The Phantom of the Temple

'The commander of the military convoy kindly let me join them, sir, and so I travelled the greater part of the way back in comfort, and fast too! The last stretch I did on horseback, with a group of tea merchants. We rode on all night. We were lucky, for when the rain storm broke we found shelter in the hut of a woodgatherer on the second mountain ridge. Then—'

'You had quite a journey,' the judge interrupted. 'Just give me the gist of what you learned in Tong-kang. You can draw up a detailed report later, after you have taken a rest.'

'Thank you, sir. I want to begin by stating that the chancery personnel of the tribunal in Tong-kang treated me most courteously. They assigned to me most comfort­able quarters in the hostel for official travellers.'

'I shall write my colleague a letter of thanks. What did you learn about the Treasurer's stay there?'

'My colleagues introduced me to the clerk who had been ordered to look after the Treasurer's needs, sir. He told me his had been an easy task, for the Treasurer had been tired by the long journey, and declined the magis­trate's invitation to dinner. When the clerk was serving the evening rice in the Treasurer's room, the latter told him to have a leather worker called, for one of his travel­ling boxes was developing a crack. After the leather worker had gone, the Treasurer retired. He received no other visitors, and left the next morning at dawn.'

The old scribe made a bow to the sergeant, who had pushed a cup of tea towards him. After he had taken a few sips, he resumed, 'The headman of the tribunal found that leather worker for me. His name is Liu, an elderly, rather garrulous person. He began his career as a gold­smith, but then his eyes went bad and he shifted to the tooling of leather. He remembered his visit to the Treasurer quite well, because a few days later he heard that the gold had been stolen and—'

'Yes, yes, naturally. What happened during that visit?'

'Well, sir, the Treasurer took Liu to his bedroom and showed him the box that was cracking. Liu examined it, and told the Treasurer that the leather was of such good quality that he needn't fear that it would burst. The Treasurer was visibly relieved and gave Liu a good tip. Encouraged by the kind words of this high official, Liu praised the workmanship of a gold ornament the Treasurer was wearing, adding that he was really a gold­smith. The Treasurer said that in that case he had more work for him. He took an intricate key from his sleeve, and opened the padlock of the cracked box. He had stood himself with his back to Liu, but Liu saw in the cap-mirror on the table that the box was filled to the rim with heavy gold bars. The Treasurer closed the box and turned round to Liu with one large bar in his hand. He told Liu that it was unusually long; he had forced it into the box on top of his clothes, he said, and that was probably the reason why the box had got cracked. He asked Liu whether he could saw it for him into two pieces, without losing any of the gold-dust. Liu had the right kind of saw in his tool box, and he left directly after having done the job. That's all, sir!'

Judge Dee gave his two lieutenants a significant look. He asked the scribe, 'Whom did Liu tell about his discovery?'

'Oh, dozens of people, Your Honour! It so happened that the Guild of the Gold- and Silversmiths had its regu­lar meeting that very night, and Liu told the gathering his story. It isn't often the common people hear about such a large gold transport, and they had a good time developing all kinds of theories about the reason why an Imperial Treasurer would be taking such a large sum over the border.'

'You did excellent work! After you have refreshed yourself, you had better have a look at the records of the court sessions of yesterday and today. The case Kao vs Lo came up again, you know.'

'I certainly want to see those records, sir!' the old gentleman said eagerly. 'Yes, I had suspected that both sides kept a few tricks up their sleeve, especially the Kao side! There's that obscure point about the second mar­riage of the third cousin, and—'

'Here are the two dossiers,' Judge Dee told him hastily. 'I shall hear the case again tomorrow.'

The old scribe left, fondly clasping the two dossiers in his arms.

'The Treasurer made a fatal mistake,' the sergeant remarked. 'He should have told Liu to leave the room for a few moments, while he took the gold bar from the box.'

'Of course,' Ma Joong put in. 'It doesn't get us much further, though. How can we find out which one of those guildsmen took the news to Lan-fang? It may have been a friend, or—'

'That's immaterial, Ma Joong,' Judge Dee interrupted. 'The main point is that now we know for certain how the secret leaked out, that the news was brought here before the Treasurer arrived, and that it became known in the milieu of goldsmiths and metal-workers. That's all I need.'

'Are we going to the deserted temple now, sir?' Ma Joong asked. 'There are six guards up there, but I don't like the idea of all that gold lying around!’