“You said two men,” Biff repeated. “I’ll just bet you that one of them was the joker who paid me a visit this morning!”

“You had a visitor? Early this morning?” Ling Tang asked.

“I’ll say I did. Not a visitor, though. A spy, maybe—sneaking around the yard and—”

“Hold it, Biff,” his father interrupted. “Why don’t you show Mr. Ling what the intruder brought you?”

“Brought me,” Biff muttered to himself as he opened the safety catch of his key chain. “Some way to bring anything to someone!” He removed the ring from a tangle of keys—to his foot-locker, his suitcase, a “secret” box, and to several things he had long since forgotten about. Taking the ring by the thick circle of gold, he held it out to the Chinese gentleman.

Ling took the ring in his thin hands. He looked at it carefully.

“A beautiful piece of jade,” he murmured. Bringing the ring closer to his eyes, he took a loupe—a jeweler’s magnifying glass—from his pocket to inspect the ring more minutely. While he did this, Biff filled him in on how the ring had been “delivered.”

“Exquisitely carved,” Tang said, removing the loupe from his eye.

“What’s carved on it?” Biff asked.

“It’s the Chinese character which, roughly, would stand for the capital letter ‘K.’”

“Does that have any significance for you, Tang?” Mr. Brewster asked.

“Indeed it does. This is the ring of the great House of Kwang. Before the Communists took over, it was one of the richest and strongest houses in all China. This ring was worn by the Great Lord of the house, and by his sons, the young lords.”

“It’s funny I should get one of them,” Biff said, laughing. “I’m no young lord.”

Ling Tang smiled. “Most mysterious, true,” he agreed.

“And if they wanted to give me a ring, why didn’t they just send it to me, instead of throwing it through my window and ruining the screen?”

“You did receive it in a most dramatic fashion.”

“You can bet all the tea in China I did,” Biff said.

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