'Almighty heaven!’ Chiao Tai exclaimed. 'The awful twins!’
Dunyazad let go of him. Tao Gan raised the lantern. The light shone on the twins' pale faces and on their bare torsos, disfigured by ugly bruises and bleeding scratches.
'The devils tried to rape us!’ Dunyazad sobbed.
'And severally, too!' Chiao Tai remarked with a grin. 'It wouldn't even have been a shared experience! Speak up, how did you two get here?'
Dananir wiped her face.
'It's all her fault!’ she cried out. 'She dared me!’ She gave her crying sister a venomous look and went on hurriedly: 'The captain didn't turn up for dinner, so we decided to have a bowl of noodles in the market. Then she said that there were ghosts in this compound and I said no there weren't and she said yes there were and I'd never dare go inside. So we came here, slipped by the caretaker's lodge and had a quick look at the first passage. Just when we wanted to run out of this creepy place again, those two awful small men came out of nowhere and chased us. We ran like hares, into this cell, but they forced the door open. One dragged my sister to the cell opposite, the other held me with my back down on the table and began to tear at my trousers.' Holding the torn garment close to her, she added with satisfaction, 'When he tried to kiss me, I poked my thumb in his left eye.'
'They were growling and muttering in some horrible language all the time!’ Dunyazad wailed. 'They can't be human!’
'This one was human enough to have his back broken,' Tao Gan remarked. He had been examining the figure sprawling on the pavement. Chiao Tai recognized the wizened face: the high cheekbones, flat nose and low corrugated forehead.
'One of the waterfolk,' he told Tao Gan. 'They were after the blind girl again. Would have finished her off too, up there on the balcony. But their little lecherous interlude spoiled everything. Well, let's see these two enterprising wenches home!’
The two girls went inside the cell. When they came out they looked fairly presentable in their flowered jackets and trousers. They meekly followed Chiao Tai and Tao Gan to the caretaker's lodge.
After repeated knocking the man thrust his sleep-heavy face through the door. Chiao Tai told them who they were, and ordered him to lock the gate behind them, then wait till the constables came to fetch a dead body. 'And I don't mean you!’ he added unkindly.
They took the street leading south. A short walk brought them to Captain Nee's house.
The captain himself opened the gate. Seeing the twins, he said with relief:
'Heaven be praised! What have you been up to again?'
The twins rushed into his arms and began to babble excitedly in what Chiao Tai assumed to be Persian.
'Put them to bed, captain!’ he cut them short. 'They came very near to losing what they presumably refer to as the flower of their maidenhood. You better see to it personally that tonight that danger is eliminated once and for all!’
'That might be a good idea!’ Nee said, giving the two girls a fond smile.
'Good luck! But for heaven's sake don't let them abuse their new status, captain! My oldest friend, my blood-brother, in fact, married twins. Before his marriage he was a fine boxer, and a splendid wencher and winebibber. And what has become of him now, eh, Tao Gan?'
Tao Gan pursed his lips and sadly shook his head.
'What happened to him?' the captain asked, curious.
'He went into decline,' Chiao Tai replied darkly. 'Good-bye!'
XIX
They found Judge Dee sitting behind his desk, making notes by the light from two enormous silver candelabras. Laying his writing-brush down and staring at their dishevelled clothes, he asked astonished:
'What have you two been at?'
Chiao Tai and Tao Gan sat down, and gave an account of what had happened in the compound of the Examination Hall. When they had finished, the judge smote his fist on the desk.
'Tanka stranglers, Arab hooligans, all these sinister killers seem to be roaming about at will in this city! What in the name of heaven are the Governor's men doing?' Mastering himself, he added, calmer, 'Show me those maps, Tao Gan!’
Tao Gan took the cricket cage from his sleeve and put it carefully at the end of the table. Then he got the maps out and folded them open. The cricket began to make a penetrating, whirring sound.
Judge Dee gave the cage a sour look, then settled down to a study of the maps, slowly tugging at his sidewhiskers. He looked up and said:
'These maps are old; this one of the Arab quarter is dated thirty years back, when the Arab ships began to arrive regularly here. But it is fairly accurate, as far as I can see. That red spot marking Chiao Tai's inn has been put in quite recently. The girl is no more blind than you or I, my friends! Can't you make that noisy insect shut up, Tao Gan?'
Tao Gan put the small case back into his sleeve. Then he asked:
'Have the men who followed Yau Tai-kai come back yet, sir?'
'No,' Judge Dee replied curtly. 'The letter from the capital hasn't arrived either. And it's getting on for midnight!’
He fell into a morose silence. Tao Gan got up and poured fresh tea. When they had drunk a cup, the majordomo came in with a thin man in a plain blue gown who was wearing a small skull-cap. His moustache was grey but he carried his broad shoulders in a soldier-like fashion. After the majordomo had left, he reported in a dry voice:
'Mr Yau went straight home, and had his evening rice alone, in his garden-pavilion. Then he retired to his inner apartments. Our subsequent interrogation of the maidservants revealed that he then summoned his four wives and scolded them for being lazy good-for-nothings. Accusing his first lady of being responsible, he had the maids pull her trousers down and hold her while he personally gave her a caning. Then he called his six concubines and informed them that their allowances would be halved. Finally he went to his library and got himself thoroughly drunk. When the house steward said that Mr Yau was sound asleep, I came here to report to Your Excellency.'
'Is there any news of Mansur?' the judge asked.
'No sir. He must have hidden somewhere outside the city walls, for we combed the Arab quarter, and the constables checked all the low-class inns.'
'All right, you may go.'
When the agent had left, Chiao Tai burst out:
'What a mean bastard that Yau is!'
'Not a very pleasant person,' Judge Dee agreed. 'And shrewd enough to have foreseen that I was going to have him followed, apparently. He tugged at his moustache, then suddenly asked Chiao Tai, 'Are Nee's two slave-girls all right?'
'Oh yes, they escaped with a shaking!’ He added with a grin, 'However, by now they are no longer slaves, nor are they girls — if I appraised the situation correctly. I had the distinct impression, sir, that the captain, after he had recovered somewhat from the shock of his old love's murder, suddenly realized that their pure, detached relationship had worn a bit thin in the course of the years — even for a mystic like him! And that now that he had become a free man again, so to speak, he had better reconsider his paternal attitude towards his two young wards. Especially since those two saucy bits of skirt would like nothing better!'
Tao Gan had given the judge a curious look when he heard his question about the twins. Now he asked:
'Are those twins connected with the Censor's case, sir?'
'Not directly,' Judge Dee replied.
'What could those two, even indirectly...' Chiao Tai began, astonished. But Judge Dee raised his hand and pointed to the entrance. The majordomo was ushering in two officers in full battle-array. They wore peaked helmets and brass-bordered coats of mail, marking them as captains of the mounted military police. After they had stiffly saluted the judge, the elder took a large, heavily sealed letter from his boot. Laying it on the desk, he said respectfully: