An underworld meeting between Stickleback's key 'staff' (including one Mr Tickle, who oversees Black Bob and Tonga) is interrupted by Her Majesty's Agent Alexander Ashenden who extends Stickleback an amnesty in exchange for services rendered. Stickleback makes his own deal. Stickleback's investigations point to 'Buffalo Bill Cody' and his Wild West Circus (including Annie Oakley and Egg Shen) being involved in Lovecraftian doings. Advice from Orlando Doyle (one of several explicit links placing "Stickleback" in the same "Edginton-verse" as the author's "Red Seas") leads to a showdown between the Circus folk and Stickleback's freaks.