The Saint Meets His Match (She was a Lady)

personality from the moment of his first swipe at Donnell's jaw had grown up like the strengthening light of an incredible dawn, and the intervening interlude had merely provided circumstances to shape its course without altering its temper in the least. And the gun that she had been levelling at him half the time had made no difference at all.

'Aren't you going to try to arrest me?' she asked, with a faint rasp of contempt laid like the thinnest veneer on the bewildering beginnings of preposterous understand­ing that lay beneath.

And Simon Templar smiled at her.

'Arrest you for ferreting out and bumping off the bloke I've been wanting to get at myself for years? Jill, darling, you have some odd ideas about me! . . . But there really is a posse around this time—they're waiting at the other end of that there rat's hole, with the assistant commissioner himself in command, and you wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting through alone. D'you mind if I take over the artillery a moment?'

He detached the automatic from her unresisting hand, dropped it into his pocket, and swept her smoothly through the open door of the dummy cupboard. It was all done so calmly and quietly, with such an effortless ease of mastery, that all the strength seemed to ebb out of her. It was impossible to resist or even question him: she suffered herself to be steered down the stairs without a word.

'On the other hand,' said the Saint, as if there had been no interruption between that remark and the con­clusion of his last speech, 'you'll have to consider your­self temporarily under arrest, otherwise there might be a spot of trouble which we shouldn't be in a position to deal with effectively.'

She made no answer. In the same bewildered silence she found herself at the junction of the two forks in the tunnel; they took the left-hand fork this time, and went on for about a hundred yards before the light of the last electric bulb was lost behind them and they found them­selves in darkness. She heard the crackle of the Saint's lighter, and saw another flight of steps on the right.

'Up here.'

He took her arm and swung her round the turning and up the stairs. At the top, what appeared to be a blank wall faced them; the Saint's lighter went out as they reached it, and she heard him fumbling with some­thing in the dark. Then a crack of light sprang into exist­ence before her, widening rapidly, and she felt fresh air on her face as the Saint's figure silhouetted itself in the gap.

'Easy all,' came the Saint's imperturbable accents; and she followed him through the opening to find the assistant commissioner putting away his gun.

They had stepped into a poorly furnished parlour; besides Cullis there were a couple of plain-clothes detectives and four uniformed policemen crowded into it.

'The first capture,' said the Saint, taking the girl's arm again. 'I laid out Donnell and Weald, but I couldn't bring them along with me. You'll find them in the house, if you get there quick enough—the rest of Donnell's boys were chipping bits out of the door when we left.'

Cullis nodded; and the uniformed men filed through the opening in the wall. The plain-clothes men hesitated, but the Saint signalled them on.

'I'll take Trelawney myself—my share of this job is over.'

As the detectives disappeared, the Saint opened the door and led Jill Trelawney out into a small bare hall. Cullis followed. Outside, a taxi was waiting and Simon pushed the girl in.

Then he turned back to the commissioner.

'You might find it entertaining to take a toddle up that tunnel yourself,' he said. 'There's something amusing in the room at the other end which the boys should be discovering about now. Oh, and you might give my love to Claud Eustace next time you see him. Tell him I always was the greatest detective of you all—the joke should make him scream.'

Cullis nodded.