The Willow Pattern

XII

After a cat-nap of barely an hour, Ma Joong set out for the old city. It was getting on for two o'clock in the morn­ing. He had exchanged his heavy battledress of mail for a comfortable jacket of brown cotton, and put on his head a flat black cap instead of the cumbersome iron helmet. He had a long walk ahead, and there would not be any trouble about identification, for all the officers in charge of the military posts he had to visit knew him personally.

When he had inspected the fourth post, he found himself in the neighbourhood of the Halfmoon Bridge. He decided to have a look at the Hoo villa, as Judge Dee had ordered him.

Having walked up the bridge, he remained standing at the parapet of the central arch for a moment, to orientate himself. The villa was dark except for a faint light behind paper-covered sliding doors on the first floor, where there was a narrow balcony.

'So Hoo has indeed got company!' he said with satis­faction. 'We shall join the festivities!'

A lapping sound from below made him look over the parapet. It was caused by the strong current that swirled round the piers of the bridge, then rushed on in foaming eddies.

'Wish we could open sluices in the sky too,' he muttered, 'to get some movement in this damned stagnant air. We .. .'

Suddenly he broke off. Grasping the edge of the parapet, he leaned over as far as he could. Further downstream, near the left bank, just under the balcony of Hoo's villa, some­thing white glimmered in the dark water. For one brief moment he had a glimpse of a bare arm.

He rushed down the bridge and threw himself into the thick brushwood, well upstream from the drowning person. Thorny bushes scratched his face and hands but he strug­gled on till he had arrived down at the waterside. The current had eaten deeply into the bank, carrying away large chunks of earth. He kicked off his felt shoes, stepped out of his trousers, and threw those, together with his jacket and cap, into the shrubs higher up the bank. Stand­ing up to his knees in the mud, he steadied himself by grabbing a branch of a half-submerged shrub and peered at the surface, glimmering in the light of the signal lanterns under the bridge. Again he saw an arm rise from the water. The drowning person was struggling desperately, but strangely enough the current did not affect his position. He seemed to be held by an invisible something below the surface.

Ma Joong plunged into the swift stream. After a few strokes he recognized the danger. There was an extensive patch of waterweeds there, a mass of tough stalks and trailers. In the stagnant water they had become solidly rooted in the canal bed, and now even the strong current could not dislodge them. Evidently the drowning person had become entangled with those. Ma Joong had been born and bred in the water-district of Kiangsu Province, and he was in his element here. Knowing that any hurried move­ment would entangle his arms and legs hopelessly in the long, clinging streamers, he just let himself drift with the current, moving his legs up and down only just enough to prevent them from sinking down, and clearing his way through the waterweeds on the surface with his hands. He could discover no sign of the person in distress. Suddenly, however, his groping hands met long tresses, then a bare arm. He quickly passed his left hand under a soft back and, vigorously striking out with his right, he raised the head above the surface. He looked into the deadly pale face of Bluewhite. Her eyes were half-closed.

'Put your hands on my shoulders and keep still!' he hissed. He saw to his relief that her lips twitched. She began to retch. He let his legs sink down till his feet found a clear space. Treading water, he passed his right hand along her smooth legs and deftly freed them from the tangled trailers. He realized that, tired and out of training as he was, it would be an arduous job to get her safely to land. With a pang of anxiety he saw that her eyes had closed. She had passed out. He reflected that, although this fact would make her easier to handle, he had to hurry to prevent her from dying on his hands, for her bosom didn't seem to move any more. 'I must hurry without hurrying, a devilish job!’ he thought, taking a deep breath.

He turned over on his back and put her limp body between his legs, keeping her mouth and nose clear of the surface by cupping his left hand under her chin. His feet got caught in a new mass of waterweeds, but he suc­ceeded in freeing himself. He swam with the current, head­ing for a tree that overhung the bank beyond Hoo's garden.

'Hefty wench!’ he grunted as he clambered on land with his burden. He felt about with his foot till he found a clear space among the shrubs where there was long grass. There he stretched her out face down and began to move her arms vigorously. He had to do it all by feeling, for here among the tall shrubs it was pitch dark. She brought up a great deal of water, and he realized with immense relief that she was still alive. When he put his hand on her face he felt her eyelids flutter, and her lips moved. He quickly turned her over on her back. Kneeling by her side he began to massage her cold, stiff limbs. He was panting heavily, and he did not know whether the moisture that gushed down his face and shoulders was canal water or his own sweat.

