He took from the drawer Lo’s dossier on the case of the poetess. Standing at the table, he leafed through it till he found the text of the anonymous letter which had warned the magistrate that a dead body was buried under the cherry tree of the White Heron Monastery. Then he pulled the anonymous letter accusing General Mo Te-ling from his sleeve, and laid it beside the other. Slowly stroking his black beard, he compared the two. Both being chancery copies in the impersonal hand of clerks, the style had to show whether or not they could have been written by one and the same person. Doubtfully shaking his head, the judge put the two sheets in his sleeve, and went to the main courtyard.
The small magistrate was sitting at the tea-table, which was strewn with papers, a writing-brush in his hand, his lips pursed. He looked up and said eagerly:
‘I am sifting out and correcting my recent work, Dee. Do you think the Academician would approve of the recurrent rhyme of this ballad?’ He was going to recite the poem he had been correcting, but Judge Dee said quickly:
‘Another time, Lo! I have a strange discovery to report.’ He sat down opposite his colleague. ‘I shall be brief, for you’ll have to go presently to your library. It’s getting on for four o’clock.’
‘Oh, no, there’s plenty of time, elder brother! The luncheon out in my fourth courtyard turned out to be a protracted affair, you know! The Court Poet and Yoo-lan wrote a few poems, and we discussed those, with lots of wine! All my four guests went straight to their rooms for a siesta, and none of them has shown up yet.’
‘Good! So none of them went out, and so you needn’t bother to mobilize your housemaster’s agents to follow them. Now then, the mother of the murdered student was a concubine of General Mo Te-ling. Later she committed adultery with an unknown person, and their illegitimate daughter was abandoned. She’s none other than Saffron, the guardian of the Black Fox Shrine.’ Seeing Lo’s astonished face, he raised his hand and went on, ‘The abandoned child had been wrapped up in a piece of saffron wool, and people often call foundlings after the dress they had on when found. This means that Saffron is Soong’s half-sister, and that’s why the student told Saffron he could never marry her. It also means that Saffron’s father and the student’s murderer are one and the same man. One day before the old general was arrested, he told his concubine that he had discovered she had committed adultery with one of his friends, adding that he would kill them both with his own hands. The concubine promptly hanged herself. And the general was arrested the next day, before he could settle with her lover.’
‘Good gracious! Where did you find all that, Dee?’
‘In your archives, mainly. The student Soong was evidently convinced that his mother’s lover had falsely accused the general of high treason in an anonymous letter, to prevent the general from accusing him as an adulterer. Soong was wrong as to the first point. I read through the official record, and I am convinced the general was guilty. And his concubine’s lover must have been in the plot. As to the second point, Soong was perfectly right. The man did write the anonymous letter, because he knew it would take the Censor some time to get round to the general, and he wanted to make sure that the general was arrested on the very first day of the investigation, so as to prevent him from taking action against him.’
Magistrate Lo raised his hand.
‘Not so fast, Dee! If the general was guilty of high treason, why then should his denouncer have murdered the student? The chap had done a meritorious deed by informing against the general!’
‘He must occupy a prominent position, Lo, and therefore he can’t afford to have an adultery charge brought against him. Also, he evidently was deeply involved in the general’s plot, else he wouldn’t have known where the incriminating letters from the Ninth Prince were hidden. That’s why he didn’t come forward, although the government had promised him a reward.’
‘Holy heaven! Who is the fellow, Dee?’
‘I am afraid it must be one of your three guests, Shao, Chang or Loo. No, don’t protest! I have irrefutable proof that it must be one of the three. Saffron shall tell us who. Even though her father kept his face covered when he visited her, I trust she’ll be able to recognize him by his voice and general appearance.’
‘You can’t be serious about Sexton Loo, Dee! What woman would ever take that ugly man as a lover?’
