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for myself. I wouldn’t have to depend on Montjoy if the will didn’t force me to.” This last sounded unreliable even to me.
    Vickers regarded me steadily for a short while. “So you are looking for a solicitor? Why not speak to the man who handled the will for your father.”
    “Because I don’t trust him, is why,” I said, and let Vickers draw the fest out of me over the greater part of an hour, by which time, three more men had come into the taproom and sat down at tables flanking Mister Vickers.
    “A lamentable situation, Mister...”
    “Jeffries,” I introduced myself. “August Jeffries. No relation to the famous judge, not that I know of, any road.”
    “The Hanging Judge.” Vickers showed his teeth. “Not a connection to boast of in polite company.”
    The other three men exchanged looks that were impossible for me to read in the low light.
    “So you want to find a solicitor who can... persuade the courts to make some of the funds left to your wife and family in trust available to you for the purpose of bringing said wife and family to England?” Vickers ran his tongue over his thin lips. “An enterprising notion.”
    I listened, feeling ashamed of August Jeffries and his plans to take advantage of his nonexistent relatives. “I wouldn’t do it if the stars hadn’t turned on me as they did.”
    Vickers fell silent, and now directed his gaze on my eye. “How did the stars turn on you?”
    I managed to make my apprehension look like awkwardness. “It is Jupiter and Saturn together. If I had not a Grand Cross, it would not be so hard, but—”
    “Stop!” declared Vickers. He looked at the other three men. “He is right; the aspects are generally negative now.”
    The oldest of the three, a white-haired mole of a fellow in an expensive tweed suit and the air of a man of some consequence, nodded sagely, and spoke with a broad, Devonshire accent. “That is true. With Jupiter and Saturn both badly aspected, it could account for some of his misfortune.” He put a heavy emphasis on the some.
    “But the Moon,” I interjected. “Tomorrow it moves into Aries, and—”
    “It is more favorable to your endeavors,” Vickers finished for me.
    “Perhaps the Moon is working a little ahead of itself, Mister Jeffries. For I think we can be of some help to you.”
    I stared at him, doing my best to look grateful. “If you could put me in the way of finding a solicitor, I would thank you most heartily, sir, and no doubt about it.”
    Vickers nodded, and looked steadily at me. “And in return,” he said with gelid assurance, “you will help us.”
    “At your service,” I said, deliberately sounding a bit wild, so that it would appear I did not entirely trust to my good fortune, or had taken a spot more gin than was good for me, which was truly the case with the Blue Ruin they poured here. I made sure I reeled a bit as I got to my feet and saluted in very bad form indeed. “Yours to command.”
    “Without a doubt,” said Vickers, smiling with all his teeth. He made a signal to the other men and got to his feet. “If you will give my companions all the details of your plight, I will engage to help you out of this coil, if your responses are satisfactory.”
    “Satisfactory in what sense?” I asked, my ill-usage only partly feigned.
    Vickers shrugged elaborately. “In... oh, in regard to that tattoo on your wrist, for example.”
    I felt most apprehensive. “This—I can tell you nothing about it.” Vickers gestured to one of the men, who took a poker and stuck it deep into the fire. No one else in the taproom paid the least attention to any of this. “We shall see,” he mused. “When it is glowing, bring it here and lay it across—”
    “What?” I demanded, ready to jump up.
    “It will not be necessary if you will tell me what the significance of it is,” Vickers told me as if he were describing a day in the country. “It will spare you suffering, and what is the trouble with