of the approaching war. He refuses to leave the city, believing that the Germans will never pass the French defense of the Maginot Line. The enemy, however, has maneuvered into the Ardennes Forest, completely bypassing the French line, and quickly pierces into Paris. Pankratov urges Halifax to leave when he still can, but Halifax refuses. One night, he and Fleury are arrested by a policeman named Tombeau on charges of fraud. Tombeau takes them to meet with Pankratov at the police station. Pankratov reveals that he, and the local cafe owner, are the mysterious Levasseur Committee, and that he has brought Halifax to Paris to teach him to forge art. Pankratov reveals that the Germans have burned hundreds of priceless originals during the war so far, and that he and Halifax, with the assistance of Fleury, are to impeccably forge originals, and to trade these to the Germans in return for their original paintings that otherwise would be destroyed. Halifax is shocked, and has no choice but to comply. The Germans arrive, and have seized control of the government. With them comes Dietrich, a ruthless collector for the Nazi government responsible for stockpiling art. A competitor, the ambassador to Paris named Abetz, is also in the process of acquiring art but for personal use. Halifax and Fluery meet with both men, and for several months trade forgeries for original paintings. Dietrich and Abetz detest each other immensely, and when Dietrich finds that Abetz has acquired a very valuable work, has him killed by Tombeau, who is masquerading as a gangster on the inside working for the Germans. For the next few years until the end of the war, Halifax and Fleury deal with solely with Dietrich, who has a French appraiser with him to look at the works. The appraiser can somehow see through the forgeries, but because of the frequent and acrid insults Dietrich throws at him, remains silent. On one instance, however, where Dietrich was given a real original painting as part of the plan to keep suspicion at bay, his appraiser tells him that it is a fraud. Dietrich has Halifax and Fleury arrested and taken to a torture chamber, but spares them when they agree to return the paintings that he had traded for the 'fraud'. Halifax feels bitter irony at seeing the only original labeled as a fake. The war tables start to turn when