Read Online The Eleventh Tiger by David A McIntee - Free Book Online

watch over him,’ Barbara said.
    The Doctor’s face softened immediately and he put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Of course, Barbara. You will let me know if he wakes up, hmm?’
    ‘Yes, of course.’
    ‘I can stay too,’ Vicki volunteered.
    ‘That’s very kind of you, child,’ the Doctor said quickly, ‘but we don’t want to crowd Chesterton, now do we?’
    Barbara gave the Doctor a look of thanks, willing him to hear the gratitude she wasn’t vocalising. He nodded slightly and ushered Vicki out.
    ‘I will check on him in an hour,’ Kei-Ying promised.
    Barbara smiled and nodded. She felt as if she herself was likely to keel over at any moment. All the light in the room seemed to have floated to the top edge of her peripheral vision, and everything she focused on was cloaked in twitchy gloom.
    She knelt beside Ian and took his hand. She appreciated Vicki wanting to help, and the fact that the girl cared about her travelling companions, but right now she just wanted to be alone with Ian.
    She was able to relax slightly, knowing that something had been done about Ian’s injuries, but she couldn’t help feeling that while he was unconscious some part of her was blacked out. It was like having a radio on which one of her favourite stations was silent. At the same time she felt, and hoped that it wasn’t just a hope, that he would somehow know that she was there.
    Soon, the tension that remained was a dark one that spread out from her stomach. For the first time she could remember, Barbara wanted to hit someone.
     
    Fei-Hung followed Kei-Ying out. His father had done a good job and had made the young man proud to be his son, as he often did. Despite this, Fei-Hung wasn’t sure they should have bothered. ‘Father, why are we keeping him here? The garrison at Xamian Island has its own doctors -’
    ‘As I told the old man and the women, it could be dangerous to move him right now.’ Kei-Ying sounded distracted and distant. ‘Fei-Hung, have you met Chesterton before?’
    ‘Not as such. I’ve seen him from a distance, when he rode by.’
    ‘Didn’t he strike you as being a little older than this man? I recall he had more grey in his hair.’
    ‘Yes... Now that you mention it. Could this man be his brother? That would explain why he has no quarters at Xamian.’
    Kei-Ying nodded. ‘That’s what I was thinking.’
    Fei-Hung hesitated. ‘But, Father, he’s still a gwailo, still a supporter of the Manchu -’ He fell silent as Kei-Ying grabbed his ear. Though he had celebrated his eighteenth birthday, and was taller than his father, he made the appropriate sounds of pain as he allowed Kei-Ying to escort him across the courtyard and out of the main gate.
    Without letting go of his son’s ear, Kei-Ying pointed at the sign above the gate. ‘What does that say?’
    ‘Po Chi Lam, Physician’s Surgery.’
    ‘Does it say “except for gwailos”?’
    ‘No, but -’
    Kei-Ying released the ear just long enough to give it a clip with his hand, then twisted it again.
     
    ‘No buts! No exceptions. This Chesterton needs a physician.
    I am a physician, therefore I will help. You will be a physician too, so the same rule applies to you.’ He released his son.
    Fei-Hung rubbed his ear. ‘I bet their physician wouldn’t help you if the situation was reversed.’
    ‘That,’ Kei-Ying said patiently, ‘is why we should help. If you dislike someone, why would you want to be like him?’ He turned to go back inside, then paused to curse. ‘I forgot to ask Cheng about that box.’
    They had been so completely sidetracked that Fei-Hung hadn’t thought to mention it either.
    ‘Just a moment,’ he said. ‘I have seen those people before!
    We passed them on the Baiyun road.’
    ‘So we did! And the old man, the Doctor, said they’d just arrived. Perhaps the box is theirs.’ Kei-Ying nodded to himself. ‘I shall ask them, at dinner.’
    ‘What about Cheng’s cart?’
    ‘Tell Jiang to take it back to the Hidden