Necklace and Calabash
- Автор: ван Гулик Роберт Ханс
- Серия: Judge Dee #15
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «Necklace and Calabash». Краткое содержание книги:
Due to its proximity to the Water Palace, the summer residence of the Emperor's favorite daughter, Riverton lies within a Special Area administered by the military. To Judge Dee, returning to his district of Poo-yang, the peaceful town promises a few days' fishing and relaxation. But it is not to be. A chance meeting with a Taoist recluse, a gruesome body fished out of the river, strange guests at the Kingfisher Inn, a princess in distress--before long the judge is facing one of the most intricate and baffling mysteries of his career.
At the moment he made this unpleasant discovery, the palankeen was lowered to the ground. A tall man in black pulled the door-curtain aside.
'Please descend here, sir. Just follow this road, and you'll be in town in a few minutes.'
It was not the same foreman who had come to fetch him. Judge Dee stepped down and quickly looked around. They seemed to be in the middle of the pine forest. The bearers stared at him with impassive faces.
'Since the town is so near,' he told the foreman curtly, 'you had better carry me to my inn. I am tired.' He moved to re-enter the palankeen; but the foreman barred his way.
'I am very sorry, sir, but I have my orders.' The bearers lifted the palankeen on their shoulders, turned it round quickly and trotted back the way they had come, their foreman bringing up the rear. The judge was all alone among the tall, silent pines.
VII
Judge Dee remained standing there for a while, pensively tugging at his long sidewhiskers. Serious trouble lay ahead, and there was very little he could do about it — except leave the road and try to get lost in the wood. But that wouldn't be much help either, for if assassins had been sent after him, they would be picked men thoroughly familiar with the terrain, and by now they would have thrown a cordon round this part of the forest. He decided to try to discover first whether his fears were well founded. There was a slight chance that the bearers were acting on the orders of the Lady Hydrangea, who for some reason or other didn't want him to be seen being carried back to town openly in a palace palankeen. And the sergeant at the gate might have inspected the palankeen, found his sword under the bench and confiscated it. He must do something to get it back, for it was a famous blade, made long ago by a great swordsmith, an heirloom treasured in his family for many generations. He pushed his flat box into the bosom of his robe and went ahead slowly in the shadow of the trees, keeping to the side of the road. There was no use in presenting a target to an ambitious archer.
At regular intervals he halted and listened. There was no sign of anyone following him, but nor could he hear the faintest sound to indicate he was in the vicinity of the town. Just when he was about to turn a bend he heard a strange, snorting noise ahead.
Quickly he ducked into the undergrowth and listened again. Now a twig snapped, a little further on. Carefully parting the branches, he worked his way through the shrubs until he saw a large, dark shape hovering among the pines. It was an old donkey grazing among the weeds.
As the judge went up to it, he saw a pair of crutches leaning against the gnarled stem of a colossal tree by the roadside. Underneath it Master Gourd was sitting hunched on a moss-covered boulder. He still wore his patched brown robe, but his grey head was bare, the topknot covered by a piece of black cloth, the traditional headwear of the Taoist recluse. His calabash was standing at his feet. The old man looked up.
'You are up and about at a late hour, Doctor.'
'I went for a walk to enjoy the cool air. I must have got lost.'
'Where's your sword?'
'I was told it was perfectly safe to go about unarmed here.'
Master Gourd sniffed.
'I thought you'd have learned not to believe everything people say. As a doctor.' He groped behind him for his crutches. 'All right, I shall be your guide again. Come along, you won't have any trouble keeping pace with this ancient mount.' He tied the calabash to his belt, and climbed on the donkey.
Judge Dee felt relieved. With a well-known figure as Master Gourd as witness, the enemy wouldn't risk an open attack. After they had been going along for a while, he said with a faint smile:
'When I met you this afternoon in the woods on the other side of the town, you gave me something of a shock, you know! My eyes were sore, and the light bad. For one brief moment I thought I was seeing my double.'
Master Gourd reined in his donkey.
'Don't speak lightly of grave matters,' he said reprovingly. 'Nobody is one; all of us are an aggregate of many. But we conveniently forget our less satisfactory component parts. If one of those should manage to slip away from you, and you would meet it, you'd take it for a ghost, Doctor. And a very offensive ghost too!' He paused and listened. 'Talking about ghosts, don't you think we are being followed?'
Now Judge Dee, too, heard something moving about in the undergrowth. Quickly grabbing one of the crutches, he whispered:
'If we are attacked, you just clear out. I can look after myself; I am a stickfighter. Don't worry!'
'I am not worried, for nobody can harm me. I am just an empty shell, Doctor. Have been for many a year.'
Three men jumped out onto the road. They wore coarse jackets and trousers and their hair was bound up with red rags. All three had swords, and two brandished short pikes. While one of them grabbed the donkey's reins, another raised his pike and barked at the judge:
'Better behave, bastard!’
THE SECOND MEETING WITH MASTER GOURD
Judge Dee was about to lunge with the crutch when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in the small of his back.
'Don't do that, dogshead!' a voice growled behind him.
'Put my crutch back, Doctor,' Master Gourd said. 'I need them both.'
'What do we do with the old geezer, boss?' the pike-wielder asked.
The man behind the judge cursed. 'Take him along too. It's just his bad luck.' Again the judge felt the point of the sword in his back. 'Walk on, you!’
The Judge decided that he couldn't do anything, for the moment. The scoundrels were paid assassins rather than ordinary robbers, and he was sure he could handle their kind. He walked on, saying only, 'I hope we won't meet a patrol. For your sakes, I mean.'
The man behind him guffawed.
'The soldiers have other things to worry about right now, you fool!'
The ruffians drove their prisoners along a narrow side-path. One led Master Gourd's donkey by the reins, a second followed with a pike, while the two others walked behind Judge Dee.
The path led to a clearing. A low brick building stood among the trees. They went to the second building that looked like a deserted godown. The man in front let go of the donkey's reins, kicked the door open and went inside. Soon a cone of light appeared. 'Get along!’ One of the men behind the judge drove him inside, prodding him with his sword.