THE AMATEUR CRACKSMAN

BY

E. W. HORNUNG

 TO A. C. D. THIS FORM OF FLATTERY

THE AMATEUR CRACKSMAN

CONTENTS

 THE IDES OF MARCH A COSTUME PIECE GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS LE PREMIER PAS WILFUL MURDER NINE POINTS OF THE LAW THE RETURN MATCH THE GIFT OF THE EMPEROR

THE IDES OF MARCH

I

It was half-past twelve when I returned to the Albany as a lastdesperate resort. The scene of my disaster was much as I had left it. The baccarat-counters still strewed the table, with the empty glassesand the loaded ash-trays. A window had been opened to let the smokeout, and was letting in the fog instead. Raffles himself had merelydiscarded his dining jacket for one of his innumerable blazers. Yet hearched his eyebrows as though I had dragged him from his bed. 

"Forgotten something?" said he, when he saw me on his mat. 

"No, " said I, pushing past him without ceremony. And I led the wayinto his room with an impudence amazing to myself. 

"Not come back for your revenge, have you? Because I'm afraid I can'tgive it to you single-handed. I was sorry myself that the others--"

We were face to face by his fireside, and I cut him short. 

"Raffles, " said I, "you may well be surprised at my coming back in thisway and at this hour. I hardly know you. I was never in your roomsbefore to-night. But I fagged for you at school, and you said youremembered me. Of course that's no excuse; but will you listen tome--for two minutes?"

In my emotion I had at first to struggle for every word; but his facereassured me as I went on, and I was not mistaken in its expression. 

"Certainly, my dear man, " said he; "as many minutes as you like. Havea Sullivan and sit down. " And he handed me his silver cigarette-case. 

"No, " said I, finding a full voice as I shook my head; "no, I won'tsmoke, and I won't sit down, thank you. Nor will you ask me to doeither when you've heard what I have to say. "

"Really?" said he, lighting his own cigarette with one clear blue eyeupon me. "How do you know?"

"Because you'll probably show me the door, " I cried bitterly; "and youwill be justified in doing it! But it's no use beating about the bush. You know I dropped over two hundred just now?"

He nodded. 

"I hadn't the money in my pocket. "

"I remember. "

"But I had my check-book, and I wrote each of you a check at that desk. "

"Well?"

"Not one of them was worth the paper it was written on, Raffles. I amoverdrawn already at my bank!"

"Surely only for the moment?"

"No. I have spent everything. "

"But somebody told me you were so well off. I heard you had come in formoney?"

"So I did. Three years ago. It has been my curse; now it's allgone--every penny! Yes, I've been a fool; there never was nor will besuch a fool as I've been. . . . Isn't this enough for you? Why don't youturn me out?" He was walking up and down with a very long face instead. 

"Couldn't your people do anything?" he asked at length. 

"Thank God, " I cried, "I have no people! I was an only child. I camein for everything there was. My one comfort is that they're gone, andwill never know. "

I cast myself into a chair and hid my face. Raffles continued to pacethe rich carpet that was of a piece with everything else in his rooms. There was no variation in his soft and even footfalls. 

"You used to be a literary little cuss, " he said at length; "didn't youedit the mag. Before you left? Anyway I recollect fagging you to do myverses; and literature of all sorts is the very thing nowadays; anyfool can make a living at it. "

I shook my head. "Any fool couldn't write off my debts, " said I. 

"Then you have a flat somewhere?" he went on. 

"Yes, in Mount Street. "

"Well, what about the furniture?"

I laughed aloud in my misery. "There's been a bill of sale on everystick for months!"

And at that Raffles stood still, with raised eyebrows and stern eyesthat I could meet the better now that he knew the worst; then, with ashrug, he resumed his walk, and for some minutes neither of us spoke. But in his handsome, unmoved face I read my fate and death-warrant; andwith every breath I cursed my folly and my cowardice in coming to himat all. Because he had been kind to me at school, when he was captainof the eleven, and I his fag, I had dared to look for kindness from himnow; because I was ruined, and he rich enough to play cricket all thesummer, and do nothing for the rest of the year, I had fatuouslycounted on his mercy, his sympathy, his help! Yes, I had relied on himin my heart, for all my outward diffidence and humility; and I wasrightly served. There was as little of mercy as of sympathy in thatcurling nostril, that rigid jaw, that cold blue eye which never glancedmy way. I caught up my hat. I blundered to my feet. I would havegone without a word; but Raffles stood between me and the door. 

"Where are you going?" said he. 

"That's my business, " I replied. "I won't trouble YOU any more. "

"Then how am I to help you?"

"I didn't ask your help. "

"Then why come to me?"

"Why, indeed!" I echoed. "Will you let me pass?"

"Not until you tell me where you are going and what you mean to do. "

"Can't you guess?" I cried. And for many seconds we stood staring ineach other's eyes. 

"Have you got the pluck?" said he, breaking the spell in a tone socynical that it brought my last drop of blood to the boil. 

"You shall see, " said I, as I stepped back and whipped the pistol frommy overcoat pocket. "Now, will you let me pass or shall I do it here?"

The barrel touched my temple, and my thumb the trigger. Mad withexcitement as I was, ruined, dishonored, and now finally determined tomake an end of my misspent life, my only surprise to this day is that Idid not do so then and there. The despicable satisfaction of involvinganother in one's destruction added its miserable appeal to my baseregoism; and had fear or horror flown to my companion's face, I shudderto think I might have died diabolically happy with that look for mylast impious consolation. It was the look that came instead which heldmy hand. Neither fear nor horror were in it; only wonder, admiration, and such a measure of pleased expectancy as caused me after all topocket my revolver with an oath. 

"You devil!" I said. "I believe you wanted me to do it!"

"Not quite, " was the reply, made with a little start, and a change ofcolor that came too late. "To tell you the truth, though, I halfthought you meant it, and I was never more fascinated in my life. Inever dreamt you had such stuff in you, Bunny! No, I'm hanged if I letyou go now. And you'd better not try that game again, for you won'tcatch me stand and look on a second time. We must think of some wayout of the mess. I had no idea you were a chap of that sort! There, let me have the gun. "

One of his hands fell kindly on my shoulder, while the other slippedinto my overcoat pocket, and I suffered him to deprive me of my weaponwithout a murmur. Nor was this simply because Raffles had the subtlepower of making himself irresistible at will. He was beyond comparisonthe most masterful man whom I have ever known; yet my acquiescence wasdue to more than the mere subjection of the weaker nature to thestronger. The forlorn hope which had brought me to the Albany wasturned as by magic into an almost staggering sense of safety. Raffleswould help me after all! A. J. Raffles would be my friend! It was asthough all the world had come round suddenly to my side; so fartherefore from resisting his action, I caught and clasped his hand witha fervor as uncontrollable as the frenzy which had preceded it. 

"God bless you!" I cried. "Forgive me for everything. I will tell youthe truth. I DID think you might help me in my extremity, though Iwell knew that I had no claim upon you. Still--for the old school'ssake--the sake of old times--I thought you might give me anotherchance. If you wouldn't I meant to blow out my brains--and will stillif you change your mind!"

In truth I feared that it was changing, with his expression, even as Ispoke, and in spite of his kindly tone and kindlier use of my oldschool nickname. His next words showed me my mistake. 

"What a boy it is for jumping to conclusions! I have my vices, Bunny, but backing and filling is not one of them. Sit down, my good fellow, and have a cigarette to soothe your nerves. I insist. Whiskey? Theworst thing for you; here's some coffee that I was brewing when youcame in. Now listen to me. You speak of 'another chance. ' What doyou mean? Another chance at baccarat? Not if I know it! You thinkthe luck must turn; suppose it didn't? We should only have made badworse. No, my dear chap, you've plunged enough. Do you put yourself inmy hands or do you not? Very well, then you plunge no more, and Iundertake not to present my check. Unfortunately there are the othermen; and still more unfortunately, Bunny, I'm as hard up at this momentas you are yourself!"

It was my turn to stare at Raffles. "You?" I vociferated. "You hardup? How am I to sit here and believe that?"

"Did I refuse to believe it of you?" he returned, smiling. "And, withyour own experience, do you think that because a fellow has rooms inthis place, and belongs to a club or two, and plays a little cricket, he must necessarily have a balance at the bank? I tell you, my dearman, that at this moment I'm as hard up as you ever were. I havenothing but my wits to live on--absolutely nothing else. It was asnecessary for me to win some money this evening as it was for you. We're in the same boat, Bunny; we'd better pull together. "

"Together!" I jumped at it. "I'll do anything in this world for you, Raffles, " I said, "if you really mean that you won't give me away. Think of anything you like, and I'll do it! I was a desperate man whenI came here, and I'm just as desperate now. I don't mind what I do ifonly I can get out of this without a scandal. "

Again I see him, leaning back in one of the luxurious chairs with whichhis room was furnished. I see his indolent, athletic figure; his pale, sharp, clean-shaven features; his curly black hair; his strong, unscrupulous mouth. And again I feel the clear beam of his wonderfuleye, cold and luminous as a star, shining into my brain--sifting thevery secrets of my heart. 

"I wonder if you mean all that!" he said at length. "You do in yourpresent mood; but who can back his mood to last? Still, there's hopewhen a chap takes that tone. Now I think of it, too, you were a pluckylittle devil at school; you once did me rather a good turn, Irecollect. Remember it, Bunny? Well, wait a bit, and perhaps I'll beable to do you a better one. Give me time to think. "

He got up, lit a fresh cigarette, and fell to pacing the room oncemore, but with a slower and more thoughtful step, and for a much longerperiod than before. Twice he stopped at my chair as though on thepoint of speaking, but each time he checked himself and resumed hisstride in silence. Once he threw up the window, which he had shut sometime since, and stood for some moments leaning out into the fog whichfilled the Albany courtyard. Meanwhile a clock on the chimney-piecestruck one, and one again for the half-hour, without a word between us. 

Yet I not only kept my chair with patience, but I acquired anincongruous equanimity in that half-hour. Insensibly I had shifted myburden to the broad shoulders of this splendid friend, and my thoughtswandered with my eyes as the minutes passed. The room was thegood-sized, square one, with the folding doors, the marblemantel-piece, and the gloomy, old-fashioned distinction peculiar to theAlbany. It was charmingly furnished and arranged, with the rightamount of negligence and the right amount of taste. What struck memost, however, was the absence of the usual insignia of a cricketer'sden. Instead of the conventional rack of war-worn bats, a carved oakbookcase, with every shelf in a litter, filled the better part of onewall; and where I looked for cricketing groups, I found reproductionsof such works as "Love and Death" and "The Blessed Damozel, " in dustyframes and different parallels. The man might have been a minor poetinstead of an athlete of the first water. But there had always been afine streak of aestheticism in his complex composition; some of thesevery pictures I had myself dusted in his study at school; and they setme thinking of yet another of his many sides--and of the littleincident to which he had just referred. 

