"Woo stole the cash box and the horses after he bad discovered the murder. He feared he would be implicated in that crime, and fear combined with greed and opportunity constitutes a powerful motive."

"That seems sound reasoning," Chiao Tai remarked. "But why should Ah Kwang murder Fan Choong?"

"That was a murder by mistake," the judge replied. "Ah Kwang had succeeded in buying that second comb he had promised Sooniang, and that night he was on his way to her. He probably thought that if he gave her the comb, she would grant hⁱm her favors once more. No doubt he and Soo-niang had agreed upon some signal whereby he could make his presence known to her. But while passing the house on his way to the barn, he saw a light in the bedroom. That was something unusual, so he pushed the window open and looked inside. Seeing in the semiobscurity the couple in the bed, he thought it was Soo-niang with a new lover. He is a violent rogue, so he went at once to the toolbox, took the sickle, jumped through the window and cut their throats. The comb dropped from his sleeve, I found it under the window. Whether he realized that he killed the wrong people before he fled, I don't know."

"He probably found it out soon enough," Chiao Tai remarked. "I know his kind! He won't have left before having searched the room for something to steal. Then he must have had a second look at his victims, and discovered that the woman wasn't Soo-niang."

"But who was that woman then?" Sergeant Hoong asked. "And what about that monk?"

Knitting his bushy eyebrows, the judge replied, "I confess that I haven't the slightest idea. The dress, the blazed horse, the time of disappearance, everything points straight to Mrs. Koo. But from what her father and her brother said about her, I think I got a fair idea of her personality. Her having a liaison with that rascal Fan Choong before and after her marriage to Koo simply isn't in character. Further, granted that Dr. Tsao is a formidable egoist, I still think that his supreme indifference to his daughter's fate isn't natural. I can't rid myself of the idea that the murdered woman wasn't Mrs. Koo, and that Dr. Tsao knows it."

"On the other hand," the sergeant observed, "the woman took care that Pei and his daughter shouldn't see her face. That suggests that she was indeed Mrs. Koo, who wouldn't have wanted to be recognized. Since her brother told us that he was often out in the field together with his sister, one may assume that Pei and his daughter knew her by sight."

"That is true," Judge Dee said with a sigh. "And since Pei saw her only when her face was covered with blood, he couldn't have recognized her after the murder-if she was indeed Mrs. Koo! Well, as regards that monk, after I have taken my noon meal I shall go to the White Cloud Temple myself and try to find out more about him. Tell the guards to make my official palanquin ready, sergeant. You, Chiao Tai, shall go out this afternoon together with Ma Joong, and try to find and arrest that fellow Ah Kwang. Yesterday you two offered to arrest a dangerous criminal for me. This is your chance! And while you are having a look around, you might as well go to that deserted temple and search it. It is not impossible that the dead woman was buried there; the man who stole her corpse can't have gone far."

"We'll get Ah Kwang for you, magistrate!" Chiao Tai said with a confident smile. He rose and took his leave.

A clerk came in carrying the tray with judge Dee's noon rice. He was just taking up his chopsticks when Chiao Tai suddenly came back.

"Just now when I passed by the jail I happened to look into the cell where we temporarily deposited the two dead bodies. Tang was sitting by the side of Fan Choong's corpse, holding the dead man's hand in his own. Tears were streaming down his face. I think that's what the innkeeper meant when he said that Tang is different. It's a pathetic sight, magistrate; you'd better not go there."

He left the office.

JUDGE Dee remained silent all the way to the east gate. Only when they were being carried across the creek over the Rainbow Bridge did he comment to Hoong on the beautiful view presented by the White Cloud Temple ahead. Its white marble gates and the blue tiled roofs stood out against the green mountain slope.

They were carried up the broad marble stairs, and the bearers deposited the palanquin in the spacious courtyard, surrounded by a broad open corridor. Judge Dee gave his large red visiting card to the elderly monk who came to meet him. "His holiness is just finishing his afternoon devotion," he said.

He led them through three other courts, each on a higher level against the mountain slope, and connected with each other by beautifully carved marble staircases.

At the back of the fourth court there was a flight of steep steps. On top judge Dee saw a long, narrow terrace, hewn directly into the moss-covered rock. He heard the sounds of running water.

"Is there a spring here?" he asked.

"Indeed, your honor," the monk answered. "It sprang from the rock below here four hundred years ago, when the founding saint discovered the sacred statue of the Lord Maitreya on this site. The statue is enshrined in the chapel there on the other side of the cleft."

The judge saw now that between the terrace and the high rock wall there was a cleft of about five foot broad. A narrow bridge consisting of three transverse wooden boards led over it to a large, dark cave.

Judge Dee stepped on the bridge and looked down into the deep cleft. Some thirty feet below him a swift stream gushed over pointed stones. A delightful cool air came up from the cleft.

Inside the case on the other side of the bridge he saw a golden trellis, with a red silk curtain hanging behind it. That apparently concealed the holiest of the holy, the chapel of the statue of Maitreya.

"The abbot's quarters are at the end of the terrace," the old monk said. He took them to a small building with an elegantly curved roof, nestling in the shadow of century-old trees. Soon he came out again, and bade the judge enter. Sergeant Hoong sat down on the cool stone bench outside.

A magnificent couch of carved ebony covered with red silk cushions took up the entire back part of the room. In its middle a small, rotund man was sitting cross-legged, huddled in a wide robe of stiff gold brocade. He bowed his round, closely-shaven head, then motioned the judge to sit down on a large carved armchair, in front of the couch. The abbot turned round and placed the visiting card of the judge respectfully on the small altar in the niche behind the couch. The rest of the walls were covered by heavy silk hangings, embroidered with scenes from the life of the Buddha. The room was pervaded by the heavy smell of some outlandish incense.

The old monk placed a small tea table of carved rosewood by the side of judge Dee's chair, and poured him a cup of fragrant tea. The abbot waited till the judge had taken a sip, then he said in a surprisingly strong, resonant voice, "This ignorant monk had intended to go to the tribunal tomorrow to pay his respects. It greatly distresses me that now your excellency has come to see me first. This monk does not deserve that signal honor."

He looked straight at the judge with friendly, large eyes. Although Judge Dee as a staunch Confucianist had little sympathy for the Buddhist creed, he had to admit that the small abbot was a remarkable personality, and had great dignity. He said a few polite words about the size and beauty of the temple.

The abbot raised his pudgy hand.

"It's all due to the mercy of our Lord Maitreya," he said. "Four centuries ago he deigned to manifest himself to this world in the shape of a sandalwood statue, more than five feet high, representing him sitting cross-legged, in meditation. Our founding saint discovered it in the cave, and thus this White Cloud Temple was built here, as guardian of the eastern part of our empire, and the protector of all seafarers." The abbot let the amber beads of his rosary glide through his fingers, softly saying a prayer. Then he resumed. "I had planned to invite your excellency personally to honor with his presence a ceremony which will soon be held in this humble temple."