scoundrel. Once he cheated a widow out of her property by extracting a false confession from her by torture. I quarreled with him and he made to strike me. Then I knocked him down. I had to flee for my life and took to the woods. But I swear by the memory of my dead father that I never wantonly killed a man, and robbed only those who could afford the loss. You can take my word for it that the same goes for my blood brother here. That's all!'
Magistrate Dee nodded, then looked questioningly at the other man. He had a finely chiseled face, a straight nose and thin lips. Fingering his small mustache, he said, 'I call myself Chiao Tai, because my real family name is well and honorably known in a certain part of the empire. A high official once willfully sent a number of my comrades for whom I was responsible to their death. The scoundrel disappeared, and the authorities to whom I reported his crime refused to take action. Then I became a highwayman, and roamed all over our empire, hoping one day to trace the criminal and kill him. I never robbed the poor, and my sword is unsullied by unjust blood. I'll serve you on one condition, namely that you'll allow me to resign as soon as I have found my man. For I have sworn by the souls of my dead comrades that I would cut off his head and throw it to the dogs.'
The magistrate looked intently at the two men in front of him, slowly caressing his side whiskers. After a while be said, 'I'll accept your offer, including Chiao Tai's condition-on the understanding that, should he find his man, he'll first give me an opportunity for trying to redress his wrong by legal means. You can go with me to Peng-lai, and I'll see whether I can use you. If not, I'll tell you so, and you'll promise then to have yourselves enlisted at once in our northern army. With me it is all or nothing.'
Chiao Tai's face lit up. He said eagerly, 'All or nothing, that'll be our motto!'
He rose and knelt before the magistrate, knocking his forehead to the floor three times in succession. His friend followed his example.
When Ma Joong and Chiao Tai had risen again Magistrate Dee spoke.
'This is Hoong Liang, my trusted adviser, from whom I have no secrets. You'll closely co-operate with him. Peng-lai is my first post; I don't know how the tribunal there is organized. But I presume that the clerks, constables, guards and the rest of the personnel are, as usual, locally recruited. I hear that queer things are happening in Peng-lai, and heaven knows how far the personnel of the tribunal is mixed up in those. I need people by my side whom I can trust. You three shall be my ears and eyes. Hoong, let the waiter bring a jug of wine!'
When the cups had been filled, Magistrate Dee pledged the three men in turn, and they respectfully drank to his health and his success.
The next morning when the magistrate came downstairs he found Hoong Liang and his two new assistants waiting for him in the courtyard. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai had evidently been out shopping already; they now wore neat brown robes with black sashes, small black skullcaps completing their uniforms of officers of the tribunal.
'The sky is cloudy, sir,' Hoong remarked. 'I fear we'll get rain.' 'I strapped straw hats to the saddles,' Ma Joong said. 'Those should see us through to Peng-lai.'
The four men mounted their horses and left the city by the east gate. For a few miles they rode along the highway crowded with travelers; then the traffic grew less. As they entered a deserted mountainous country, a horseman came galloping from the opposite direction, leading two horses on a leash. Glancing at them, Ma Joong observed, 'Good horseflesh! I like that blazed one.'
'The fellow shouldn't carry that box on his saddle,' Chiao Tai put in. 'That's asking for trouble!'
'Why?' Hoong asked.
'In these parts,' Chiao Tai explained, 'those red leather boxes are always used by rent collectors to carry their cash. Wise people conceal them in their saddlebags:'
'The fellow seems to be in a mighty hurry,' Magistrate Dee remarked casually.
At noon they reached the last mountain ridge. A torrential rain came pouring down. They took shelter under a high tree on a plateau by the roadside, overlooking the fertile green peninsula on which the district of Peng-lai was located.
While they were eating a cold snack Ma Joong told with gusto some stories about his adventures with farm girls. Magistrate Dee took no interest in ribald tales, but he had to admit that Ma Joong had a certain caustic humor that was rather amusing. But when he began on another similar story, the magistrate cut him short saying, 'I am told that there are tigers in these parts. I thought those animals favored a drier climate.'
Chiao Tai, who had been listening silently to the conversation, now remarked, 'Well, that's hard to say. As a rule those brutes keep to the high wooded land, but once they have acquired the taste for human flesh they'll also roam about in the plains. We might get good hunting down there!'
'What about those tales about weretigers?' Magistrate Dee asked.
Ma Joong cast an uneasy glance at the dark forest behind them. 'Never heard about it!' he said curtly.
'Could I have a look at your sword, sir?' Chiao Tai asked. 'It seemed a fine antique blade to me.'
As he handed him the sword, the magistrate said, 'It is called Rain Dragon.'
'Not the famous Rain Dragon!' Chiao Tai exclaimed ecstatically, 'The blade all swordsmen under heaven talk about with awe! It was the last and best sword forged three hundred years ago by Threefingcr, the greatest swordsmith that ever was!'
'Tradition has it,' Magistrate Dee observed, 'that Threefinger attempted to forge it eight times, but each time he failed. Then he swore he would sacrifice his beloved young wife to the river god if he were successful. The ninth time he wrought this sword. He at once beheaded his wife with it on the river bank. A fearful tempest arose and Threefinger was killed by a thunderbolt. The bodies of him and his wife were washed away by the roaring waves. This sword has been an heirloom in my family for the last two hundred years, being always passed on to the eldest son.'
Chiao Tai pulled his neckcloth over his nose and mouth so as not to soil the blade with his breath. Then he drew it from the scabbard. Raising it reverently in both hands, he admired its darkgreen sheen, and its hair-sharp edge that did not show a single nick. His eyes shone with a mystic fire as he spoke. 'If it should be ordained that ever I should die by the sword, I pray that it may be this blade that is washed in my blood!'
With a deep bow he handed the sword back to Magistrate Dee. The rain had changed into drizzle. They mounted their horses again and began descending the slope.
Down in the plain they saw by the roadside the stone pillar marking the boundary of the district Peng-lai. A mist hung over the muddy plain, but the magistrate still thought it a nice landscape. This was now his territory.
They rode along at a brisk pace. Late in the afternoon the city wall of Peng-lai loomed through the mist ahead.
THIRD CHAPTER
WHEN the four men were approaching the west gate, Chiao Tai remarked on the low walls and the modest twostoried gatehouse.
'I saw on the map,' Magistrate Dee explained, 'that this town has natural defenses. It is located three miles up a river, where it is joined by a broad creek. At the river mouth stands a large
