"I shall have to tie you up while I make my getaway," said the Saint amiably, "so would you both mind turning around? You'll be able to undo yourselves quite quickly after I've gone."
"You wouldn't be a part to a low insurance swindle, would you?" protested Happy Fred aggrievedly, as the Saint looped coils of rope over his wrists.
"I wouldn't be a party to any kind of swindle," said the Saint virtuously. "I'm an honest holdup man, and your insurance policies have nothing to do with me."
He completed the roping of the two men, roughly gagged them with their own handkerchiefs, and retreated leisurely to the door.
12. The Five Thousand Pound Kiss
It has been said that Simon Templar was a philanderer; but the criticism was not entirely just. A pretty face, or the turn of a slim waist, appealed to him no more — and not a bit less — than they do to the next man. Perhaps he was more honest about it. It is true that sometimes, in a particularly buccaneering mood, as he swung down a broad highway leading to infinite adventure, he would sing one of his own inimitable songs against the pompous dreariness of civilization as he saw it, with a chorus:
But if red blood runs thin with years,
By God! If I must die,
I'll kiss red lips and drink red wine
And let the rest go by, my son,