When we left our story, Jancy and Chester were on the run and suddenly finding themselves in the Chinatown section of Philadelphia.
* * * * *
A short, limping Cantonese gentleman, Ching Chow, watched them as Jancy and Chester raced past a massive brewery that bore his name, but no longer belonged to him. One of Tommy O'Halloran's victims, Ching had been forced to sell his brewery to O'Halloran. The former master brewer was now the master only of a small beer wagon. He watched Jancy and Chester as they raced under a series of Chinese awnings, finally coming out on a knot of streets where costumed horses were drawing an Oriental hearse.
Slipping under the advance guard's gaudy banners, the couple shuffled back down the line to the professional mourners, all a foot shorter than they were, a sight that caused them to dash off to find refuge in a Vine Street Church, one cold enough to hang meat and dark enough to stumble over old ladies frozen in prayer.
Muttering multiple apologies, Chester was sent orbiting around a world globe on which stood the Virgin Mary, while Jancy was sent stumbling across the front of a font where a baptism was taking place. All eyes were on the baby being baptized. As Jancy started to help Chester to his feet, she started to coo. Chester couldn't believe it.
"You're thinking of babies! Look what the guy you want to marry has got us into!"
Jancy dipped her finger in the holy water. "I want a lot of babies."
Chester blessed himself. "Great! Then the two of you can open up your own insane asylum."
Jancy pointed past the mural of John the Baptist, there was a blaze of light where the Professor waved a lit candle.
He motioned them toward the sacristy and as they went through the doors, the gold leaf reflected the image of Tommy O'Halloran's henchman racing after them.
Once the tobacco-spitter entered, he was greeted by an incense burner being twirled bolo-style by the Professor.
While the twirling sensor sent the chew flying out of the henchman’s mouth, it didn’t stop his pursuit.
Now as Jancy and Chester ran out the sacristy doors and onto the street, the henchman drew his gun and the Professor shot him dead.
The next piece of magic came when the henchman disappeared, when the Professor had the man’s body doubled up with the one already lying dead in the Chinese casket.
Without understanding how or why, Tommy O'Halloran would be shy one ‘assistant’ while he waited for his Easter rendezvous with Jancy Hall.
- - - - -
Between Saint Patrick's Day and Easter, the war with the South dragged on. The days went by slowly.
Chester was plagued with nightly dreams about his days at the orphanage with Jancy. When he told the Professor of a dream in which Jancy was trapped in ice and he was chipping away, the Professor understood. "An orphanage is a place where boys and girls are reared more as one, rather than as separate, species. Being brought up together has made you attuned to each other's feelings."
Chester was confused. "And what about Tonio's feelings? He's the one whose tuning fork has gone off."
The Professor applied some philosophy. "My dear boy, for women lust is not uncommon. Tonio is a glamorous male, but one whom Jancy may not ultimately be able to attain. If that be the case, and I suggest that it may be, let us hope that her disappointment will be overridden by the strongest and most universal desire in a woman-the desire for self-preservation."
- - - - -
During the long days between the holidays, the Professor played his role in collecting and categorizing documents collected from O'Halloran.
Chester’s job was to keep watch on the construction of O'Halloran's mansion, and by the end of March, the workers had finished laying the thick masonry with thick coils being spread out over the coal ovens to carry hot water to the second floor.
The arrival of the porcelain bath prompted another memory of the orphanage, this time for Jancy-the weekly horror of the children's communal plunge into a cold tin bath.
The investigation of O'Halloran went forward. The Professor would sit gazing at the papers, taking in one bit at a time, joining it to other bits to reveal a mosaic of facts, a pattern of bribes and corruption.
When it became apparent that much of the material needed copying, the Professor sent an order that brought Bud Adams from Washington, theoretically to deliver a crate of photographs to the Philadelphia War Office.
When Bud arrived, the Professor told him the truth, "You will be joining our team, helping us by photographing incriminating evidence ‘borrowed’ from O'Halloran's office."
Bud Adams slicked back one side of his hair and headed for the door.
"In a pig's eye I will!"
The Professor held up one of Bud's recently delivered photographic plates, an eight-by-ten glass negative.
"Ah, well, let us see. Open graves. Dead horses. Several dead soldiers. Except for one fact. Some of those corpses are really alive and posing for you in order to bring more money from the sale of these photographs."
