The Willow Pattern

Chiao Tai was looking up at the temple with a speculative eye.

'I think, brother,' he said pensively, 'that we'd better go and climb that pagoda over there.'

'What for? You need exercise?'

'To look for trees, brother. There can't be many around, for in this poor quarter people can't afford the luxury of a garden. Now itinerant artists who keep monkeys that go round among the audience with the collection-plate always treat them well, for those trained monkeys are worth a lot to them. So that fellow Yuan will have tried to find a lodging where there's a tree of some sort, to keep his monkey fit and happy, you see. If it had been a ground monkey, Yuan wouldn't need a tree. You can keep a ground monkey quite happy by letting him jump about the furniture, and creep under cupboards and beds, for that's what a ground monkey likes.'

Ma Joong nodded slowly. He knew from their years together in the 'green woods' that Chiao Tai had a way with animals. He loved to make them tame and to study all their habits.

'All right,' he said, 'let's climb the damned pagoda. From up there we should be able to see in what section of this quarter there grow trees. It isn't much of a lead, but it's better than nothing.'

They went up the stone stairs again. A novice took them across the central courtyard, then to the entrance of the nine-storeyed pagoda behind the main hall. Sweating and cursing the two friends climbed the steep, narrow staircase. Arrived on the platform of the ninth storey, however, they found that the hot haze hanging over the sea of roofs had thinned out a little, so that the entire quarter was spread out below them like a pictorial map. They saw only one patch of green, away behind the temple, where there were nothing but slums. Beyond it a lonely banner hung limply from a high stake. It indicated the local military post.

'We shall head for that green patch, brother,' Chiao Tai said. 'Look, the roofs around it form a square and they are higher than those of the other houses. I think it's one of those very old mansions, dating from the time when this quarter was still the centre of the city. Now a dozen or so poor families have found shelter in most of them.'

'Good. That's the kind of place Yuan would stay in. Let's try to work out how we get there.' Ma Joong leaned over the balustrade and peered at the maze of narrow streets and alleys deep down below. 'Yes, we must first make for that small square behind the temple, you see. Then take the winding road down there, and afterwards the straight alley to the left. If we follow that, we can't go far wrong.'

They began the long journey down, in a cheerful mood.

After half an hour of tramping up and down dirty streets, however, their spirits had sunk again. The farther they penetrated into the back streets, the poorer the houses became, and they met no one who they could ask for the way. At last they found, on a corner, an old hag, clad in rags. She was searching the smelly gutter for eatable offal.

She had not seen any travelling puppeteers or acrobats about, but she told them that three streets ahead there stood indeed a large old house. 'It's a big affair,' she added, 'and squatters live in the back. There are no trees, though. The front yard is in a bad state; we put our dead there, till the scavengers come to collect them.' She pushed an untidy grey strand away from her sweating face and added: 'We are lucky, many scavengers gather here. They are good men, they can call up the souls of the dead, and they have amu­lets that protect you against all sickness.'

Chiao Tai thanked her, and they walked on. In the next street they met a group of about a dozen scavengers. Among them was a spare man, clad in a long robe of costly brocade and wearing a high cap of black gauze.

'Hey there, Doctor!' Ma Joong called out. 'What are you doing here?'

Doctor Lew said something to the tall hooded man by his side. Then he stepped up to the two friends and replied politely:

'I just went to see two young women, colonel, in the large old house over there. Couldn't do a thing, unfortunately. They had got the sickness, and died before my eyes.'

Ma Joong went pale. A sick feeling contracted his stomach.

'The two daughters of Yuan, you mean?' he asked.

'Yuan? Were they called Yuan?' Lew asked the tall hooded man. The other shrugged his shoulders, covered by the long black cloak.

'Show us the place, Doctor,' Chiao Tai ordered. 'I didn't know you looked so well after the poor.'

'I take my profession seriously,' the doctor said coldly. 'Follow me, if you insist on verifying my statement.'

They went on, the group of scavengers on their heels. After a while the tall hooded man came to walk by Chiao Tai's side. He said, his words muffled by the hood:

'I know you, Mister Colonel. You are the one who had four oЈ us beheaded. In the square.'

'I'll have your head chopped off too,' Chiao Tai told him. 'For an even smaller offence! Watch your step, my friend.'

The other fell behind. Chiao Tai heard him whisper to the other scavengers.

In the next street a dozen more hooded men joined them. They began to talk busily amongst each other in their muffled voices. Ma Joong looked round at them. Through the slits of the hoods their eyes fixed him with a malevolent glitter. He nudged his friend. Chiao Tai had his hand on the hilt of his sword. He too had noticed their threatening attitude.