‘I am not so sure about that, Lo. The student’s mother was a perverse woman. Her family ascribes that to her being possessed by the spirit of a lewd black vixen, by the way. However that may be, a perverse and frustrated woman- she was barely seventeen when she entered the general’s house, and he getting on for sixty-might well have felt attracted to the sexton because of his very ugliness. Besides, he has a masterful and extraordinary strong personality, and many women are susceptible to such men. During the poetical gathering you might try to find out whether Chang and the sexton were here in Chin-hwa at the time of General Mo’s trial, Lo. We know that the Academician was here, serving as Prefect of this area. Could you have your housemaster called?’
Lo clapped his hands, and gave an order to the boy servant. Judge Dee resumed:
‘I would like you to find out also, Lo, whether any of our three suspects was in the Lake District this spring, at the time Yoo-lan was arrested in the White Heron Monastery.’
‘Why do you want to know, Dee?’ his colleague asked, astonished.
‘Because in Yoo-lan’s case too the authorities took action on the basis of an anonymous letter, written by a scholarly gentleman. And a criminal always likes to keep to one and the same method. In the case of General Mo’s high treason the accusation was true; but by denouncing him the anonymous letter-writer achieved at the same time an ulterior purpose, namely preventing the general from taking action against him. Now, eighteen years later, the scholarly gentleman may well have again resorted to an anonymous letter to report another crime, namely the murder of the maidservant, and again to achieve some ulterior purpose. Therefore …’ The judge broke off, for the housemaster came in.
Judge Dee took Lo’s brush and jotted down on a scrap of paper the name and address of the hardware dealer Hwang, and the name Soong Liang. Handing it to the housemaster, he said, ‘Mrs Hwang will come to the back door of the residence tomorrow morning, with the visiting-card of Mr Soong Liang. His Excellency wants you to see to it that she gets the sewing here. Detain her in conversation for a while, for we may want to see her. Now ask Mr Kao to come here.’
When the housemaster had left with a deep bow, Lo asked peevishly:
‘Mr Soong Liang, you said? Who the hell is he?’
‘It’s me, as a matter of fact.’ He gave his colleague a brief account of his visit to the hardware dealer, and concluded, ‘They’re a decent couple, and they have no children. I was toying with the idea of proposing to you that you entrust Saffron to them, after the poor girl has completely recovered. I must go to fetch her now, together with your counsellor.’ Taking the two anonymous letters from his sleeve, he continued, handing them to Lo, ‘These are chancery copies of the two anonymous letters. You are an expert on delicate nuances in literary style. Please have a good look at them, and see whether there’s any indication of their having been composed by one and the same scholar. Put them in your sleeve, man! I see your counsellor coming!’
When the counsellor had made his bow, the small magistrate told him:
‘I want you to accompany my colleague to the Black Fox Shrine, near the South Gate, Kao. I have decided to have that piece of wasteland cleaned up, and the first step is to get the half-witted woman away who acts as guardian of the shrine.’
‘We shall go there together in an official palankeen, Mr Kao,’ Judge Dee added. ‘The house physician and the matron will follow us in a second, closed palankeen, for I have heard that the woman there is gravely ill.’
The counsellor bowed.
‘I shall see to it at once, sir.’ And to the magistrate: ‘The Academician’s boy servant is outside, Your Honour, with the message that His Ex
cellency is now ready to receive his guests.’
‘Holy heaven, my poems!’ Lo exclaimed.
Judge Dee helped him to collect and sort out the papers strewn over the table. He accompanied his colleague to the second courtyard, then walked on alone to the tribunal.
Counsellor Kao was waiting for him at the gatehouse, where a large official palankeen stood ready.
‘The physician and the matron are in that closed litter, sir,’ he informed the judge. While they were being carried outside through the monumental arched gate, Kao resumed, ‘The wasteland could be made into a public park, sir. It won’t do to have right within our city walls an area where all kinds of ruffians can gather. Don’t you agree, sir?’
‘I do.’
‘I hope you found in the archives what you were looking for this morning, sir.’
‘I did.’
Perceiving that the judge was not in the mood for a leisurely conversation, Counsellor Kao kept silent. When they were passing through Temple Street, however, he began again:
‘Yesterday morning I visited Sexton Loo in the temple at the end of this street, sir. I had quite some difficulty in persuading him to accept His Excellency’s invitation. The sexton accepted only after I had told him you were a guest in the residence too.’
