The lights gradually came nearer, then remained stationary. The barbarian horsemen had halted, waiting for the signal fire on the watchtower.
The three men stood there silently for over an hour.
Then suddenly lights flared up over the river. They became smaller and smaller, then disappeared altogether in the darkness.
Having waited in vain for the signal fire, the Uigurs had ridden back to their homesteads.
JUDGE DEE ON THE RAMPARTS OF LAN-FANG
Twenty fifth Chapter
The next day Judge Dee heard Mrs. Lee during the morning session of the tribunal.
She readily confessed her crimes.
Once, shortly before the Governor's death, Mrs. Lee had been drinking tea with Mrs. Yoo in the garden pavilion, waiting for the Governor. Mrs. Lee had been looking over some of his pictures and found a preliminary sketch of the landscape painting. She had seen from a few notes that the Governor had written in that this picture was a guide map to a short cut through the maze.
Mrs. Lee had felt greatly attracted to Mrs. Yoo, but as long as the Governor was alive she had not dared to reveal her feelings to her. After the Governor's burial Mrs. Lee had visited the country mansion but only found the old couple there; they did not know where Mrs. Yoo had gone after Yoo Kee had expelled her. Mrs. Lee made inquiries in the countryside, but Mrs. Yoo had instructed the peasants to tell no one on what farm she was hiding with her son.
Then, some weeks before, Mrs. Lee had revisited the old country mansion when she happened to be in that neighbourhood. When she found the dead bodies of the old couple she had explored the first two stages of the short cut. She found that the clues in the landscape picture of which she had kept careful notes were correct.
Mrs. Lee had met White Orchid in the market and persuaded the girl to accompany her to her house. Once there, she soon completely cowed the shy girl and kept her captive as a victim of her whims. She made White Orchid do all the housework, beating her with her cane at the slightest provocation.
When Mrs. Lee discovered that White Orchid had slipped out to the deserted temple and there met a strange man, she had been furious. She had dragged the frightened girl to an empty storeroom where the thick walls deafened all sound. Mrs. Lee had made the girl strip and lashed her arms to a pillar.
Then Mrs. Lee had started to interrogate her, repeating again and again the same question: had White Orchid betrayed her whereabouts to the stranger? Everytime the girl denied this. Mrs. Lee had cruelly beaten her with a thin rattan stick, hissing horrible threats at her all the time. Writhing under the vicious lashes, White Orchid had frantically cried for mercy. This further enraged Mrs. Lee. She had let the rattan descend with all her force on the bare hips of the screaming girl until her arm grew tired. By then White Orchid was nearly distracted by pain and fear, but she still persisted that she was innocent.
But Mrs. Lee feared that her secret had leaked out. The next morning she disguised White Orchid as a nun and took her to the Governor's country estate. There she locked the girl up in the room the old couple had been living in, taking away all her clothes to obviate every attempt at escaping. Mrs. Lee visited her every other day, bringing her a jug of water and a basket of dried beans and oil cakes. She had planned to bring the girl back from there as soon as White Orchid's escapade to the temple had proved harmless.
Then, however, the constables came to search for the girl in the eastern quarter. Mrs. Lee became alarmed. Very early the next morning she hastened to the country mansion. She had found her way to the hidden pavilion by the landmarks of the pine trees, compelling White Orchid to lead the way, mercilessly driving the girl on with her cane. In the pavilion she had made the girl lie down on the marble bench and then thrust her knife in her breast. A perverse instinct had moved her to cut off the head, the body she had pushed over the edge of the bench. Mrs. Lee had taken the severed head back with her in a basket. In her hurry Mrs. Lee had paid no attention to the box on the table.
Mrs. Lee related all this without any pressure. Judge Dee noticed that she took pleasure in telling everything and that she gloated over her cruel deeds. She also volunteered the information that thirty years ago she had murdered her husband by mixing poison in his wine.
Judge Dee felt a deep revulsion for this depraved woman. He was relieved when Mrs. Lee had affixed her thumbmark to her confession and could be led back to the jail.
At that same session Judge Dee heard the three Chinese shopkeepers who had been the Uigur's accomplices. They proved to have no clear idea about the real portent of the plot. They had thought it was a plan to create a brawl and loot a few shops under cover of the confusion.
The judge had them given fifty blows with the bamboo and sentenced them to wear the heavy wooden pillory for one month.
That afternoon the steward of the Ding mansion came rushing to the tribunal. He reported that Candidate Ding had hanged himself and that the fourth wife of the late General had swallowed poison. Neither had left an explanatory note. The general opinion was that they had become despondent over the General's tragic death. The woman's suicide was favourably commented upon by some
old-fashioned people who thought it a proof of supreme devotion if a wife followed her deceased husband into the grave. They opened a subscription for the erection of a commemorative stone tablet.
During the following ten days Judge Dee devoted all his time to the liquidation of the affairs of Chien Mow and Yoo Kee. Some minor punishments were meted out to the two counsellors of Chien Mow, and those of his henchmen who had practised extortion. Mrs. Yoo had been informed of the contents of the Governor's last will. She would be summoned to the tribunal as soon as the final verdict of the central authorities had come in from the capital.
Sergeant Hoong had hoped that the judge would relax somewhat now that he had solved all three criminal cases and broken up the plot against the town. But to his disappointment he found that Judge Dee was still greatly worried about something. The judge was often in a bad temper, and occasionally revised a previous decision, which was a most uncommon thing for him to do. The sergeant could not imagine what was the cause of the Judge's worries, and Judge Dee vouchsafed no explanation.
One morning the clatter of horsehoofs and loud gongs resounded through the main street. Two hundred soldiers of the regular army entered Lan-fang with waving banners. This was the garrison force sent in response to Judge Dee's request.
Their commander was an officer who had seen active service against the barbarians of the north, an intelligent young man who impressed the judge very favourably. He presented an official letter from the Board of Military Affairs which gave Judge Dee full authority also over all military affairs of the district.
The garrison was quartered in the Chien mansion and Chiao Tai returned to the tribunal.
The arrival of the garrison somewhat heartened the judge. Soon, however, he relapsed into his morose mood. He buried himself in the routine affairs of the district and went out very little. The only time he left the tribunal was when he attended the burial rites for White Orchid.
Woo had arranged a magnificent funeral, he had insisted on defraying all the expenses himself. The painter had become a changed man. He had foresworn drinking, a decision which involved him in a bitter quarrel with his landlord, the owner of the Eternal Spring wineshop. The latter took this decision as a reflection on the quality of his stock. All winebibbers of that quarter sadly called this breach the end of a beautiful friendship.