The Saint and Mr Teal (Once More the Saint)

The commissioner frowned. He was one of the last survivors of the old military school of police chiefs, a distinguished soldier of unimpeachable integrity; but he laboured under the disadvantage of expecting professional law breakers to parade for judgment as meekly as the casual defaulters he had been accustomed to dealing with in Pondicherry.

"About two months ago," he said, "you told me that the Saint's arrest was only a matter of hours. It was something to do with illicit diamonds, wasn't it?"

"It was," Teal said grimly.

He was never likely to forget the incident. Neither, it seemed, were his superiors. Gunner Perrigo was the culprit in that case, and the police had certainly got their man. The only trouble was that Simon Templar had got him first. Perrigo had been duly hanged on the very morning of this conversation, but his illicit diamonds had never been heard of again.

"It should have been possible to form a charge," in­sisted the commissioner, plucking his iron-grey moustache nervously. He disapproved of Teal's attitude altogether, but the plump detective was an important officer.

"It might be, if there were no lawyers," said Teal. "If I went into a witness box and talked about illicit diamonds I should be bawled out of court. We know the diamonds existed, but who's going to prove it to a jury? Frankie Hormer could have talked about them, but Perrigo gave him the works. Perrigo could have talked, but he didn't-and now he's dead. And the Saint got away with them out of England, and that's the end of it. If I could lay my hands on him tomorrow I'd have no more hope of proving he'd ever possessed any illicit diamonds than I'd have of running the Pope for bigamy. We could charge him with obstructing and assaulting the police in the execution of their duty, but what in heaven's name's the use of running the Saint for a milk-and-water rap like that? It'd be the biggest joke that Fleet Street's had on us for years."

"Did you learn all the facts about his last stunt in Germany ?"

"Yes. I did. And it just came through yesterday that the German police aren't in a hurry to prosecute. There's some big name involved, and they've got the wind up. If I was expecting anything else, I was betting the Saint would be hustling back here and getting ready to dare them to try and extradite him from his own country-he's pulled that one on me before."

The commissioner sniffed.

"I suppose if he did come back, you'd want me to head a deputation of welcome," he said scathingly.

"I've done everything that any officer could do in the circumstances, sir," said Teal. "If the Saint came back this afternoon, and I met him on the doorstep of this building, I'd have to pass the time of day with him -and like it. You know the law as well as I do. We couldn't ask him any more embarrassing questions than if he had had a good time abroad, and how was his aunt's rheumatism when he last heard from her. They don't want detectives here any longer-what they need is a staff of hypnotists and faith healers."

The commissioner fidgeted with a pencil.

"If the Saint came back, I should certainly expect to see some change in our methods," he remarked pointedly; and then the telephone on his desk buzzed.

He picked up the receiver, and then passed it across to Teal.

"For you, Inspector," he said curtly.

Teal took over the instrument.

"Saint returns to England," clicked the voice on the wire. "A report from Newhaven states that a man answering to Simon Templar's description landed from the Isle of Sheppey this afternoon. He was subsequently traced to a hotel in the town --"

"Don't talk to me like a fourth-rate newspaper," snarled Teal. "What have they done with him?"

"On the instructions of the chief constable, he is being detained pending advice from London."

Teal put the receiver carefully back on its bracket.

"Well, sir, the Saint has come back," he said glumly,'

CHAPTER II THE assistant commissioner did not head a deputation of welcome to Newhaven. Teal went down alone, with mixed feelings. He remembered that the Saint's last action before leaving England had been to present him with a sheaf of information which had enabled him to clean up several cases that had been racking the brains of the C.I.D. for many months. He remembered also that the Saint's penultimate action had been to threaten him with the most vicious form of blackmail that can be applied to any police officer. But Chief Inspector Teal had long since despaired of reconciling the many contradictions of his endless feud with the man who in any other path of life might have been his closest friend.

He found Simon Templar dozing peacefully on the narrow bed of a cell in Newhaven police station. The Saint rolled up to a sitting position as the detective entered, and smiled at him cheerfully.

"Claud Eustace himself, by the tum-tum of Tut­ankhamen! I thought I'd be seeing you." Simon looked the detective over thoughtfully. "And I believe you've put on weight," he said.