of the wall to start ascending. It looked like it was well maintained and had been used recently. The smell through the opening clearly identified this as an entrance into the sewers. There were tracks of someone wearing slippers leading to the left and painted on the tunnel wall I spotted a black scorpion. Maxfield thought it was associated with a criminal gang called the black scorpion tongs who used scorpion venom and worshiped a god called Weng Chiang.

To the right Jean Luc spotted a pile of large droppings. We followed the tracks heading into the sewer to the left. As we passed an intersection the was movement and a glimpse of something hairy in the darkness. Jean Luc shot it and a gigantic rat charged us out of the darkness. He shot it a second time then I killed it. Further on we found another scorpion painted next to a left turning. The tracks lead to the left and we followed.

We started smelling incense and a third scorpion was painted on the wall. Ahead were two shadowy figures. When Tarquin called to them they drew weapons. Jean Luc killed one and I killed the other. As the echo of the gunshots died away we heard voices in frenzied conversation in an oriental language. We then heard sounds of machinery moving quickly followed by two rats charging us out of the darkness. We opened fire, killing them.

We then charged up the sewer to where we found eight China men behind a metal grate. Two were raising blowpipes. Jean Luc immediately killed one and I badly wounded the other. Tarquin reached through and grabbed him, slamming him into the bars and knocking him unconscious. The rest of the China men started to draw a variety of weapons. Myself and Jean Luc quickly killed two but the others threw weapons, hitting all of us. The weapons were poisoned. Maxfield fell unconscious by the affects and Tarquin dragged him back and treated him, bringing him back to consciousness. Myself and Jean Luc managed to retain consciousness but it was all we could do to retreat.

As we retreated Jean Luc collapsed under the strain and Tarquin was forced to carry him. We got back to the theatre where we found Mr Chang and the proprietor Dorian Grey. Mr Chang offered to help with Chinese medicine then we all went to hospital after the police were called. We spent a week in hospital. Mr Grey visited and said he found nothing when he searched the sewers and asked if we might have been hallucinating. He looked unwell as if he had aged 10 years since we had seen him in the theatre. He said he got weak if he did not take the elixirs proscribed by his physician Lord Henry Woton, who was famous for finding the lost Martian city called Jan Saroon.

While we recuperated, Tarquin visited Lord Woton. He told the tale of his discovery of Jan Saroon in Elysium which was near Charon and Styx. He claimed to have found Martian artefacts but none worked. He also found a Martian automaton which was the puppet that Mr Chang called Mr Sin. Tarquin also went to a show and watched someone be mesmerised by Mr Chang. Tarquin then took the woman and her husband home saying he was worried about her safety as the previous mesmerisee had disappeared. Their names were John and Mia King.

When we were discharged from hospital I examined Mia. Physically she was fine but had symptoms as if she had taken a drug. Maxfield looked for a mesmerist and Col. Singen Smithe recommended Bentley Sutton who had studied under Sigmund Freud. He mesmerised Mia and found she was under a compulsion "to meet the Chinese man and the little man in a carriage outside her house tonight". She said she did not like the little man. Bentley removed the compulsion from her. He also examined all of us and found Jean Luc was also under a compulsion which he removed.

Maxfield dressed as a woman and waited outside Mias house in the evening. The rest of us waited in the shadows nearby. After a while a Hanson carriage pulled up outside the house and a short Chinese figure jumped off the passenger side and walled towards Maxfield. Tarquin tried to creep up to the carriage to put a post through the spokes but was spotted. The carriage tried to flee but Jean Luc shot and killed the driver giving Tarquin the opportunity to put the post in the wheel, stopping it.

The door opened and Mr Chang leaned out and fired at Tarquin. The puppet, Mr Sin jumped out and threw small knives at Tarquin and Tarquin collapsed in a pool of blood. It was clearly able to operate without control from Mr Chang. I was on the opposite side of the carriage and opened the door other door to fire through at Mr Sin. The bullet just bounced off the puppet. Mr Chang shot me so I focused my fire on him. Jean also fired at Mr Chang and he collapsed unconscious.

Mr Sin stopped attacking us and suddenly took a liking to Maxfield, saying he was his new master. Mr Sin seemed obsessed with killing people and kept asking if he could kill Tarquin. I was able to examine Mr Sin. He was clearly a Martian mechanical construct. I gave first aid to Tarquin and brought him round.

The police arrived and took Mr Chang away when we explained his involvement in the missing women. Mr Sin told us a Chinese laundry was now their base of operations after we discovered the base under the theatre. We went to the laundry and the Chinese woman behind the counter recognised Mr Sin as we walked in and looked sacred. We were told Mr Grey was in the basement of the laundry. Mr Sin said Mr Grey was a god and used a glass cabinet to become young while women who were put into the attached cage became old.

We went down and set Mr Sin on two guards. Mr Sin killed them quickly. He then picked the lock of the door to the basement where he said we could find Mr Grey. In the basement we saw two more tong guards, a very old looking Mr Grey and Lord Woton. There was also a cage which held Emma, and a glass cabinet. Lord Woton was sitting at a set of controls on the cabinet. We opened fire, killing Lord Woton. I shot Mr Grey but the bullet passed through him without effect. Mr Grey shot Maxfield and he collapsed to the floor. Mr Sin killed the tong.

I started firing at the cabinet controls. Mr Grey was infuriated and drew a sword after Jean Luc shot the gun from his hand. I hit the controls again and the cabinet exploded. Grey collapsed into dust as the remains of the cabinet caught fire. Mr Sin froze and I threw him through a grill into the waters of the sewer hoping it would short circuit its innards. We then left the laundry quickly as the fire spread.