Mrs. Koo gasped incredulously, but judge Dee replied in an even voice, "There is." Taking the handkerchief from his sleeve, he added, "This handkerchief, which you yourself identified as belonging to your wife, was not found by the roadside as I previously stated, but in fact among the faggots in the hut on Fan's farm."

Koo bit his lips. Then he said, "That being so, this person does believe that his wife told the truth. But according to the code of honor observed in my humble family since generations, she should have killed herself immediately after the rape. Having failed to do so she brought shame over my house and I here state officially that I am compelled to repudiate her."

"That is your good right," Judge Dee said. "The divorce shall be duly registered. Let Dr. Tsao Ho-hsien come forward!"

Dr. Tsao knelt before the bench, muttering in his beard.

"Do you, Dr. Tsao," the judge asked, "agree to take your divorced daughter back to you?"

"It is my firm conviction," Dr. Tsao said in a loud voice, "that where fundamental principles are involved, one must not hesitate to sacrifice one's personal feelings. Moreover, being a man much in the public eye, I feel I must set an example to others, even if it hurts me, as a father, beyond words. Your honor, I cannot take back a daughter who has offended against our sacred moral codes."

"It shall be so recorded," Judge Dee said coldly. "Miss Tsao shall be given shelter in this tribunal, pending the completion of suitable arrangements."

He motioned Sergeant Hoong to lead Miss Tsao away. Turning to the woman of the brothel, he said, "Your attempt to force that girl to become a prostitute is a criminal offense. Since, however, you left her in peace till this morning, and since you show at least some understanding for your duties to this tribunal, I shall this time overlook that. But should any other complaint about you reach me, you'll get a whipping and your license will be suspended. That goes also for your colleagues out there. Go and tell them!" The woman scurried away. Judge Dee rapped his gavel and closed the session.

When he left the dais it struck him that Tang was absent. He asked Ma Joong about it, who replied, "While Dr. Tsao was before the bench, Tang suddenly mumbled something about feeling ill and disappeared."

"That fellow is really becoming a nuisance!" Judge Dee said, annoyed. "If this goes on I shall have to pension him off."

Opening the door of his office, he saw Sergeant Hoong and Miss Tsao sitting there. He told Ma Joong and Chiao Tai to wait awhile outside in the corridor.

While be sat down behind his desk he said briskly to the girl, "Well, Miss Tsao, now we must see what we can do for you. What are your own wishes?"

Her lips started trembling, but soon she had mastered herself. She said slowly, "I do realize now that according to the doctrine of our sacred social order I really ought to kill myself. But I must confess that at the time the idea of suicide simply didn't occur to me." She smiled wanly, then went on. "If I was thinking of anything at all out there on the farm, it was rather of how I could go on living! It is not that I am afraid to die, your honor, but I hate to do things I can't make sense of. I beg your honor to let me have the benefit of his advice."

"According to our Confucianist doctrine," Judge Dee answered, "woman should indeed keep herself pure and undefiled. I often wonder, however, whether this pronouncement does not refer to the mind rather than to the body. Be that as it may, our Master Confucius has also said, `Let humanity be your highest standard. I for one am firmly convinced, Miss Tsao, that all doctrinal pronouncements must be interpreted in the light of these great words."

Miss Tsao gave him a grateful look. She thought for a while, then said, "I think the best I can do now is to enter a nunnery."

"Since you never before felt the call to enter religious life," the judge remarked, "that would only be an escape, and that isn't good enough for a sensible young woman like you. Why not let me approach a friend of mine in the capital to employ you as a teacher for his daughters? In course of time he could doubtless arrange there a suitable second marriage for you."

Miss Tsao replied shyly, "I am deeply grateful for your honor's considerátion. But my brief marriage to Koo was a failure, and what happened to me on the farm, together with what I couldn't help seeing and hearing during my stay on the flower boat, all that has made me forever averse to… the relations between men and women. Therefore I feel that a nunnery is the only right place for me."

"You are much too young to use the word 'forever,' Miss Tsao!" Judge Dee said gravely. "But it isn't meet that you and I discuss these things. In a week or two my family will be here, and I must insist that you talk over your plans thoroughly with my First Lady before you take a decision. Till then you'll_ stay in the house of our coroner, Dr. Shen, I hear his wife is a friendly and capable woman, and her daughter will be company for you. You'll now take Miss Tsao there, sergeant."

Miss Tsao bowed deeply, and Sergeant Hoong led her away. Then Ma Joong and Chiao Tai came in. The judge said to the latter, "You heard Dr. Tsao's complaint. I am sorry about that boy of his. I thought he was a nice youngster. Since you two are fully entitled to a day off, why don't you select a couple of hunters from among the guards and go upcountry to try to shoot that tiger? Ma Joong, you can stay here. After you have given the headman the necessary instructions for organizing with the city wardens a search for Po Kai, you can take a rest and look after your wounded arm. I won't need you two until late tonight, when all of us will have to attend that ceremony in the White Cloud Temple."

Chiao Tai agreed with enthusiasm. But Ma Joong growled at him, "You won't go without me, brother! You'll need me badly for holding the tiger by its tail while you are trying to hit it!"

The two friends laughed and took their leave.

Sitting alone at his piled desk, the judge opened the bulky dossier on the land taxes in the district. He felt he needed to distract his mind before he could settle down to a consideration of the new facts that had come to light.

He had not been reading for long, however, when there came a knock on the door. The headman entered, looking alarmed. "Your honor," he reported excitedly, "Mr. Tang has taken poison and is dying! He wants to see you!"

Judge Dee sprang up and rushed with the headman to the gate. Crossing the street to the hostel opposite, he asked, "Is there no antidote?"

He won't say what poison he swallowed," the headman panted. "And he waited till it was taking effect!"

In the corridor upstairs an elderly woman fell on her knees in front of the judge and implored him to forgive her husband. Judge Dee quickly said a few kind words, then she led him into a spacious bedroom.

Tang was lying in bed, his eyes closed. His wife sat down on the edge of the bed, and spoke softly to him. Tang opened his eyes; he sighed with relief as he saw the judge.

"Leave us alone," he muttered to his vife. She rose and the judge took her place. Tang gave him a long, searching look, then he spoke in a tired voice.

"This poison slowly paralyzes the body; my legs are getting numb already. But my brain is clear. I wanted to tell you about a crime I committed, and thereafter I wanted to ask you a question."

"Is there anything you didn't tell me about the magistrate's murder?" Judge Dee asked quickly.

Tang slowly shook his head.

"I told you all I know," he said. "I am too much concerned about the crimes committed by myself to worry about those of others. But that murder, and the ghostly apparition, deeply upset me. And when I am upset I can't control… the other. Then Fan was killed, the only human being I ever really cared for, I-"