Read Online Enter the Saint by Leslie Charteris - Free Book Online Page A

me!”
    Hayn nodded. “That’s very considerate of you, Mr. Templar,” he said, and his voice was a little shaky, for an idea was being born inside him. “Is that all you came to do?”
    “Not quite, Precious,” said the Saint, settling down on the edge of the desk. “I came to talk business.”
    “Then you won’t want to be hurried,” said Hayn. “There are some other people waiting to see me. Will you excuse me while I go and tell them to call again later?”
    The Saint smiled. “By all manner of means, sonny,” said he. “But I warn you it won’t be any use telling the Snake and his Boys to be ready to beat us up when we leave here, because a friend of ours is waiting a block away with a letter to our friend Inspector Teal-and that letter will be delivered if we don’t report safe and sound in ten minutes from now!”
    “You needn’t worry,” said Hayn. “I haven’t underrated your intelligence!”
    He went out. It was a mistake he was to regret later-never before had he left even his allies alone in that office, much less a confessed enemy. But the urgency of his inspiration had, for the moment, driven every other thought out of his head. The cleverest criminal must make a slip sooner or later, and it usually proves to be such a childish one that the onlooker is amazed that it should have been made at all. Hayn made his slip then, but it must be remembered that he was a very rattled man.
    He found Snake Ganning, sitting at the bar with three picked Boys, and beckoned them out of earshot of the bartender. “The Saint and the rest of his band are in the office,” he said, and Canning let out a virulent exclamation. “No-there won’t be any rough business now. I want to have a chance to find out what his game is. But when the other four go, I want you to tail them and find out all you can about them. Report here at midnight, and I’ll give you your instructions about Templar himself.”
    “When I get hold of that swine,” Ganning ground out vitriolically, “he’s going to-“
    Hayn cut him short with an impatient sweep of his hand. “You’ll wait till I’ve finished with him,” he said. “You don’t want to charge in like a bull at a gate, before you know what’s on the other side of the gate. I’ll tell you when to start-you can bet your life on that!”
    And in that short space of time the Saint, having shamelessly seized the opportunity provided by Hayn’s absence, had comprehensively ransacked the desk. There were four or five lOU’s with Stannard’s signature in an unlocked drawer, and these he pocketed. Hayn had been incredibly careless. And then the Saint’s eye was caught by an envelope on which the ink was still damp. The name “Chastel” stood out as if it had been spelt in letters of fire, so that Simon stiffened like a pointer… . His immobility lasted only an instant. Then, in a flash, he scribbled something on a blank sheet of notepaper and folded it into a blank envelope. With the original before him for a guide, he copied the address in a staggeringly lifelike imitation of Hayn’s handwriting. …
    “I shall now be able to give you an hour, if you want it,” said Hayn, returning, and the Saint turned with a bland smile.
    “I shan’t take nearly as long as that, my cabbage,” he replied. “But I don’t think the proceedings will interest the others, and they’ve got work to do. Now you’ve met them, do you mind if I dismiss the parade?”
    “Not at all, Mr. Templar.”
    There was a glitter of satisfaction in Hayn’s eyes; but if the Saint noticed it, he gave no sign. “Move to the right in column o’ route-etcetera,” he ordered briskly. “In English, hop it!”
    The parade, after a second’s hesitation, shuffled out with expressionless faces. They had not spoken a word from the time of their entrance to the time of their exit. It may conveniently be recorded at this juncture that Snake Ganning and the Boys spent eleven laboriously profitless hours