The Phantom of the Temple

'That is what I thought when I saw the floor-plan she made of the deserted temple,' Judge Dee remarked dryly. He opened his drawer and put the sheet of paper on his desk. Smoothing it out, he added: 'It's very useful for our orientation, I must say.'

Ma Joong got up. Bending over the desk, he said eagerly, 'On this plan I can trace for you exactly how I tried to catch the murderer last night, sir. Look, the gap through which I entered the compound is here. I slipped inside by this door and ...'

He went on to describe the contest in the dark hall, step by step. Judge Dee listened absent-mindedly. He was tugging at his whiskers, staring fixedly at the plan.

Then my feet got caught in that blasted rope-ladder,' Ma Joong went on. 'Here it was, right in this spot. So—'

Suddenly Judge Dee hit his fist on the table, so hard that it made the cups ring.

'Holy Heaven!' he exclaimed. 'So that is what it was! Why didn't I see that at once? During my visit to the temple I got a good idea of its layout, yet I failed to notice the close resemblance!'

'What ...' Sergeant Hoong began.

The judge pushed his chair back and got up.

'Wait! I'll have to work this out logically. Thanks to that girl's skill, I have found the missing piece, my friends! Let me now see where exactly it must be fitted in... . Yes, at last a definite pattern is arising from all this confused data. But ...'

He shook his head impatiently and began to pace the floor, his hands behind his back.

Ma Joong smiled contentedly. During his visit to the Hermitage he had found an opportunity for talking with Spring Cloud alone for a few minutes, and he thought she didn't seem averse to becoming his regular girlfriend. That she had apparently provided the judge with an important clue might make it easier to straighten out her former petty offences. There was a pleased look on Sergeant Hoong's face too, for he knew the signs from long experience: the case had arrived at a turning point.

Quick steps of heavy boots resounded in the corridor. The headman came bursting in.

'The warden of the north-west quarter came rushing here, sir!' he panted. 'There's big trouble there. The Tartars are stoning the sorceress to death. When the warden's men went to stop them, the scoundrels chased them away, pelting them with sticks and broken bricks... .'

Ma Joong gave the judge a questioning look. When Judge Dee nodded, he jumped up, pulled the heavy whip out of the headman's belt and ran out.

In the stable yard two grooms were rubbing down a horse. Ma Joong sprang on its bare back and rode through the gate.

In the street he drove his horse to a gallop. The crowd made way hastily when they heard the clatter of the hoofs and saw the horseman approaching. The streets of the north-west quarter had an ominous deserted look. Over the low roofs ahead Ma Joong saw smoke curling up and he heard a confused shouting.

In the street where Tala lived a motley crowd barred his way. A few dozen Tartars were jostling one another, shouting and cursing. Three Indians were throwing lighted torches on the roof of the house, acclaimed by the slat­ternly women standing in the doorways of the houses opposite. Ma Joong let his heavy whip descend on the bare, sweat-covered backs of the nearest Tartars, then forced his horse right among them. Shouting angrily, the crowd turned round towards him. When they recognized the uniform of an officer of the tribunal, they fell back in sullen silence.

Ma Joong jumped from his horse and ran over to the woman lying at the base of the mud wall beside the door. Tala's long cloak was torn into ribbons, soaked with blood, and there were ugly gashes on the white arms with which she was protecting her face. Broken sticks and stones were lying all around her. As Ma Joong knelt by her side, a brick swished past his head and hit the wall with a thud. He turned round and saw a half-naked Tar­tar stooping to pick up another brick. Quick as lightning, Ma Joong sprang up and was on him. He grabbed the man's long scalp with his left and let the butt end of his whip descend on the nape of his neck. Throwing the limp body down, he shouted at the crowd:

'Get water buckets and put out the fire. Do you want all your houses to burn down?'

Tala had let her arms drop away from her face. A gaping wound ran across her brow, and the left side of her face was crushed to a pulp.

'I'll put you on my horse and take you to ...' Ma Joong began.

She fixed him with her one, bloodshot eye.

'Burn ... my body,' she whispered.

Suddenly there was a crash, followed by screams of terror from the crowd. The roof of Tala's house had caved in. The large head of the fierce deity became visible. The statue's red face seemed even more horribly distorted by the flames that blazed up all around it.

Ma Joong gathered the woman in his arms and stepped away from the wall, for pieces of burning wood were coming down from the roof. He saw her bleeding lips move.

'Scatter my ashes ...' she said, nearly inaudibly. He felt her shiver, then her body grew limp in his arms.

He laid the dead woman on his horse. The Tartar he had felled had been carried away by his friends. The others were kneeling, facing Tala's house, in abject fear. The burning head of the statue looked down on them with a sardonic smile.