Jago is in a bit of financial trouble (long story involving a human pyramid and a notorious murderer), so while he and Litefoot enjoy their usual drink at the Red Tavern (Jago disguising himself with a really bad German accent), they attempt to keep very quiet. They fail spectacularly at this and drunkenly attract the attention of someone interested in Litefoot's latest case: the mystery of two dead men found in London recently. One, an Ottoman general brandishing a scimitar, was found dead on the underground. Another, supposedly an acquaintance of his, was found in his bed with his head cut off, the wounds suggesting a very sharp blade. Litefoot came across the case through a Violent Glaswegian colleague — a Dr. Ormond Sacker — and plans to invetigate further.
Their search leads them to the grave of the Ottoman soldier, where a group of Bulgars plan to make very sure that the man won't rise from his grave again. As it turns out, the soldier was thought to be tainted by the eastern forests and has supposedly been transformed into a sort of vampire.
Jago investigates on his own (again with his atrocious German accent), and befriends the housekeeper of the beheaded man — a very foreign woman who directs the two towards a secret society of gentlemen. Jago and Litefoot get in without much trouble, and find amongst the club's members several supposedly dead people — as well as Dr. Ormond Sacker. Unfortunately, while Litefoot is offered a suspiciously almond-flavoured drink by Sacker, Jago is bound and interrogated by the club's secretary, several of its members, and none other than Dr. Heinrich Tulp. He discovers that the club is for gentlemen who plan to disappear from society. In exchange for a hefty sum in their wills, the men take toad's poison that causes a temporary paralysis and fake their deaths. The men are then free to live their life outside of society, and continue to pay membership in order to support each other's new lifestyles.
While Jago is almost drowned in the Fleet, Litefoot discovers that Sacker saved his life and didn't poison him after all. It turns out that the entire club is simply a racket — there is no toad's poison, just regular deadly poison, and the club's secretary makes out like a bandit from his victim's wills (using some actors to keep up appearances). The Ottoman's son, who found out about this, affected the identity of his late father to exact his revenge... and is promptly murdered by the Bulgars (led by the "housekeeper"), who mistake him for the walking corpse of his father.
The funeral is a peaceful affair, all in all, aside from the Ottoman figure still seen in the shadows...
Tropes:
- Bad "Bad Acting": Jago's attempts at sounding German.
- Brick Joke: The man who's after Jago's life. He shows up in the middle of the action and is promptly killed in the confusion.
- Foreshadowing: The Secretary says he learned the Cement Shoes technique from the mysterious Dr Tulp, who got it from a "Chicago businessman" named Al Capone. Which tells us something new about Dr Tulp - after all, it's still the mid-1890s, and Al Capone won't be born until 1899.
- Real After All: The Stinger heavily implies Coleville Sr really was a vampire or revenant of some kind.
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You Look Familiar: Stephen Thorne (the club secretary) previously played Azal in "The Dæmons", Omega in "The Three Doctors", an Ogron in "Frontier in Space", Eldrad in "The Hand of Fear" and Max in "The Ghosts of N-Space".
