jewellery back to her. He refuses to say how he recovered it. He leaves the hotel and goes to a café where Edward Jeffries joins him by appointment. It was Jeffries who received Pyne's telegram and handed the jewels back. Pyne tells him about his wife finding the message on the blotter. He puts it to Jeffries that the jewels were actually taken by him before he left London. He only left paste copies behind. It was these that had to be "stolen" again and disappear at some other point. In a way that would not bring an accusation on any innocent person. The point before Venice is the only time on the journey that the jewels could be taken and thrown into water, and not end up in land where they could be found. Pyne suspects that Jeffries is not a thief, but a victim. Edward confesses that he has been blackmailed for some time by a Mrs. Rossiter. They shared a bedroom together in the West Indies, on the purely innocent grounds of protecting her from her supposedly violent husband. It was a scam and Jeffries has been suffering ever since. Needing the money for the latest demand, he "stole" his wife's jewels. Pyne tells him to leave the blackmailer to him and to confess all to his wife. Everything, except for the fact of being scammed in the West Indies. He is sure Elsie will be delighted to believe that she has reformed a rake. The Gate of Baghdad Parker Pyne is on a vacation in the Middle East, and is currently in Damascus. He is soon to set off on the -long journey across the Syrian Desert from Damascus to Baghdad by a Pullman motor coach that will traverse the wastes in some thirty-six hours instead of the months that the trip used to take. There are various other people sharing the journey including the young attractive Netta Pryce and her austere aunt; three Royal Air Force officers called O'Rourke, Loftus and Williamson; a Mr Hensley of the Baghdad public works department; an old Etonian called Captain Smethurst; General Poli, an Italian; and an Armenian mother and her son. The day before the journey, Pyne passes the time by talking to General Poli about items in the newspaper. The main news item discussed is the search for a crooked financier called Samuel Long, who is on