The Chinese Lake Murders

Eighteenth Chapter

Gathering his four assistants round him, Judge Dee unfolded his plan in a hurried whisper. "Be very careful!" he concluded. "There's treason here in this tribunal; the walls have ears!"

When Ma Joong and Chiao Tai had rushed outside, the judge said to Sergeant Hoong:

"Go to the guardhouse, Hoong, and keep an eye on the guards and constables there. As soon as you see that one of them is approached by someone from outside, you have both of them arrested at once!"

Then the judge left his office, and ascended together with Tao Gan the staircase to the second floor of the tribunal. They went out on the marble terrace.

Judge Dee anxiously looked up at the sky. There was a brilliant moon and the air was hot and still. He held up his hand. There was not the slightest breeze. With a sigh of relief he sat down near the balustrade.

Resting his chin in his cupped hands, the judge looked out over the dark city. It was past the first night watch; people were putting out the lights. Tao Gan remained standing behind Judge Dee's chair. Fingering the long hairs that sprouted from his cheek, he stared into the distance.

They remained there in silence for a long time. From the street below came the sound of a clapper. The night watch was making his rounds.

Judge Dee rose abruptly.

"It's getting late!" he remarked.

"It's not an easy job, Your Honor!" Tao Gan said reassuringly.

"It may take more time than we thought!"

Suddenly the judge clutched Tao Gan's sleeve.

"Look!" he exclaimed. "It's starting!"

In eastern direction a column of gray smoke was rising above the rooftops. A thin flame shot up.

"Come along!" Judge Dee called out. He ran down the stairs.

As they arrived in the courtyard below the large gong at the gate of the tribunal raised its bronze voice. Two stalwart guards were beating it with heavy wooden clubs. The fire had been spotted.

Constables and guards came running out of their quarters fastening the straps of their helmets.

"All of you go to the fire!" Judge Dee commanded. "Two guards stay behind here at the gate!"

Then he ran out into the street, followed by Tao Gan.

They found the large gate of the Han mansion wide open. The last servants came running out carrying their belongings in hastily made bundles. The flames were licking at the roof of the storeroom at the back of the house. A crowd of citizens had assembled in the street outside. Under the direction of the warden of that quarter they were forming a chain, handing on buckets of water to the constables standing on the garden wall.

Judge Dee stood himself in front of the gate. He called out in a stentorious voice:

"Two constables will stand guard here! Let no thieves or marauders slip inside! I'll go and see whether anyone is left behind!"

He rushed with Tao Gan into the deserted compound. They went straight to the Buddhist Chapel.

Standing in front of the altar, Judge Dee took the traced copy of tie Buddhist text from his sleeve and quickly pointed at the seventeen words he had marked with his brush.

"Look!" he said, "this sentence is the key to the letter lock of the jade panel: 'If ye understand My Message and depress these words ye shall enter this Gate and find peace.' That can only mean that the jade panel is a door that gives access to a secret room. You hold the paper!"

The judge pressed his index on the jade square with the word "if" in the first line. The square receded a little. He pressed harder, using both thumbs. The square receded half an inch; then it would go no farther. The judge went on to the word "ye" in the next line. That square also could be pressed down. When he had pressed the word "peace" in the last line, he suddenly heard a faint click. He pushed the panel and it slowly swung inward, revealing a dark opening of four feet square.

Judge Dee took over the lantern from Tao Gan and crept inside.

When Tao Gan had followed his example, he noticed that the door slowly closed again. He quickly grabbed the knob on its inside and turned it round. He found to his relief that thus he could pull the door open again.

The judge had gone ahead through the low tunnel. After about ten steps it became higher and he could stand upright. The light of the lantern revealed a flight of steep steps leading down into the darkness below. The judge descended, counting twenty steps. He stood in a crypt of about fifteen feet square, hewn from the solid rock. Along the wall on his right stood a dozen large earthenware jars, their mouths sealed with thick parchment. One of the covers was torn. Judge Dee put his hand inside and brought out a handful of dried rice. On the left they saw an iron door; ahead there was a dark archway, giving access to another tunnel. Judge Dee turned the knob of the door. It swung inside noiselessly on well-oiled hinges. He stood stock-still.

He saw a small, hexagonal room, lighted by a single wall candle. At the square table in the center a man sat reading a document roll. He only saw his broad back and hunched shoulders.

As the judge tiptoed inside with Tao Gan on his heels the man suddenly looked round. It was Guildmaster Wang.

Wang jumped up and threw his chair backward against Judge Dee's legs. When the judge had scrambled up Wang had run around the table and drawn a long sword. As Judge Dee looked at his face distorted with rage something whizzed past his shoulder. Wang ducked with a quickness amazing in so ponderous a man. The knife landed with a thud in the door of the cupboard against the back wall.

Judge Dee grabbed the heavy marble paperweight from the table. Turning half-aside to avoid the sword thrust that Wang was aiming at his breast, he overturned the table with a powerful push. Wang had quickly retreated a step, but the edge of the table struck his knees. He toppled forward, but at the same time thrust his sword at the judge. As the sharp blade cut through Judge Dee's sleeve he crashed the paperweight on the back of Wang's head. He fell over the tilted table, blood oozing from his crushed skull.

