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.But ifWaldstein was the right bait, Trelawney was bound to walk into the trap.If aman takes graft, he can't let his clients down; if he does, they can squeal onhim.Waldstein being in Paris put Trelawney in a tight corner, but he had totake his chance.He didn't know how big a chance it was.Ordinarily, you see,he might easily have got away with it.But he didn't know that there wasalready some sort of evidence against him; he didn't know he was beingfollowed; and he couldn't have guessed that there could be enough suspicion tolead to the opening of his safe deposit.""Had he any particular enemies?"Page 16ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"No more than the average successful policeman.""No name you can remember hearing him mention?"Cullis tugged at an iron-grey moustache."Heavens! I don't know!""No one of the name of Essenden?"It was a shot in the dark, but it creased two additional wrinkles into theassistant commissioner's lined forehead."What made you think of that?" he asked."I didn't," said the Saint."It just fell out of the blue.But Jill was on herway to Essenden's when I first met her, and that was the first time the Angelshave been seen out before an arrest.Get me?""But they were there to cover Dyson.Surely it's reason-able for them to haverealized that it's easier to prevent a man being arrested than to get him awayafter the arrest?"Simon nodded."I know.Still, I'm keeping an open mind."He continued in communion with his open mind for some time after thecommissioner had left and went to bed with the mind, if possible, more openthan before.Perhaps Sir Francis Trelawney had been framed.Per-haps he had not beenframed.If he had been framed, it had been brilliantly done.If he had notbeen framed.Well, it was quite natural that a girl like Jill Trelawney,as he estimated her, might refuse to believe it.And, either way, if youlooked at it from the standpoint of a law-abiding citizen and an incipientpoliceman to boot, the rights and wrongs of the Trelawney case made nodifference to the rights and wrongs of Jill.Within the past five months, a complete dozen of valuable prisoners had beenrescued from under the very arms of the law, long as those arms weretraditionally reputed to be; and the manner of their rescue, in every case,betrayed such an exhaustive knowledge of police methods and routine that attimes a complete reorganiza-tion of the Criminal Investigation Department'ssystem seemed to be the only possible alternative to impotent surrender.Andthis, as is the way of such things, accurate-ly coincided with one of thosewaves of police unpopularity and hysterical newspaper criticism which makecom-missioners and superintendents acidulated and old before their time.Clearly, it could not go on.The newspapers said so, and therefore it musthave been so.And the Saint understood quite calmly and contentedly that,after the matter in which the Saint had made his debut as a law-abidingcitizen, either the Angels of Doom or Simon Templar had got to come to asudden and sticky end.Completely comprehending this salient fact, the Saint drank his breakfastcoffee black the next morning, and sent the milk bottle from outside his frontdoor to an analyst.He had the report by lunchtime."At least," he told Cullis, "I'm collecting the makings of a case against theAngels.""There was nothing against them before," assented the commissionersarcastically.Simon shook his head."There wasn't.Assaulting the police, obstructing the police I tell you, inspite of everything, you could only have got them on minor charges.Butattempted mur-der  ""Or even real murder," said Cullis cheerfully.2"Slinky" Dyson had squealed.Simon Templar had to admit that nothing but thathappy windfall had enabled him to step so promptly upon the tail of the Angelsof Doom.Slinky was pulled sin for suspicious loitering one evening, and whenthey searched him they found on his person a compact leather wallet containingtools which were held to be house-breaking implements within the meaning ofPage 17ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlthe Act.Simon happened to be in Marlbor-ough Street police station at thetime, and witnessed the discovery."I was waiting for a friend," said Slinky."Honest I was.""Honest you may have was," said the inspector heavily."But you grew out ofthat years ago."Shortly after Slinky had been locked up, he asked to speak to the inspectoragain, and the inspector thought the squeal sufficiently promising to fetchTeal in to hear it.And then Teal sent in the Saint."I told you I was waiting for a friend," said Slinky, "and that's gospel.Butif you'd pulled me to-morrow.I was going down to take a look at LordEssenden's party.I had a tip from the Angels.You'll find the letter in myroom---I put it in the Bible on the shelf over the bed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]