Suddenly he heard her whisper:

'Keep your hands off me!'

'Shut up!' he gasped. Then, realizing that she could hardly have recognized him, he added more gently: 'I am the soldier who helped you clean your sleeve in the tavern, remember? I had been talking there with your father.'

He thought he heard a faint chuckle.

'You fell flat on your face,' she murmured.

'So I did,' Ma Joong said sourly. 'Planned to help you, but you can take care of yourself. Except tonight. How did you get into the canal?'

Rubbing her thighs he noticed with admiration how firm the solid muscles were.

'I am feeling rotten,' she said softly. 'Tell me first how you happened to discover me. It's hours past midnight already.'

'Well, we are supposed to kind of make the rounds, you see, at night. I was standing on the bridge over there, and spotted you. My name is Ma Joong, by the way.'

'Lucky you saw me. Thank you, Mr Ma.'

'It was all in the day's work. Now, what about you? I don't suppose Mr Hoo chucked you over his balcony, eh?'

'Very funny indeed! As a matter of fact Mr Hoo didn't chuck me over the balcony. I jumped.'

'Jumped? From the bridge?'

She heaved a sigh.

'Since you saved me from drowning, I ought to tell you, I suppose. Well, to cut a long story short, my father used to work for that man Hoo. He left Hoo's service years ago, I never knew why. Hoo told me to come to his house tonight because he had discovered something about my father, he said, something he thought I ought to know. Like a fool I went there. I found out that the dirty rat is a lecher. You can stop rubbing me now, by the way. I am feeling fine. Well, we were all alone in the library up there, and he wanted to have me. We had a kind of wrestling bout. I know a thing or two about the game, but the scoundrel is an old hand, and strong as an ox. Finally, when my jacket and skirt were in tatters I was able to place a kick in his stomach that made him reel back. I ran to the balcony and jumped into the river. I am not a bad swimmer, but I hadn't reckoned with those damned weeds.'

MA JOONG SAVES A DROWNING GIRL

'The son of a dog!’ Ma Joong exploded. As soon as you are feeling all right, we'll pay him a courtesy call, and I'll beat a full confession out of him.'

Suddenly he felt her hand on his breast.

'Don't do that, please!' she said urgently. 'He could ruin my father, you know.' Then she added in a bitter voice: 'Besides, there were no witnesses. Who would believe my word against that of an important man like Hoo?'

'I!' he said promptly. 'Anywhere, any time.'

He felt her arms round his neck. She pulled his head down and kissed him full on his mouth, pressing her bare bosom against his broad chest. He folded her in his muscular arms.

There was none of the hesitant exploration that marks a first embrace. The complete darkness allowed unreserved yielding to passion, yet created an infinite tenderness. When at last he lay down in the grass, one arm still round her shoulders, the other on her heaving bosom, he thought exultantly that he had never before possessed a more delightful woman. They remained lying there side by side for a long time. Ma Joong wished this could last for ever.

Her first words, however, dampened his elated mood.

'It had to happen anyway sooner or later,' she said casually. 'Besides, on an eventful night like this, one more accident doesn't matter.'

He was so taken aback that he didn't know what to say. Suddenly she resumed:

'Now, what about clothes? Those mosquitoes are the meanest creatures.'

'I'll go and have a look at Hoo's backyard,' he muttered.

'That damned darkness!’ he grumbled as he made his way through the shrubs. 'Wish I could've seen her face! Was it her idea of a joke, or did it really mean absolutely nothing to her? Ow!' The stubbly ground and sharp stones were hurting his bare feet.

He climbed over the wooden garden fence, and found a washing line with a few pieces of clothing the servants had apparently forgotten to take inside. He took a patched jacket and a pair of blue trousers.

Handing her the jacket, he said:

'I don't know whether it'll fit you, but it has nice long sleeves for putting those iron thingummies in. Didn't you have them with you tonight?'

'No. I told you I was a fool, didn't I? Thought that a man like Hoo had enough women available to last him for the rest of his life. Didn't you get any shoes?'

'I'll carry you to the place where I left mine.'

Disregarding her protests he took her in his arms and walked off. She was not exactly a light burden, but her cheek against his was adequate compensation for his labour. He set her down by the side of the road, then went to retrieve his belongings. He still had the woodman's instinct acquired during his long years in the 'green forest', so that he found the spot without difficulty. After he had rejoined her, he tore his neckcloth in two, and stuffed the pieces in his shoes.

