"Of course," answered Nordsten shortly. "Why not?"
Mr. Teal took in a mouthful of air and wedged his bouncing tonsils down with it. Why not? When a taxi driver had been found that very afternoon who said that a man whom he identified from Simon Templar's photograph had paid him fivc hundred pounds for his taxi, his overcoat, and his cap, shortly after two o'clock. It was true that this man had said that he wanted the taxi for a museum . . .
"Did he have a taxi with him?" Teal blurted sudorifically.
"As a matter of fact, he had," said Nordsten with faint surprise. "He had just bought it because he wanted to present it to a museum. We had to take it to a garage before we drove down."
"How on earth did you guess that, Claud?" asked the Saint admiringly.
Mr. Teal's pudgy fists clenched.
"Guess it?" he yapped and cleared his obstructed throat. There were so many other things he wanted to say. How did he guess it? Words failed him. It was true that no one had been able to take the number of the taxi in which that par- ticular train of trouble had begun, on account of its defective rear light; it was true that no one could positively identify the taxi, which was exactly the same as any other standard cab of prewar vintage; it was true that no one could positively identify the man who had driven it; but there was a limit to coincidences. The Saint had met Mr. Teal outside the club and seen him go in. The Saint had bought a taxi. Mr. Teal had ridden in a taxi shortly afterwards and sustained adventures such as only the Saint's evil genius could have originated. How did he guess it? Mr. Teal's protruding eyes turned glassily back to the Saint; but what court in the kingdom would ac-cept his description of Simon's smile of gentle mockery as evidence? Teal swung round on Nord-sten again. "How long had he had this taxi when you met him?" he croaked.
"It can't have been many minutes," said Nord-sten. "When I came down Bond Street he was standing beside it, and he pointed out the driver walking away and told me what had happened.'
"Was anyone else with you?"
"My chauffeur."
"You know that your butler is a convicted criminal?"
Nordsten raised his eyebrows.
"I fail to see the connection; but of course I am familiar with his record. I happen to be inter-ested in criminal reform--if that is any concern of yours." Erik was very tired; but the nervous tension of his voice and hands, at that moment was very easily construed as a symptom of rising anger. "If I am to understand that you want my evidence in connection with some criminal charge, Inspector," he said with some asperity, "I shall be glad to give it in the proper place; and I think my reputation will be sufficient support of my sworn word."
Simon Templar eased a cylinder of ash off his cigar and uncoiled his lazy length from the armchair in which he had been relaxing. He stood up, lean and wicked and tantalizing in the silk dressing gown which he had thrown on over his scanty clothing, and smiled at the detective very seraphically.
"Somehow, Claud," he murmured, "I feel that you're shinning up the wrong flagpole. Now why not be a sportsman and admit that you've launched a floater? Drop in again some time, and we'll put on the whole works. There will be a trapdoor in the floor under the carpet and a sinister cellar underneath with two dead bodies in it------"
"I wish one of them could be yours," said Mr. Teal, in a tone of passionate yearning.
"Talking of bodies," said the Saint, "I believe your tummy is getting bigger. When I prod it with my finger------"
"Don't do it!" brayed the infuriated detective.
The Saint sighed.
"I'm afraid you're a bit peevish tonight, Eustace," he said reproachfully. "Never mind. We all have our off moments, and a good dose of castor oil in the morning is a great pick-me-up. . . . And so to bed."
He steered the detective affectionately towards the door; and, having no other instructions, the inarticulate Sergeant Barrow joined in the general exodus. Mr. Teal could not forbid him. Looked at from every angle that Chief Inspector Teal's overheated brain could devise, which included a few slants that Euclid never dreamed of, the situation offered no other exit. And in the depths of his soul Teal wanted nothing better than to go away. He wanted to remove himself into some un-fathomed backwater of space and sit there for centuries with a supply of spearmint in his pocket and an ice compress on his head, figuring out how it had all happened. And in his heart was some of the outraged bitterness which must have afflicted Sisera when the stars in their courses stepped aside to biff him on the dome.
"Mind the step," said the Saint genially, at the front door.
"All right," said the detective grittily. "I'll look after myself. You'd better do the same. You can't get away with it for ever. One day I'm going to catch you short of an alibi. One day I'm going to get you in a place that you can't lie yourself out of. One day------"
"I'll be seein' ya," drawled the Saint and closed the door.
He turned round and looked at the butler, Trusaneff, who had come forward when the library door opened; and put his hands in his pockets.
"I gather that you remembered your lines Trotzky," he said.
"Yes, sir," answered the man, with murderous eyes.
Simon smiled at him thoughtfully and moved his right hand a little in his dressing-gown pocket.
"I hope you will go on remembering them," he said, in a voice of great gentleness. "The Vickery joke is over, but the rest goes on. You can leave this place as soon as you like and take any other thugs you can find lying around along with you. But you are the only man in the world who knows that we've had a change of Ivar Nordstens, so that if it ever leaks out I shall know exactly whom to look for. You know who I am; and I have a key to eternal silence."
He went back to the library, and Erik Nordsten looked up as he came in.
"Was I all right?" he asked.
"You were magnificent," said the Saint. He stretched himself and grinned. "You must be just about all in by this time, my lad. Let's call it a day. A hot bath and a night's sleep in clean sheets'll make a new man of you. And you will be a new man. But there's just one other thing I'm going to ask you to do tomorrow."
"What is it?"
"There's a rather pretty kid named Vickery round at my house who put me into the whole thing, if you haven't forgotten what I told you. I can smuggle her out of the country easily enough, but she's still got to live. One of your offices in Sweden might find room for her, if you said the word. I seem to remember you telling Claud Eustace that you were interested in reforming criminals, and she'd be an excellent subject."
The other nodded.
"I expect it could be arranged." He stood up, shrugging himself unconsciously in the unfamiliar feeling of the smart lounge suit which Simon had found for him in Nordsten's wardrobe; and what must have been the first smile of two incredible years flickered momentarily on his tired mouth. "I suppose there's no hope of reforming you?"
"Teal has promised to try," said the Saint piously.
Ill
THE ART OF ALIBI
I
Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal unfolded the paper wrapping from a leaf of chewing gum with slow-moving pudgy fingers, and the sleepy china-blue eyes in his pink chubby face blinked across the table with the bland expressionlessness of a doll.
"Of course I know your point of view," he said flatly. "I'm not a fool. I know that you've never done anything which I could complain about if I were just a spectator. I know that all the men you've robbed and"--the somnolent eyes steadied themselves deliberately for a moment--"and killed," he said--"they've all deserved it--in a way. But I also know that, technically, you're the most dangerous and persistent criminal outside of prison. I'm a police officer, and my job is technicalities."
"Such as pulling in some wretched innkeeper for selling a glass of beer at the wrong time, while the man who floats a million-pound swindle gets away on a point of law," Simon Templar suggested gently; and the detective nodded.