When the sergeant had left to attend to those matters, Judge Dee spoke to Ma Joong and Chiao Tai:
'Violence often breeds violence. If we don't take measures immediately, further disorders may arise. Lawless elements may loot the shops; with the garrison away it will be difficult to curb them once they break loose. I shall again go out in the general's palankeen and show myself in the main streets to prevent disorder. You two will ride by my side, with your bows ready to shoot on the spot anyone who tries to create disorder.'
First they went to the temple of the tutelary deity of the city. The procession consisted only of Judge Dee in his palankeen, with Ma Joong and Chiao Tai riding by his side, and two constables in front and behind. The judge, clad in his full official dress, was there for all to see as he sat in the open palankeen. A subdued crowd respectfully made way for him. The people did not cheer. They seemed to be ashamed of the violence that had been committed.
Judge Dee burned incense in the temple and in an earnest prayer offered his apologies to the deity, begging him to forgive the defilement of the town. For the tutelary deity does not like the earth within the city he presides over to be polluted with blood. It is for that reason that the execution ground is always located outside the city gates.
From there Judge Dee proceeded westward to the Temple of Confucius and there offered incense before the tablets of the Immortal Sage and his illustrious disciples. Thereafter he went north, passed the park outside the northern wall of the tribunal compound and offered also a prayer in the Temple of the War God.
The people in the streets were very quiet. They had read the placards and there were no signs of unrest. The fury of the crowd had spent itself with the massacre of the monks.
Having thus satisfied himself that there was no fear of further disorder, Judge Dee returned to the tribunal.
Soon the general came back from the Temple of Boundless Mercy, and with him the entire personnel of the tribunal.
The general handed the judge the inventory. He reported that all funds and valuables, including the golden sacrificial vessels, had been placed in the treasure house of the temple and that the doors were now sealed. The general had taken the liberty of sending for spears and swords from his own armoury and issued these to his retainers and the constables. He had left twenty of his men and ten constables guarding the temple. The old general was in high spirits and seemed to enjoy thoroughly this break in the dull routine of retired life.
Judge Wan and Guildmaster Ling came in to report that they had verified that it had been impossible for judge Dee to take cognisance of the communication regarding the calling up of the garrison.
Then all proceeded to the large reception hall where refreshments were served.
When the constables had placed extra tables and chairs, all sat down to work. Under Judge Dee's direction a detailed report on the events of that day was drafted.
Whenever necessary the scribes took down special statements of witnesses. Once Apricot and Blue Jade were summoned from the judge's mansion to deliver a full statement and affix their thumb-marks. Judge Dee added a special clause reporting that it had been impossible to find the culprits who had actually killed the monks in a crowd of several hundred people; that since the provocation had been great, and since no further disorder had ensued, he respectfully recommended that no punitive measures be taken against the citizens of Poo-yang.
Night had fallen when, at last, the draft of the report together with its various enclosures had been completed. Judge Dee invited the old general, the retired judge and the two guildmasters to join him at the evening meal.
The indefatigable general seemed inclined to accept, but Judge Wan and the two others begged to be excused since they felt tired after such a strenuous day. Thus the general had to decline the invitation too and all took their leave.
Judge Dee personally conducted them to their palankeens and again expressed his gratitude for their valuable assistance.
Then the judge changed into an informal robe and retired to his own quarters.
In the main hall of his mansion he found his First Lady presiding over a festive dish with his Second and Third Ladies as well as Apricot and Blue Jade gathered round it.
They all rose and welcomed the judge. He sat down at the head of the table and while tasting the steaming dishes enjoyed the harmonious atmosphere of his home that he had been missing so much during the past weeks.
When the dishes had been cleared away and tea was being served by the steward, Judge Dee said to Apricot and Blue Jade:
'This afternoon, while drawing up the report on this case for the higher authorities, I inserted a recommendation to the effect that four bars of gold should be taken from the confiscated funds of the Temple of Boundless Mercy and presented to each of you as a small reward for your assistance in solving this case.
'Pending the approval of this proposal, I shall send by courier an official letter to the magistrate of your native district requesting that he make enquiries about your family. Perhaps August Heaven has granted that your parents are still alive. And should they have passed away, other members of your family will certainly be located to receive you. I shall have you conducted there as soon as a military transport leaves for Hunan Province.'
Judge Dee smiled kindly at the two girls and went on:
'You shall have a letter of introduction to the local authorities, recommending you to their care. With the reward of the government you will be able to purchase some land or open a shop. No doubt your family will in due time arrange a suitable marriage for you.'
Apricot and Blue Jade knelt bowing their heads to the floor several times in expression of gratitude.
Judge Dee rose and took leave of his ladies.
On the way back to the tribunal Judge Dee passed the open corridor that led through the garden to the front gate of his mansion. Suddenly he heard light footsteps behind him. Turning round, he saw Apricot standing there alone, her eyes downcast.
She bowed deeply but did not speak.
'Well, Apricot,' Judge Dee said kindly, 'if there is anything else I can do, please don't hesitate to speak!'
