The Saint in Action (22 page)

The film star’s frightened eyes looked up from the card.

“Yes, I’ve heard your name,” she whispered. “You work with the Saint, don’t you? Sit down, please, Miss Holm. I don’t know why you’ve come. I told Mr Templar over the phone that it was all a silly joke–-“

“And I’m here because the Saint didn’t believe you,” Patricia interrupted gently. “If you’ve heard of him you must know that you can trust him. Simon thinks that something ought to be done about the Z-Man, and he’s the one man in all the world to do it.”

Beatrice Avery’s breasts stirred shakily under her clinging satin negligee, and her grey eyes grew obstinate —with the dreadful obstinacy of utter fear.

“It’s all very absurd, Miss Holm,” she said, trying to speak carelessly. “There’s no such person as the Z-Man. How did Mr Templar know … I mean, there’s nothing I can tell you.”

“You’d rather pay ten thousand pounds–-“

“There’s nothing I can tell you,” repeated the girl, rising to her feet. “Nothing! Nothing at all! Please leave me alone!”

Her voice was almost shrill, and Patricia saw at a glance that it would be hopeless to prolong the interview. Beatrice Avery was a great deal more frightened than even the Saint had realized or Patricia had expected. Patricia was shrewd and understanding, and she knew when she was wasting her time. Anybody less clever would have persisted and only hardened Beatrice Avery’s obstinacy. All Patricia did was to point to her card on the table.

“If you change your mind,” she said, “there’s the phone number. We’ll do anything we can to help you —and we keep secrets.”

She was not feeling very satisfied with herself as she rode down in the elevator. It wouldn’t be pleasant to go back to the Saint and report failure after the boast she had made. But it couldn’t be helped. It was just one of those things. The Saint would think of some other approach… .

The hall was deserted when she reached it, and she walked out into the evening dusk and paused uncertainly on the sidewalk in the glow of the red and green neon lights that decorated the entrance. A taxi crawled by, and she signalled. The driver swung round in the road and pulled in.

“Cornwall House, Piccadilly,” said Patricia.

“Yes, miss,” answered the driver, reaching round and opening the door.

She got in, and the cab was off before she had fairly closed the door. Something hard and round pressed into her side, and she looked quickly into the shadows. A smallish man with ferretlike eyes was sitting beside her.

“One scream, sister, and you’re for it,” said the man in a flat matter-of-fact voice. “This thing in your side is a gun, and I’m not afraid to use it.”

“Oh!” said Patricia faintly, and she sagged into limpness.

She had done it so well that Ferret Eyes was completely taken in. Patricia, her brain working like oiled machinery, did not blame herself for having fallen into such a simple trap. She had had no reason to be on the alert for one; and she knew that it had not been laid for her at all. The ungodly had mistaken her for Beatrice Avery! And why shouldn’t they? She was the same height and colouring, close enough to have deceived even the Saint at a distance, and she had emerged from the apartment house where Beatrice Avery lived. With the added help of the dim light she might have deceived anyone—and might go on deceiving him for a while, so long as she kept her mouth shut. It was to avoid being forced to talk too much that she had feigned that rapid faint, to give herself a chance to think over her next move.

She was aware of a throb of excitement within her. There was no fear in her—the Saint had taught her to forget such things. Instead he had bequeathed her so much of his own blithe recklessness that she saw in a flash that while she had failed with Beatrice Avery she might yet succeed in this new and unexpected quarter. It amused her to think that while the enemy wouldn’t have dared to use the taxicab trick with her, they had thought it good enough for the film star, who was naturally unversed in the ways of the ungodly. And yet it was she, Patricia Holm, who had fallen for it! It was a twist that might provide the Saint with the scent he was looking for.

She was preparing to come naturally out of her faint when the taxi bumped heavily and swung giddily round in a sharp arc. Then it came to a jerky stop, and Pat heard some doors closing. She sat half forward with a dazed look on her face.

“Take it easy, sister,” said Ferret Eyes gratingly. “Nobody’s going to hurt that lovely face of yours— yet.”

“Where am I? What are you going to do to me?” she gasped, her voice faltering. “I’ll pay!” she went on hysterically. “I tried to pay at the Dorchester. You didn’t come. I had the money–-“

“Tell it to somebody else,” he said callously.

