"A--detective?"

"Yes." Simon was unconcernedly providing his buttered toast with an overcoat of marmalade. "Of course, I was sitting down when you came in, so you wouldn't have noticed the size of my feet."

She said nothing. Tope came in with a tray and began unloading it, and Simon Templar went on talking in his quiet flippant way without seeming to notice either the girl's agitation or the other man's presence.

"Being a detective in England," he complained, "has its disadvantages. In America you can always prove your identity by clapping one hand to your hip and using the other to turn back the left lapel of your coat, thereby revealing your badge. It's a trick that always seems to go down very well---that is, if you can judge by the movies."

The colour was slowly ebbing back into the girl's face, but her hands were trembling on the table. She seemed to become conscious of the way they were betraying her, and began twisting her fingers together in a fever. In the silence that followed, Tope shambled out of the room, but this time he did not quite close the door. The Saint had no doubt that the man was listening outside, but he could see no reason why Basher Tope should be deprived of the benefits of a strictly limited broadcasting service. As for the girl, it was plain that the Saint's manner had started to convince her that he was jollying her, but he couldn't help that.

"Is there any reason," he asked, "why I shouldn't be a detective? The police force is open to receive any man who is sufficiently sound of mind and body. I grant you I have a superficial resemblance to a gentleman, but that's the fault of the way I was brought up."

She had no time to frame a reply before there came the sound of voices approaching outside, and a moment later the door swung open and three men came in.

Simon Templar looked up with innocent interest at their entry, but he also spared a glance for the girl. Obviously she was one of their party; but she did not strike Simon as being the sort of girl he would have expected to find in association with the men he was after, and he had some hopes of getting a clue to her status with them by observing the way in which she greeted their arrival. And he was not unpleasantly surprised to find that she looked up furtively--almost, he would have said, in terror.