A few months later I Left England to take up a post in Singapore. After three years, I returned to England for a few months to carry out further research of English banking practice.
The first person I called on when I arrived in London was Dennis Gray. He had aged during the ensuing three years and was getting ready to retire in a small village near Bath. Was it his place of birth? I thought it best not to enquire.
A few days later I went up to Oxford for a spell in the Bodleian Law Reading Rooms. Naturally, I went to have a meal in Jack’s pub near New College. To my surprise, Jack was no longer there. The new bartender, who looked a bit like Jack, was in his mid-thirties.
“Where is Jack?”
“You wouldn’t be one of his old customers?”
“As a matter of fact, I am. I was away for some three years.”
“I am afraid I have bad news. Dad passed away about a year ago.”
“I am shocked,” I told him when I recovered my voice. “But please tell me: what on earth happened? Jack was in his prime and I thought he was a healthy and fit fellow.”
“He was, rather. Still, he drank the beer-spills when he got the barrels ready each morning.”
“But that stuff is poison: full of lead. He must have known this.”
“I am afraid he knew. But he used to say it was still beer. The end was kidney failure.”
“How awful,” I stammered.
“Are you by any chance the fellow from Israel, who used to work on some banking law topic?” asked Jack’s son, Vince.
“I am. But how come you are here? Jack did not tell me he expected his son to take the business over?”
“I left the police force after Dad died. I’ve been running the business ever since.”
For a while both of us kept silent. Recovering his composure, Vince treated me to a shandy and invited me to have lunch on the pub.
I saw him often during the succeeding ten weeks. After a while, I came to like him just as much as I used to like his late father. Shortly before I flew back to Singapore, I gave Vince a nice set of Staffordshire beer mugs. He looked pleased when I promised to look him up when I next came over to England.