"And if you'll just take Essenden for a walk," he drawled, "I'll give a yodel when the collection is complete. It's a bit late in the year, but you might find some mistletoe somewhere—"
"O.K., Big Boy."
Simon watched Essenden removed; and leaned back against the wall with the peer's gun swinging lightly in his hand.
Voices spoke outside the windows. The voice of Red Harver, booming above the others, said: "A plant, that's what it was—"
And the voice stopped short, on the threshold of the room, it seemed to Simon; and the other voices died down also.
Then Flash Arne spat an unprintable word.
Keld yapped: "He couldn't've got outa those ropes — not by hisself, he couldn't—"
"There's the rope there on the floor where he was," Ganning hissed derisively. "I suppose he just melted and trickled through it and froze again on the other side."
"Don't talk soft," snarled Harver. "We know Albert George was a liar. One of his pals has been in here while we were outside—"
"Quate," said the Saint apologetically. "Oh, quate!"