Kang rubbed his upper lip where he had evidently worn a moustache, and continued unhappily: "I went there several times and tried to reason with her. I explained to her that the young man had been notorious for his dissolute life, and that father had been quite right in opposing the marriage. The only result was that she grew furious with me and refused to see me again. Last time I went there, the abbess told me that White Rose had left, and that she didn't know where she had gone. I bribed the gate-keeper, and he told me that a certain Mrs. Pao, a pious widow, had struck up a friendship with her, and taken her away. My parents were worried, and my father ordered me to make further inquiries. By dint of much effort I at last discovered that Mrs. Pao had taken my sister to this monastery, to be initiated as a nun. I decided to follow her in order to try again to persuade my sister to return home. Since I knew she would refuse to see me if I went as I was, I disguised myself as an actress. I am of rather slight build, and I have taken part in some amateur theatricals. As Miss Ou-yang I approached Kuan, and bribed him to offer his services to this monastery for the commemoration festival, and to let me join his troupe. The fellow acted in good faith. You shouldn't blame him, sir.

"The stratagem worked. Mo Mo-te unwittingly did me a service when he teased me during his sword-dance. It frightened my sister and made her forget her resentment against me. After the show she slipped away from Mrs. Pao and hurriedly told me behind the stage that she was in an awful quandary. Mrs. Pao had been very kind to her. She had more or less adopted her as her daughter. Her one great aim in life was to see my sister properly ordained as a nun, for she was a very pious woman. However, in this monastery White Rose had met a young fellow, a certain Mr. Tsung. Though she didn't know him very well yet, her meeting him made her doubt whether after all she had taken the right decision. But on the other hand she could never disappoint Mrs. Pao who had gone to so much trouble for her, and who had consoled her when her own family had turned against her. Those were the words she used, ‘turned against her.' I ask you, sir! Well, I said she had better come up to my room for a quiet talk about what she should do. I told her to take off her black dress. In her white undergarment people would take her for me. She did so and then went away, stuffing her folded black robe in her sleeve."

He scratched his head and resumed ruefully: "I was going to follow her upstairs but in the hall I ran into that fool Tsung. When I had got rid of him and gone up to my room, my sister wasn't there. I went to Mrs. Pao's room, but found nobody there. Then I had a few drinks with Kuan Lai. Just now I went to Mrs. Pao's room again, on the off-chance that one of them would still be up. But the lights were out and the door locked. Tomorrow I'll try again. That's all, sir."

Judge Dee slowly caressed his side-whiskers. He had heard about Kang Woo. He was indeed a well known merchant in the capital. He said: "You would have done better if you had placed this matter in the hands of the proper authorities, Kang."

"I beg to differ, sir. White Rose is entering religion with my parents' consent, and Mrs. Pao is highly thought of in Taoist circles in the capital. And you know, sir, that the Taoists have much influence in government circles nowadays. My father is a Confucianist, but as a merchant he could not afford to become known as an anti-Taoist. It would be bad for his business."

"Anyway," Judge Dee said, "from now on you'll leave this matter to me. Tomorrow morning I'll speak personally with Mrs. Pao and your sister. I shall be glad to try to make her go back on her decision, and her interest in Mr. Tsung will probably help. I wouldn't choose him for my own son-in-law, but he has a good background and he may improve with the years. Anyway I hold that Heaven has assigned to woman the duty of marrying and bearing children. I don't hold with nuns, whether Taoist or Buddhist. Now tell me, how did you get this awful animal, and why did you bring him along here?"

"I am fond of hunting, sir. I caught him seven years ago up north, when he was still a small cub. He has been with me ever since. It has been very interesting to teach him dancing and other tricks. He is very fond of me, considers me as the father-bear or something! Only once he lacerated my left arm with his paw, but that was by mistake. It was meant as a caress! It healed well. It only gives me trouble in humid weather like we are having to-day, then the arm is a bit stiff. When I joined Kuan's troupe I took the bear along, in the first place because he only obeys me and at home no one else can look after him, and secondly because it gave me a good act in Kuan's show."

The judge nodded. All the pieces were falling into place now. On the stage Kang had made little use of his left arm because the scar was bothering him, and when he and Tao Gan had met White Rose in the corridor, she had kept her left arm close to her body because of the black dress tucked away in her sleeve. And she had been in a great hurry because she didn't want to meet Mrs. Pao. She must have met her around the corner, and decided to defer the talk with her brother till next day. He resumed: "I know next to nothing about bears. What would he have done if you hadn't come? Do you think he would have smashed the cupboard to get at me?"

"Oh no! They are cunning enough, but not very enterprising. They don't do things they have never attempted before, unless they are taught to do them. That's why I can leave him here in this room off the chain. He'll never try to get the door open. He would have sniffed and scratched at that cupboard from time to time to make sure that you were still there, then he would have curled up in front and waited till you came out. They have infinite patience."

Judge Dee shivered involuntarily.

"They don't devour people, do they?" he asked.

"Worse than that!" Kang said with a wry smile. "They'll knock a man down and maul him, then play with him as a cat plays with a mouse, till he is dead. I once saw the remains of a hunter who had been torn to pieces by a bear. It wasn't a pretty sight!"

"Good Heavens!" Judge Dee exclaimed. "What a nice playmate!" Kang shrugged his shoulders.

"I never had any trouble with him," he said. "He also likes my sister, though he doesn't obey her as he does me. But he hates strangers. They make him nervous. He is quite funny that way, though. Some strangers he doesn't mind. He just gives them one look, then curls up in a corner and ignores them. Evidently you don't come into that category, sir! But I must say that he is in a bad temper now because he doesn't get enough exercise. Later, a couple of hours before dawn, the only time that this bee-hive here is quiet, I shall take him to the well between this building and the next. There are no doors or windows on the ground floor there, and the alley is closed by a solid gate. It was used formerly as a kind of prison for offending monks, I heard. There he can exercise a bit without danger to anybody."

Judge Dee nodded. Then he resumed: "By the way, have you perhaps seen Mo Mo-te while looking for Mrs. Pao and your sister?"

"I did not!" Kang said angrily. "That rascal is always bothering Miss Ting. I had to keep to my disguise, else I would have given him a thrashing he would remember! He may be taller and heavier than I, but I am a trained boxer and I'll lick him! Now I'll see to it that he keeps away from Miss Ting. That's a fine girl, sir, and good at sports, too. She can ride a horse, better indeed than many a man! If she married me I could take her with me on my hunting trips! I have no use for those delicate, pampered damsels my parents are always urging me to marry. But she is very independent. I doubt whether she would have me!" Judge Dee rose.