to undermine a new issue of Italian paper currency with unauthorized and counterfeit bills. This story takes place several months after the events of "The Inland Revenue", and as the story ends, Templar finds himself running afoul of Inspector Teal more so than usual. The Melancholy Journey of Mr. Teal: Six months after the "Million Pound Day", Templar finds himself a few hundred pounds short of having 100,000 pounds in his bank account—enough to (for a while) retire. He sets his eyes on relieving two murderous diamond smugglers of their ill-gotten loot. When his scheme goes awry, however, Templar's long-simmering feud with Inspector Teal (which dates back to Enter the Saint) finally comes to a boil, and Templar finds himself not only on the run from Teal, but in order to ensure that he gets the diamonds, he is forced to also help one of the smugglers escape. (The title of the book, The Holy Terror comes from a description Templar gives of himself in this story.) This story leads directly into the next Saint book, Getaway. Some editions of this book include an introduction, "Between Ourselves", in which Charteris discusses the philosophy of The Saint, promising that despite recent negative reviews in some publications, he had no intention of retiring from writing about Simon Templar (indeed, Charteris would continue to write stories about the character until the early 1960s, after which he would serve in an editorial capacity on further Saint adventures up until 1983). Publication history The three novellas were previously published, two under different titles, in the magazine Thriller: "The Inland Revenue" - 25 April 1931 (as "The Masked Menace") "The Million Pound Day" - 6 June 1931 "The Melancholy Journey of Mr. Teal" - 8 August 1931 (as "The Kidnapped Killer") Film and Television adaptation "The Million Pound Day" formed the basis for the 1939 film, The Saint in London which starred George Sanders as Templar. (This should not be confused with the Simon Templar book The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal, which was also published under the title The Saint in London.) In addition, the plot point in "The Melancholy Journey of Mr. Teal" in which Templar strives to top up his bank account and retire was adapted for the 1997 film version of The Saint. "The Inland Revenue" was adapted as an episode of The Saint. Retitled "The Scorpion" the episode first aired on 29