Judge Dee at Work

At the round table sat only one man, the thin, elderly magis­trate of Ta-shih-kou, this remote boundary district. The two girls who were standing behind his chair looked listlessly at the tall, bearded newcomer.

Magistrate Kwang rose hastily and came to meet Judge Dee.

'I profoundly apologize for these poor arrangements!’ he said with a bleak smile. 'I had invited also two colonels and two guildmasters, but the colonels were suddenly summoned to the Marshal's headquarters, and the guildmasters were wanted by the Quartermaster-General. This emergency ...' He raised his hands in a helpless gesture.

The main thing is that I shall now profit from your instructive conversation!’ Judge Dee said politely.

His host led him to the table and introduced the very young girl on his left as Tearose, and the other as Jasmine. Both were gaudily dressed and wore cheap finery — they were common pros­titutes rather than the refined courtesans one would expect at a dinner party. But Judge Dee knew that all the courtesans of Ta-shih-kou were now reserved for the high-ranking officers of the Marshal's headquarters. When Jasmine had filled Judge Dee's wine beaker, Magistrate Kwang raised his own and said:

'I welcome you, Dee, as my esteemed colleague of the neighbour-district and my honoured guest. Let's drink to the victory of our Imperial Army!’

'To victory!' Judge Dee said and emptied his beaker in one draught.

From the street below came the rumble of iron-studded cart­wheels on the frozen ground.

'That'll be the troops going to the front at last for our counter-offensive,' the judge said with satisfaction.

Kwang listened intently. He sadly shook his head. 'No,' he said curtly, 'they are going too slowly. They are coming back from the battlefield.'

Judge Dee rose, pulled the curtain aside and opened the win­dow, braving the icy wind. In the eerie moonlight he saw down below a long file of carts, drawn by emaciated horses. They were packed with wounded soldiers and long shapes covered with canvas. He quickly closed the window.

'Let's eat!’ Kwang said, pointing with his chopsticks at the silver bowls and platters on the table. Each contained only a small quantity of salted vegetables, a few dried-out slices of ham and cooked beans.

'Coolie fare in silver vessels — that sums up the situation!’ Kwang spoke bitterly. 'Before the war my district had plenty of everything. Now all food is getting scarce. If this doesn't change soon we'll have a famine on our hands.'

Judge Dee wanted to console him, but he quickly put his hand to his mouth. A racking cough shook his powerful frame. His colleague gave him a worried look and asked, 'Has the lung epi­demic spread to your district too?'

The judge waited till the attack had passed, then he quickly emptied his beaker and replied hoarsely, 'Only a few isolated cases, and none really bad. In a milder form, like mine.'

'You are lucky,' Kwang said dryly. 'Here most of those who get it start spitting blood in a day or two. They are dying like rats. I hope your quarters are comfortable,' he added anxiously.

'Oh yes, I have a good room at one of the larger inns,' Judge Dee replied. In fact he had to share a draughty attic with three officers, but he didn't like to distress his host further. Kwang hadn't been able to accommodate him in his official residence because it had been requisitioned by the army, and the magistrate had been obliged to move with his entire family into a small ramshackle house. It was a strange situation; in normal times a magistrate was well-nigh all-powerful, the highest authority in his district. But now the army had taken over. 'I'll go back to Lan-fang tomorrow morning,' the judge resumed. 'There are many things to be attended to, for in my district also food is getting scarce.'

Kwang nodded gloomily. Then he asked: 'Why did the Mar­shal summon you? It's a good two days' journey from Lan-fang to here, and the roads are bad.'

'The Uigurs have their tents on the other side of the river that borders my district,' Judge Dee replied. 'The Marshal wanted to know whether they were likely to join the Tartar armies. I told him that ...' He broke off and looked dubiously at the two girls. The Tartar spies were everywhere.

'They are all right,' Kwang said quickly.

'Well, I informed the Marshal that the Uigurs can only bring two thousand men in the field, and that their Khan went on a prolonged hunting trip to Central Asia, just before the Tartar emissaries arrived at his camp to ask him to join forces with them. The Uigur Khan is a wise man. We have his favourite son as hostage, you see, in the capital.'

'Two thousand men won't make any difference either way,' Kwang remarked. 'Those accursed Tartars have three hundred thousand men standing at our frontier, ready to strike. Our front is crumbling under their probing attacks, and the Marshal keeps his two hundred thousand men idle here, instead of starting the promised counteroffensive.'