Send for the Saint by Leslie Charteris, Peter Bloxsom

the open crates, then casually reached inside one, took out a rifle, and threw it down with a clatter at Patroclos’ feet. Patroclos seemed utterly astonished. He picked up the rifle and examined it, peered into the open cases, and then turned to the ship’s captain.
    “What is the meaning of this?” he snapped.
    The captain shrugged sullenly and said nothing. Simon rested one foot on a crate, folded his arms, and slowly shook his head in wonderment. And he laughed.
    “I’ll be happy to explain on the Captain’s behalf, Dio” he began. “Singapore was just a paper destination — to satisfy the authorities. All that nonsense about the ships being diverted! They weren’t diverted at all. From the outset they were bound for North Korea.”
    Patroclos swore fluently in Greek.
    “American arms for North Korea? … If this is true, then it must be that impostor who — “
    “There is no impostor,” said the Saint coolly. “And there never has been. You manufactured him. It was you all the time.”
    13
In the ensuing silence all the muscles of Patroclos’ face and neck seemed to be working; the black musketball eyes burned with anger; and for the first time, the shadow of something like fear flitted across the strong swarthy face. Patroclos flicked a nervous tongue over his lips, which had suddenly turned pale. At last he found his voice.
    “Then why would I hire you?” he demanded harshly.
    “You needed an impartial witness to prove that this other man — this scapegoat-to-be — existed.”
    “Which you are.”
    “I might have been,” Simon conceded. “I’ll admit you had me flummoxed at first. Your planning was tremendous — and your psychology was pretty good too … The girl at the airport … The heavies at the hotel to warn me off — you knew that was the one sure way to get me on the hook … The quick dash to London — in your private plane, you were probably there before I was … The slightly altered appearance and voice … The briefing of your staff at this end … The invented detail — “
    “And how did I make you come to Athens in the first place ?” Patroclos scoffed.
    “You didn’t. That was sheer opportunism. Oh, you’d planned to set someone up before long, of course — I just happened along at the ideal time. I haven’t always been an upright citizen, but I do have a reputation, though I say so myself, for being nobody’s patsy, and I daresay the challenge appealed to your vanity. If you could fool me — and you very nearly did — you could fool anybody. Anyhow, you seized the chance when you saw my name on a passenger list. And then you exploited it for all it was worth.”
    “You are beginning to sound like some kind of
lunatic.”
    “You played me like a fish on a line. For a long time, I had an uneasy feeling I was being manipulated, but I couldn’t quite see how. But that’s your forte — manipulation. Dio, there’s no doubt the plan was brilliant. There was just one serious flaw …”
    Diogenes Patroclos stared at him impassively.
    “Which was …?”
    “The whole basic premise,” continued the Saint. “As I said right at the start, the idea of a perfect impersonation is a lot of baloney.”
    “And yet that impostor has still deceived you.” Patroclos persisted. “You saw with your own eyes — “
    ” — just what you meant me to see,” Simon completed with inexorable calm. “You did it so well you almost had me believing in this darned impersonator — and to begin with I was about as sceptical as anyone could be. Appearance, voice, mannerisms, knowledge, habits — a human being’s just too complicated a thing to be mimicked that closely. My whole instinct was against it. But I’ll admit you played your hand cleverly enough to get me seriously wondering if I could have been wrong after all. Starting when I saw you and the other Ariadne in London.”
    “But I suppose I was sure that you would see us?” Patroclos argued