Judge Dee sat up.
‘Did he say why?’
‘He mentioned your great reputation as a criminal investigator, sir. And something about an interesting experiment, about foxes, if I remember correctly.’
‘I see. Do you have any idea what he could’ve been referring to?’
‘No, sir. The sexton is a very strange person. He seemed particularly keen on stressing he had arrived here the night before, but … Heavens, why are we halting here?’ He looked outside.
The foreman of the bearers came up to the window, and reported to the counsellor:
‘There’s a crowd blocking the road, sir. Just one moment, please, I told them to make way.’
Judge Dee heard the confused noise of excited voices. Their palankeen went on for a while, then halted again. A sergeant of the guard appeared at the window. Saluting sharply, he told Kao:
‘I am sorry, sir, but you had better not go on. The witch from the deserted temple has got the dog’s madness. She …’
The judge quickly pulled the door-screen aside and stepped down from the palankeen. Six guards with levelled spears had formed a cordon across the street, keeping a small group of curious people away. Further down Saffron was lying sprawled on her back by the roadside, her still figure pitifully slight in the tattered, soiled robe. Two soldiers had pinned her neck down to the ground, with a forked thiefcatcher’s stick ten feet long. A little further, in the middle of the empty road, other soldiers were lighting a bonfire.
‘Better not come near, sir,’ the sergeant warned Judge Dee. ‘“We’re going to burn the dead body, to be quite sure. Don’t know too much about how the sickness is transmitted.’
Counsellor Kao had come up to them. ‘What happened, Sergeant?’ he asked sharply. ‘Is that woman dead?’
‘Yes, sir. Half an hour ago, my men sitting in that street-stall heard wild screams from the brushwood over there, and a weird barking sound. Thinking that a mad dog was attacking someone, they rushed to the guardhouse, and we came back here with forked sticks. Just as I was about to enter that old gate there, the witch came running outside, screaming at the top of her voice. Her face was distorted something terrible, and there was foam coming from her mouth. She made for us, but one of my men caught her throat in the fork of his stick, and threw her on to the ground. She grabbed at the stick, thrashing about so violently that it needed a second man to keep her pinned down. At last her hands dropped away, and she was dead.’ The sergeant pushed his iron helmet back and wiped his moist brow. ‘What a wonderful man our magistrate is, sir! He must have been expecting something like this to happen! I got orders to post a few of my men in that stall there and keep an eye on the old gate. That’s why we could be on the spot before she had attacked some of the passers-by.’
‘Our magistrate is a deep one!’ a soldier said with a grin.
Judge Dee beckoned the physician who had stepped down from the other litter.
‘The dead woman had rabies,’ he told him curtly. ‘You agree the body should be burned? ‘
‘Certainly, sir. Also the forked stick she was caught with. And the brushwood she came from had better be burned down too. It’s a terrible disease, sir.’
‘Stay here and see that everything is done properly,’ the judge ordered Counsellor Kao. ‘I am going back to the tribunal.’
Chapter 16
A BEVY OF YOUNG MAIDS was bustling about the three official palankeens that stood in the main courtyard of the residence. Some were putting brocade covers on the cushions, others were loading tea-baskets and boxes of sweetmeats. Their gay twitter jarred on Judge Dee’s nerves. He went over to the housemaster. The greybeard was talking with the headman of the two-dozen palankeen bearers, who were squatting along the side-wall, neatly dressed in brown jackets with broad red sashes. The housemaster informed Judge Dee that the poetical meeting in the library was over. The guests had gone to their rooms to change, and Magistrate Lo had followed their example.
The judge went to his own quarters. He drew the armchair up in front of the open sliding-doors, and sat down wearily. Cupping his elbow in his left hand, he rested his chin on his tightly closed fist and stared sombrely at his rock garden, very quiet in the bleak sunshine of the late afternoon.
A long, drawn-out cry overhead made him raise his eyes. A flock of wild geese came flying over, their wings flapping leisurely in the blue sky. A sure sign of autumn.
