Read Online The Saint in Action by Leslie Charteris, Robert Hilbert; - Free Book Online Page B

plan to let him end the adventure in the same way, but now they would proceed with considerable caution. And the Saint knew that when the ungodly began to proceed with caution instead of simply leaning on the trigger and asking questions afterwards as common sense would dictate was when an honest man might begin to look for loopholes. If there was anything that Simon Templar needed then it was loopholes; and he was watching for them with a languid and untroubled smile on his lips and his muscles poised and tingling like a sprinter at the start of a race.
    Perez spoke again after that momentous silence in a babble of rapid-fire Spanish.
    “He means his friends at his apartment.”
    “How many of them are there?” asked Quintana in the same language.
    “There is a girl and a manservant. Those are the only ones who live there—I made enquiries. No one else has been there today except Graham.”
    Quintana glanced at the Saint again; but the Saint, who understood every word as easily as if it had been spoken in English, frowned back at him with the worried expression of a man who is trying hard to understand and failing in the attempt.
    “You are sure there is no mistake?” Quintana insisted.
    “That would be impossible. I heard about Graham from Ingleston, and he is not the type of man who would be an associate of the Saint. I followed him to the Saint’s apartment this morning, and Fernandez followed him back there when the Saint went in to Ingleston’s. Fernandez and Nayder have been watching there ever since, pretending to repair telephone wires.”
    “But your telephone call–-“
    “That was Fernandez, to know how much longer he should stay there. Also he was suspicious because an old man muffled up so that he could not be recognized had been brought out of the next apartment, and Fernandez had been thinking about it and wondering if it was one of the Saint’s gang. Now we know that it must have been the Saint himself.”
    “No one else has gone out the same way?”
    “No.”
    Quintana gazed at the Saint thoughtfully, stroking the barrel of his automatic with his left hand.
    “You will excuse us not speaking English, Mr Templar,” he said at length. “Naturally it is easier for us to speak our own language. But I was just trying to find out how good your case was. Major Perez assures me that we are more or less in your hands.”
    The Saint, who knew that Major Perez had done no such thing, returned his gaze with a bland and gullible smile. “That was what I was trying to make you see, dear old bird,” he said, but his pulses were beating a little faster.
    “If you will come into the next room,” said Quintana, “we had better see if we can settle this matter like gentlemen.”
    Urivetzky’s brow blackened incredulously, and he made an abrupt movement.
    “Fools 1” he snarled. “Would you let this man–-“
    “Please,” said Quintana, turning towards him. “Would you allow me to handle this affair in my own way? We are not criminals—we are supposed to be diplomats.”
    As he had turned the Saint could only see him in profile; but Simon knew as certainly as if he could have seen it that the side of his face which only Urivetzky could see moved in a significant wink. He knew it if from nothing else from the way Urivetzky’s scowl smoothed out into inscrutability.
    “Perhaps you are right,” Urivetzky said presently with a shrug. “But these ways are not my ways.”
    “Sometimes they are necessary,” said Quintana and turned to Perez. “You agree, Major?”
    The Spanish Patriot, with his eyes still fixed on the Saint, brought his features into perfunctory and calculating repose.
    “Of course.”
    Quintana bowed.
    “Will you come this way, Mr Templar?”
    Simon hitched himself off the mantelpiece and strolled across to the communicating door. Quintana moved aside to let him pass and immediately fell in behind him and followed him into the study. Urivetzky came after him, and Perez