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for stealing vases. Then Evelyn was very pleased and could not help telling his friend Cecil, who was a king in a small way and a collector of jewels in a large way. And of course, in the end they went to George and the thing happened all over again.
    â€˜After fifty years,’ said Campion slowly, ‘quite a lot of people who were very rich had employed George and George’s successor, with the result that there is today quite a number of wealthy Ethels and Cecils and Evelyns. They are hardly a society, but perhaps they could be called a ring – the most powerful and the most wealthy ring in the world. You see, they are hardly criminals,’ he went on, ‘in the accepted sense. It is George, and George’s friends, who meet the trouble when there is any, and they also pocket all the money.
    â€˜Besides, they never touch anything that can be bought in the open market. They are untouchable, the Ethels and the Cecils, because (a) they are very important people, and (b) nobody but George and George’s successor ever knows where the treasures go. That is the strength of the whole thing. Now do you see what I mean?’
    As his voice died away the silence in the little room became oppressive. In spite of the lightness of his words he had managed to convey a sense of reality into his story. Gyrth stared at him.
    â€˜Is this true?’ he said. ‘It’s extraordinary if it is. Almost as extraordinary as the rest of the things that have happened to me tonight. But I don’t see how it concerns me.’
    â€˜I’m coming to that,’ said Mr Campion patiently. ‘But first of all I want you to get it into your head that my little fairy story has one thing only to mitigate its obvious absurdity – it happens to be perfectly true. Didn’t the “Mona Lisa” disappear on one occasion, turning up after a bit in most fishy circumstances? If you think back, several priceless, unpurchasable treasures have vanished from time to time; all things, you will observe, without any marketable value on account of their fame.’
    â€˜I suppose some of the original members of – of this “ring” died?’ said Gyrth, carried away in spite of himself by the piquancy of the story.
    â€˜Ah,’ said Mr Campion, ‘I was coming to that too. During the last fifty years the percentage of millionaires has gone up considerably. This little circle of wealthy collectors has grown. Just after the War the membership numbered about twenty, men of all races and colours, and the organization which had been so successful for a small number got a bit swamped. It was at this point that one of the members, an organizing genius, a man whose name is famous over three continents, by the way, took the thing in hand and set down four or five main maxims: pulled the thing together, and put it on a business basis, in fact. So that the society, or whatever you like to call it – it has no name that I know of – is now practically omnipotent in its own sphere.’
    He paused, allowing his words to sink in, and rising to his feet paced slowly up and down the room.
    â€˜I don’t know the names of half the members,’ he said. ‘I can’t tell you the names of those I do know. But when I say that neither Scotland Yard, the Central Office, nor the Sûreté will admit a fact that is continually cropping up under their noses, you’ll probably see that Ethel and his friends are pretty important people. Why, if the thing was exposed there’d be a scandal which would upset at least a couple of thrones and jeopardize the governments of four or five powers.’
    Gyrth set his glass down on a small book-table beside him. ‘It’s a hell of a tale,’ he said, ‘but I think I believe you.’
    The pale young man shot him a grateful smile. ‘I’m so glad,’ he said. ‘It makes the rest of our conversation possible.’
    Val