wing, and his door faced down the broad, screened verandah by which the rooms were reached. Simon had the room next to it, from which one of the girls had been moved: their rooms were now strung around the angle of the L towards the main building. There was a communicating door on both sides of his room. He tried the one which should have opened in to Freddie's room, but he found that there was a second door backing closely against it, and that one was locked. He went around by the verandah, and found Angelo preparing to turn out the lights.
'He sleep well now,' said the Filipino with a grin. 'You no worry.'
Freddie was neatly tucked into bed, his clothes carefully folded over a chair. Simon went over and looked at him. He certainly wasn't dead at that point-his snoring was stertoнrously alive.
The Saint located the other side of the communicating door, and tried the handle. It still wouldn't move, and there was no key in the lock.
'D'you know how to open this, Angelo?' he asked. The Filipino shook his head. 'Don't know. Is lock?'
'Is lock.'
'I never see key. Maybe somewhere.'
'Maybe,' Simon agreed.
It didn't look like a profitable inquiry to pursue much further, and Simon figured that it probably didn't matter. He still hadn't developed any real conviction of danger over shadowing the house, and at that moment the idea seemed particularly far-fetched. He went out of the room, and the Filipino switched off the light.
'Everything already lock up, sir. You no worry. I go to sleep now.'
'Happy dreams,' said the Saint.
He returned to his own room, and undressed and rolled into bed. He felt in pretty good shape, but he didn't want to start the next day with an unnecessary headache. He was likely to have enough other headaches without that. Aside from the drinking pace and the uninhibited feminine hazнards, he felt that a day would come when Freddie Pellman's conversational style would cease to hold him with the same eager fascination that it created at the first encounter. Evenнtually, he felt, a thousand dollars a day would begin to seem like a relatively small salary for listening to Freddie talk. But that was something that could be faced when the time came. Maybe he would be able to explain it to Freddie and get a raise....
With that he fell asleep. He didn't know how long it lasted, but it was deep and relaxed. And it ended with an electrifyнing suddenness that was as devastating as the collapse of a tall tower of porcelain. But the sound was actually a little different. It was a shrill shattering scream that brought him wide awake in an instant and had him on his feet while the echo was still ringing in his ears.
3 THERE WAS ENOUGH starlight outside for the windows to be rectangles of silver, but inside the room he was only just able to find his dressing-gown without groping. His gun was already in his hand, for his fingers had closed on it instincнtively where the butt lay just under the edge of the mattress at the natural length of his arm as he lay in bed. He threw the robe on and whipped a knot into the belt, and was on his way to the door within two seconds of waking.
Then the scream came again, louder now that he wasn't hearing it through a haze of sleep, and in a way more deliberate. And it came, he was certain, not from the direction in which he had first automatically placed it, without thinking, but from the opposite quarter-the room on the opposite side of his own.
He stopped in mid-stride, and turned quickly back to the other communicating door. This one was not locked. It was a double door like the one to Freddie's room, but the second handle turned smoothly with his fingers. As he started to open it, the door outlined itself with light: he did the only possible thing, and threw it wide open quickly but without any noise, and stepped swiftly through and to one side, with his gun balanced for instant aiming in any direction.
He didn't see anything to aim at. He didn't see anyone there except Lissa.
She was something to see, if one had the time. She was sitting upright in bed, and she wore a filmy flesh- colored nightнgown with white overtones. At least, that was the first imнpression. After a while, you realised that it was just a filmy white nightgown and the flesh color was Lissa. She had her mouth open, and she looked exactly as if she was going to scream again. Then she didn't look like that any more.
'Hullo,' she said, quite calmly. 'I thought that'd fetch you.'
'Wouldn't there have been a more subtle way of doing it?' Simon asked.
'But there was someone here, really. Look.'
Then he saw it-the black wooden hilt of a knife that stood up starkly from the bedding close beside her. The resignation went out of his face again as if it had never been there.
'Where did he go?'
'I don't know-out of one of the doors. If he didn't go into your room, he must have gone out on to the porch or into Ginny's room.'
Simon crossed to the other door and stepped out on to the verandah. Lights came on as he did so, and he saw Freddie Pellman swaying in the doorway at the dead end of the L.
'Whassamarrer?' Freddie demanded thickly. 'What goes on?'
'We seem to have had a visitor,' said the Saint succinctly. 'Did anybody come through your room?'
'Anybody come through my room? I dunno. No. I didn't see anybody. Why should anybody come through my room?'
'To kiss you goodnight,' said the Saint tersely, and headed in the other direction.
There was no other movement on the verandah. He knocked briefly on the next door down, and opened it and switched on the light. The bed was rumpled but empty, and a shaft of light came through the communicating door. All the bedrooms seemed to have communicating doors, which either had its advantages or it didn't. Simon went on into the next room. The bed in there had the covers pulled high up, and appeared to be occupied by a small quivering hippopotamus. He went up to it and tapped it on the most convenient bulge.
'Come on,' he said. 'I just saw a mouse crawl in with you.'
There was a stifled squeal, and Esther's head and shoulнders and a little more jumped into view in the region of the pillow.
'Go away!' she yelped inarticulately. 'I haven't done anything--'
Then she recognised him, and stopped abruptly. She took a moment to straighten her dark hair. At the same time the other half of the baby hippopotamus struggled up beside her, revealing that it had a red-gold head and a snub nose.
'Oh, it's you,' said Ginny. 'Come on in. We'll make room for you.'
'Well, make yourselves at home,' said Esther. 'This just happens to be my room--'
'Little children,' said the Saint, with great patience, 'I don't want to spoil anybody's fun, but I'm looking for a hairy thug who seems to be rushing around trying to stick knives into people.'
They glanced at each other in a moment's silence. 'Wh-who did he stick a knife into?' Ginny asked.
'Nobody. He missed. But he was trying. Did you see him?'
She shook her head.
'Nobody's been in here,' said Esther, 'except Ginny. I heard a frightful scream, and I jumped up and put the light on, and the next minute Ginny came rushing in and got into my bed.'
'It was Lissa,' said Ginny. 'I'm sure it was. The scream sounded like it was right next door. So I ran in here. But I didn't see anyone.' She swallowed, and her eyes grew big.
'Is Lissa--?'
'No,' said the Saint bluntly. 'Lissa's as well as you are. And so is Freddie. But somebody's been up to mischief toнnight, and we're looking for him. Now will you please get out of bed and pull yourselves together, because we're going to search the house.'
'I can't,' said Esther. 'I haven't got anything on.' 'Don't let it bother you,' said the Saint tiredly. 'If a burнglar sees you he'll probably swoon on the spot, and then the rest of us will jump on him and tie him up.'
He took a cigarette from a package beside the bed, and went on his way. It seemed as if he had wasted a lot of time, but actually it had scarcely been a minute. Out on the veranнdah he saw that the door of Lissa's room was open, and through it he heard Freddie Pellman's obstructed croak repetitiously imploring her to tell him what had happened. As he went on towards the junction of the main building, lights went on in the living-room and a small mob of chatterнing figures burst out and almost swarmed over him as he opened the door into the arched alcove that the bedroom wing took off from. Simon spread out his arms and collected them in a sheaf.
'Were you going somewhere, boys?' There were three of them, in various interesting costumes. Reading
