The Saint's Getaway

The girl looked at him critically for several seconds, and Monty endured the scrutiny without blinking. There was a curl of soft gold escaping from under one side of her rakish little hat, and her lips had a sweet curve. And then she smiled.

'Can you tell me what that station was that we just went through?' she asked.

'Ausgang,' said Monty. 'I saw it written up.'

She laughed.

'Idiot! That means 'Way Out.' '

'Does it?' said Monty innocently. 'Then I must have been thinking of some other place.' He offered his cigarette case. 'I gather that this isn't your first visit to these parts.'

She accepted a cigarette and a light with an entire absence of self-consciousness, which was one of the most refreshing and' at the same time one of the most complimentary gestures that he had seen for a long time.

'I ought to know the language,' she said. 'My father was born in Munich—he didn't become an American citizen until he was three years old. But still, they say it's a young country.' She had a frank carelessness of conventional snobbery that matched her natural grace of manner. 'As a matter of fact, I've just finished spending a fortnight with his family. That was the excuse I made for coming over, so I couldn't get out of it'

'My father was a Plymouth Brother,' said Monty rerninis­cently. 'He once thought of going abroad to convert the heathen, but Mother didn't trust him. Now, if he'd been a Bavarian, I might have been your cousin—and that would have been a quite different story.'

'Why?'

'I should have refused to allow you to leave us without a chaperon.'

'Would you?'

'I would. And then I'd have proposed myself for the job. I'm not sure that it's too late even now. Could I interest you in a thoroughly good watchdog, guaranteed house-trained and very good with children?'

She glanced at him mischievously.

'I should want to see your references.'

'I was four years in my last place, lady.'

'That's a long time.'

'Yes, mum. I was supposed to be in for seven, but there was a riot, and I climbed over a wall.'

He was confirmed in an early impression that her laugh was like a ripple of crystal bells. She had very white teeth, and eyes like amethysts, and he thought that she was far too nice to be travelling alone.

She turned back her sleeve and consulted a tiny gold watch.

'Do you think they'll ever serve tea?' she said. 'I've got one of the world's great thirsts, and Germany doesn't care.'

Monty had a saddening sense of anticlimax. He was starting to realize the sordid disadvantages of being a buccaneer. You can take a beauteous damsel's acquaintance by storm, but you can't offer her a cup of tea. He felt that the twentieth century was uncommonly inconsiderate to its outlaws. He tried to pic­ture Captain Kidd in a similar predicament. 'I'd love to buy you a glass of milk, my dear, but Grandma's walking the plank at five. . . .'

'I'm afraid you've beaten me,' he said. 'I'm not allowed to move from here until Simon gets back.'

'And what's Simon doing?'

'Well, he's trying to find some crown jewels; and if he gets shot at I'm supposed to go along and get shot as well.'

The girl looked at him with a slight frown. 'That one's a bit too deep for me,' she said.