"I gather that the Taoists had to institute monasteries and all that in order to be able to compete with the Buddhist crowd," Tao Gan remarked.

"Bah!" the judge said angrily. His head was aching; the clammy atmosphere of the room penetrated even his padded robe. "Look at this, sir!" Tao Gan suddenly exclaimed.

The judge quickly joined him. Tao Gan had pulled a gaudy silk banner aside that hung against the wall near the large antique cupboard in the farthest corner. Under the dusty plaster that covered the brick wall one could still distinguish the outline of a window.

Judge Dee and Tao Gan in the Store-Room

Silently the two men stared at the wall. Then Tao Gan looked uncomfortably at Judge Dee's impassive face. He said slowly: "There was indeed a window here, but it must have been walled up a long time ago."

Judge Dee looked up with a start. He said in a toneless voice: "It is near the corner of the building. That means that it's about opposite the window through which I looked out."

Tao Gan knocked on the wall. There was no doubt that it was solid. He took out his knife and with its point pried loose a piece of the plaster that covered the bricks with which the window had been blocked. He probed into the grooves among the bricks, and along the outline of the window. He shook his head perplexedly. After some hesitation he said diffidently: "This monastery is very old, Your Honour. I have often heard people say that mysterious, inexplicable things will sometimes happen in such places. Scenes of times long gone by are seen again, and…" His voice trailed off.