The Phantom Of The Temple

by Robert Van Gulik

  When nothing seemed to stir inside, he repeated his knocking, pressing his ear against the wood. Now he heard the faint sound of bare feet. The door opened and he quickly stepped into a small room, lit by a cheap candlestick on the bamboo side-table.

  ‘Now, who might you be?’ the girl whispered after she had softly closed the door. She wore a thin nightrobe and he got a fleeting impression of a round face and a mass of tousled hair. He took the marker from his sleeve. Pressing it into her small, warm hand, he said:

  ‘My name is Shao-pa. I am Seng-san’s cousin. The King sent me. He told me you are called Spring Cloud.’

  She stepped up to the side-table and studied the marker by the light of the candle. Beside it stood a round metal mirror on a wooden stand; in front of it lay a broken comb. This was evidently her dressing-table. Ma Joong cast a quick glance at the scanty furniture. Against the side wall stood a simple plank bed covered by a worn reed-mat, in front was a rickety bamboo chair. On a shelf high up on the wall he saw a tea-basket, a brass water-basin and a small lantern. The smell of a cheap perfume hung in the close air.

  ‘Small but cosy!’ he remarked.

  ‘Mind your own business!’ She stooped and took a small, low-legged table from under the bed. Having placed it on the bed-mat, she sat down cross-legged beside it and gestured Ma Joong to sit down on the other side. He stepped out of his boots and followed her example. The mat was still warm from her body. They sat facing each other silently, the small bed-table in between them.

  He noticed with satisfaction that, now that she had pushed the locks away from her face, she looked very nice, exactly his type: a pretty round face with saucy eyes, dimpled cheeks and a coral-red, full mouth. When he glimpsed her firm, round bosom through the thin robe, he said a silent prayer of thanks to the God of War. Suddenly she smiled.

  ‘You aren’t so young, but you look better than most of father’s friends, Shao-pa!’

  ‘Well, well!’ Ma Joong exclaimed. ‘So you are the King’s daughter! An honour to work with you, Princess! I am supposed to help you get the gold, you know. Tell me how your father came to know about that. Seng-san used to be rather close-lipped-when he was still with us.’

  ‘Simple. Father taught Seng-san boxing, formerly. That’s why Seng-san used to look him up from time to time. He promised father a slice of the loot too.’

  ‘How much was Seng-san to get?’

  ‘One third, Yang two-thirds. Stands to reason, for Yang had tipped your cousin off, you see. Yang didn’t like to look for the gold all by himself, for the fellow who had the first claim on it was a very tough customer, they say. Yang was afraid of him. And with a good reason, too! Seeing that the bastard killed your cousin and spirited Yang away to Heaven knows where! After that I told father I wouldn’t go to search the temple at night alone any more. Not me!’

  ‘I’d like to meet the son of a dog who killed Seng-san! His brother Lao-woo is doing time in Tong-kang, so it’s me who has to settle the account.’

  ‘As for me, father told me to apply for this job with the old bitch here to keep an eye on the temple. I won’t say nothing bad about your cousin, mind you, but father just thought Seng-san would bear a bit of watching, you see.’

  ‘The King was dead right! What I don’t get is why the scoundrel who put the gold in the temple didn’t dig it up himself and clear out. Why let it lie about there till Seng-san and Yang barged in?’

  She shrugged her round shoulders.

  ‘Seems he hid it because he stole it somewhere, and hid it so well that he couldn’t find it any more! And not for want of trying either! I have been over that whole blasted place, and I can tell you he really did some work there! Tore up the floors everywhere. I have been over my employer’s quarters too, by the way.’

  ‘Heavens, Princess, you wouldn’t suspect a pious abbess, would you?’

  ‘As long as I don’t know who owns that gold, I am trusting nobody. And as to pious, the old bitch has a nasty streak in her, brother Shao. If she’s in a bad temper, she takes it out of me with a thin piece of rattan. “Let down your trousers, bend for the Lord Buddha and pray for improvement of your character! ” she says, and then she lets me have it, counting the strokes on the rosary in her left hand! That’s piety for you, brother Shao!’ She spat on the floor. ‘Well, now that you are here, I don’t mind having another look at the temple. I’ll show you the lay-out.’