Everybody knows how largely the tone of a public school depends on thatof the eleven, and on the character of the captain of cricket inparticular; and I have never heard it denied that in A. J. Raffles'stime our tone was good, or that such influence as he troubled to exertwas on the side of the angels. Yet it was whispered in the school thathe was in the habit of parading the town at night in loud checks and afalse beard. It was whispered, and disbelieved. I alone knew it for afact; for night after night had I pulled the rope up after him when therest of the dormitory were asleep, and kept awake by the hour to let itdown again on a given signal. Well, one night he was over-bold, andwithin an ace of ignominious expulsion in the hey-day of his fame. Consummate daring and extraordinary nerve on his part, aided, doubtless, by some little presence of mind on mine, averted theuntoward result; and no more need be said of a discreditable incident. But I cannot pretend to have forgotten it in throwing myself on thisman's mercy in my desperation. And I was wondering how much of hisleniency was owing to the fact that Raffles had not forgotten iteither, when he stopped and stood over my chair once more. 

"I've been thinking of that night we had the narrow squeak, " he began. "Why do you start?"

"I was thinking of it too. "

He smiled, as though he had read my thoughts. 

"Well, you were the right sort of little beggar then, Bunny; you didn'ttalk and you didn't flinch. You asked no questions and you told notales. I wonder if you're like that now?"

"I don't know, " said I, slightly puzzled by his tone. "I've made sucha mess of my own affairs that I trust myself about as little as I'mlikely to be trusted by anybody else. Yet I never in my life went backon a friend. I will say that, otherwise perhaps I mightn't be in sucha hole to-night. "

"Exactly, " said Raffles, nodding to himself, as though in assent tosome hidden train of thought; "exactly what I remember of you, and I'llbet it's as true now as it was ten years ago. We don't alter, Bunny. We only develop. I suppose neither you nor I are really altered sinceyou used to let down that rope and I used to come up it hand over hand. You would stick at nothing for a pal--what?"

"At nothing in this world, " I was pleased to cry. 

"Not even at a crime?" said Raffles, smiling. 

I stopped to think, for his tone had changed, and I felt sure he waschaffing me. Yet his eye seemed as much in earnest as ever, and for mypart I was in no mood for reservations. 

"No, not even at that, " I declared; "name your crime, and I'm your man. "

He looked at me one moment in wonder, and another moment in doubt; thenturned the matter off with a shake of his head, and the little cynicallaugh that was all his own. 

"You're a nice chap, Bunny! A real desperate character--what? Suicideone moment, and any crime I like the next! What you want is a drag, myboy, and you did well to come to a decent law-abiding citizen with areputation to lose. None the less we must have that money to-night--byhook or crook. "

"To-night, Raffles?"

"The sooner the better. Every hour after ten o'clock to-morrow morningis an hour of risk. Let one of those checks get round to your ownbank, and you and it are dishonored together. No, we must raise thewind to-night and re-open your account first thing to-morrow. And Irather think I know where the wind can be raised. "

"At two o'clock in the morning?"

"Yes. "

"But how--but where--at such an hour?"

"From a friend of mine here in Bond Street. "

"He must be a very intimate friend!"

"Intimate's not the word. I have the run of his place and a latch-keyall to myself. "

"You would knock him up at this hour of the night?"

"If he's in bed. "

"And it's essential that I should go in with you?"

"Absolutely. "

"Then I must; but I'm bound to say I don't like the idea, Raffles. "

"Do you prefer the alternative?" asked my companion, with a sneer. "No, hang it, that's unfair!" he cried apologetically in the samebreath. "I quite understand. It's a beastly ordeal. But it wouldnever do for you to stay outside. I tell you what, you shall have apeg before we start--just one. There's the whiskey, here's a syphon, and I'll be putting on an overcoat while you help yourself. "

Well, I daresay I did so with some freedom, for this plan of his wasnot the less distasteful to me from its apparent inevitability. I mustown, however, that it possessed fewer terrors before my glass wasempty. Meanwhile Raffles rejoined me, with a covert coat over hisblazer, and a soft felt hat set carelessly on the curly head he shookwith a smile as I passed him the decanter. 

"When we come back, " said he. "Work first, play afterward. Do you seewhat day it is?" he added, tearing a leaflet from a Shakespeariancalendar, as I drained my glass. "March 15th. 'The Ides of March, theIdes of March, remember. ' Eh, Bunny, my boy? You won't forget them, will you?"

And, with a laugh, he threw some coals on the fire before turning downthe gas like a careful householder. So we went out together as theclock on the chimney-piece was striking two. 

II

Piccadilly was a trench of raw white fog, rimmed with blurredstreet-lamps, and lined with a thin coating of adhesive mud. We met noother wayfarers on the deserted flagstones, and were ourselves favoredwith a very hard stare from the constable of the beat, who, however, touched his helmet on recognizing my companion. 

"You see, I'm known to the police, " laughed Raffles as we passed on. "Poor devils, they've got to keep their weather eye open on a nightlike this! A fog may be a bore to you and me, Bunny, but it's aperfect godsend to the criminal classes, especially so late in theirseason. Here we are, though--and I'm hanged if the beggar isn't in bedand asleep after all!"

We had turned into Bond Street, and had halted on the curb a few yardsdown on the right. Raffles was gazing up at some windows across theroad, windows barely discernible through the mist, and without theglimmer of a light to throw them out. They were over a jeweller's shop, as I could see by the peep-hole in the shop door, and the bright lightburning within. But the entire "upper part, " with the privatestreet-door next the shop, was black and blank as the sky itself. 

"Better give it up for to-night, " I urged. "Surely the morning will betime enough!"

"Not a bit of it, " said Raffles. "I have his key. We'll surprise him. Come along. "

And seizing my right arm, he hurried me across the road, opened thedoor with his latch-key, and in another moment had shut it swiftly butsoftly behind us. We stood together in the dark. Outside, a measuredstep was approaching; we had heard it through the fog as we crossed thestreet; now, as it drew nearer, my companion's fingers tightened on myarm. 

"It may be the chap himself, " he whispered. "He's the devil of anight-bird. Not a sound, Bunny! We'll startle the life out of him. Ah!"

The measured step had passed without a pause. Raffles drew a deepbreath, and his singular grip of me slowly relaxed. 

"But still, not a sound, " he continued in the same whisper; "we'll takea rise out of him, wherever he is! Slip off your shoes and follow me. "

Well, you may wonder at my doing so; but you can never have met A. J. Raffles. Half his power lay in a conciliating trick of sinking thecommander in the leader. And it was impossible not to follow one wholed with such a zest. You might question, but you followed first. Sonow, when I heard him kick off his own shoes, I did the same, and wason the stairs at his heels before I realized what an extraordinary waywas this of approaching a stranger for money in the dead of night. Butobviously Raffles and he were on exceptional terms of intimacy, and Icould not but infer that they were in the habit of playing practicaljokes upon each other. 

We groped our way so slowly upstairs that I had time to make more thanone note before we reached the top. The stair was uncarpeted. Thespread fingers of my right hand encountered nothing on the damp wall;those of my left trailed through a dust that could be felt on thebanisters. An eerie sensation had been upon me since we entered thehouse. It increased with every step we climbed. What hermit were wegoing to startle in his cell?

We came to a landing. The banisters led us to the left, and to theleft again. Four steps more, and we were on another and a longerlanding, and suddenly a match blazed from the black. I never heard itstruck. Its flash was blinding. When my eyes became accustomed to thelight, there was Raffles holding up the match with one hand, andshading it with the other, between bare boards, stripped walls, and theopen doors of empty rooms. 

"Where have you brought me?" I cried. "The house is unoccupied!"

"Hush! Wait!" he whispered, and he led the way into one of the emptyrooms. His match went out as we crossed the threshold, and he struckanother without the slightest noise. Then he stood with his back tome, fumbling with something that I could not see. But, when he threwthe second match away, there was some other light in its stead, and aslight smell of oil. I stepped forward to look over his shoulder, butbefore I could do so he had turned and flashed a tiny lantern in myface. 

"What's this?" I gasped. "What rotten trick are you going to play?"

"It's played, " he answered, with his quiet laugh. 

"On me?"

"I am afraid so, Bunny. "

"Is there no one in the house, then?"

"No one but ourselves. "

"So it was mere chaff about your friend in Bond Street, who could letus have that money?"

"Not altogether. It's quite true that Danby is a friend of mine. "

"Danby?"

"The jeweller underneath. "

"What do you mean?" I whispered, trembling like a leaf as his meaningdawned upon me. "Are we to get the money from the jeweller?"

"Well, not exactly. "

"What, then?"

"The equivalent--from his shop. "

There was no need for another question. I understood everything but myown density. He had given me a dozen hints, and I had taken none. Andthere I stood staring at him, in that empty room; and there he stoodwith his dark lantern, laughing at me. 

"A burglar!" I gasped. "You--you!"

"I told you I lived by my wits. "

"Why couldn't you tell me what you were going to do? Why couldn't youtrust me? Why must you lie?" I demanded, piqued to the quick for allmy horror. 

"I wanted to tell you, " said he. "I was on the point of telling youmore than once. You may remember how I sounded you about crime, thoughyou have probably forgotten what you said yourself. I didn't think youmeant it at the time, but I thought I'd put you to the test. Now I seeyou didn't, and I don't blame you. I only am to blame. Get out of it, my dear boy, as quick as you can; leave it to me. You won't give meaway, whatever else you do!"

Oh, his cleverness! His fiendish cleverness! Had he fallen back onthreats, coercion, sneers, all might have been different even yet. Buthe set me free to leave him in the lurch. He would not blame me. Hedid not even bind me to secrecy; he trusted me. He knew my weaknessand my strength, and was playing on both with his master's touch. 

"Not so fast, " said I. "Did I put this into your head, or were yougoing to do it in any case?"

"Not in any case, " said Raffles. "It's true I've had the key for days, but when I won to-night I thought of chucking it; for, as a matter offact, it's not a one-man job. "

"That settles it. I'm your man. "

"You mean it?"

