Read Online Señor Saint by Leslie Charteris - Free Book Online

about your crew on the boat?”
    “They’re only half in on the caper. We told them we were only trying to run in a batch of illegal slot machines, and hired them for a flat price. You can imagine what a cut they’d have wanted if we’d said anything about guns. They don’t think they’re taking much of a risk, and I’d hate to rely on them in a real jam.”
    “But you’re paying them out of your share?”
    “Call it part of the investment I mentioned. That’s why I couldn’t offer you better than a three-way split. When you work it out, you’ll really be getting closer to half of the net.”
    He nodded.
    “I’m afraid my lecture on the folly of being too generous isn’t going to do you much good when I get around to it, Doris.” The twist of his mouth was humorously speculative. “However, since you made the terms, I guess a little body-guarding isn’t too much help to ask in return for a cut like that.”
    She stood up from the chair and moved towards him. She kept on coming towards him, slowly, until the tips of her breasts touched his chest.
    “If that isn’t enough,” she said, “there might be a personal bonus… . Sherman won’t be back for a long while yet. You’ve got time to think it over.”
    5.
    Doris Inkler phoned him at nine o’clock, as he was stepping out of the shower, and asked him to join them in their suite for breakfast. A few minutes later he knocked on the door, and she opened it. She looked fresh and cool in a light cotton print, and her eyes were only warm and intimate for an instant, before she turned to introduce him to her husband.
    “Doris has told me the deal,” Inkier said, shaking hands in the brisk businesslike way which was so much a part of his act that it must have become a part of himself. “This caper is all her baby, so it’s okay with me. Glad to have you on our side.”
    He looked a little tired and nervous.
    “I didn’t get in till three this morning,” he explained. “These Mexicans don’t seem to care about bedtime. I guess they make up for it with their siestas in the afternoon. However, everything’s set.”
    A waiter wheeled in a table set with three places.
    “We ordered bacon and eggs for you,” Inkler said. “Hope that’s all right.”
    “I’m starved,” Doris said. “While you were dining and wining with the brothers, you’d politely got rid of me.”
    “I thought you’d get yourself something here,” Inkler said.
    “I was too busy locating Mr. Templar. And after that- too busy.”
    She was pouring coffee as she said it, and she didn’t look at Simon.
    “I’m sorry,” said the Saint. “I forgot all about that. I was too interested myself.”
    The waiter was gone, and they ate.
    “The Enriquez boys are calling for us at half past eleven,” Inkler said. “By that time they’ll have arranged for the cash. They’ll drive us to Vera Cruz. They’ve got a fishing boat there, and we’ll go out and look at the cargo. I sent a radiogram to our captain last night, telling him to meet us twenty miles out. I just hope it isn’t too rough.”
    “How are you going to account for me?” Simon asked.
    “That’s easy,” Doris said. “You’re Sherman’s partner, just arrived from the States. You were worried about him making no progress, and flew down unexpectedly to see whether you could help.”
    “Your faith in me is almost embarrassing. How did you know I’d have the equipment to disguise myself, in case one of the brothers happened to remember seeing me at another table last night?”
    “If you hadn’t, we could have lent it to you. But I couldn’t imagine the Saint being without it. I expect you have another name with you, too.”
    “Tombs,” said the Saint. “Sebastian Tombs.”
    He still had a sentimental attachment to the absurd alias that he had used so often, but he felt reasonably confident that the Enriquez brothers would not have heard of it.
    “Have you got a gun?” Inkier asked. Simon patted his left