The Chinese Gold Murders

NINTH CHAPTER

THE peasants working in the fields outside the west city gate lifted their heads and gaped at the cavalcade they saw passing along the mud road. Judge Dee rode in front, followed by Sergeant Hoong, Ma Joong and Chiao Tai. Behind them came the headman of the constables with ten of his men, all on horseback.

Judge Dee had decided to take the short cut to Fan Choong's farm. But he soon saw that Kim Sang had been right, it was a very bad road indeed. The dried mud had hardened into deep furrows, their horses had to step slowly, and mostly they rode in single file.

When they had passed a patch of mulberry trees, the headman forced his horse into the field and rode up to the judge. Pointing at a small farmhouse standing on an elevated spot ahead he said officiously, "That is Fan's farm, your honor!"

Giving him a sour look, judge Dee said sternly, "I won't have you trample the peasants' good fields, headman! I know that is Fan's farm, because I took the trouble to look at the map."

The crestfallen headman waited till judge Dee's three assistants had passed him. Then he muttered to the eldest of his men, "What a martinet we have got! And those two bullies he has brought along! Yesterday they made me take part in the drill, me, the headman!"

"It's a hard life," the constable sighed. "And I, I don't have relatives who leave me a snug little farm."

When they had come to a small thatched but by the roadside, judge Dee jumped from his horse. From there a winding path went up to the farm. The judge ordered the headman to wait there with his men while he and his three assistants went on to the farmhouse on foot.

A SECTION OF THE DISTRICT PENG-LAI

Passing in front of the but, Ma Joong kicked the door open, revealing a large pile of faggots.

"You never know!" he remarked and made to pull the door shut again.

But Judge Dee pushed him aside, he had seen something white among the dry branches. He picked it up and showed it to the others. It was a woman's embroidered handkerchief; it still smelled faintly of musk.

"The women in the fields don't use these as a rule," the judge remarked as he put it carefully away in his sleeve.

The four men walked up to the farmhouse. About halfway a sturdy girl, clad in a blue jacket and trousers and with a colored cloth wrapped round her head, was busy weeding the field. She righted herself and looked with open mouth at the men. Ma Joong gave her an appraising look. "I have seen worse," he whispered to Chiao Tai.

The farmhouse was a low building of two rooms. Against the wall there was a kind of porch, with a large toolbox underneath it. A barn stood somewhat apart, separated from the house by a high hedge. In front of the door a tall man clad in a patched blue robe stood sharpening a scythe. Judge Dee stepped up to him and said curtly, "I am the magistrate of Peng-lai. Lead us inside."

The small eyes in the man's rugged face darted from the judge to the three men accompanying him. He made an awkward bow, then took them into the house. The plaster wall showed bare patches, and there stood only a roughly made deal table and two rickety chairs. Leaning against the table, judge Dee ordered the peasant to state his name and those of the other people living there.

"This person," the peasant said in a surly voice, "is called Pei Chin, tenant farmer of Master Fan Choong, of the tribunal. The wife died two years ago. I only have my daughter Soo-niang here. She cooks and helps me working the field."

"It seems quite a farm for one man," the judge remarked. "When I have money," Pei Chiu muttered, "I hire a hand. But that isn't often. Fan is a hard taskmaster."

He gave the judge a defiant look from under his tufted eye brows. Judge Dee thought that this swarthy fellow with his broad, bent shoulders and his long muscular arms did not look very prepossessing. He said, "Tell me about your landlord's visit."

Pei Chin plucked at the frayed edge of his faded collar.

"He came here on the fourteenth," he replied gruffly. "Me and Soo-niang had just eaten our noon rice. I ask him for money for buying a new supply of seed. He says no. He says to Woo to go have a look in the barn. The bastard says there is still half a sack of seed. The master laughs. Then they leave, riding west to the highway. That is all. I have told that already to the constable."

He looked at the floor.

Judge Dee studied him silently. Suddenly he barked, "Look at your magistrate, Pei Chin! Tell me, what happened to the woman?" The peasant gave the judge a startled look. Then he swung round and darted to the door. Ma Joong sprang after him, grabbed his collar and dragged him back. He forced him down on his knees in front of the judge.

"I didn't do it!" he shouted.

"I know exactly what happened here!" Judge Dee snapped. "Don't lie to me!"

"I can explain everything, excellency," Pei Chin wailed, wringing his hands.

"Speak up then," Judge Dee said curtly.

Pei Chiu wrinkled his low forehead. He took a deep breath, then began slowly.

"It was like this. The same day as I said, Woo comes up here leading three horses. He says the master and his wife will stay the night on the farm. I don't know the master has married, but I don't ask. Woo is a bastard. I call Soo-niang. I tell her to kill a chicken, for I know the master is coming for the rent. I tell her to make the master's bedroom ready and to fry that chicken with a piece of garlic. Then I take the horses to the barn. I rub them off and I feed them.

"When I come back to the house, the master is sitting at the table here. The red cashbox is standing in front of him. I know he wants the rent. I say I haven't got it, I had bought new seed. He curses me, then he tells Woo to look if there are sacks with seed in the barn. Then, he says, I must show Woo all over our fields.