  She pulled a piece of folded paper from under the bedmat and smoothed it out.

  ‘Look here, this is the main hall, right in the middle. That’s where we start.’

  Ma Joong studied the floor-plan. It corresponded exactly to the description Judge Dee and Sergeant Hoong had given him.

  ‘You did that very well indeed, Princess!’

  ‘What do you think? I am an old hand at making floor-plans. Hire myself out as maid in a big house, and make a plan. Just so that a couple of father’s friends don’t get lost when they pay a visit there in the dark. You memorize this plan over by the candle there, brother Shao. We still have an hour or so, for we can’t leave before the Abbess is asleep.’

  Folding the paper up, Ma Joong said, with a grin, I’d like to use that hour to improve upon our acquaintance a bit, Princess! Don’t start on a job before you know your partner well, they say!’

  ‘Business before pleasure,’ she said determinedly. ‘Get off the bed and study the floor-plan! In the meantime I’ll change. Keep your back to me, and your eyes on that paper!’

  Ma Joong stepped down and stood himself in front of the dressing-table, his back to the plank bed. She slipped out of her nightdress, and rummaged on her knees behind the bed until she had found a pair of dark-blue trousers and a jacket. About to put them on, she hesitated and gave Ma Joong’s broad back a speculative look. With a faint smile she laid the clothes aside, knelt on the night-robe and began to do her hair. She thought that now she made a rather attractive picture, and called out, ‘Don’t turn round yet!’

  ‘Why should I?’ Ma Joong asked. ‘I am doing fine with the mirror here. You looked very nice from behind, too!’

  ‘You mean bastard!’ She jumped from the bed and went for him, trying to scratch his face. He folded her in his arms.

  When she had dressed she took the small lantern down from the shelf.

  ‘We can light it only when we are inside the temple,’ she said. ‘This afternoon I saw a couple of fellows hanging about near the gate, and they looked like thief-catchers, posted there after your cousin’s murder. So the fellow who did him in won’t be around tonight. We might meet the ghost, though.’

  ‘Don’t try to be funny, Princess!’

  ‘I don’t. There is a ghost about there. Saw her a couple of times myself, with my own eyes. Floating about the trees, she was. A tall woman, in a creepy white shroud. I don’t like ghosts, but this one means no harm. Once I nearly bumped into her. She didn’t do a thing, just looked at me with her large sad eyes and drifted on.’

  ‘Sad or not, I don’t like to meet her. Let’s be on our way! I’ll get you past those guards. I was in the “green woods” in my younger days.’

  She blew out the candle and opened the door a crack.

  ‘Funny!’ she whispered. ‘There’s still a light in the old bitch’s room!’

  ‘She’ll be reading her holy books!’

  ‘And aloud too, by the sound of it. Well, we’ll go anyway. If she discovers I am out, I’ll give her notice. Let her pink another girl’s behind!’

  They crossed the yard on tiptoe. She carefully lifted the crossbar, opened the gate and put a few pebbles underneath so that it remained ajar. They walked down the path through the forest. Arrived at the edge, he told her to stay close behind him, and do exactly as he did. He studied the trees at the top of the staircase, trying to locate the constable on duty. It would be awkward if the man spotted them. Yes, there he was, the lazy dog! Asleep under that cypress tree! Well, it made things easier, anyway. About to drag Spring Cloud along, he suddenly stiffened
. There was something strange about the man’s drawn-up knees and his outflung arms. He quickly went over to the prostrate figure and bent over it.

  ‘Is … is he dead? ‘ she whispered behind him.

  ‘Strangled from behind with a thin cord,’ he muttered grimly. ‘Go back home, Princess. From now on this is strictly a man’s job. The murderer has come back.’

  She clasped his arm.

