The Lacquer Screen

'No, no!' Kun-shan wailed. The Corporal silenced him with a kick. He snarled:

'The dirty dogshead! Slandering our girl too, eh?'

'It's true!' Kun-shan shouted. 'I tell you that I tore out a few pages, then put it back. When I came here tonight, I ...'

Judge Dee had quickly taken off his felt slipper and rammed the point in Kun-shan's open mouth. 'Presently I'll let you gossip all you want!' he said. He showed the Cor­poral Kun-shan's blowpipe. 'The powder is in this gourd,' he remarked. 'I assume that if you blow it through the crack under the door into a room, it disperses and drugs people. But luck was against the scoundrel. My mate slept on the floor with his head close to the door, and got the full dose of the powder in his face. He sneezed it out, and before it could start to spread he had already burst open the door and we were outside. I had cut out the window paper before I went to sleep, and the breeze took care of the rest. Otherwise all of us would have been sound asleep by now, and me and my mate with our throats slit from ear to ear. Hey you, I suppose you jammed my window, didn't you?'

Kun-shan nodded. Gagging he moved his distended jaws, trying to get rid of the slipper.

'Let your men paste an oil-plaster over his mouth,' the judge said to the Corporal. 'Then, if they make a stretcher of two poles, we'll roll him up in an old blanket, and carry him away. If we meet the nightwatch, we'll say he is suffer­ing from a contagious disease and that we are taking him to a doctor.'

'Baldy!' the Corporal bellowed. 'Let go of that foot, he can't move it anyway! Get an oil-plaster!' To the judge he said: 'Don't you want some instruments along?'

'I have been a headman, so I know my job!' Judge Dee replied. 'You might lend me a knife, though.'

'Good!' the Corporal said. 'That reminds me! I would like his ears and fingers, please. I'll send them around to a few people in this city who are getting a bit fresh, just as a little warning. Bring them back in a piece of oil-paper, will you? And where are you going to hide the body?'

'We'll bury it in the quicksand of the marsh. It'll never be found.'

'Excellent!' the Corporal said, gratified. 'I don't like killings here as a rule, but if there has to be one, I like it to be a workmanlike job!'

Kun-shan's eyes, crazy with pain and fear, were bulging from his head. He was wriggling like an eel under the men's feet. When the bald gambler pulled the slipper out of his mouth he began making incoherent sounds, but immediately the sticky plaster was clapped over his mouth. The Corporal himself bound his hands and legs together with a thin rope. Carnation brought an old blanket, and she helped Chiao Tai to roll the thin man up in it from head to feet. Two men had brought an improvised stretcher, and Kun-shan was secured to it with more ropes.

Judge Dee and Chiao Tai lifted the stretcher and put the poles on their shoulders.

The Student came in. He looked, astonished, at the men and the naked girl, then asked:

'What's going on here?'

'None of your business, runt!' the Corporal growled. And, to Judge Dee:

'There's nobody about near that marsh at night, so take your time over him. I never trusted that ugly bastard!'

The judge and Chiao Tai went out into the alley, carrying their burden. If the neighbours had noticed all the com­motion, they thought it wiser not to give any sign of it.

Two streets farther on they met the nightwatch. Judge Dee said curtly to their headman:

'Help us to get this man to the tribunal. He's a dangerous criminal.'

Two sturdy watchmen took the stretcher from them.

At the main entrance of the tribunal, Judge Dee gave his card to the sleepy guard and told him to rouse Counsellor Pan. The watchmen put the stretcher down in the gatehouse and left. Soon the guard came back, carrying a lighted lampion. Pan followed him, clad in a house-robe. He started to ask questions agitatedly, but Judge Dee cut him short.

'I have Kun-shan here,' he said. 'Tell the guards to take him to your private office. And call Magistrate Teng. I'll explain later!'

When the guards had deposited the stretcher on the floor in Pan's office, Judge Dee told them to bring a jar of warm wine. He and Chiao Tai freed Kun-shan from the blanket, cut his ropes with the Corporal's knife, and placed him in an armchair. The judge turned it round so that it faced the wall. Kun-shan wanted to raise his hands to take the plaster from his mouth, but the cruel thin ropes had bitten deeply into the flesh, and he could not move them. He began to groan. The light of the single candle shone on his distorted face, and his thin, scarred body. His left ankle was swollen, the foot bent at an unnatural angle.

Chiao Tai remarked:

'That broken ankle of his gives me an idea. Suppose that this is the dirty peeper who followed the couple to the house of assignation, and that he faked a limp? That would be a good disguise. And the rest fits, he is tall and thin enough!'

Judge Dee swung round and stared fixedly at his lieu­tenant.

'Well,' Chiao Tai said diffidently, 'it's only an idea, but I ...'

'Shut up!' Judge Dee barked at him. He began pacing the floor, angrily muttering to himself. Chiao Tai looked at him unhappily, wondering what he had done wrong.

The judge stood still. He said gravely:

'Thank you, Chiao Tai! Your remark has made me dis­cover the truth. I have been a fool, stared myself blind on one interpretation. . . . Well, now my problem is solved.'

He heard footsteps in the corridor, and quickly went out­side, motioning Chiao Tai to stay with the prisoner.

Magistrate Teng was clad in a house-robe, just as Pan Yoo-te. His eyes were heavy with sleep. He wanted to ask something, but Judge Dee said in a low voice:

'Send your counsellor away!'

When Teng had given Pan a short order, the judge went on:

'Tomorrow you'll hear the prisoner in the tribunal, Teng. The rules forbid a magistrate to question a man in private. But that rule doesn't apply to me here, and I'll hear him now. You'll stand behind his chair so that he can't see you.'

A guard appeared, carrying a tray with a jar of wine and two cups. Judge Dee took it from him, and stepped back into the room. He pulled a chair up to Kun-shan's side and sat down, holding the wine-jar and a cup in his hands. Magis­trate Teng and Chiao Tai remained standing by the desk. Judge Dee looked round at Chiao Tai and gave him a sign to lock the door. Then he ripped the plaster from Kun-shan's mouth.

Kun-shan moved his misshapen mouth convulsively. He stammered: 'Don't . . . don't . . .'

'You won't be tortured, Kun-shan. I promise you,' the judge said in a soft, persuasive voice. 'I am a special agent, Kun-shan, I saved you from those cruel men there at the inn. Here, drink some wine!' He brought the beaker to Kunshan's mouth, and let him drink. Then he pulled loose his own neck-cloth and laid it over the naked man's lap. 'Later I'll give you a clean robe, and I'll have a physician look at your ankle, Kun-shan. Then you'll have a nice, long sleep. You must be very tired, and your ankle hurts badly, doesn't it?'