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presence. Panicked as he was, he swiftly drew a pistol.
     
    “They can fight all that they like, Bowyer. I can kill you, and get away. And ensure that their ship is blown out of the water before it reaches the coast. I win!”
     
    I took a breath, and grinned. “Yes. You’ve always had to win, haven’t you? Any alienist would love to get their hands on you. What was it? Spoilt rotten as a child? Or maybe your parents didn’t love you? More likely nobody loved you. That’s what made you a captain of industry — no one cares for you. No one ever has. Why should they? Everyone despises you. You’re a little, pathetic excuse for a man — Tone!”
     
    He reacted to my goading as I’d hoped; with a furious roar, and raising his gun-arm instinctively to club me. The fool!
     
    I rushed him, grabbing his upraised arm, squeezing his wrist till his fingers parted and the gun dropped. Pulling back, I drew my own gun and levelled it — just as the frame of the tower swayed under the shift of our combined weight. I staggered and fell, my gun slipping from my grasp. Luck was on his side. He seized it, and stood over me, taking slow aim. I smelt the reek of mixed whiskey and tobacco on his breath as he leaned closer.
     
    “I always win!”
     
    Caught up in his gloating, he didn’t notice what I noticed. The tower lurched further as a titanic dark form loomed behind him. Before he could react, he was seized up and hoisted overhead like a bale of hay.
     
    Robert moved swiftly to the tower’s edge. With one mighty sweep, he hurled Anthony off. Willans managed one short, terrified scream before he impacted headfirst on the flags below.
     
    We carefully descended. The battle was all but done. I recovered my pistol — not a shot fired — and examined Anthony. Neck broken, and quite dead.
     
    My saviour nodded slowly at me. “Was a bad man. Gone now.”
     
    I embraced as much of his immense frame as I could. “Thank you, Robert.”
     
    He smiled down at me. “‘S’okay, Just Dan.”
     
    The total of the dead was just one. Many on both sides had been wounded, some were unconscious, still more had fled. But Mr. Anthony Willans was the only corpse.
     
    As the Vapours tended to their wounded and carried those unable to move on board ship, Jessica moved to my side. Her cap had been lost in the fight, and her red hair now straggled wildly down to her shoulders. She examined her late husband with an appraising eye.
     
    “For reasons known only to himself, my husband — clearly intoxicated — decided to visit his own empty dockyard late at night. In his inebriated condition, he climbed to the top of the watch tower, and, heedless of the danger, tripped and fell to his death. A tragic accident. Despite our differences, I’m prepared to wager that I’m the main beneficiary of his Last Will And Testament. It may be some time before that can be dealt with, but I suspect that I may just have become a very wealthy widow.”
     
    “Especially when you take into account the contents of his safe and sundry valuables,” I reminded her.
     
    She nodded, contented. “The kind of wealth that could finance many good works.”
     
    The final few Vapours had boarded. The dancers, hand in hand. Robert, with a shining grin and a careful, cumbersome salute. The ship was ready to sail. Only Joshua remained on the quay with us.
     
    I looked him fondly in the eye. “So, you have your freedom. It’s not going to be easy, though, is it?”
     
    “At times, Dan, it’ll doubtless be a great adventure. At other times, I’m probably going to wish that I was dead, and I’m sure that a lot of the others will be just the same. But there was never a grand venture worth doing that didn’t involve some hardship. Only the idiot and the despot expect the World to shape itself for them. The rest of us understand that we’ll end up doing the shaping. But that’s part of the deal with freedom. And I’m happy to accept it.”
     
    Jessica