ABSTRACT
Ping An and his wife, as the esteemed reader has already told, had moved away from the farm after their plans for the robbery on the previous night had been crowned with success. They had found new quarters adjacent to the house, in which their accomplice Lin tsing lived, in the western part of the village. Neighbour Li accepted the invitation, put on a new blue temple-cowl and accompanied Ping a to the temple. Ping An noticed that the younger Li, who was acting as their guide, turned off behind the rest-house along a small footpath which followed a river, at the same time quickening his footsteps so that he was soon out of sight. After walking ten lis Ping An began to feel an obscure sense of foreboding; wherever he looked he could see nothing but a desolate river-landscape and stunted marshland undergrowth, no sign of human habitation or any fellow-travellers.
