"The Generalissimo will have plenty of that where he is now!" Tao Gan observed. "Two hundred miles farther up north, right in the frozen desert!"
"I think," Sergeant Hoong said, "that the Board of Personnel in the capital is a few years behind! When they sent Your Honor out here they evidently thought that Pei-chow was still on the northern border of our Empire!"
"You may be right!" Judge Dee said with a bleak smile. "When the Director handed me my papers, he very courteously but a little absent-mindedly said he trusted that I would handle barbarian affairs as well as I did in Lan-fang. But here in Pei-chow I am separated from the barbarian tribes over the border by a distance of three hundred miles and an army of a hundred thousand men!"
The old Sergeant angrily tugged at his beard. He rose and went over to the tea stove in the corner. Sergeant Hoong was an old retainer of the Dee family and had looked after the judge when he was still a child. Twelve years earlier, when Judge Dee was appointed to his first post as magistrate in the provinces, Hoong had insisted upon accompanying him, notwithstanding his advanced age. The judge had given him official status by appointing him Sergeant of the tribunal. The old man, devoted to him and his family, was invaluable to him as a trusted adviser, with whom he could discuss unreservedly all his problems.
Judge Dee gratefully accepted the large bowl of hot tea the Sergeant handed him. Cupping his hands around it to warm them, he remarked:
"All in all we can't complain! The people here are a sturdy race, honest and hard-working. In the four months that we have been here now, we have had, next to the routine affairs of the administration, only a few cases of assault and battery, and those were quickly settled by Ma Joong and Chiao Tai! And I must say that the military police are most efficient in dealing with deserters and other backwash of the Northern Army that strays to this district." He slowly stroked his long beard. "There is though," he continued, "that case of the disappearance of Miss Liao, ten days ago."
"Yesterday," Tao Gan said, "I met her father, old Guildmaster Liao. He asked again whether there was not any news about Lien-fang."
Judge Dee put down his teacup. Knitting his shaggy eyebrows he said:
"We investigated the market, we circulated her description among all military and civil authorities of the province. I think we did all we could."
Tao Gan nodded.
"I don't think the case of Miss Liao Lien-fang's disappearance is worth all the trouble we took," he said. "I still believe that she eloped with a secret lover. In due time she'll turn up with a fat baby in her arms and with a bashful husband at her side, and beg her old father to forgive and forget!"
"Remember though," Sergeant Hoong remarked, "that she was engaged to be married!"
Tao Gan only smiled cynically.
"I agree," Judge Dee said, "that the circumstances seem to point to an elopement. She went to the market with her duenna, and while standing among the dense crowd looking at a Tartar with a performing bear, she suddenly was not there any more. Since you can't kidnap a young woman in a crowd, one does indeed think of a voluntary disappearance."
The deep voice of the bronze gong echoed in the distance. Judge Dee rose.
"The morning session of the tribunal is about to start," he said. "Anyhow, today I'll look over again our records of Miss Liao's case. Missing persons are always a nuisance! I much prefer a straight murder!"
As Sergeant Hoong helped him to don his official robe the judge added: "I wonder why Ma Joong and Chiao Tai are not yet back from the hunt."
The Sergeant said:
"Last night they said they would leave before dawn to catch that wolf, and be back in time for the morning session,"
With a sigh Judge Dee replaced his warm fur bonnet by his official judge's cap of black silk. Just as he was going to the door the headman of the constables came in. He said hurriedly:
"The people are very excited, Your Honor! This morning a woman was found cruelly murdered in the south quarter!"
The judge halted in his steps. Turning to Sergeant Hoong he said gravely:
"That was a very foolish remark I made a few moments ago, Sergeant! One should never speak lightly of murder."
Tao Gan said with a worried look:
"Let's hope it isn't that girl Lien-fang!"
Judge Dee made no comment. As he crossed the corridor connecting his private office with the back door of the court hall, he asked the headman:
"Have you seen Ma Joong and Chiao Tai?"
"They came back a few moments ago, Your Honor," the headman replied, "but the warden of the market had just come rushing to the tribunal reporting a violent brawl in a wine shop. Since he urgently asked for assistance, Your Honor's two lieutenants rode back with him straight away."
The judge nodded.
He opened the door, pulled aside the curtain and entered the court hall.
Second Chapter
Seated behind the high bench on the raised platform, the judge surveyed the crowded court hall. Down below more than a hundred people were assembled.
Six constables stood in two rows of three before the bench, with the headman by their side. Sergeant Hoong had taken his customary place behind Judge Dee's chair, and Tao Gan stood by the side of the bench, near the lower table where the senior scribe was arranging his writing brushes.
The judge was about to raise his gavel when two men clad in neat fur robes appeared in the entrance of the hall. They had difficulty in getting through the crowd, as a number of people accosted them with questions. The judge gave a sign to the headman, who quickly went through the assembly and led the newcomers in front of the bench. Judge Dee hit his gavel hard on the table.
"Silence and order!" he shouted.
Suddenly the hall grew still, all watched the two men, who knelt down on the stone floor in front of the dais. The elder was a thin man with a pointed white beard, his face drawn and haggard. The other was heavily built; he had a round, broad face and wore a thin ring beard that circled his fleshy chin.
Judge Dee announced :
"I declare the morning session of the tribunal of Pei-chow open. I shall call the roll."
When the personnel had duly answered the roll call, Judge Dee leaned forward in his chair and asked:
"Who are the two men who apply to this tribunal?"
"This insignificant person," the elder man said respectfully, "is called Yeh Pin, a paper merchant by profession, and the person by my side is my younger brother, Yeh Tai, who helps me in the shop. We report to Your Honor that our brother-in-law, the antique dealer Pan Feng, has cruelly murdered our sister, his wife. We implore Your Honor . . ."
"Where is that man Pan Feng?" Judge Dee interrupted him.
"He fled the city yesterday, Your Honor, but we hope . . ."
"Everything in its own time!" the judge said curtly. "First state when and how the murder was discovered!"
"Early this morning," Yeh Pin began, "my brother here went to Pan's house. He knocked repeatedly on the door, but no one answered. He feared that something untoward had happened, because Pan and his wife are always at home at that time. So he rushed home to . . ."
"Halt!" Judge Dee interrupted. "Why didn't he first ask the neighbors whether they had seen Pan and his wife go out?"
"Their house is located in a very lonely street, Your Honor," Yeh replied, "and the houses on both sides of Pan's place are empty."
"Proceed," the judge said.
The Yeh brothers report a murder