The Haunted Monastery

XIII

At this late hour the monastery was deserted. They met no one on the ground floor, or on the stairs leading to the latticed landing over the temple hall.

Judge Dee had a quick look at the passage leading to the store-room but no one was there.

Tsung Lee took them in the opposite direction, through the long passage leading to the tower on the south-west corner, where Sun Ming had his quarters. When they arrived in the small hall that gave access to the landing in front of Sun's library, Tsung Lee pulled the narrow door on the right open and went down a flight of stairs. They found themselves before a spacious portal. Pointing to the pair of high, double doors, lavishly decorated with wood carving, the poet whispered:

"That's the entrance to the Gallery of Horrors. That big padlock looks rather formidable!"

"I have seen worse!" Tao Gan grunted. He took a leather folder with various instruments from his capacious sleeve, and set to work. Tsung Lee held the lantern for him.

"I was told that the gallery hadn't been opened for some months," the judge observed. "Yet there isn't a speck of dust on the cross bar!"

"They were in here yesterday, sir," the poet said. "A worm-eaten statue had to be repaired."

"There you are!" Tao Gan said contentedly. He opened the padlock and took the cross bar down. The judge and Tsung Lee went inside. Tao Gan pulled the door shut behind them. Tsung lifted the lantern high and Judge Dee surveyed the long, broad gallery. It was cold and damp in there. Pulling his robe closer he muttered: "Disgusting exhibition, as usual!"

"My father used to say that these galleries ought to be abolished, sir," Tsung remarked.

"He was right!" the judge said caustically.

Tao Gan surveyed the gallery too. He muttered with a sniff: "All these horrors are no use! People will still get themselves into mischief, horrors disregarding! They are just made that way."

The wall on their right was covered with scrolls bearing Taoist texts on sin and retribution. But all along the left wall stood a row of life-size statues which represented the torments inflicted on the souls of sinners in the Taoist Inferno. Here one saw gruesome devils sawing a writhing man in two, there a group of grinning goblins were boiling a man and a woman in an iron kettle. Further on, ox-headed and horse-headed devils were dragging men and women by their hair before the Black Judge of the Nether World, sculptured in relief but with a long beard of real hair. All the statues were vividly coloured. The light of Tsung's lantern shone on the leering masks of the demons, and the horribly distorted faces of their victims.

The three men walked on quickly, keeping close to the wall on the right so as not to come too near all the horrors. Judge Dee's eye was caught by a woman, stark naked, lying spreadeagled on her back against a large boulder, while a huge blue devil pressed the point of his spear against her breast. Her long hair hung over her face. Her hands and feet had been cut off, and her body of cracked plaster was loaded with heavy chains, but it showed all details with obscene clarity. The next scene was even worse. Two demons clad like ancient warriors, in blood-stained armour, were hacking a naked man and woman to pieces on a large chopping block, using battle-axes. Of the man only the rump was left, but the woman, lying on her face over the block, was just having her arms cut off.

Quickening his pace Judge Dee said crossly to Tao Gan: "I'll tell the abbot to have the statues of those women removed. All these scenes are sufficiently repulsive. They need not include women who are thus exposed. Such lurid representations are not allowed in an officially recognized place of worship."

The door at the end of the gallery was not locked. A steep flight of steps brought them to a large, square room.

"Here we must be on the first floor of the north-west tower," Tsung Lee said. "If I remember the plan correctly, the door over there gives access to the stairs leading down to the crypt, under the Sanctum." Tao Gan began to work on the lock.

"This hasn't been opened for a long time," he remarked. "It's all rusty."

It took some time before a snapping sound announced that Tao Gan had sprung the lock. He pushed the heavy door open. A musty odour rose from the darkness below.

Judge Dee took the lantern from Tsung Lee and went carefully down the narrow, uneven steps. When he had counted thirty, the steps made a right turn. He counted again thirty steps, now hewn directly from the rock. He let the light of the lantern fall on the solid iron door that barred his way, fastened by a heavy chain with a padlock. He pressed himself against the damp wall to make room for Tao Gan.