  ‘I’ll stay with you. I have been in scraps before. If you come to grips with him, I can always bash his head in with a brick.’

  A MEETING LATE AT NIGHT

  ‘Have it your own way! The bastard is probably in the main hall, so we can’t risk the front entrance. We’ll take the back door, first climbing over the outer wall at the rear.’

  ‘Yes, there’s a gap just a little beyond the back wall of the hall. Come along, I’ll show you!’

  They walked along the front of the outer wall, turned the corner and then followed the path leading along the temple’s side wall. When they had come to the small clearing at the north-east corner, Ma Joong halted.

  ‘Wait here a moment,’ he whispered. ‘I’ll reconnoitre.’

  He went on to the tall trees, looking for the young constable. But, although he went as far as the clearing where the path led down the slope, there was no trace of Fang. He whistled, softly. All remained silent. He cursed under his breath. Had the murderer got Fang too? Suddenly he had the uncanny feeling that someone was watching him. A cloud was obscuring the moon again. He strained his eyes but nothing seemed to be moving under the high oak trees. He went back to where he had left Spring Cloud.

  ‘There’s nobody about,’ he told her. ‘You stay here, it’s better that I have a squint at the rear wall first. I’ll come and fetch you if the coast is clear, and then you can show me that gap where we can climb inside.’

  He went round the corner, his left hand on the weather-beaten bricks of the outer wall. There was no one on the long narrow path that ran all along the back wall of the temple. On the right of the pathway was the steep slope down, covered with thick shrubs and here and there a large, mossy boulder.

  Standing there at the corner he scanned the top of the wall. The bricks had crumbled away in several places, but he couldn’t see the larger gap Spring Cloud had spoken of. At the far end, beyond the silhouette of the west tower, he saw the pile of masonry that marked the opposite corner of the outer wall, where the old well was located. If necessary they could walk on to there, and then …’

  He bent forward. In the shadows near that far corner he saw a white shape. Not trusting his eyes, he quickly advanced a few steps. Then he stood stock still. It was the white woman, beckoning him with a long, thin hand.

  Chapter 17

  He stared at the apparition, spell-bound. Then it flashed through his mind that the other night the phantom had led him to the hidden path. Would she now …? He raced down the path.

  ‘Brother Shao, I …’ Spring Cloud called out behind him. Suddenly the ghostly apparition raised her arms high above her head. The moonlight shone through her long, silvery sleeves. Ma Joong halted abruptly; he didn’t know what to think of the menacing gesture. The girl bumped into his back. At that very same moment the upper part of the wall above him crashed down, directly before his feet.

  For one brief moment he stood there motionless, staring dumbfounded at the mass of broken masonry that blocked the path.

  ‘What happened …? What …?’ the girl gasped behind him.

  ‘That was meant for us!’ he hissed. ‘Stay here!’

  He quickly climbed on to the heap of bricks. From there he could grasp the rough edges of the gap higher up in the wall. He pulled himself up, climbed on the wall and jumped down into the back yard of the temple, just in time to see a black shape disappear through the back door of the main hall.

  Ma Joong ran to the door, dropped on all fours, and quickly crept inside. He crouched with his back against the wall, just inside the door, on the right, ready to clasp the other’s legs should he be waiting there. But nothing stirred in the darkness. He carefully explored the space within his reach but his groping hands met only emptiness. At the far end of the hall he saw a faint light. That must be the latticework of the six-fold entrance door. Again he noticed that awful, nauseating stench of the day before. The only sound he heard was the flapping of a frightened bat. Yet the murderer had to be there, somewhere in the dark hall. Here they would fight it out. He reflected with grim satisfaction that he had the advantage, even if the murderer should be armed. For Ma Joong had fought many a fight in pitch-dark places and he knew all the tricks. And, thanks to his previous visit and Spring Cloud’s sketch, he had a clear picture of the situation.

  With infinite care he crept along the wall, advancing inch by inch towards the left corner, his right shoulder brushing the stone surface, his muscles tense for quick action, his ears straining for a tell-tale sound.

