LOOKING at the neatly-dressed, sedate people who were crowding round the marble-topped tables, the two friends reflected that this restaurant was far above their financial status. "Let's go somewhere else," Ma Joong muttered.

As he turned round to go, a thin man who was sitting alone at a table near the door rose from his chair. He said in a thick voice, "Sit down and join me, my friends! Drinking alone always saddens me.

He looked at them with watery eyes from under queerly shaped, arched eyebrows that gave him a perpetual questioning look. They noticed that he wore a dark blue robe of costly silk, and a high cap of black velvet. But there were stains on his collar, and untidy locks of hair came out from under his cap. He had a bloated face, and a thin, long nose with a shining red tip.

"Since he asks for it, let's keep him company a bit," Cbiao Tai said. "I wouldn't like that yokel downstairs to think that we had been kicked out!"

The two friends sat down opposite their host, who immediately ordered two large jugs of wine.

"What might you be doing for a living?" Ma Joong asked when the waiter had gone.

"I am Po Kai, the business manager of the shipowner Yee Pen," the thin man replied. He emptied his cup in one draught, then added proudly, "But I am also a well-known poet."

"Since you pay for the drinks, we won't hold that against you," Ma Joong said generously. He lifted the wine jug, threw his head back and slowly let half of its contents pour down his throat. Chiao Tai followed his example. Po Kai watched this performance eagerly.

"Neat!" he said with approval. "In this particular establishment one as a rule uses a cup, but I think your method is of refreshing simplicity."

"It just so happens that we are in need of a long drink," Ma Joong said as he wiped his mouth with a sigh of satisfaction.

Po Kai refilled his own cup, then said, "Tell me a good story! You fellows who live by the road must lead an eventful life." "Live by the road?" Ma Joong exclaimed indignantly. "Look here, my man, you'd better mind your language. We are officers of the tribunal!"

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."