Knight Templar, or The Avenging Saint

Simon stood quite still.

'When you rang me up—do you remember?— to boast—I asked the exchange for your number. Then the directory was searched, and we learned your address. Miss Delmar was alone. We had no difficulty, though I was hoping to find you and some of your friends there as well—''

'Bluff,' said the Saint unemotionally.

'I think not, my dear Mr. Templar,' said the prince urbanely. 'Dr. Marius is really a most re­liable man. I recollect that the only mistake we have made was my own, and he advised me against it.'

Marius came closer.

'Once—when you beat me,' he said vindictive­ly. 'When you undid years of work—by a trick. But your friend paid the penalty. You also—''

'I also—pay,' said the Saint, with bleak eyes.

'You—'

'My dear Marius!' Once again the prince inter­rupted. 'Let us be practical. You have succeeded. Good. Now, our young friend has elected to inter­fere in our affairs again, and since he has so kindly delivered himself into our hands—'

Suddenly the Saint laughed.

'What shall we do with the body?' he mur­mured. 'Well, souls, I'll have to give you time to think that out. Meanwhile, I shouldn't like you to think I was getting any gray hairs over Marius's slab of ripe boloney about Miss Delmar. My dear Marius, that line of hooey's got wheels!'

'You still call it a bluff?' sneered the giant.

'You will find out—'

'I shall,' drawled Simon. 'Angel Face, don't you think this is a peach of a beard? Makes me look like Abraham in a high wind. ...'

Absent-mindedly the Saint had picked up his disguise and affixed the beard to his chin and the dark glasses to his nose. The hat had fallen to the floor. Moving to pick it up, he kicked it a yard away. The second attempt had a similar result. And it was all done with such a puerile innocence that both Marius and the prince must have been no more than vaguely wondering what motive the Saint could have in descending to such infantile depths of clowning —when the manoeuvre was completed with a breath-taking casualness.

The pursuit of his hat had brought the Saint within easy reach of the door. Quite calmly and unhurriedly he picked up the hat and clapped it on his head.

'Strong silent man goes out into the night,' he said. 'But we must get together again some time. Au revoir, sweet cherubs!'

And the Saint passed through the sitting-room door in a flash; and a second later the outer door of the suite banged.

Simon had certainly visited the prince with in­tent to obtain information; but he had done so, as he did all such things, practically without a plan in his head. The Saint was an opportunist; he held that the development of complicated plans was generally nothing but a squandering of so much energy, for the best of palavers was liable to rocket onto unexpected rails—and these surprises, Simon maintained, could only be turned to their fullest advantage by a mind untrammelled by any preconceived plan of campaign. And if the Saint had anticipated anything, he had anticipated that the arrival of Rayt Marius in the role of an angel-faced harbinger of glad tidings would result in a certain amount of more or less informative backchat be­fore the conversation became centered on pros­pective funerals. And, indeed, the conversazione had worn a very up-and-coming air before the prince had switched it back into such a very prac­tical channel. But Prince Rudolf had that sort of mind; wherefore the Saint had chased his hat. . . .

4

IT HAD BEEN a slick job, that departure; and it was all over before Marius had started to move. Even then, the prince had to stop him.

'My dear Marius, it would be useless to cause a disturbance now.'

'He could be arrested—'

'But you must see that he could say things about us, if he chose, which might prove even more annoying than his own interference. At large, he can be dealt with by ourselves.'

'He has fooled us once, Highness—'

'He will not do so again. ... Sit down, sit down, Marius! You have something to tell me.'

Impatiently, the giant suffered himself to be soothed into a chair. But the prince was perfectly unruffled—the cigarette glowed evenly in his long holder, and his sensitive features showed no sign of emotion.

'I took the girl,' said Marius curtly. 'She has been sent to Saltham. The ship will call there again to-night, and Vassiloff will be on board. They can be married as soon as they are at sea—the captain is my slave.'

'You think the provocation will be sufficient?'

'I am more sure of it than ever. I know Lessing. I will see him myself—discreetly—and I guarantee that he will accept my proposition. Within a week you should be able to enter Ukraine.'

In the bathroom the Saint heard every word. He had certainly banged the outer door of the suite, but the bedroom door had been equally convenient for the purposes of his exit. It has been explained that he came to the Ritz Hotel to gather informa­tion.

The communicating door between the sitting room and the bedroom was ajar; so also was that between bedroom and bathroom. And while he lis­tened, the Saint was amusing himself.

He had found a new tube of Prince Rudolf's beautiful pink toothpaste, and the glazed green tiles of the bathroom offered a tempting surface for artistic experiment. Using his material after the style of a chef applying fancy icing to a cake, the Saint had drawn a perfect six-inch circle upon the bathroom wall; from the lowest point of the circle he drew down a vertical line, which presently bifurcated into two downward lines of equal length; and on either side of his first vertical line he caused two further lines to project diagonally upwards..'. .

'And the other arrangements, Marius—they are complete?'

'Absolutely. You have read all the newspapers yourself, Highness—you must see that the strains could not have been more favourably ordered. The mine is ripe for the spark. To-day I received a cable from my most trusted agent, in Vienna—I have decoded it—'

The prince took the form and read it; and then he began to pace the room steadily, in silence.

It was not a restless, fretful pacing—it was a matter of deliberate, leisured strides, as smooth and graceful and eloquent as any of the prince's gestures. His hands were lightly clasped behind his back; the thin cigarette holder projected from be­tween his white teeth; his forehead was serene and unwrinkled.

Marius waited his pleasure, sitting hunched up in the chair to which the prince had led him, like some huge grotesque carving in barbarous stone. He watched the prince with inscrutable glittering eyes.

And Simon Templar was putting the finishing touches to his little drawing.

He understood everything that was said. Once upon a time he had felt himself at a disadvantage because he could not speak a word of the prince's language; but since then he had devoted all his spare time, night and day, to the task of adding that tongue to his already extensive linguistic ac­complishments. This fact he had had neither the inclination nor the opportunity to reveal during their brief reunion.

Presently the prince said: 'Our friend Mr. Tem­plar—I find it hard to forget that he once saved my life. But when he cheated me, at Maidenhead, I think he cancelled the debt.'

'It is more than cancelled, Highness,' said Marius malignantly. 'But for that treachery, we should have achieved our purpose long ago.'

'It seems a pity—I have admitted as much to him. He is such an active and ingenious young man.'

' A meddlesome young swine!'

The prince shook his head.

'One should never allow a personal animosity to colour one's abstract appreciations, my dear Marius,' he said dispassionately. 'On the other hand one should not allow an abstract admiration to overrule one's discretion. I have a most sincere regard for our friend—but that is all the more rea­son why I should encourage you to expedite his re­moval. He will endeavour to trace Miss Delmar, of course, when he finds that you were telling the truth.'

'I shall take steps to assist him—up to a point.'

'And then you will dispose of him in your own way.'

'There will be no mistake,' said the giant ven­omously; and the prince laughed softly.