  Arrived in the corner, a piece of cloth suddenly grazed his groping left hand. He shot forward, stretching out his long arms to grab his opponent’s legs. But there was nothing, and he bumped his head hard against the wall. Half-dazed, he heard the quick shuffle of feet, directly ahead. Then there was the clanking of iron on stone. That meant his opponent had a sword. He lay completely still for a while. Then he groped about, and understood what had happened. What he had taken for a piece of the other’s robe proved to be nothing but a cluster of cobwebs, stiffened by dirt.

  His head was reeling but he knew he had to get away from that corner as fast as possible. The side door leading to the monks’ cells couldn’t be far away. After he had crept along the wall for some time, his fingers met the rough surface of wooden boards. Now on to the niche where the ritual arms were kept. Yes, he felt two thick shafts. The two halberds were still there. But apart from those the niche was empty. Now he knew his opponent’s weapon: it was the second Tartar axe. He reflected with a wry grin that he was lucky. For an axe is of slight use in a fight in the dark, whereas a halberd is a wonderful weapon. He knew how to handle it: more than ten feet long, the point would penetrate a leather cuirass, the razor-sharp blade beneath the point would split a skull, and the wicked hook opposite could be used for pulling a knight from his horse, or for bringing a fleeing foot-soldier to the ground. And he had two, one for fighting, the other for reconnoitering and for setting a trap! He righted himself and took the halberds noiselessly from the niche, holding their shafts upright. While he stood there motionless, waiting for the painful throbbing in his head to subside, he tried to orientate himself. He was standing now by the last pillar of the row to the left of the entrance. On his left hand was the empty space in front of the altar. He levelled the halberd in his right hand and explored the floor space with it. When all proved to be clear there, he turned and verified that no one was in the narrow space between the row of pillars and the wall. Holding the two halberds upright, he tiptoed to the centre of the hall, and stood there facing the entrance.

  The rectangle of the six latticework panels stood out clearly. Of course the other man would avoid the central part of the hall, between the two rows of pillars, for there he would be seen against the light of the lattice doors. He must be hiding in the space behind the row of pillars to the right of the entrance, now on Ma Joong’s left. A slow grin spread over his face.

  He went step by step to the left, till he had arrived by the last pillar. He went to stand squarely in front of it, and set up the halberd in his left hand against it. Then he took a firm grip with both hands on the other. Presently he would kick the standing weapon over, so that it would clatter down in the space behind the pillars. His opponent would come out and be clearly outlined against the lattice doors. Then he would get him with the halberd he still held.

  All at once he held his breath. He thought he had heard a faint noise, on the other side of the pillar he was facing. Suddenly a large dark shape shot forward, knocked the halberd in his hands aside and made for the lattice door. Ma Joong lunged the halberd forw
ard but he was too late, the fleeing shape was just out of reach. With a curse he let the halberd drop and ran after him. The dark shape halted in front of the door. A heavy object whizzed past Ma Joong’s head and clattered to the floor behind him. Then the man kicked a panel open. Ma Joong threw himself forward to tackle him. His feet got caught in a rope on the floor and he fell flat on his face. After he had scrambled up he rushed through the open door out into the front yard, and got just a glimpse of something moving by the triple gate. When he had ran out there, he faintly heard the sound of feet on the staircase, far below. His opponent had escaped.

  Cursing volubly, he wiped the blood from his face. A large lump was forming on his forehead. He went inside and retrieved the halberd. With vicious jabs he broke all the six panels down. Now he saw that the rope his feet had got entangled in was in fact a rope-ladder, made of thin, tough silk cords. At one end it was provided with two large iron hooks. Further down, at the foot of the last pillar, lay the Tartar axe the other had thrown at him.

  He left the hall by the back gate. Spring Cloud sat on her haunches in the gap, clasping the lantern in her hands. He climbed up, kissed her tear-stained face, and helped her down on the other side.