The Monkey and the Tiger

After the judge had studied her for a while, he said evenly:

'We are trying to trace the whereabouts of Mr Twan Mou-tsai. Tell me where and how you met him.'

'If you think you'll get anything out of me, Mister Official,' she snapped, 'you are making the worst mistake of your life!'

The matron stepped forward to slap her face, but the judge raised his hand. He said calmly:

'You are standing before your magistrate, Miss Seng. You have to answer my questions, you know.'

'Think I am afraid of the whip? You can beat me as much as you like, I can stand it!'

'You won't be whipped,' Tao Gan spoke up by her side. 'Quite apart from the matter of Uncle Twan, you are guilty of vagrancy and prostitution without a licence. You'll be branded on both your cheeks.'

She suddenly grew pale.

'Don't worry!' Tao Gan added affably. 'If you put on lots of powder, the marks won't show. Not too much, at least.'

The girl stood very still, staring at the judge with scared eyes. Then she shrugged and said:

'Well, I have done nothing wrong. And I don't believe that Uncle Twan said bad things about me. Never! Where I met him? In the capital, about one year ago. I had cut my leg and walked into Twan's store to buy myself a plaster. He happened to be standing at the counter, and struck up a conversation with me, friendly like. It was the first time that such a rich fellow had shown interest in me without at once beginning to talk about you know what, and I liked him for that. I agreed to meet him that night, and so one thing led to another, if you know what I mean. He is an old man, of course, well over fifty, I'd say. But a real gentleman, nicely spoken and always ready to listen to my small talk.'

She fell silent, and looked expectantly at the judge.

'How long did the affair last?' he asked.

'A couple of weeks. Then I told Uncle Twan that we'd have to say good-bye, because we would be going on to the next place. He wants to give me a silver piece but I say no, I am not a whore, thank Heaven, though my brother'd love that, the lazy pimp! So that was that. But three weeks later, when we are in Kwang-yeh, Twan suddenly comes walking into our inn. He tells me he wants me to become his second wife, and that he'll give my brother a handsome present, in cash.'

'WELL,' SHE SAID, 'I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG'

She wiped her face with her sleeve, pulled her jacket straight and went on:

'I tell Twan much obliged but I don't want no money, no nothing. I just want my freedom, and I am not dreaming of getting myself shut up within four walls, say m'lady to his first wife, and be after the servants from morning to night. Twan goes off, the poor old fellow is very sad. Me too — for then I have fight with my brother and he beats me black and blue! Well, the next month, when we are in a village up-river, near our home Chiang-pei, old Twan again turns up. He says he has sold his drug business to his partner, for he has decided to join us. My brother says he's welcome provided he pays him a regular salary, for he's nobody's nursemaid for nothing, he says. I tell my brother nothing doing. Twan can come along, I say, and he can sleep with me if and when I feel like it. But I don't want one copper from him. My brother flies into a real rage, he and Chang catch me and pull my trousers down. I'd have got a thorough caning, but Twan came in between. He took my brother aside, and they worked out some kind of arrangement. Well, if Twan wants to pay my brother for teaching him the tricks of the road, that's his business. So Twan joined up with us and he has been with us for nearly a year. Until last night.'

'Do you mean to say,' Judge Dee asked, 'that Mr Twan, a wealthy merchant accustomed to all the luxuries of the capital, shared your life and roamed about as a common vagabond?'

'Of course he did! He liked it, I tell you. He told me a hundred times that he had never been so happy before. He said he had become fed up with life in the capital. His wives had been all right when they were young, but now they did nothing but nag, and his sons had grown up and kept interfering with his business and always wanted to teach him how he should run the store. He had been very fond of his only daughter, but she had married a merchant down south and he didn't see her any more. Also, he said, he had to attend parties every other night and that had given him a bad stomach. But after he joined us he never had any trouble with his stomach no more, he said. Besides, Chang taught him how to fish, and Uncle Twan took a powerful liking to that. Became quite good at it, too.'

The judge observed her for a while, tugging at his moustache. Then he asked:

'I suppose that Mr Twan visited many business acquaintances in the places you passed through?'

'Not him! He said he was done with all that. He only visited a colleague now and then, to get money.'

'Did Mr Twan carry large amounts of cash on his person?'

'Wrong again! About me he was silly all right, but apart from that Uncle Twan was a mighty slick business man, believe me! Never carried more than a handful of coppers on him. But every time we came to a larger city, he would go to a silver shop, and cash a draft, as he called it. Then he gave the money he received to a colleague of his, to keep for him. A wise measure, my brother being the kind of sneaky rat he is! But Uncle Twan could always get his hands on plenty of money should he need it. And when I say plenty, I mean plenty! When we came here to Han-yuan, he had five gold bars on him. Five gold bars, beg your pardon! I never knew one man could have that much money all to himself! For Heaven's sake don't let my brother see that, I told Twan; he's not a killer, but for that much gold he would gladly murder the whole town! Uncle Twan smiled that little smile of his, and said he knew a safe place for putting it away. And the next day he sure enough had only one string of coppers in his pocket. Can I have a cup of tea?'

Judge Dee gave a sign to the matron. She poured the girl a cup, but her sour face clearly indicated that she disapproved of this infringement of prison rules. The judge did not notice it, for he was looking at Tao Gan. Tao Gan nodded. They were getting on the right track. After the girl had taken a few sips, Judge Dee asked:

'To whom did Mr Twan give those gold bars?'

She shrugged her shapely shoulders.

'He told me a lot about himself, but never a word about business, and I never asked him. Why should I? On our first day here, he told my brother he had to see a man who had a shop in the market-place. "I thought you had never been to Han-yuan before?" my brother asks. "I haven't," Uncle Twan says. "But I have friends!"

'When did you see Mr Twan last?'

'Yesterday night, just before dinner. He went out and didn't come back. Had enough of it, I suppose, and went back home to the capital. That's his right, he is a free man, isn't he? But he ought to have known there was no need trying to fool me. He even went out of his way last night to tell me that he was planning to join our gang officially, so to speak, and take the oath! Why not tell me outright that we were through? I'd have missed him a bit, but not too much. A young girl like me can do without an uncle, can't she?'

'Quite. Where did he say he was going?'

'Oh, he said with that same secret smile of his that he was going to have a bite in the house of the friend he had seen our first day here. And I swallowed that!'

Judge Dee put the emerald ring on the table.

'You stated that you never accepted anything from Mr Twan. Why then did you try to pawn this ring of his?'

'I didn't! I rather liked the thing, so Uncle Twan often let me play around with it for a few days. When we happened to pass a big pawnshop the other day, I walked in to ask what it was worth, just for fun. But that fat pawnbroker tried to make up to me at once, grabbed my sleeve and whispered dirty proposals. So I walked out again.' She pushed a stray lock away from her forehead and went on with a half smile: 'It sure enough was my unlucky day! As soon as I come out, a tall bully grabs my arm and says I am his sweetheart! Gave me the creeps the way he looked at me with his bulging eyes! But Uncle Twan says at once: "Hands off, she's my girl!", and my brother he twists his arm and sends him on his way with a good kick to his behind. All men are the same, I tell you! They think you have just to lift your little finger to a vagabond girl, and hey presto she throws her arms round your neck! No, Uncle Twan was a white crow all right! And if you tell me that he has accused me of something or other, then I'll call you a liar to your face!'