Robert Gulik - The Chinese LakeMurders

"This is the complete plan for the rebellion of the White Lotus! But unfortunately, all the names of persons and places are written in code characters! There must be a key to this. Look in that cabinet against the back wall over there!"

Tao Gan pulled his knife from the door and looked into the cabinet. On the lower shelf stood a row of large seal stones, all engraved with slogans of the White Lotus. He took the small document box of carved sandalwood from the upper shelf and handed it to the judge. It was empty, but there was place for two small document rolls. Judge Dee rolled up the document he had picked up from the floor. The outside of the protecting flap consisted of purple brocade. The roll fitted exactly into the box; next to it there was just enough space for a second roll of the same size.

"We must find that second roll!" Judge Dee said in an agitated voice. "That must contain the key! See whether there is a secret wall safe!"

While he himself lifted the carpet and scrutinized the stone floor, Tao Gan pulled the half-decayed wall hangings aside and examined the walls.

"Nothing but solid rock!" he reported. "Up there are a few apertures; I feel air coming through."

"Those are ventilation shafts," the judge said impatiently. "They'll come out somewhere on the roof of the house. Let's inspect the leather boxes!"

They shook every one of them, but all were empty.

"Now we go on to the other tunnel!" the judge said. Tao Gan took up his lantern, and they stepped out into the crypt. Pointing at a square hole in the floor by the side of the dark archway, Tao Gan remarked:

"That'll be a well!"

Judge Dee gave it a casual look. He nodded and said:

"Yes, Hermit Han thought of everything! This crypt was evidently meant as a hiding place for his family in times of trouble. Here they had his entire treasure of gold, dried rice to eat and water to drink. Give me a light!"

Tao Gan held the lantern high so that its light shone through the archway.

"This second tunnel must have been made much later, Your Honor!" he remarked. "The rock stops here, the tunnel has earthen walls, and the wooden shorings look quite new!"

Judge Dee took the lantern from Tao Gan's hand and let its light fall on an oblong, narrow box on the floor of the tunnel, close to the wall. "Open that box!" he ordered.

Tao Gan squatted and inserted his knife under the lid. When he raised it he quickly averted his face. A nauseating smell rose from the box. Judge Dee pulled his neckcloth up over his mouth and nose. He saw the decaying corpse of a man stretched out in the box. The head had been reduced to a grinning skull; frightened insects crawled over the tattered robe that clung to the rotting carcass.

"Put the lid back!" he said curtly. "In due time we shall examine this corpse. We have no time for that now!"

He went down ten steps. About twenty yards farther on he found his progress barred by a high and narrow iron door. He turned the knob and pushed it open. He looked out into a moonlit garden. Right in front of him he saw an arbor, overgrown with ivy.

"That's Liu Fei-po's garden!" Tao Gan whispered behind him. He poked his head round the corner and went on: "The outside of this door is covered with fragments of rock, luted onto its surface. The door forms part of a large artificial rock. In that arbor over there Liu was wont to take his siesta."

"This secret door explains Liu's vanishing tricks!" Judge Dee remarked. "Let's go back!"

But Tao Gan seemed reluctant to go. He looked at the door with undisguised admiration. They heard in the distance the shouts of the men who were trying to extinguish the fire in the Han mansion.

"Close that door!" Judge Dee whispered.

"Superior workmanship!" Tao Gan said regretfully as he pulled the door close. When he followed the judge back through the tunnel the light of his lantern fell on a recess in the wall. He grabbed the judge's sleeve and pointed silently at the dry bones in the recess. There were four skulls, which the judge examined. He said:

"The White Lotus apparently killed its victims in the crypt. These bones must have lain here for some time already. The body in the box was their most recent victim."

He quickly went up the flight of steps, entered the hexagonal room and said:

"Help me to get Wang's body to the well!"

They carried the limp corpse into the crypt, and dropped it into the dark hole. Far below they heard a splash.

Judge Dee again entered the room, blew out the candle and pulled the door to behind him. They crossed the crypt and climbed the steep stairs to the altar tunnel. When they were standing in the chapel again, the jade panel closed noiselessly.

Standing in front of it, Tao Gan depressed at random a few words of the inscription. But as soon as he had pressed down one square, and started on a second, the first rose and resumed its position level with the surface.

"What a fine craftsman that Hermit Han was!" Tao Gan sighed. "If one doesn't know the key sentence, one can press down these squares till one's hair goes gray!"

"Later!" Judge Dee whispered. He dragged Tao Gan by his sleeve to the door of the chapel.

In the courtyard they met a group of servants who were coming back from the town.

"The fire has been put out!" they shouted.

Out in the street they met Han Yung-han, clad in a house robe. He said gratefully to Judge Dee:

"Thanks to the prompt action of your men the fire hasn't done much damage, Your Honor! The greater part of the roof of the storeroom is gone, and all my rice bales have been damaged by the water, but that's all. I think that the hay under the roof got heated, and caused the fire. Two of your officers were on the roof in a remarkably short time and thus could prevent the fire from spreading. Fortunately, there was no breeze; that's what I had been afraid of most!"

"So had I!" the judge said wholeheartedly.

They exchanged a few polite phrases; then Judge Dee and Tao Gan went back to the tribunal.

The judge found two weird figures waiting for him in his private office. Their robes were in tatters and their faces smeared with soot.

"The worst is," Ma Joong said with a scowl, "that my nose and throat are scorched by that accursed smoke! We have found out now that it's much easier to start a fire than to put it out!"

Judge Dee smiled bleakly. When he was seated behind his desk he said to the two men:

"Again you did an excellent job! I regret that I can't yet let you go and take the rest you so well deserve. The biggest task still lies ahead!"

"Nothing like variety!" Ma Joong said cheerfully.

"You and Chiao Tai had better go and wash yourselves," the judge continued, "and have a quick snack. Then put on your mail jackets and helmets, and come back here." To Tao Gan he added: "Call Sergeant Hoong!"

When he was alone Judge Dee moistened his writing brush and selected a long roll of blank paper. Then he took from his sleeve the document roll he had found in the crypt, and started to read it through.

When Hoong and Tao Gan came in the judge looked up and said:

"Get all documents relating to the case of the dead dancer together on the table here, so that you can read out for me those passages I shall ask for!"

While the two men set to work, Judge Dee began to write. He covered the roll with the quick, cursive handwriting at which he was expert, his brush seeming to fly over the paper. He paused only now and then to ask his assistants to read aloud passages from the records which he wanted to quote verbatim in his report.

At last he put down his writing brush, with a deep sigh. He rolled up his report tightly, together with the document found in the crypt, wrapped them up in oilpaper and told Hoong to seal the roll with the large seal of the tribunal.