'My lord,' Apricot said softly, 'it is true that one's heart always longs for one's native place. Yet, since a propitious fate has placed my sister and myself under Your Honour's protection, both of us feel extremely reluctant to leave this mansion which has become dear to us. And since Your Honour's First Lady kindly said that it would gratify her if____________________'
Judge Dee raised his hand and said with a smile:
'That meetings end in separation is the way of this world! You will soon realise that you are happier as the first wife of an honest fanner of your own village rather than as the fourth or fifth wife of a district magistrate. Pending the closing of this case you and your sister will honour my mansion as guests.'
Having thus spoken Judge Dee bowed and persuaded himself that the drops he had seen glistening on Apricot's cheek were a trick of the moonlight.
As he entered the main courtyard, Judge Dee noticed that all the rooms of the chancery were still brilliantly lighted. There the scribes and the clerks were still busy writing out the report that had been drafted that afternoon.
In his private office the judge found his four lieutenants. They were listening to the headman of the constables who, on the order of Sergeant Hoong, had made the round of the watch-posts near Lin Fan's mansion. It appeared, however, that nothing had happened there during their absence.
Judge Dee dismissed the headman and, having seated himself behind his desk, looked through the other official documents that had come in. Putting three letters apart he said to Sergeant Hoong:
'These are the reports from three military posts along the canal. They stopped and searched several junks bearing the markings of Lin Fan's firm, but found nothing but bona fide cargo. It seems that we are too late for obtaining proof of Lin Fan's smuggling.'
The judge then disposed of the rest of the correspondence, jotting down
directions for the scribe in the margin of each document with his vermilion brush.
Then he drank a cup of tea and settled back in his arm-chair.
'Last night,' he said to Ma Joong, 'I went in disguise to the Temple of Transcendental Wisdom and paid a visit to your friend Sheng Pa. I had a close look at that deserted temple. It seems that something queer is going on inside. I heard some strange sounds,'
Ma Joong glanced doubtfully at Sergeant Hoong, and Chiao Tai looked uncomfortable. Tao Gan slowly pulled at the three hairs that grew from the mole on his left cheek. No one said a word.
Their manifest lack of enthusiasm did not perturb the judge.
'That temple,' he continued, 'has excited my curiosity. This morning we had ample experience with a Buddhist temple. Why should we not supplement that tonight with a sample of a Taoist sanctuary?'
Ma Joong smiled bleakly. Rubbing his big hands on his knees he said:
'Your Honour, I dare say that in a single combat I fear no man in the Empire. But as to mixing with the denizens of the other world____________________'
'I am not,' Judge Dee interrupted him, 'an incredulous man and I would be the last to deny that on occasion phenomena of the Nether World are found in the daily life of common mortals. On the other hand I am firmly convinced that he whose conscience is clear need fear neither ghosts nor goblins. Justice reigns supreme in both worlds, the seen and the unseen.
'Moreover, I shall not hide from you, my loyal friends, that the events of today and the period of waiting preceding them, have not left me undisturbed. I expect that an investigation in that Taoist temple will rest my mind.'
Sergeant Hoong tugged thoughtfully at his beard. He observed:
'If we go there, Your Honour, what about Sheng Pa and his gang? I take it that our visit will have to be a secret one.'
'I have thought of that,' Judge Dee replied. 'You, Tao Gan, will now go to the warden of that quarter. Tell him to go to the Temple of Transcendental Wisdom and inform Sheng Pa that he must leave that place immediately. Those fellows are shy of the authorities and they will have disappeared before the warden has finished talking! But tell the headman anyway to go there also with ten constables, in case the warden needs assistance.
'In the meantime we shall change into inconspicuous robes and go to the neighbourhood in an ordinary palankeen, as soon as Tao Gan has returned. I shall take nobody but the four of you. But don't forget to bring four paper lanterns and a good supply of candles with you!'
Tao Gan went to the quarters of the guards and ordered the headman to collect ten constables.
Tightening his girdle, the headman remarked with a broad smile to the others:
'Isn't it curious how soon a magistrate will improve if he has an experienced headman like me? Look, when His Excellency arrived here he immediately went all out for that vulgar murder in Half Moon Street, where there was not one single copper cash to be earned. Soon after, however, he became interested in the Buddhist temple and that place looks like the abode of the God of Wealth himself! I anticipate with pleasure more work there, when the decision of the higher authorities has come in.'
'I thought,' a constable said nastily, 'that your inspection of the watchpost near Lin Fan's mansion this afternoon was not unprofitable either!'
'That,' the headman sternly rebuked him, 'was just an exchange of amenities between two gentlemen. Mr Lin Fan's steward wished to express his appreciation of my courteous attitude.'
'That steward's voice,' another constable observed, 'had a remarkably silvery ring.'
With a sigh the headman extracted one silver piece from his girdle and threw it to the constable, who caught it dexterously.
