"Even so, it was part of our agreement." Dunross watched her, admiring her courage. There had been no tears at the new beginning on the slope, just a numbed nod and, "I'll wait. I'll wait untila I'll wait." Orlanda had broken at once. He had sent her to a hotel and, later, a doctor to succor her. "It was part of our deal."

"All right. Thanks. But it's not necessary."

"Next: Here is the letter of agreement on our deal on General Stores. I'll get you the formal documents within ten days. I'll no"

"But Linc never put up the 2 million."

"Oh but he did. He did it by cable Saturday night. My Swiss bank confirmed the transaction yesterday and the money was duly passed over to the board of General Stores. They accepted so that deal's accomplished now."

"Even though Pug's dead?"

"Yes. His widow agreed to the board's recommendation. It's a very good deal by the way. Far better than the Superfoods tender."

"I don't want that, any part of that."

"When I was down in the pit, chatting with Linc, he said how happy he was that the General Stores deal was going through. His exact words were, 'Great! 5 mill? I always wanted her to get her drop dead money. She always wanted to be independent, and now, she is. Great!'"

"But at what a cost," she told him, her misery welling. "Line always warned me that drop dead money costs more than you're prepared to pay. It has. I don't want it."

"Money is money. You're not thinking clearly. It was his to give and he gave it to you. Freely."

"You gave it to me."

"You're wrong, he did. I just helped you as you helped me." He sipped his drink. "I'll need to know where to send his profits. You'll remember there were no voting rights included. Who's his trustee?"

"It's a bank. First Central. I'm his executor, along with a man from the bank." She hesitated. "I guess his mother's his heir. She's the only one named in his will Linc, Linc was open about that, to me. His ex-wife and their kids are well taken care of and specifically excluded from his will. There's just the voting control to me and the rest goes, the rest to his ma."

"Then she'll be very rich."

"That won't help her." Casey was trying very hard to keep her voice level and the tears away. "I talked to her last night and she broke up, poor lady. She'sa she's in her sixties, nice woman, Linc's her only son." A tear seeped in spite of her resolve. "She, she asked me to bring him back. His will says he's to be cremated."

"Look, Casey," Dunross said quickly, "perhaps I could make the err"

"No. Oh no, thanks, Ian. Everything's done. I've done it. I wanted to do it. The airplane's cleared and all the paper work done."

"When do you leave?"

"At ten tonight."

"Oh." Dunross was surprised. "I'll be there to see you off."

"No, no thanks. The car's fine but there's no ne"

"I insist."

"No. Please?" She looked at him, begging him.

After a moment he said, "What's your plan?"

"Nothing very much. I'm going toa I'm going to make sure all his wishes are taken care of, papers, his will, and wind up his affairs. Then I'll reorganize Par-Con I'll try to reorganize it as he'd want, and then, then I don't know. All that'll take me thirty days. Maybe I'll be back in thirty days to begin, maybe I'll send Forrester or someone else. I don't know. I'll let you know in thirty days. Everything's covered till then. You've got my numbers. Please call me anytime if there's a problem." She started to get up but he stopped her.

"Before you go there's something I should tell you. I didn't last night because the time wasn't right. Perhaps now is, I'm not sure but just before I left Linc he asked me if I'd consider being a best man." He saw Casey go white and rushed on. "I told him it would be an honor."

"He said me? He wanted to marry me?" she asked incredulously.

"We'd been talking about you. Doesn't that follow?"

"He never mentioned Orlanda?"

"Not at that time. No. Earlier on he'd been very concerned about her because he was in her flat and didn't know what had happened to her." Dunross watched her. "When I told him she was safe he was very relieved, naturally. When I told him you'd almost been caught in the landslide he almost had a heart attack. Then, just as I was leaving I heard him say softly, 'Guess it'd be too much to hope for those two to be friends.' I wasn't sure if I was meant to hear that while we were digging he'd been talking to himself a lot." He finished his drink. "I'm sure he meant you, Casey."

She shook her head. "It's a good try, Ian. I'll bet it was Orlando"

"I think you're wrong."

Again a silence. "Maybe. Friends?" She looked at him. "Are you going to be friends with Quillan?"

"No. Never. But that's not the same. Orlanda's a nice person. Truly."

"I'm sure." Casey stared at her drink, sipped but did not taste it. "What about Quillan? What happened today? I'm afraid I didn't hear. What did you do about him? I saw you closed at 30.01 but Ia I really didn't notice much else."

Dunross felt a sudden glow. Because of the Kotewall catastrophe the governor had ordered the stock market to remain closed all Monday. And the banks, as a sign of mourning. By ten this morning, the Bank of China's cash was on hand in every branch of every bank, throughout the Colony. The bank runs fizzled. By three o'clock many customers were lined up returning to deposit their cash once more.

lust before the market opened at ten o'clock this morning Gornt had called him.

"I accept," he had said.

"You don't want to bargain?"

"I want no quarter from you, just as you expect none from me. The papers are on their way." The phone had gone dead.

"What about Quillan?" she asked again.

"We made a deal. We opened at 28 but I let him buy back in at 18."

She gaped at him. Without thinking she made the quick calculation. "That'd cost him just about 2 million. But that's Linc's 2 million. So Quillan's off the hook!"

"I told Linc the deal and that it'd cost him the 2 million and he laughed. I did point out that with General Stores and the Par-Con deal, his capital loss of 2 is set off against a capital gain of 20 or more." Dunross watched her, gauging her. "I think it's fair that the 2 was forfeit."

"You're not telling me you let Gornt off the hook for nothing?"