"When we come back to the house, it's getting dark. The master shouts from the bedroom that he wants food. Soo-niang takes it there. I eat a bowl of gruel with Woo, in front of the barn. Woo says I'll have to pay him fifty coppers, then he'll say that I tend the fields well. I give him the coppers, then Woo goes to sleep in the barn. I sit outside, thinking how I can get the rent. When Soo-niang is through cleaning the kitchen, I send her up to sleep in the loft. I lay me down to sleep next to Woo. Later I wake up. I think about the rent. Then I see that Woo is gone."

"Up to the loft," Ma Joong put in with a grin.

"I'll dispense with your levity!" Judge Dee barked at him. "Shut up and let this man tell his story."

The peasant had not noticed this byplay. Knitting his eyebrows, he went on.

"I go outside, and the three horses are gone too. I see a light in the master's bedroom. I think he is still awake, I must report to him. I knock on the door, but there's no answer. I walk round the house and see the window is open. The master and his wife are in bed. I think it's a waste to let the lamp burn when you sleep, oil being ten coppers a catty now. Then I see that the master and his wife are all covered with blood.

"I climb inside and look for the cashbox. The only thing I find is my sickle. It's lying on the floor, blood all over it. I know the bastard Woo has killed them. He went away with the cashbox and the horses."

Chiao Tai opened his mouth to speak, but the judge peremptorily shook his head.

"I know they'll say I did it," Pei Chin muttered. "I know they'll beat me till I say I did it. Then they'll chop my head off. Then Soo-niang has got no place to stay. I get my pushcart from the barn and put it under the window. I drag the bodies from the bed. That of the woman is still warm. I push them over the window sill into the cart. I push the cart to the mulberry bush, shove the bodies under the shrubbery and go back to the barn to sleep. I think that at dawn I'll go back there with a spade, and bury them properly. Next morning I go there. The bodies are gone."

"What did you say?" Judge Dee shouted. "Gone?" Pei Chiu nodded emphatically.

"They were gone. I know someone has found them and he is gone to tell the constables. I run back to the house, pack the sickle in the master's clothes. I take the wife's robe, and wipe the bed mat and the floor with it. But I can't get the blood off the bed mat, so I take it off the bed and wrap up everything in it. I take the roll to the barn and hide it under the hay. I wake up Soo-niang and tell her all left before dawn for the city. This is the truth, I swear it's the truth, excellency! Don't let them beat me. Excellency, I didn't do it!"

He started knocking his}read frantically on the floor.

The judge tugged at his mustache. Then he said to the peasant, "Rise and take us to that mulberry bush."

As Pei Chiu hurriedly scrambled up, Chiao Tai whispered excitedly to the judge.

"We met that fellow Woo on the road coming here, magistrate! Ask about the horses!"

Judge Dee ordered the peasant to describe the horses of his master and his wife. Pei said that Fan had ridden a gray horse, and Mrs. Fan a blazed one. The judge nodded and motioned Pei Chin to move on.

A short walk brought them to a mulberry bush. Pei Chin pointed at a spot in the undergrowth, "Here I shoved them under," he said.

Ma Joong stooped and examined the dry leaves. He gathered a few in his hands and showed them to the judge. "Those. dark stains must be blood," he remarked.

"You two had better search this bush," Judge Dee said. "This dogshead is probably lying!"

Pei Chiu started to protest but the judge ignored him. Pensively playing with his side whiskers he said to Hoong, "I fear, Hoong, that this affair is not as simple as it seems. That man we met on the road didn't look like a murderer who coolly slits the throats of two people and then makes off with the money and the horses. He looked to me rather like a man in a blind panic."

After a while the sound of breaking twigs announced the return of Ma Joong and Chiao T'ai. The former said excitedly, waving a rusty spade, "There's a small clearing in the middle! It looks as if something was buried there recently. I found this lying under a tree."

"Give that spade to Pei," Judge Dee said coldly. "The dogshead shall dig up himself what he has buried. Show me the way."

Ma Joong parted the undergrowth and they went among the trees, Chiao Tai dragging along the peasant, who seemed completely dazed.

In the middle of the clearing there was a patch of loose earth. "Set to work!" the judge barked at Pei.

The peasant automatically spat in his hands, and started clearing the loose earth away. A mud-soiled white garment appeared. Aided by Chiao Tai, Ma Joong lifted a man's body out of the cavity and laid it on the dry leaves. It was the corpse of an elderly man with a closely shaved head, clad only in a thin undergarment.

"That's a Buddhist monk!" Sergeant Hoong exclaimed. "Go on," Judge Dee said harshly to the peasant.

Suddenly Pei Chiu let his spade drop. He gasped, "That's the master!"

Ma Joong and Chiao Tai took the naked body of a large man from the hole. They had to be careful, for the head had been nearly severed from the body. The breast was a mass of clotted blood. Looking with interest at the heavy muscles of the corpse, Ma Joong said with appreciation, "That was a hefty fellow!"

