The Story: A tale of one man’s journey from the depths of despair

in an American penitentiary at the start of the twentieth century, to

life as a bare-knuckle streetfighter on the docks of Old Siam.
Offered the chance of a high-risk escape through snake infested
swamp and jungle, whence if caught a flogging maybe to death could
be the punishment, James Johnson’s luck is in and he manages to
break free. But after further brushes with the law, he is forced to flee
the country. He hires on as a crew member on a cargo boat heading
out from San Francisco.
His ship is bound for Siam, and on his journey half way round
the world, James Johnson, a muscular white man brought up by
Native American Indians, finds friendship, a new family, and himself.
He discovers that the harshness of the life he has left behind in
America, is equally present at sea, and in trying to protect a young
cabin boy from the sadistic ship’s captain, retribution is promised.
Retribution is executed as soon as the ship docks in old
Bangkok, when a gang of European and Asian thugs in the pay of
the ship’s master, beat him almost to death.
Bleeding badly, barely conscious, and about to be savaged
by a pack of feral dogs, his life is saved by a young Siamese boy
armed only with his courage and a stick.
Although culturally frowned upon for a Siamese woman to
consort with a farang (white foreigner), the boy’s mother nurses
him back to health. In the process, a relationship develops between
the farang (white foreigner) and the young Siamese boy - who
looks upon him as a surrogate father. Soon after, he is drawn into
the brutal world of streetfighting.

4
 An odyssey of one man’s retreat from his past and the moral
decisions that face us all, and which determine our destiny in this life
and any future incarnations; the love of a young boy who comes to
regards him as his surrogate father; the culturally forbidden but gently
growing love with a Siamese girl; plus brutal fights and the inscrutable
and sometimes harsh aspects of life in old Siam, create an original
and powerful story.
Drawing on the works of Dickens (Charles) and Conrad
(Joseph) to some degree, combine with an action adventure based
in an exotic location and a picturesque time period.
Watch out for the movie.
NB. ‘Siam Streetfighter’ contains scenes of considerable
brutality, a reality in correctional facilities in times past, and on the
back streets of most big cities. Do not purchase if you are of a
sensitive disposition or emanate from a sheltered personal
background.

5
About IQ Inc.

A group of actors, writers, graphic designers and intellectual prop-

erty licencing executives, combined in an informal relationship to
write, mentor other authors and package hard hitting, edgy, reality
projects for release as books and movies. The controversial and
best selling book ‘Sleepless in Bangkok’ was the first project and
became a best seller in its territory of release. ‘For King & Country’
was the second, and obtained ‘Book of the Year’ status from one
reviewer. The two sci-fi novels ‘From Other Worlds’ and
‘Cybernaut’, were published simultaneously. ‘Siam Streetfighter’ is
the fifth book by author Ian Quartermaine.
‘Your Essential Guide to Culture Shock’ ; ‘Chinese
Horoscopes, Internet, Sexual Mores & Scams’, both in the South
East Asia series; ‘Prodigy: How to Maximise Your Child Intellectual
Development’; and ‘The Politically Incorrect Guide to Sex’, have
all obtained excellent reviews and the majority have sold well.
Many other projects are in development.
Watch out for Sleepless in Bangkok 2 - Return to the Triangle.

6
 Published by IQ Inc.
International licencing enquiries:
publicrelationsiqinc@hotmail.com
www.iqincmedia.com

(C) 2003. 2008. 2009. Ian Quartermaine

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be re-

printed or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, elec-
tronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except for
brief extracts for the purpose of review, without prior per-
mission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 974 91184-5-6

Initial print: April 2008.

E-Book: 2009.

7
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Kik Bussaragon

Jonsun Smart

Edited and Packaged by Jake Anthony

8
 ‘Siam Streetfighter’
A Novel by Ian Quartermaine
Based on an original screenplay by
Jake Anthony

(C) 2003. 2008. 2009.

NB. For the benefit of readers from the West,

Thai words are spelt phonetically.

