Chiun reversed direction too. Remo was running so fast his toes, touching the ripples of beach sand, left almost no mark. Chiun nodded. Remo was almost good enough to be Master now. Even in his grief he remembered to control his feet.
Chiun looked back to see the marks his own sandaled feet left. There were none. Good. Chiun was still Master. Chiun caught up to Remo at the base of one of the towering Horns of Welcome. Remo was talking to someone. Chiun recognized the wizened form of old Pullyang, the village caretaker.
"You didn't see anyone?" Remo asked incredulously. He told Chiun, "Pullyang says nobody came this way."
"Impossible," Chiun insisted. "There are no tracks going the other way."
"And none this way," said Remo. "Except Pullyang's."
"He was in black, a thief of ninja," Chiun told Pullyang. "You must have see him."
The old man shrugged helplessly as if to say: Is that my fault?
Chiun said, "Away with you, then, useless one."
He noticed Remo staring at him, an odd expression on his face.
"Remo? What is it?"
"You said ninja," Remo muttered. "So?"
"Chiun," Remo said slowly, "I saw him clear as day. He wasn't a ninja. He was that kung-fu beach bum from Washington-Adonis."
"He was the ninja. His eyes were Japanese."
"That's not what I saw."
"Perhaps both thieves have come here," suggested Chiun.
"I saw you point at a man on the rocks, and it was Adonis. "
"I pointed at a ninja. That is what I saw."
"And we both saw him jump behind the rocks," Remo said. "You know what I think? I think we saw what someone wanted us to see."
"I think that you are right."
Remo looked around. "Hey, where'd Pullyang go?" Chiun looked about angrily. Pullyang was gone. Chiun frowned.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Remo asked.
"I am thinking that Pullyang's footsteps start at the rocks and end at our feet," Chiun said, gesturing to the sand, "as if he ascended into the sky."
"We'd better get back to the village. There's no telling what this phantom-whoever he is-is up to."
"Then we are together on this?"
"Until I say different," said Remo.
Chapter 27
The Master of Sinanju summoned his people to the village square with a bronze gong that was held in a hornbeam frame by springs so strong that no known mallet could make it ring.
Chiun stepped up to the gong and tapped its center with a single finger. Its deep reverberations caused the scavenging sea gulls to fly from the square in fright.
The villagers came running. Never in the memory of the village of Sinanju had the Gong of Judgment been sounded. Never had there been a crime in the village while a Master was in residence.
They came, the old and the young, their faces etched in lines of shock, and clustered around the gong.
"Assemble before me, my people," commanded Chiun. His eyes seemed to fix every face, so that each felt that the Master of Sinanju was probing his own innermost thoughts.
When the villagers had formed a ragged semicircle before the Master of Sinanju-the adults holding their children before them with hands on their shoulders and the infants slung on their hips-Chiun lifted his voice to the sky.
"Death has come to Sinanju," he proclaimed.
The villagers hushed as if the sky were slowly pressing down upon their heads.
"Mah-Li, the betrothed of Remo, has been murdered." The faces of the villagers took on a stony quality. It was as if they had suddenly become one emotionless, extended family.
"I seek her murderer among you," Chiun said. Remo came up behind Chiun.
"I checked every hut," he said quietly. "Empty. They're all here."
Chiun nodded without taking his eyes off the crowd. "Jilda and the child?" he asked.
"I put them in the treasure house. I fixed and locked the doors too."
"Then our murderer is among those assembled. "
"Maybe," Remo whispered. "How can we tell if he can make himself look like anyone he wants?"
"Pullyang, step forward," Chiun commanded.
From out of the crowd, walking like a dog that expected a whipping, came old Pullyang, the caretaker. He stood before Chiun, his legs trembling inside dirty trousers.
"Were you down at the beach today?" Chiun asked.
"No, Master," Pullyang quavered.
"At all?"
"No, O Master," Pullyang repeated.
"I saw you at the beach not five minutes ago," insisted Chiun. "I spoke with you, and you with me."
"I was not there."