13 The Saint Intervenes (Boodle) Read online

  The Saint sighed.

  "So that's what happened to your face," he remarked, in a tone of profound relief. "If you only knew how that had been bothering me——"

  "My mother did that," said Monty proudly. "No—we didn't crash. In fact, I had a really interesting flight. Either it must have been a very good machine, or he was a very good flier, because he made it do almost everything except answer questions. I don't know if you've ever been up in one of these autogiros—I've never been up in any other make, but this one was certainly everything that he claimed for it. It went up exactly like going up in a lift, and came down the same way. I never have known anything about the mechanics of these things, but after having had a ride in this bus of his I couldn't help feeling that the Air Age had ar­rived—I mean, anyone with a reasonable sized lawn could have kept one of 'em and gone tootling off for week-ends in it."

  "And therefore," said the Saint reproachfully, "when he asked you if you'd like to invest some money in a company he was forming to turn out these machines and sell them at about twenty pounds a time, you hauled out your cheque-book and asked him how much he wanted."

  Monty chuckled good-humouredly.

  "That's about it. The details don't really matter, but the fact is that about three weeks later I'd bought above five thousand quids' worth of shares."

  "What was the catch?" Simon asked; and Monty shrugged.

  "Well, the catch was simply that this helicopter wasn't his invention at all. He had really built it himself, apparently, but it was copied line for line from one of the existing makes. There wasn't a thing in it that he'd invented. There­fore the design wasn't his, and he hadn't any right at all to manufacture it. So the company couldn't function. Of course, he didn't put it exactly like that. He told me that he'd 'discovered' that his designs 'overlapped' the existing patents—he swore that it was absolutely a coincidence, and nearly wept all over my office because his heart was broken because he'd found out that all his research work had already been done before. I told him I didn't believe a word of it, but that wasn't any help towards getting my money back. I hadn't any evidence against him that I could have brought into a court of law. Of course he'd told me that his design was patented and protected in every way, but he hadn't put any of that in writing, and when he came and told me the whole thing was smashed he denied it. He said he'd told me he was getting the design patented. I did see a solicitor about it afterwards, but he told me I hadn't a chance of proving a deliberate fraud. Newdick would probably have been ticked off in court for taking money without reasonable precautions, but that wouldn't have brought any of it back."

  "It was a private company, I suppose," said the Saint.

  Monty nodded.

  "If it had been a public one, with shares on the open market, it would have been a different matter," he said.

  "What happened to the money?"

  "Newdick had spent it—or he said he had. He told me he'd paid off all the old debts that had run up while he was experimenting, and spent the rest on some manufacturing plant and machinery for the company. He did give me about six or seven hundred back, and told me he'd work like hell to produce another invention that would really be original so he could pay me back the rest, but that was the last I heard of him. He's probably caught several other mugs with the same game since then." Monty grinned philosophically, looked at the clock, and got up. "Well, I must be getting along. I'll look in and see you on Saturday—if you haven't been arrested and shoved in clink before then."

  He departed after another bottle of beer had been lowered; and when he had gone Patricia Holm viewed the Saint doubtfully. She had not missed the quiet attention with which he had followed Monty Hayward's narrative; and she had known Simon Templar a long time. The Saint had a fresh cigarette slanting from the corner of his mouth, his hands were in his pockets, and he was smiling at her with a seraphic innocence which was belied by every facet of the twinkling tang of mockery in his blue eyes.

  "You know what I told you," she said.

  He laughed.

  "About getting into trouble? My darling, when will you stop thinking these wicked thoughts? I'm taking your advice to heart. Maybe there is something to be said for going into business. I think I should look rather fetching in a silk hat and a pair of white spats with pearl buttons; and you've no idea how I could liven up a directors' meeting if I set my mind to it."

  Patricia was not convinced.

