'I would appreciate it if you would also ask your servants, Mr Wang. The disturbance may not have taken place on the highway, but behind your house, in the wood.'
'I can inform Your Honour now that they haven't seen or heard anything. I was at home the entire evening, and none of us went out. You might ask Mr Leng, the pawnbroker, sir. He lives next door, and he ... he keeps rather irregular hours.'
'Who else is living there, Mr Wang?'
'At the moment nobody, sir. There are three more villas, but those belong to wealthy merchants from the capital who come for their summer holiday only. All three are standing empty now.'
'I see. Well, thanks very much, Mr Wang. Would you mind going to the mortuary with the headman? I want you to have a look at the dead body of a vagabond, and let me know whether you have seen him in your neighbourhood lately.'
After the pharmacist had taken his leave with a low bow, Tao Gan said:
'We must also reckon with the possibility that the man was murdered here in town, sir. In a winehouse or in a low-class brothel.'
Judge Dee shook his head.
'If that had been the case, Tao Gan, they would have hidden the body under the floor, or thrown it in a dry well. They would never have dared take the risk of conveying it to the mountain slope, for then they would have been obliged to pass close by this tribunal.' He took the ring from his sleeve again and handed it to Tao Gan. 'When the coroner came in, I was just about to ask you to go down into the town and show this ring around in the small pawnshops there. You can do so now. You needn't worry about the routine of the chancery, Tao Gan! I shall take care of that, this morning.'
He dismissed his lieutenant with an encouraging smile, then he began to sort out the official correspondence that had come in that morning. He had the dossiers he needed fetched from the archives, and set to work. He was disturbed only once, when the headman came in to report that Mr Wang had viewed the body and stated that he did not recognize the dead tramp.
At noon the judge sent for a tray with rice-gruel and salted vegetables and ate at his desk, attended upon by one of the chancery clerks. While sipping a cup of strong tea he went over in his mind the case of the murdered vagabond. He slowly shook his head. Although the facts that had come to light thus far pointed to a gang murder, he was still groping for another approach. He had to admit, however, that his doubts rested on flimsy grounds: just his impression that the dead man had not been a tramp, but an educated, intelligent man, and of a strong character. He decided that for the time being he would not communicate his indecision to his lieutenant. Tao Gan had been in his service only ten months, and he was so eager that the judge felt reluctant to discourage him by questioning the validity of his theory about the significance of the missing four fingers. And it would be very wrong to teach him to go by hunches rather than by facts!
With a sigh Judge Dee set his teacup down and pulled a bulky dossier towards him. It contained all the papers relating to the smuggling case in the neighbouring district of Chiang-pei. Four days before, the military police had surprised three men who were trying to get two boxes across the river that formed the boundary between the two districts. The men had fled into the woods of Chiang-pei, leaving the boxes behind. They proved to be crammed with small packages containing gold and silver dust, camphor, mercury, and ginseng — the costly medicinal root imported from Korea — and all these goods were subject to a heavy road-tax. Since the seizure had taken place in Chiang-pei, the case concerned Judge Dee's colleague, the magistrate of that district. But he happened to be short-handed and had requested Judge Dee's assistance. The judge had agreed at once, all the more readily since he suspected that the smugglers had accomplices in his own district. He had sent his trusted old adviser Sergeant Hoong to Chiang-pei, together with his two lieutenants Ma Joong and Chiao Tai. They had established their headquarters in the military guardpost, at the bridge that crossed the boundary river.
The judge took the sketchmap of the region from the file, and studied it intently. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai had scoured the woods with the military police, and interrogated the peasants living in the fields beyond, without discovering a single clue. It was an awkward affair, for the higher authorities always took a grave view of evasion of the road-taxes. The Prefect, the direct superior of Judge Dee and his colleague of Chiang-pei, had sent the latter a peremptory note, stating that he expected quick results. He had added that the matter was urgent, for the large amount and the high cost of the contraband proved that it had not been an incidental attempt by local smugglers. They must have a powerful organization behind them that directed the operations. The three smugglers were only important in so far as they could give a lead to the identity of their principal. The metropolitan authorities suspected that a leading financier in the capital was the ringleader. If this master-criminal was not tracked down, the smuggling would continue.
Shaking his head the judge poured himself another cup of tea.
Tao Gan came back to the market-place dog-tired and in a very bad temper. In the hot and smelly quarter behind the fishmarket down town, he had visited no less than six pawnshops and made exhaustive enquiries in a number of small gold and silver shops, and also in a few disreputable hostels and dosshouses. Nobody had ever seen an emerald ring with two entwined dragons, nor heard about a gang fight in or outside the city.
He went up the broad stone steps of the Temple of Confucius, crowded with the stalls of street-vendors, and sat down on the bamboo stool in front of the stand of an oilcake hawker. Rubbing his sore legs he reflected sadly that he had failed in the first assignment Judge Dee had given him to carry out alone; for up to now he had always worked together with Ma Joong and Chiao Tai. He had lost this rare chance of proving his mettle! 'It's true,' he told himself, 'that I lack the physical strength and experience in detecting of my colleagues, but I know as much as they about the ways and byways of the underworld, if not more! Why ...?'
'This place is meant for business, not for taking a gratis rest!' the cake vendor told him sourly. 'Besides, your long face keeps other customers away!'
Tao Gan gave him a dirty look and invested five coppers in a handful of oilcakes. Those would have to do for his luncheon for he was a very parsimonious man. Munching the cakes, he let his eyes rove over the market-place. He bestowed an envious look upon the beautiful front of Wang's pharmacy over on the/other side, lavishly decorated with gold lacquer. The tall greystone building next door looked simple but dignified. Over the barred windows hung a small signboard reading 'Leng's Pawnshop'.
'Vagabonds wouldn't patronize such a high-class pawnshop,' Tao Gan muttered. 'But since I am here anyway, I might as well have a look there too. And Leng has a villa on the ridge. He may have heard or seen something last night.' He rose and elbowed his way through the market crowd.
About a dozen neatly dressed customers were standing in front of the high counter that ran across the high, spacious room, talking busily with the clerks. In the rear a large, fat man was sitting at a massive desk, working an enormous abacus with his white, podgy hands. He wore a wide grey robe, and a small black cap. Tao Gan reached into his capacious sleeve and handed to the nearest clerk an impressive red visiting-card. It bore in large letters the inscription 'Kan Tao, antique gold and silver bought and sold'. And in the corner the address: the famous street of jewellers in the capital. This was one of the many faked visiting-cards Tao Gan had used during his long career as a professional swindler; upon entering Judge Dee's service he had been unable to bring himself to do away with that choice collection.