11
1
A Bad Place
In a dark space, the sound of harsh voices could be
heard and heavy metal bolts being withdrawn from a
door. In the background, the sound of dogs barking and
horses stamping added to the unseen action. A door was
thrown open to reveal the place.
In a rough wooden shack with an earthen floor,
sixty or more ragged and dirty convicts lay on bare wire
beds. Each was connected one to the other by a long
chain passing through leg irons, which was fastened to a
metal stanchion on each side of the large space.
A dozen guards, each carrying a rifle, others with
rawhide whips, entered the shack. Some carried lanterns
which illuminated the grim, terrified faces of the
emaciated prisoners. Mean looking men who clearly
enjoyed their sadistic work, one guard on each side of
12
the large enclosure, commenced unlocking padlocks that
had restrained the prisoners during the night.
Captain Morton, the head warden, held a stock whip
in his right hand. In a drawl emanating from the Deep
South of America, he shouted a command. “Roll call.
Check to see if anyone’s missing.”
Morton glared at the prisoners, as they were
unlocked from their beds. As each man was unchained,
he quickly jumped up and stood to attention. Lacking
shoes and dressed in thin prison rags, the prisoners
shivered in the cold, early morning air.
“It’s four in the morning and time for work,”
Morton shouted as he walked along a row of prisoners
on one side of the cell. Simultaneously, Assistant Chief
Warden Smith did the same on the other. As each senior
guard reached a new man, the prisoner called out his
name.
On Assistant Chief Warden Smith’s side of the big
open space, a lantern illuminated the face of a large
muscular prisoner. Aged around 35 or so, the man looked
down, not wishing to be accused of any offence, such as
giving a wrong look. Assistant Warden Smith stopped in
front of him and stared. The big man called out his name.
“James Johnson.”
“But we know you as Big Bear,” the assistant
warden said. “A white man brought up by American
Indians. I think we’ve been feeding you too much.”
Silently considering his own remark, Smith almost
smiled. “But we need a big ox like you to shift tree stumps
so we can reclaim the jungle and turn it into farm land
for the Governor. So I guess we’ll continue to feed you
13
like a horse. After nine years with us, I guess you’ve got
used to being one. Horses get fed, so you got lucky.”
Assistant Chief Warden Smith walked forward a
pace so that his face was just a few inches from Bear’s.
“What are you in for, Bear?”
Unafraid but still respectful in his demeanour, Big
Bear slowly looked up. “Assault with a deadly weapon,”
he replied.
“And what was the deadly weapon?” the assistant
chief warden asked.
“My fists,” was the reply.
Assistant Chief Warden Smith laughed. “I ask you
the same question every morning, and your answer
always makes me chuckle. You almost beat seven men
to death with your bare hands, and for what? Because
one of them was ill treating a horse! You ill treated the
man in return and his friends joined in. So you ill treated
them too. You don’t know your own strength, Bear.”
Smith smiled again, and his words were delivered
in an ironic tone. “Now you are working like a horse.
Twenty five years for a fit of anger over a piece of horse
flesh. The man who was ill treating the horse was the
governor’s nephew. He personally oversaw the flogging
you got when you first joined us.”
Smith paused for a moment. “I remember it well.
Savage it was, and you hardly murmured. That gained
you some respect in a place like this. What a mistake.
Nine years done and sixteen more to go. That’s if you
survive. But with your strength, you probably will. That’s
if we don’t shoot you first and if Captain Morton doesn’t
flog you to death, should you upset him.”
14
 Smith patted one of Bear’s huge biceps. “What are
you, a Christian or something? Beating seven men almost
to death because one of them was ill-treating a horse.
Now you are a horse.”
On the other side of the large dark space, Captain
Morton slowly and arrogantly walked along the long row
of cold and bedraggled prisoners. Seeing Sandow, a small,
weak looking black man aged around nineteen, Morton
stopped in front of the young man and stared at him in
an intimidating manner.
“Sandow, I don’t think I like your attitude. Your
gaze suggests you do not like me. That is not very
respectful.” Sandow shook with fear, knowing what was
coming next.
Captain Morton suddenly shouted a command.
“Take him down.”
Three guards rushed into action and roughly turned
Sandow around, ripping his thin prison issue trousers
down and pinning him face down over the foot of the
bare wire frame that passed as his bed.
A fourth guard took the whip from Morton’s grasp
and handed him a long leather strap attached to a short
wooden handle. Holding the instrument of pain before
him, the head warden arrogantly addressed the prisoners.
“You’ve seen it all before and you’ll see it all again.
But let this be another lesson to anyone who thinks he
