Summary

Chapter 19 (Singsong Girls). Jacob Freemont decides it is time someone wrote about Joaquin Murieta. Unfortunately, no one can actually track him down. So Jacob takes what rumors he has heard, combines it with how he imagines Joaquin to be and writes amazing articles with virtually no basis in reality. His reasoning is that no one else knows enough about the subject to contradict him.

Tao Chi’en has a new project he is working on and he recruits Eliza to help him. While he was still in San Francisco on his own, he was called to the deathbed of a prostitute. He learned that the madams generally use a girl up, then poison her to get rid of her. Appalled, he sets about rescuing as many of the “singsong girls” as he can. Now he treats patients at all the brothels for free, in return...