Judge Dee at Work

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This case occurred in A.D. 663 when Judge Dec had been serving only a week in his first independent official post — Magistrate of Peng-lai, a remote district on the north-east coast of the Chinese Empire. Directly upon his arrival there he had been confronted with three mysterious crimes, des­cribed in my novel The Chinese Gold Murders. In that story mention was made of the flourishing shipbuilding industry of Peng-lai, and of Mr Yee Pen, the wealthy shipowner. The present story opens in Judge Dee's private office in the tri­bunal, where he is in conference with Yee Pen and two other gentlemen; they have just finished discussing at length Judge Dee's proposal for bringing the shipbuilding industry under government control.

'Well, gentlemen,' Judge Dee said with a satisfied smile to his three guests, 'that settles it then, I think.'

The conference in his private office had begun at about two o'clock, and now it was already past five. But he thought that the time had been well spent.

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