I’d like this big deal to be clinched here, in my own country.’

‘That’s very nice of you, captain - ’

‘Sure. The others are all such big crooks. And they’ve got no money. You, being journalists and such, must surely know the big shots here - you know, bankers and shipowners and, how do you say, ship-makers, right?’

‘Shipbuilders. No, Mr Vantoch, we don’t know such people.’

‘That’s a pity,’ the captain grew gloomy.

Mr Golombek remembered something. ‘You don’t by any chance know Mr Bondy?’

‘Bondy? Bondy?’ Captain van Toch reflected. ‘Wait a minute, I should know that name. There’s a Bond Street in London and only very rich people live there. Has he got some business in Bond Street, that Mr Bondy?’

‘No, he lives in Prague, but I rather think he was born here, in Jevíčko.’

‘Hell, yes,’ the captain exclaimed happily; ‘you’re right, my boy! Had a draper’s shop in the Market Place! Sure, Bondy - now what was his name? Max. Max Bondy. So he’s got a business in Prague now?’

‘No, that must have been his father. This man Bondy is called G. H. Bondy. President G. H. Bondy, captain.’

‘G. H.,’ the captain shook his head. ‘No, there was no G. H. here. Unless, of course, he was Gussie Bondy. But he was no president. Gussie was a pimply little Jew. Can’t be him.’

‘That’ll be him all right, Mr Vantoch. After all, it must be a good many years since you last saw him.’

‘Well, that’s true. A good many years,’ the captain agreed. ‘Forty years, my boy. Gussie could be a big man now. And what is he?’

‘He’s Chairman of the Board of ME AS - you know, a big company making boilers and suchlike - as well as president of some twenty companies and cartels.