"My knife just missed him!" Tao Gan said ruefully.

"Sht!" Judge Dee hissed. "There may be others about!"

He stooped and examined Wang's head. "That paperweight was heavier than I thought," he remarked. "The man is dead."

When he righted himself his eye fell on two high stacks of black leather boxes that were piled up against the wall on either side of the door. There were more than two dozen of them, each provided with a copper padlock and a carrying strap.

"That's the kind of box our ancestors used for storing gold bars!" the judge remarked, astonished. "But all seem to be empty." He quickly surveyed the room and continued: "Han Yung-han knows that one lies best if one mixes his lies with the largest possible quantum of truth. When he told me the tale about his alleged abduction, he described these secret headquarters of the White Lotus under his own house! Han must be the leader; he sent Liu Fei-po away to transmit his last instructions to the local heads of the conspiracy. Also, Wang must have held a high position in the society. His head is bleeding heavily, Tao Gan! Wipe the blood up with your neckcloth, then wind it tightly round his head. Presently we shall hide his dead body; we mustn't leave any traces of our visit here!"

He picked up the document roll Wang had been engrossed in. He held it near the candle; it was covered with small, neat handwriting.

Tao Gan wiped the blood from the table and the paperweight, then wrapped the cloth round the dead man's head and deposited the body on the floor. As he was righting the table, Judge Dee said excitedly:

"This is the complete plan for the rebellion of the White Lotus! But unfortunately, all the names of persons and places are written in code characters! There must be a key to this. Look in that cabinet against the back wall over there!"

Tao Gan pulled his knife from the door and looked into the cabinet. On the lower shelf stood a row of large seal stones, all engraved with slogans of the White Lotus. He took the small document box of carved sandalwood from the upper shelf and handed it to the judge. It was empty, but there was place for two small document rolls. Judge Dee rolled up the document he had picked up from the floor. The outside of the protecting flap consisted of purple brocade. The roll fitted exactly into the box; next to it there was just enough space for a second roll of the same size.

"We must find that second roll!" Judge Dee said in an agitated voice. "That must contain the key! See whether there is a secret wall safe!"

While he himself lifted the carpet and scrutinized the stone floor, Tao Gan pulled the half-decayed wall hangings aside and examined the walls.

"Nothing but solid rock!" he reported. "Up there are a few apertures; I feel air coming through."

"Those are ventilation shafts," the judge said impatiently. "They'll come out somewhere on the roof of the house. Let's inspect the leather boxes!"

They shook every one of them, but all were empty.

"Now we go on to the other tunnel!" the judge said. Tao Gan took up his lantern, and they stepped out into the crypt. Pointing at a square hole in the floor by the side of the dark archway, Tao Gan remarked:

"That'll be a well!"

Judge Dee gave it a casual look. He nodded and said:

"Yes, Hermit Han thought of everything! This crypt was evidently meant as a hiding place for his family in times of trouble. Here they had his entire treasure of gold, dried rice to eat and water to drink. Give me a light!"

Tao Gan held the lantern high so that its light shone through the archway.

"This second tunnel must have been made much later, Your Honor!" he remarked. "The rock stops here, the tunnel has earthen walls, and the wooden shorings look quite new!"

Judge Dee took the lantern from Tao Gan's hand and let its light fall on an oblong, narrow box on the floor of the tunnel, close to the wall. "Open that box!" he ordered.

Tao Gan squatted and inserted his knife under the lid. When he raised it he quickly averted his face. A nauseating smell rose from the box. Judge Dee pulled his neckcloth up over his mouth and nose. He saw the decaying corpse of a man stretched out in the box. The head had been reduced to a grinning skull; frightened insects crawled over the tattered robe that clung to the rotting carcass.

"Put the lid back!" he said curtly. "In due time we shall examine this corpse. We have no time for that now!"

He went down ten steps. About twenty yards farther on he found his progress barred by a high and narrow iron door. He turned the knob and pushed it open. He looked out into a moonlit garden. Right in front of him he saw an arbor, overgrown with ivy.

"That's Liu Fei-po's garden!" Tao Gan whispered behind him. He poked his head round the corner and went on: "The outside of this door is covered with fragments of rock, luted onto its surface. The door forms part of a large artificial rock. In that arbor over there Liu was wont to take his siesta."

"This secret door explains Liu's vanishing tricks!" Judge Dee remarked. "Let's go back!"

But Tao Gan seemed reluctant to go. He looked at the door with undisguised admiration. They heard in the distance the shouts of the men who were trying to extinguish the fire in the Han mansion.

"Close that door!" Judge Dee whispered.

"Superior workmanship!" Tao Gan said regretfully as he pulled the door close. When he followed the judge back through the tunnel the light of his lantern fell on a recess in the wall. He grabbed the judge's sleeve and pointed silently at the dry bones in the recess. There were four skulls, which the judge examined. He said:

"The White Lotus apparently killed its victims in the crypt. These bones must have lain here for some time already. The body in the box was their most recent victim."

