To judge by the glittering pile, this had been, or was, a rich man. It contained the typical membership badges of the rich man's club-a money clip, made of a Mexican fifty-dollar piece and holding a substancial wad of banknotes, a well-used gold Dunhill lighter, an oval gold cigarette case with the wavy ridges and discreet turquoise bu*ton that means Faberge, and the sort of novel a rich man pulls out of the bookcase to take into the garden-The Little Nugget- an old PG Wodehouse. There was also a bulky gold wristwatch on a well-used brown crocodile strap. It was a Girard-Perregaux model designed for people who like gadgets, and it had a sweep second-hand and two little windows in the face to tell the day of the month, and the month, and the phase of the moon. The story it now told was 2:30 on June 10th with the moon three quarters full.