When the gaunt man had also opened this lock and removed the chain, the judge stepped inside. A sound of flapping wings came from the darkness. He quickly drew back. A small black shape fluttered past his head.

"Bats!" he said disgustedly. He went inside and lifted the lantern high above his head. The two others remained standing behind him. Silently they surveyed the awe-inspiring scene.

Judge Dee and his Helpers Inspect the Crypt

In the centre of the small, octagonal crypt stood a dais of gilded wood. On it was throned a human figure, sitting in a high abbot's chair of carved red lacquer. It was dressed in full regalia; a robe of stiff gold brocade with a broad stole of red silk was draped round the narrow shoulders. Under the high tiara, glittering with gold, a brownish, sunken face stared at them with strange eyes that looked like shriveled slits. A ragged white beard hung from the chin. One strand had come loose. The left hand was hidden under the stole. The other held a long abbot's staff in thin, claw-like fingers.

Judge Dee made a bow. His two companions followed his example. Then the judge took a step forward and let the light shine on the walls. The stone surface had been polished smooth, and Taoist texts were carved there in beautiful, large characters, filled in with gold lacquer. Against the back wall stood a large box of red leather, secured with a copper padlock. There was no other furniture, but the floor was covered by a thick carpet, showing blue Taoist symbols woven into a gold-brown ground. The air was dry and crisp.

As they were walking around the dais, more small bats flew around the lantern. Judge Dee shooed them away.

"Where could they be coming from?" Tsung Lee asked in a hushed voice.

The judge pointed at two apertures in the ceiling.

"Those are airshafts," he said. "Your poem about the two abbots was all wrong. There are no maggots here. It's too dry. You should have said bats. But probably you couldn't have found a word rhyming with that anyway!"

"Cats!" the poet murmured.

"We are coming to them! The old abbot painted many of them. Open that box, Tao Gan! It must contain his pictures and manuscripts. I see no other place for storing them."

Judge Dee and Tsung Lee looked on while Tao Gan sprang the padlock. The box was tightly packed with rolls of paper and silk. Tao Gan unrolled a few from the top. Handing the judge two rolls he said: "Here are more pictures of that grey cat, Your Honour."

Judge Dee looked casually at them. One showed the cat playing on the floor with its woollen ball, the other while it was playing in the grass, trying to catch a butterfly with its raised paw. Suddenly he stiffened. He stood stock-still for a while, staring straight ahead of him. Then he put the two pictures back into the box. He said tensely: "Close the box. I need no further proof! The old abbot was indeed murdered!"

Tao Gan and Tsung wanted to ask questions, but the judge barked: "Hurry up with that box; we'll now go and charge the criminal with his foul murder!"

Tao Gan quickly replaced the scrolls, closed the box and ran after the judge. Judge Dee cast one last look at the sunken face of the figure on the dais. Then he bowed, and made for the stairs.

"Aren't the abbot's quarters in the building over the fourth gate?" he asked Tsung Lee while they were going up.

"Yes sir! If we go back to the west tower, we can take the passage that leads east, straight to the rooms of the gate-house of the Sanctum."

"You take me there. Tao Gan, you run back through the Gallery of Horrors to the temple, and take the picture of the cat that is hanging above the altar in the side hall. Then you rouse a novice and have him bring you to the abbot's quarters, along the usual way."

They completed the climb up to the north-west tower in silence. From there Tao Gan went straight on; Tsung Lee took the judge to the dark passage on their left. Through the shuttered windows they could again hear the wind and rain outside. There were sounds of earthenware breaking on the flagstones of the central courtyard below.

"The gale is blowing tiles from the roof," the poet remarked. "That will be the last of the storm; they usually begin and end with a violent gale."

The two men came to a halt in front of a solid-looking door. It was locked.

"As far as I remember from the plan, Your Honour," Tsung Lee said, "this is the back door of the abbot's bedroom."

Judge Dee rapped hard on it with his knuckles. He pressed his ear to the smooth surface. He thought he heard someone moving about inside. He repeated his knocking. At last there was the sound of a key, and the door was slowly opened a crack. The light of their lantern shone on a haggard face, distorted by fear.