“Naturally,” Simon lied. “Did you think I’d be dumb enough to come over here and keep it a secret, so that you’d have nobody to knock off but me?”
“But a little while ago you said that you really only understood everything after you came here tonight.”
Because he was the Saint, Simon didn’t even flip a muscle, though it seemed to him that his heart stopped for an instant.
“That was just on corroborative evidence — did all my guessing long ago,” he said smoothly, and went on quickly: “So you’ll never be safe unless you can wipe out the whole personnel of the Circle Y with no questions asked — which is going to be quite a problem, even for you... And then on top of all that you had to kidnap Papa Don Morland, which is a Federal rap all by itself. A bad break, Ludwig — very bad. And my poor little brain can’t see what good you ever hoped it would do you. You might possibly be able to force him to sign the ranch over to dear Maxie or some other stooge of yours—”
“I beg your pardon,” interrupted Dr Julius humbly.
“By all means.”
“You should be more precise in your use of the conditional. Let us at least face facts, and admit that we have already persuaded Mr Morland to give us his signature.”
The Saint’s eyes turned colder, and Julius smiled.
“Really, we weren’t very brutal,” he said. “Only just enough to make him psychologically receptive. Then I told him in considerable detail about all the things that would happen to his beautiful daughter if he was obstinate, and he signed almost at once.”
“You mean he believed you?”