The Lacquer Screen

Chiao Tai woke up with a start. There was a strange, pungent smell in his nose. The year of city life as Judge Dee's assistant had not yet dulled the alertness of his senses, acquired during the years he had lived in the ' green woods '. He sneezed, and immediately thought of a fire, and of the fact that the inn consisted of boards. He jumped up, grabbed Judge Dee's foot and threw himself against the door, all in one and the same moment. The door burst open and he tumbled into the narrow passage outside, dragging the judge with him. He collided in the dark with a queer, slippery shape. He grabbed at it but missed. There was the sound of someone falling down the staircase. Something clattered on the wooden stairs, then there came suppressed groans from down below. Chiao Tai began to cough. He shouted:

'Get up! There's a fire!' And, to the judge: 'Down­stairs, quick!'

Bedlam followed. While cursing, half-naked men came crowding into the passage, Chiao Tai and the judge let themselves slide down the stairs. Below, Chiao Tai stumbled over a human body, scrambled up again, ran to the door and kicked it wide open. He took a deep breath, then he went coughing and sneezing to the counter, groped for a tinder-box and lit a candle. Judge Dee rushed outside into the street too. He was dizzy and nauseated, but after he had sneezed a couple of times he felt better. He looked up at the second storey, but all was dark there. The place was not on fire, but he thought he knew what had happened. When he went inside again the waiter had emerged with tousled head from behind the counter and was lighting more candles.

Their light shone on a weird scene. The Corporal, stark naked and looking like a huge, hairy ape, stood with the bald man over a queer, whimpering figure, sitting on the floor and nursing its left leg. Its naked body was glistening with oil. The three gamblers, scantily dressed, were looking dazedly at each other with watering eyes. Carnation, clutch­ing a small loin cloth round her naked body, stared with horrified eyes at the groaning man on the floor. Judge Dee, who, with Chiao Tai, was the only person fully dressed, stooped and picked up a bamboo blowpipe about two feet long, which had a small gourd attached to its end. He hurriedly examined it, then he barked at Kun-shan:

'What poison did you blow into our room?'

'It was no poison, only a sleeping drug!' Kun-shan whined. 'It was nothing, I didn't want to hurt any of you! I have broken my ankle!'

The Corporal gave him a vicious kick in the ribs.

'I'll break every bone in your body!' he growled. 'What do you mean by sneaking in here, you son of a dog?'

'He wanted to rob me,' Judge Dee said. He looked at Chiao Tai, who was searching a pile of clothes that lay next to the door. 'You can close the door,' he called out to him, 'the particles of powder this rascal blew into the room have dis­persed by now.' And, to the Corporaclass="underline" 'Look, the bastard undressed down here and oiled his body so that he could wriggle out of the hands of anyone trying to catch him. He planned to flee after he had stolen what he could!'

'That makes it simple,' the Corporal said. 'I am against killings but, as the rule says that a man who steals from his comrades shall die, we'll finish him off. But you go ahead and question him. You have the first claim!'

He gave a sign to his men. They grabbed Kun-shan, and pinned him spread-eagled to the floor, standing on his hands and feet. Kun-shan screamed when the bald man planted a foot on his broken ankle, but the Corporal started to kick him again.

Judge Dee raised his hand. He stared curiously at the prone man. His horribly emaciated body was covered with long, evil looking scars that seemed to have been caused by burns. Chiao Tai came up to the judge and handed him two packages he had found in Kun-shan's clothes. Judge Dee gave the heavy one back to Chiao Tai, and opened the other. It contained a water-stained notebook. 'Where did you steal this?' he asked the man on the floor.

'I found it!' Kun-shan screamed.

'Tell the truth!' Judge Dee barked.

'It is the truth!'

'Get a shovel of burning coal and a pair of fire-tongs from the kitchen!' the Corporal snapped at the waiter. 'We'll just lay a few of those hot coals on this bastard's belly. That's always a good start. It'll smell a bit, but you can't have everything.'

'No! Don't burn me!' Kun-shan shouted frantically. 'I found it, I swear it!'

'Where?' the judge asked.

'Here! The other night, I came here and searched all the rooms upstairs while you were sleeping. I found it behind that woman's bed!'

Judge Dee quickly looked at Carnation. Clutching her naked breast, she suppressed a cry. Seeing the frantic en­treaty in her eyes, in a flash he understood. He said hur­riedly to the Corporaclass="underline"

'It's no use, the bastard is lying. I and my mate'd better take him to a quiet spot and have a leisurely talk with him. If we do it here he may become a bit noisy, and there's no need to tell the whole neighbourhood about this. We'll take him out to the marsh.'