He forced her to get out, and she saw that the cab had been driven into an ancient garage and the doors closed on it. There was a ramshackle door at the rear, just against the cab’s radiator; and he gripped her by the arm and hustled her through it and down a steep flight of stairs into a low, malodorous cellar. The taxi driver followed. An electric torchlight flashed on her out of the black darkness as she stumbled down to the bottom—and a man who was already down there behind the light drew his breath through his teeth in a long sibilant hiss.

“Who’s the damn fool responsible for this?” His harsh voice came from behind the blaze. “This girl is not Beatrice Avery!”

The taxi driver lurched forward.

“You’re crazy!” he growled. “I recognized ‘er as soon as she came out… .” He swung Patricia round and stared into her face with the light full on it; and then he swore savagely. “God, it isn’t! But it’s just like ‘er. I never sore ‘er in a light like this… .”

Ferret Eyes stiffened and swore also, more fluently. His grip on the girl’s arm tightened.

“Well, who is she?” he rasped. “She knows what it’s about—she was gabbing about the money as if she knew everything!”

The man behind the torch reached out a clawlike hand and seized Patricia’s bag. He opened it. The card she had given to Beatrice Avery was not the only one. She could feel him staring from the card to her face in the silence that followed.

“Patricia Holm!” said the man in the darkness with a dry, sandy grit in his voice. “That’s who she is. A fine pair of saps you’ve turned out to be!” His voice quivered with rising fury. “No wonder she fooled you! Don’t you know who she is ? Haven’t you ever heard of the Saint?”

There was a silence that descended like a fog. It seemed to throb and vibrate through the cellar, filling it with a choking stillness broken only by the heavy breathing of the three men. It was something, Patricia reflected wryly, to know that the Saint’s name alone was capable of creating such panic. At that moment it was about the only asset she had.

“You know what he’ll say when he finds out that your blasted blundering has brought the Saint down on us!” snapped the man behind the torch. “You’d better do something about it. I’ll hold this girl here. You two get straight out and go after Templar. And get him before he gets you. Understand? Don’t come back until you’ve got him!”

“Why bother?” drawled a voice that cut through the air like the thrust of a rapier blade. “I’ve already invited myself. And just which of you is planning to be the hero?”

Three gasps sounded in unison, and the beam of the electric flashlight jerked round as if it had been snatched by an invisible wire. On the mouldering stairs stood the Saint, immaculate and deadly.

IV

The gun in Simon Templar’s hand circled leisurely over the three male occupants of the cellar in a generous expansiveness of invitation. The man who had been doing the talking was still only a vague shape behind the dazzling bulb of his electric torch; but the Saint’s uncanny eyes pierced the screen of light enough to see the unoccupied hand which reached round towards a hip pocket.

“That’s only one of the many ways of dying, brother,” said the Saint instructively. “But of course you can make your own choice. …”

The hipwards movement of the hand was arrested, and at the same moment the man switched off his torch. He was disappointed, however, in assuming that this would result in a decrease in the cellar’s illumination. The general lighting effect was not only doubled, but he himself stood in the direct glare of a miniature searchlight. The Saint had decided that it was time to take full stock of the situation, and his own flashlight was even better than the one that had gone out.

The man who had stood concealed behind the light was a disappointment. His appearance, after the crisp and authoritative tone of his voice, came as a considerable shock. He was a small skinny bird of about forty, extraordinarily neatly dressed, his ornamentations including a waisted overcoat and fawn spats. His face was small featured with sandy eyebrows just visible over the tops of his highly respectable gold-rimmed pince-nez. His nose and mouth were small; and his chin, after a half-hearted attempt to establish itself, drifted away to hide itself shyly in his neck.

“You ought to be more careful, Andy,” Simon admonished him. “Take that gun out of your pocket if you like, but spread it out on the floor where we can all feast our eyes on it.”

“My name is not Andy,” said the chinless man.

“No? Except for the eye gear and the spats you look exactly like Andy Gump,” answered the Saint. “Pat, old darling, if you can spare a moment you might build up our collection of artillery.”

Not one of the men attempted to move. They knew the Saint’s reputation, and they had an earnest and unanimous desire to continue living. Behind the bantering cadence of the Sail t’s voice there was a glacial chill that converted the cellar into a refrigerator. His gun was extremely visible, too, and the lean brown fingers that held it had a lively quality that made them look as if they would just as soon start squeezing as keep still.

