"They're where you'll never find them," he said deliberately, "you greasy grinning bladder of lard."
Lasser turned his head as if he was pleased.
"Light the candle, Jopley," he said.
He took three steps forward and squatted down in front of the Saint like a great glossy toad. With leisured care he began to unlace the Saint's shoes.
"You shouldn't say things like that," he muttered protestingly. "You're only making it worse for yourself. Now we shall have to hurt you anyway. But of course you'll tell me about the vans. It's only a question of time, you know. Pargo didn't want to talk to me either, but he had to before Borieff had finished."
The Saint looked sideways. Jopley was at the table, fumbling with a box of matches. He was half turned away, intent on a short length of candle stuck in a saucer. The match he had extracted sizzled and flamed suddenly, and at the same moment Simon felt one of his shoes being pulled off.
If anything was to be done it had to be done now — now while Jopley was concentrating on dabbing the match at the candle wick and while Lasser's head was bent as he tugged at the other shoe.
The Saint breathed a silent prayer to whatever gods he acknowledged and brought his hands from behind him.
His clenched right fist drove down like a hammer at the exposed nape of Lasser's bent neck. On that blow hung the unthinkable issue of the adventure and the fate of more lives than his own, and the Saint stocked it with all the pent-up strength that was in him. For Peter Quentin and Hoppy Uniatz and Pargo and the girl whose life might be worth no more than theirs now that she also knew too much, the Saint struck like a blacksmith, knowing that if he failed to connect completely with one punch he would have no chance to throw in a second. He felt his fist plug achingly into the resisting flesh, and Lasser grunted once and lurched limply forward.
Simon caught him with one hand as he slumped onto his knees, and his other hand dived like a striking snake for the pocket that sagged with the weight of Lasser's gun.