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flicker over the other tables to see if there was anyone near enough to overhear them, and knew that his friend had not forgotten the earlier conversation. The words
commodity
and
market
had worked as he had hoped they would. Brand’s eyes were on his now, still and intent.
    ‘In Mexico,’ Jost went on, ‘there is a forger. He is an old manbut still very skilful indeed, and he has been practising his craft successfully for years.’
    ‘Successfully? You mean he hasn’t been caught?’
    ‘In Mexico he has committed no offence.’
    ‘Forgery is not an offence there?’
    ‘Forgery of banknotes, yes. Forgery of bond certificates, of cheques, of other valuable documents of that kind, all those are serious offences, of course. But this old man does not commit them. He forges something different, documents without any face value at all – rare postage stamps with their overprints and cancellations.’
    Brand raised his eyebrows. ‘No value, you say?’
    ‘No
face
value. Rare stamps, the very valuable kind, have usually been cancelled by a postmaster and have therefore lost their face value. They are not valid for postage. Their value to international collectors and to those who invest in them lies in their rarity. You know, I dare say that there are large sums invested in rare stamps.’
    ‘Yes.’ Brand shrugged. ‘I can see that this would be an amusing and profitable racket for a forger working in Mexico, but I don’t quite see …’
    Jost raised the palm of one hand. ‘One moment. You don’t yet know how profitable it has been for him, nor how amusing.’ He paused for effect. ‘The United States Treasury Department has just cooperated in the business of buying him out.’
    Brand stared. ‘Are you serious?’
    Jost smiled. ‘It surprised me too. What happened was this. The international stamp dealers had been worried for years by this man’s activities. You see, many of these extremely valuable rare stamps are valuable because of the overprints and surcharges superimposed on them. Overprints and surcharges are very much easier to forge than, say, a modern banknote. So, when you get a really skilful man at work, the forgeries are very difficult to detect. That means not only that for the big dealers there has been what amounts to a debasement of their currency, but also that they have been obliged to spend largesums in tracing and exposing the forgeries. They must if they are to protect their own and their clients’ investments. Naturally, they, and particularly the Americans, have wanted for some time to do something about the Mexican. But what
could
they do? They had no legal position. When they heard that he was thinking of retiring – he is seventy-six now – they had a new fear. Supposing he sold his plates and equipment to a younger man, or to a group? What then? It didn’t bear thinking about. So they decided to pocket their pride and buy him out themselves.’
    ‘Where did the Treasury Department come in?’
    ‘Forgery in the United States is a matter for the Treasury Department. The dealers had to have Treasury blessing before they could take what they were buying back into America. An arrangement also had to be made with the U.S. Customs.’
    ‘And the blessing was given?’
    ‘Certainly. A secret negotiating committee went down to Mexico to meet with the old man. They not only bought his plates and dies and equipment and records, they also persuaded him to sign an agreement, enforceable in a Mexican court, that he would retire for good. That was for their protection, of course, but it cost them a lot of money. I asked a stamp dealer at home about the case. He told me that it is not unique. A similar thing happened in fifty-three when the British Philatelic Association bought out a French stamp-forger named Sperati. Interesting, is it not?’
    Jost finished his wine. Absently, Brand reached for the bottle and refilled Jost’s glass. With the bottle still poised in the air he looked across