The Haunted Monastery

VII

The judge tugged angrily at his beard. The ghostly voice had disturbed him more than he cared to admit. Then he took hold of himself. Probably some monks were talking about him in another room or passage near there. Often the echo played queer tricks in such old buildings. He stood listening for a while, but did not hear anything. The whispers had ceased.

Shrugging his shoulders he walked back to the landing. He now saw that he had indeed taken a wrong turn. The passage leading to the store-room was on the other side. He quickly walked around the well, and now found the right corridor. He recognized the three narrow windows on his right. The door of the store-room was standing ajar. He heard voices coming from inside.

As he went in he saw to his disappointment that there were only two monks. They were busy with the lock of a large box of red-lacquered leather. He didn't see Mo Mo-te, but a quick glance at the wall on the left showed that the round iron helmet was now hanging in its place above the coat of mail, and that the long sword had been put back in the scabbard. He asked the elder man: "Have you seen the actor Mo Mo-te?"

"No, Your Honour," the monk answered. "But we have just come in. We must have missed him."

The man spoke politely enough, but the judge didn't like the surly look of the younger monk, a tall, broad-shouldered fellow who stared at him suspiciously.

"I wanted to compliment him on his skill in sword-fighting," Judge Dee said casually. Apparently the actor had returned to Kuan's room, and there Tao Gan would keep an eye on him.

He set out on the long way to his own quarters on the third floor of the east wing.

He felt very tired when at last he knocked on the door of the dressing room. One of the maids opened the door. The others were preparing the rice for the evening meal on the brazier in the corner.

In the bedroom Judge Dee found his three wives gathered around the tea table, engaged in a game of dominoes. As they rose to greet him, his First Lady said with satisfaction: "You are just in time for a game, before we start dinner."

The judge looked wistfully at the pieces on the table, for dominoes was his favourite game. He said: "Much to my regret I can't have dinner with you here. I have to take part in the banquet the abbot is giving downstairs. There's a former Imperial Tutor staying here, too. I couldn't possibly refuse."

"Good Heavens!" his First Lady exclaimed, "that means that I must pay a courtesy visit to his wife!"

"No, the Tutor is a widower. But I'll have to call on him before the banquet. Take my ceremonial robes out, will you?" He blew his nose vigorously.

"I am glad that I won't have to get dressed!" she said with relief. "But it's a shame that you should be up and about. You certainly have a head-cold. Look, your eyes are watering!"

While she opened the clothes box and started to lay out Judge Dee's green brocade robe, his third wife said: "I'll make you a poultice of orange peel. If you keep that around your head, you'll feel much better tomorrow!"

"How can I attend the banquet with a bandage round my head!" the judge exclaimed aghast. "I'd look like a fool!"

"You can pull your cap down over it, can't you?" his First Lady said practically as she helped him change. "Nobody'll notice it!"

The judge mumbled some protests but his third wife had already taken a handful of dried orange rinds from their medicine chest and was putting them in a bowl of hot water. When they were well soaked, his second wife wrapped them up in a linen bandage and together they wound it tightly around his head. His First Lady pulled his velvet cap well down and said: "There you are, it doesn't show at all!"

Judge Dee thanked them. He promised that he would come up as soon as the banquet was over. When he was at the door, he turned round and added: "All kinds of people are about here tonight, so you'd better keep the door to the corridor locked and barred, and let nobody in before the maids have ascertained who it is."

He went into the dressing room, where Tao Gan stood waiting for him. The judge told the maids to go to the bedroom and serve tea to his wives. He sat down with Tao Gan at the corner table and asked in a low voice: "Did Mo Mo-te go to Kuan's room? I just missed him."

"No," Tao Gan replied. "He must be walking about somewhere. But soon after you had left, Miss Ou-yang came in. Without make-up she doesn't resemble Miss Pao, although she has the same regular, oval face. I think it was Miss Pao we met in the corridor, for you'll remember that she spoke in a soft, pleasant voice, and Miss Ou-yang's is rather harsh, and a bit hoarse. And although I don't claim to be a connoisseur of women, I think the girl we met was plumper than Miss Ou-yang, who is rather on the bony side."

"Yet the girl we met didn't use her left arm, exactly like Miss Ou-yang. What did she talk about?"

"She is rather a taciturn girl, it seems. She only became a bit more lively when I made her join a conversation with Miss Ting about acrobatic dances. I referred casually to Tsung Lee having met Miss Ou-yang in the hall. She only remarked sourly that he was a bore. Then I said that you hadn't liked the abrupt way of her disappearing in the midst of a talk with you. She gave me a sharp look, and said vaguely that her bear needed a lot of attention."

"Somebody is fooling us!" Judge Dee exclaimed, angrily tugging at his beard. Then he asked: "what did they say about Mo Mo-te?"

"It seems he is a man of rather erratic habits. He'll join the troupe for a month or so, then disappear again. He always acts the part of the villain, and Kuan maintains that that tends to make a man a bit touchy in the end. I gathered that Mo is rather fond of Miss Ting, but she won't have him. Therefore Mo is fearfully jealous of Miss Ou-yang; he suspects that the two girls are having a little affair of their own together, just as Tsung Lee suggested in his poem. Kuan agrees that Mo went a bit too far in frightening Miss Ou-yang with that sword dance, but he added that with that nasty bear of hers about she needn't fear anybody. The animal follows its mistress about and obeys her like a lapdog, but nobody else dares to come near the brute. It has a vicious temper."

"It's a vexing puzzle!" the judge muttered. "Suppose that Miss Ou-yang or Miss Pao was running away from Mo Mo-te when we met her in the corridor, and that he is a dangerous maniac. That would fit in with the weird scene I saw through the window. The man I saw must have been Mo Mo-te, but who was the girl he was assaulting? We must find out whether there are other women staying in this monastery besides the ones we know about."

"I didn't dare to inquire about a mutilated woman without your orders, sir," Tao Gan said. "But I don't think that there are any other women staying here besides Mrs. Kuan and the two actresses, and Mrs. Pao with her daughter, of course."

"Don't forget that we have seen only a very small part of this monastery," the judge said. "Heaven knows what goes on in the section forbidden to outsiders! And we don't even have a map of the place! Well, I'll go and call on Master Sun now. You go back to the actors. When the elusive Mo Mo-te turns up, you stick to him like a leech, and go to the banquet with him. I'll see you there later."

In the corridor a novice stood waiting for the judge.

"Do we have to go outside to reach the west tower?" Judge Dee asked. The rain was still clattering against the shutters, he didn't like to get his ceremonial robe wet.

"Oh no, sir!" the novice replied. "We'll go to the west wing by way of the passage over the temple hall."

"More stairs!" the judge muttered.