Necklace and Calabash

'I charge one silver piece for a consultation,' the judge pointed out gently. 'Payable in advance.'

'One whole silver piece! But you don't need to examine me, you know. Just wanted to have your opinion. I am suffering from constipation too. Now I ...'

'See your doctor,' the judge said curtly and took up his chop­sticks. The fat man gave him a hurt look and waddled back to the counter, taking the tray of dumplings with him.

The judge ate with gusto. He had to admit that the fried trout were indeed very good. When he left the Nine Clouds he saw Fern standing in the portico across the street. She wore a brown jacket and wide trousers, and a red sash round her waist; her hair was bound up with a red cloth. She wished the judge a cheer­ful 'Good morning', and added:

'Weather is fine! What about our trip up river?'

'Shouldn't I change?'

'Oh no. We'll just have to buy straw hats on the way.'

She took him down several narrow alleys that brought them in a few minutes to the east end of the quay. He bought two straw hats. While she was busy tying the ribbon of hers under her chin, he cast a quick glance at the godowns. Two coolies were carrying a bale to the clearing, supervised by a thin man with a large, bullet-shaped head. Fern went down the stone steps leading to the water, and pointed at a narrow, sleek boat moored among the larger rivercraft. While she held it steady, Judge Dee stepped inside and sat down in the stem. Skilfully she poled the boat out from among the other craft, then exchanged the pole for a long oar. As she started sculling the boat into midstream, the judge said:

'You know, I wouldn't mind having a look at the famous Water Palace.'

'That's easy enough! We'll go along this bank and pass it before crossing over. The best places are all over the other side, you see.'

There was a slight breeze over the placid brown water, but the morning sun was hot on Judge Dee's face. He stuffed his cap into his sleeve, and put the round straw hat on his head. Fern had taken off her jacket. A red scarf was wound tightly round her well-formed bosom. Leaning back in the bow, the judge looked at her standing there in the stern, moving the long sculling oar with graceful ease. Her shoulders and arms had a golden tan. He reflected — a little sadly — that there was no substitute for youth. Then he turned his attention to the riverbank. Tall pine trees grew close to the water's edge, rising up from the tangled under­growth. Here and there he noticed the narrow mouths of inlets and coves.

'You won't catch anything worth while in there,' she remarked. 'Just a few crabs and mud-fish. It's too early in the year for eels.'

As they moved upstream, the forest thickened. Moss-covered liana clung to the low branches overhanging the water. After about a quarter of an hour Fern turned the boat into mid­stream.

'Can't we follow the bank a little further?' the judge said quickly. 'We must be getting near to the palace and I'd like to have a good look at it.'

'And get both of us killed? Don't you see those painted buoys ahead? Over on that quay there's a notice in letters as large as your head ordering all craft to stay outside those buoys. And on the bank beyond the palace there is the same polite notice. If you cross the line, the archers on the battlements will use you for target practice with their crossbows. You'll have to admire the palace from a good distance!’

She sculled the boat in a broad curve round the buoys. Then he saw the three-storeyed watch-tower, at the north-west corner of the palace compound. The wood ended abruptly at a narrow inlet, evidently the mouth of the moat surrounding the palace. The north wall rose directly from the water at a slightly receding angle. The crenellated ramparts were inter­rupted at regular intervals by lower watch-towers. The sun glittered on the spiked helmets of the archers manning the battlements.

'Quite a pile, eh?' Fern called over to him from the stern.

'Rather. Let's go a little farther till we are opposite the north­east tower. Then I'll have seen everything!’

A large cargo junk glided past, the rowers swinging the long oars to the rhythm of a plaintive song. Fern joined them in her clear young voice, adjusting her sculling to the quicker beat. The judge thought the wall looked very high and forbidding. He counted eight barred archways, just above the water, evidently the gates that fed the canals and watercourses inside. Then he saw the pavilion, jutting out from the wall just above the last water-gate. It was a kind of covered balcony of trapezoid shape, with three bay windows, a large one in front flanked by two smaller ones. He estimated that the bottom of the buttress sup­porting the pavilion was about six feet above the water. A small boat moored there would be invisible from above. But how could a boat get in there without being spotted by the archers on the watch-towers?

'You hoping to see the beautiful princess at the window? What about crossing over to the other bank now?'