e was dressed in the very deepest mourning, and so after a little
more thought he concluded that she was a widow who was on her way to
the grave of her late husband to make the usual offerings to his spirit.

All at once a sudden, furious whirlwind screamed about the woman and
seemed determined to spend its force upon her; but beyond her nothing
was touched by it. Not a leaf on the trees near by was moved, and not
a particle of dust on the road, except just where she stood, was in the
least agitated by the fierce tempest that for the moment raged around
her.

As Shih-Kung gazed at this strange occurrence, the woman's outer skirt
was blown up in the air, and he saw that underneath was another garment
of a rich crimson hue. He then knew at once that there was something
radically wrong, for no woman of ordinary virtuous character would ever
dare to wear such a glaring colour, while she pretended to be in deep
mourning. There was something suspicious, too, in the sudden tornado
that blew with such terrific violence round the woman only. It was not
an accident that brought it there. It was clearly the angry protest of
some spirit who had been foully misused, and who was determined that
the wrong-doer should not escape the penalty for the evil she had
committed.

Calling two of his runners to him, Shih-Kung ordered them to follow the
woman and to see where she was going and what she did there, and then
to report to him immediately.

[Transcriber's note: pages 3 and 4 missing from source book]

the coffin of the dead, and was to be solved there and there only. His
course now seemed easy, and it was with a mind full of relief that he
entered his home.

He at once issued a warrant for the arrest of the widow, and at the
same time sent officers to bring the coffin that contained the body of
her husband from its burying-place.

When the widow appeared before the mandarin, she denied that she knew
anything of the cause of her husband's death. He had come home drunk
one night, she declared, and had fallen senseless on the ground. After
a great deal of difficulty, she had managed to lift him up on to the
bed, where he lay in a drunken slumber, just as men under the influence
of liquor often do, so that she was not in the least anxious or
disturbed about him. During the night she fell asleep as she watched
by his side, and when she woke up she found to her horror that he was
dead.

"That is all that can be said abou