He threw a sharp glance at me.

"How much do you know about it all?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" He looked surprised. "Didn't j the girl tell you?"

"No… She said she'd rather I saw it all - from an outside point of view."

"Now I wonder why that was?"

"Isn't it rather obvious?"

"No, Charles. I don't think it is."

He walked up and down frowning. He had lit a cigar and the cigar had gone out.

That showed me just how disturbed the old boy was.

"How much do you know about the family?" he shot at me.

"Damnall! I know there was the old man and a lot of sons and grandchildren and inlaws.

I haven't got the ramifications clear."

I paused and then said, "You'd better put me in the picture, dad."

"Yes." He sat down. "Very well then - I'll begin at the beginning - with Aristide Leonides. He arrived in England when he was twenty four."

"A Greek from Smyrna."

"You do know that much?"

"Yes, but it's about all I do know."

The door opened and Glover came in to say that Chief Inspector Taverner was here.

"He's in charge of the case," said my father. "We'd better have him in. He's been checking up on the family. Knows more about them than I do." ? I asked if the local police had called in the Yard. , "It's in our jurisdiction. Swinly Dean is Greater London."

I nodded as Chief Inspector Taverner came into the room. I knew Taverner from many years back. He greeted me warmly and congratulated me on my safe return.

"I'm putting Charles in the picture," said the Old Man. "Correct me if I go wrong, Taverner. Leonides came to London in 1884. He started up a little restaurant in Soho. It paid. He started up another. Soon he owned seven or eight of them. They all paid hand over fist."

"Never made any mistakes in anything he handled," said Chief Inspector Taverner.

"He'd got a natural flair," said my father.

"In the end he was behind most of the well known restaurants in London. Then he went into the catering business in a big way."