  She was even less convinced when the Saint went out the next morning. From his extensive wardrobe he had selected one of his most elegant suits, a creation in light-hued saxony of the softest and most expensive weave—a garment which could by no possible chance have been worn by a man who had to devote his day to honest toil. His tie was dashing, his silk socks would have made a Communist's righteous indig­nation swell to bursting point, and over his right eye he had tilted a brand new Panama which would have made one won­der whether the strange shapeless headgear of the same breed worn by old gents whilst pottering around their gardens could conceivably be any relation whatsoever of such a superbly stylish lid. Moreover he had taken out the car which was the pride of his stable—the new cream and red Hirondel which was in itself the hallmark of a man who could afford to pay five thousand pounds for a car and thereafter watch a gallon of petrol blown into smoke every three or four miles.

  "Where's the funeral?" she asked; and the Saint smiled blandly.

  "I'm a young sportsman with far more money than sense, and I'm sure Comrade Newdick will be pleased to see me," he said; and he kissed her.

  Mr. Oscar Newdick was pleased to see him—Simon Temp­lar would have been vastly surprised if he hadn't been. That aura of idle affluence which the Saint could put on as easily as he put on a coat was one of his most priceless accessories, and it was never worn for any honest purpose.

  But this Mr. Oscar Newdick did not know. To him, the arrival of such a person was like an answer to prayer. Monty Hayward's guess at Mr. Newdick's activities since collecting five thousand pounds from him was fairly accurate, but only fairly. Mr. Newdick had not caught several other mugs, but only three; and one of them had only been induced to invest a paltry three hundred pounds. The helicopter racket had been failing in its dividends, and the past year had not shown a single pennyworth of profit. Mr. Newdick did not believe in accumulating pennies: when he made a touch, it had to be a big one, and he was prepared to wait for it—the paltry three hundred pound investor had been an error of judgment, a young man who had grossly misled him with fabulous ac­counts of wealthy uncles, which when the time came to make the touch had been discovered to be the purest fiction—but recently the periods of waiting had exceeded all reasonable limits. Mr. Newdick had travelled literally thousands of miles on the more prosperous suburban lines in search of victims— the fellow-passenger technique really was his own invention, and he practised it to perfection—but many moons had passed since he brought a prospective investor home from his many voyages.

  When Simon Templar arrived, in fact, Mr. Newdick was gazing mournfully over the litter of spars and fabric and ma­chinery in one of his corrugated-iron sheds, endeavouring to estimate its value in the junk market. The time had come, he was beginning to feel, when that particular stock-in-trade had paid the last percentage that could be squeezed out of it; it had rewarded him handsomely for his initial investment, but now it was obsolete. The best solution appeared to be to turn it in and concentrate his varied talents on some other subject. A fat insurance policy, of course, followed by a well-orga­nized fire, would have been more profitable; but a recent sensational arson trial and the consequent publicity given to such schemes made him wary of taking that way out. And he was engrossed in these uninspiring meditations when the bell in his "office" rang and manna fell from Heaven.

  Mr. Oscar Newdick, it must be acknowledged, did not instantly recognise it as manna. At first he thought it could only be the rate collector, or another summons for his unpaid electric light bill. He tiptoed to a grimy windo
w which looked out on the road, with intent to escape rapidly across the ad­jacent fields if his surmise proved correct; and it was thus that he saw the imposing automobile which stood outside.

  Mr. Newdick, a man of the world, was jerry to the fact that rate collectors and servers of summonses rarely arrive to their grim work in five-thousand-pound Hirondels; and it was with an easy conscience, if not yet admixed with undue optimism, that he went to open the door.

  "Hullo, old bean," said the Saint.

  "Er—hullo," said Mr. Newdick.

  "I blew in to see if you could tell me anything about your jolly old company," said the Saint.

  "Er—yes," said Mr. Newdick. "Er—why don't you come inside?"

