06 Alias the Saint

"Hallin's right off your usual mark. He doesn't belong to any shady bunch. If he did, I'd know it. He isn't even a borderline case, like I knew Lemuel was.

"He isn't.''

"And yet he tried to bump you off last night,"

The Saint inhaled deeply, and exhaled again through a Saintly smile.

"If you want to know why he did that," he said, I'll tell you. It was because he's always been terribly afraid of death."

"Do you mean he thought you ere going to kill him?"

"That's not what I said. I certainly did say I was going to kill him; but whether he believed me or not is more than I can tell you at present."

"Then what do you mean?"

Simon raised his eyebrows mournfully, but he checked the protest that was almost becoming a habit. After all, Teal was only a detective. One had to make allowances.

"Miles Hallin thought no one in the world knew the truth about him," said the Saint. "And then he found that I knew. So he wanted me to die."

Teal compressed his lips.

Then he said: "And what was this truth?"

"Simply that Miles Hallin is a coward."

"Would he try to kill you for that?"

The Saint gazed at the ceiling,

"Did you take my tip about that Brooklands affair?" he asked.

"I made some inquiries," Teal shrugged. "I'm afraid it wasn't much use. I'm told no one could Improve anything."

"And yet you've come back to see me."

"After that business last night. On the level, Templar, I'd be glad of a tip. You know something that I don't know, and just this once I want you to help me. If it had looked like one of your ordinary shows, I wouldn't have done it."

"Where is the peculiar difference between this show and what you call my 'ordinary shows'?"

"You know as well as I do--"

"I don't!"

The Saint uncurled from his chair like a steel spring released, and his eyes were of the same steel. The detective realized that those eyes had been levelled unwinkingly at him for a long while; but he had not realized it before. Now he saw his mistake.

"I don't know anything of the kind," snapped the Saint, with those eyes of chilled steel; and the laziness had vanished altogether from his voice. "But I do know that I can't swallow the joke of your coming to see me just because you want to take one of my feathers and put it in your own cap. I've got a darned good swallowing apparatus. Teal, I promise you but it simply won't sink that one!"

Teal blinked.

"I only wanted to ask you--"

"Shucks!" said the Saint tersely. "You've told me what you wanted to ask me. My yell is that you haven't told me the real reason. And that's what I'm going to know before we take the palaver any further. You asked me not to stall; now I'm telling you not to stall. Shoot!"

For a space of seconds they eyed one another in silence; and then the detective nodded fractionally, though his round, red face had not changed its expression.

"All right," he said slowly. "I'll come clean--if you'll do the same."

The Saint stood tensely. But he hesitated only for a moment. He thought: "Something's happened. Teal knows what it is. I've got to find out. It may or may not be important, but--"

The Saint said curtly: "That's O.K. by me,"

"Then you start," answered Teal.

Simon drew breath.

"Mine's easy. I suspect that the story of Hallin's luck in Australia is a lie. I know that Hallin's crazy about the same girl that Nigel Perry's in love with. I know that Hallin tried to push Perry out of the running by persuading him to put the little money he'd got into a mine that Hallin thought was a dud. I know that Teddy Everest told Hallin the mine was a dud, and later told him that it wasn't a dud after all. I know Hallin faked that crash because Teddy might be dangerous. I know Hallin had planned some story to get those shares back from Perry; and I know Hallin tried to kill me, because I told Perry the truth--even if Perry didn't believe me. That's all there is to it. Your turn."

Teal's chair creaked as he moved; but his eyes were closed. He appeared to have fallen asleep. And then he spoke with a voice that was not at all sleepy.

"Moyna Stanford was kidnapped this afternoon," he said; and the Saint swore softly

"The hell!

"That's all I know."

"Tell me about it."

"There's very little to tell. She'd been down to lunch with some friends at Windsor--she walked alone to the station--and she hasn't been seen since."

"But, burn it!--a grown girl can disappear for two or three hours without being kidnapped, can't she?"

"Ordinarily, she can," said Teal, "I'm just telling you what's happened. She was due to have tea with some friends of her mother's. They rang up her mother to ask why she hadn't come. Her mother rang up Windsor to ask the same question. And as soon as her mother grasped the facts she went flying to the police. Of course, Mrs. Stanford didn't get much satisfaction--we haven't got time to attend to hysterical parents who get the wind up as quickly as that--but I heard about it, and it seemed to link up. Anyway--"