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."Simon!" she got out breathlessly."Are you all right?""Fairly," he said."I thought I told you to stay in the house.""I know.But I was watching.I saw Karl running away -I was afraid somethinghad happened to you and."That was when she saw the body of the mousey little man lying at his feet.Her eyes widened, and then darkened with bewilderment."But I was sure it was Karl and it wasn't here  ""It was Karl," said the Saint."And he did run away.We were in thelaboratory, and I was just getting around to a real heart-to-heart talk withhim when he pulled a fast one.So I learnt a new trick." Simon twisted hislips wryly."I was run-ning after Karl when I fell over Sylvester."Madeline Gray looked down at the motionless figure in rumpled clothes thatdidn't seem to belong to it any more."He looks sort of dead, doesn't he?" she said uncertainly."He is dead," said the Saint.She swallowed something, and found her breath way down in her chest."You killed him?""No.He was dead when I tumbled over him.He's been dead a little while, too.He must have been snooping around when Karl came here, and Karl thought hebelonged to us and conked him just a little too hard.So they weren't on thesame side after all.This gets more interesting all the time.""I'm glad you think so," she said, without any intention of being smart.The Saint would scarcely have noticed if she had.His mind was busy with toomany new adjustments, working resiliently ahead from the setback and trying tofollow the sudden break in the pattern."Go on back to the house," he said, "and keep out of sight.I'll be with youin a minute."He had already disturbed the body and its surroundings considerably bystumbling over it and then verifying its con-dition, so a little moredisturbance would make no difference.Once again he turned out a set ofpockets, and found nothing very extraordinary except the eavesdropping devicewhich he had seen before.Mr.Angert apparently had been trustful enough tocarry no weapons.There was a bulging wallet in one inside pocket, and afolded sheet of paper with a lot of cryp-tic scribbling on it in another.Simon replaced everything else, and took those two items with him.He found Madeline Gray in the living-room, toying nerv-ously with a cigarette."I don't seem to be much good at this, do I?" she said."I'm frightened."He smiled encouragement."You haven't screamed yet." He sat down beside the tele-phone."Now I'm goingto do something very dull.I'm going to have to call the FBI.""I suppose that is the right thing to do.""It's the only thing to do.I don't have a fingerprinting out-fit with me, Idon't have access to a lot of criminal records, I can't broadcast yourfather's description, and I haven't got an army of operatives to follow everylead.Aside from that, I'm wonderful."He dialed the operator and asked for information, and af-ter a few minutes hewas through to New Haven."I want to talk to whoever's in charge there," he said."The name is SimonTemplar."After a moment another voice said: "Yes, Mr.Templar?""Did you get a call from Washington about me?""Yes.Anything we can do?""I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to Tun down to Stamford.This is aPage 45ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlkidnaping.And incidentally there's an-other guy murdered, if that makes itsound better."There was a brief digestive pause."Okay," said the voice matter-of-factly."I can be there in about an hour.Where are you?"Simon got the address from Madeline, repeated it, and hung up.He lighted a cigarette, took out his automatic, and replen-ished the clip witha couple of loose shells from his pocket."So," she said, "it was Karl.""It was.And he was also one of our playmates of last night.And he may havebeen the man who put that note in my pocket.I did get a few answers out ofhim, for what they're worth, before he foxed me."He gave her a complete story of what had happened."I haven't any doubt that Karl is a Nazi," he said."But somehow I don't thinkhe's a big one.I don't know how big the Nazi angle is.It still doesn't lookbig or else it's too big to see.But I'd be inclined to say that Karl was justput in here originally as a routine assignment, a sort of leg man, to find outwhat your father was up to.Did he have any chance to learn this formula?""No.Daddy never told anyone the real secret except me.""I didn't think so.If Karl had known it, they wouldn't have needed to kidnapyour father which he admitted, by the way, when he was getting under my guardby pretending to break down and Karl wouldn't have needed to come back here.Iimagine he was sent back to see if he couldn't find some notes or clues.""What else did he say?""He said he wasn't working for Imberline yet.But I don't know whether Ibelieve that or not [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]