"Yes--for to-night. "

"Good old Bunny, " he murmured, holding the lantern for one moment to myface; the next he was explaining his plans, and I was nodding, asthough we had been fellow-cracksmen all our days. 

"I know the shop, " he whispered, "because I've got a few things there. I know this upper part too; it's been to let for a month, and I got anorder to view, and took a cast of the key before using it. The onething I don't know is how to make a connection between the two; atpresent there's none. We may make it up here, though I rather fancy thebasement myself. If you wait a minute I'll tell you. "

He set his lantern on the floor, crept to a back window, and opened itwith scarcely a sound: only to return, shaking his head, after shuttingthe window with the same care. 

"That was our one chance, " said he; "a back window above a back window;but it's too dark to see anything, and we daren't show an outsidelight. Come down after me to the basement; and remember, though there'snot a soul on the premises, you can't make too little noise. There--there--listen to that!"

It was the measured tread that we had heard before on the flagstonesoutside. Raffles darkened his lantern, and again we stood motionlesstill it had passed. 

"Either a policeman, " he muttered, "or a watchman that all thesejewellers run between them. The watchman's the man for us to watch;he's simply paid to spot this kind of thing. "

We crept very gingerly down the stairs, which creaked a bit in spite ofus, and we picked up our shoes in the passage; then down some narrowstone steps, at the foot of which Raffles showed his light, and put onhis shoes once more, bidding me do the same in a rather louder tonethan he had permitted himself to employ overhead. We were nowconsiderably below the level of the street, in a small space with asmany doors as it had sides. Three were ajar, and we saw through theminto empty cellars; but in the fourth a key was turned and a boltdrawn; and this one presently let us out into the bottom of a deep, square well of fog. A similar door faced it across this area, andRaffles had the lantern close against it, and was hiding the light withhis body, when a short and sudden crash made my heart stand still. Next moment I saw the door wide open, and Raffles standing within andbeckoning me with a jimmy. 

"Door number one, " he whispered. "Deuce knows how many more there'llbe, but I know of two at least. We won't have to make much noise overthem, either; down here there's less risk. "

We were now at the bottom of the exact fellow to the narrow stone stairwhich we had just descended: the yard, or well, being the one partcommon to both the private and the business premises. But this flightled to no open passage; instead, a singularly solid mahogany doorconfronted us at the top. 

"I thought so, " muttered Raffles, handing me the lantern, and pocketinga bunch of skeleton keys, after tampering for a few minutes with thelock. "It'll be an hour's work to get through that!"

"Can't you pick it?"

"No: I know these locks. It's no use trying. We must cut it out, andit'll take us an hour. "

It took us forty-seven minutes by my watch; or, rather, it tookRaffles; and never in my life have I seen anything more deliberatelydone. My part was simply to stand by with the dark lantern in onehand, and a small bottle of rock-oil in the other. 

Raffles had produced a pretty embroidered case, intended obviously forhis razors, but filled instead with the tools of his secret trade, including the rock-oil. From this case he selected a "bit, " capable ofdrilling a hole an inch in diameter, and fitted it to a small but verystrong steel "brace. " Then he took off his covert-coat and his blazer, spread them neatly on the top step--knelt on them--turned up his shirtcuffs--and went to work with brace-and-bit near the key-hole. Butfirst he oiled the bit to minimize the noise, and this he didinvariably before beginning a fresh hole, and often in the middle ofone. It took thirty-two separate borings to cut around that lock. 

I noticed that through the first circular orifice Raffles thrust aforefinger; then, as the circle became an ever-lengthening oval, he gothis hand through up to the thumb; and I heard him swear softly tohimself. 

"I was afraid so!"

"What is it?"

"An iron gate on the other side!"

"How on earth are we to get through that?" I asked in dismay. 

"Pick the lock. But there may be two. In that case they'll be top andbottom, and we shall have two fresh holes to make, as the door opensinwards. It won't open two inches as it is. "

I confess I did not feel sanguine about the lock-picking, seeing thatone lock had baffled us already; and my disappointment and impatiencemust have been a revelation to me had I stopped to think. The truth isthat I was entering into our nefarious undertaking with an involuntaryzeal of which I was myself quite unconscious at the time. The romanceand the peril of the whole proceeding held me spellbound and entranced. My moral sense and my sense of fear were stricken by a commonparalysis. And there I stood, shining my light and holding my phialwith a keener interest than I had ever brought to any honest avocation. And there knelt A. J. Raffles, with his black hair tumbled, and thesame watchful, quiet, determined half-smile with which I have seen himsend down over after over in a county match!

At last the chain of holes was complete, the lock wrenched out bodily, and a splendid bare arm plunged up to the shoulder through theaperture, and through the bars of the iron gate beyond. 

"Now, " whispered Raffles, "if there's only one lock it'll be in themiddle. Joy! Here it is! Only let me pick it, and we're through atlast. "

He withdrew his arm, a skeleton key was selected from the bunch, andthen back went his arm to the shoulder. It was a breathless moment. Iheard the heart throbbing in my body, the very watch ticking in mypocket, and ever and anon the tinkle-tinkle of the skeleton key. Then--at last--there came a single unmistakable click. In anotherminute the mahogany door and the iron gate yawned behind us; andRaffles was sitting on an office table, wiping his face, with thelantern throwing a steady beam by his side. 

We were now in a bare and roomy lobby behind the shop, but separatedtherefrom by an iron curtain, the very sight of which filled me withdespair. Raffles, however, did not appear in the least depressed, buthung up his coat and hat on some pegs in the lobby before examiningthis curtain with his lantern. 

"That's nothing, " said he, after a minute's inspection; "we'll bethrough that in no time, but there's a door on the other side which maygive us trouble. "

"Another door!" I groaned. "And how do you mean to tackle this thing?"

"Prise it up with the jointed jimmy. The weak point of these ironcurtains is the leverage you can get from below. But it makes a noise, and this is where you're coming in, Bunny; this is where I couldn't dowithout you. I must have you overhead to knock through when thestreet's clear. I'll come with you and show a light. "

Well, you may imagine how little I liked the prospect of this lonelyvigil; and yet there was something very stimulating in the vitalresponsibility which it involved. Hitherto I had been a merespectator. Now I was to take part in the game. And the freshexcitement made me more than ever insensible to those considerations ofconscience and of safety which were already as dead nerves in my breast. 

So I took my post without a murmur in the front room above the shop. The fixtures had been left for the refusal of the incoming tenant, andfortunately for us they included Venetian blinds which were alreadydown. It was the simplest matter in the world to stand peeping throughthe laths into the street, to beat twice with my foot when anybody wasapproaching, and once when all was clear again. The noises that even Icould hear below, with the exception of one metallic crash at thebeginning, were indeed incredibly slight; but they ceased altogether ateach double rap from my toe; and a policeman passed quite half a dozentimes beneath my eyes, and the man whom I took to be the jeweller'swatchman oftener still, during the better part of an hour that I spentat the window. Once, indeed, my heart was in my mouth, but only once. It was when the watchman stopped and peered through the peep-hole intothe lighted shop. I waited for his whistle--I waited for the gallowsor the gaol! But my signals had been studiously obeyed, and the manpassed on in undisturbed serenity. 

In the end I had a signal in my turn, and retraced my steps withlighted matches, down the broad stairs, down the narrow ones, acrossthe area, and up into the lobby where Raffles awaited me with anoutstretched hand. 

"Well done, my boy!" said he. "You're the same good man in a pinch, and you shall have your reward. I've got a thousand pounds' worth ifI've got a penn'oth. It's all in my pockets. And here's somethingelse I found in this locker; very decent port and some cigars, meantfor poor dear Danby's business friends. Take a pull, and you shalllight up presently. I've found a lavatory, too, and we must have awash-and-brush-up before we go, for I'm as black as your boot. "

The iron curtain was down, but he insisted on raising it until I couldpeep through the glass door on the other side and see his handiwork inthe shop beyond. Here two electric lights were left burning all nightlong, and in their cold white rays I could at first see nothing amiss. I looked along an orderly lane, an empty glass counter on my left, glass cupboards of untouched silver on my right, and facing me thefilmy black eye of the peep-hole that shone like a stage moon on thestreet. The counter had not been emptied by Raffles; its contents werein the Chubb's safe, which he had given up at a glance; nor had helooked at the silver, except to choose a cigarette case for me. He hadconfined himself entirely to the shop window. This was in threecompartments, each secured for the night by removable panels withseparate locks. Raffles had removed them a few hours before their time, and the electric light shone on a corrugated shutter bare as the ribsof an empty carcase. Every article of value was gone from the oneplace which was invisible from the little window in the door; elsewhereall was as it had been left overnight. And but for a train of mangleddoors behind the iron curtain, a bottle of wine and a cigar-box withwhich liberties had been taken, a rather black towel in the lavatory, aburnt match here and there, and our finger-marks on the dustybanisters, not a trace of our visit did we leave. 

"Had it in my head for long?" said Raffles, as we strolled through thestreets towards dawn, for all the world as though we were returningfrom a dance. "No, Bunny, I never thought of it till I saw that upperpart empty about a month ago, and bought a few things in the shop toget the lie of the land. That reminds me that I never paid for them;but, by Jove, I will to-morrow, and if that isn't poetic justice, whatis? One visit showed me the possibilities of the place, but a secondconvinced me of its impossibilities without a pal. So I hadpractically given up the idea, when you came along on the very nightand in the very plight for it! But here we are at the Albany, and Ihope there's some fire left; for I don't know how you feel, Bunny, butfor my part I'm as cold as Keats's owl. "

He could think of Keats on his way from a felony! He could hanker forhis fireside like another! Floodgates were loosed within me, and theplain English of our adventure rushed over me as cold as ice. Raffleswas a burglar. I had helped him to commit one burglary, therefore Iwas a burglar, too. Yet I could stand and warm myself by his fire, andwatch him empty his pockets, as though we had done nothing wonderful orwicked!

My blood froze. My heart sickened. My brain whirled. How I had likedthis villain! How I had admired him! Now my liking and admirationmust turn to loathing and disgust. I waited for the change. I longedto feel it in my heart. But--I longed and I waited in vain!

I saw that he was emptying his pockets; the table sparkled with theirhoard. Rings by the dozen, diamonds by the score; bracelets, pendants, aigrettes, necklaces, pearls, rubies, amethysts, sapphires; anddiamonds always, diamonds in everything, flashing bayonets of light, dazzling me--blinding me--making me disbelieve because I could nolonger forget. Last of all came no gem, indeed, but my own revolverfrom an inner pocket. And that struck a chord. I suppose I saidsomething--my hand flew out. I can see Raffles now, as he looked at meonce more with a high arch over each clear eye. I can see him pick outthe cartridges with his quiet, cynical smile, before he would give memy pistol back again. 

