The Haunted Monastery

XX

Judge Dee slowly climbed the stairs to the landing over the temple. There was still no sign of Tao Gan. He went into the corridor leading to the store-room, and opened the second window on his right. Deep down below he heard weak moans, mixed with angry growling. Then there were dry, snapping sounds as of dead branches breaking. He raised his eyes to the windows in the guest-building opposite. All of them remained as they were, the shutters securely closed. He heaved a deep sigh. The case had been decided.

He laid Sun's cloak on the low window sill, then quickly turned away. After breakfast he would draw up the document about Sun's accidental death, which occurred when he leaned too far out of the low window while watching the bear down below.

With a sigh he retraced his steps to the landing. He heard quick footsteps, then saw Tao Gan who came rushing round the corner. His lieutenant said with a contented smile: "I was just going to look for you, sir! You needn't search for Mo Mo-te. I have got him!"

He took the judge to the next corridor. A powerfully-built man clad in a monk's cowl was lying unconscious on the floor, with hands and feet securely tied. Judge Dee stooped and held his lantern close. He recognized the morose face. This was the tall, sullen man he had met in the storeroom, together with the elder monk whom he had asked whether Mo had been there.

"Where did you find him?" he asked.

"Soon after Your Honour had gone up to Master Sun's library, I saw him sneaking up here. I followed him, but he is a wily customer. It took me quite some time before I could come up behind him close enough to throw my thin noose of waxed thread over his head. I pulled it tight till he passed out, then trussed him up neatly."

"You'd better untruss him again!" Judge Dee said wryly. "He's not our man. I was wrong about him all along. His real name is Liu, he and his sister were members of a gang of vagabonds. But he also works on his own, sometimes as a Taoist mendicant monk, sometimes as an actor. He is probably a rough-and-ready rascal, but he came here for a laudable purpose, namely to avenge the murder of his sister. When you have freed him, come and sit down with me on the landing. I am tired."

He turned round and walked back to the landing, leaving Tao Gan standing there dumbfounded. Judge Dee sat down on the wooden bench and let his head lean back against the wall.

When Tao Gan came, the Judge pointed to the place by his side. Sitting there together in the semi-darkness, he told Tao Gan about his discovery of the secret room and his conversation with Sun Ming. He said in conclusion: "I don't blame myself for not realizing earlier that I had mistaken Sun's round head with smooth silvery hair for that of a soldier wearing a close-fitting iron helmet. There was no reason for connecting a man of Sun's eminence and supposed integrity with such sordid crimes. But I ought to have begun suspecting him as soon as True Wisdom admitted his guilt, and thereby confirmed that there had indeed been irregularities with women in this monastery."

Tao Gan looked puzzled. After a while he asked: "Why should that have aroused suspicions regarding Master Sun, sir?"

"I ought then to have realized, Tao Gan, that a man of Sun's intelligence and experience could not have failed to notice that queer things were going on here. I should have suspected him all the more since, when I talked with him just after True Wisdom's death, Sun stressed that he always stayed in his library and used to keep himself aloof from all that went on in the monastery. I should have remembered then that True Wisdom had assured me during our first interview that Sun, on the contrary, had always shown a lively interest in all the affairs of the monastery. And that should have suggested to me at once that Sun was implicated in the murders, and that the abbot wanted to denounce him as an accomplice. And that, therefore, Sun pushed him from the landing. When directly thereafter we were drinking tea with Tsung Lee in the temple hall, I had a vague feeling that there was something wrong somewhere, but I failed to discover the truth. I needed a broken saucer to see all the facts in their proper connection!"

