"Only a lucky accident," the judge replied with a sigh. "Last night, shortly after my arrival here, a window blew open and I got a brief glimpse of this room. I saw you while you were moving that wooden statue which you had taken from the Gallery of Horrors. I only saw your back, and I mistook the smooth grey hair plastered to your head for a close-fitting helmet. And I thought the statue was a real woman. That was the hallucination I consulted you about."
"Well, well!" Sun said astonished. "So you consulted me about myself, so to speak!" He laughed heartily.
"That scene," Judge Dee continued with impassive face, "set me chasing after the actor Mo Mo-te, who wore such an antiquated helmet during his sword dance. I can't understand, though, why that window on the right there doesn't show on the outside. That is the window I must have seen."
"It is," Sun replied. "But it's a trick-window, you know. I can't claim any credit for it; it was there already when last year I discovered this useful little room. The shutters are, as you see, on the inside, and the panels of oiled paper on the outside are flush with the surface of the wall, and painted like bricks. Transparent paint was used, so that one can open the shutters at daytime and have light to see by, without any outside people noticing anything." He pensively caressed his short ringbeard and went on: "Yes, I remember now, last night I opened it to get some fresh air. The window is on the side away from the wind, you see. I didn't think it would do any harm, for I knew that the shutters of all the windows opposite were closed tightly because of the storm. When I heard one blow open, I quickly closed mine, but apparently I wasn't quick enough — I was a bit careless there, I fear!"
"You were even more careless when, during your explanation of the diagram in your library, you stated that the circle of the two forces is always divided vertically. I knew for certain that somewhere I had seen the circle with a horizontal dividing line, hut at that moment I didn't remember where and when that had been. If you had then told me that the circle might be represented in varying positions, I would have dismissed the subject from my mind, and forgotten all about it."
Sun hit his hand on his knee. He said with a smile: "Yes, now I remember you asking about that. I must confess that I hadn't thought at all about the secret lock when I was giving you my explanation. You are an observant fellow, Dee! But how did you manage to turn the disk around? It screws a vertical bar up and down along the side of the door, and it doesn't turn easily. There's a special key for it, you know!" He took from his bosom an iron hook with two protruding dents and a long handle. The judge saw that the dents would fit the two holes in the disk.
"I found that my hairpin did as well," he said. "It only takes more time, of course. But to come back to our subject I think you were careless a third time when you placed Miss Kang in the Gallery of Horrors. She couldn't move her head or body and the black paint on her hands and feet was a clever device, but with all those people about here, there was still a great risk that she would be discovered."
"No," Sun said reprovingly, "there you are completely wrong, Dee. Ordinarily there wouldn't have been any risk, the gallery is closed this time of the year. And it was a very original idea, don't you think? I presume the girl would have become quite amenable after passing one night there. I'll repeat the experiment, some day. Though painting her was quite a job, I'll tell you! But I like to do things well. You are an enterprising fellow, Dee. That deduction from the cat's eyes was quite clever of you. I had overlooked that clue when I suggested to our poor friend True Wisdom how he could eliminate the old abbot. True Wisdom, I regret to say, was really a mean person, only out for wealth and power, but lacking the initiative and will-power for acquiring all that by himself. When he was still the prior here, he once stole a large sum of money from the monastery treasury. He would have been done for if I had not helped him. Therefore he was obliged to help me with my own little pastimes! The old abbot now, that was another man for you! Clever as they make them! Fortunately he was getting on in years, and when he found out that something was going on with those girls here, he immediately suspected True Wisdom — that poor fish who didn't even know what a woman looks like! I found it safer to instruct True Wisdom to do away with old Jade Mirror, and I persuaded the Chief Abbot in the capital to appoint True Wisdom as successor."
Sun pensively pulled at his ragged eyebrows. Giving Judge Dee a shrewd look he went on: "True Wisdom had become rattled, of late. He kept worrying about the insinuations made by that rascally poet, and he also maintained that a strange monk had wormed his way into this monastery and was spying on him. It was a fellow with a morose face. True Wisdom thought he had seen him before somewhere. Presumably the same fellow you were after, Dee! All nonsense, of course. Just before your arrival I had to take True Wisdom up to my attic and give him a good talking to. But it didn't help, apparently. He was steadily losing his head; that's why the fool tried to kill you. He badly bungled that — I am glad to say."
The judge remained silent. He thought for a while, then said: "No, True Wisdom's fears of that morose monk were well-founded. Where did you find that girl called Liu who died here while you were treating her for a lingering disease?"
"Lingering disease is a most appropriate term!" Sun said with a chuckle. "Well, Miss Liu was something quite special, Dee. A strong, well-developed girl, and lots of spirit! She was a member of a band of vagabonds, and got arrested while stealing chickens from a farm outside the capital. My good Mrs. Pao got her by bribing the prison guards."
"I see. That morose monk, as you call him, was Miss Liu's brother. I was told that his real name might be Liu. At times he went about as a vagrant Taoist monk, and in that role he had visited this monastery before. He suspected that his sister had been murdered here. He came back in the guise of the actor Mo Mo-te, in order to find the murderer and to avenge her death. The abbot was quite right in worrying about Mo; he is a splendid swordsman, and you know how particular those gangs are with regard to settling blood-feuds."
"Well," Sun said indifferently, "the abbot is dead and gone, and we'll blame everything on him, so your bellicose Mr. Mo will be satisfied. My friend True Wisdom made a sad mistake, though, when at the last moment he wanted to denounce me to you, hoping thereby to save his own skin."
Judge Dee nodded. He said: "The abbot didn't commit suicide, of course. I ought to have suspected that at once. You pushed him from the landing, didn't you?"
"That's true!" Sun said happily. "I thought I showed great presence of mind on that occasion! I was quite impressed by your reasoning, Dee! It was so logical that I nearly began to believe that he had committed suicide myself! Listen, I am sorry I can't offer you a cup of tea. That is unfortunately not included in the facilities of this cosy little room!"
"Did you have other helpers here besides the abbot and Mrs. Pao?"
"Of course not! As an experienced magistrate you'll know very well, Dee, that if you want to keep something secret, you shouldn't rope in all the world and his wife!"
"I suppose you killed Mrs. Pao here?" the judge asked looking at the blood-stained chopper on the floor.
"Yes, I could take no chances with her, after I had found the gallery open and Miss Kang gone. Killing her presented no problem of course, but I had to do some hard work to get her remains through that air-shaft over there, she was a portly woman, you know. But her pieces will rest in peace, if you'll allow me a feeble pun! At the bottom of the ravine is a cleft; nobody has yet succeeded in exploring its depths. I somewhat regret the loss of Mrs. Pao, though, for she made herself quite useful, and I had built up an excellent reputation for her in the capital. But the pious widow had to go, for she was the only one who could testify against me after you had wrecked my plans with little Miss Kang." He added with a quick smile: "Don't think I hold that against you, Dee! I enjoy a battle of wits with a clever opponent like you. You are doubtless a fine chess player. Let's have a game tomorrow. You do play chess, don't you?"