He quickly went up the flight of steps, entered the hexagonal room and said:

"Help me to get Wang's body to the well!"

They carried the limp corpse into the crypt, and dropped it into the dark hole. Far below they heard a splash.

Judge Dee again entered the room, blew out the candle and pulled the door to behind him. They crossed the crypt and climbed the steep stairs to the altar tunnel. When they were standing in the chapel again, the jade panel closed noiselessly.

Standing in front of it, Tao Gan depressed at random a few words of the inscription. But as soon as he had pressed down one square, and started on a second, the first rose and resumed its position level with the surface.

"What a fine craftsman that Hermit Han was!" Tao Gan sighed. "If one doesn't know the key sentence, one can press down these squares till one's hair goes gray!"

"Later!" Judge Dee whispered. He dragged Tao Gan by his sleeve to the door of the chapel.

In the courtyard they met a group of servants who were coming back from the town.

"The fire has been put out!" they shouted.

Out in the street they met Han Yung-han, clad in a house robe. He said gratefully to Judge Dee:

"Thanks to the prompt action of your men the fire hasn't done much damage, Your Honor! The greater part of the roof of the storeroom is gone, and all my rice bales have been damaged by the water, but that's all. I think that the hay under the roof got heated, and caused the fire. Two of your officers were on the roof in a remarkably short time and thus could prevent the fire from spreading. Fortunately, there was no breeze; that's what I had been afraid of most!"

"So had I!" the judge said wholeheartedly.

They exchanged a few polite phrases; then Judge Dee and Tao Gan went back to the tribunal.

The judge found two weird figures waiting for him in his private office. Their robes were in tatters and their faces smeared with soot.

"The worst is," Ma Joong said with a scowl, "that my nose and throat are scorched by that accursed smoke! We have found out now that it's much easier to start a fire than to put it out!"

Judge Dee smiled bleakly. When he was seated behind his desk he said to the two men:

"Again you did an excellent job! I regret that I can't yet let you go and take the rest you so well deserve. The biggest task still lies ahead!"

"Nothing like variety!" Ma Joong said cheerfully.

"You and Chiao Tai had better go and wash yourselves," the judge continued, "and have a quick snack. Then put on your mail jackets and helmets, and come back here." To Tao Gan he added: "Call Sergeant Hoong!"

When he was alone Judge Dee moistened his writing brush and selected a long roll of blank paper. Then he took from his sleeve the document roll he had found in the crypt, and started to read it through.

When Hoong and Tao Gan came in the judge looked up and said:

"Get all documents relating to the case of the dead dancer together on the table here, so that you can read out for me those passages I shall ask for!"

While the two men set to work, Judge Dee began to write. He covered the roll with the quick, cursive handwriting at which he was expert, his brush seeming to fly over the paper. He paused only now and then to ask his assistants to read aloud passages from the records which he wanted to quote verbatim in his report.

At last he put down his writing brush, with a deep sigh. He rolled up his report tightly, together with the document found in the crypt, wrapped them up in oilpaper and told Hoong to seal the roll with the large seal of the tribunal.

Ma Joong and Chiao Tai came in. Clad in heavy mail jackets with iron shoulder pieces and with their pointed helmets, they looked taller than ever.

Judge Dee handed each of them thirty silver pieces. Then, looking at them intently, he spoke.

"You two will ride to the capital at once. Change horses frequently. If there should be none in the post stations, rent them; this silver should be sufficient for that. If there are no accidents, you'll be in the capital before dawn.

"Go straight to the palace of the President of the Metropolitan Court. A silver gong is suspended at the gate there. Every citizen in the Empire is entitled to beat that gong in the first hour after dawn and bring his grievance before the President. You'll beat that gong. Tell the palace chamberlain that you have come from afar to report a grievous wrong done to you. When you are kneeling before the President, give him this roll! No further explanation is necessary."

As Judge Dee handed the sealed roll to him Ma Joong said with a smile:

"That sounds easy! Wouldn't it be better if we wore a light hunting dress? All this ironware is hard on the horses!"

Judge Dee looked gravely at his two lieutenants. Then he said slowly:

"It may prove easy, or it may prove very difficult. It is not impossible that people will try to waylay you on the road. Therefore it's better that you go as you are. Don't ask help from any officials; you are completely on your own. If anyone tries to stop you, cut him down. If one of you should be killed or wounded, the other will go on and bring the roll to the capital. Hand it to the President and to no one else."

Chiao Tai tightened his sword belt. Fie said quietly:

"That must be a very important document, Your Honor!"

Judge Dee folded his arms in his sleeves. He replied in a tense voice:

"It concerns the Mandate of Heaven!"

Chiao Tai understood. He squared his shoulders and exclaimed:

"Ten thousand years to the Imperial House!"

Ma Joong gave his friend a bewildered look. But he automatically completed the time-honored formula:

"And long live the Emperor!"