"Dig up your third victim!" the judge barked at Pei Chiu.

The peasant stuck his spade in the earth, but it struck a layer of rock. There was no other corpse. He looked perplexedly at the judge.

"What did you do with the woman, you rascal?" Judge Dee shouted at him.

"I swear I don't know!" the peasant cried out. "I brought here only the master and his wife, and left them under the shrubs, I never buried nothing here! I never saw that baldpate! I swear it's the truth!"

"What is happening here?" A cultured voice spoke behind the judge.

Turning round, judge Dee saw a rotund man clad in a beautiful robe of gold-embroidered violet brocade. The lower half of his face was covered nearly entirely by a long mustache, flowing side whiskers and an enormous beard that spread out over his breast in three thick strands. On his head he wore the high gauze cap of a Doctor of Literature. He gave the Judge a quick look, then put his hands respectfully in his wide sleeves and bowed deeply. He said, "This person is Tsao Ho-hsien, landowner by necessity but philosopher by preference.: presume that your honor is our new magistrate?" As Judge Dee nodded he continued. "I was riding along here when a peasant told me that people from the tribunal weae on the farm of my neighbor Fan Choong. Thus I took the liberty to come and see whether I could be of any assistance." He tried to peer past the judge at the bodies on the ground, but the judge quickly stood himself in front of him. He said curtly, "I am investigating a murder here. If you'll kindly wait awhile down by the road, I'll presently join you there."

As soon as Dr. Tsao had taken his leave with another deep bow,

Sergeant Hoong said, "Your honor, there are no marks of violence on that monk's body. For all I can see he died a natural death!" "We'll find that out this afternoon in the tribunal," the judge said. He asked the peasant, "Speak up, what did Mrs. Fan look like?"

"I don't know, excellency!" Pei Chiu wailed. "I didn't see her when she came to the farm, and when I found her body her face was all smeared with blood."

Judge Dee shrugged his shoulders. He said, "Ma Joong, you'll call the constables while Chiao Tai guards this rascal and the bodies. Have litters made of the branches here, and see to it that the bodies are conveyed to the tribunal. Put this man Pei Chiu in our jail. On your way back you go to the barn, and let Pei show you where he concealed that mat with the clothes of the victims. I'll now go back to the farm with Hoong to search the house and to question that girl."

The judge overtook Dr. Tsao as he was making his way carefully through the undergrowth, parting the branches with his long staff. His servant was waiting by the roadside, holding a donkey by the reins.

"I have to go to the farmhouse now, Dr. Tsao," Judge Dee said. "When I am through there, I shall avail myself of the opportunity to pay you a visit."

The doctor bowed deeply, the three strands of his beard fanning out like banners. He climbed on his donkey, laid his staff across the saddle and trotted off, the servant running behind him.

"I never in all my life saw such a magnificent beard," the judge said a little wistfully to Sergeant Hoong.

Back at the house judge Dee told Hoong to call the girl from the field. He himself went straight to the bedroom.

JUDGE DEE QUESTIONS AN OLD PEASANT

It contained one large bed, showing its bare wooden frame, two stools and a simple dressing table. In the corner near the door stood a small table with an oil lamp. As he looked down on the bare bed, his eye fell on a deep notch iii the wooden frame, near the head. The splinters looked fresh; the notch seemed to have been made quite recently. Shaking his head in doubt, the judge went over to the window. He saw that the wooden latch was broken. When about to turn away he noticed a folded piece of paper lying on the floor, directly below the window. He picked it up and found it contained a cheap woman's comb made of bone, decorated with three round pieces of colored glass. He wrapped it up again in the paper and put it in his sleeve. He asked himself perplexedly whether two women could be involved in this case. The handkerchief he had found in the hut belonged to a lady; this cheap comb was evidently the property of a peasant woman. With a sigh he went to the sitting room, where Hoong and Pei's daughter stood waiting for him.

Judge Dee noticed that the girl was mortally afraid of him; she hardly dared to look up. He said kindly, "Well, Soo-niang, your father told me that the other day you made a very nice fried chicken for the master!"

The girl gave him a shy look, then smiled a little. The judge went on.

"Country food is much better than the stuff we get in the city. I suppose that the lady liked it too?"

Soo-niang's face fell. She said with a shrug, "She was a proud one, was she. She sat on a stool in the bedroom and didn't even look round when I greeted her. Not she!"

"But she talked with you a bit when you were clearing the dishes away, didn't she?" Judge Dee asked.

"Then she was in bed already," the girl replied promptly. Judge Dee pensively stroked his beard. Then he asked, "By the way, do you know Mrs. Koo well? I mean the daughter of Dr. Tsao, who recently was married in the city?"

"I saw her once or twice from afar in the fields, with her brother," the girl replied. "People say she is a nice girl, not like all those city women."

"Well," Judge Dee said, "you'll now show us the way to Dr. Tsao's house. The constables down at the hut shall give you a horse. Thereafter you may accompany us back to the city; your father is going there too."