n the magistrate would
know her tale was true. The official replied that he would accept this
as sufficient evidence and would at once put it to the test. Sending
his runners with Mrs Chin to the shop, Wang was arrested, and together
with the gilt joss taken to the yamen, where it was quickly found that
the image actually had a gold nose as declared by the old woman.

Knowing his case to be hopeless, and yielding to the racking torture
which was quickly applied, the guilty wretch made a full confession of
his crime. As a boy he had often heard of Chin Pao-ting's annual
voyages to the West, while local gossip had so enlarged upon the
merchant's wealth that the junk bearing him and his merchandise might
well be a veritable treasure ship, so that when still a youth Wang had
journeyed to Kiukiang with the deliberate intention of forming a
scheme to waylay the annual expedition and thus acquire riches at a
single stroke. As attendant in an opium den near the quay, he had come
in contact with many low and desperate characters, amongst whom was
the lowdah of a certain junk which plied for hire between the Poyang
lake and the provinces of the West.

Gradually an intimacy sprang up between these two, until at length the
diabolical plot was hatched of murdering Chin and levanting with his
goods. Wang now returned to Kanchow, and, as we have seen, not only
contrived to enter the service of Chin Pao-ting but also to gain his
esteem and confidence.

For the next annual voyage a large river-junk to await the merchant at
Hukow was, through Wang's astuteness, chartered on exceptionally
favourable terms.

This junk, needless to say, was that of Wang's confederate, and once
on board the unhappy traveller was a doomed man. On the first night of
the voyage he was pounced on in his sleep, stunned with a blow and
thrown overboard. At Kiukiang, where the vessel stopped, the lowdah
and his men went ashore after receiving the gold dust and sycee shoes
as their share of the plunder, while Wang, taking the junk and cargo
as his portion, shipped a fresh crew and sailed on to Hankow, where he
set up in business with the proceeds of his ill-gotten gains.

His examination finished and released from torture, Wang was led away
in a swooning condition to a foul dungeon, where his silk garments
were quickly stripped off and replaced by crimson clothes, stiff with
clotted human blood and thick with vermin, but such as criminals
condemned to executio