can be disrespectful to myself or any of my guards,” he
said, as he loosened his arm and shook the leather strap
around to get the feel of it.
Morton gestured to the guards who were pinning
Sandow’s bare body to the bare wire frame. “Stretch his
15
butt-end across the bed so he gets the full force of what
he is about to receive.”
Morton stared at Sandow’s bare ass, scarred from
many previous leatherings, and savoured the event for a
moment before once more addressing his congregation
of prisoners.
“The rest of you take note that I am only using a
leather strap because he has to work for the next 16
hours. After the working day is over, for anyone who
has transgressed in any way, I use a stock whip for
punishment, as you all know to your cost. Morning times,
I’m comparatively lenient.”
Morton commenced beating Sandow on his bare
buttocks with the leather strap, and the man screamed in
pain again and again, as thirty times his bare butt was
strapped. The guards holding him down counted the
strokes, smirking as they did so.
Finally, Sandow was released. Racked with pain
and crying and shaking, he managed to pull up his thin
prison issue trousers and stood up.
Morton walked further along the line, stopping in
front of Wells, a young white man. Once again, he
addressed his captive congregation.
“Just to let you all know that I do not discriminate
against spics and spades, I’m going to paddle Wells, who
you will note is white in colour. No reason other than I
have never liked him. I think he’s queer, and I
discriminate against boys who act like girls. I wonder if
he can take it like a man.”
“With leather strap still in hand, Morton turned
slightly and nodded to the nearby guards, who stood
16
ready to do his bidding. “Take him down,” he shouted
for the second time that morning.
Again the procedure was the same, and three guards
roughly turned Wells around, ripping his thin prison issue
trousers down and pinning him face down across the
foot of his wire bed.
As before, Morton commenced beating Wells on
his bare buttocks with the leather strap. Thirty times he
was beaten with the thick strap, and once again the guards
counted the strokes with quiet satisfaction. But as the
guards were about to release him, Morton shouted
another order.
“Stop, keep him there. He did not scream as much
as the other one, so I must have laid it on too soft. Another
dozen to show the rest of these lazy criminals what to
expect if they get on the wrong side of me.” Captain
Morton laid on another twelve strokes, causing Wells to
scream in pain as his buttocks turned to raw meat.
“That brought on a sweat,” Morton said. “We’ll
have some more fun and frolics later tonight, when we
find out who did not do a good day’s work. Now pile
these sewer rats onto the wagons and get them working.”
Bear commenced moving past Warden Smith, as
he and the rest of the prisoners on both sides of the large
bare prison space in the roughly built wooden shack,
shuffled towards the exterior compound.
Bear gave Assistant Chief Warden Smith a respectful
nod as he passed and Smith subtly returned it, suggesting
that he had a degree of humanity and some respect for
Bear. But anyone who had protected a horse and taken
his flogging like a man, suggests character.
17
2
Purgatory
It was the year 1909, in one of the Southern States of
the USA. The prison work camp was no more than a
collection of ramshackle wooden buildings surrounding
a large dirt yard. There was no stockade as the jungle
and swamp surrounding the area, made escape a fruitless
exercise.
Senior Warden Morton, Assistant Warden Smith and
a few dozen guards armed with rifles and stock whips,
herded the many cold and bedraggled prisoners out of
the ramshackle wooden buildings and stood them in lines
at the centre of the dirt yard.
Other armed guards with bloodhounds, watched the
scene as horses harnessed to many wooden carts,
prepared to take a hundred or so prisoners to their work
location in the swampland surrounding the prison camp.
18
 Chief George, a Native American Indian of
considerable size, joined Bear from another prison hut.
The two men nodded a grim greeting. Both were directed
towards the same cart, and Chief George and Big Bear
helped Sandow and Wells get on the wagon. Six other
prisoners sat huddled close together, making ten per cart.
They sat bunched up on hard wooden planks that passed
as seats.
With ten horse drawn carts, each with ten prisoners,
a driver and two armed guards, an eleventh wagon
containing solely guards and bloodhounds, brought up
the rear. The grim wagon train made its way out of the
prison compound along a rough path through the
surrounding jungle and swamp.

19
READ OTHER HARD HITTING, GRAPHIC,
CONTROVERSIAL ‘REALITY’ NOVELS
FROM
IAN QUARTERMAINE

‘’White Slavery’ -
For King & Country

‘From Other Worlds’

‘Cybernaut’

‘Siam Streetfighter’

COMING SOON
‘Sleepless in Bangkok 2’ -
Return to the Triangle

The following can be purchased

on-line as E-books or Paperbacks:
www.iqincmedia.com
387