'Here,' he said. 'You won't skip about in those like a young doe, but they'll at least protect your dainty feet. Where do you live?'

Not too far from here, in the quarter behind the Taoist Temple.'

After that they walked along, in a rather awkward silence. Ma Joong looked askance at her a few times, but he could not distinguish her face in the dim light, and he hesitated to reopen the conversation. When they had left the Half­moon Bridge behind them, however, he began diffidently:

'I'd like to meet you again, you know. Perhaps in ...'

She halted in her steps. Her arms akimbo, she gave him a scornful look.

'If you think this is the beginning of an easy and cheap love affair, Mister Colonel, I must disillusion you. You saved my life, and I paid cash. That's all there is to it, understand?'

While Ma Joong, deeply hurt, was groping for an answer, she went on bitterly:

'My father is right. All of you high-ups think that every woman of the common people is fair game. Don't your wife and concubines keep you sufficiently busy, my friend?’

'I am not married!’ Ma Joong exclaimed, indignant.

'You are lying, of course. As if a man of your rank wouldn't have established a family years ago!'

'I haven't. I shan't pretend that I have been exactly idle in that line all those years, but I didn't marry. There are a few wenches around who kindly hold my hand when I'm feeling lonely, but I keep no regular mistress. Never met the right girl, I suppose.'

'That's what they all say,' she remarked coldly.

'Well, have it your own way then,' Ma Joong said wearily. 'Let's walk on. I have other work to do tonight besides seeing stray girls home.'

'Yes, Mister Colonel.'

'Don't keep harping on my rank, you stupid wench!' he burst out. 'I don't belong to the upper set that produces nothing but colonels and generals. I am the son of a boat­man and damned proud of it too. I am from Foo-ling, a small fishing village in Kiangsu. Means nothing of course to a silly stuck-up city miss like you.' He shrugged, and lapsed into a moody silence. When she said nothing, and made no move to walk on, he pensively scratched his chin and resumed:

'My father was a damned fine fellow. Carried a bale of rice under each arm like a sack of feathers. But the boat was all we had, and when my father died I had to sell it to pay my debts.'

He fell silent. After a while she said quietly:

'I know all about being in debt. What did you do then?'

He looked up, startled from his thoughts.

'Well, I had always done a lot of boxing and fencing, you see, so the local magistrate hired me as his bodyguard. He paid well, but he was a mean bastard. Did a dirty trick to a widow once, and I knocked him down. A beauty, straight to his jaw!' He grinned, then gave her a sour look and continued gruffly: 'Hitting a magistrate being a capital offence, I fled and took to the "green woods". Became a highwayman, in case you don't know.'

'I do know. Being a highwayman, how could you become a colonel of the Imperial guards?'

'Because I met my present boss, who happens to be the greatest gentleman alive. He made me his lieutenant, and I have served him the last fifteen years. My career, my rank, everything I owe to him.'

She gave him a thoughtful look.

'Are you really from Foo-ling?' she asked, in the local dialect.

'I'll be damned!' Ma Joong shouted. 'You don't mean to say you are from there?'

'My mother was, originally. She was a sweet woman, but she died some years ago.' She was silent for a while, then added: 'My father belongs to the "old people".'

'He tripped me up, but I think he's a nice fellow never­theless. Bit of a grumbler, though.'

'He is a great artist,' she said earnestly. 'There was a terrible tragedy in his life, and that has made him bitter.'

They walked on. Soon the green-tiled roof of the Taoist Temple loomed up in front of them. The large paper lan­terns hanging from the eaves of the gatehouse were still burning.

She laid her hand on his arm.

'Here we'll say good-bye. My father must not know anything about my visit to Hoo, mind you. I'll tell him that I fell into the canal accidentally.'

Now that he could see her face clearly by the light of the large lanterns, he thought he discerned in her eyes a soft glint that gave him new courage.

'I'd be very glad if we could meet again,' he said. 'Not because of you know what, but just to get to know each other better. Couldn't we get together, somewhere?'

She patted her wet hair.

'Well, if you care to come to the Tavern of the Five Blessings, say tomorrow at noon, I'll try to be there, and we can have a bowl of noodles together. As an acrobat I am considered a social outcast, which has the advantage that I can show myself in public with any man I like. If you don't mind being seen with me, that is.'

'What do you take me for? I'll be there ... Miss Acrobat!'