Suddenly Judge Dee put the paper-weight down. He rose from his chair and stood there looking fixedly at his assistant.
'Judge Feng,' he said, 'is an able and conscientious magistrate. I ascribe his hasty verdict to the pressure of business engendered by his pending departure. If he had had time to study this case at leisure he would doubtless have arrived at quite a different conclusion.'
When he noticed the sergeant's perplexed look, Judge Dee smiled faintly. He quickly continued:
'I agree that Candidate Wang is a weak-kneed and wholly irresponsible youngster, who fully deserves a severe lesson. But he did not murder Pure Jade!'
Sergeant Hoong opened his mouth to speak. But the judge raised his hand.
'I won't say any more,' he said, 'until I have actually seen the persons involved, and examined the scene of the crime myself. Tomorrow I shall review the case in the tribunal, during the afternoon session. Then you will understand how I arrived at my conclusion.
'Well, what time is it now, Sergeant?'
'It is long past midnight, Your Honour.' Looking very doubtful the sergeant continued: 'I must confess that I can't see any flaw in the case against Wang. Tomorrow, when my brain is clearer, I shall reread the entire record!'
Slowly shaking his head he took one of the candles in order to light the way for the judge through the dark corridors leading to his own residence in the northern part of the compound.
But Judge Dee laid a hand on his arm.
'Don't bother, Sergeant!' he said. 'I don't think I should disturb my household so late in the night. They all had a strenuous day-and so had you! You may retire now to your own quarters. I shall rest on the couch here in my office. So: to bed and to sleep!'
Third Chapter:
The following morning at dawn, when Sergeant Hoong entered the private office with the breakfast tray he found that the judge had already made his toilet.
Judge Dee ate two bowls of steaming rice gruel and some salted vegetables and drank a cup of hot tea that the sergeant poured out for him. When the early rays of the sun threw a red light on the paper windows Sergeant Hoong blew out the candles and assisted the judge in donning his long official robe of heavy green brocade. Judge Dee noticed with satisfaction that his servants had placed his cap-mirror on the side table. He pulled out the drawer of the mirror stand and carefully adjusted the black judge's cap with the wings of stiffened gauze on his head.
In the meantime the constables had opened the massive, copper-studded gates of the tribunal compound. Despite the early hour a crowd of spectators was waiting in the street outside. The rape-murder of the butcher's daughter had caused great excitement in the quiet town of Poo-yang and the citizens were eager to see the new magistrate conclude the case.
As soon as the burly guard had sounded the large bronze gong at the entrance, the spectators filed into the courtyard and from there into the spacious court hall. All eyes were riveted on the raised dais at the end of the hall and the high bench covered with red brocade; for there the new magistrate would presently appear.
The senior scribe arranged the judge's paraphernalia on the bench. On the right the seal of the tribunal measuring two inches square, together with the seal pad. In the middle a double inkstone for rubbing red and black ink, with a separate writing brush for each colour. And on the left the blanks and forms used by the recording scribe.
Six constables stood facing each other in two rows of three in front of the bench. They carried whips, chains, hand-screws and the other awe-inspiring implements of their office. Their headman stood somewhat apart, nearer to the bench.
At last the screen behind the bench was drawn aside and Judge Dee appeared. He seated himself in the high arm-chair. Sergeant Hoong remained standing by his side.
Judge Dee surveyed for a moment the packed court hall, slowly stroking his beard. Then he knocked the gavel on the bench and announced:
'The morning session of the tribunal is open!'
To the disappointment of the spectators the judge did not reach for his red writing brush. That meant that he was not going to write out a blank for the warden of the jail to bring the accused before the bench.
Judge Dee ordered the senior scribe to hand him the records of a routine matter relating to the district administration, and disposed of that in a leisurely manner. Then he had the headman of the constables come forward and went over with him the pay-list of the personnel of the tribunal.
Looking sourly at the headman from under his thick eyebrows the judge rasped:
'There is one string of copper cash short! Explain where that money went to.'
The headman hemmed and hawed but could produce no plausible explanation of the difference.
'That sum will be deducted from your salary,' Judge Dee announced curtly.
He leaned back in the arm-chair. Sipping the tea that Sergeant Hoong had offered him Judge Dee waited to see whether anyone in the audience wished to present a complaint. When none was forthcoming he raised his gavel and closed the session.
When Judge Dee had left the dais for his private office the crowd started to voice its disappointment.
'Get going!' shouted the constables. 'You people have seen what you came to see, hurry up now and don't keep us constables from our official duties!'
After the court hall had been cleared the headman spat on the floor and sadly shook his head. He said to some younger constables standing about there:
'You young ones had better look for another job! In this accursed tribunal of Poo-yang you will never make a decent living. Look, for the last three years we have been serving under His Excellency Feng, who asked an explanation for every missing silver piece. I thought that I had had my full share of service under a scrupulous magistrate! But now His Excellency Dee has succeeded him and he, may August Heaven preserve us, frowns on one string of copper cash! What a terrible state of affairs for us constables! Now tell me, why is it that easy-going and corrupt magistrates always shun Poo-yang?'
While the constables were muttering, Judge Dee was changing into a comfortable informal robe, assisted by a lean man, clad in a simple blue dress with a brown sash. He had a long, saturnine face, with a mole the size of a copper cash on his left cheek, from which sprouted three black hairs several inches long.
This was Tao Gan, one of Judge Dee's trusted lieutenants. Until a few years before he had earned a precarious living as a confidence man and he was therefore thoroughly familiar with loading dice, drawing up ambiguous contracts, forging seals and signatures, picking locks and all other tricks of city crooks. Once Judge Dee had extricated him from a nasty situation, and since then Tao Gan had reformed. He served Judge Dee with unswerving loyalty. His alert mind and his talent for spotting unsavoury affairs had proved useful to the judge in solving more than one criminal case.
When Judge Dee had seated himself behind his desk two burly fellows entered and respectfully greeted him. Both were clad in long brown robes, girded with a black sash. They wore small, black pointed caps. These were Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, Judge Dee's other two lieutenants.
Ma Joong was well over six feet tall with 'shoulders like a bear.' His large, heavy-jowled face was clean- shaven except for a short moustache. Notwithstanding his great bulk, he moved with the swift grace that marks the experienced boxer. In his younger days he had served as bodyguard to a corrupt official. Once when his master extorted money from a widow, Ma Joong rose against him and almost killed him. Naturally he had to flee for his life so he joined the 'brothers of the green woods,' that is to say he became a highwayman. Once he attacked Judge Dee and his suite on the road outside the capital, but was so impressed by Judge Dee's personality that he gave up his profession then and there to become a devoted servant of the judge. Because of his great
