Follow the Saint

window.

'Did you have to fetch her in from the garden?' he asked sympathetically.

'I—I don't understand, sir.'

'Don't you? Neither do I. But that window was closed when I saw it last.'

'I opened it just now, sir, to give Miss Chase some fresh air.'

The Saint held his eyes ruthlessly, but the butler did not try to look away.

'All right,' he said at length. 'We'll check up on that presently. Just for the moment, you can both go back to the kitchen.'

The stout woman got to her feet with the laboured mo­tions of a rheumatic camel.

' 'Oo do you think you are,' she demanded indignantly, 'to be bossing everybody about in this 'ouse ?'

'I am the Grand Gugnunc of Waziristan,' answered the Saint pleasantly. 'And I said—get back to the kitchen.'

He followed them back himself, and went on through to find Hoppy Uniatz. The other door of the kitchen conveni­ently opened into the small rear hall into which the back stairs came down and from which the back door also opened. Simon locked and bolted the back door, and drew Hoppy into the kitchen doorway and propped him up against the jamb. 'If you stand here,' he said, 'you'll be able to cover the back stairs and this gang in the kitchen at the same time. And that's what I want you to do. None of them is to move out of your sight—not even to get somebody else some fresh air.'

'Okay, boss,' said Mr Uniatz dimly. 'If I only had a drink—'

'Tell Jeeves to buy you one.'

The Saint was on his way out again when the butler stop­ped him.

'Please, sir, I'm sure I could be of some use——'

'You are being useful,' said the Saint, and closed the door on him.

Rosemary Chase was sitting up when he returned to the drawing-room.

'I'm sorry,' she said weakly. 'I'm afraid I fainted.'

'I'm afraid you did,' said the Saint. 'I poked you in the tummy to make sure it was real, and it was. It looks as if I've been wrong about you all the evening. I've got a lot of apologies to make, and you'll have to imagine most of them. Would you like a drink?'

She nodded; and he turned to the table and operated with a bottle and siphon. While he was doing it, he said with matter-of-fact naturalness: 'How many servants do you keep here?'

'The butler and his wife, a housemaid, and a parlourmaid.'

'Then they're all rounded up and accounted for. How long have you known them ?'

'Only about three weeks—since we've been here.'

'So that means nothing. I should have had them corralled before, but I didn't think fast enough.' He brought the drink over and gave it to her. 'Anyway, they're corralled now, under Hoppy's thirsty eye, so if anything else happens we'll know they didn't have anything to do with it. If that's any help. . . . Which leaves only us—and Quintus.'

'What happened to him?'