Bud Adams stood a moment in silent defiance then caved. After that confrontation, he went gradually from being a reluctant part of the team to being a real part of the team, as day after day he photographed the papers Lady Green snuck in, showing kickbacks from plumbers and painters for being permitted the right to work.
Chester's daily job turned to the inspiring task of scratching numbers onto the upper edges of the emulsions to match the negatives. One night he finally told Jancy he was tired of it. "You know a monkey could do this job."
Jancy didn't blink an eye. "Don't be silly, Chester. Where are we going to find a monkey at this time of night?"
So the work continued day after day. Tonio paced and Jancy paced after him, with Chester finally telling her "Someday you’ll both end up in a padded tepee stuffing candles into Chianti bottles."
- - - - -
The second planned holiday encounter with Tommy O'Halloran came on Easter Sunday with the Regatta Race on Philadelphia's Schuylkill River.
That morning the Professor led Chester, Jancy, and Tonio to the banks of the river on which the race would be held. The plan was to take a boat up river to the site from which O'Halloran would oversee the start of the race.
As the quartet moved along the banks of the river, Jancy raced ahead to cling onto Tonio, while Chester tried to catch up with a mouthful of breakfast. He ended up falling back to join the Professor.
Jancy was as bright as a daffodil with her laughter streaming back to germinate new memories in Chester's mind. "What a sucker I've been! I've been too good to her. I've spent my life doing everything for her, as if I didn't have any needs myself."
The glum look on Chester's face did not go unnoticed by the Professor. "Dear boy, your role in Jancy's life is not that of a lover but that of a friend who gives conciliation, offering advice and good will toward the one she does love."
"What can I advise her about living with Tonio? I'm not an expert on the greening of Indian corn or the firmness of Italian pasta."
"You must understand that a woman needs time to adjust to her lover."
"How's she going to adjust, by spiking his meatballs with little arrows instead of parsley?"
"Jancy is merely a girl facing one of two outcomes. Either she will increase his love and become happier, or she will lose his love and become sadder."
- - - - -
The horn of the Waterman signaled the boat's readiness to depart. As three of them boarded, Tonio stayed behind, with Jancy blowing him a kiss and the Professor giving Chester more explanation. "Any appearance by Tonio would be incautious. He may be worried for our safety, but his primary concern must be to stay out of sight and not jeopardize our plans to destroy Mr. O'Halloran's future."
The Waterman went upstream, and the trip made it apparent that Philadelphia was sprawling outward in every direction.
The Professor pointed to the massive estates along the banks. "The rich have their second homes here. And since a good many of them were built by O'Halloran, he has reason to celebrate his good fortune with a yearly regatta."
A medical ship passed, and the sight of wounded soldiers, some waving with their remaining arms caused the Professor another reflection. "Those men had the courage to go down the path of honor, fighting from the outside, ready to face danger immediately. We must fight the same war from the inside, with words and ideas."
Jancy was quick to add. "And Tonio's magic."
The Professor agreed but said that while magic is timeless, it takes time. "We need time to prove that O'Halloran has set up a fraudulent investment operation that pays money to investors from money paid by subsequent investors."
The boat came ashore next to one of the many long, wide boathouses. The plan was for Jancy to disembark alone while the Professor and Chester departed farther downstream.
Jancy turned to smile assurance to the worried Professor. "I will remember that the buffalo mating season begins in July and that I must time my performance with the clouds above."
The Professor handed her a white card cut in the shape of a buffalo. As she took the unmarked card, her mentor gave her another reminder. "It does not matter what image comes about on the card, so long as you set the final date as the Fourth of July, the date of O'Halloran's birth, and the date we will reduce him to rubble."
As Jancy was helped up to the wooden plank, she steadied herself on the pilings, swallowed hard, and turned back to give Chester an unconvincing assessment of the challenge she was facing. "This should be great fun!"
Chester wasn't buying it. "I remember when your idea of fun was digging in the mud."
The sunny sky had enough clouds in it to cause Jancy to draw her shawl. As she walked along the water's breezy edge, it didn't take long before O'Halloran approached her-without even a hello.
"Aye, and is the buffalo here to communicate with me?"