16 The Saint Overboard

'But to-morrow?'

He laughed.

'I suppose I'll have to dump Peter and Roger somewhere. But the Corsair's, still ready to go anywhere. She's not so luxurious as this, but she's pretty comfortable. And about a hundred years ago I was in the middle of a vacation.'

His hands were on her shoulders; and she smiled into his eyes.

'What do either of us know about the day after to-morrow?' she said.

Nearly an hour later he came out on deck, as half a dozen palpitating gendarmes were scrambling up the gangway. Mur­doch had met the leader of them and was struggling to converse with him in a microscopical vocabulary of French delivered in a threatening voice with an atrocious accent. Simon left him to perspire alone, and drew Peter and Roger to one side.

'We're going back to the Corsair,' he said.

'Without the heroine?' protested Peter. 'Why, I was only just getting to know her.'

The Saint took him by the arm.

'You'll be able to improve the acquaintance to-morrow,' he said kindly. 'For as long as it takes us to sail back to St Peter Port and get rid of you. On your way.'

They dropped into the dinghy; and Simon settled himself lazily in the stern, leaving the others to take the oars. He lighted a cigarette and gazed up at the star-dusted sky.

The lights of the Falkenberg drifted away behind them, and the cool quietness of the night took them in. The voices died away, and there was only the creak of the rowlocks and the gentle plash of the water. The Saint watched his smoke floating in gossamer veils across the stars, and let his mind stray through the lanes of memory. There was the only real knowledge, and all other doubt and disbelief could steal nothing from it. What did either of them know about the day after to-morrow? . . .

Roger's voice broke into his thoughts.

'Well, that's goodbye to those millions you promised us,' he remarked glumly; and Simon sat up with the old buccaneering glint wakening in his eyes.

'Who said goodbye? My dear Roger, we're not going to bed yet! We're going to bring the Corsair up closer and unpack those nice new diving suits we've got on board. And then one of you drawing-room heroes is coming down with me on a little treas­ure-hunt. Steve and his gendarmes can mount guard over Vogel's diving gear all night for all I care. But they don't know how much boodle is stowed away down there, and what they don't know about they'll never miss. We're going to make sure of our share of the reward to-night,' said the Saint.