  His hesitation was not due to any bashfulness or even to offended dignity. Mr. Newdick did not mind being called an old bean. He had no instinctive desire to snub wealthy-looking young men with five-thousand-pound Hirondels who added jollity to his old company. The fact was that he was just beginning to recognise the manna for what it was, and his soul was suffering the same emotions as those which had afflicted ,the Israelites in their time when they contemplated the miracle. The Saint came in. Mr. Newdick's "office" was a small roughly-fashioned cubicle about the size of a telephone booth, containing a small table littered with papers and over­laid with a thin film of dust—it scarcely seemed in keeping with the neatly engraved brass plate on the door which pro­claimed it to be the registered offices of the Newdick Helicopter Company, Limited, but his visitor did not seem dis­tressed by it.

  "What did you want to know?" asked Mr. Newdick.

  Simon observed him to be a middle-aged man of only vaguely military appearance, with sharp eyes that looked at him unwaveringly. That characteristic alone might have de­ceived most men; but Simon Templar had moved in disreput­able circles long enough to know that the ability to look an­other man squarely in the eye is one of the most fallacious indices of honesty.

  "Well," said the Saint amiably, tendering a platinum ciga­rette-case, "the fact is that I'm interested in helicopters. I happen to have noticed your little place several times recently when I've been passing, and I got the idea that it was quite a small show, and I wondered if there might by any chance be room for another partner in it."

  "You mean," repeated Mr. Newdick, checking back on the incredible evidence of his ears, "that you wanted to take an interest in the firm?"

  Simon nodded.

  "That was the jolly old idea," he said. "In fact, if the other partners felt like selling out, I might take over the whole blinkin' show. I've got a good deal of time on my hands, and I like pottering about with aeroplanes and what not. A chap's got to do something to keep out of mischief, what? Besides, it doesn't look as if you were doing a lot of business here, and I might be able to wake the jolly old place up a bit. Sort of aerial roadhouse, if you know what I mean. Dinners— drinks—dancing—pretty girls. . . . What?"

  "I didn't say anything," said Mr. Newdick.

  "All right. What about it, old bean?"

  Mr. Newdick scratched his chin. The notion of manna had passed into his cosmogony. It fell from Heaven. It was real. Miracles happened. The world was a brighter, rosier place.

  "One of your remarks, of course," he said, "is somewhat uninformed. As a matter of fact, we are doing quite a lot of business. We have orders, negotiations, tenders, con­tracts. ..." The eloquent movement of one hand, temporarily released from massaging his chin, indicated a whole field of industry of which the uninitiated were in ignorance. "How­ever," he said, "if your proposition were attractive enough, it would be worth hearing."

  Simon nodded.

  "Well, old bean, who do I put it to?"

  "You may put it to me, if you like," said Mr. Newdick. "I am Oscar Newdick."

  "I see. But what about the other partners, Oscar, old sprout?"

  Mr. Newdick waved his hand.

  "They are largely figureheads," he explained. "A few friends, with very small interests—just enough to meet the technical requirements of a limited company. The concern really belongs to me."

  Simon beamed.

  "Splendid!" he said. "Jolly good! Well, well, well, dear old Newdick, what d'you think it's worth ?"

  "There is a nominal share value of twenty-five thousands pounds," said Mr. Newdick seriously. "But, of course, they are worth far more than that. Far more. ... I very much doubt," he said, "whether fifty thousand would be an ade­quate price. My patents alone are worth more than fifty thousand pounds. Sixty thousands pounds would scarcely tempt me. Seventy thousand would be a poor price. Eighty thousand——"

  "Is quite a lot of money," said the Saint, interrupting Mr. Newdick's private auction.

  Mr. Newdick nodded.

  "But you haven't seen the place yet—or the machine we turn out. You ought to have a look round, even if we can't do business."

  Mr. Newdick suffered a twinge of horror at the thought even while he uttered it.

