"Of course, Mr. Smith. Of course. And it just happens that one of our advances was repaid today, so I may be able to find a thousand pounds for you in our safe." He pressed a bell on his desk, and a clerk appeared. "Mr. Goldberg, will you see if we can oblige this gentleman with a thousand pounds?"
The clerk disappeared again, and came back in a few moments with a sheaf of bank-notes. Simon Templar produced another large envelope, and Mr. Deever drew from it an even thicker wad of bonds. He counted them over and examined them carefully one by one; then he took a printed form from a drawer, and unscrewed the cap of a Woolworth fountain-pen.
"Now if you will just complete our usual agreement, Mr. Smith —"
Through the glass partition that divided Mr. Deever's sanctum from the outer office there suddenly arose the expostulations of an extraordinary loud voice. Raised in a particularly raucous north-country accent, it made itself heard so clearly that there was no chance of missing anything it said.
"I tell you, I'd know that maan anywhere. I'd know 'im in a daark room if I was bliindfooalded. It was Simon Templar, I tell you. I saw 'im coom in, an' I says to myself, 'Thaat's Saaint, thaat is.' I 'aad wife an' loogage with me, so I taakes 'em into "otel 'an cooms straaight baack. I'm going to see thaat Saaint if I waait here two years —"
The buttery voice of Mr. Goldberg could be heard protesting. Then the north-country voice drowned it again.
"Then if you won't let me in, I'll go straight out an' fetch policeman. Thaat's what I'll do."
There was an eruption without, as of someone departing violently into the street; and the Saint looked at Mr. Deever. Simon's hand was outstretched to grasp the pile of bank-notes — then he saw Deever's right hand come out of a drawer, and a nickel-plated revolver with it.
"Just a moment, Mr. — er — Smith," Deever said slowly. "I think you're in too much of a hurry."
He touched the bell on his desk again. Mr. Goldberg reappeared, mopping his swarthy brow. There was a glitter in Deever's greenish eyes which told Simon that the revolver was not there merely for the purposes of intimidation. The Saint sat quite still.