The judge heaved a deep sigh, and slowly shook his head. Then he yawned and continued: "Taoism penetrates deep into the mysteries of life and death, but its abstruse knowledge may inspire that evil, inhuman pride that turns a man into a cruel fiend. And its profound philosophy about balancing the male and female elements may degenerate to those unspeakable rites with women. The question is, Tao Gan, whether we are meant to discover the mystery of life, and whether that discovery would make us happier. Taoism has many elevated thoughts; it teaches us to requite good with good, and bad also with good. But the instruction to requite bad with good belongs to a better age than we are living in now, Tao Gan! It's a dream of the future, a beautiful dream — yet only a dream. I prefer to keep to the practical wisdom of our Master Confucius, who teaches us our simple, everyday duties to our fellow-men and to our society. And to requite good with good, and bad with justice!" After a while he resumed: "Of course it would be foolish to ignore entirely the existence of mysterious, supernatural phenomena. Yet most occurrences which we consider as such prove in the end to have a perfectly natural explanation. When I was in the passage where you have now deposited Mo, I heard my name whispered. I remembered the weird story about the ghosts of the slaughtered people, and thought that it was a warning that I was about to die. However, when thereafter I entered the store-room, I found there Mo Mo-te and another monk, a confederate of his, who apparently had helped him to change from his warrior's costume into an old monk's cowl they had taken from a box there. I now realize that those two must have been talking about me, and a queer effect of the echo made me overhear them in the next corridor."

"That's right!" a hoarse voice spoke up. "My friend said I should report my sister's murder to you. But I know better. You smug officials won't lift a finger for us, the common people!"

The hulking shape of Mo Mo-te stood before them.

Judge Dee looked up at the threatening figure.

"You ought to have followed your friend's advice," he said evenly. "You would have saved yourself much trouble. And me too."

Mo scowled at him, fingering the red weal round his throat. Then he stepped up close to the judge. Bending over him he growled: "Who killed my sister?"

"I found the murderer," Judge Dee replied curtly. "He confessed, and I sentenced him to death. Your sister has been avenged. That's all you need to know."

Quick as lightning Mo pulled a long knife from his bosom. Keeping it poised expertly at Judge Dee's throat, he hissed: "Tell me or you are done for! It's me who shall kill her murderer! I am her brother. And what are you, eh?"

Judge Dee folded his arms in his sleeves. Looking up at Mo with his burning eyes he said slowly: "I represent the law, Mo. It's I who take vengeance." Lowering his gaze he added in a voice that was suddenly utterly tired: "And it is I who shall answer for it."

He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall again.

Mo glared at Judge Dee's pale, impassive face. His large hand tightened on the hilt of the knife until the knuckles stood out white. Sweat began to pearl on his low forehead; his breathing came heavily. Tao Gan looked tensely at the hand with the knife.

Then Mo averted his blazing eyes. He gave Tao Gan a sombre glance, put the knife back in his bosom and said suddenly: "Then I have nothing to seek here any more."

He turned around and walked unsteadily to the stairs.

After a while Judge Dee opened his eyes. He said in a toneless voice: "Forget all I told you about Sun Ming and his crimes, Tao Gan. We shall keep to the story that it was the abbot and Mrs. Pao who maltreated and killed those three girls and tortured Miss Kang. Sun died by an unfortunate accident. He is survived by three sons and we must not wantonly destroy other people's lives. Too many already do their utmost to destroy their own, all by themselves!"

For a long time the judge and his lieutenant sat there together, silently listening to the chant that came up to them from the temple hall below, punctuated by beats on a wooden gong. The monks at the abbot's bier were still reciting the prayers for the dead. Judge Dee could make out the words of the refrain, repeated with monotonous insistence:

At last Judge Dee rose. He said: "Go now to the store-room and fix the secret lock so that it can't work. The secret room contains the old statue of the naked woman, and I shall forbid having naked woman exposed in the Gallery of Horrors, anyway. That secret room shall never again tempt anyone to commit deeds of evil! We'll meet after breakfast!"

He went with Tao Gan as far as the first window in the corridor, where he had deposited Sun's cloak as evidence of the accident. While Tao Gan went on, he opened the shutters wide.

All was quiet deep down below. Suddenly a dark shape swooped down into the space between the two buildings, followed by another. The mountain vultures had discovered prey.

Judge Dee went back to the landing and descended the stairs leading down to the temple hall. When he stepped out on the open platform in front of the temple gate, he looked up. The red rays of dawn were streaking the grey sky.

