"I know about you and Fan," Judge Dee interrupted him. "We go as nature directs us. If thus two adults find each other, it is their own affair. Don't worry about that."

"It isn't that at all," Tang said, shaking his head. "I only mention it to show that I was worried and nervous. And when I am feeling weak, the other inside me is too strong for me, especially when there is a bright moon in the sky." He breathed with difficulty. Heaving a deep sigh, he went on. "After all these long years I know him so well, him and all his nasty tricks! Besides, I once found a diary kept by my grandfather; he had to fight with him too. My father was free of him, but my grandfather hanged himself. He had reached the stage where he couldn't go on. Just as I have now taken poison. But now, now he'll have no place to go, for I have no children. He is going to die together with me!"

Tang's hollow face twisted in a wry smile. Judge Dee gave him a pitying look. Evidently the man's wits were wandering already. The dying man stared ahead of him for a while. Suddenly he looked at the judge, frightened. "The poison is getting higher!" he said tensely. "I must hurry! I'll tell you how it always happens, I would wake up in the night, feeling a tightness in my chest. I would rise, start pacing the floor, up and down, up and down. But the room would become very close, I wanted fresh air. I had to go out, into the street. But the streets would narrow down, the rows of houses with their high walls would start to crowd me, try to crush me… I would feel a fearful panic, I would gasp for breath. Then, just as I was going to suffocate, he would take over."

Tang heaved a deep sigh, he seemed to relax.

JUDGE DEE VISITS A DYING MAN

"I climbed on the city wall, and jumped down on the other side, just as I did again last night. Out in the country I felt new, vigorous blood pulsing through my veins, I felt strong and exhilarated; fresh air filled my lungs, nothing could oppose me. A new world opened for me. I smelled the different sorts of grasses, I smelled the wet earth, and I knew a hare had passed there. I opened my eyes wide, and I could see in the dark. I sniffed the air and I knew there was a pool of water among the trees ahead. Then I smelled another scent, a scent that made me crouch close to the ground, all my nerves taut. The scent of warm, red blood-"

Horrified, the judge saw the change that had conic over Tang's face. His green eyes were fixing him with narrowed pupils over cheekbones that suddenly seemed broader, his mouth contorted in a snarl that bared pointed, yellow teeth; the gray mustache stood on end like a bristle. Frozen with terror, the judge saw the ears moving. Two clawlike hands came up from under the cover.

Suddenly the clawing fingers unbent, the arms fell down. T'ang's face changed into a hollow death mask. He spoke in a weak voice. "I would wake up lying in my bed again, drenched in sweat. I would rise, light a candle and hurry to the mirror. The relief, the unspeakable relief when I saw no blood on my face!" He paused, then said shrilly, "But now I tell you he is taking advantage of my weak condition, he is forcing me to take part in his vile crimes! Last night I knew I was attacking Tsao Min; I didn't want to spring on him, I didn't want to hurt him… But I had to, I swear I had to, I had to-" His voice was rising to a scream.

The judge quickly laid a soothing hand on Tang's forehead, covered with cold perspiration.

Tang's scream died out in a rattle, deep in his throat. He stared at the judge in panic, frantically trying to move his lips. But only a few inarticulate sounds came out. As the judge bent over him to listen better, Tang brought out with a last effort, "Tell me… am I guilty?"

Suddenly a film closed over his eyes. His mouth sagged open. His face relaxed.

The judge rose and pulled the cover over Tang's head. Now the Highest judge would answer the dead man's question.

Judge Dee met Sergeant Hoong in front of the main entrance of the tribunal. Hoong had heard the news about Tang; he was on his way to the hostel to inquire after his condi tion. The judge told him that Tang had committed suicide because he had become despondent over Fan's murder. "A sinister fate persecuted Tang," he said and left it at that.

Back in his private office judge Dee said to Hoong, "With Tang and Fan dead, we have lost the two top men of our clerical staff. Call the third scribe here, and tell him to bring along the files Tang was in charge of."

Judge Dee spent the rest of the morning with the sergeant and the scribe going through those dossiers. Tang had kept the registers of marriages, births and deaths, and of the finances of the tribunal with meticulous care, but even the brief interval of the past two days had caused arrears. Since the third scribe made a good impression, the judge appointed him provisionally in Tang's place. If he should prove satisfactory, he would be promoted, and other shifts in the clerical staff would follow.

These affairs having been attended to, judge Dee took his noon meal outside, under the large oak tree in the corner of the courtyard. When he was drinking his tea, the headman came and reported that the search for Po Kai had thus far failed to produce any clue to his whereabouts. The man seemed to have dissolved into thin air.

Then Hoong left for the chancery to supervise the work of the clerks and to interview visitors. Judge Dee went back to his private office, let the bamboo curtains down, loosened his sash and lay down on the couch.

He felt to his dismay that the strain of the past two days had begun to tell on him. He closed his eyes and tried to relax and to order his thoughts. The disappearance of Mrs. Koo and of Fan Choong had now been solved, but he reflected that the solution of the murder of the magistrate had not progressed beyond the initial stage.

It was not that he was lacking suspects. Po Kai, Yee Pen, Dr. Tsao, and an as yet unspecified number of monks of the White Cloud Temple, including Hui-pen; the prior had appeared too soon after the abortive attempt on his life. It was clear that Yee Pen was connected with the criminal activities, but neither he nor Huipen nor Dr. Tsao seemed the type of person to act as their leader. The evil genius behind it all was doubtless Po Kai. He evidently was a man of many parts, and of remarkable presence of mind, and moreover a consummate actor. He had arrived in Peng-lai directly after the murder of the magistrate; it would seem that he had entrusted the preliminary work to Yee Pen and Kim Sang, then come himself from the capital to take over. But to take over what? The judge now had to admit that he must reconsider the conclusion he had arrived at together with Hoong, namely that the murderous attacks on himself and his two assistants meant that the criminals thought lie knew more about their plans than he actually did. Even an imperial investigator, assisted by a number of trained secret agents, had failed to discover the truth, and the criminals certainly knew that his own investigations had brought to light only that the monks' staffs were used to smuggle gold to Korea. Evidently the gold was brought from the interior in the form of thin bars, concealed in the hollow monks' staffs. Yet the monks who traveled to Peng-lai with these loaded staffs took considerable risks, k. for along all the roads and highways there were at regular intervals military posts, where all nonofficial travelers were searched for con traband. Gold had to be declared, and a road tax paid for every distance covered. The profit accruing from evading the road taxes, together with the evasion of export duties in Peng-lai, couldn't possibly amount to much. The judge had the uncomfortable feeling that the gold smuggle itself was nothing but camouflage, that his opponent was enmeshing him in a clever plot, meant to divert his attention from something much more important that was going on. So important that it justified the murder of an imperial official, and the attempted murder of another. And that important thing must be scheduled to happen very soon; that was the real explana-tion of the criminal's brazen attacks-they were pressed for time! And he, the magistrate, didn't have the slightest idea what it was all about, while that scoundrel Po Kai had sought out and befriended Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, and thus had kept himself abreast of developments inside the tribunal. And now that elusive rascal was directing affairs from a secret hideout!