"You mayn't believe it, Bunny, " said he, "but I never carried a loadedone before. On the whole I think it gives one confidence. Yet itwould be very awkward if anything went wrong; one might use it, andthat's not the game at all, though I have often thought that themurderer who has just done the trick must have great sensations beforethings get too hot for him. Don't look so distressed, my dear chap. I've never had those sensations, and I don't suppose I ever shall. "

"But this much you have done before?" said I hoarsely. 

"Before? My dear Bunny, you offend me! Did it look like a firstattempt? Of course I have done it before. "

"Often?"

"Well--no! Not often enough to destroy the charm, at all events;never, as a matter of fact, unless I'm cursedly hard up. Did you hearabout the Thimbleby diamonds? Well, that was the last time--and a poorlot of paste they were. Then there was the little business of theDormer house-boat at Henley last year. That was mine also--such as itwas. I've never brought off a really big coup yet; when I do I shallchuck it up. "

Yes, I remembered both cases very well. To think that he was theirauthor! It was incredible, outrageous, inconceivable. Then my eyeswould fall upon the table, twinkling and glittering in a hundredplaces, and incredulity was at an end. 

"How came you to begin?" I asked, as curiosity overcame mere wonder, and a fascination for his career gradually wove itself into myfascination for the man. 

"Ah! that's a long story, " said Raffles. "It was in the Colonies, whenI was out there playing cricket. It's too long a story to tell younow, but I was in much the same fix that you were in to-night, and itwas my only way out. I never meant it for anything more; but I'dtasted blood, and it was all over with me. Why should I work when Icould steal? Why settle down to some humdrum uncongenial billet, whenexcitement, romance, danger and a decent living were all going beggingtogether? Of course it's very wrong, but we can't all be moralists, and the distribution of wealth is very wrong to begin with. Besides, you're not at it all the time. I'm sick of quoting Gilbert's lines tomyself, but they're profoundly true. I only wonder if you'll like thelife as much as I do!"

"Like it?" I cried out. "Not I! It's no life for me. Once is enough!"

"You wouldn't give me a hand another time?"

"Don't ask me, Raffles. Don't ask me, for God's sake!"

"Yet you said you would do anything for me! You asked me to name mycrime! But I knew at the time you didn't mean it; you didn't go backon me to-night, and that ought to satisfy me, goodness knows! Isuppose I'm ungrateful, and unreasonable, and all that. I ought to letit end at this. But you're the very man for me, Bunny, the--very--man!Just think how we got through to-night. Not a scratch--not a hitch!There's nothing very terrible in it, you see; there never would be, while we worked together. "

He was standing in front of me with a hand on either shoulder; he wassmiling as he knew so well how to smile. I turned on my heel, plantedmy elbows on the chimney-piece, and my burning head between my hands. Next instant a still heartier hand had fallen on my back. 

"All right, my boy! You are quite right and I'm worse than wrong. I'll never ask it again. Go, if you want to, and come again aboutmid-day for the cash. There was no bargain; but, of course, I'll getyou out of your scrape--especially after the way you've stood by meto-night. "

I was round again with my blood on fire. 

"I'll do it again, " I said, through my teeth. 

He shook his head. "Not you, " he said, smiling quite good-humoredly onmy insane enthusiasm. 

"I will, " I cried with an oath. "I'll lend you a hand as often as youlike! What does it matter now? I've been in it once. I'll be in itagain. I've gone to the devil anyhow. I can't go back, and wouldn'tif I could. Nothing matters another rap! When you want me, I'm yourman!"

And that is how Raffles and I joined felonious forces on the Ides ofMarch. 

A COSTUME PIECE

London was just then talking of one whose name is already a name andnothing more. Reuben Rosenthall had made his millions on the diamondfields of South Africa, and had come home to enjoy them according tohis lights; how he went to work will scarcely be forgotten by anyreader of the halfpenny evening papers, which revelled in endlessanecdotes of his original indigence and present prodigality, variedwith interesting particulars of the extraordinary establishment whichthe millionaire set up in St. John's Wood. Here he kept a retinue ofKaffirs, who were literally his slaves; and hence he would sally, withenormous diamonds in his shirt and on his finger, in the convoy of aprize-fighter of heinous repute, who was not, however, by any means theworst element in the Rosenthall melange. So said common gossip; butthe fact was sufficiently established by the interference of the policeon at least one occasion, followed by certain magisterial proceedingswhich were reported with justifiable gusto and huge headlines in thenewspapers aforesaid. 

And this was all one knew of Reuben Rosenthall up to the time when theOld Bohemian Club, having fallen on evil days, found it worth its whileto organize a great dinner in honor of so wealthy an exponent of theclub's principles. I was not at the banquet myself, but a member tookRaffles, who told me all about it that very night. 

"Most extraordinary show I ever went to in my life, " said he. "As forthe man himself--well, I was prepared for something grotesque, but thefellow fairly took my breath away. To begin with, he's the mostastounding brute to look at, well over six feet, with a chest like abarrel, and a great hook-nose, and the reddest hair and whiskers youever saw. Drank like a fire-engine, but only got drunk enough to makeus a speech that I wouldn't have missed for ten pounds. I'm only sorryyou weren't there, too, Bunny, old chap. "

I began to be sorry myself, for Raffles was anything but an excitableperson, and never had I seen him so excited before. Had he beenfollowing Rosenthall's example? His coming to my rooms at midnight, merely to tell me about his dinner, was in itself enough to excuse asuspicion which was certainly at variance with my knowledge of A. J. Raffles. 

"What did he say?" I inquired mechanically, divining some subtlerexplanation of this visit, and wondering what on earth it could be. 

"Say?" cried Raffles. "What did he not say! He boasted of his rise, he bragged of his riches, and he blackguarded society for taking him upfor his money and dropping him out of sheer pique and jealousy becausehe had so much. He mentioned names, too, with the most charmingfreedom, and swore he was as good a man as the Old Country had toshow--PACE the Old Bohemians. To prove it he pointed to a great diamondin the middle of his shirt-front with a little finger loaded withanother just like it: which of our bloated princes could show a pairlike that? As a matter of fact, they seemed quite wonderful stones, with a curious purple gleam to them that must mean a pot of money. Butold Rosenthall swore he wouldn't take fifty thousand pounds for thetwo, and wanted to know where the other man was who went about withtwenty-five thousand in his shirt-front and another twenty-five on hislittle finger. He didn't exist. If he did, he wouldn't have the pluckto wear them. But he had--he'd tell us why. And before you could sayJack Robinson he had whipped out a whacking great revolver!"

"Not at the table?"

"At the table! In the middle of his speech! But it was nothing towhat he wanted to do. He actually wanted us to let him write his namein bullets on the opposite wall, to show us why he wasn't afraid to goabout in all his diamonds! That brute Purvis, the prize-fighter, whois his paid bully, had to bully his master before he could be persuadedout of it. There was quite a panic for the moment; one fellow wassaying his prayers under the table, and the waiters bolted to a man. "

"What a grotesque scene!"

"Grotesque enough, but I rather wish they had let him go the whole hogand blaze away. He was as keen as knives to show us how he could takecare of his purple diamonds; and, do you know, Bunny, _I_ was as keenas knives to see. "

And Raffles leaned towards me with a sly, slow smile that made thehidden meaning of his visit only too plain to me at last. 

"So you think of having a try for his diamonds yourself?"

He shrugged his shoulders. 

"It is horribly obvious, I admit. But--yes, I have set my heart uponthem! To be quite frank, I have had them on my conscience for sometime; one couldn't hear so much of the man, and his prize-fighter, andhis diamonds, without feeling it a kind of duty to have a go for them;but when it comes to brandishing a revolver and practically challengingthe world, the thing becomes inevitable. It is simply thrust upon one. I was fated to hear that challenge, Bunny, and I, for one, must take itup. I was only sorry I couldn't get on my hind legs and say so thenand there. "

"Well, " I said, "I don't see the necessity as things are with us; but, of course, I'm your man. "

My tone may have been half-hearted. I did my best to make itotherwise. But it was barely a month since our Bond Street exploit, and we certainly could have afforded to behave ourselves for some timeto come. We had been getting along so nicely: by his advice I hadscribbled a thing or two; inspired by Raffles, I had even done anarticle on our own jewel robbery; and for the moment I was quitesatisfied with this sort of adventure. I thought we ought to know whenwe were well off, and could see no point in our running fresh risksbefore we were obliged. On the other hand, I was anxious not to showthe least disposition to break the pledge that I had given a month ago. But it was not on my manifest disinclination that Raffles fastened. 

"Necessity, my dear Bunny? Does the writer only write when the wolf isat the door? Does the painter paint for bread alone? Must you and Ibe DRIVEN to crime like Tom of Bow and Dick of Whitechapel? You painme, my dear chap; you needn't laugh, because you do. Art for art'ssake is a vile catchword, but I confess it appeals to me. In this casemy motives are absolutely pure, for I doubt if we shall ever be able todispose of such peculiar stones. But if I don't have a try forthem--after to-night--I shall never be able to hold up my head again. "

His eye twinkled, but it glittered, too. 

"We shall have our work cut out, " was all I said. 

"And do you suppose I should be keen on it if we hadn't?" criedRaffles. "My dear fellow, I would rob St. Paul's Cathedral if I could, but I could no more scoop a till when the shopwalker wasn't lookingthan I could bag the apples out of an old woman's basket. Even thatlittle business last month was a sordid affair, but it was necessary, and I think its strategy redeemed it to some extent. Now there's somecredit, and more sport, in going where they boast they're on theirguard against you. The Bank of England, for example, is the idealcrib; but that would need half a dozen of us with years to give to thejob; and meanwhile Reuben Rosenthall is high enough game for you andme. We know he's armed. We know how Billy Purvis can fight. It'll beno soft thing, I grant you. But what of that, my good Bunny--what ofthat? A man's reach must exceed his grasp, dear boy, or what thedickens is a heaven for?"

"I would rather we didn't exceed ours just yet, " I answered laughing, for his spirit was irresistible, and the plan was growing upon me, despite my qualms. 

"Trust me for that, " was his reply; "I'll see you through. After all Iexpect to find that the difficulties are nearly all on the surface. These fellows both drink like the devil, and that should simplifymatters considerably. But we shall see, and we must take our time. There will probably turn out to be a dozen different ways in which thething might be done, and we shall have to choose between them. It willmean watching the house for at least a week in any case; it may meanlots of other things that will take much longer; but give me a week andI will tell you more. That's to say, if you're really on?"