He went down the broad steps, then headed for the main entrance of the east wing. While passing the high gate that closed off the well between the east wing and the building he had just left, he suddenly stood still. He stared at a hand that held on to the top of the gate with blood-stained, broken fingers. For one brief moment he thought that Sun was hanging there on the other side, in a last frantic attempt to escape. But then a vulture came down, picked up the hand and flew away towards the mountains.

Slowly the judge climbed the stairs leading up to the third floor. Every step hurt him and his back was aching. He had to rest a while on each landing. When at last he knocked on the door of his own quarters, he was swaying on his feet.

In the dressing room the maids were busy fanning the coals in the brazier, heating the morning rice.

Judge Dee and His Three Wives

When he entered the bedroom, he found that his three wives had just risen. The window curtains were still drawn, and in the dim light of the candles the room was cosy and warm. The First Lady sat with bare torso by the dressing table and the two others, still in their bed-robes, were helping her to do her hair.

Judge Dee sat down heavily at the small tea table. He took off his cap, removed the bandage and felt the bruised spot. As he carefully replaced his cap, his third wife gave him a searching look and asked anxiously: "I hope that my bandage helped?"

"It most certainly did!" the judge replied with feeling.

"I knew it would!" she said happily. Handing him a cup of steaming tea she added: "I'll draw the curtains and open the shutters. I hope the storm has blown over."

Slowly sipping his tea, the judge followed his First Lady's graceful movements as she combed her long tresses, looking intently into the round mirror of polished silver that his second wife held up for her. He passed his hand over his eyes. In these peaceful surroundings the horrors of the past night suddenly seemed nothing but a weird nightmare.

His First Lady gave her hair a final pat. She thanked the other who had been assisting her. Pulling her bed-robe up round her bare shoulders she came over to the tea table and wished the judge a good morning. Noticing his haggard face she exclaimed: "You look all done in! What on earth have you been at all night? I saw you come in once to take things from our medicine chest. Has there been an accident?"

"A person fell ill," Judge Dee replied vaguely, "and we needed some drugs. Then there were a few odds and ends that had to be attended to. Now everything has been straightened out."

"You shouldn't have been gadding about all night, and that with your cold!" she said reprovingly. "Well, I'll quickly make you a nice bowl of hot gruel, that'll do you good!" Passing by the open window she looked out and added briskly: "We'll have a pleasant trip back to Han-yuan. It's going to be a beautiful day!"

THE HAUNTED MONASTERY COLOPHON

JUDGE DEE was a historical person who lived from 630 to 700 A.D. In the earlier part of his career when he served as magistrate in various country districts, he earned fame as a detector of crimes, and later, after he had been appointed at Court, he proved to be a brilliant statesman who greatly influenced the internal and foreign policies of the T'ang Empire. The adventures related here, however, are entirely fictitious, although many features were suggested by original old Chinese sources. The clue of the cat's eyes, for instance, I borrowed from an anecdote told about the Sung scholar and artist Ou-yang Hsiu (1007-1072 A.D.); he possessed an old painting of a cat among peonies, and pointed out that it must have been painted at noon, because the flowers were wilting, and the cat's pupils mere slits.

The Chinese professed three creeds, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, the last having been introduced from India in the first century A.D. Since old Chinese detective and crime stories were written in the main by Confucianist scholars, that literature evinces a pronounced partiality to Confucianism, a feature which I adopted in my Judge Dee novels. The characterization of Confucianist and Taoist ideals given in the present novel is based on authentic Chinese texts.

The plates I drew in the style of 16th century Chinese illustrated block prints, especially the fine Ming edition of the Lieh-nü-chuan (Biographies of Illustrious Women). Those plates represent, therefore, costumes and customs of the Ming period, rather than those of the T'ang dynasty. Note that in Judge Dee's time the Chinese did not wear pigtails; that custom was imposed on them after 1644 A.D. when the Manchus had conquered China. The men did their long hair up in a top-knot, and wore caps both inside and outside the house. Tobacco and opium were introduced into China many centuries later.