Before dawn they had left the last village. Thereafter the road had led through a desolate mountain region. The only people they had met were a few wood gatherers. In the afternoon their progress had been retarded for two hours by a broken wheel and now dusk was falling, making the mountains seem even more forbidding.

Two tall fellows rode at the head of the procession. Broad swords hung down their backs, each had a bow fastened to the pommel of his saddle, and arrows rattled in their quivers. These two were Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, two of Judge Dee's loyal lieutenants. They acted as the armed escort of the group. Another of Judge Dee's lieutenants, a lean man with a slight stoop, called Tao Gan, brought up the rear together with the old house steward.

Arrived on top of the mountain ridge Ma Joong reined in his horse. The road ahead descended into a wooded valley. Another steep mountain rose up on the opposite side.

Ma Joong turned round in his saddle, and called out to the coachman:

"An hour ago you said that we were approaching Lan-fang, you dogshead! And here is another mountain to cross!"

The coachman grumbled something about fellows from the city always being in a hurry, then said sullenly:

"Don't worry, from the next ridge you will see Lan-fang lying at the foot of the slope."

"I have heard that bastard speak about a 'next ridge' before", Ma Joong observed to Chiao Tai. "How awkward that we arrive in Lan-fang at so late an hour! The departing magistrate must have been waiting for us since noon. And what about the other dignitaries of the district administration and their welcome banquet? By now their bellies must be as empty as mine!"

"Not to speak of a dry throat!", Chiao Tai added. He turned round his horse and rode up to the judge's cart.

"There still is one valley to be crossed, Your Honour", he reported, "but then we shall at last reach Lan-fang."

Sergeant Hoong suppressed a sigh.

"It is a great pity", he remarked, "that Your Honour was ordered to leave Poo-yang so soon. Although two major criminal cases came up directly after our arrival there, all in all it was a pleasant district."

Judge Dee smiled wryly and tried to settle his back more comfortably against the book package.

"It would seem", he said, "that in the capital the remnants of the Buddhist clique joined forces with friends of the Cantonese merchants, and effected my transfer long before my term of office in Poo-yang had expired. Yet it will be most instructive to serve as magistrate in such an outlying district as Lan-fang. Doubtless we shall find there interesting special problems that one will never meet with in the larger cities of the interior."

The sergeant agreed that that was so, but he remained gloomy. He was over sixty years old, and the discomforts of the long journey had worn him out. Since his early childhood he had been a retainer of Judge Dee's family. When Judge Dee had entered official life, he had made him his confidential adviser, and at every post where the judge had served he had appointed him sergeant over the constables of the tribunal.

The coachmen cracked their whips. The cortège passed over the top of the ridge and descended into the valley along a narrow winding road.

Soon they found themselves down in the valley, where the road was darkened by high cedar trees that rose from the thick undergrowth on both sides.

Judge Dee was just thinking of ordering his servants to light the torches, when he heard confused shouting ahead and behind.

A number of men, their faces covered with scarves of black cloth, had suddenly emerged from the wood.

Two men took hold of Ma Joong's right leg and dragged him from his horse before he had time to draw his sword. A third had jumped from behind on Chiao Tai's horse, and had pulled him down to the ground by a strangle hold on his neck. At the end of the cortège two other robbers were attacking Tao Gan and the steward.

The coachmen jumped down and disappeared in the wood. Judge Dee's servants ran away as fast as they could.

JUDGE DEE ATTACKED BY TWO ROBBERS

Two masked faces appeared before the window of Judge Dee's cart. Sergeant Hoong was knocked unconscious with a blow on his head. The judge could just dodge a spear that was thrust inside. He quickly gripped the shaft with both hands. The other pulled from outside to wrench it loose. The judge first held on tight, then suddenly pushed it in the direction of the pulling man. His assailant tumbled backwards. Judge Dee pulled the spear from his hands and jumped out of the window. He kept his two attackers at a distance by whirling the spear round and round. The robber who had hit Sergeant Hoong was armed with a club, the man with the spear had now drawn a long sword. Both attacked the judge fiercely, and he reflected that he would not be able to hold out long against these two determined opponents.

The two ruffians who had dragged Ma Joong from his horse were ready to cut him down with their swords while he was scrambling up. Unfortunately for them, however, they were up against a formidable fighter, who only a few years back had himself been a famous highwayman. Until judge Dee had caused their reform, both Ma Joong and Chiao Tai had been 'brothers of the green woods'. Thus there were very few things about roadside fighting that Ma Joong did not know. Instead of trying to get up he twisted his body round, gripped the ankle of one attacker and jerked him off his balance. At the same time Ma Joong placed a vicious kick on the other man's knee. This double move gave him time to jump up. He felled the stumbling man with a terrible fist blow on his head. Turning round like lightning he gave the man who was clasping his crushed knee a kick in the face that made his head snap back and nearly broke his neck.

Drawing his sword Ma Joong rushed over to Chiao Tai who lay on the ground wrestling desperately with a man clinging to his back. Two others stood ready with long knives to stab Chiao Tai as soon as they got the chance. Ma Joong ran his sword right through the chest of one robber. Without taking the time to withdraw his sword he went on to the second and gave him a kick in his groin that doubled him up on the ground. Picking up the robber's long knive Ma Joong thrust it under the left shoulder of the man fighting with Chiao Tai.

Just when he was helping Chiao Tai up, Ma Joong heard Judge Dee call out: "Look out!"

Ma Joong swiftly turned round, and thus the club of Judge Dee's assailant who had ran up to help his comrades, missed Ma Joong's head. It landed with a thud on his left shoulder. He sank down with a curse. The robber lifted his club to brain Chiao Tai. The latter had drawn his knife, he dived under the robber's raised arm and plunged his knife to the hilt in the other's heart.

Judge Dee, now only faced with the swordsman, made quick work of him. He made a feint with his spear at his attacker who raised his sword to parry the blow. Then Judge Dee suddenly practised the fencer's trick known as 'the tumbling flag pole'; he turned the spear round in the air and brained his opponent with a blow of the shaft.

Leaving it to Chiao Tai to truss up the robbers, Judge Dee ran on to the luggage carts. One robber was sprawling on the ground, clutching frantically at his neck. The other, with a knobstick in his hand, was looking under the cart. The judge laid him out by hitting him over the head with the flat of his spear point.

Tao Gan came crawling out from under the cart, with a thin rope in his hand.

"What is happening here?", the judge inquired.

Tao Gan answered with a grin:

"One of these yokels knocked down the steward, the other hit a glancing blow on my head. I let myself fall down with a horrible gasp, and did not move. They thought that I was laid out and started to tear down the luggage. I rose and from behind slipped my thin noose over the head of the nearest ruffian. Then I dived under the cart, pulling the cord as tight as I could. The other robber could not follow me there without exposing himself, and his club was of no use. He was just debating with himself what to do, when Your Honour solved his dilemma for him."