"Of course I am, " I replied indignantly. "But why should I give you aweek? Why shouldn't we watch the house together?"

"Because two eyes are as good as four and take up less room. Neverhunt in couples unless you're obliged. But don't you look offended, Bunny; there'll be plenty for you to do when the time comes, that Ipromise you. You shall have your share of the fun, never fear, and apurple diamond all to yourself--if we're lucky. "

On the whole, however, this conversation left me less than lukewarm, and I still remember the depression which came upon me when Raffles wasgone. I saw the folly of the enterprise to which I had committedmyself--the sheer, gratuitous, unnecessary folly of it. And theparadoxes in which Raffles revelled, and the frivolous casuistry whichwas nevertheless half sincere, and which his mere personality renderedwholly plausible at the moment of utterance, appealed very little to mewhen recalled in cold blood. I admired the spirit of pure mischief inwhich he seemed prepared to risk his liberty and his life, but I didnot find it an infectious spirit on calm reflection. Yet the thoughtof withdrawal was not to be entertained for a moment. On the contrary, I was impatient of the delay ordained by Raffles; and, perhaps, nosmall part of my secret disaffection came of his galling determinationto do without me until the last moment. 

It made it no better that this was characteristic of the man and of hisattitude towards me. For a month we had been, I suppose, the thickestthieves in all London, and yet our intimacy was curiously incomplete. With all his charming frankness, there was in Raffles a vein ofcapricious reserve which was perceptible enough to be very irritating. He had the instinctive secretiveness of the inveterate criminal. Hewould make mysteries of matters of common concern; for example, I neverknew how or where he disposed of the Bond Street jewels, on theproceeds of which we were both still leading the outward lives ofhundreds of other young fellows about town. He was consistentlymysterious about that and other details, of which it seemed to me thatI had already earned the right to know everything. I could not butremember how he had led me into my first felony, by means of a trick, while yet uncertain whether he could trust me or not. 

That I could no longer afford to resent, but I did resent his want ofconfidence in me now. I said nothing about it, but it rankled everyday, and never more than in the week that succeeded the Rosenthalldinner. When I met Raffles at the club he would tell me nothing; whenI went to his rooms he was out, or pretended to be. 

One day he told me he was getting on well, but slowly; it was a moreticklish game than he had thought; but when I began to ask questions hewould say no more. Then and there, in my annoyance, I took my owndecision. Since he would tell me nothing of the result of his vigils, I determined to keep one on my own account, and that very evening foundmy way to the millionaire's front gates. 

The house he was occupying is, I believe, quite the largest in the St. John's Wood district. It stands in the angle formed by two broadthoroughfares, neither of which, as it happens, is a 'bus route, and Idoubt if many quieter spots exist within the four-mile radius. Quietalso was the great square house, in its garden of grass-plots andshrubs; the lights were low, the millionaire and his friends obviouslyspending their evening elsewhere. The garden walls were only a fewfeet high. In one there was a side door opening into a glass passage;in the other two five-barred, grained-and-varnished gates, one ateither end of the little semi-circular drive, and both wide open. Sostill was the place that I had a great mind to walk boldly in and learnsomething of the premises; in fact, I was on the point of doing so, when I heard a quick, shuffling step on the pavement behind me. Iturned round and faced the dark scowl and the dirty clenched fists of adilapidated tramp. 

"You fool!" said he. "You utter idiot!"

"Raffles!"

"That's it, " he whispered savagely; "tell all the neighborhood--give meaway at the top of your voice!"

With that he turned his back upon me, and shambled down the road, shrugging his shoulders and muttering to himself as though I hadrefused him alms. A few moments I stood astounded, indignant, at aloss; then I followed him. His feet trailed, his knees gave, his backwas bowed, his head kept nodding; it was the gait of a man eighty yearsof age. Presently he waited for me midway between two lamp-posts. AsI came up he was lighting rank tobacco, in a cutty pipe, with anevil-smelling match, and the flame showed me the suspicion of a smile. 

"You must forgive my heat, Bunny, but it really was very foolish ofyou. Here am I trying every dodge--begging at the door onenight--hiding in the shrubs the next--doing every mortal thing butstand and stare at the house as you went and did. It's a costume piece, and in you rush in your ordinary clothes. I tell you they're on thelookout for us night and day. It's the toughest nut I ever tackled!"

"Well, " said I, "if you had told me so before I shouldn't have come. You told me nothing. "

He looked hard at me from under the broken brim of a battered billycock. 

"You're right, " he said at length. "I've been too close. It's becomesecond nature with me when I've anything on. But here's an end of it, Bunny, so far as you're concerned. I'm going home now, and I want youto follow me; but for heaven's sake keep your distance, and don't speakto me again till I speak to you. There--give me a start. " And he wasoff again, a decrepit vagabond, with his hands in his pockets, hiselbows squared, and frayed coat-tails swinging raggedly from side toside. 

I followed him to the Finchley Road. There he took an Atlas omnibus, and I sat some rows behind him on the top, but not far enough to escapethe pest of his vile tobacco. That he could carry his character-sketchto such a pitch--he who would only smoke one brand of cigarette! Itwas the last, least touch of the insatiable artist, and it charmed awaywhat mortification there still remained in me. Once more I felt thefascination of a comrade who was forever dazzling one with a fresh andunsuspected facet of his character. 

As we neared Piccadilly I wondered what he would do. Surely he was notgoing into the Albany like that? No, he took another omnibus to SloaneStreet, I sitting behind him as before. At Sloane Street we changedagain, and were presently in the long lean artery of the King's Road. I was now all agog to know our destination, nor was I kept many moreminutes in doubt. Raffles got down. I followed. He crossed the roadand disappeared up a dark turning. I pressed after him, and was intime to see his coat-tails as he plunged into a still darker flaggedalley to the right. He was holding himself up and stepping out like ayoung man once more; also, in some subtle way, he already looked lessdisreputable. But I alone was there to see him, the alley wasabsolutely deserted, and desperately dark. At the further end heopened a door with a latch-key, and it was darker yet within. 

Instinctively I drew back and heard him chuckle. We could no longer seeeach other. 

"All right, Bunny! There's no hanky-panky this time. These arestudios, my friend, and I'm one of the lawful tenants. "

Indeed, in another minute we were in a lofty room with skylight, easels, dressing-cupboard, platform, and every other adjunct save thesigns of actual labor. The first thing I saw, as Raffles lit the gas, was its reflection in his silk hat on the pegs beside the rest of hisnormal garments. 

"Looking for the works of art?" continued Raffles, lighting a cigaretteand beginning to divest himself of his rags. "I'm afraid you won'tfind any, but there's the canvas I'm always going to make a start upon. I tell them I'm looking high and low for my ideal model. I have thestove lit on principle twice a week, and look in and leave a newspaperand a smell of Sullivans--how good they are after shag! Meanwhile Ipay my rent and am a good tenant in every way; and it's a very usefullittle pied-a-terre--there's no saying how useful it might be at apinch. As it is, the billy-cock comes in and the topper goes out, andnobody takes the slightest notice of either; at this time of night thechances are that there's not a soul in the building except ourselves. "

"You never told me you went in for disguises, " said I, watching him ashe cleansed the grime from his face and hands. 

"No, Bunny, I've treated you very shabbily all round. There was reallyno reason why I shouldn't have shown you this place a month ago, andyet there was no point in my doing so, and circumstances are justconceivable in which it would have suited us both for you to be ingenuine ignorance of my whereabouts. I have something to sleep on, asyou perceive, in case of need, and, of course, my name is not Rafflesin the King's Road. So you will see that one might bolt further andfare worse. "

"Meanwhile you use the place as a dressing-room?"

"It is my private pavilion, " said Raffles. "Disguises? In some casesthey're half the battle, and it's always pleasant to feel that, if theworst comes to the worst, you needn't necessarily be convicted underyour own name. Then they're indispensable in dealing with the fences. I drive all my bargains in the tongue and raiment of Shoreditch. If Ididn't there'd be the very devil to pay in blackmail. Now, thiscupboard's full of all sorts of toggery. I tell the woman who cleansthe room that it's for my models when I find 'em. By the way, I onlyhope I've got something that'll fit you, for you'll want a rig forto-morrow night. "

"To-morrow night!" I exclaimed. "Why, what do you mean to do?"

"The trick, " said Raffles. "I intended writing to you as soon as I gotback to my rooms, to ask you to look me up to-morrow afternoon; then Iwas going to unfold my plan of campaign, and take you straight intoaction then and there. There's nothing like putting the nervousplayers in first; it's the sitting with their pads on that upsets theirapplecart; that was another of my reasons for being so confoundedlyclose. You must try to forgive me. I couldn't help remembering howwell you played up last trip, without any time to weaken on itbeforehand. All I want is for you to be as cool and smart to-morrownight as you were then; though, by Jove, there's no comparison betweenthe two cases!"

"I thought you would find it so. "

"You were right. I have. Mind you, I don't say this will be thetougher job all round; we shall probably get in without any difficultyat all; it's the getting out again that may flummox us. That's theworst of an irregular household!" cried Raffles, with quite a burst ofvirtuous indignation. "I assure you, Bunny, I spent the whole ofMonday night in the shrubbery of the garden next door, looking over thewall, and, if you'll believe me, somebody was about all night long! Idon't mean the Kaffirs. I don't believe they ever get to bed atall--poor devils! No, I mean Rosenthall himself, and that pasty-facedbeast Purvis. They were up and drinking from midnight, when they camein, to broad daylight, when I cleared out. Even then I left them soberenough to slang each other. By the way, they very nearly came to blowsin the garden, within a few yards of me, and I heard something thatmight come in useful and make Rosenthall shoot crooked at a criticalmoment. You know what an I. D. B. Is?"

"Illicit Diamond Buyer?"

"Exactly. Well, it seems that Rosenthall was one. He must have let itout to Purvis in his cups. Anyhow, I heard Purvis taunting him with it, and threatening him with the breakwater at Capetown; and I begin tothink our friends are friend and foe. But about to-morrow night:there's nothing subtle in my plan. It's simply to get in while thesefellows are out on the loose, and to lie low till they come back, andlonger. If possible, we must doctor the whiskey. That would simplifythe whole thing, though it's not a very sporting game to play; still, we must remember Rosenthall's revolver; we don't want him to sign hisname on US. With all those Kaffirs about, however, it's ten to one onthe whiskey, and a hundred to one against us if we go looking for it. A brush with the heathen would spoil everything, if it did no more. Besides, there are the ladies--"

"The deuce there are!"