At last he got up and went inside. Listlessly he changed into the same dark-violet robe he had worn the afternoon of the previous day. As he was placing the high cap of stiff black gauze on his head, he heard the clanging of iron boots in the front-yard. The military escort had arrived, which meant that the party would be leaving soon.
Crossing the main courtyard, he was joined by Loo. The sexton wore a faded blue gown, fastened round his ample waist by a straw rope, and large straw sandals on his bare feet. He was carrying a crooked stick, from which dangled a bundle of clothes. When the two men ascended the marble terrace in front of the main hall, where Magistrate Lo, the Academician and the Court Poet stood, resplendent in brocade robes, the sexton told them gruffly:
‘Don’t worry about my costume, gentlemen! I’ll change in the temple on the cliff. This bundle contains my best robe.’
‘You look impressive in any dress, Sexton!’ the Academician told him genially. ‘I’ll ride with you, Chang. We must thrash out our differences over the poetical essay.’
‘Go ahead!’ the sexton said. ‘I am going to walk.’
‘Impossible, sir!’ Magistrate Lo protested. ‘The mountain road is steep, and …’
‘I know the road well, and I’ve climbed steeper ones,’ the sexton snapped. ‘I like the mountain scenery, and the exercise. Just came here to tell you you needn’t bother about transport for me.’ He strode off, his crooked stick over his shoulder.
‘Well, in that case I hope you’ll ride with me, Dee,’ Lo said. ‘Miss Yoo-lan’ll take the third palankeen, with my First Lady’s chambermaid to look after her.’ Turning to the Academician, he asked, ‘May I lead you to the first palankeen, sir?’
The magistrate descended the marble steps with the Academician and the Court Poet, and the thirty soldiers presented their halberds. Just as Lo and Judge Dee were about to ascend the second palankeen, they saw the poetess appear on the terrace, an exquisite figure in a thin robe of white silk flaring out at her feet, and a long-sleeved blue brocade jacket with a silver flower motif. The mass of her hair was done up in an elaborate high coiffure, held in place with long silver hair-needles, their ends decorated with gold filigree pendants in which blue sapphires glittered. She was followed by an elderly maid in a plain blue gown.
Making himself comfo
rtable in the cushions, Lo asked crossly:
‘Did you see that dress and the hair-needles, Dee? She borrowed them from my First Lady! Well, our poetical meeting didn’t last very long. The Academician and Chang seemed a bit reluctant to give their candid opinion of my poetry. And the sexton didn’t even try to hide his boredom! Unpleasant chap! Must say that Yoo-lan made a couple of very pertinent remarks. Fine feeling for language, the old girl has.’ He turned up the points of his small moustache. ‘Well, as to their whereabouts at the time of General Mo’s trial, Dee, there I had no trouble at all. As soon as I had mentioned the case, the Academician promptly delivered a lecture on it. The Censor had summoned him for advice on the local situation, you see. As to Chang Lan-po, he was staying here too, for negotiations with discontented tenant farmers. The fellow’s family owns about half the arable land in this district, you know. Chang attended the sessions of the tribunal, in order to observe conflicting human passions. That’s what he said, at least. And Sexton Loo was staying in an old temple here, delivering a series of lectures on a Buddhist text. Didn’t get around to asking them whether they were in the Lake District two months ago, when the poetess was arrested. Where did you put that girl from the Black Fox Shrine, Dee?’
‘She’s dead, Lo. From rabies. Must have got it from a fox. Was always fondling them, you know, even let them lick her face. And so …’
‘Holy heaven, that’s bad, Dee!’
‘Very bad. For now we’ve no one to …’ He broke off, for there was a loud clanging of gongs.
The palankeens had been carried from the residence to the tribunal, and had now arrived at the main gate of the compound. Twelve constables drew themselves up at the head of the cortège, four of them beating brass gongs. The others carried long stakes, with red-lacquered boards, some inscribed in golden letters with ‘The Tribunal of Chin-hwa’, others with ‘Make way!’ The rest had lanterns with the same inscriptions, which would be lit when the party returned to the city that night.
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