"I don't know whether it's a coincidence or not," replied Sentinel carefully. "I'll only say that my production of Vanity Fair is held up while Mary Donne is recovering from a slight indisposition. She has said nothing to me, and I have said nothing to her. But that doesn't prevent me from thinking. As for the rest, Mr Templar, I believe I can tell you a great deal about Everill." He sat down again and rubbed his chin in earnest concentration. "You know, I've got some ideas of my own about the Z-Man. Can you tell me just what your interest in him is?"
"I have various interests," said the Saint, leaning back and making a series of perfect smoke rings. "The Z-Man must have collected a fair amount of boodle already, and that's always interesting. I take it that if I got rid of him nobody would mind me helping myself to a reward. And then I don't like his line of business. I think it would be rather a good idea if he was put out of the way — for keeps."
"Unless he puts you out of the way first," suggested the producer grimly. "If he's the sort of man he seems to be—"
The Saint shrugged.
"That's all in the game."
The other smiled appreciatively.
"I sincerely hope it won't be in your game," he said. "As for Everill — what do you want to know?"
"Anything you can remember. Anything that might give me a lead. What his tastes are — his amusements — his favourite haunts — his habits — why he started forging cheques—"
"Well, I suppose he's an extravagant little devil — wants to live like a rich playboy and so on. I suppose that's why lie had to increase his income. He was trying to run one of my actresses, and he couldn't keep pace with her. She had a big future ahead of her, and she knew it—"
It was as if the Saint's ears had closed up suddenly, so that he scarcely heard any more. All his senses seemed to have been arrested except the sense of sight, and that one filled his brain to the exclusion of everything else. He was staring at Hubert Sentinel's hands, watching the thin nervous fingers twiddling the pencil they held — and remembering another pair of hands…