16 The Saint Overboard

drooped open in a red O of fluttering unbe­lief. The Saint spoke principally to him.

'Kurt Vogel is dead. Or he soon will be. I believe there's enough air in a diving suit to last a man about five minutes after his air-line is cut. That is my justice. . . .' The Saint paused for a moment, and his calm gaze swept over the rest of them there with the timeless impassivity of a judge. 'As for the rest of you,' he said, 'some of you may get away with a nice long rest in prison—if you live long enough to stand your trial. But to do that you will have to put your hands high up above your heads and take great care not to annoy me, because if any of you give me a scare——'

The automatic in his hand cracked once, a sudden sharp splash of sound in the persuasive flow of his words; and Otto Arnheim, with his hand halfway to his pocket, lurched like a drunken man. A stupid blankness spread across his face, and his knees folded. He went down limply on to the deck, rolled over, and lay still, with his staring eyes turned to the winking stars.

'——this gun is liable to go off,' said the Saint.

None of the men moved. They looked down at the motionless body of Otto Arnheim, and kept their hands stretched well above their heads. And the Saint smiled with his lips.

'I think we shall have to put you away for a while,' he said. 'Calvieri, you take some of that life-line and tie your playmates together. Lash 'em by the waists about a yard apart, and then add yourself to the string. Then we'll all go below, with you leading the way and me holding the other end of the line, and see about rounding up the rest of the herd.'

'That's already been done, old boy,' murmured Roger Con-way, stepping out on to the deck from the after companion, with a gun in each hand and Steve Murdoch following him.

IX.       FINALE

'IT was quite easy really,' said Roger Conway patronisingly. 'When we got Loretta's radiogram we set off at once, straight for here. We nearly piled your boat up on several rocks on the way, but Orace managed to see us through. Took us about three hours. The Falkenberg passed us about halfway, somewhere in the distance, and we just managed to keep her in sight. Luckily it was getting dark, so we turned out our lights after a bit and crept up as close as we dared. We dropped our hook about a quarter of a mile away, and as soon as we'd given the Falkenberg time to get well settled in we manned the dinghy and paddled over to reconnoitre. Everybody on deck seemed to be pretty busy with the diving business, so we came aboard on the other side and went below. We collected seven specimens altogether on the round-up, including a bloke who seems to have got a broken jaw. Anyway he's still asleep. The rest of 'em we gagged and tied up and left for inspection. We made a pretty thorough job of it, if I may say so.'

With which modest summary of his activities, Roger helped himself to one of Vogel's cigars, threw another to Peter Quentin, and subsided exhausted into the most comfortable armchair.

Simon Templar regarded them disparagingly.

'You always were frightfully efficient at clearing up the bat­tlefield after all the troops had gone home,' he remarked appre­ciatively. 'And where did you collect the American Tragedy?'

'Oh, him? He crashed on to the Corsair while we were having a drink with Orace, earlier in the afternoon,' Peter explained. 'Seemed to be all steamed up about something, and flashed a lot of badges and things at us, so we brought him along. He seemed to be very excited about Loretta batting off on this party, so I suppose he's her husband or something. Are you the co-re­spondent?'

Steve Murdoch dug his fists into his coat pockets and glowered round with his square jaw thrust out. His rugged hard-boiled face made the luxurious furnishings of the wheelhouse seem faintly effeminate.

'Yeah, I'm here,' he stated truculently. 'And this time I'm stayin'. I guess I owe you something for helpin' me clean up this job, Saint; an' maybe it's good enough to account for those two punches you hung on me. But that's as far as it goes. I'll see that Ingerbeck's hear about what you've done, and probably they'll offer you a share of the reward. If they do, you can go up an' claim it honest. But for the time being I'll look after things my­self.'

Simon looked at the ceiling.

'What a lot of modest violets there are around here,' he sighed. 'Of course I wouldn't dream of trying to steal your cur­tain, Steve, after all the brilliant work you've put in. But what exactly are you going to do?'

'I'm goin' to ask one of you boys to go ashore an' see if you can knock up the gendarmerie. If you can find