'I am not a stingy man,' the headman said, 'and you may divide that among yourselves. Since you rascals keep an eye on everything you may as well hear the whole story. The steward presented me with a few silver pieces, asking if tomorrow I could take for him a letter to a friend. I replied that I would certainly do so if I were there tomorrow. Since tomorrow I shall not be there, I shall not be able to accept that letter. Thus I don't disobey His Excellency's orders, I don't offend a gentleman by declining a courteous gift and I don't depart from the standard of rigid honesty I have set for myself.'
The constables agreed that that was an eminently reasonable attitude. All left the guard house to join Tao Gan.
Twentieth Chapter:
AN EMPTY TAOIST TEMPLE POSES MANY A VEXING PROBLEM; A DESERTED COURTYARD DELIVERS UP ITS GRUESOME SECRET
When the second nightwatch was being sounded Tao Gan came back. The judge drank a cup of tea, then changed into a simple blue robe and put a black skull cap on his head. Accompanied by his four lieutenants he left the tribunal by a small side gate.
They rented sedan chairs in the street and had themselves carried to the crossing near the Temple of Transcendental Wisdom. There they paid off the bearers and continued on foot.
In the yard in front of the temple it was pitch dark, and very still. Evidently the warden and the constables had done their job well, Sheng Pa and his vagabonds had left.
Judge Dee said to Tao Gan in an undertone:
'You'll force the lock of the side door, on the left of the main gate. Don't make more noise than is strictly necessary!'
Tao Gan squatted down and wrapped his neckcloth round his lantern. When he had struck his flint and lighted it, only one thin ray shone through, sufficient for guiding his steps as he went up the broad stairs. – -
When he had located the locked side gate he carefully scrutinised it by the light of his lantern. His failure to discover the secret panel in the Temple of Boundless Mercy had wounded his pride, he was determined to execute this order quickly and expertly. He took a set of thin iron hooks from his sleeve and set to work on the lock. Soon he could open it and take down the crossbar. When he gave the door a gentle push it swung open. There was no second crossbar on the inside. He hurriedly went down the steps to report to Judge Dee that they could enter the temple.
All of them climbed up the stairs.
Judge Dee waited a few moments in front of the gate, listening intently for sounds within. But everything remained silent as the grave. Then they stole inside, the judge leading the way.
Judge Dee whispered to Sergeant Hoong to light his lantern. As he held it high they saw that they were in the large front hall of the temple. On the right they noticed the inside of the triple front gate, provided with heavy crossbars. Evidently the side door through which they had just come in was the only means by which one could enter without breaking down the thick doors of the main gate.
On the left stood an altar, almost ten feet high, carrying three enormous gilded statues of the Taoist Triad. One could see their hands raised in benediction, their shoulders and heads remained hidden in the darkness on high.
Judge Dee stooped and scrutinised the floor. The wooden boards were covered with a thick layer of dust, showing only the tiny traces left by rats.
He beckoned his companions and walked round the altar, into a dark corridor. When Sergeant Hoong raised his lantern, Ma Joong uttered an oath. The light shone on a severed woman's head with distorted features and dripping with blood. It was held up by a claw-like hand clutching its hair.
Tao Gan and Chiao Tai stood stock-still in horrified silence. But Judge Dee remarked in a calm voice:
'Don't get excited! As is usual in a Taoist temple, the walls of this corridor show a panorama of the Ten Courts of Hell, with all its horrors! It is live men we should be afraid of!'
Despite Judge Dee's reassuring words his lieutenants were deeply shocked by the fearful scenes an ancient artist had sculptured in wood along both walls of the corridor. They were life-size, luridly coloured representations of the punishments meted out to the souls of the wicked in the Taoist Nether World. Here blue and red devils were sawing people asunder, impaling them on swords, or removing their entrails with iron forks. There a number of unfortunates were thrown into cauldrons of boiling oil or had their eyes pluc
ked out by infernal birds of prey.
Having traversed this corridor of horrors, the judge slowly pushed a double door open. They looked out on the first courtyard. The moon had come out, its rays shone on a neglected garden. A bell tower stood in the centre, near a lotus pond of fanciful shape. The tower consisted of a stone platform of about twenty feet square, and raised about six feet above the ground. Four thick red-lacquered pillars supported a graceful pointed roof, decked with green-glazed tiles. The large bronze bell, ordinarily suspended from the cross-beams under the roof had now been let down on the platform, as is usually done when a temple is vacated, in order to preserve it from damage. This bell was about ten feet high, the outside was covered by intricate ornamental designs.
Judge Dee silently surveyed this peaceful scene. Then he led his assistants along the open corridor that went round the courtyard.
The rows of small rooms along this corridor were completely empty, the floors were covered with dust. When the temple was still in use these rooms had served for receiving guests and for reading the holy books.
The gate at the back led to the second courtyard, surrounded by the empty cells of the monks. At the back there was a large, open kitchen.
This seemed to be all there was to see in the Temple of Transcendental Wisdom.
By the side of the kitchen Judge Dee noticed a narrow door.
'I assume,' he said, 'that this is the back door of the compound. We might as well open it and see which street runs behind this temple.'
He gave a sign to Tao Gan, who quickly opened the rusty padlock that secured the heavy iron crossbar.
The Chinese Bell Murders Page 19