PRELUDE
FOR WAR
LESLIE CHARTERIS
NEW YORK
PRELUDE FOR WAR
Copyright © 1938 by Leslie Charteris
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission in writing from the publisher.
All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Military props for cover design courtesy of Jacques Noel Jacobsen Jr., Collector Antiquities, Inc.
An Ace Charter Book by arrangement with Doubleday and Company, Inc..
First Ace Charter Printing: July 1982
Printed simultaneously in Canada
PRELUDE FOR WAR
I How Simon Templar Went to a Fire, and
Patricia Holm Heard of a Financier
II How