"It doesn't matter," Judge Dee said quickly. "I hadn't planned to send for my family and servants until this murder had been solved. I'll go to my private office now and change there, and you'll show my assistants their quarters."
"Opposite the tribunal, your honor," Tang said eagerly, "there's a very good hostel. I am staying there myself with my wife, and I can assure your honor that also his assistants="
"That's highly irregular too," the judge interrupted coldly. "Why don't you live inside the tribunal compound? With your long experience you ought to know the rules!"
"I do have the upper floor of the building behind the reception hall, your honor," Tang explained hurriedly, "but since the roof needs repairing, I thought there would be no objection to my living, temporarily of course-"
"All right!" Judge Dee cut him short. "But I insist that my three assistants live inside. You'll have quarters arranged for them in the guardhouse."
Tang bowed deeply and left with Ma Joong and Chiao Tai. Hoong followed the judge to his private office. He helped him change into his ceremonial robe, and prepared a cup of tea for him. As the judge was rubbing his face with a hot towel he asked, "Can you imagine, Hoong, why that fellow is in such a state?"
"He seems a rather finicky kind of person," his old assistant replied. "I suppose that our unexpected arrival rather upset him." "I rather think," Judge Dee said pensively, "that he is very much afraid of something here in the tribunal. That's also why he moved to that hostel. Well, we'll find out in due time!"
Tang came in and announced that everybody was in the court hall. Judge Dee replaced his house bonnet by the black, winged judge's cap, and went to the hall, followed by Hoong and Tang.
He took his seat behind the high bench, and motioned Ma Joong and Chiao Tai to stand behind his chair.
The judge spoke a few appropriate words, then Tang introduced to him one by one the forty men who were kneeling on the stone floor below. Judge Dee noticed that the clerks were dressed in neat blue robes, and that the leather jackets and iron helmets of the guards and constables were polished well. On the whole they seemed a decent lot. He didn't like the cruel face of the headman of the constables, but he reflected that those headmen usually were nasty fellows who needed constant supervision. The coroner, Dr. Shen, was a dignified elderly man with an intelligent face. Tang whispered to the judge that he was the best physician in the district, and a man of noble character.
When the roll call was finished, the judge announced that Hoong Liang was appointed sergeant of the tribunal and that he would control all routine affairs of the chancery. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai would supervise the constables and the guards and be responsible for the discipline, and for the guardhouse and the jail.
Back in his private office judge Dee told Ma Joong and Chiao Tai to inspect the guardhouse and the jail. "Then," he added, "you must put the constables and the guards through a drill; that'll give you an opportunity for getting acquainted with them and to see what they are worth. Thereafter you'll go out into the town, and get an impression of things in this city. I wish I could go with you, but I'll have to devote the whole evening to getting myself orientated with regard to the magistrate's murder. Come back and report to me later in the night."
The two stalwarts left, and Tang came in followed by a clerk carrying two candlesticks. Judge Dee told Tang to sit down on the stool in front of his desk, next to Sergeant Hoong. The clerk placed the candles on the desk and noiselessly went out.
"Just now," the judge said to Tang, "I noticed that the chief clerk, listed on the roll as Fan Choong, was not there. Is he ill?" Tang clapped his hand to his forehead. He stammered, "I had meant to speak about that, your honor. I am really greatly worried about Fan. On the first of this month he left for Pien-foo, the prefectural capital, on his yearly holiday. He was due back here yesterday morning. When he didn't appear, I sent a constable to the small farm Fan has west of the city. His tenant farmer there said Fan and his servant had arrived there yesterday, and left at noon. It's most annoying. Fan is an excellent man, a capable officer, always very punctual. I can't understand what has happened to him, he-"
"Perhaps he was devoured by a tiger," Judge Dee interrupted impatiently.
"No, your honor!" Tang cried out. "No, not that!" His face had suddenly turned ashen; the light of the candles shone in his wide, startled eyes.
"Don't be so nervous, man!" the judge said, irritated. "I quite understand that you are upset about the murder of your former chief, but that happened two weeks ago. What are you afraid of now?"
Tang wiped the sweat from his brow.
"I beg your honor's pardon," he muttered. "Last week a farmer was found in the woods, with torn throat and badly mauled. There must be a man-eater about. I am not sleeping well of late, your honor. I offer my humble excuses and-"
"Well," Judge Dee said, "my two assistants are experienced hunters; one of these days I'll send them out to kill that tiger. Get me a cup of hot tea, and let's get down to business."
When Tang had poured out a cup for the judge, he eagerly took a few sips, then settled back in his armchair.
"I want to hear from you exactly," he said, "how the murder was discovered."
Plucking at his beard, Tang began diffidently.
"Your honor's predecessor was a gentleman of considerable charm and culture. Perhaps a bit easygoing at times and impatient about details, but very precise in all things that really mattered, very precise indeed. He was about fifty years old, and he had a long and varied experience. An able magistrate, your honor."
"Did he," Judge Dee asked, "have any enemies here?"
"Not one, your honor!" Tang exclaimed. "He was a shrewd and just judge, well liked by the people. I may say, your honor, that he was popular in this district, very popular indeed."
As the judge nodded he went on.
"Two weeks ago, when the time of the morning session was approaching, his house steward came to see me in the chancery and reported that his master had not slept in his bedroom, and that the door of his library was locked on the inside. I knew that he often read and wrote in his library till deep in the night, and I presumed that he had fallen asleep over his books. So I knocked on the door insistently. When there came no sound from within, I feared that he might have had a stroke. I called the headman and had the door broken open."
Tang swallowed; his mouth twitched. After a while he went on. "Magistrate Wang was lying on the floor in front of the tea stove, his unseeing eyes staring up at the ceiling. A teacup was lying on the mats near his outstretched right hand. I felt his body; it was stiff and cold. I immediately summoned our coroner, he stated that the magistrate must have died about midnight. He took a sample of the tea left in the teapot and-"
"Where stood that teapot?" Judge Dee interrupted.
"On the cupboard in the left corner, your honor," Tang replied, "next to the copper tea stove for boiling the water. The teapot was nearly full. Dr. Shen fed the sample to a dog, and it died at once. He heated the tea, and by the smell identified the poison. He could not test the water in the pan on the tea stove, because it had boiled dry."
"Who used to bring the tea water?" the judge asked.
"The magistrate himself," Tang answered promptly. As the judge lifted his eyebrows he explained quickly, "He was an enthusiastic devotee of the tea cult, your honor, and most particular about all its details. He always insisted on fetching the water himself from the well in his garden, and he also boiled it himself on the tea stove in his library. His teapot, cups and caddy are all valuable antiques. He kept them locked away in the cupboard under the tea stove. On my instructions the coroner also made experiments with the tea leaves found in the caddy, but those proved to be quite harmless."