The Phantom of the Temple

XVI

Now that he was going to visit the deserted temple for the second time, Ma Joong thought he had better explore the approach from the rear. So he left the city by the north gate.

He found the path leading up the slope without diffi­culty. Half-way up, however, there were several side paths, and he had to retrace his steps a few times before he got on to the track that took him to a small clearing on top of the hill. He paused there a few moments, enjoy­ing the view of the city with its many twinkling lights.

After he had entered the wood, he found Fang, the young constable, sitting on a tree trunk. He told Ma Joong that his colleague was watching the head of the staircase on the other side of the hill. When he had showed Ma Joong the footpath leading to the Hermitage, Fang went back to his post.

Soon Ma Joong saw the red-lacquered gate of the Her­mitage. The surrounding wall was not too high, and, as far as he could see in the uncertain light, the tiles that topped it were new and solid. It would not be difficult to climb over the wall, but he decided to wait until the clouds obscuring the moon had drifted away; for a dis­located tile could make a loud noise in the quiet night. Poking about in the undergrowth, he collected half a dozen boulders which he piled up against the wall, to the left of the gate. As soon as the moon appeared, he stepped onto the pile and pulled himself up on top of the wall. The roof of the servant's quarters was directly below him, just as the King had told him. He crept a little farther and jumped down lightly in the paved courtyard. After a brief glance at the lighted window of the Abbess's living quarters he tiptoed to the door of the small building, and softly knocked four times.

When nothing seemed to stir inside, he repeated his knocking, pressing his ear against the wood. Now he heard the faint sound of bare feet. The door opened and he quickly stepped into a small room, lit by a cheap candlestick on the bamboo side-table.

'Now, who might you be?' the girl whispered after she had softly closed the door. She wore a thin nightrobe and he got a fleeting impression of a round face and a mass of tousled hair. He took the marker from his sleeve. Pressing it into her small, warm hand, he said:

'My name is Shao-pa. I am Seng-san's cousin. The King sent me. He told me you are called Spring Cloud.'

She stepped up to the side-table and studied the marker by the light of the candle. Beside it stood a round metal mirror on a wooden stand; in front of it lay a broken comb. This was evidently her dressing-table. Ma Joong cast a quick glance at the scanty furniture. Against the side wall stood a simple plank bed covered by a worn reed-mat, in front was a rickety bamboo chair. On a shelf high up on the wall he saw a tea-basket, a brass water-basin and a small lantern. The smell of a cheap perfume hung in the close air.

'Small but cosy!' he remarked.

'Mind your own business!' She stooped and took a small, low-legged table from under the bed. Having placed it on the bed-mat, she sat down cross-legged beside it and gestured Ma Joong to sit down on the other side. He stepped out of his boots and followed her example. The mat was still warm from her body. They sat facing each other silently, the small bed-table in between them.

He noticed with satisfaction that, now that she had pushed the locks away from her face, she looked very nice, exactly his type: a pretty round face with saucy eyes, dimpled cheeks and a coral-red, full mouth. When he glimpsed her firm, round bosom through the thin robe, he said a silent prayer of thanks to the God of War. Suddenly she smiled.

'You aren't so young, but you look better than most of father's friends, Shao-pa!’

'Well, well!’ Ma Joong exclaimed. 'So you are the King's daughter! An honour to work with you, Princess! I am supposed to help you get the gold, you know. Tell me how your father came to know about that. Seng-san used to be rather close-lipped — when he was still with us.'

'Simple. Father taught Seng-san boxing, formerly. That's why Seng-san used to look him up from time to time. He promised father a slice of the loot too.'

'How much was Seng-san to get?'

'One third, Yang two-thirds. Stands to reason, for Yang had tipped your cousin off, you see. Yang didn't like to look for the gold all by himself, for the fellow who had the first claim on it was a very tough customer, they say. Yang was afraid of him. And with a good reason, too! Seeing that the bastard killed your cousin and spirited Yang away to Heaven knows where! After that I told father I wouldn't go to search the temple at night alone any more. Not me!'

'I'd like to meet the son of a dog who killed Seng-san! His brother Lao-woo is doing time in Tong-kang, so it's me who has to settle the account.'

'As for me, father told me to apply for this job with the old bitch here to keep an eye on the temple. I won't say nothing bad about your cousin, mind you, but father just thought Seng-san would bear a bit of watching, you see.'

'The King was dead right! What I don't get is why the scoundrel who put the gold in the temple didn't dig it up himself and clear out. Why let it lie about there till Seng-san and Yang barged in?'

She shrugged her round shoulders.

'Seems he hid it because he stole it somewhere, and hid it so well that he couldn't find it any more! And not for want of trying either! I have been over that whole blasted place, and I can tell you he really did some work there! Tore up the floors everywhere. I have been over my employer's quarters too, by the way.'

'Heavens, Princess, you wouldn't suspect a pious abbess, would you?'

'As long as I don't know who owns that gold, I am trusting nobody. And as to pious, the old bitch has a nasty streak in her, brother Shao. If she's in a bad temper, she takes it out of me with a thin piece of rattan. "Let down your trousers, bend for the Lord Buddha and pray for improvement of your character! " she says, and then she lets me have it, counting the strokes on the rosary in her left hand! That's piety for you, brother Shao!' She spat on the floor. 'Well, now that you are here, I don't mind having another look at the temple. I'll show you the lay-out.'

