The Saint Meets His Match (She was a Lady)

Returning downstairs to the manager's office, he learnt, as he expected, that the car had been ordered by the hotel on behalf of Mr. Halliday.

"We arrange these things," said the manager.

"And sometimes," said Teal, with a certain morose en­thusiasm, "you pay for them, too."

The manager was not entirely green.

"I suppose,' he said, "we needn't expect them back?"

"You needn't," said Teal. "That's another eccentricity of these very wealthy Americans."

He hurried back to Scotland Yard, and by the time he arrived there he had decided that there was only one place in England where Jill Trelawney and Simon Tem­plar could plausibly be going that night.

He tried to telephone to Essenden, and was informed that the line was out of order. Then he tried to get in touch with the assistant commissioner, but Cullis had left the Yard at six o'clock, and was not to be found either at his private address or at his club.

Teal was left with only one thing to do; for he had a profound contempt for all police officials outside the Metropolitan area.

At ten minutes to ten he was speeding through the west of London in a police car; and he realized, grimly, that he was unlikely to arrive at Essenden's anything less than two hours too late.

 

Chapter VII

HOW JILL TRELAWNEY KEPT AN APPOINTMENT,

AND SIMON TEMPLAR WENT PADDLING

 

ESSENDEN poured himself out another drink, and pushed the decanter towards the centre of the table.

It was quiet in Essenden Towers that night. Lord Es­senden had seen to that. With some ingenuity, and a solic­itude which hitherto he had not been in the habit of manifesting, he had suggested to Lady Essenden that her appreciation of country life would be enhanced by an occasional visit to London, In fact, he said, he had taken a box at the Orpheum Theatre, for that very night.

It was unfortunate that at the last moment, when they had been on the point of setting out for London, Lord Essenden had been overcome by a violent and agonizing attack of toothache. But he refused to allow his misfor­tune to interfere with his wife's amusement, and insisted that she should go to London alone. He had telephoned to friends and arranged for them to accompany his lady.