"Let the fellow who discovered the cheating come forward!" Judge Dee ordered. To Ma Joong he added: "Bring that wounded man here!"
Soon a stalwart peasant and a weird, disheveled elderly person were kneeling on the road.
"Can you prove that this man cheated?" the judge asked.
"The proof is here, sir!" the peasant answered, taking from his sleeve two dice. Just as he was rising to hand them to the judge, the wounded man rose too and with amazing celerity snatched the
A VILLAGE HEADMAN REPORTS TO THE JUDGE
dice from the peasant's hand. Waving them up and down in his hand, he shouted excitedly:
"May all the curses of Heaven and Earth descend upon this poor man if these dice are loaded!" He handed them to the judge with a deep bow. Judge Dee let the dice roll along the palm of his hand, then scrutinized them carefully. He gave the accused a sharp look. He was a scraggy man of about fifty. His hair, streaked with gray, hung over a long, deeply lined face disfigured by a bleeding wound on the forehead. He had a mole the size of a piece of copper cash on his left cheek, from which sprouted three hairs several inches long. Judge Dee said coldly to the peasant:
"These dice aren't loaded; neither have they been tampered with in any other way!" He threw them at the headman. He caught them and started to study them together with the others, muttering in astonishment. The judge addressed the crowd in a stern voice: "Let this be a lesson to you! If you are oppressed by robbers or treated unjustly by your landlords, you can always come to the tribunal and I'll carefully consider your plaints. But don't ever again have the nerve to take the law into your own hands, or you'll be severely punished. Go back to your work now, and don't squander your time and money on gambling!"
The headman knelt and knocked his forehead on the ground to express his gratitude for this leniency.
Judge Dee ordered Ma Joong to let the wounded man sit behind him on his horse; then the cavalcade moved on again.
In the next village they halted to let the man wash himself at the well and clean his clothes. Judge Dee had the headman called and asked him whether he knew about a country house in that neighborhood, built on a slight elevation. The man replied that there was none that he knew of. He asked what it looked like, and who the owner was; there might be such a house farther along the road. Judge Dee said that it didn't matter.
The wounded man bowed deeply before the judge and wanted to take his leave. But Judge Dee, noting his limp and the deadly pallor of his face, said curtly:
"You go with us to the boundary post my man; you need a doctor. I don't hold with professional gamblers, but I can't leave you here as you are."
Late in the afternoon they arrived at the boundary village. Judge Dee ordered Ma Joong to take the wounded man to the local physician. He himself rode on with Chiao Tai to inspect the military guard post on the bridgehead.
The corporal in charge ordered his twelve soldiers to line up. The judge saw that their iron helmets and mail jackets were well polished; the men looked neat and efficient. While the judge was inspecting the armory, the corporal said there was a brisk traffic on the river even though it was but a branch of the Great River, which flowed through the neighboring district of Chiang-pei. He said all was quiet on their side of the river, but that there had been several armed robberies in Chiang-pei. The garrison there had recently been strengthened.
The corporal escorted them to a small hostel. An obsequious manager came out to meet them. While a groom led away the horses, the manager himself assisted the judge in taking off his heavy riding boots. When Judge Dee had been supplied with comfortable straw sandals, he was taken upstairs to a poorly furnished but scrupulously clean room. The manager opened the window, and the judge saw over the rooftops the broad expanse of the river, reflecting the red rays of the setting sun.
A servant brought lighted candles and a basin with hot towels. While the judge was refreshing himself, Ma Joong and Chiao Tai came in. Ma Joong poured a cup of tea for the judge, then said:
"That gambler is a queer fellow, Your Honor! He told me that in his youth he had been a clerk in a silk store, down south. The manager took a liking to his wife and trumped up a charge of theft against him. The constables gave him a beating but he succeeded in escaping. While he was away, the manager took his wife as concubine. When the hue and cry had subsided, he secretly came back and begged his wife to flee with him, but she laughed and said she liked it better where she was. He says that during the ensuing years he roamed all over the Empire. He talks like a doctor of literature and calls himself a commission agent, but I think he is nothing but a 'guest of rivers and lakes,' or in plain language, an itinerant swindler!"
"Those fellows always have a tale of woe ready!" Judge Dee remarked. "We'll never see him again!"
There was a knock on the door. Two coolies entered, carrying four large hampers. One contained three fine large fishes, stewed in ginger sauce, the other a large bowl with rice and salted eggs. A red visiting card proclaimed this to be a present from the corporal. In the two other baskets they found three roasted chickens, three plates with stewed pork and vegetables and a jar with soup. This proved to be the welcome gift of the headman and the village elders. A waiter brought three jars of wine, by courtesy of the manager of the hostel.
When the dishes had been placed on the table, Judge Dee gave the coolies some silver wrapped up in a piece of red paper as return present; then he said to his two assistants:
"Since we are on the road together, I won't stand on ceremony! Sit down, we'll dine together."
Ma Joong and Chiao Tai protested vehemently, but the judge insisted and finally they sat down opposite him. The long ride had given them an excellent appetite; they ate with gusto. Judge Dee was in high spirits. Han's story had proved to be a lie; he now knew that Han was the criminal and sooner or later he would find a way to get him. He now could dismiss his worries about the White Lotus being revived; all that had been nothing but an invention.
When they were enjoying their after-dinner tea, a waiter brought in a large envelope addressed to Judge Dee. It contained an elegantly phrased and neatly written intimation that a certain Tao Gan begged to be allowed to call on His Excellency the Magistrate. "That'll be one of the village elders," Judge Dee said. "Show the gentleman up!"
To their amazement the thin figure of the gambler appeared in the door opening. After his visit to the doctor he had evidently patronized the village shops. He had a bandage over his forehead, but he now presented a very neat appearance. He wore a simple blue robe with a black silk sash, and on his head he carried with perfect confidence a high cap of black gauze such as is favored by elderly gentlemen of leisure. Bowing deeply, he said in an educated voice:
"This insignificant person, named Tao Gan, respectfully greets Your Honor. Words don't suffice to express-"
"Enough, my man!" Judge Dee said coldly. "Don't thank me; thank Providence that saved you! Don't think I have any sympathy for you; the beating you got is probably not more than you deserved! I am convinced that somehow or other you cheated those peasants, but I won't have lawlessness in my district. That's the only reason why I protected you!"
"Even so," the gaunt man said, completely unperturbed by this harsh address, "I hoped to be allowed to offer Your Honor my humble assistance, as a slight mark of my profound gratitude. For I presume that Your Honor is engaged in the investigation of a kidnaping case."