"No. I've got my airline back. The control of All Asia Air."

"Ah." Casey shivered remembering the story of that Christmas night when Gornt and his father went unexpectedly to the Great House. Her sadness was brimming. "Do me a favor?"

"Of course. Providing it's not for Quillan."

She had been going to ask Dunross to let Gornt in as a steward, to let him have a box. But now she did not. She knew it would have been a waste of time.

"What favor?"

"Nothing. Nothing now. I'll be off, tan." Weary, so weary, she got up. Her knees were trembling. All of her was aching monstrously. She held out her hand. He took it and kissed it with the same grace-filled gesture she remembered from the night of the party, the first night in the Long Gallery when, frightened, she had seen the knife buried in the heart of the portrait. All at once her agony crested and she wanted to scream out her hatred of Hong Kong and the people of Hong Kong who had somehow caused the death of her Linc. But she did not.

Later, she ordered herself, holding on to the limit of her strength.

Don't break. Don't let go. Be self-contained. You have to, now. Linc's gone forever.

"See you soon, Casey."

"'Bye, Ian," she said and left.

He stared at the closed door a long time, then sighed and pressed a buzzer.

In a moment Claudia came in. "Evening, tai-pan," she said with her enormous warmth. "There're a few calls that should be dealt with most important, Master Duncan wants to borrow 1,000 HK."

"What the devil for?"

"It seems he wants to buy a diamond ring for a 'lady.' I tried to pry her name out of him but he wouldn't tell."

Oh God, the Sheila, thought as the memory rushed back of what his son had said about his "girl." Sheila Scragger, the nurse from England, on holiday with Duncan at the Australian station called Paldoon. "Well, he's not going to buy much for 1,000. Tell him he has to ask me. No, wait!" He thought a moment. "Give him 1,000 out of petty cash offer it to him at 3 percent interest per month against his written guarantee that you can stop it from his pocket money at the rate of 100 a month. If he falls for that it'll teach him a fine lesson. If he doesn't I'll give him the 1,000, but not till next Easter."

She nodded, then added sadly, "Poor Miss Casey. She's dying inside."

"Yes."

"Here are your calls, tai-pan. Master Linbar called from Sydney, please call him back when you have a moment. He thinks he's got Woolara back in line."

Dunross stared at her. "I'll be damned!"

"Mr. Alastair called with congratulations, and your father, and most members of the family. Please call Master Trussler in Jo'burg, it's about thoriums." She sniffed. "Mrs. Gresserhoff called to say good-bye."

"When's she off?" Dunross asked noncommittally, knowing the flight.

"Tomorrow, JAL's early flight. Isn't it awful about Travkin? Oh I'm so sad about him."

"Yes." Travkin had died in the night. Dunross had visited him at the Matilda Hospital several times but his trainer had never recovered consciousness since the Saturday accident. "Have we tracked down any next of kin?"

"No. He had no special girl friend or, or anyone. Master Jacques has made the burial arrangements."

"Good. Yes. That's the least we can do for him."

"Are you going to ride Saturday?"

"I don't know." Dunross hesitated. "Remind me to talk to the stewards about making the fifth the Travkin Stakes a way of thanking him."

"Yes. Oh, that would be wonderful. I did so like him, yes that would be wonderful."

Dunross glanced at his watch. "Is my next appointment downstairs yet?"

"Yes."

"Good," the tai-pan said, his face closing.

He went down to the next floor, to his office. "Afternoon, Mr. Choy, what can I do for you?" He had already sent condolences about Four Finger Wu.

When the door was shut, Paul Choy wiped his hands without noticing it. "I've come about step one, sir. Sorry we had to put it off from yesterday, but, er, the wax impressions they fitted one of your two remaining half-coins?"

"First I would ask who has the other half, now that Four Fingers is an ancestor."

"The family Wu, sir."

"Who in the family Wu?" Dunross asked harshly, deliberately rough. "The coin was given to an individual who would pass it on to an individual. Who7"

"Me. Sir." Paul Choy stared back at the tai-pan, unafraid, even though his heart was beating faster than it had ever beaten even more than when he was on the junk a lifetime ago the young Werewolf's blood on his hands, the half-dead, mutilated body leaning against him, and his father shouting at him to throw the man overboard.

"You'll have to prove Four Fingers gave it to you."

"Sorry, tai-pan, I don't have to prove anything," Paul Choy replied confidently. "I just have to present the coin and ask the favor. In secret. Everything secret, that's the deal. If it's the real coin your honor and the face of the Noble House is at stake and the fa"

"I know what I have at stake." Dunross made his voice grate. "Do you?"

"Sir?"

"This is China. Lots of curious things happen in China. You think I'm a fool to be bamboozled by an ancient legend?"

The young man shook his head, his throat tight. "No. You're absolutely no fool, tai-pan. But if I present the coin, you will grant the favor."

"What's your favor?"

"First I guess I'd like to know if you'rea if you're satisfied it's one of the four. I'm satisfied."

"Are you now?"

"Yes sir."

"You know this coin was stolen from Phillip Chen?"

Paul Choy stared at him, then recovered quickly. "This coin's from Four Finger Wu. I know of no theft. It came from my father, that's all I know. It was my father's."

"You should give it back to Phillip Chen."

"Did you ever see it, this particular one, in his possession, sir?"

Dunross had already talked to Phillip Chen about the coin. "Is there no way to prove it's yours, Phillip?" he had asked him.

"None, tai-pan. None," the old man had said, wringing his hands.

Dunross kept his eyes boring into the youth. "It's Phillip Chen's."