Kelsey merely nodded noncommittally.

He sat down at his desk, and motioned to the young man to take the chair opposite. A young policeman in plain clothes had followed the two men in unobtrusively and sat down a little distance away.

‘Now then,’ said Kelsey. ‘You’re Goodman—’ he looked at a note on his desk—‘Adam Goodman.’

‘That’s right, sir. But first, I’d like to show you this.’

Adam’s manner had changed. There was no truculence or sulkiness in it now. It was quiet and deferential. He took something from his pocket and passed it across the desk. Inspector Kelsey’s eyebrows rose very slightly as he studied it. Then he raised his head.

‘I shan’t need you, Barbar,’ he said.

The discreet young policeman got up and went out. He managed not to look surprised, but he was.

‘Ah,’ said Kelsey. He looked across at Adam with speculative interest. ‘So that’s who you are? And what the hell, I’d like to know, are you—’

‘Doing in a girls’ school?’ the young man finished for him. His voice was still deferential, but he grinned in spite of himself. ‘It’s certainly the first time I’ve had an assignment of that kind. Don’t I look like a gardener?’

‘Not around these parts. Gardeners are usually rather ancient. Do you know anything about gardening?’

‘Quite a lot. I’ve got one of these gardening mothers. England’s speciality. She’s seen to it that I’m a worthy assistant to her.’

‘And what exactly is going on at Meadowbank—to bring you on the scene?’

‘We don’t know, actually, that there’s anything going on at Meadowbank. My assignment is in the nature of a watching brief. Or was—until last night. Murder of a Games Mistress. Not quite in the school’s curriculum.’

‘It could happen,’ said Inspector Kelsey. He sighed. ‘Anything could happen—anywhere. I’ve learnt that. But I’ll admit that it’s a little off the beaten track. What’s behind all this?’

Adam told him. Kelsey listened with interest.

‘I did that girl an injustice,’ he remarked—‘But you’ll admit it sounds too fantastic to be true. Jewels worth between half a million and a million pounds? Who do you say they belong to?’

‘That’s a very pretty question. To answer it, you’d have to have a gaggle of international lawyers on the job—and they’d probably disagree. You could argue the case a lot of ways. They belonged, three months ago, to His Highness Prince Ali Yusuf of Ramat. But now? If they’d turned up in Ramat they’d have been the property of the present Government, they’d have made sure of that. Ali Yusuf may have willed them to someone. A lot would then depend on where the will was executed and whether it could be proved. They may belong to his family. But the real essence of the matter is, that if you or I happened to pick them up in the street and put them in our pockets, they would for all practical purposes belong to us. That is, I doubt if any legal machine exists that could get them away from us. They could try, of course, but the intricacies of international law are quite incredible…’