"Ladies with an _I_, and the very voices for raising Cain. I fear, Ifear the clamor! It would be fatal to us. Au contraire, if we canmanage to stow ourselves away unbeknownst, half the battle will be won. If Rosenthall turns in drunk, it's a purple diamond apiece. If he sitsup sober, it may be a bullet instead. We will hope not, Bunny; and allthe firing wouldn't be on one side; but it's on the knees of the gods. "

And so we left it when we shook hands in Picadilly--not by any means asmuch later as I could have wished. Raffles would not ask me to hisrooms that night. He said he made it a rule to have a long nightbefore playing cricket and--other games. His final word to me wasframed on the same principle. 

"Mind, only one drink to-night, Bunny. Two at the outside--as youvalue your life--and mine!"

I remember my abject obedience; and the endless, sleepless night itgave me; and the roofs of the houses opposite standing out at lastagainst the blue-gray London dawn. I wondered whether I should eversee another, and was very hard on myself for that little expeditionwhich I had made on my own wilful account. 

It was between eight and nine o'clock in the evening when we took upour position in the garden adjoining that of Reuben Rosenthall; thehouse itself was shut up, thanks to the outrageous libertine next door, who, by driving away the neighbors, had gone far towards deliveringhimself into our hands. Practically secure from surprise on that side, we could watch our house under cover of a wall just high enough to seeover, while a fair margin of shrubs in either garden afforded usadditional protection. Thus entrenched, we had stood an hour, watchinga pair of lighted bow-windows with vague shadows flitting continuallyacross the blinds, and listening to the drawing of corks, the clink ofglasses, and a gradual crescendo of coarse voices within. Our luckseemed to have deserted us: the owner of the purple diamonds was diningat home and dining at undue length. I thought it was a dinner-party. Raffles differed; in the end he proved right. Wheels grated in thedrive, a carriage and pair stood at the steps; there was a stampedefrom the dining-room, and the loud voices died away, to burst forthpresently from the porch. 

Let me make our position perfectly clear. We were over the wall, atthe side of the house, but a few feet from the dining-room windows. Onour right, one angle of the building cut the back lawn in twodiagonally; on our left, another angle just permitted us to see thejutting steps and the waiting carriage. We saw Rosenthall comeout--saw the glimmer of his diamonds before anything. Then came thepugilist; then a lady with a head of hair like a bath sponge; thenanother, and the party was complete. 

Raffles ducked and pulled me down in great excitement. 

"The ladies are going with them, " he whispered. "This is great!"

"That's better still. "

"The Gardenia!" the millionaire had bawled. 

"And that's best of all, " said Raffles, standing upright as hoofs andwheels crunched through the gates and rattled off at a fine speed. 

"Now what?" I whispered, trembling with excitement. 

"They'll be clearing away. Yes, here come their shadows. Thedrawing-room windows open on the lawn. Bunny, it's the psychologicalmoment. Where's that mask?"

I produced it with a hand whose trembling I tried in vain to still, andcould have died for Raffles when he made no comment on what he couldnot fail to notice. His own hands were firm and cool as he adjusted mymask for me, and then his own. 

"By Jove, old boy, " he whispered cheerily, "you look about the greatestruffian I ever saw! These masks alone will down a nigger, if we meetone. But I'm glad I remembered to tell you not to shave. You'll passfor Whitechapel if the worst comes to the worst and you don't forget totalk the lingo. Better sulk like a mule if you're not sure of it, andleave the dialogue to me; but, please our stars, there will be no need. Now, are you ready?"

"Quite. "

"Got your gag?"

"Yes. "

"Shooter?"

"Yes. "

"Then follow me. "

In an instant we were over the wall, in another on the lawn behind thehouse. There was no moon. The very stars in their courses had veiledthemselves for our benefit. I crept at my leader's heels to someFrench windows opening upon a shallow veranda. He pushed. Theyyielded. 

"Luck again, " he whispered; "nothing BUT luck! Now for a light. "

And the light came!

A good score of electric burners glowed red for the fraction of asecond, then rained merciless white beams into our blinded eyes. Whenwe found our sight four revolvers covered us, and between two of themthe colossal frame of Reuben Rosenthall shook with a wheezy laughterfrom head to foot. 

"Good-evening, boys, " he hiccoughed. "Glad to see ye at last. Shiftfoot or finger, you on the left, though, and you're a dead boy. I meanyou, you greaser!" he roared out at Raffles. "I know you. I've beenwaitin' for you. I've been WATCHIN' you all this week! Plucky smartyou thought yerself, didn't you? One day beggin', next time shammin'tight, and next one o' them old pals from Kimberley what never comewhen I'm in. But you left the same tracks every day, you buggins, an'the same tracks every night, all round the blessed premises. "

"All right, guv'nor, " drawled Raffles; "don't excite. It's a fair cop. We don't sweat to know 'ow you brung it orf. On'y don't you go for toshoot, 'cos we 'int awmed, s'help me Gord!"

"Ah, you're a knowin' one, " said Rosenthall, fingering his triggers. "But you've struck a knowin'er. "

"Ho, yuss, we know all abaht thet! Set a thief to ketch a thief--ho, yuss. "

My eyes had torn themselves from the round black muzzles, from theaccursed diamonds that had been our snare, the pasty pig-face of theover-fed pugilist, and the flaming cheeks and hook nose of Rosenthallhimself. I was looking beyond them at the doorway filled withquivering silk and plush, black faces, white eyeballs, woolly pates. But a sudden silence recalled my attention to the millionaire. Andonly his nose retained its color. 

"What d'ye mean?" he whispered with a hoarse oath. "Spit it out, or, by Christmas, I'll drill you!"

"Whort price thet brikewater?" drawled Raffles coolly. 

"Eh?"

Rosenthall's revolvers were describing widening orbits. 

"Whort price thet brikewater--old _I. D. B. _?"

"Where in hell did you get hold o' that?" asked Rosenthall, with arattle in his thick neck, meant for mirth. 

"You may well arst, " says Raffles. "It's all over the plice w'ere _I_come from. "

"Who can have spread such rot?"

"I dunno, " says Raffles; "arst the gen'leman on yer left; p'r'aps 'Eknows. "

The gentleman on his left had turned livid with emotion. Guiltyconscience never declared itself in plainer terms. For a moment hissmall eyes bulged like currants in the suet of his face; the next, hehad pocketed his pistols on a professional instinct, and was upon uswith his fists. 

"Out o' the light--out o' the light!" yelled Rosenthall in a frenzy. 

He was too late. No sooner had the burly pugilist obstructed his firethan Raffles was through the window at a bound; while I, for standingstill and saying nothing, was scientifically felled to the floor. 

I cannot have been many moments without my senses. When I recoveredthem there was a great to-do in the garden, but I had the drawing-roomto myself. I sat up. Rosenthall and Purvis were rushing aboutoutside, cursing the Kaffirs and nagging at each other. 

"Over THAT wall, I tell yer!"

"I tell you it was this one. Can't you whistle for the police?"

"Police be damned! I've had enough of the blessed police. "

"Then we'd better get back and make sure of the other rotter. "

"Oh, make sure o' yer skin. That's what you'd better do. Jala, youblack hog, if I catch YOU skulkin'. . . . "

I never heard the threat. I was creeping from the drawing-room on myhands and knees, my own revolver swinging by its steel ring from myteeth. 

For an instant I thought that the hall also was deserted. I was wrong, and I crept upon a Kaffir on all fours. Poor devil, I could not bringmyself to deal him a base blow, but I threatened him most hideouslywith my revolver, and left the white teeth chattering in his black headas I took the stairs three at a time. Why I went upstairs in thatdecisive fashion, as though it were my only course, I cannot explain. But garden and ground floor seemed alive with men, and I might havedone worse. 

I turned into the first room I came to. It was a bedroom--empty, though lit up; and never shall I forget how I started as I entered, onencountering the awful villain that was myself at full length in apier-glass! Masked, armed, and ragged, I was indeed fit carrion for abullet or the hangman, and to one or the other I made up my mind. Nevertheless, I hid myself in the wardrobe behind the mirror; and thereI stood shivering and cursing my fate, my folly, and Raffles most ofall--Raffles first and last--for I daresay half an hour. Then thewardrobe door was flung suddenly open; they had stolen into the roomwithout a sound; and I was hauled downstairs, an ignominious captive. 

Gross scenes followed in the hall; the ladies were now upon the stage, and at sight of the desperate criminal they screamed with one accord. In truth I must have given them fair cause, though my mask was now tornaway and hid nothing but my left ear. Rosenthall answered theirshrieks with a roar for silence; the woman with the bath-sponge hairswore at him shrilly in return; the place became a Babel impossible todescribe. I remember wondering how long it would be before the policeappeared. Purvis and the ladies were for calling them in and giving mein charge without delay. Rosenthall would not hear of it. He sworethat he would shoot man or woman who left his sight. He had had enoughof the police. He was not going to have them coming there to spoilsport; he was going to deal with me in his own way. With that hedragged me from all other hands, flung me against a door, and sent abullet crashing through the wood within an inch of my ear. 

"You drunken fool! It'll be murder!" shouted Purvis, getting in theway a second time. 

"Wha' do I care? He's armed, isn't he? I shot him in self-defence. It'll be a warning to others. Will you stand aside, or d'ye want ityourself?"

"You're drunk, " said Purvis, still between us. "I saw you take a neattumblerful since you come in, and it's made you drunk as a fool. Pullyourself together, old man. You ain't a-going to do what you'll besorry for. "

"Then I won't shoot at him, I'll only shoot roun' an' roun' the beggar. You're quite right, ole feller. Wouldn't hurt him. Great mishtake. Roun' an' roun'. There--like that!"

His freckled paw shot up over Purvis's shoulder, mauve lightning camefrom his ring, a red flash from his revolver, and shrieks from thewomen as the reverberations died away. Some splinters lodged in myhair. 

Next instant the prize-fighter disarmed him; and I was safe from thedevil, but finally doomed to the deep sea. A policeman was in ourmidst. He had entered through the drawing-room window; he was anofficer of few words and creditable promptitude. In a twinkling he hadthe handcuffs on my wrists, while the pugilist explained the situation, and his patron reviled the force and its representative with impotentmalignity. A fine watch they kept; a lot of good they did; coming inwhen all was over and the whole household might have been murdered intheir sleep. The officer only deigned to notice him as he marched meoff. 

