The Chinese Maze Murders

Nineteenth Chapter

After Ma Joong and Chiao Tai had left, Judge Dee took a paper from the pile on the desk. He looked at it but did not seem to absorb its contents.

Sergeant Hoong knew that the judge was worried.

Judge Dee impatiently threw down the document. He said:

"I don't mind telling you, Sergeant, that if Ma Joong and Chiao Tai do not succeed in catching that man, we shall find ourselves in a most dangerous position!"

"They have done more difficult jobs than that, Your Honour!", the sergeant said reassuringly.

Judge Dee made no comment. For half an hour he concentrated on various official documents.

At last he put down his writing brush.

"It is no use sitting waiting here any longer", he said curtly. "Evidently Ma Joong and Chiao Tai have seen a chance to arrest their man without attracting attention. The weather is fine, let us go and see whether we can find that Master Crane Robe!"

Sergeant Hoong knew from long experience that action always was the best sedative when the judge was harassed. He quickly went out to order two horses.

They left the tribunal by the main gate, heading south. They galloped over the marble bridge and passed through the southern city gate.

After they had ridden for some time along the main road, a peasant directed them to a narrow path that led to the mountains. It ended at the foot of a steep ridge.

Judge Dee and the sergeant jumped down from their horses. Sergeant Hoong handed a few coppers to a wood gatherer and asked him to look after the horses for an hour or so. Then they began the ascent.

A strenuous climb took them to the top of the pine-clad ridge. Judge Dee paused there a while to regain his breath. Looking down on the verdurous valley that spread out at his feet he lifted his arms and enjoyed the cool mountain breeze that blew through his wide sleeves.

When Sergeant Hoong too had rested himself they slowly descended by the winding path.

As they went down into the valley, the air became curiously still. The murmur of a brook was the only sound they heard.

They crossed the river by a narrow stone bridge. A side path led to a low thatched roof that was partly visible in the midst of the green foliage. The path took them through dense undergrowth to a crudely made bamboo gate.

Inside they found a small garden. On both sides stood flowering plants of well-nigh a man's height. The judge thought that he had never seen such a profusion of magnificent flowers.

The plaster walls of the small house were overgrown with vine; they seemed to sag under the load of the thatched roof, green with moss. A few rickety wooden steps led up to a single door of unpainted boards. It stood ajar.

Judge Dee meant to call out that there were visitors but somehow or other he felt reluctant to break the quiet atmosphere. He pushed aside the plants that grew by the side of the house.

He saw a rustic verandah made of bamboo poles. A very old man clad in a ragged robe was watering a row of potted flowers. He had a large round straw hat on his head. The delicate fragrance of orchids hung in the air.

Judge Dee pushed the branches further apart and called out: "Is Master Crane Robe at home?"

The old man turned round. The lower half of his face was concealed by a thick moustache and a long white beard, the rest was covered by the broad rim of the hat. He did not answer but made a vague gesture in the direction of the house.

Then he put down his watering pot and disappeared behind the house without saying a word.

Judge Dee was not very pleased with this casual reception. He curtly told Sergeant-Hoong to wait outside.

As the sergeant sat down on the bench near the gate, Judge Dee ascended the steps and entered the house.

He found himself in a large, empty room. The wooden floor was bare and so were the white plaster walls. The furniture consisted of a rough wooden table and two footstools in front of the low, broad window, and a bamboo table against the back wall. It looked like the interior of a peasant's house. But everything was scrupulously clean.

There was no sign of the host. Judge Dee felt annoyed and began to regret that he had come all this way.

With a sigh he sat down on one of the footstools and looked out of the window.

He was struck by the fine view on the rows of flowering plants that stood on racks in the verandah outside. Rare orchids blossomed in porcelain and earthenware bowls; their fragrance seemed to pervade the entire room.

As he was sitting there Judge Dee felt the immense tranquillity of his surroundings slowly soothe his harassed mind. Listening to the soft humming of an invisible bee, time seemed to be standing still.

Judge Dee's irritation evaporated. He placed his elbows on the table and leisurely looked around. He noticed that above the bamboo table a pair of paper scrolls had been stuck up on the plaster wall. They bore a couplet written in powerful calligraphy.

Judge Dee idly scanned the lines:

"There are but two roads that lead to the gate of

Eternal Life:

Either one bores his head in the mud like a worm,

or like a dragon flies up high into the sky."

The judge reflected that these lines were rather unusual; they could be interpreted in more than one way.

The couplet was signed and sealed but from where he sat the judge could not read the small characters.

A faded blue screen at the back was pulled aside and the old man entered.

He had changed his ragged robe for a loose gown of brown cloth and his grey head was uncovered. He carried a steaming kettle in his hand.

