Robert Gulik - The Chinese Gold Murders

Po Kai lifted his arched eyebrows still higher. He shouted at the waiter, "Bring another wine jug, the largest!" Then he went on. "Well well, so you two are the men the new magistrate imported here today. But he must have recruited you only recently, for you haven't yet got that smug look of petty officials."

"Did you know the former magistrate?" Chiao Tai asked. "They say he also was some sort of poet."

"Hardly," Po Kai replied. "I am rather new here, you know." He suddenly put down his cup and exclaimed happily, "That was the last line I was trying to think of!" Looking solemnly at the two friends, he added, "This line completes a great poem dedicated to the moon. Shall I recite it for you?"

"No!" Ma Joong said, horrified.

"Shall I sing it then?" Po Kai asked hopefully. "I have a rather good voice, you know, and the other guests here would greatly appreciate it."

"No!" Ma Joong and Chiao Tai answered at the same time. Seeing the other's hurt look, Chiao Tai added, "We just don't like poetry, in any shape or form."

"That's a pity!" Po Kai remarked. "Are you two perhaps students of Buddhism?"

"Is the fellow trying to pick a quarrel?" Ma Joong asked Chiao Tai suspiciously.

"He is drunk," Chiao Tai answered indifferently. And to Po Kai, "Don't tell me that you are a Buddhist!"

"A devout devotee," Po Kai replied primly. "I regularly visit the White Cloud Temple. The abbot is a holy man, and the Prior Hui-pen delivers the most beautiful sermons. The other day-"

"Listen," Chiao Tai interrupted, "shall we have another drink?" Po Kai gave him a reproachful look. He rose with a deep sigh and said resignedly, "Let's have it with the wenches."

"Now you are talking!" Ma Joong said with enthusiasm. "Do you know a good place?"

"Does the horse know its stable?" Po Kai asked with a sniff. He paid the bill and they left.

A heavy fog still hung in the street. Po Kai took them to the waterside at the back of the restaurant, and whistled on his fingers. The bow lantern of a small barge emerged from the mist.

Po Kai stepped inside and said to the rower, "To the boat." "Hey!" Ma Joong shouted. "Didn't I hear you speak about the wenches?"

"Same thing, same thing!" Po Kai replied airily. "Step inside." To the boatman he added, "Take the short cut, the gentlemen are in a great hurry."

He crawled under the low roofmat, and Ma Joong and Chiao Tai squatted down by his side. They glided along through the mist; the splashing of the oar was the only sound they heard. After a time the sound ceased; the boat went on silently. The boatman extinguished the lantern. The boat lay still.

Ma Joong laid his heavy hand on Po Kai's shoulder.

"If this is a trap," he said casually, "I'll break your neck." "Don't talk nonsense!" Po Kai exclaimed testily.

There was the clanking of iron, then the boat moved on again, "We passed under the east watergate," Po Kai explained. "Part of the trellis is loose. But don't tell that to your boss!"

Soon the black hulls of a row of large barges rose up in front of them.

"The second, as usual," Po Kai ordered the boatman.

When their boat was alongside the gangway, Po Kai gave the man a few coppers and climbed on board, followed by Ma Joong and Chiao Tai. He picked his way through a number of small tables and footstools that were standing about in confusion on the deck, and knocked on the door of the cabin. A fat woman dressed in a soiled black silk gown opened. She grinned, showing a row of black teeth.

"Welcome back, Mr. Po Kai!" she said. "Please come downstairs."

They descended a steep wooden ladder, and found themselves in a large cabin, dimly lighted by two colored lampions hanging from the roof beam. The three men sat down at the large table that took up most of the room space. The fat woman clapped her hands. A squat man with a coarse face came in, carrying a tray with wine jugs.

As he poured out the drinks Po Kai asked the woman, "W'here is my good friend and colleague Kim Sang?"

"He hasn't come yet," she replied. "But I'll see to it that you won't get bored!"

She gave a sign to the waiter. He opened the door in the back, and four girls came in, dressed only in thin summer robes. Po Kai greeted them boisterously. Dragging down one girl on either side of him, he said, "I'll take these two! Not for what you think," he added quickly to Ma Joong and Chïao Tai, "but only to make absolutely sure that my cup is never empty."

Ma Joong motioned a plump girl with a pleasant round face to his side, and Chiao Tai started a conversation with the fourth. He thought she was very good-looking but she seemed in a morose mood and answered only when spoken to. Her name was Yü-soo; she was a Korean, but spoke very good Chinese.

"Yours is a beautiful country," Chiao Tai remarked as he put his arm round her waist. "I was there during the war."

The girl pushed him away and gave him a contemptuous look. He realized that he had made a bad mistake and said hurriedly, "Your people are excellent fighters, they did what they could, but they were outnumbered by our troops."

The girl ignored him.

"Can't you smile and talk, wench?" the fat woman snapped at her.

"Leave me alone, will you?" the girl said slowly to her. "The customer doesn't complain, does he?"

The woman got up. Raising her hand to slap Yü-soo, she hissed, "I'll teach you manners, you slut!"

Chiao Tai pushed her back roughly. He growled, "Keep your hands off the girl."

"Let's go up on deck!" Po Kai shouted. "I feel in my liver that the moon is out! Kim Sang will be here soon."

"I'll stay here," the Korean girl told Chiao Tai.

"As you like," he said, and followed the others up on deck.

A bleak moon shone on the row of barges moored along the city wall. Over the dark water of the creek they vaguely saw the opposite bank.

Ma Joong sat down on a low stool and took the plump girl on his lap. Po Kai pushed his two friends over to Chiao Tai.

"Keep them happy," he said. "My mind is now on higher things."

He remained standing, his hands on his back, looking up ecstatically at the moon. Suddenly he said, "Since all of you keep insisting, I shall now sing for you my new poem."

Stretching out his scraggy neck, he burst out in a piercing falsetto voice.

Peerless companion of song and dance,

Friend of the gay, comforter of the sad,

Oh moon, oh silvery moon

He paused for breath, then suddenly lowered his head, listening. Giving the others a quick look, he said peevishly, "I hear an unpleasant noise!"

"So do I!" Ma Joong remarked. "Holy heaven, don't make those awful sounds. Can't you see I am talking seriously with this wench?"

"I was referring to the sounds from below," Po Kai replied stiffly. "I presume that your friend's friend is receiving a gentle correction."

As he fell silent they heard from below the sound of blows and muffled groans. Chiao Tai jumped up and rushed down, with Ma Joong on his heels.

The Korean girl had been stripped naked and laid across the table. The waiter was holding her hands, another man her legs. The fat woman was beating her across her hips with a rattan stick.

Chiao Tai knocked the waiter down with a hard blow on his jaw. The other man let go of the girl's legs and drew a knife from his girdle. Chiao Tai vaulted over the table, threw the woman with her back against the wall, caught the knife-wielder's wrist and gave it a quick twist. The man fell back with a yell of pain; the knife clattered to the floor. The girl let herself roll from the table, tearing frantically at the dirty rag with which she had been gagged. Chiao Tai helped her up and freed her of the gag. The other man stooped to pick up the knife with his left hand, but Ma Joong gave him a kick in his ribs that sent him doubled up into a corner. The girl was retching violently; suddenly she started to vomit.