"We know all about YOU, sir, " said he contemptuously, and he refusedthe sovereign Purvis proffered. "You will be seeing me again, sir, atMarylebone. "

"Shall I come now?"

"As you please, sir. I rather think the other gentleman requires youmore, and I don't fancy this young man means to give much trouble. "

"Oh, I'm coming quietly, " I said. 

And I went. 

In silence we traversed perhaps a hundred yards. It must have beenmidnight. We did not meet a soul. At last I whispered:

"How on earth did you manage it?"

"Purely by luck, " said Raffles. "I had the luck to get clear awaythrough knowing every brick of those back-garden walls, and the doubleluck to have these togs with the rest over at Chelsea. The helmet isone of a collection I made up at Oxford; here it goes over this wall, and we'd better carry the coat and belt before we meet a real officer. I got them once for a fancy ball--ostensibly--and thereby hangs a yarn. I always thought they might come in useful a second time. My chiefcrux to-night was getting rid of the hansom that brought me back. Isent him off to Scotland Yard with ten bob and a special message togood old Mackenzie. The whole detective department will be atRosenthall's in about half an hour. Of course, I speculated on ourgentleman's hatred of the police--another huge slice of luck. If you'dgot away, well and good; if not, I felt he was the man to play with hismouse as long as possible. Yes, Bunny, it's been more of a costumepiece than I intended, and we've come out of it with a good deal lesscredit. But, by Jove, we're jolly lucky to have come out of it at all!"

GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS

Old Raffles may or may not have been an exceptional criminal, but as acricketer I dare swear he was unique. Himself a dangerous bat, abrilliant field, and perhaps the very finest slow bowler of his decade, he took incredibly little interest in the game at large. He never wentup to Lord's without his cricket-bag, or showed the slightest interestin the result of a match in which he was not himself engaged. Nor wasthis mere hateful egotism on his part. He professed to have lost allenthusiasm for the game, and to keep it up only from the very lowestmotives. 

"Cricket, " said Raffles, "like everything else, is good enough sportuntil you discover a better. As a source of excitement it isn't in itwith other things you wot of, Bunny, and the involuntary comparisonbecomes a bore. What's the satisfaction of taking a man's wicket whenyou want his spoons? Still, if you can bowl a bit your low cunningwon't get rusty, and always looking for the weak spot's just the kindof mental exercise one wants. Yes, perhaps there's some affinitybetween the two things after all. But I'd chuck up cricket to-morrow, Bunny, if it wasn't for the glorious protection it affords a person ofmy proclivities. "

"How so?" said I. "It brings you before the public, I should havethought, far more than is either safe or wise. "

"My dear Bunny, that's exactly where you make a mistake. To followCrime with reasonable impunity you simply MUST have a parallel, ostensible career--the more public the better. The principle isobvious. Mr. Peace, of pious memory, disarmed suspicion by acquiring alocal reputation for playing the fiddle and taming animals, and it's myprofound conviction that Jack the Ripper was a really eminent publicman, whose speeches were very likely reported alongside his atrocities. Fill the bill in some prominent part, and you'll never be suspected ofdoubling it with another of equal prominence. That's why I want you tocultivate journalism, my boy, and sign all you can. And it's the oneand only reason why I don't burn my bats for firewood. "

Nevertheless, when he did play there was no keener performer on thefield, nor one more anxious to do well for his side. I remember how hewent to the nets, before the first match of the season, with his pocketfull of sovereigns, which he put on the stumps instead of bails. Itwas a sight to see the professionals bowling like demons for the hardcash, for whenever a stump was hit a pound was tossed to the bowler andanother balanced in its stead, while one man took #3 with a ball thatspreadeagled the wicket. Raffles's practice cost him either eight ornine sovereigns; but he had absolutely first-class bowling all thetime; and he made fifty-seven runs next day. 

It became my pleasure to accompany him to all his matches, to watchevery ball he bowled, or played, or fielded, and to sit chatting withhim in the pavilion when he was doing none of these three things. Youmight have seen us there, side by side, during the greater part of theGentlemen's first innings against the Players (who had lost the toss)on the second Monday in July. We were to be seen, but not heard, forRaffles had failed to score, and was uncommonly cross for a player whocared so little for the game. Merely taciturn with me, he waspositively rude to more than one member who wanted to know how it hadhappened, or who ventured to commiserate him on his luck; there he sat, with a straw hat tilted over his nose and a cigarette stuck betweenlips that curled disagreeably at every advance. I was therefore muchsurprised when a young fellow of the exquisite type came and squeezedhimself in between us, and met with a perfectly civil reception despitethe liberty. I did not know the boy by sight, nor did Rafflesintroduce us; but their conversation proclaimed at once a slightness ofacquaintanceship and a license on the lad's part which combined topuzzle me. Mystification reached its height when Raffles was informedthat the other's father was anxious to meet him, and he instantlyconsented to gratify that whim. 

"He's in the Ladies' Enclosure. Will you come round now?"

"With pleasure, " says Raffles. "Keep a place for me, Bunny. "

And they were gone. 

"Young Crowley, " said some voice further back. "Last year's HarrowEleven. "

"I remember him. Worst man in the team. "

"Keen cricketer, however. Stopped till he was twenty to get hiscolors. Governor made him. Keen breed. Oh, pretty, sir! Verypretty!"

The game was boring me. I only came to see old Raffles perform. SoonI was looking wistfully for his return, and at length I saw himbeckoning me from the palings to the right. 

"Want to introduce you to old Amersteth, " he whispered, when I joinedhim. "They've a cricket week next month, when this boy Crowley comesof age, and we've both got to go down and play. "

"Both!" I echoed. "But I'm no cricketer!"

"Shut up, " says Raffles. "Leave that to me. I've been lying for allI'm worth, " he added sepulchrally as we reached the bottom of thesteps. "I trust to you not to give the show away. "

There was a gleam in his eye that I knew well enough elsewhere, but wasunprepared for in those healthy, sane surroundings; and it was withvery definite misgivings and surmises that I followed the Zingariblazer through the vast flower-bed of hats and bonnets that bloomedbeneath the ladies' awning. 

Lord Amersteth was a fine-looking man with a short mustache and adouble chin. He received me with much dry courtesy, through which, however, it was not difficult to read a less flattering tale. I wasaccepted as the inevitable appendage of the invaluable Raffles, withwhom I felt deeply incensed as I made my bow. 

"I have been bold enough, " said Lord Amersteth, "to ask one of theGentlemen of England to come down and play some rustic cricket for usnext month. He is kind enough to say that he would have liked nothingbetter, but for this little fishing expedition of yours, Mr. -----, Mr. -----, " and Lord Amersteth succeeded in remembering my name. 

It was, of course, the first I had ever heard of that fishingexpedition, but I made haste to say that it could easily, and shouldcertainly, be put off. Raffles gleamed approval through his eyelashes. Lord Amersteth bowed and shrugged. 

"You're very good, I'm sure, " said he. "But I understand you're acricketer yourself?"

"He was one at school, " said Raffles, with infamous readiness. 

"Not a real cricketer, " I was stammering meanwhile. 

"In the eleven?" said Lord Amersteth. 

"I'm afraid not, " said I. 

"But only just out of it, " declared Raffles, to my horror. 

"Well, well, we can't all play for the Gentlemen, " said Lord Amerstethslyly. "My son Crowley only just scraped into the eleven at Harrow, and HE'S going to play. I may even come in myself at a pinch; so youwon't be the only duffer, if you are one, and I shall be very glad ifyou will come down and help us too. You shall flog a stream beforebreakfast and after dinner, if you like. "

"I should be very proud, " I was beginning, as the mere prelude toresolute excuses; but the eye of Raffles opened wide upon me; and Ihesitated weakly, to be duly lost. 

"Then that's settled, " said Lord Amersteth, with the slightestsuspicion of grimness. "It's to be a little week, you know, when myson comes of age. We play the Free Foresters, the DorsetshireGentlemen, and probably some local lot as well. But Mr. Raffles willtell you all about it, and Crowley shall write. Another wicket! ByJove, they're all out! Then I rely on you both. " And, with a littlenod, Lord Amersteth rose and sidled to the gangway. 

Raffles rose also, but I caught the sleeve of his blazer. 

"What are you thinking of?" I whispered savagely. "I was nowhere nearthe eleven. I'm no sort of cricketer. I shall have to get out ofthis!"

"Not you, " he whispered back. "You needn't play, but come you must. If you wait for me after half-past six I'll tell you why. "

But I could guess the reason; and I am ashamed to say that it revoltedme much less than did the notion of making a public fool of myself on acricket-field. My gorge rose at this as it no longer rose at crime, and it was in no tranquil humor that I strolled about the ground whileRaffles disappeared in the pavilion. Nor was my annoyance lessened bya little meeting I witnessed between young Crowley and his father, whoshrugged as he stopped and stooped to convey some information whichmade the young man look a little blank. It may have been pureself-consciousness on my part, but I could have sworn that the troublewas their inability to secure the great Raffles without hisinsignificant friend. 

Then the bell rang, and I climbed to the top of the pavilion to watchRaffles bowl. No subtleties are lost up there; and if ever a bowlerwas full of them, it was A. J. Raffles on this day, as, indeed, all thecricket world remembers. One had not to be a cricketer oneself toappreciate his perfect command of pitch and break, his beautifully easyaction, which never varied with the varying pace, his great ball on theleg-stump--his dropping head-ball--in a word, the infinite ingenuity ofthat versatile attack. It was no mere exhibition of athletic prowess, it was an intellectual treat, and one with a special significance in myeyes. I saw the "affinity between the two things, " saw it in thatafternoon's tireless warfare against the flower of professionalcricket. It was not that Raffles took many wickets for few runs; hewas too fine a bowler to mind being hit; and time was short, and thewicket good. What I admired, and what I remember, was the combinationof resource and cunning, of patience and precision, of head-work andhandiwork, which made every over an artistic whole. It was all socharacteristic of that other Raffles whom I alone knew!

"I felt like bowling this afternoon, " he told me later in the hansom. "With a pitch to help me, I'd have done something big; as it is, threefor forty-one, out of the four that fell, isn't so bad for a slowbowler on a plumb wicket against those fellows. But I felt venomous!Nothing riles me more than being asked about for my cricket as though Iwere a pro. Myself. "

"Then why on earth go?"

"To punish them, and--because we shall be jolly hard up, Bunny, beforethe season's over!"