Judge Dee hastily rose and bowed deeply. The old man nodded casually, and leisurely sat down on the other footstool, with his back to the window. After a moment's hesitation the judge sat down too.

The old man's face was all wrinkled up like the skin of a crab apple. But his lips were red like cinnabar. As his host bowed his head while pouring the boiling water in the tea pot his long white eyebrows screened his eyes like a curtain so that the judge could not see them.

Judge Dee waited respectfully for the old man to speak first.

When he had replaced the lid on the tea pot his host folded his arms in his sleeves and looked straight at the judge. Under his bushy brows his piercing eyes were keen like those of a hawk.

He spoke in a deep, sonorous voice:

"Excuse this old man's remissness. I rarely entertain visitors!"

As he spoke the judge noticed that his teeth were even and of a pearly white.

Judge Dee answered:

"I beg your forgiveness for this sudden visit. You…"

"Ha, Yoo!", the old man interrupted him. "So you are a member of the famous Yoo family!"

"No", the judge corrected him hastily, "my family name is Dee. I…"

"Yes, yes", his host mused, "it is a long time since I saw my old friend Yoo. Let me see now, it must be eight years since he died. Or was it nine?"

Judge Dee reflected that the old man was apparently in his dotage. But since his host's mistake seemed to lead him straight to the object of his visit, he did not again try to correct it.

The old man poured the tea.

"Yes", he continued pensively, "a man of great purpose, the old Governor Yoo. Why, it must be seventy years ago now that we studied together in the capital. Yes, he was a man of great purpose who laid his plans far in the future. He was going to eradicate all evil, he was going to reform the Empire…"

The old man's voice trailed off. He nodded a few times and sipped his tea.

Judge Dee said diffidently:

"I am greatly interested in Governor Yoo's life here in Lan-fang."

His host did not seem to have heard him. He slowly went on sipping his tea.

The judge also brought the cup to his lips. After the first sip he knew that this was the most delicious tea he had ever tasted. Its mellow aroma seemed to pervade his entire body.

MASTER CRANE ROBE AND JUDGE DEE

His host said suddenly:

"The water was taken from where the brook springs from the rocks. Last night I placed the tea leaves in the bud of a chrysanthemum. I took them out this morning when the flower opened in the sun. These leaves are saturated with the essence of the morning dew."

Then, without any transition, he continued:

"Yoo set out on his official career and I went away to roam over the Empire. He became a prefect, then a governor. His name rang through the marble halls of the Imperial palace. He persecuted the wicked, protected and encouraged the good, and went a long, long way towards reforming the Empire. Then, one day, when he had nearly realized all his ambitions, he found that he had failed to reform his own son.

He resigned from all his high offices and came to live here a life of retirement, tending his fields and his garden. So we met again, after more than fifty years. We had reached the same goal by different roads."

The old man suddenly chuckled softly like a child as he added:

"The only difference was that one way was long and tortuous, the other short and straight!"

Here his host paused. Judge Dee debated with himself whether he should ask for some explanation of that last remark. But before he could speak his host went on:

"Shortly before he passed away, he and I were discussing this very point. Then he wrote down that couplet on the wall there. Go and admire his calligraphy!"

Judge Dee obediently rose and went to look at the paper scrolls on the wall. Now he could read the signature: "Penned by Yoo Shou-chien of the Abode of Tranquillity." The judge knew now for certain that the testament they had found in Mrs. Yoo's scroll picture was a forgery. The signature resembled the one added to the alleged last will, but it was definitively not the same hand. Judge Dee slowly stroked his beard. Many things had become clear to him.

As he sat down again the judge said:

"If I may respectfully say so, Governor Yoo's calligraphy is excellent, but yours, Sir, is in the inspired class. Your inscription on the gate to the Governor's maze struck me as…"

The old man seemed not to have listened. He interrupted the judge saying:

"The Governor was so full of purpose that a life time was not enough for exhausting his energy. Even when he had settled down here he could not stop. Some of his plans for righting old wrongs were not even meant to bear fruit until years later, when he himself would be dead! Wanting to be alone, he built that astonishing maze. As if he could ever be alone, with all his schemes and plans buzzing around him like angry wasps!"

The old man shook his head. He poured another cup of tea.

Judge Dee asked:

"Did the old Governor have many friends here?"

His host slowly tugged one of his long eyebrows. Then he chuckled and said:

"After all those years, and after all he had seen and heard, Yoo still studied the Confucianist Classics. He sent me a cartload of books out here. I found them most useful. They made excellent kindlings for my kitchen stove!"

