"That was a pretty piece of work, my wench!" Ma Joong whispered excitedly. Then he ducked behind the ladder. Two heavy boots came down through the trap door. "What in Hell are you at, Liu!" an angry voice asked.

Ma Joong jerked the man's legs backward. He tumbled down; his head hit the floor with a dull crash. He didn't move. Chiao Tai stuck out his hands from above, and together they got the unconscious man up on the boxes.

"Truss him up and come down here, brother Chiao!" Ma Joong whispered. "I'll climb on deck through the hatch. Be ready to receive the other bastards that I'll send down to you here!"

He climbed through the hatch, pulled himself up along tie outside of the hull by the anchor rope, and stepped noiselessly on deck. When he had made certain that no one had seen him, he sauntered up to the helmsman, who was holding the heavy rudder beam with both hands, and remarked:

"It became too hot for me down in the hold!" He saw they were in the middle of the river now. The second junk was behind them. He stretched himself out on his back on the deck.

The helmsman gave him a startled look, then whistled. Three sturdy sailors came running aft.

"Who the devil are you?" the first asked.

Ma Joong folded his hands under his head. He yawned prodigiously and said:

"I am the guard, supposed to watch the cargo. I just finished checking the boxes with old Liu."

"The mate never tells us a thing!" the sailor muttered with disgust. "Thinks the world of himself, he does! I'll just go and ask how much sail he wants put on." He went toward the trap door. Ma Joong scrambled up and followed him together with the two others.

When the man stood over the trap door, Ma Joong suddenly gave him a kick that sent him tumbling down the ladder. He turned round quick as lightning and gave the sailor that came for him a blow under his jaw that made him stagger backward against the railing. Ma Joong followed up with a thrust in his heart region that sent him over the railing into the river. The third sailor lunged out at Ma Joong with a long knife. Ma Joong ducked; the knife passed over his back as he butted his head into his attacker's midriff. The man fell gasping over Ma Joong's back. Ma Joong righted himself and heaved the knife wielder over the railing.

"All good fish fodder!" he called out to the helmsman. "Just keep to your steering job, my friend, else you'll join them!" He peered at the second junk, which had now fallen far behind. It had developed a heavy list to starboard; a crowd of people was running in confusion over the tilting deck. "Those men will never keep their shirts dry!" he remarked cheerfully. Then he went to adjust the large reed sail.

Chiao Tai stuck his head through the trap door.

"You sent me only one," he said. "Where are the others?"

Ma Joong pointed down to the water; he was intent on getting the sail right. Chiao Tai came on deck and said: "Mrs. Djang is making our noon rice."

There was a strong breeze; the junk made good speed. Chiao Tai searched the two distant banks. He asked the helmsman:

"When'll we arrive at a military post?"

"In a couple of hours," the man replied with a sullen face.

"Where were you bound for, bastard?" Chiao Tai asked again.

"For Liu-chiang, four hours downstream. There friends of ours are going to do a bit of fighting."

"You are lucky, fellow!" Chiao Tai remarked. "You won't have to join the fray!"

As they were sitting in the shadow of the sail eating their noon rice, Ma Joong related to Mrs. Djang the adventures of her husband. When he had finished her eyes were full of tears. "The poor, poor boy!" she said softly.

Ma Joong exchanged a quick glance with Chiao Tai. He whispered:

"Do you get what such a spanking wench sees in that mealy-mouthed weakling?"

But Chiao Tai didn't hear him; he was looking intently ahead. He exclaimed:

"Do you see those banners? That'll be the military post, brother!"

Ma Joong jumped up and shouted an order at the helmsman. Then he went to shorten the sail. Half an hour later the junk was lying alongside the quay.

Ma Joong handed Judge Dee's letter to the corporal in charge of the post. He reported that he was bringing in four robbers of Three Oaks Island, and one of their junks. "I don't know what she is carrying," he added, "but it's plenty heavy!" They went to have a look at the cargo together with four soldiers. Just as the corporal, the soldiers had their helmets strapped on tightly, they wore iron shoulder and arm plates over their mail coats, and next to their swords they carried on their belts heavy battle-axes.

"Why do you fellows drag along all that ironware?" Ma Joong inquired, astonished.

The corporal gave him a worried look. He replied curtly:

"There are rumors about skirmishes with armed bands downriver. These four men are all I have left here; the rest have gone with my captain to Liu-chiang."

In the meantime the soldiers had broken open one of the boxes. It was packed with iron helmets, leather jackets, swords, crossbows, arrows and other military goods. The helmets were marked in front with a small white lotus flower, and there was a bag with hundreds of small silver models of the same emblem. Chiao Tai put a handful of those in his sleeve. He said to the corporal:

"This junk was bound for Liu-chiang, and also a second one with forty armed robbers on board. But that one foundered upstream."

"That's good news!" the corporal exclaimed. "Else my captain would have been in trouble in Liu-chiang; he has only thirty men with him down there. Well, what can I do for you? Across the river there is the military post that guards the southern tip of your district, Han-yuan."

"Have us ferried over there quick!" Ma Joong said.

Back in their own territory, Ma Joong requisitioned four horses. The sergeant in charge told them that if they rounded the lake they could be in the city in two or three hours.

Chiao Tai removed the gag from Mao Loo's mouth. He wanted to start cursing but his tongue was swollen and he could only bring out a few hoarse croaks. While Ma Joong tied Mao Loo's feet to the saddle girth he asked Mrs. Djang:

"Can you ride?"

"I'll manage!" she said. "But I am a bit sore. Lend me your jacket!"

She placed his folded jacket on the saddle, then swung herself on the horse.

The cavalcade set out on the way back to the city.

While Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, together with Mrs. Djang and their prisoner, were riding back to Han-yuan, Judge Dee was presiding over the afternoon session of the tribunal.

It was very hot and the judge felt clammy in his thick brocade dress. He was tired and in an irritable temper, having spent the preceding night and that entire morning with Sergeant Hoong and Tao Gan looking into the antecedents and manner of living of every single member of the personnel, without discovering a clue. None of the constables or clerks spent more money than he could afford; none of them was frequently absent or seemed in any other way suspect. The judge had the murder of Wan I-fan officially announced as suicide. The body had been put in a temporary coffin and placed in a cell of the jail, pending the autopsy.

The session dragged on, with a large number of routine matters. None of them was particularly important, yet if not dealt with at once there would result stagnation in the administration. The judge was assisted only by Sergeant Hoong. He had ordered Tao Gan to go downtown that afternoon and get an impression of the situation in the city.

Judge Dee heaved a sigh of relief when he could close the session. While Hoong was assisting him to change in his private office, Tao Gan came back. He said in a worried tone: