She closed her eyes, a long shiver shook her body. Tsung Lee started to cry. His tears dropped on her hand. She looked up and continued wearily to the judge: "I don't know how long I was there; I was half crazed by pain and fear, and the damp cold seemed to penetrate to my very bones. At last I saw a light and heard voices. I recognized yours, sir, and did my utmost to give you a sign. I tried to move my feet and my fingers, but they were completely numb. I heard you make a remark on my unseemly exposure, but… but I did have a loincloth, at least?" She gave him an embarrassed look.
"Certainly!" Judge Dee replied quickly. "The other statues hadn't, though. Hence my remark."
"I thought so!" she said relieved. "But I didn't know for certain, because of the layer of plaster, you see. Well, then… then you went on.
"I knew my only hope was to draw your attention when you passed again on your way back. I forced myself to think clearly. Suddenly it came to me that if I could move my breast in such a way that the spearpoint resting against it would cut into my flesh, the blood would show clearly on the white plaster and thus might catch your eye. With a supreme effort I succeeded in moving my torso a little. The pain of the spear entering my flesh was nothing compared to the agonizing pain in my back and arms. The plaster coat prevented me from feeling whether much blood had come out. But then I heard a drop fall on the floor. I knew I had succeeded, and that gave me courage.
"Soon I heard footsteps again. Someone came running through the gallery, he rushed past me without another look. I knew that you would come too, but it took a very long time, it seemed. At last you came…"
"You are a very brave girl!" Judge Dee said. "I have only two questions to ask you, then you must have a rest. You gave a general description of how Mrs. Pao took you to the room where that man was waiting for you. Could you give me some more details about the way you went?"
White Rose frowned, in an effort to remember.
"I am certain," she said, "that it was in one of the buildings east of the temple. But as to the rest … I had never been there before, and we made so many turns…"
"Did you pass perhaps a square landing, with a screen of lattice-work all around it?"
She shook her head forlornly.
"I really don't remember!" she replied.
"It doesn't matter. Tell me only whether you recognized the voice that came from the bedstead. Could it have been the abbot?" Again she shook her head.
"I still hear that hateful voice in my ears, but it doesn't remind me of anyone I know. And I have good ears," she added with a faint smile. "I recognized Tsung Lee's voice when you entered the gallery the first time, though I only heard it in the distance. The relief when…"
"It was Tsung Lee who gave me the idea that you were in the gallery," Judge Dee remarked. "Without him I wouldn't have found you."
She turned her head and looked affectionately at the kneeling youngster. Then she lifted her head to the judge and said weakly: "I feel so peaceful and happy now! I can never repay you for…"
"You can!" Judge Dee said dryly. "Teach this fellow to make better poetry!"
As he rose, the girl smiled faintly. Her eyelids fluttered; the sleeping drug was taking effect. Turning to Miss Ting, the judge whispered: "As soon as she is asleep, throw that youngster out and rub her gently all over with this ointment here."
There was a knock on the door. Kang I-te came in, dressed as a man.
"I just put my bear outside," he said. "What is all this commotion?"
"Ask Miss Ting!" the judge said gruffly. "I have other things to do." He beckoned Tao Gan to follow him.
Miss Ting had been staring at Kang with wide eyes. Now she gasped:
"You are a man!"
"That ought to solve your problem," Judge Dee remarked to her. Kang had eyes only for her; he had hardly noticed the poet and the still figure on the bed. The last Judge Dee saw him do was clasp Miss Ting in his arms.
XVIII
Outside, the judge said sourly to Tao Gan: "I'd better resign as magistrate and set up business as a professional matchmaker. I have brought together two young couples, but I can't find a dangerous maniac! Let's go to your room. We must devise a plan, and quick!"
While they were walking down the corridor, Tao Gan said sadly: "I am awfully sorry, sir, that when passing through the gallery to fetch the painting from the temple, I didn't pause to have a second look at that poor naked woman. Then I would have noticed the blood and…"
"You needn't be sorry," the judge remarked dryly. "It does you credit. Leave it to your colleague Ma Joong to gape at unclothed women!"
Seated in Tao Gan's small room, Judge Dee silently drank the tea his lieutenant made for him. Then he sighed and said: "Well, I know now that it was the armless wooden statue from the Gallery of Horrors that I saw Mo move about in that secret hide-out of his. So we have found the one-armed woman, but I still can't understand how I could have seen the original wooden statue through a window that isn't there! However, let's leave that problem for the time being, and concentrate on the new, concrete facts we learned. Mo must have used Mrs. Pao as a procuress, and the dead abbot must have connived at their sordid affairs. Mo must have planned to place Miss Kang in the Gallery of Horrors for some time. He had removed the wooden statue before we arrived here, and probably also prepared the clamps in the wall. The cheek of that villain to go on with his infernal scheme, right under my nose!" The judge tugged angrily at his beard. "When Mrs. Pao had informed Mo and the abbot that White Rose was thinking of giving up her plan of becoming a nun, and wanted to establish contact with Miss Ou-yang, they decided to act quickly. They knew I was scheduled to leave the monastery this morning, and if I should inquire after her, they could easily explain the girl's absence by saying that she had gone into retreat for a few days in the forbidden part of the monastery. Thereafter they would have cowed the poor girl so thoroughly by their infernal tortures that she wouldn't have dared to denounce them, and they would doubtless have found some way to explain things to Miss Ou-yang, or Kang I-te rather, and to Tsung Lee. By then she would have been raped, and she herself wouldn't have liked to see her brother or the poet again. Those unspeakable fiends!"
He knitted his thick eyebrows. Tao Gan quietly pulled at the three long hairs on his cheek. No human depravity could ever astonish him. The judge resumed: "The abbot escaped earthly justice, but we'll get Mo Mo-te, and he is the main criminal. I don't think the abbot had the pluck; he was a coward at heart. But Mo is a completely ruthless, perverted maniac. There's no time for half-measures now, Tao Gan! I'll go and rouse Master Sun. We'll have all the inmates assembled in the large hall and we'll let Kuan Lai and Kang I-te look them over. If Mo isn't found among them, we'll search the entire accursed place, as I had already planned." Tao Gan looked doubtful.
"I am afraid, sir, that we can't have the whole monastery roused without Mo suspecting that the commotion has something to do with him. He will have fled before the check began. The storm is over, and Heaven knows how many exits this place has. Once he is in the mountains, it'll prove very difficult to catch him. It would be quite different, of course, if we had Ma Joong, Chiao Tai, and the rest of the staff here, with twenty constables or so. But with only the two of us…" He didn't complete the sentence.
Judge Dee nodded unhappily. He had to agree that his lieutenant was right. But what to do then? Absent-mindedly he took up a chopstick, and tried to balance the saucer of his teacup on its tip.