goblin.
'Old Shao from the village up the river told us to come here,' Ma Joong said. 'We got into a bit of trouble with the constables there.'
'Tell your story to the captain!' the man said. He gave the paddle back, adding: 'Row straight ahead to that light you see there!'
Six armed men stood waiting for them on a roughly made landing stage. In the light of the lantern carried by their leader Chiao Tai saw that they wore army uniforms, but without any insignia. They took the two men through a dense forest.
Soon they saw lights glimmering among the trees. They came out on a large clearing. About a hundred men were assembled round campfires, cooking rice gruel in iron pots. All were armed to the teeth. They were taken to the other end of the clearing to a group of four men sitting on footstools under three very old oak trees.
'These are the two fellows about whom our sentries reported, Captain!' the leader of their escort reported respectfully.
The man addressed as captain was a broad-shouldered fellow with a close-fitting mail jacket and baggy trousers of black leather. His hair was bound up with a red scarf. Looking the two men up and down with small, cruel eyes, he barked:
'Speak up, rascals! Your name? Where from? Why? The whole story!'
He spoke with the clipped voice of a military officer. Chiao Tai thought that he was probably a deserter.
'My name is Yoong Bao, Captain,' Ma Joong said with an ingratiating smile. 'Me and my mate are just two brothers of the green woods.' He related how they had got into a fight with the constables, and how the innkeeper had sent them to Three Oaks Island. He added that they would deem it a great honor if the captain would take them into his service.
'First we'll check your tale!' the captain said. And to their guard he added: 'Take them to the enclosure where the others are!'
Each got a wooden bowl with rice gruel; then they were led through the forest to another, much smaller clearing. The light of a torch shone on a hut built from logs. In front a man was squatting in the grass eating his rice. At the edge of the enclosure a girl in the blue jacket and trousers of a peasant woman was kneeling under a tree, also busy with her chopsticks.
'You'll not leave this place!' their guard warned and walked off. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai sat down cross- legged opposite the squatting man, who gave them a morose look.
'My name is Yoong Bao,' Ma Joong addressed him cordially. 'What is yours?'
'Mao Loo,' the other replied in a surly voice. He threw his empty rice bowl to the girl and growled: 'Wash it up!'
She rose without a word and picked up the bowl. She waited till Ma Joong and Chiao Tai were ready, then also took their empty bowls. Ma Joong eyed her with approval. She was looking sad and she walked with some difficulty, but it was easy to see that she was a very handsome girl. Mao Loo had followed his look with an angry frown. He said gruffly:
'Nothing for you! That's my wife!'
'Pretty wench!' Ma Joong remarked indifferently. 'Listen, why do they keep us apart here? One would think we were criminals!'
Mao Loo spat on the ground. He looked quickly at the shadows around them. Then he said in a low voice:
'They are far from friendly, brother! I came here the other day with a friend of mine, a good fellow. We said we wanted to join them. The captain asked all kinds of questions. My friend got annoyed and said a few straightforward things. D'you know what happened?'
Ma Joong and Chiao Tai shook their heads. Mao Loo passed his forefinger across his throat.
'Just like that!' he said bitterly. 'They put me here, like in prison! Last night two fellows come sneaking along to drag my wife away; I have to fight with them, till the guards come and collar them. I must say that they are disciplined, but apart from that it's a nasty crowd, and I am sorry I came!'
'What are they up to?' Chiao Tai asked. 'I thought they were decent robbers who'd welcome people like us!'
'You go and ask them!' Mao Loo sneered.
The girl reappeared and put the rice bowls under a tree. Mao Loo growled at her:
'Can't you talk to me?'
'Amuse yourself!' the girl replied calmly, and entered the hut. Mao Loo went red with rage, but he made no attempt to follow her. He cursed and said:
'I saved that slut's life! And what do I get? Nothing but a sour face! She got a good beating with a bit of rope, but a fat lot it helped!'
'A woman needs miles of rope across her behind before you get her sensible,' Ma Joong remarked philosophically. Mao Loo rose and walked over to the foot of a large tree. He kicked a heap of leaves together and lay down. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai found a place among the dry leaves on the other side of the enclosure. Soon they were sound asleep.
Chiao Tai was awakened by someone blowing on his face. Ma Joong whispered close to his ear:
'I have been out reconnoitering, brother. Two large junks are moored in the main creek, all ready to sail tomorrow morning. There are no watchmen. We could tap our friend Mao Loo on his head, and put him and the girl on one of those junks. But you and I couldn't possibly get that heavy junk out of the creek onto the river. Quite apart from the fact that one has to know the fairway.'
'Let's hide in the hold!' Chiao Tai whispered. 'Tomorrow, after the bastards have got the junk out on the river, we come out and take them by surprise.'
'Splendid!' Ma Joong said contentedly. 'Either we get them, or they get us. That's the kind of simple proposition I like. Well, as a rule they don't start before dawn; we still have time for a good nap.'
Soon they were snoring.
An hour before dawn Ma Joong got up. He shook Mao Loo by his shoulder. When he sat up, Ma Joong hit him unconscious with a hard blow on his temple. He bound Mao Loo's hands and feet tightly with the thin rope he carried round his waist, and gagged him with a strip of cloth he tore from his jacket. Then he woke up Chiao Tai, and together they went into the hut.
Chiao Tai took out his tinderbox and made light while Ma Joong woke up the girl.
'Me and my mate are from the tribunal in Han-yuan, Mrs. Djang,' he said. 'We have orders to take you back to the city.'
Moon Fairy looked them up and down suspiciously in the faint light. She said curtly:
'You can tell me many things! If you as much as touch me I'll shout!'
Ma Joong sighed and took out Judge Dee's letter, which he had concealed in the fold of the rag round his hair. She read it through, nodded, and asked quickly:
'How do we get away from here?'
After Ma Joong had explained their plan, she remarked:
'The guards bring the morning rice shortly after dawn. They'll raise the alarm when they find us gone.'
'I have been busy one hour during the night laying a false trail through the forest, in the opposite direction,' Ma Joong replied. 'You can trust us to know our job, dearie!'
'Keep a civil tongue in your mouth!' the girl snapped.
'A spirited wench!' Ma Joong said with a grin to Chiao Tai. They went outside. Ma Joong loaded Mao Loo on his shoulders. He was an expert in woodcraft; he led Chiao Tai and the girl unerringly through the dark forest to the creek. The black hulls of two large junks loomed up before them.
When they had gone aboard the one in front, Ma Joong went straight to the trap door aft and let Mao Loo slide down the steep ladder. Then he jumped down after him, and Chiao Tai and Moon Fairy followed. They were in a small kitchen. Forward the hold was filled to the ceiling with piles of large wooden boxes, with thick straw ropes wound round them.
'Climb up there, Chiao Tai,' Ma Joong said, 'and try to shove the upper boxes of the second row aside a bit. That'll be a good place to hide. I'll be back presently.'
He grabbed the toolbox that was lying in a corner and climbed up the ladder. While the girl inspected the kitchen, Chiao Tai hoisted himself up on top of the pile of boxes, and crawled into the narrow space between them
