"I found the murderer," Judge Dee replied curtly. "He confessed, and I sentenced him to death. Your sister has been avenged. That's all you need to know."
Quick as lightning Mo pulled a long knife from his bosom. Keeping it poised expertly at Judge Dee's throat, he hissed: "Tell me or you are done for! It's me who shall kill her murderer! I am her brother. And what are you, eh?"
Judge Dee folded his arms in his sleeves. Looking up at Mo with his burning eyes he said slowly: "I represent the law, Mo. It's I who take vengeance." Lowering his gaze he added in a voice that was suddenly utterly tired: "And it is I who shall answer for it."
He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall again.
Mo glared at Judge Dee's pale, impassive face. His large hand tightened on the hilt of the knife until the knuckles stood out white. Sweat began to pearl on his low forehead; his breathing came heavily. Tao Gan looked tensely at the hand with the knife.
Then Mo averted his blazing eyes. He gave Tao Gan a sombre glance, put the knife back in his bosom and said suddenly: "Then I have nothing to seek here any more."
He turned around and walked unsteadily to the stairs.
After a while Judge Dee opened his eyes. He said in a toneless voice: "Forget all I told you about Sun Ming and his crimes, Tao Gan. We shall keep to the story that it was the abbot and Mrs. Pao who maltreated and killed those three girls and tortured Miss Kang. Sun died by an unfortunate accident. He is survived by three sons and we must not wantonly destroy other people's lives. Too many already do their utmost to destroy their own, all by themselves!"
For a long time the judge and his lieutenant sat there together, silently listening to the chant that came up to them from the temple hall below, punctuated by beats on a wooden gong. The monks at the abbot's bier were still reciting the prayers for the dead. Judge Dee could make out the words of the refrain, repeated with monotonous insistence:
To die is to return home
Returning home to one's father's house,
The drop that regains the stream,
The large stream that flows on for ever.
At last Judge Dee rose. He said: "Go now to the store-room and fix the secret lock so that it can't work. The secret room contains the old statue of the naked woman, and I shall forbid having naked woman exposed in the Gallery of Horrors, anyway. That secret room shall never again tempt anyone to commit deeds of evil! We'll meet after breakfast!"
He went with Tao Gan as far as the first window in the corridor, where he had deposited Sun's cloak as evidence of the accident. While Tao Gan went on, he opened the shutters wide.
All was quiet deep down below. Suddenly a dark shape swooped down into the space between the two buildings, followed by another. The mountain vultures had discovered prey.
Judge Dee went back to the landing and descended the stairs leading down to the temple hall. When he stepped out on the open platform in front of the temple gate, he looked up. The red rays of dawn were streaking the grey sky.
He went down the broad steps, then headed for the main entrance of the east wing. While passing the high gate that closed off the well between the east wing and the building he had just left, he suddenly stood still. He stared at a hand that held on to the top of the gate with blood-stained, broken fingers. For one brief moment he thought that Sun was hanging there on the other side, in a last frantic attempt to escape. But then a vulture came down, picked up the hand and flew away towards the mountains.
Slowly the judge climbed the stairs leading up to the third floor. Every step hurt him and his back was aching. He had to rest a while on each landing. When at last he knocked on the door of his own quarters, he was swaying on his feet.
In the dressing room the maids were busy fanning the coals in the brazier, heating the morning rice.
Judge Dee and His Three Wives
When he entered the bedroom, he found that his three wives had just risen. The window curtains were still drawn, and in the dim light of the candles the room was cosy and warm. The First Lady sat with bare torso by the dressing table and the two others, still in their bed-robes, were helping her to do her hair.
Judge Dee sat down heavily at the small tea table. He took off his cap, removed the bandage and felt the bruised spot. As he carefully replaced his cap, his third wife gave him a searching look and asked anxiously: "I hope that my bandage helped?"
"It most certainly did!" the judge replied with feeling.
"I knew it would!" she said happily. Handing him a cup of steaming tea she added: "I'll draw the curtains and open the shutters. I hope the storm has blown over."
Slowly sipping his tea, the judge followed his First Lady's graceful movements as she combed her long tresses, looking intently into the round mirror of polished silver that his second wife held up for her. He passed his hand over his eyes. In these peaceful surroundings the horrors of the past night suddenly seemed nothing but a weird nightmare.
His First Lady gave her hair a final pat. She thanked the other who had been assisting her. Pulling her bed-robe up round her bare shoulders she came over to the tea table and wished the judge a good morning. Noticing his haggard face she exclaimed: "You look all done in! What on earth have you been at all night? I saw you come in once to take things from our medicine chest. Has there been an accident?"
"A person fell ill," Judge Dee replied vaguely, "and we needed some drugs. Then there were a few odds and ends that had to be attended to. Now everything has been straightened out."
"You shouldn't have been gadding about all night, and that with your cold!" she said reprovingly. "Well, I'll quickly make you a nice bowl of hot gruel, that'll do you good!" Passing by the open window she looked out and added briskly: "We'll have a pleasant trip back to Han-yuan. It's going to be a beautiful day!"
THE HAUNTED MONASTERY COLOPHON
JUDGE DEE was a historical person who lived from 630 to 700 A.D. In the earlier part of his career when he served as magistrate in various country districts, he earned fame as a detector of crimes, and later, after he had been appointed at Court, he proved to be a brilliant statesman who greatly influenced the internal and foreign policies of the T'ang Empire. The adventures related here, however, are entirely fictitious, although many features were suggested by original old Chinese sources. The clue of the cat's eyes, for instance, I borrowed from an anecdote told about the Sung scholar and artist Ou-yang Hsiu (1007-1072 A.D.); he possessed an old painting of a cat among peonies, and pointed out that it must have been painted at noon, because the flowers were wilting, and the cat's pupils mere slits.
The Chinese professed three creeds, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, the last having been introduced from India in the first century A.D. Since old Chinese detective and crime stories were written in the main by Confucianist scholars, that literature evinces a pronounced partiality to Confucianism, a feature which I adopted in my Judge Dee novels. The characterization of Confucianist and Taoist ideals given in the present novel is based on authentic Chinese texts.
The plates I drew in the style of 16th century Chinese illustrated block prints, especially the fine Ming edition of the Lieh-nü-chuan (Biographies of Illustrious Women). Those plates represent, therefore, costumes and customs of the Ming period, rather than those of the T'ang dynasty. Note that in Judge Dee's time the Chinese did not wear pigtails; that custom was imposed on them after 1644 A.D. when the Manchus had conquered China. The men did their long hair up in a top-knot, and wore caps both inside and outside the house. Tobacco and opium were introduced into China many centuries later.