Murder in Canton

XVIII

They stepped down in front of the ornamental gate that marked the west entrance of the market. Inside, the crowd had not yet thinned, and all the passages were brightly lit by oil lamps and coloured lampions.

Peering over the heads of the crowd, Chiao Tai noticed a pole from which hung a number of small cages. He halted and said:

'There's a cricket dealer ahead. Let's ask him for a good place hereabouts to catch crickets.'

'You don't expect him to tell us the tricks of his trade, do you? He'll say he catches them in the mountains thirty miles up river, and then only on the third day of the waning moon! We'd better cross the market, leave by the south gate, and have a look at that deserted place where they are pulling down old houses. It's there that I met her.'

When they were passing the cricket stall, they heard violent curses followed by agonized screams. They elbowed the onlookers aside and saw that the dealer was pulling a boy of about fifteen hard by his ears. Then he slapped him soundly and shouted, 'Now you go and get those cages you forgot, you lazybones!' He sent the boy outside with a well-aimed kick.

'After him!' Tao Gan hissed.

In the next passage Tao Gan overtook the boy who was stumb­ling along holding his hands over his ears. He put his hand on his shoulder and said:

'Your boss is a first-class bastard; last week he cheated me out of a silver piece.' As the boy wiped his tear-stained face, Tao Gan went on, 'My friend and I were thinking of catching a few good fighting-crickets tonight. What place would you suggest, as an expert?'

'Catching a good fighter is no work for amateurs,' the boy de­clared importantly. 'They change their places ever so often, you see. Until a couple of days ago, you had a good chance near the Temple of the War God. Lots of people still go there. Nothing doing! We insiders know. It's the Examination Hall you have to go to now!’

'Thanks very much! Put a centipede in your boss's boot to­morrow morning. That's always a nice surprise.'

As he was guiding Chiao Tai to the east gate of the market, Tao Gan resumed contritely:

'I ought to have thought of that! The Examination Hall is two streets to the east and takes up an entire block. There are several hundred cells there, since candidates for the Autumnal Literary Examinations gather here in Canton from all over the province. This time of the year the Hall is empty — an ideal place to hide! And for catching a few good crickets into the bargain!’

'But isn't the compound guarded?'

'There'll be a caretaker, but he won't take much care! No vaga­bonds or beggars would dare to take shelter there. Don't you know that Examination Halls are always haunted?'

'Good heavens, that's true!’ Chiao Tai exclaimed. He remem­bered that every year, during the public literary examinations held all over the Empire, many poor students committed suicide. They had to toil at the Classics day and night, often pawning their belongings or contracting debts at atrocious interest, in order to be able to continue their studies. If they passed, they got an official post at once, and their troubles were over. Failure, how­ever, meant at best another year of gruelling work, often financial ruin, and sometimes utter disgrace. Therefore, when a student had been locked into his cell for the day and saw that the examination papers were too difficult for him, he often ended his life then and there, in despair. Chiao Tai unconsciously slackened his pace. He halted at a stall and bought a small lantern. 'It'll be pitch-dark inside!’ he muttered to Tao Gan.

They left the market by the east gate. A brief walk brought them to the Examination Hall.

The blind wall of the compound ran the entire length of the dark, deserted street. Round the corner a high red gatehouse marked the one and only entrance. The double doors were closed, but the narrow side gate stood ajar. When Chiao Tai and Tao Gan had gone inside, they saw a light behind the window of the care­taker's lodge. They slipped past it, and hurriedly entered the paved road that crossed the compound from north to south.

Lit only by the uncertain moonlight, the road ran straight as a die as far as they could see. On either side was an interminable row of identical doors. Each cell contained only a small desk and a chair. On the morning of the examination each student was put in one with his food-box. After he had been expertly searched for miniature dictionaries or other cribs, the examination papers were handed to him and the door was sealed. It was opened again only at dusk, when the completed papers were collected. In the autumn, when the examinations were in progress the place was a beehive of activity. But now it was as quiet as the grave.

'How many of those damned cells do we have to search?' Chiao Tai asked peevishly. He didn't like the eerie atmosphere.

'Couple of hundred!’ Tao Gan replied cheerfully. 'But let's first reconnoitre a bit and get the layout.'

Walking along the desolate passages and studying the numbers marking the cell doors, they soon found that the rows of cells were built in quadrangles around a paved yard. There stood an imposing, two-storeyed building, the Examination Hall, where the examiners gathered to study and mark the papers handed in.

