Robert Gulik - The Chinese Maze Murders

"Would you remove the mask, Your Honour?"

Judge Dee pulled down the scarf. Ma Joong exclaimed:

"May Heaven preserve us! It's a wench!"

They looked into the blazing eyes of a young girl. Ma Joong let go her arm in sheer astonishment.

Judge Dee hastily pinned her arms behind her back and said sourly:

"Well, on occasion one will find an abandoned woman among these robber bands. Tie her up as the others!"

Ma Joong called out to Chiao Tai who by now had subdued and trussed up his opponent. Ma Joong remained standing there scratching his head in perplexity while Chiao Tai bound the girl's hands behind her back. She did not say a word.

Judge Dee went to the tilt cart with the women. His First Lady was crouching in the window with a dagger in her hand. The others were cowering under the quilts in a dead fright.

The judge told them that the fight was over.

Judge Dee's servants and the coachmen had emerged from their hiding places. They hastily set to work to light torches.

In the flickering light Judge Dee surveyed the results of the battle.

On their own side there was little damage. Sergeant Hoong had regained consciousness, and had his head bandaged by Tao Gan. The old steward had suffered more from fright than from the robber's blow. Ma Joong was sitting on a tree trunk stripped to the waist. His left shoulder was purple and swollen, and Chiao Tai was massaging it with medicinal oil.

Ma Joong had killed two robbers, Ghiao Tai one. The six others were all more or less the worse for wear, only the girl was entirely unhurt.

The judge ordered his servants to tie the robbers on top of one luggage cart, and the dead bodies on the other. The girl would have to walk.

Tao Gan produced a padded basket, and the judge and his lieutenants drunk a cup of hot tea.

Ma Joong rinsed his mouth, spat contemptuously and said to Chiao Tai:

"All in all, it was an amateurish attack. I don't think that these fellows are professional highwaymen."

"Yes", Chiao Tai agreed, "with ten men they could have done a better job."

"They did well enough for my taste", Judge Dee remarked dryly.

They silently drank another cup of tea. All were exhausted and no one felt inclined to say much. One only heard the whispering voices of the servants, and the groans of the wounded robbers.

After a brief rest the cortège set into motion again. Two servants with lighted torches led the way.

It took them well over an hour to cross the last mountain ridge. Then the road came out on a broad highway, and soon they saw the battlements of the northern city gate of Lan-fang silhouetted against the evening sky.

Chiao Tai looked amazed at the formidable gate surmounted by a high gate tower. Then he remembered that Lan-fang was a border town where one had to reckon with sudden attacks from the barbarian hordes of the western plains.

He knocked with the hilt of his sword on the iron-studded gate.

After considerable time the shutters of a small window in the gate tower opened. A gruff voice called out from above:

"The gate is closed for the night. Come back tomorrow morning!"

Chiao Tai gave a thunderous knock on the gate. He shouted:

"Open up, the magistrate has arrived!"

"What magistrate?", the voice asked.

"His Excellency Dee, the new magistrate of Lan-fang. Open the gate, you fathead!"

The shutters slammed shut.

Ma Joong rode up to Chiao Tai. He asked:

"What is all this delay?"

"The lazy dogs were asleep!", Chiao Tai said disgustedly. As he spoke he let his sword again rattle on the door.

They heard the clanking of chains. At last the heavy doors opened a few feet.

Chiao Tai forced his horse through, and nearly trampled down two slovenly clad soldiers wearing rusty helmets.

"Throw the gates wide open, lazy dogs!", Chiao Tai barked.

The soldiers looked impudently at the two horsemen. One opened his mouth to say something, but seeing the fierce look on Chiao Tai's face he thought better of it. Together with his colleague he pushed open the gate.

The cortège passed through and moved south along the dark main street.

The town presented a desolate appearance. Although the first nightwatch had not yet sounded most of the shops were closed for the night with solid wooden shutters.

Here and there small groups of people clustered round the oil lamps of the street vendors. When the cortège passed by they turned round and looked for a moment indifferently at the horse wagons, then turned again to their noodle bowls.

No one came to meet the new magistrate and there were no signs of welcome.

The cortège passed under a high ornamental archway that spanned the street. Here the main street divided to left and right, running along a high wall. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai took this to be the rear wall of the tribunal compound.

They turned east and followed the wall till they came to a large gate. Over its archway there hung a weather-beaten wooden board with an engraved inscription reading:

"The Tribunal of Lan-fang"

Chiao Tai jumped from his horse and started to knock on the door with all his might.

A squat man clad in a patched robe opened the door. His ragged beard was dirty with grease and he had a horrible squint. Lifting up a paper lantern he surveyed Chiao Tai. Then he snarled:

"Don't you know that the tribunal is closed, soldier?"

This was too much for Chiao Tai. He gripped the man by his beard and violently shook his head; it bumped against the doorpost with dull thuds. Chiao Tai only released him when the man started crying for mercy.

Chiao Tai said peremptorily:

"His Excellency Magistrate Dee has arrived. Open the door and call the personnel of the tribunal!"

The man hurriedly pushed the double doors open. The cortège passed through and came to a halt in the main courtyard, in front of the large reception hall.

Judge Dee descended from his cart and looked around. The high, sixfold doors of the reception hall were barred and locked, the windows of the chancery opposite shuttered. Everything was dark and deserted.

Folding his hands in his sleeves Judge Dee ordered Chiao Tai to bring the gate keeper before him.

Chiao Tai dragged him along by his collar. The squat man hastily knelt.

Judge Dee asked curtly:

"Who are you, and where is the outgoing magistrate, His Excellency Kwang?"

"This insignificant person", the man stammered, "is the warden of the jail. His Excellency Kwang left early this morning by the southern city gate."

"Where are the seals of office?"

"They must be somewhere in the chancery", the warden answered in a quavering voice.

Judge Dee's patience gave out. He stamped his foot on the ground and shouted:

"Where are the guards, where are the constables? Where are the scribes, where are the clerks, where is everybody in this accursed tribunal?"

"The headman of the constables left last month. The senior scribe has been on sick leave for the last three weeks, and…"

"So there is nobody but you", the judge interrupted him. Turning to Chiao Tai he continued: "Throw this warden in his own jail. I shall find out for myself what is wrong here!"

The warden started to protest but Chiao Tai boxed his ears and bound his hands behind his back. He turned the warden round, gave him a kick and barked:

"Lead us to your jail!"

In the left wing of the compound, behind the empty quarters of the guards, they found quite a capacious jail. Evidently the cells had not been used for a long time; but the doors looked solid enough and the windows had iron grates.

Chiao Tai pushed the warden into a small cell and locked the door.