The Saint Returns (27 page)

“Later?”

“Later. Perhaps. But now … hit me
after I fire one
shot.”

“Goodbye, comrade.”

“Goodbye”

She fired the pistol into one of the
crumbling arches.
Simon hit her, just hard enough, and caught her in his
arms as her
knees buckled and her gun dropped to the
ground. He lowered
her gently, smoothed the soft brown hair from her face, and walked swiftly from
the courtyard
into the kitchen. The outer door was padlocked, but a
single shot
freed it.

Striding and sliding down the pathless
mountainside,
he felt a bittersweet mixture of sadness and relief. He
paused and
looked back up at the hulk of old stone al
most lost to his sight
among the moon-touched firs. Then
he turned, measured the weight of the
General’s purse of
gold coins, which had by
some mysterious means
found
its way into his Saintly pocket, and went on down once more for a while
to the world of ordinary things.

All of the characters in this book

are fictitious, and any resemblance

to actual persons, living or dead,

is purely coincidental.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number
68-14206

Copyright © 1967,
1968 by Leslie Charteris

All Rights Reserved

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

ebook by MOS1