Tao Gan halted in his steps. Pointing at the building, he said: 'That's an even better place for hiding than those cramped cells! Inside you have any amount of tables, couches, chairs, and what not!'

Chiao Tai did not answer. He had been staring up at the bal­cony that jutted out from the east corner of the second floor. Now he whispered:

'Hush! I saw something move up there!’

The two men looked intently at the balcony for a while. It was screened by intricate latticework, that showed but one small win­dow. The curved end of the roof was outlined clearly against the starry sky. But nothing was stirring.

They quickly crossed the yard, went up the marble steps, and stood close to the door, so that the eaves overhead made them invisible from above. When Tao Gan found the door was not locked, he carefully pushed it open, and they went into the pitch-dark hall.

'I'll light the lantern,' Chiao Tai whispered. 'Light won't make any difference; it's her acute hearing we must reckon with!'

The light of the lantern showed that the spacious hall was octagonal. Against the back wall was the high, throne-like plat­form from which the Chief Examiner proclaimed the results. Over it hung an enormous red-lacquered board, bearing the engraved inscription: 'Braving the current, the Jade Gate is reached' — meaning a student would be successful if he emulated the force and perseverance of the carp swimming upstream every year. On either side of the hall were two flights of stairs. They went up the staircase on the right, calculating that that must bring them to the east corner of the second floor.

However, the circular hall upstairs did not match the sym­metrical pattern of the ground floor. They saw no less than eight narrow door-openings. Tao Gan orientated himself, then entered the second on their right, drawing Chiao Tai with him. But at the end they only found two empty, dusty office rooms. They ran noiselessly out again and into the next passage. When Tao Gan had slowly pushed open the door at the end of it, he found himself on a small balcony, open on all three sides. On his right was the screened balcony they had seen from below. Across the intervening space of about fifteen feet, he vaguely saw a seated girl, bent over a table. She seemed to be reading.

'It's her!’ Tao Gan whispered close to Chiao Tai's ear. 'I recog­nize her profile!'

Chiao Tai muttered something. He pointed at the long rows of cells down below, crossed by the white pavement of the passages dividing them.

'Something small and black just crept along the cells to the left there,' he whispered hoarsely. 'Then another. They have no legs, only long, spidery arms!' Gripping Tao Gan's arm tightly, he added: 'They suddenly disappeared into the shadows. They aren't human, I tell you!'

'Must be a trick of the moonlight,' Tao Gan whispered back. 'Let's go get the girl, she's human all right!’

He turned round. At the same time there was a loud crash. The slip of his robe had caught on the thorny branch of a potted rose, standing on a slender base in the corner of the balcony.

They ran inside again and paused for a moment in the circular hall. Hearing and seeing nothing, they rushed into the next pas­sage. It ended in a small reading-room. Cursing roundly, they ran back and entered the third passage. This one brought them at last to the screened balcony. But she was not there anymore.

Chiao Tai ran back to the hall and down the stairs, hoping to overtake the fugitive. Tao Gan quickly surveyed the small room. There was a narrow bamboo couch, its padded cover neatly folded up. On the table stood a diminutive cage of silver filigree. As soon as Tao Gan lifted it up, the cricket inside began to chirrup. He put it down again and picked up two folded pieces of paper. Taking them to the window, he saw they were maps. One represented the estuary of the Pearl River, the other the Arab quarter round the mosque. Chiao Tai's Inn of the Five Immortals had been marked with a red dot.

He put the maps and the cage in his sleeve and walked back to the hall. Chiao Tai came upstairs, panting.

'She fooled us all right, brother!’ he said disgustedly. 'The back door's standing ajar. How could a blind person make such a quick getaway?'

Tao Gan silently showed him the maps.

'How could a blind person study maps?' he asked crossly. 'Well, let's quickly have a look around down in the compound, any­way.'

'All right. We won't get the girl, but I'd like a second look at those weird dark things I saw creeping along. Just to make sure I'm not the one who's getting eye trouble!’

They went downstairs and out into the paved yard. Then they walked along the rows of cells in the east section of the com­pound, occasionally opening a door at random. But there was nothing in the small dark rooms besides the standard equipment of desk and chair. Suddenly, they heard a muffled cry.

'In the next row!’ Chiao Tai hissed.

They ran down the passage as fast as they could. Chiao Tai reached the corner well ahead of Tao Gan and was round it like a flash. About half-way down, a cell door was standing ajar. He heard the sound of a chair, crashing to the floor, then the piercing shriek of a woman. When Chiao Tai reached the door, the shriek­ing stopped abruptly. Just as he was about to push it open, he felt a length of smooth silk close round his throat.

