The Saint Meets His Match (She was a Lady)

'I should stay where you are,' he said. 'They've had one or two pot shots at me through the door as it is, and you mightn't be so lucky.'

He pointed to three bullet holes neatly drilled through the woodwork.

'Couldn't you get to the telephone?' asked Cullis.

'There is no telephone.'

'Then how did you send that telegram?'

'That was a bit of luck. I picked them up in Guildford and heard them give the address to a taxi driver at the station. So I waited to send off that wire before I followed along here. . . . Listen!'

Cullis listened and heard, inside the locked room, the rasp and tinkle of metal.

'They're still trying to break through those bars,' said the chief commissioner, 'but I don't think they'll get out that way in a hurry.'

Cullis pulled out his cigarette case.

'How did it all happen?' he asked.

'I got a squeal. It came from a man named Pinky Budd, who was one of the old Angels. He came up to my house last night and said he'd run into Trelawney at Guildford. He was hard up, and tried to get some money out of her, but she gave him the air. Budd felt nastier and nastier about that all the way home, and when he got to London he'd made up his mind to squeal. But when he found me all he could say was that he'd gathered that Trelawney and the Saint were living near Guildford, and also that they were coming up to town on a rush visit to­day. So I went down to Guildford and spent half the day in the station watching all the trains until they ar­rived.'

'Without a word to anyone?'

'There's been too much inefficiency on this case al­ready. I forget how many times that man Templar has slipped the men who are always supposed to be watching him. I was getting a bit tired of it, and when this squeal came through I made up my mind to settle the thing my­self.'

'And then you followed them down here——'

The chief accepted a cigarette.

'And even then it wasn't all plain sailing,' he said. 'I saw the lights go on upstairs, and thought it was going to be easy, went in through a French window on the ground floor—and found a man waiting for me. Duodeci­mo Gugliemi! You remember, the man who should have been deported the other day.'

Cullis nodded.

'I got the order postponed. I was thinking the same thing as you about the men that Templar was always shaking off, and I wondered if someone who looked less like a detective might be able to do more.'

'Instead of which,' said the commissioner grimly, 'he appears to have joined up with them. Anyway, there he was, loading a gun when I walked in. Fortunately I'd been very quiet about it, and he didn't hear me at first. His back was towards me, and I got quite close before something must have made him look round. The gun was in his hand, but he'd still got the magazine out and it wasn't much use to him. He let out a yell and heaved it at my head, but I ducked and caught him one behind the ear with the butt of mine. That settled him, but the alarm was raised. I sprinted out into the hall and saw a skirt whisking round the top of the stairs. Trelawney can't have had her gun on her at the moment, otherwise it might have been quite a different story. As it was, this door slammed just as I reached the landing, and I heard the lock turn as I went at it with my shoulder. Next minute a bullet came through a panel an inch from my ear, and I took cover. But I'd got them both in there to­gether, which was a bit of luck, and the best thing I could do was to stand guard here and hope you'd get a train as soon as my telegram arrived.'

'And what about