adventures of her husband. When he had finished her eyes were full of tears. 'The poor, poor boy!' she said softly.
Ma Joong exchanged a quick glance with Chiao Tai. He whispered:
'Do you get what such a spanking wench sees in that mealy-mouthed weakling?'
But Chiao Tai didn't hear him; he was looking intently ahead. He exclaimed:
'Do you see those banners? That'll be the military post, brother!'
Ma Joong jumped up and shouted an order at the helmsman. Then he went to shorten the sail. Half an hour later the junk was lying alongside the quay.
Ma Joong handed Judge Dee's letter to the corporal in charge of the post. He reported that he was bringing in four robbers of Three Oaks Island, and one of their junks. 'I don't know what she is carrying,' he added, 'but it's plenty heavy!' They went to have a look at the cargo together with four soldiers. Just as the corporal, the soldiers had their helmets strapped on tightly, they wore iron shoulder and arm plates over their mail coats, and next to their swords they carried on their belts heavy battle-axes.
'Why do you fellows drag along all that ironware?' Ma Joong inquired, astonished.
The corporal gave him a worried look. He replied curtly:
'There are rumors about skirmishes with armed bands downriver. These four men are all I have left here; the rest have gone with my captain to Liu-chiang.'
In the meantime the soldiers had broken open one of the boxes. It was packed with iron helmets, leather jackets, swords, crossbows, arrows and other military goods. The helmets were marked in front with a small white lotus flower, and there was a bag with hundreds of small silver models of the same emblem. Chiao Tai put a handful of those in his sleeve. He said to the corporal:
'This junk was bound for Liu-chiang, and also a second one with forty armed robbers on board. But that one foundered upstream.'
'That's good news!' the corporal exclaimed. 'Else my captain would have been in trouble in Liu-chiang; he has only thirty men with him down there. Well, what can I do for you? Across the river there is the military post that guards the southern tip of your district, Han-yuan.'
'Have us ferried over there quick!' Ma Joong said.
Back in their own territory, Ma Joong requisitioned four horses. The sergeant in charge told them that if they rounded the lake they could be in the city in two or three hours.
Chiao Tai removed the gag from Mao Loo's mouth. He wanted to start cursing but his tongue was swollen and he could only bring out a few hoarse croaks. While Ma Joong tied Mao Loo's feet to the saddle girth he asked Mrs. Djang:
'Can you ride?'
'I'll manage!' she said. 'But I am a bit sore. Lend me your jacket!'
She placed his folded jacket on the saddle, then swung herself on the horse.
The cavalcade set out on the way back to the city.
Seventeenth Chapter
While Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, together with Mrs. Djang and their prisoner, were riding back to Han-yuan, Judge Dee was presiding over the afternoon session of the tribunal.
It was very hot and the judge felt clammy in his thick brocade dress. He was tired and in an irritable temper, having spent the preceding night and that entire morning with Sergeant Hoong and Tao Gan looking into the antecedents and manner of living of every single member of the personnel, without discovering a clue. None of the constables or clerks spent more money than he could afford; none of them was frequently absent or seemed in any other way suspect. The judge had the murder of Wan I-fan officially announced as suicide. The body had been put in a temporary coffin and placed in a cell of the jail, pending the autopsy.
The session dragged on, with a large number of routine matters. None of them was particularly important, yet if not dealt with at once there would result stagnation in the administration. The judge was assisted only by Sergeant Hoong. He had ordered Tao Gan to go downtown that afternoon and get an impression of the situation in the city.
Judge Dee heaved a sigh of relief when he could close the session. While Hoong was assisting him to change in his private office, Tao Gan came back. He said in a worried tone:
'There's something brewing downtown, Your Honor. I sat around a bit in the teahouses. People are expecting trouble, but nobody knows what it's all about. There are vague rumors about robber bands assembling in our neighbor district Chiang-pei. Some people whisper that armed robbers are planning to cross the river and come here to Han-yuan. When 1 walked back here, die shopkeepers were already putting up their shutters. Their closing shop so early is always a bad sign.'
The judge pulled at his mustache. He said slowly to his two helpers:
'It started a few weeks ago. I felt it directly after my arrival here, but now it is taking a more definite shape.'
'I noticed that I was being followed,' Tao Gan resumed. 'That was only to be expected; I know many people downtown, and the fact that I was concerned in the arrest of the monk is, of course, being talked about.'
'Did you know the man who followed you?' Judge Dee asked.
'No, Your Honor. It was a powerfully built, tall fellow with a red face and a ring beard.'
'Did you have the guards arrest him when you arrived at the gate here?' the judge asked eagerly.
'No, Your Honor,' Tao Gan replied sadly. 'I couldn't manage that. Another fellow joined him when I was passing through a back street near the Temple, and they were closing in on me. I halted in front of an oil shop, next to a large vat that was standing on the sidewalk. When the big fellow came for me I tripped him up so that he fell against the oil vat, which toppled over. The oil ran all over the street, and four sturdy millers came rushing out of the shop. The ruffian said it was all my fault because I had attacked him, but after one look at the two of us the oil millers decided he was fooling them and fell on him. The last I saw was,' Tao Gan concluded contentedly, 'that they were breaking a stone jar to pieces on the head of the tall fellow, while the other rascal was running off like a hare.'
Judge Dee gave the thin man a searching look. He remembered what Ma Joong had told him about Tao Gan luring the monk to the inn. He reflected that this innocent-looking scarecrow apparently could be a very nasty opponent.
Suddenly the door opened, and Ma Joong and Chiao Tai came in, with Mrs. Djang between them.
'Mao Loo has been put in jail, Your Honor!' Ma Joong announced triumphantly. 'This girl is the missing bride!'
'Well done!' Judge Dee said with a broad smile. Motioning the girl to be seated, he addressed her kindly: 'You are doubtless eager to go home, madam. In due time you'll deliver testimony in the
A GIRL MALTREATED IN A BROTHEL
tribunal. Now I only want you to give me an account of what happened after you had been placed in the Buddhist Temple, so that I can check on a murder that was committed there. The unfortunate occurrence that brought you in your predicament is already known to me.'
Moon Fairy's cheeks went scarlet. After a while she mastered herself and began:
'For one horrible moment I thought that the coffin had been buried already. Then I noticed a faint whiff of air that came through the cracks between the boards. I tried to push up the lid with all my force, but it didn't budge.
