Dazed, Sano released Kiyoshi and stood, raising an arm to shield himself from the torches and weapons pointed at him. Kiyoshi curled up, hands over his face, weeping. “What’s the meaning of this?” Sano demanded, pulling away from the dōshin who grabbed him. “Why are you arresting me? What are the charges?”

“Smuggling foreign goods,” Ota said. “Take their weapons and tie their hands,” he told the dōshin, then turned to the harbor patrol officers. “Search the cave.”

Sano struggled against the dōshin and assistants, but they overpowered him, stripping off his swords and binding his hands behind his back. “I’m not a smuggler,” he protested in vehement outrage. “I followed the lights here from Deshima, and found the cave. I caught Kiyoshi outside. I’ve done nothing illegal!”

The other police had seized Kiyoshi, who offered no resistance. He sagged between two captors, head bent. The sound of his sobs filled the cove.

“The real smugglers must have run away when they heard me coming,” Sano said. “If we hurry, perhaps we can catch them. Now let me go!”

From inside the cave, an officer called, “We found it, Ota-san.”

The yoriki smirked at Sano. “How can you deny your guilt when we’ve caught you here, with the loot and your partner in crime?” He jerked his chin toward the weeping Kiyoshi, then grimaced in disgust. “Fighting over the profits. Shameful behavior for samurai!”

“I’ve already explained,” Sano insisted furiously, as a knot of fear tightened in his stomach. Were these men the smugglers? Had they come to pick up the loot, realized their operation had been discovered, and decided to protect themselves by incriminating him? “Untie me at once!” he ordered. “Why are you here, anyway?”

Yoriki Ota said impatiently, “We received an anonymous message saying that smugglers were using this cave. So where’s your assistant?”

Sano’s heart clenched. Hirata! If only he’d obeyed orders, or Sano had sent him back to Edo. “I don’t know,” Sano lied. Merciful gods, this was a setup, and what would happen to them?

A dōshin said, “Hirata got away from the man who was watching him this afternoon. I bet he’s out here somewhere.”

The harbor patrol officers emerged from the cave. “Bring out the loot,” Ota ordered two of them. “The rest of you go and find the sōsakan-sama’s assistant.” The officers climbed the rocks and headed into the woods, torches lighting the way. Yoriki Ota said to the dōshin, “We’ll take our prisoners to Governor Nagai.”

“You’re making a big mistake,” Sano shouted with desperate bravado as the police hauled him away. “You’ll pay for this!”

Yoriki Ota snickered. “We’ll see about that.”