Judge Dee at Work

Hoong discreetly refrained from commenting further on one of his master's colleagues. He remarked with a satisfied smile: 'So now all the points of this curious case have been cleared up!'

Judge Dee took a long draught from his tea. As he set the cup down he shook his head and said unhappily: 'No, Hoong. Not all the points.'

He thought he might as well tell the sergeant now about the ghostly apparition of the dead beggar, without which this murder would have been dismissed as an ordinary accident. But just as he was about to speak, his eldest son came rushing inside. Seeing his father's angry look, the boy said with a quick bow: 'Mother said we might take that nice lantern to our bedroom, sir!'

As his father nodded, the small fellow pushed an armchair up to one of the pillars. He climbed on the high backrest, reached up and unhooked the large lantern of painted silk hanging down from the eaves. He jumped down, lit the candle inside with his tinderbox, and held up the lantern for his father to see.

'It took Big Sister and me two days to make this, sir!' he said proudly. 'Therefore we didn't want Ah-kuei to spoil it. We like the Immortal Lee, he is such a pathetic, ugly old fellow!’

Pointing at the figure the children had painted on the lantern, the judge asked: 'Do you know his story?' When the boy shook his head, his father continued: 'Many, many years ago Lee was a very handsome young alchemist who had read all books and mastered all magic arts. He could detach his soul from his body and then float at will in the clouds, leaving his empty body be­hind, to resume it when he came down to earth again. One day, however, when Lee had carelessly left his body lying in a field, some farmers came upon it. They thought it was an abandoned corpse, and burned it. So when Lee came down, he found his own beautiful body gone. In despair he had to enter the corpse of a poor old crippled beggar which happened to be lying by the roadside, and Lee had to keep that ugly shape for ever. Although later he found the Elixir of Life, he could never undo that one mistake, and it was in that form that he entered the ranks of the Eight Immortals: Lee with the Crutch, the Immortal Beggar.'

The boy put the lantern down. 'I don't like him anymore!' he said with disdain. 'I'll tell Big Sister that Lee was a fool who only got what he deserved!’

He knelt down, wished his father and Hoong good night, and scurried away.

Judge Dee looked after him with an indulgent smile. He took up the lantern to blow out the candle inside. But suddenly he checked himself. He stared at the tall figure of the Immortal Beggar projected on the plaster wall. Then he tentatively turned the lantern round, as it would turn in the draught. He saw the ghostly shadow of the crippled old man move slowly along the wall, then disappear into the garden.

With a deep sigh the judge blew the candle out and put the lantern back on the floor. He said gravely to Sergeant Hoong, 'You were right after all, Hoong! All our doubts are solved — at least those about the mortal beggar. He was a fool. As to the Immortal Beggar — I am not too sure.' He rose and added with a wan smile, 'If we measure our knowledge not by what we know but by what we don't, we are just ignorant fools, Hoong, all of us! Let's go now and join my ladies.'