  He led the Saint out of his "office" to the junk shed. No one who had witnessed his sad survey of that collection of lumber a few minutes before would have believed that it was the same man who now gazed on it with such enthusiasm and affection.

  "This," said Mr. Newdick, "is our workshop. Here you can see the parts of our machines in course of construction and assembly. Those lengths of wood are our special lon­gerons. Over there are stay and braces. ..."

  "By Jove!" said the Saint in awe. "I'd no idea helicopters went in for all those things. They must be quite dressed up when you've finished with them, what? By the way, talking of longerons, a girl friend of mine has the neatest pattern of step-ins ..."

  Mr. Newdick listened patiently.

  Presently they passed on to the other shed. Mr. Newdick opened the door as reverently as if he had been unveiling a memorial.

  "And this," he said, "is the Newdick helicopter."

  Simon glanced over it vacuously, and looked about him.

  "Where are all your workmen today?" he asked.

  "They are on holiday," said Mr. Newdick, making a mental note to engage some picturesque mechanics the next day. "An old custom of the firm. I always give them a full day's holiday on the anniversary of my dear mother's death." He wiped away a tear and changed the subject. "How would you like to take a flight?"

  "Jolly good idea," agreed the Saint.

  The helicopter was wheeled out, and while it was warm­ing up, Simon revealed that he also was a flier and possessed a license for helicopters. Mr. Newdick complimented him gravely. They made a ten-minute flight, and when they had landed again the Saint remained in his seat.

  "D'you mind if I try her out myself?" he said. "I won't ask you to take the flight with me."

  The machine was not fitted with dual control, but it was well insured. Mr. Newdick only hesitated a moment. He was very anxious to please.

  "Certainly," he said. "Give her a thorough test yourself, and you'll see that she's a good bus."

  Simon took the ship off and climbed towards the north. When Mr. Newdick's tiny aerodrome was out of sight he put the helicopter through every test he could think of, and the results amazed him even while they only confirmed the re­markable impression he had gained while Mr. Newdick was flying it.

  When he saw the London Air Park below him he shut off the engine and came down in a perfect vertical descent which set him down outside the Cierva hangars. Simon climbed out and button-holed one of the company's test pilots.

  "Would you like to come on a short hop with me?" he asked. "I want to show you something."

  As they walked back towards the Newdick helicopter the pilot studied it with a puzzled frown.

  "Is that one of our machines?" he said.

  "More or less," Simon told him.

  "It looks as if it had been put together wrong," said the pilot worriedly. "Have you been having trouble with it?"

  The Saint shook his head.

  "I think you'll find," he answered, "that it's been put to­gether right."

  He demons
trated what he meant, and when they returned the test pilot took the machine up again himself and tried it a second time. Other test pilots tried it. Engineers scratched their heads over it and tried it. Telephone calls were made to London. A whole two hours passed before Simon Templar dropped the machine beside Mr. Newdick's sheds and re­lieved the inventor of the agonies of anxiety which had been racking him.

  "I was afraid you'd killed yourself," said Mr. Newdick with emotion; and indeed the thought that his miraculous benefactor might have passed away before being separated from his money had brought Mr. Newdick out in several cold sweats.

  The Saint grinned.

  "I just buzzed over to Reading to look up a friend," he said untruthfully. "I like your helicopter. Let us go inside and talk business."

  When he returned to Patricia, much later that day, he was jubilant but mysterious. He spent most of the next day with Mr. Newdick, and half of the Saturday which came after, but he refused to tell her what he was doing. It was not until that evening, when he was pouring beer once more for Monty Hayward, that he mentioned Mr. Newdick again; and then his announcement took her breath away.

  "I've bought that helicopter company," he said casually.

  "You've what?" spluttered Monty.

  "I've bought that helicopter company and everything it owns," said the Saint, "for forty thousand pounds."

  They gaped at him for a while in silence, while he calmly continued with the essential task of opening bottles.

  "The man's mad," said Patricia finally. "I always thought so."