Patricia relieved the clerkly-looking Mr Gump of his gun, and Ferret Eyes threw his own weapon hn the floor before she could even turn to him.

“I ain’t got no pistol, miss, swelp me I ain’t,” swore the taxi driver hoarsely.

She believed him, but she patted his pockets just the same. And Simon descended the stairs.

“Now, boys, you can line yourselves up against that wall over there,” he said with an indicative flick of his gun muzzle. “And don’t forget where you are… . Pat, you take this heater and stand well to the side. Here’s the torch, too, and keep the light nicely steady. … It will interest you birds to know,” he added for the benefit of the obedient trio, “that the lady can hit a microbe’s eye at fifty yards. If you don’t believe me, you only have to bring on your microbes.”

He took Mr Gump’s gun from Patricia and picked up Ferret Eyes’ weapon from the floor; then he swiftly examined both and thrust them into his pocket. From another pocket he produced a second automatic of his own. He never trusted strange weapons. Holding his gun with careless ease, he briefly inspected the taxi driver and Ferret Eyes; he was not particularly interested in either of them since they definitely came within the dull category of small fry. Mr Gump, however, was probably very close to the Z-Man. Mr Gump needed careful investigation. He looked very meek and inoffensive as the Saint started going through his pockets—except perhaps for the snakelike glitter in his eyes behind the gold-rimmed pince-nez—a glitter which belied the disarming weakness of his chin.

And suddenly Mr Gump gave a demonstration which proved him to be either a very rash fool or a very brave man. As Simon Templar was in the act of insinuating a brown hand into Mr Gump’s breast pocket a knee shot up and dug itself into the lower region of his stomach. With a simultaneous cohesion of movement Mr Gump grabbed at the Saint’s gun and tore it out of Simon’s relaxed fingers. In another instant the muzzle was jammed hard against Simon’s chest with Mr Gump’s finger on the trigger.

“Drop that gun, Miss Holm, oryour friend becomes an angel instead of a Saint,” said Mr Gump.

Patricia made no movement. Nobody made any movement. And the Saint chuckled.

“That was careless of me, brother—but not so careless as you think,” he murmured. “That gun’s the one I didn’t load.”

He raised his hand almost casually and took hold of Mr Gump’s small nose. He gripped it very hard between his finger anil thumb and twisted it.

Click!

Mr Gump pulled the trigger in a flurry of blind fury and extreme anguish. And that empty click! was the only result. He pulled again, and nothing happened. Nothing, that is, except that the agonizing torque on his sensitive nose increased. He let out a strangled squeal and dropped his useless weapon; and at the same time the Saint released his grip.

“I told you it wasn’t loaded,” said the Saint, picking up the automatic by the trigger guard and dropping it into his pocket. “I think I’d better use your gun, Andy. But don’t try any more tricks like that, or I might really have to hurt you.”

Mr Gump did not reply; except for the baleful glitter in his streaming eyes he seemed unmoved. Patricia., who knew the Saint’s twisted sense of humour better than anybody, wondered why he had wasted time by amusing himself so childishly at Mr Gump’s expense. There must have been a reason somewhere; for Simon Templar never did strange things without a reason, and it was invariably a good one. It was noticeable that he held the new gun, which was loaded with death, in such a way that Mr Gump would never have a chance of grabbing it.

“So we collect pretty pictures, do we?”

The Saint’s voice held nothing but tolerant amusement as he inspected the four glossy photographs of feminine pulchritude which he had abstracted from Mr Gump’s breast pocket.

“Why not?” said the other defensively. “I’m a film fan.”

“Brother, you certainly know how to pick winners,” commented the Saint. “This young lady in the voluminous mid-Victorian attire, complete with bustle, is undoubtedly Miss Beatrice Avery, shining star of Triumph Film Productions Limited. Very charming. Of course it’s her you thought you were snatching tonight. Number Two, in the exotic Eastern outfit, is the lovely Irene Cromwell, under contract with Pyramid Pictures. We could use her, Andy. Number Three, in the dinky abbreviated beach suit, is no less a person than Sheila Ireland, now starring with Summit Picture Corporation. I can see I shall have to get out my old water wings. And Number Four–-” He paused, and his eyes hardened. “Very sad about Number Four, don’t you think, Andy? A couple of months ago Miss Mercia Landon was doing the final scenes of her new film for Atlantic Studios. A couple of months ago … And now?”