Necklace and Calabash

'You'll wait here in the corridor,' the judge told his two com­panions. 'I shall go inside to ask permission to cross the Golden Bridge.'

He knocked at the gold-lacquered door. When there was no answer, he went inside, closing the door behind him.

There was no one in the elegant library. A musty smell of old books mingled with the heavy fragrance of the orchids on the window-sill. Judge Dee looked outside. The old man was standing by a high rock down in the garden, clad in a plain, long-sleeved morning-robe, his head covered by a gauze house-cap. The judge went into the garden and followed the narrow paved path, zig­zagging among miniature gold-fish ponds and flowering shrubs. Very small coloured birds were twittering among the green leaves, still glittering with dew.

The Chief Eunuch turned round. Looking at the judge with his heavy-lidded eyes, he said:

'A marvellous thing happened overnight, Dee! Look, this rare flower suddenly opened! Observe the delicately shaped petals, the velvety colour! I had this plant brought here from the southern regions by a special courier. For three months I tended it per­sonally. But I had never dared to hope to make it bloom!’

Judge Dee bent over the orchid that was as large as a man's hand. It was rooted in the hollow of a palm tree, nestling against the rock. Its yellow petals, showing violet-black spots, gave the flower an almost feline grace. The orchid sent forth a faint but very distinct fragrance.

'I must confess I never saw anything like it,' he said as he righted himself.

And you'll never see the like again,' the old man said quietly. He snapped the stem with his long fingernails, and raised the flower to his nose. Slowly moving it to and fro, he went on, 'When you came here the day before yesterday, Dee, I knew at once that you couldn't be just a doctor. Seeing me with my pet executioner standing behind me, you should've been trembling with fear, grovelling even. Instead you calmly exchanged profound remarks with me, as if with your equal. Next time you put on a disguise, take care that you also disguise your personality, Dee!’

'You made determined efforts to have me eliminated,' the judge remarked. 'But luck was on my side, and I shall presently return the pearl necklace to Her Imperial Highness. Therefore I ask your permission to cross the Golden Bridge.'

The old man turned the flower round in his thin hand.

'Don't misunderstand me, Dee. Yes, I did want power. The well-nigh unlimited power possessed by him who knows an Emperor's guilty secret. But I also had a quite different, much stronger motive. I wanted to have the Third Princess with me forever, Dee. Wanted to look after her tenderly, as tenderly as I looked after this rare flower. I wanted to go on seeing her every day, hearing her lovely voice, knowing everything she does ... always. And now she will be ravished by a brutish soldier... .'

Suddenly he crushed the orchid in his claw-like hand and threw it onto the ground. 'Let's go inside,' he said harshly. 'I am suffer­ing from many chronic ailments, and it is time that I take my drops.'

Judge Dee followed him inside the library.

The old man sat down in the enormous, carved armchair, and unlocked a drawer. He took from it a miniature calabash of rock crystal, its stopper secured by a red silk ribbon. When he was about to uncork it, the judge stepped forward and locked the frail wrist in his large hand. He said curtly:

'The evil scheme must be destroyed root and branch.'

The Chief Eunuch let go of the crystal vial. He pressed a bud in the elaborate flower motif carved in the rim of the desk. Prom the shallow drawer that appeared he took a sealed envelope. He handed it to the judge, a contemptuous sneer twisting his thin blue lips:

'Have them tortured to death, every single one of them! Their miserable souls shall serve me as my slaves, in the Hereafter!’

The judge broke the seal and glanced at the slips of thin paper. Each was marked with a name and rank; then there were notes of dates and sums of money, all written in the same, spidery hand. He nodded and put the envelope into his sleeve.

The old man took the stopper out of the small crystal calabash and poured its colourless content in a teacup. Having emptied the cup at one draught, he leaned back into the armchair, his thickly veined hands grasping the armrests. His hooded eyes closed, his breath came in gasps. Then he let go of the armrests and clutched at his breast. A violent shiver shook his frail body. Suddenly the blue lips moved.

'You have my permission to cross the Golden Bridge.'

His head sunk to his breast; his hands fell limply into his lap.