The two ruffians who had dragged Ma Joong from his horse were ready to cut him down with their swords while he was scrambling up. Unfortunately for them, however, they were up against a formidable fighter, who only a few years back had himself been a famous highwayman. Until judge Dee had caused their reform, both Ma Joong and Chiao Tai had been 'brothers of the green woods'. Thus there were very few things about roadside fighting that Ma Joong did not know. Instead of trying to get up he twisted his body round, gripped the ankle of one attacker and jerked him off his balance. At the same time Ma Joong placed a vicious kick on the other man's knee. This double move gave him time to jump up. He felled the stumbling man with a terrible fist blow on his head. Turning round like lightning he gave the man who was clasping his crushed knee a kick in the face that made his head snap back and nearly broke his neck.
Drawing his sword Ma Joong rushed over to Chiao Tai who lay on the ground wrestling desperately with a man clinging to his back. Two others stood ready with long knives to stab Chiao Tai as soon as they got the chance. Ma Joong ran his sword right through the chest of one robber. Without taking the time to withdraw his sword he went on to the second and gave him a kick in his groin that doubled him up on the ground. Picking up the robber's long knive Ma Joong thrust it under the left shoulder of the man fighting with Chiao Tai.
Just when he was helping Chiao Tai up, Ma Joong heard Judge Dee call out: 'Look out!'
Ma Joong swiftly turned round, and thus the club of Judge Dee's assailant who had ran up to help his comrades, missed Ma Joong's head. It landed with a thud on his left shoulder. He sank down with a curse. The robber lifted his club to brain Chiao Tai. The latter had drawn his knife, he dived under the robber's raised arm and plunged his knife to the hilt in the other's heart.
Judge Dee, now only faced with the swordsman, made quick work of him. He made a feint with his spear at his attacker who raised his sword to parry the blow. Then Judge Dee suddenly practised the fencer's trick known as 'the tumbling flag pole'; he turned the spear round in the air and brained his opponent with a blow of the shaft.
Leaving it to Chiao Tai to truss up the robbers, Judge Dee ran on to the luggage carts. One robber was sprawling on the ground, clutching frantically at his neck. The other, with a knobstick in his hand, was looking under the cart. The judge laid him out by hitting him over the head with the flat of his spear point.
Tao Gan came crawling out from under the cart, with a thin rope in his hand.
'What is happening here?', the judge inquired.
Tao Gan answered with a grin:
'One of these yokels knocked down the steward, the other hit a glancing blow on my head. I let myself fall down with a horrible gasp, and did not move. They thought that I was laid out and started to tear down the luggage. I rose and from behind slipped my thin noose over the head of the nearest ruffian. Then I dived under the cart, pulling the cord as tight as I could. The other robber could not follow me there without exposing himself, and his club was of no use. He was just debating with himself what to do, when Your Honour solved his dilemma for him.'
judge Dee smiled, then hurried back to where he heard Ma Joong cursing roundly. Tao Gan took a length of catgut from his sleeve and securely bound the hands and feet of the two robbers. Then he loosened the noose round the neck of the man who by now was nearly suffocating.
These two robbers had been deceived by Tao Gan's inoffensive appearance. Tao Gan was of middle age, not much of a fighter, but an extremely wily person, who for many years had earned his living as a professional swindler. Once, Judge Dee had extricated him from an ugly situation, and made him one of his lieutenants. Owing to his intimate knowledge of the ways and by-ways of the underworld he had proved very useful for tracking down criminals and collecting evidence. And, as the robber with the blue face had good reason to know, Tao Gan was full of unexpected tricks.
When he came to the head of the cortege, Judge Dee found Chiao Tai in a hand-to-hand fight with one of Ma Joong's first attackers who had recovered from the blow on his head. Ma Joong himself was crouching on the ground, his left arm lamed by the blow on his shoulder. With his right he tried to fight off the attacks of a little robber, who danced round him with amazing agility, brandishing a short dagger.
The judge raised his spear. Just then Ma Joong succeeded in catching his opponent's wrist. He twisted his arm in an iron grip till the robber let the dagger drop. Then Ma Joong forced him down and put his knee on his stomach.
The robber let out a pitiful cry.
Ma Joong rose to his feet with difficulty, while his captive hammered his head and shoulders with fistblows from his free hand. These, however, did not seem to bother Ma Joong. He said panting to the judge:
'Would you remove the mask, Your Honour?'
Judge Dee pulled down the scarf. Ma Joong exclaimed:
'May Heaven preserve us! It's a wench!'
They looked into the blazing eyes of a young girl. Ma Joong let go her arm in sheer astonishment.
Judge Dee hastily pinned her arms behind her back and said sourly:
'Well, on occasion one will find an abandoned woman among these robber bands. Tie her up as the others!'
Ma Joong called out to Chiao Tai who by now had subdued and trussed up his opponent. Ma Joong remained standing there scratching his head in perplexity while Chiao Tai bound the girl's hands behind her back. She did not say a word.
Judge Dee went to the tilt cart with the women. His First Lady was crouching in the window with a dagger in her hand. The others were cowering under the quilts in a dead fright.
The judge told them that the fight was over.
Judge Dee's servants and the coachmen had emerged from their hiding places. They hastily set to work to light torches.
In the flickering light Judge Dee surveyed the results of the battle.
On their own side there was little damage. Sergeant Hoong had regained consciousness, and had his head bandaged by Tao Gan. The old steward had suffered more from fright than from the robber's blow. Ma Joong was sitting on a tree trunk stripped to the waist. His left shoulder was purple and swollen, and Chiao Tai was massaging it with medicinal oil.
Ma Joong had killed two robbers, Ghiao Tai one. The six others were all more or less the worse for wear, only the girl was entirely unhurt.
The judge ordered his servants to tie the robbers on top of one luggage cart, and the dead bodies on the other. The girl would have to walk.
Tao Gan produced a padded basket, and the judge and his lieutenants drunk a cup of hot tea.
Ma Joong rinsed his mouth, spat contemptuously and said to Chiao Tai:
'All in all, it was an amateurish attack. I don't think that these fellows are professional highwaymen.'
'Yes', Chiao Tai agreed, 'with ten men they could have done a better job.'
'They did well enough for my taste', Judge Dee remarked dryly.
They silently drank another cup of tea. All were exhausted and no one felt inclined to say much. One only heard the whispering voices of the servants, and the groans of the wounded robbers.
After a brief rest the cortege set into motion again. Two servants with lighted torches led the way.
It took them well over an hour to cross the last mountain ridge. Then the road came out on a broad highway, and soon they saw the battlements of the northern city gate of Lan-fang silhouetted against the evening sky.
Second Chapter
Chiao Tai looked amazed at the formidable gate surmounted by a high gate tower. Then he remembered that Lan-fang was a border town where one had to reckon with sudden attacks from the barbarian hordes of the western plains.
