Necklace and Calabash

She gave him a warm smile. 'Did you find what you were look­ing for, sir?'

'Yes and no. Tomorrow I hope to be able to tell you more.' Folding his arms, Judge Dee reviewed his conversation with Lady Hydrangea. Only after he had digested all the disquieting new data would he try to think of ways and means of tracing the necklace. He felt certain the cashier had hidden it somewhere in or near the Kingfisher. Else he wouldn't have gone back there and risked a meeting with Lang's men. Tai Min had known that sooner or later Lang Liu and his men would leave again for the south, and that would be his chance to come back from Ten Miles Village and get the necklace.

The quay was just as deserted as when they had left, but now the moonlight cast weird shadows on the cobble-stones. 'I shall walk ahead,' he told her. 'At the first sign of trouble, slip into a portico or a side-street.'

But they reached the alley at the back of the Kingfisher without meeting anyone. Slipping inside by the kitchen door, the judge suddenly realized that he was ravenously hungry. 'Have you had your evening rice?' he asked. When Fern nodded, he grabbed a wooden pail with cold rice from the kitchen dresser, and a platter of sour plums. 'On account!’ he muttered. Fern suppressed a giggle. Crossing the hall, they heard the clatter of arms in the portico. The guardsmen were on duty. On tiptoe they went upstairs and parted in front of his door.

Judge Dee lit the candle, and changed into a clean night-robe. He found to his satisfaction that the tea in the padded basket was still warm. Having taken the armchair by the table, he changed the plaster on his forearm. Then, using the wooden lid of the rice-pail as a plate, he kneaded the cold rice and sour plums into balls. He ate this simple soldier's meal with relish, washing it down with several cups of tea. Having thus fortified himself, he took the calabash from the wall-table and reclined on his bed, his shoulders on the propped-up pillow. Tying and untying the red tassel of the calabash, he marshalled his thoughts.

The scheme of the necklace had now been revealed in its revolt­ing detail. The plotters in the palace wanted to incriminate Colonel Kang, so as to eliminate him as future Imperial son-in-law, and so as to bring the Third Princess to the desired unstable emotional state when leaving for the capital. The Lady Hydrangea had men­tioned the Chief Eunuch and the Superintendent as possibly being involved in the scheme. But there was a third ranking official, namely Colonel Kang. And about him he knew really very little — only that the Princess was in love with him, and that Captain Siew admired him. But both the Princess and the captain were biased. The plotters in the palace had suggested that the colonel had a mistress somewhere. At first sight it looked like malicious slander. On the other hand one should not forget that his accusers were expert schemers who, as a rule, avoid creating something out of nothing. They would rather give a twist to actual happenings, distort a statement by changing a few words or by shifting the emphasis. Therefore he should not rule out the possibility that the colonel actually did have a lady friend somewhere. The fact that the colonel had not stolen the necklace did not prove that he was not indirectly involved.

Utilizing a scheme of the enemy to one's own advantage was a stratagem taught in all military handbooks. And the colonel had been with the Princess on that fateful night. Probably they had been standing together at the window of the pavilion, and the Princess had laid the necklace on the side-table before they went through the moon-door to the adjoining room. So that Tai Min had only to stick his hand through the window to grab it. What if there had been collusion between the colonel and the cashier?