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."The girl looked at him with startled eyes."And do you mean Beppo was in this?""Does it seem that way?" Simon Templar swivelled round towards her with oneeyebrow inquisitorially cocked and a long wisp of smoke trailing through hislips."I wish you could have seen him.Sure he's in it.They turned himover to the Negro Spiritual, and let that big black swine pet him till hesigned.If I told you what they'd done to him you wouldn't be in such a hurryfor your lunch." For a moment the Saint's lips thinned fractionally."He'sjust shot to pieces, and when you see him you'll know why.Sure, that bunchare like brothers to Beppo!"Patricia sat in a thoughtful silence, and the Saint emptied his glass.Thenshe said: "Who are this bunch?"Simon slithered his cigarette round to the corner of his mouth."Well, the actual bunch are mostly miscellaneous, as you might say," heanswered."But the big noise seems to be a bird named Kuzela, whom we haven'tmet before but whom I'm going to meet darn soon.""And this money : ""Is being delivered to Kuzela's men today." The Saint glanced at his watch."Has been, by now.And within twenty-four hours parcels of it will be burningthe sky over to his agents in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Madrid.Within theweek it will be gravitating back to him through the same channels bigbouncing wads of it, translated into authentic wads of francs, marks,pesetas while one million perfectly genuine hundred-lire bills whose numberswere never in the catalogue are drifting home to a Bank of Italy that will bewondering whether the whole world is falling to pieces round its ears.Doyou get me, Pat?"The clear blue eyes rested on her face with the twist of mockinghell-for-leather delight that she knew so well, and she asked her nextquestion almost mechanically."Is it your party?""It is, old Pat.And not a question asked.No living soul must everknow there'd be a panic on the international ex-changes if a word of it leakedout.But every single one of those extra million bills has got to be taken byhand and led gently back to Beppo's tender care and the man who's going to doit is ready for his lunch."And lunch it was without further comment, for the Saint was like that.Butabout his latest meeting with the Ne-gro Spiritual he did not find itnecessary to say anything at all  for, again, the Saint was that way.And after lunch, when Patricia was ordering coffee in the lounge, yet anotherincident which the Saint was inclined to regard as strictly private andpersonal clicked into its appointed socket in the energetic history of thatday.Simon had gone out to telephone a modest tenner on a horse for the 3.30, andwas on his way back through the hall when a porter stopped him."Excuse me, sir, but did you come here from the Berkeley?" The Saint fetchedhis right foot up alongside his left and lowered his brows one millimetre."Yeah I have been in there this morning.""A coloured gentleman brought these for you, sir.He said he saw you drop themas you came out of the hotel, but he lost you in the crowd while he waspicking them up.And then, as he was walking through Lansdowne Passage, hehap-pened to look up and see you at one of the windows, so he brought them in.From the description he gave me it seemed as if it must have been you, sir  ""Oh, it was certainly me."The Saint, who had never owned a pair of lemon-coloured gloves in his life,accepted the specimens gingerly, folded them, and slipped them into hispocket.Page 46ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Funny coincidence, sir, wasn't it?" said the porter chattily."Him happeningto pass by, and you happening to be in the window at that time.""Quite remarkable," agreed the Saint gravely, recalling the care he had takento avoid all windows; and, turning back, he retired rapidly to a remotesanctuary.There he unfolded the gloves in an empty washbasin, con-triving to work themcautiously inside out with his fountain pen in one hand and his propellingpencil in the other.He had not the vaguest idea what kind of creeping West African frightfulnessmight be waiting for him in those citron-hued misdemeanours, but he wascertainly a trifle surprised when he saw what fell out of the first glove thathe tackled [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]