11 The Brighter Buccaneer

'Not so good as it might be,' answered the other frankly. 'However, I suppose I can't grumble. I've just sold a thousand-pound diamond bracelet to that fellow I was showing out. Did you see him?'

'No,' said the Saint untruthfully.

He had just seen Mr. Alfred Tillson quite distinctly; and the problem of what Broads Tillson could possibly want with a thousand-pound bracelet bothered him quite a lot in the taxi in which he carried Ruth Eden off to the West End. Broads Tillson, he knew, was often extravagantly generous to his lady friends; but somehow he could not associate thousand-pound diamond bracelets even with that amorous man. Either Mr. Tillson had recently made no small click, or else there was more in that purchase than met the eye; and Simon had a constitutional objection to his old acquaintances embarking on enterprises of which he knew nothing.

The girl noticed his silence and challenged him.

'Why did you disappear under that desk, Simon? I feel there's some thrilling secret behind it.'

'It was pure instinct,' said the Saint brazenly, 'to avoid being recognized. You see, Alan's latest client is one of the slickest card-sharpers in the world, and I once diddled him of fifteen quid that he threw out for ground bait.'

'Are you sure? Gee, why ever didn't you tell Mr. Emberton at once?'

'Because I'd like to know what his new trick is first.' The blithe cavalier's blue eyes glinted at her mockingly. 'Didn't you once tell me you'd love to be an adventurer's partner, Ruth? Well, here's a chance for you. Find out the whole details of the deal, every single fact you can get hold of, without saying anything to Alan. Give your best imitation of an adven­turess worming out secrets so that the victim doesn't even know they have been wormed. And come and tell me. I'll promise you I'll see Alan doesn't get swindled; but wouldn't you hate to do anything so dull as just tell him to send for the police?'

She met him the next evening, full of excitement over the triumph of her maiden effort at sleuthing. She could hardly contain her news until he had ordered a cocktail.

'I can't see the catch in it at all; but perhaps you can. Mr. Tillson gave Mr. Emberton a cheque for the bracelet yesterday, and he particularly asked Mr. Emberton to get a special clearance so that there wouldn't be any difficulty about it. So the cheque must be all right. Mr. Tillson is sending the bracelet to a friend of his in Paris for a birthday present, he says, and he's having it insured to go over. A valuer came from the insurance company today to have a look at it. Mr. Tillson --'

'Call him 'Broads',' suggested the Saint. 'He'd take it as a compliment.'

'Why 'Broads'?' she asked, wrinkling her forehead.

'It refers to a hobby of his. How exactly is this bracelet being sent?'

'By post. Mr. Tillson-Broads is coming in tomorrow to see it off and enclose a letter, and a man from the insurance company is coming down as well-that seems an awful lot of formality, but I suppose they have to be careful. Now what do you think will happen? Will Broads pull out a gun and hold us all up?'

'I doubt it,' murmured the Saint mildly. 'Broads isn't a violent man. Besides, if there was anything like that in the air he'd have done it yesterday. Let me think.'

He leaned back and scowled thoughtfully into space. More than once he had truthfully admitted that the solving of ancient mysteries wasn't in his line; but the imaginative con­struction of forthcoming ones was another matter. The Saint's immoral mind worked best and most rapidly along these lines . . . And then, as he scowled into space, a headline in the evening paper that was being read by a fat gent at an adjoining table percolated into his abstracted vision; and he sat up with a start that made the fat gent turn round and glare at him.

'I've got it!' he cried. 'Whoops-and what a beauty!'

She caught at his sleeve.

'Tell me, Simon.'

'No, darling. That I can't do-not till afterwards. But you shall hear it, if you like to meet me again on Saturday. What time is this posting party?'

'Eleven o'clock. But listen-I must tell Mr. Emberton --'

'You must do nothing of the sort.' The Saint shook his head at her sadly. 'What do you want to do, Ruth-ruin the only bit of business the poor man's done this week? He's got his money, hasn't he? The rest of the show is purely private.'

When she continued to try and question him he returned idiotic answers that made her want to smack him; and she went home, provoked and disappointed, and not entirely con­soled by his repeated promise to tell her the whole story after it was over.

But her sense of excitement returned when Mr. Tillson presented himself at the office next morning. Looking at that rather pathetically horse-faced gentleman in his faintly clerical garb, it was difficult to believe that he could possibly be the man that the Saint had described. He was punctual to the minute; and the insurance company's representative came in soon afterwards.

She showed them into the inner office, and found it easy to stay around herself while the package was being prepared and sealed. She watched the entire proceedings with what she would always believe was well-simulated unconcern, but which actually would have seemed like a hypnotic stare to anyone who had noticed her; and yet, when it was all over and the various parties had shaken hands and departed, she could not recall the slightest incident that had deviated from the matter-of-fact formality which should have been expected of the affair.

She even began to wonder, with a feeling that her doubt was almost sacrilegious, whether the Saint could have been mis­taken. . . .

Mr. Alfred Tillson was not so reassured. He was perspiring a little when he met Happy Fred Jorman on the street corner.

'Yes, I effected the substitution,' he said shortly, in answer to his partner's questions. 'I trust I have aroused no suspicion. There was a kind of girl amanuensis in the room all the time, and she stared at me from the minute I arrived until the minute I left. I expected her to make some comment at any moment but she took her eyes off me for a second when I knocked my hat off the desk. Let's get back to my hotel.'

They took a taxi to the hotel in Bloomsbury where Mr. Tillson had taken a modest suite-Broads Tillson had