Judge Dee was going to offer some respectful objections to this derogatory remark on the Classics, but his host ignored him. He continued:

"Confucius! Now that was a purposeful man for you! He spent his entire life rushing all over the Empire, always arranging things, always giving advice to whomsoever cared to listen to him. He buzzed about like a gadfly! He never paused long enough to realize that the more he did the less he achieved, and the more he acquired the less he possessed. Yes, Confucius was a man full of purpose. So was Governor Yoo…"

The old man paused. Then he added peevishly:

"And so are you, young man!"

Judge Dee was quite startled by this sudden personal remark. He rose in confusion. With a deep bow he said humbly:

"Could this person venture to ask a question…"

His host had risen also.

"One question", he gruffly replied, "only leads to another one. You are like a fisherman who turns his back on his river and his nets and climbs a tree in the forest to catch fish! Or like a man who builds a boat of iron, makes a large hole in the bottom and then expects to cross the river! Approach your problems from the right end and begin with the answers. Then, one day, perhaps, you will find the final answer. Good-bye!"

Judge Dee was going to bow his farewell but his host had already turned his back on him and was shuffling back to the screen at the end of the room.

The judge waited till the blue screen had dropped behind his host's back. Then he went out.

Outside he found Sergeant Hoong sleeping with his back against the garden gate.

The judge woke him up.

The sergeant passed his hand over his eyes. He said with a happy smile:

"It seems to me that I have never slept so peacefully! I dreamt of my childhood when I was still four or five years old, things I had completely forgotten!"

"Yes", Judge Dee said pensively, "this is a very strange abode…"

They climbed the mountain ridge in silence.

When they were standing once more under the pinetrees on the top, the sergeant asked:

"Did the hermit give Your Honour much information?"

Judge Dee nodded absent-mindedly.

"Yes", he replied after a while, "I learned many things. I know now for certain that the testament we found concealed in the Governor's picture is a forgery. I also learned what was the reason why the old Governor suddenly resigned all his offices. And I know now the other half of General Ding's murder."

The sergeant was going to ask for some further explanation. But noticing the expression on Judge Dee's face he remained silent.

After a brief rest they descended the slope. They mounted their horses and rode back to the city.

Ma Joong was waiting in Judge Dee's private office.

As he started on his report of how he and Chiao Tai had caught the Uigur, the judge shook off his pensive mood and listened eagerly.

Ma Joong assured the judge that no one knew about the arrest. He related in great detail his conversation with the Uigur chieftain, omitting only his unexpected meeting with the girl Tulbee and her warning; he assumed, quite correctly, that Judge Dee would not be interested in that romantic interlude.

"That is excellent work!", Judge Dee exclaimed when Ma Joong had finished. "Now we have the trump card in our hands!"

Ma Joong added:

"Tao Gan is now entertaining Yoo Kee in the reception hall. They are drinking tea together. When I looked in there a few moments ago Tao Gan was fretting because Yoo Kee is talking so fast that he can't get in a word!"

The judge looked pleased. He said to Sergeant Hoong:

"Sergeant, go to the reception hall and tell Yoo Kee that to my great regret I am unavoidably detained by urgent business. Offer him my apologies and inform him that I shall see him as soon as I am free!"

When the sergeant made to go the judge asked:

"Did you, by the way, succeed in finding out the whereabouts of Mrs. Lee, that friend of the Governor's widow?"

"I ordered Headman Fang to see to that, Your Honour", replied the sergeant. "I thought that since he is a local man he might obtain quicker results than I."

The judge nodded. Then he asked Ma Joong:

"What are the results of the autopsy on the old couple we found in the garden of the Governor's mansion?"

"The coroner confirmed that they died a natural death, Your Honour", Ma Joong replied.

Judge Dee nodded. He rose and started changing into his official robes. While he was placing the winged judge's cap on his head he suddenly said:

"If I am not mistaken, Ma Joong, you reached the ninth and highest grade in boxing about ten years ago, did you not?"

The tall fellow squared his shoulders. He replied proudly:

"Indeed, Your Honour!"

"Now think back", Judge Dee ordered, "and tell me how you felt towards your master when you were still a beginner, say of the second or third grade!"

Ma Joong was not accustomed to analyse his feelings. He knitted his brows and thought furiously. After a while he answered slowly:

"Well, Your Honour, I was deeply devoted to my master. He certainly was one of the finest boxers of our time and I admired him greatly. But when I boxed with him and he eluded my cleverest blows without the slightest effort, playfully hitting me anywhere he liked despite my frantic defence, I still admired him but at the same time I hated him because of his infinite superiority!"

Judge Dee smiled wanly.

"Thank you, my friend!", he said. "This afternoon I went to the mountains south of this city and there met a person who greatly disturbed me. Now you have put into words exactly what I did not dare to formulate so clearly for myself!"

Ma Joong had no idea what the judge was talking about but he felt flattered by the praise. With a broad smile he pulled aside the screen leading to the court hall. The judge passed through and ascended the dais.