The Saint Meets His Match (She was a Lady)

Simon Templar pulled himself off the mantelpiece, against which he had been leaning, and looked Teal deliberately in the eyes.

'You won't wait,' he said, 'because I happen to want to go to bed, and I prefer to see you off the premises first. And you won't search this flat, not on any excuse, because you haven't a search warrant.'

Teal stood squarely by the table.

'I have reason to believe,' he said, 'that you're shelter­ing a woman who's wanted for murder.'

'You haven't a search warrant,' repeated the Saint. 'Don't be foolish, Teal. I may be a suspicious character, but you've got nothing definite against me, apart from the little show in Paris, which isn't your business—nothing in the wide, wide world. If you try to search this flat I shall resist you by force. What's more, I shall throw you down the stairs and out into the street with such violence that you will bounce from here to Harrod's. And if you try to get me for that, the beak will soak you good and proper. Once upon a time you might have got away with it, but not now. The police aren't so popular these days. You'd better watch your step.'

'I can get a warrant,' said Teal, 'within two hours.'

'Then get it,' said the Saint shortly. 'And don't come in here again bothering me until you've got it in your pocket. Good-night.'

He crossed the room and opened the door, and Teal, after a few seconds of frightful hesitation, passed out into the hall.

Simon opened the front door for him also; and there Teal paused on the threshold.

'You are a bright boy, Saint,' said Teal somnolently. 'Don't go to bed. I shall be back with that warrant inside two hours.'

'Good-night,' said the Saint again, and closed the door in the detective's face.

He came back into the sitting room and found the girl putting her possessions into her bag.

'I heard,' she said.

'In five minutes,' said the Saint, 'Teal will have a man outside this front door to watch the place while he goes off to get a warrant. Meanwhile——'

The shrill, sharp scream of a police whistle sounded in the street outside, and a little smile touched Simon Templar's mouth.

'At this moment,' said the Saint, 'he's standing on the steps blowing that whistle. He's not taking any chances. He's not going to look for a man—he's going to wait till a man comes to him. He's going to make quite sure that whoever's in here isn't going to slip out behind his back. And the person they want to find here is you.'

Jill Trelawney nodded.

'On a charge of murder,' she said softly.

Chapter VI

HOW SIMON TEMPLAR WENT TO BED,

AND MR. TEAL WOKE UP 

 

SIMON had slipped out his cigarette case and absently selected a cigarette. He lighted the cigarette, looking at a picture on the opposite wall without seeing it; and his faintly thoughtful smile lingered on the corners of his mouth, rather recklessly and dangerously. But that was like Simon Templar, who never got worked up about anything.

'Of course,' he said quietly, 'I've been rather liable to overlook that.'