She pulled a piece of folded paper from under the bed­mat and smoothed it out.

'Look here, this is the main hall, right in the middle. That's where we start.'

Ma Joong studied the floor-plan. It corresponded exactly to the description Judge Dee and Sergeant Hoong had given him.

'You did that very well indeed, Princess!'

'What do you think? I am an old hand at making floor-plans. Hire myself out as maid in a big house, and make a plan. Just so that a couple of father's friends don't get lost when they pay a visit there in the dark. You memorize this plan over by the candle there, brother Shao. We still have an hour or so, for we can't leave before the Abbess is asleep.'

Folding the paper up, Ma Joong said, with a grin, I'd like to use that hour to improve upon our acquaintance a bit, Princess! Don't start on a job before you know your partner well, they say!'

'Business before pleasure,' she said determinedly. 'Get off the bed and study the floor-plan! In the meantime I'll change. Keep your back to me, and your eyes on that paper!'

Ma Joong stepped down and stood himself in front of the dressing-table, his back to the plank bed. She slipped out of her nightdress, and rummaged on her knees behind the bed until she had found a pair of dark-blue trousers and a jacket. About to put them on, she hesitated and gave Ma Joong's broad back a speculative look. With a faint smile she laid the clothes aside, knelt on the night-robe and began to do her hair. She thought that now she made a rather attractive picture, and called out, 'Don't turn round yet!'

'Why should I?' Ma Joong asked. 'I am doing fine with the mirror here. You looked very nice from behind, too!'

'You mean bastard!' She jumped from the bed and went for him, trying to scratch his face. He folded her in his arms.

When she had dressed she took the small lantern down from the shelf.

'We can light it only when we are inside the temple,' she said. 'This afternoon I saw a couple of fellows hang­ing about near the gate, and they looked like thief-catchers, posted there after your cousin's murder. So the fellow who did him in won't be around tonight. We might meet the ghost, though.'

'Don't try to be funny, Princess!'

'I don't. There is a ghost about there. Saw her a couple of times myself, with my own eyes. Floating about the trees, she was. A tall woman, in a creepy white shroud. I don't like ghosts, but this one means no harm. Once I nearly bumped into her. She didn't do a thing, just looked at me with her large sad eyes and drifted on.'

'Sad or not, I don't like to meet her. Let's be on our way! I'll get you past those guards. I was in the "green woods" in my younger days.'

She blew out the candle and opened the door a crack.

'Funny!' she whispered. 'There's still a light in the old bitch's room!’

'She'll be reading her holy books!’

'And aloud too, by the sound of it. Well, we'll go anyway. If she discovers I am out, I'll give her notice. Let her pink another girl's behind!’

They crossed the yard on tiptoe. She carefully lifted the crossbar, opened the gate and put a few pebbles under­neath so that it remained ajar. They walked down the path through the forest. Arrived at the edge, he told her to stay close behind him, and do exactly as he did. He studied the trees at the top of the staircase, trying to locate the constable on duty. It would be awkward if the man spotted them. Yes, there he was, the lazy dog! Asleep under that cypress tree! Well, it made things easier, anyway. About to drag Spring Cloud along, he suddenly stiffened. There was something strange about the man's drawn-up knees and his outflung arms. He quickly went over to the prostrate figure and bent over it.

'Is ... is he dead?' she whispered behind him.

'Strangled from behind with a thin cord,' he muttered grimly. 'Go back home, Princess. From now on this is strictly a man's job. The murderer has come back.'

She clasped his arm.

'I'll stay with you. I have been in scraps before. If you come to grips with him, I can always bash his head in with a brick.'

A MEETING LATE AT NIGHT

'Have it your own way! The bastard is probably in the main hall, so we can't risk the front entrance. We'll take the back door, first climbing over the outer wall at the rear.'

'Yes, there's a gap just a little beyond the back wall of the hall. Come along, I'll show you!’

They walked along the front of the outer wall, turned the corner and then followed the path leading along the temple's side wall. When they had come to the small clearing at the north-east corner, Ma Joong halted.

'Wait here a moment,' he whispered. 'I'll reconnoitre.'

He went on to the tall trees, looking for the young constable. But, although he went as far as the clearing where the path led down the slope, there was no trace of Fang. He whistled, softly. All remained silent. He cursed under his breath. Had the murderer got Fang too? Suddenly he had the uncanny feeling that someone was watching him. A cloud was obscuring the moon again. He strained his eyes but nothing seemed to be moving under the high oak trees. He went back to where he had left Spring Cloud.

'There's nobody about,' he told her. 'You stay here, it's better that I have a squint at the rear wall first. I'll come and fetch you if the coast is clear, and then you can show me that gap where we can climb inside.'

He went round the corner, his left hand on the weather-beaten bricks of the outer wall. There was no one on the long narrow path that ran all along the back wall of the temple. On the right of the pathway was the steep slope down, covered with thick shrubs and here and there a large, mossy boulder.

Standing there at the corner he scanned the top of the wall. The bricks had crumbled away in several places, but he couldn't see the larger gap Spring Cloud had spoken of. At the far end, beyond the silhouette of the west tower, he saw the pile of masonry that marked the opposite corner of the outer wall, where the old well was located. If necessary they could walk on to there, and then ...'

He bent forward. In the shadows near that far corner he saw a white shape. Not trusting his eyes, he quickly advanced a few steps. Then he stood stock still. It was the white woman, beckoning him with a long, thin hand.