Salute the Toff Read Online Free PDF

it so. The red-haired woman made it very different. Even the Toff could hardly have said why, but from the moment she followed him he approached the mystery in a completely different mood.
    He walked slowly, as if his sole purpose was to enjoy the night air, and when he reached Piccadilly he turned away from it at the first opportunity and strolled through those narrower thoroughfares which are traps for the unwary. He saw two girls walking together, and heard them speak to a man who was passing on the other side of the road. The man ignored them, but the Toff looked across the road, as if idly.
    The woman with red hair, who had been no more than a few yards behind him since he had left the flat, quickened her pace. He heard her shoes clicking on the pavement, and he was not surprised when he heard her say: “Aren’t you a bit bored, dear?” The Toff turned abruptly, as if startled. Not only the moon, but a street lamp, showed her clearly. She was, in a small-featured way, good-looking, and again he was astonished by her huge amber eyes. She did not look nervous, but her dress and her make-up did nothing to suggest that she had spoken to him in the way of business. “I’m all right, thanks,” he said. “Go on with you,” she scoffed, and he knew that she was acting a part. Her voice was low-pitched, but well-modulated. “Let’s go for a little walk.”
    â€œWe-ell …” said the Toff uncertainly.
    He was genuinely surprised when she slipped an arm through his and urged him towards the end of the street. The two girls on the other side of the road stared, as if vindictively, while the red-haired woman went on: “It’s miserable being alone, I know. I’m alone most of the time myself.”
    â€œI’m sorry about that,” replied the Toff naïvely.
    â€œOh, well, it can’t be helped,” she said, and they walked for some hundred yards in silence. By then they had reached Piccadilly again, and were heading for Hyde Park Corner. “It’s such a pity, too; I’ve a comfortable little flat in Park Lane.”
    â€œHave you really?”
    He had expected mention of the flat, but had taken it for granted that she would say in Chelsea. Park Lane intrigued him, and he smiled down at her, as if he were beginning to realise that she had extended a tacit invitation. But he did nothing else to help her, although she pressed close to his side, a rather odd thing, for she did not reach his shoulder. But her left hand, cool and firm, gripped his wrist.
    â€œWhy don’t you come along for a drink?” she suggested.
    He might have imagined it, but he fancied that her breathing grew a little heavier, and he would not have been surprised to know that she was waiting on his answer with considerable anxiety.
    â€œWell, that’s nice of you, but wouldn’t you rather go somewhere else for a change?”
    â€œIt wouldn’t be so comfortable.”
    The Toff appeared to hesitate, but he did not turn away when they reached Park Lane. Some hundred yards along she turned into the driveway of a large new block of flats – flats, the Toff knew, which were extortionate in their rents, and where only the wealthy could hope to live.
    â€œYou’re sure you don’t mind?” he said with apparent diffidence.
    â€œMy dear, why should I?”
    Her voice had altered, no longer in any way diffident nor anxious, but full and confident. A pleasing and cultured voice, with a slightly husky tone. The Toff looked down on her, and he could see that her profile was a lovelier thing than he had thought before. He said nothing else, but continued to behave like a naïve and ingenuous young man, smiling as if nervous when they reached the hallway of the flats and its brilliant light. She took him to a lift, which was self-operated, and they went up to the fourth floor.
    â€œI’m so glad you decided to come,” she said. “I get