A tall man was lighting a stick of incense on the altar of the River Goddess.

After he had stuck it in the bronze burner, he looked up at the serene face of the life-size statue, lit by the uncertain light of the only oil-lamp that hung from the smoke-blackened rafters of the small shrine. The goddess seemed to smile, faintly.

'Yes, you may well be happy!' the man said bitterly. 'Over in your sacred grove, you took her away from me just when I was about to sprinkle you with her blood. But tonight I have chosen a new victim for you, duly prepared for sacrifice. This time I shall ...'

He checked himself and cast an anxious glance at the old priest in a tattered brown robe, sitting on the bench at the entrance of the shrine. The priest looked out over the riverbank, gaily decorated with coloured lampions, then bent again over his prayer-book. He paid not the slightest attention to the lonely visitor.

The man looked up once more at the goddess.

The wood of the statue was left plain; the sculptor had cleverly used the grain for accentuating the folds of the robe that descended from her rounded shoulders. She was sitting cross-legged on a many-petalled lotus flower, her left hand resting in her lap, the other raised in a gesture of benediction.

'You are beautiful!' the man whispered hoarsely. Staring intently at the still face above him, he went on: 'Tell me, why must all beauty be evil? Tempting man, enticing him with coy smiles and sidelong glances, then to repel him? Repel him with a contemptuous sneer, break him, then haunt him for ever afterwards ...?' He clutched at the edge of the altar, a maniacal glint in his distended eyes. 'It is right they are punished,' he muttered angrily. 'It is right that the knife is plunged in their treacherous hearts when they lie, stretched out, naked on the altar before you, right that their ...'

Suddenly he broke off, startled. He thought he had seen a frown crease the smooth forehead of the goddess, round the pearl gleaming in its centre. Then, with a sigh of relief, he wiped the perspiration from his face. It had been the shadow of a moth, flying past the oil-lamp.

He compressed his lips tightly, cast a dubious glance at the statue, and turned away. He stepped up to the old priest, engrossed in his mumbled prayers. He tapped his thin, bony shoulder.

'Can't you leave your goddess alone tonight, for once?' he asked with forced joviality. 'The dragonboat races will be starting soon. Look, they are lining up the boats already under the marble bridge!' Taking a handful of coppers from his sleeve, he resumed: 'Here, take these and have a good meal in the restaurant over there!'

The old man looked up at him with his tired, red-rimmed eyes. He did not take the coins.

'I can't leave her, sir. She is a vengeful one, she is.'

He bent his grey head again over his prayer-book.

Despite himself the man shivered. Uttering an obscene curse he brushed past the old priest and went down the flight of stone steps leading to the road along the river-bank. He would have to ride back to the city in a hurry, to be there in time for the finish of the boat race.

'That's the six I had been waiting for!' Judge Dee said with satisfaction to his First Lady. He added a domino to the complicated pattern that was forming on the square table.

His three wives made no comment; they were studying their hands. In the gathering dusk it was difficult to discern the red pips on the bamboo dominoes. The judge and his three ladies were sitting on the high platform in the stern of the official barge, moored somewhat apart from the other boats lying stem to stern along the bank of the Canal. It was the fifth day of the fifth moon, the day of the yearly Dragonboat Festival. Since early in the afternoon the citizens of Poo-yang had been streaming out of the south gate, towards the point on the Canal where the grandstand indicated that, later in the night, the dragonboats would finish the race. There their magistrate, Judge Dee, would hand out the prizes to the contending crews.

The magistrate was required only to perform that ceremony, but Judge Dee, always eager to take part in the feasts of the people entrusted to his care, had wanted to assist at the races from the beginning. Therefore he had already left the city one hour before sunset, together with his suite, carried in three palankeens. They had installed themselves on his large official barge, anchored opposite the grandstand, and there partaken of a simple dinner of rice and sweet soup, just like the several thousand citizens that were crowding the smaller craft lining both banks. After dinner they had settled down to a game of dominoes, waiting till the moon would be out and the boat races start. It was getting cooler now; sounds of singing and laughter came over the water. The garlands of lampions that decorated all the boats and barges were being lit; the smooth black water reflected their gay colours.

It was a fairy-like scene, but the four people round the domino table, engrossed in the game, paid scant attention to it. Dominoes was the favourite game in Judge Dee's household, they played it very seriously, and in a complicated form. And now they were approaching the final, decisive phase.

The Third Lady selected a domino from those set up in front of her. As she added it to the pieces on the table, she said to the two maids who were squatting by the tea-stove:

'Better light our lampions too, I can hardly see what I am doing!'

'I pass!' Judge Dee announced. He looked up annoyed as the old house steward appeared on deck and came up to the table. 'What is it now again? Has that mysterious visitor come back?'

Half an hour before, when the judge and his ladies had interrupted their game and were standing at the railing to watch the scenery, a stranger had boarded the barge. But, when the steward was going to announce him, the man had said that, on second thought, he did not want to disturb the judge.

'No, Your Honour, it is Dr Pien and Mr Kou,' the greybeard said respectfully.

'Show them up!' Judge Dee said with a sigh. Pien Kia and Kou Yuan-liang were in charge of the organization of the dragonboat race. Judge Dee knew them only by sight, they did not belong to the small circle of notables of Poo-yang whom he met regularly at official functions. Dr Pien was a well-known physician and owner of a large drug store, Mr Kou a wealthy art-collector. 'They won't be long!' he added, with a reassuring smile to his three wives.

'As long as you don't tamper with our dominoes!' the First Lady said, pouting. She and the two others turned their pieces face down, then they rose and withdrew behind the screen placed across the platform. For ladies are not allowed to meet men not connected with the household.

Judge Dee had risen also, he answered with a nod the low bows of the two solemn, tall gentlemen who had appeared on deck. They were dressed in long summer robes of thin white silk and wore black gauze caps on their heads.

'Sit down, gentlemen!' the judge said affably. 'I suppose you have come to report that all is set for the races?'

'Indeed, sir!' Dr Pien replied in his dry, precise voice. 'When Mr Kou and I left Marble Bridge just now, all nine boats had been lined up at the starting-point.'

'Did you get good crews?' Judge Dee asked, then snapped at the maid who was arranging the teacups on the...