'I have got no house!' the monk said sullenly. 'I live in a cave over there.'
'A cave?' Ma Joong shouted angrily. 'Do you think you can fool us? Bring us to the headquarters of your gang or I'll throttle you!' And he gripped the monk by his throat.
'I swear it!' the monk gasped. 'The only gang I belong to is the gambling ring! I have been living alone in that cave ever since I came to this accursed place!'
Ma Joong let him go. He took out the knife the monk had thrown at him. Giving Tao Gan a meaningful look, he asked:
'Shall we do some pruning on him?'
Tao Gan shrugged his shoulders.
'Let's first have a look at that cave, anyway!' he said.
The monk led them to the cliff, trembling on his legs. He separated the undergrowth with his foot. They saw a dark cleft of about a man's height.
Tao Gan went down on his belly and crept inside, holding a wicked-looking thin knife between his teeth.
After a while he reappeared, this time walking upright.
'There's nobody there but a whimpering youngster!' he announced in a disappointed voice.
Ma Joong followed him inside, dragging the monk behind him.
After a dozen steps or so through a dark tunnel he saw a large cave lighted by a crevice in the ceiling. On the right stood a roughly made wooden bed and a battered leather box. On the other side a young man was lying on the floor, wearing only a loincloth. His hands and feet were tied with rope.
'Let me go! Please, let me go!' he groaned.
Tao Gan cut his ropes. The young man raised himself with difficulty to a sitting position. They saw that his back was beaten raw.
'Who has been beating you?' Ma Joong asked gruffly.
The youngster silently pointed at the monk. As Ma Joong slowly turned round to him the monk fell on his knees.
'No, Your Excellency, please!' he cried. 'The bastard is lying!'
Ma Joong gave him a contemptuous look. He said coldly:
'I'll save you for the headman of the constables; he likes that kind of work!'
Tao Gan had helped the young man to sit down on the bed. He seemed about twenty years old. His head had been crudely shaved, and his face was distorted with pain. But it was easy to see that he was an educated man of good family.
'Who are you, and how did you get yourself in this state?' Tao Gan asked curiously.
'That man kidnaped me! Please take me away from him!'
'We'll do better than that!' Ma Joong said. 'We'll take you to His Excellency the Magistrate!'
'No!' the youngster shouted. 'Let me go!'
He made an attempt to rise.
'Well, well!' Ma Joong said slowly. 'So that's how the land lies! You come along to the tribunal, my young friend!' He barked at the monk: 'Hey there! Since you don't even belong to a kidnaping gang I don't care who sees us! You won't be cuddled and carried this time!'
He lifted the weakly protesting youngster from the bed and placed him with legs astride on the monk's neck. He threw an old blanket over the young man's shoulders. Then he took a bloodstained willow branch from the corner and hit the monk's calves. 'Get a move on, dog's-head!' he snapped.
Fourteenth Chapter
Late in the morning, shortly before the noon meal, Judge Dee opened a session of the tribunal. The court hall was crowded; the citizens of Han-yuan thought that a session held at such an unusual hour could only mean that important new facts had come to light regarding the two sensational cases that had occurred in their midst.
To their disappointment, however, the judge began at once with one of the matters he had been studying with Sergeant Hoong and Chiao Tai that morning, namely a quarrel between the fishermen and the management of the fish market regarding the methods of fixing prices. Judge Dee had representatives of both parties explain again their standpoint, then proposed a compromise that, after some discussion, was accepted.
He was just going to broach a taxation problem when loud shouts were heard outside. Ma Joong and Tao Gan entered, each dragging along a prisoner. They were followed by a dense crowd that had joined them on the way. The spectators stormed them with excited questions; the court hall was in confusion.
Judge Dee rapped his gavel three times.
'Silence and order!' he shouted in a thunderous voice. 'If I hear one more word I'll have the hall cleared!'
All fell silent. No one wanted to miss the questioning of the incongruous pair that was now kneeling in front of the dais.
The judge looked at the prisoners with an impassive face. But inwardly he was far from calm, for he had immediately recognized the young man.
Ma Joong reported how he and Tao Gan had arrested the two men. Judge Dee listened, slowly stroking his beard. Then he addressed the youngster:
'State your name and profession!'
'This insignificant person,' he replied in a low voice, 'respectfully reports that his name is Djang Hoo-piao, a Candidate of Literature.'
A murmur of astonishment rose from the hall. The judge angrily looked up and rapped his gavel. 'This is my last warning!' he shouted. To the youngster he continued: 'It was reported to this tribunal that Candidate Djang drowned himself in the lake four days ago!'
'Your Honor,' the young man said in a faltering voice, 'it distresses me beyond words that I, in my foolishness, created that wrong impression. I fully realize that I have acted with extreme rashness and showed a most reprehensible lack of decision. I can only hope that Your Honor, having taken cognizance of the special circumstances, will kindly view my case leniently.'
Here he paused. Deep silence reigned in the court hall. Then he went on:
'Be it never given another man to undergo such a shattering transition from supreme bliss to deepest despair as I went through on my wedding night! United for one brief moment with my beloved, I found that my very love had killed her.'
He swallowed with difficulty, then went on:
'Distracted with grief and horror, I stared at her still body. Then panic seized me. How was I to face my father, who had always tended me, his only son, with the greatest love and care-I, who had deprived him of the hope of seeing his family continued? The only thing I could do was to end my wretched life.
'I hastily put on a light robe and made for the door. But then I reflected that- the feast was still going on, and that the house was full of people. I would never be able to leave unnoticed. Suddenly I remembered that the old carpenter who had come the other day to mend the leaking roof of my room had left two boards of the ceiling loose. 'That'd be a useful place for storing valuables!' he had remarked to me. I stood on a tabouret, pulled myself up on a beam, and crept up in the loft. I replaced the boards and climbed out on the roof. Then I let myself down into the street.
'Since it was deep in the night there was no one about; I reached the bank of the lake unnoticed. I stood on a large boulder over the water and took off my silk girdle. I was going to strip, for I feared that my robe would keep me afloat and thus prolong my death struggle. Then, looking down in the black water I, miserable coward, became afraid. I remembered the macabre stories told about the foul creatures roaming in the water. I thought I could discern indistinct shapes moving about and malicious eyes staring up at me. Although it was very hot I stood there shivering; my teeth clattered in my mouth. I knew that I couldn't execute my plan.
'My girdle had dropped into the water, so I drew my robe close and ran away from the lake. I don't know
