'If there is no other work for us,' Ma Joong said, 'we'll drop in again later in the night, just to see how you take that last nip!' The three men found judge Dee sitting alone in his private office. Sergeant Hoong noticed that he was looking wan and tired. But he brightened up when he heard Ma Joong's report about the discovery of Ah Kwang.
'So my theory about the murder by mistake was right,' he said. 'But we still have the problem of the woman. Ah Kwang left immediately after the murder, without even taking the cashbox; he knew nothing about what happened after he had fled. That thieving servant Woo might have caught a glimpse of the third person who is certainly involved in this affair. We'll learn that in due time when he has been caught.'
'We made a thorough search of the entire temple and the strip of wood around it,' Ma Joong said, 'but we found no dead woman there. We only found behind the altar table a heap of broken staffs, like the monks are wont to carry.'
The judge sat up straight in his chair. 'Monks' staffs?' he exclaimed incredulously.
'Only old, discarded ones, magistrate,' Chaio Tai put in. 'All of them were broken.'
'What a curious find!' Judge Dee said slowly. lie thought deeply. Then he roused himself and said to Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, 'You two had quite a day; you better retire now arid take a good night's rest. I'll stay here and talk a bit with Hoong.'
After the two stalwarts had taken their leave, judge Dee settled back in his chair and told the sergeant about the loosened board in the White Cloud Temple. 'I repeat,' he concluded, 'that it was a deliberate attempt at killing me.'
Hoong gave his master an anxious look.
'On the other hand,' he said, 'that board may indeed have been worrneaten. When your honor put his weight on it-'
'I didn't!' the judge said curtly. 'I just tapped it with my foot to test it.' Seeing Hoong's uncomprehending look, he added quickly, 'Just when I was about to step on it, I saw the ghost of the dead magistrate.'
The crash of a door slamming shut somewhere in the building resounded in the room.
Judge Dee sat up abruptly.
'I told Tang to have that door mended!' he burst out angrily. With a quick look at Hoong's pale face, he took up his teacup and brought it to his lips. But he didn't drink. He stared fixedly at the small gray particles that were floating on the surface of the tea. Slowly putting the cup down again, he said tensely, 'Look, Hoong, somebody has put something in my tea.'
The two men looked silently at the gray powder that was slowlv dissolving in the hot tea. Suddenly Judge Dee rubbed his finger over the tabletop. Then his drawn face relaxed in a wan smile.
'I am getting nervous, Hoong,' he remarked wryly. 'That slamming door made some plaster drop down from the ceiling. That's all.
Sergeant Hoong heaved a sigh of relief. He went to the tea table and poured out a new cup for the judge. Sitting down again, he remarked, 'Perhaps after all the loose board has a natural explanation too, your honor. I can't imagine that the man who murdered the magistrate would dare to attack your honor! We haven't the slightest clue to his identity and-'
'But he doesn't know that, Hoong,' the judge interrupted. 'He doesn't know what suggestions the investigator may have made to me; he may think I am not proceeding against him only because I am biding my time. That unknown criminal is doubtless following all I do with close attention, and something I did or said may have given him the idea that I am on his track.' The judge tugged slowly at his mustache. Then he continued. 'I'll try now to expose myself as much as possible, so as to tempt him to make another try. Then he'll perhaps betray himself.'
'Your honor shouldn't take that awful risk!' Hoong exclaimed, aghast. 'We know he is a ruthless and ingenious scoundrel. Heaven knows what new evil scheme he is preparing now! And we don't even know-'
Judge Dee had not been listening. Suddenly he rose. Taking up the candle, he said curtly, 'Come along, Hoong!'
Sergeant Hoong followed the judge as he quickly crossed the main courtyard and went to the magistrate's private residence. He entered and silently walked through the dark corridor to the library. Standing in the door, he lifted the candle and surveyed the room. It was exactly as he had left it after his former visit. Stepping up to the tea stove, he ordered Hoong, 'Drag that armchair over here, sergeant!'
When Hoong had placed it in front of the tea cupboard, the judge stepped up on the seat. Lifting the candle, he scrutinized the red-lacquered roof beam.
'Give me your knife and a sheet of paper!' he said excitedly. 'And hold the candle for me.'
Judge Dee spread the paper out on the palm of his left hand, and with his right scraped with the tip of the knife at the surface of the beam.
Stepping down, he carefully wiped the point of the knife clean on the paper. He gave the knife back to Hoong, the paper he folded up and put in his sleeve. Then he asked Hoong 'Is Tang still in the chancery?'
'I think I saw him sitting at his desk when I came back, your honor,' the sergeant replied.
The judge quickly left the library and walked over to the chancery. Two candles were burning on Tang's desk. He sat hunched in his chair, staring straight ahead of him. When he saw the two men enter he hurriedly got up.
Seeing his haggard face, judge Dee said, not unkindly, 'The murder of your assistant must have been a great shock to you, Tang. You better go back home and go to bed early. First, however, I want some information from you. Tell me, were there any repairs done in Magistrate Wang's library shortly before his death?'
Tang wrinkled his forehead. Then he replied, 'No, your honor, not shortly before his death. But about two weeks earlier, Magistrate Wang told me that one of his visitors had remarked on a discolored spot on the ceiling, and promised to send along a lacquer worker to repair it. He ordered me to let that workman in when he would come to do his work.'
'Who was that visitor?' Judge Dee asked tensely. Tang shook his head.
'I really don't know, your honor. The magistrate was very popular among the notables here. Most of them used to visit him in his library after the morning session, for a cup of tea and a chat. The magistrate would make tea for them himself. The abbot, the prior Hui-pen, the shipowners Yee and Koo, Dr. Tsao and-'
'I suppose that artisan can be traced,' Judge Dee interrupted impatiently. 'The lacquer tree doesn't grow in these parts; there can't be many lacquer workers here in this district.'
'That's why the magistrate was grateful for his friend's offer,' Tang said. 'We hadn't known there was a 'lacquer worker available here.'
'Go and ask the guards,' the judge ordered. 'They must at least have seen that artisan! Report to me in my private office.'
When he was seated again behind his desk the judge said eagerly to Sergeant Hoong, 'The dust dropping in my tea supplied me with the solution. When the murderer noticed that dark spot on the ceiling, caused by the hot steam of the tea water, he realized that the magistrate always left the copper tea stove on that same spot on the cupboard, and that fact suggested to him his diabolical plan! He had an accomplice act the part of a lacquer worker. Feigning to work on the discolored spot, he drilled a small hole in the roof beam, straight above the tea stove. He put one or more small wax pills inside the hole, and those pills contained the poison powder. That was all he needed to do! He knew that the magistrate when he was engrossed in his reading would often let the tea water go on boiling some time before he rose and poured it from the pan into the teapot. Sooner or later the hot steam would melt the wax, and the pills would drop down into the boiling
