The Saint Meets His Match (She was a Lady)

started when the Saint came after me—when my house was burgled and my desk broken open last night.'

'I heard about that,' said the chief commissioner.

Cullis nodded.

'From the Saint, I suppose? Well, it was a neat piece of work, although it was the girl who did it. Even before that I'd decided that Jill Trelawney was getting too dan­gerous, and sent Gugliemi out after her; but he turned against me, as you know. Even when my desk was opened, I didn't think anything had been taken, and when you told me to come down here I thought I'd got a chance.'

'Until Templar showed you that five-pound note?' murmured the chief.

'Quite right. ... Is there anything else you want to know?'

'I don't think so.'

Cullis's eyes shifted round the room.

'But there's one thing I should like to know,' he said.

'What's that?'

'When the Saint came to you with that story, why should you have taken any more notice of it than if anyone else had brought it to you?'

A dry smile touched the commissioner's lips.

'Because I happen to know him well,' he said. 'When he got his pardon, I coaxed him into the Secret Service to keep him from getting into more trouble. His methods have always been rather eccentric, but they're effective. Some time ago he got an idea that there was something more in the Trelawney business than ever came out, and I let him take up the case in his own way. He's been work­ing at it in his own way ever since: his police appoint­ment was only part of the job, and his very irregular resignation was only another part.'

There was one person who was more surprised than Cullis, and that was Jill Trelawney.

'You, Saint?'

'When we first met,' said the Saint sadly, 'I told you I'd reformed, but you wouldn't believe me. And in the last few days I seem to have done nothing but talk to you about my respectable friend. Let me introduce you—Sir Hamilton Dorn, Chief Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, commonly known as Auntie Ethel. Pleased to have you meet each other.'

Sir Hamilton bowed slightly.         

'I never was the hell of a policeman,' said the Saint apologetically. 'Scotland Yard will probably survive without me—though I can't help thinking I might have pepped them up a heap if I'd stayed on.'

For that one moment Simon Templar was the central figure, and there was not an eye on Cullis. And then the Saint, out of the tail of his eye, saw Cullis's right hand leap up, and shouted a warning even as he turned. But his voice was drowned by the roar of Cullis's automatic, and he saw the chief commissioner's gun drop to the floor, and saw a red stain suddenly splashed on the chief com­missioner's wrist.

He raised his own gun, but the hammer clicked on a dud cartridge, and he threw himself down on the floor as Cullis's automatic barked again.

He heard the bullet sing over his head and smack into the wall behind him with a tinkle of glass from a smashed picture, and spun his legs round in a flailing semicircle that aimed at Cullis's ankles. Even so, he did not see how Cullis could possibly miss with his next shot. . . .

He missed his kick ... but he had forgotten Jill Tre­lawney. As he scrambled up, he saw both her hands locked upon Cullis's wrist, and Cullis's third shot went up into the ceiling. Then he himself also had hold of the wrist, and he twisted at it savagely. The gun went to the floor, and the Saint kicked it away.