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."Hurry up and get out-I'm going to be busy."He turned away, but Shannet lurched after him."Get out yourself!" snarled the man thickly."D'you hear? I'm going right downto fetch the police--"The Saint sat down."Listen to me, Shannet," he said quietly."The less you talk about police whenI'm around, the better for you.I'm telling you now that I believe youmurdered a man named McAndrew not so long ago, and jumped his claim on aforged partnership agreement.I'm only waiting till I've got the proof.AndPage 51 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlthen-well, it's too much to hope that the authorities of this benightedrepublic will execute the man who pays half their salaries, and so in the nameof Justice I shall take you myself and hang you from a high tree."For a moment of silence the air seemed to tingle with the same electrictension as heralds the breaking of a thunder storm, while the Saint's ice-blueeyes quelled Shannet's reawakening fury; and then, with a short laugh, theSaint relaxed."You're a pawn in the game," he said, with a contrasting carelessness whichonly emphasized the bleak implacability of his last speech."We won't wastegood melodrama on you.We reserve that for clients with really importantdiscredit accounts.Instead, you shall hear the epitaph I've just composed foryou.It commemorates a pestilent tumour named Shannet, who disfigured the faceof this planet.He started some fun, but before it was done he was wishinghe'd never began it.That otherwise immortal verse is marred by a grammaticalerror, but I'm not expecting you to know any better.Archibald-the door!"Archie Sheridan had no reason to love Shannet, and the kick with which helaunched the man into the garden was not gentle, but he seemed to derive nopleasure from it.He came back with a grave face and resumed his chair facing the Saint."Well," he said, "you've done what you wanted.Now shall we sit down and makeour wills, or shall we spend our last hours of life in drinking and song?""Of course, we may be shot," admitted the Saint calmly."That's up to us.Howsoon can we expect the army?""Not before five.They'll all be asleep now, and an earth quake wouldn't makethe Pasala policeman break off his siesta.Much less the army, who areinclined to give themselves airs.We might catch the Andalusia," he added hopefully.The Saint surveyed him seraphically."Sweetheart," he said, "that joke may now be considered over.We've started,and we've got to keep moving.As I don't see the fun of sitting here waitingfor the other side to surround us, I guess we'll bounce right along andinterview Kelly.And when you two have coached me thoroughly in the habits andtopography of Santa Miranda, we'll just toddle along and capture the town.""Just toddle along and which?" repeated Sheridan dazedly.The Saint spun a cigarette high into the air, and trapped it neatly betweenhis lips as it fell."That is to say, I will capture the town," he corrected him self, "while youand Kelly create a disturbance somewhere to distract their attention.Wake up,sonny! Get your hat, and let's go!"3The Saint's breezy way of saying that he would "just toddle along and capturethe town" was a slight exaggeration.As a matter of fact, he spent nearly fourdays on the job.There was some spade-work to be done, and certain preparations to be made, andthe Saint devoted a considerable amount of care and sober thought to thesePage 52 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmldetails.Though his methods, to the uninformed observer, might always haveseemed to savour of the reckless, tip-and-run,hit-first-and-ask-questions-afterwards school, the truth was that he rarelystepped out of any frying pan without first taking the temperature of the firebeyond.Even in such a foolhardy adventure as that in which he was then engaged, heknew exactly what he was doing, and legislated against failure as well as hemight; for, even in the most outlandish parts of the world, the penalty ofunsuccessful revolution is death, and the Saint had no overwhelming desire toturn his interesting biography into an obituary notice.He explained his plan to Kelly, and found the Irishman an immediate convert tothe Cause."Shure, I've been thinkin' for years that it was time somebody threw out theircrooked government," said that worthy, ruffling a hand like a ham through histousled mop of flaming hair."I'm just wonderin' now why I niver did itmeself.""It's a desperate chance," Simon Templar admitted."But I don't mind taking itif you're game.""Six years I've been here," mused Kelly ecstatically, screwing up a huge fist,"and I haven't seen a real fight.Exceptin' one or two disagreements with thenatives, who run away afther the first round."The Saint smiled.He could not have hoped to find a more suitable ally."We might easily win out," he said."It wouldn't work in England, but in aplace like this--""The geography was made for us," said Kelly.On a scrap of paper he sketched a rough map to illustrate his point.Pasala is more or less in the shape of a wedge, with the base facing northeaston the seacoast.Near the centre of the base of the wedge is Santa Miranda.Inthe body of the wedge are the only other three towns worth mentioning-LasFlores, Rugio, and, near the apex, Esperanza.They are connected up by a carttrack of a road which includes them in a kind of circular route that startsand finishes at Santa Miranda, for the State of Pasala does not yet boast arailway.This is hardly necessary, for the distance between Santa Miranda andEsperanza, the two towns farthest apart, is only one hundred and forty miles.It should also be mentioned that the wedge-shaped territory of Pasala cutsroughly into the Republic of Maduro, a much larger and more civilized country
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