His fighter's instinct made him press his chin to his breast and strain his heavy neck muscles. At the same time he threw himself with his hands on the ground and turned a quick somersault, his assailant still clinging to his back. This is the deadly countermove against a stranglehold from behind. While his full body weight crashed down on the man under him he felt a searing pain in his throat. But at that moment there was a sickening sound of snap­ping bones, and the silk round his neck grew slack.

He was on his feet in a trice and tore the silk scarf from his neck. Another small, squat man burst from the cell opposite. Chiao Tai tried to grab him but missed. As he went after him, he was suddenly stopped by a fearful jerk on his right arm. It was caught in a wax-thread noose. While he was trying desperately to loosen it, the small dark shape disappeared at the far end of the passage.

'Sorry!' Tao Gan panted behind him. 'I aimed my noose at the man's head!’

'You are out of practice, brother, Tao!’ Chiao Tai snapped. 'The dog escaped.' He looked sourly at the scarf and felt the silver coin tied to its corner. Then he put the scarf in his sleeve.

A slender figure came from the cell and Chiao Tai felt two soft bare arms round his neck, and a small curly head pressing against his breast. Then a second girl came out of the cell door behind him, clutching her torn trousers.

'Almighty heaven!’ Chiao Tai exclaimed. 'The awful twins!’

Dunyazad let go of him. Tao Gan raised the lantern. The light shone on the twins' pale faces and on their bare torsos, disfigured by ugly bruises and bleeding scratches.

'The devils tried to rape us!’ Dunyazad sobbed.

'And severally, too!' Chiao Tai remarked with a grin. 'It wouldn't even have been a shared experience! Speak up, how did you two get here?'

Dananir wiped her face.

'It's all her fault!’ she cried out. 'She dared me!’ She gave her crying sister a venomous look and went on hurriedly: 'The cap­tain didn't turn up for dinner, so we decided to have a bowl of noodles in the market. Then she said that there were ghosts in this compound and I said no there weren't and she said yes there were and I'd never dare go inside. So we came here, slipped by the caretaker's lodge and had a quick look at the first passage. Just when we wanted to run out of this creepy place again, those two awful small men came out of nowhere and chased us. We ran like hares, into this cell, but they forced the door open. One dragged my sister to the cell opposite, the other held me with my back down on the table and began to tear at my trousers.' Holding the torn garment close to her, she added with satisfac­tion, 'When he tried to kiss me, I poked my thumb in his left eye.'

'They were growling and muttering in some horrible language all the time!’ Dunyazad wailed. 'They can't be human!’

'This one was human enough to have his back broken,' Tao Gan remarked. He had been examining the figure sprawling on the pavement. Chiao Tai recognized the wizened face: the high cheekbones, flat nose and low corrugated forehead.

'One of the waterfolk,' he told Tao Gan. 'They were after the blind girl again. Would have finished her off too, up there on the balcony. But their little lecherous interlude spoiled everything. Well, let's see these two enterprising wenches home!’

The two girls went inside the cell. When they came out they looked fairly presentable in their flowered jackets and trousers. They meekly followed Chiao Tai and Tao Gan to the caretaker's lodge.

After repeated knocking the man thrust his sleep-heavy face through the door. Chiao Tai told them who they were, and ordered him to lock the gate behind them, then wait till the con­stables came to fetch a dead body. 'And I don't mean you!’ he added unkindly.

They took the street leading south. A short walk brought them to Captain Nee's house.

The captain himself opened the gate. Seeing the twins, he said with relief:

'Heaven be praised! What have you been up to again?'

The twins rushed into his arms and began to babble excitedly in what Chiao Tai assumed to be Persian.

'Put them to bed, captain!’ he cut them short. 'They came very near to losing what they presumably refer to as the flower of their maidenhood. You better see to it personally that tonight that danger is eliminated once and for all!’

'That might be a good idea!’ Nee said, giving the two girls a fond smile.

'Good luck! But for heaven's sake don't let them abuse their new status, captain! My oldest friend, my blood-brother, in fact, married twins. Before his marriage he was a fine boxer, and a splendid wencher and winebibber. And what has become of him now, eh, Tao Gan?'

Tao Gan pursed his lips and sadly shook his head.

'What happened to him?' the captain asked, curious.

'He went into decline,' Chiao Tai replied darkly. 'Good-bye!'