The Saint had
MONEY TO BURN
Back in England after bedeviling the police of three continents, the irrepressible Robin Hood of modern crime was on a buying spree which left harried Chief Inspector Teal in a daze.
Before he had finished, the Saint owned:
A lurid novel with the apt title, 'Her Wedding Secret'
A dilapidated hansom cab
A dozen packages of cough lozenges
A brand-new, single pilot airplane
Each purchase was an investment in audacious adventure. Never were the stakes higher, the villains more vile, nor the damsels more willing!
'The longest-lived, the most versatile, the most durable and most admired sleuth in modern detective fiction.'
--Columbus Dispatch
THE SAINT
in England
Original title: THE MISFORTUNES OF MR. TEAL
LESLIE CHARTERIS
Complete and Unabridged
AVON PUBLICATIONS, INC.
575 Madison Avenue--New York 22, N.Y.
To
TOOTS and JOANNE,
who have been helping for years
Copyright, 1934, by Leslie Charteris. Published by arrangement with Doubleday & Company, Inc.
Printed in Canada
CONTENTS
Book I
The Simon Templar Foundation
Book II
The Higher Finance
Book III
The Art of Alibi
I
THE SIMON TEMPLAR FOUNDATION
I
There was nothing unusual about the fact that when Simon Templar landed in England he was expecting trouble. Trouble was his chosen vocation : the last ten years of his life had held enough of it to satisfy a couple of dozen ordinary men for three or four lifetimes, and it would have been surprising if after so many hectic events he had contemplated a future of rustic quietude, enlivened by nothing more thrilling than wild gambles on the laying abilities of Leghorns. But it was perhaps more unusual that the particular trouble which he was expecting on this occasion could not be blamed on any fault of his.
He came down the gangway of the Transylvania with a light step in the summer sunlight, with a soft grey hat canted rakishly over one eye and a raincoat slung carelessly over his shoulder. There was death in his pocket and peril of an even deadlier kind under his arm; but he faced the customs officer across his well-labelled luggage with an easy smile and ran a humorous glance down the list of dutiable and prohibited articles presented for his inspection.
'Yes,' he said, 'I'm carrying large quantities of silk, perfume, wines, spirits, tobacco, cut flowers, watches, embroidery, eggs, typewriters, and ex-| plosives. I also have some opium and a couple of howitzers------'
'You don't have to be funny about it, anyway,' grunted the official and scrawled the cryptic hieroglyphics that passed him through with his two guns into England.
He sauntered on through the bleak echoing shed, waving casual adieus to his acquaintances of the voyage. An American banker from Ohio, who had lost three thousand dollars to him over the poker table, buttonholed him without malice.
'See you look me up next time you're in Wapa- koneta,' he said.
'I won't forget,' Simon answered gravely.