"Ah!" said I. "I thought it was that. "

"Of course, it was! It seems they're going to have the very devil of aweek of it--balls--dinner parties--swagger house party--generaljunketings--and obviously a houseful of diamonds as well. Diamondsgalore! As a general rule nothing would induce me to abuse my positionas a guest. I've never done it, Bunny. But in this case we're engagedlike the waiters and the band, and by heaven we'll take our toll!Let's have a quiet dinner somewhere and talk it over. "

"It seems rather a vulgar sort of theft, " I could not help saying; andto this, my single protest, Raffles instantly assented. 

"It is a vulgar sort, " said he; "but I can't help that. We're gettingvulgarly hard up again, and there's an end on 't. Besides, thesepeople deserve it, and can afford it. And don't you run away with theidea that all will be plain sailing; nothing will be easier thangetting some stuff, and nothing harder than avoiding all suspicion, as, of course, we must. We may come away with no more than a good workingplan of the premises. Who knows? In any case there's weeks ofthinking in it for you and me. "

But with those weeks I will not weary you further than by remarkingthat the "thinking, " was done entirely by Raffles, who did not alwaystrouble to communicate his thoughts to me. His reticence, however, wasno longer an irritant. I began to accept it as a necessary conventionof these little enterprises. And, after our last adventure of thekind, more especially after its denouement, my trust in Raffles wasmuch too solid to be shaken by a want of trust in me, which I stillbelieve to have been more the instinct of the criminal than thejudgment of the man. 

It was on Monday, the tenth of August, that we were due at MilchesterAbbey, Dorset; and the beginning of the month found us cruising aboutthat very county, with fly-rods actually in our hands. The idea wasthat we should acquire at once a local reputation as decent fishermen, and some knowledge of the countryside, with a view to further and moredeliberate operations in the event of an unprofitable week. There wasanother idea which Raffles kept to himself until he had got me downthere. Then one day he produced a cricket-ball in a meadow we werecrossing, and threw me catches for an hour together. More hours hespent in bowling to me on the nearest green; and, if I was never acricketer, at least I came nearer to being one, by the end of thatweek, than ever before or since. 

Incident began early on the Monday. We had sallied forth from adesolate little junction within quite a few miles of Milchester, hadbeen caught in a shower, had run for shelter to a wayside inn. Aflorid, overdressed man was drinking in the parlor, and I could havesworn it was at the sight of him that Raffles recoiled on thethreshold, and afterwards insisted on returning to the station throughthe rain. He assured me, however, that the odor of stale ale hadalmost knocked him down. And I had to make what I could of hisspeculative, downcast eyes and knitted brows. 

Milchester Abbey is a gray, quadrangular pile, deep-set in rich woodycountry, and twinkling with triple rows of quaint windows, every one ofwhich seemed alight as we drove up just in time to dress for dinner. The carriage had whirled us under I know not how many triumphal archesin process of construction, and past the tents and flag-poles of ajuicy-looking cricket-field, on which Raffles undertook to bowl up tohis reputation. But the chief signs of festival were within, where wefound an enormous house-party assembled, including more persons ofpomp, majesty, and dominion than I had ever encountered in one roombefore. I confess I felt overpowered. Our errand and my own presencescombined to rob me of an address upon which I have sometimes plumedmyself; and I have a grim recollection of my nervous relief when dinnerwas at last announced. I little knew what an ordeal it was to prove. 

I had taken in a much less formidable young lady than might have fallento my lot. Indeed I began by blessing my good fortune in this respect. Miss Melhuish was merely the rector's daughter, and she had only beenasked to make an even number. She informed me of both facts before thesoup reached us, and her subsequent conversation was characterized bythe same engaging candor. It exposed what was little short of a maniafor imparting information. I had simply to listen, to nod, and to bethankful. 

When I confessed to knowing very few of those present, even by sight, my entertaining companion proceeded to tell me who everybody was, beginning on my left and working conscientiously round to her right. This lasted quite a long time, and really interested me; but a greatdeal that followed did not, and, obviously to recapture my unworthyattention, Miss Melhuish suddenly asked me, in a sensational whisper, whether I could keep a secret. 

I said I thought I might, whereupon another question followed, in stilllower and more thrilling accents:

"Are you afraid of burglars?"

Burglars! I was roused at last. The word stabbed me. I repeated itin horrified query. 

"So I've found something to interest you at last!" said Miss Melhuish, in naive triumph. "Yes--burglars! But don't speak so loud. It'ssupposed to be kept a great secret. I really oughtn't to tell you atall!"

"But what is there to tell?" I whispered with satisfactory impatience. 

"You promise not to speak of it?"

"Of course!"

"Well, then, there are burglars in the neighborhood. "

"Have they committed any robberies?"

"Not yet. "

"Then how do you know?"

"They've been seen. In the district. Two well-known London thieves!"

Two! I looked at Raffles. I had done so often during the evening, envying him his high spirits, his iron nerve, his buoyant wit, hisperfect ease and self-possession. But now I pitied him; through all myown terror and consternation, I pitied him as he sat eating anddrinking, and laughing and talking, without a cloud of fear or ofembarrassment on his handsome, taking, daredevil face. I caught up mychampagne and emptied the glass. 

"Who has seen them?" I then asked calmly. 

"A detective. They were traced down from town a few days ago. Theyare believed to have designs on the Abbey!"

"But why aren't they run in?"

"Exactly what I asked papa on the way here this evening; he says thereis no warrant out against the men at present, and all that can be doneis to watch their movements. "

"Oh! so they are being watched?"

"Yes, by a detective who is down here on purpose. And I heard LordAmersteth tell papa that they had been seen this afternoon at WarbeckJunction!"

The very place where Raffles and I had been caught in the rain! Ourstampede from the inn was now explained; on the other hand, I was nolonger to be taken by surprise by anything that my companion might haveto tell me; and I succeeded in looking her in the face with a smile. 

"This is really quite exciting, Miss Melhuish, " said I. "May I ask howyou come to know so much about it?"

"It's papa, " was the confidential reply. "Lord Amersteth consultedhim, and he consulted me. But for goodness' sake don't let it getabout! I can't think WHAT tempted me to tell you!"

"You may trust me, Miss Melhuish. But--aren't you frightened?"

Miss Melhuish giggled. 

"Not a bit! They won't come to the rectory. There's nothing for themthere. But look round the table: look at the diamonds: look at oldLady Melrose's necklace alone!"

The Dowager Marchioness of Melrose was one of the few persons whom ithad been unnecessary to point out to me. She sat on Lord Amersteth'sright, flourishing her ear-trumpet, and drinking champagne with herusual notorious freedom, as dissipated and kindly a dame as the worldhas ever seen. It was a necklace of diamonds and sapphires that roseand fell about her ample neck. 

"They say it's worth five thousand pounds at least, " continued mycompanion. "Lady Margaret told me so this morning (that's LadyMargaret next your Mr. Raffles, you know); and the old dear WILL wearthem every night. Think what a haul they would be! No; we don't feelin immediate danger at the rectory. "

When the ladies rose, Miss Melhuish bound me to fresh vows of secrecy;and left me, I should think, with some remorse for her indiscretion, but more satisfaction at the importance which it had undoubtedly givenher in my eyes. The opinion may smack of vanity, though, in reality, the very springs of conversation reside in that same human, universalitch to thrill the auditor. The peculiarity of Miss Melhuish was thatshe must be thrilling at all costs. And thrilling she had surely been. 

I spare you my feelings of the next two hours. I tried hard to get aword with Raffles, but again and again I failed. In the dining-room heand Crowley lit their cigarettes with the same match, and had theirheads together all the time. In the drawing-room I had themortification of hearing him talk interminable nonsense into theear-trumpet of Lady Melrose, whom he knew in town. Lastly, in thebilliard-room, they had a great and lengthy pool, while I sat aloof andchafed more than ever in the company of a very serious Scotchman, whohad arrived since dinner, and who would talk of nothing but the recentimprovements in instantaneous photography. He had not come to play inthe matches (he told me), but to obtain for Lord Amersteth such aseries of cricket photographs as had never been taken before; whetheras an amateur or a professional photographer I was unable to determine. I remember, however, seeking distraction in little bursts of resoluteattention to the conversation of this bore. And so at last the longordeal ended; glasses were emptied, men said good-night, and I followedRaffles to his room. 

"It's all up!" I gasped, as he turned up the gas and I shut the door. "We're being watched. We've been followed down from town. There's adetective here on the spot!"

"How do YOU know?" asked Raffles, turning upon me quite sharply, butwithout the least dismay. And I told him how I knew. 

"Of course, " I added, "it was the fellow we saw in the inn thisafternoon. "

"The detective?" said Raffles. "Do you mean to say you don't know adetective when you see one, Bunny?"

"If that wasn't the fellow, which is?"

Raffles shook his head. 

"To think that you've been talking to him for the last hour in thebilliard-room and couldn't spot what he was!"

"The Scotch photographer--"

I paused aghast. 

"Scotch he is, " said Raffles, "and photographer he may be. He is alsoInspector Mackenzie of Scotland Yard--the very man I sent the messageto that night last April. And you couldn't spot who he was in a wholehour! O Bunny, Bunny, you were never built for crime!"

"But, " said I, "if that was Mackenzie, who was the fellow you boltedfrom at Warbeck?"

"The man he's watching. "

"But he's watching us!"

Raffles looked at me with a pitying eye, and shook his head againbefore handing me his open cigarette-case. 

"I don't know whether smoking's forbidden in one's bedroom, but you'dbetter take one of these and stand tight, Bunny, because I'm going tosay something offensive. "

I helped myself with a laugh. 

"Say what you like, my dear fellow, if it really isn't you and I thatMackenzie's after. "

"Well, then, it isn't, and it couldn't be, and nobody but a born Bunnywould suppose for a moment that it was! Do you seriously think hewould sit there and knowingly watch his man playing pool under hisnose? Well, he might; he's a cool hand, Mackenzie; but I'm not coolenough to win a pool under such conditions. At least I don't think Iam; it would be interesting to see. The situation wasn't free fromstrain as it was, though I knew he wasn't thinking of us. Crowley toldme all about it after dinner, you see, and then I'd seen one of the menfor myself this afternoon. You thought it was a detective who made meturn tail at that inn. I really don't know why I didn't tell you atthe time, but it was just the opposite. That loud, red-faced brute isone of the cleverest thieves in London, and I once had a drink with himand our mutual fence. I was an Eastender from tongue to toe at themoment, but you will understand that I don't run unnecessary risks ofrecognition by a brute like that. "

"He's not alone, I hear. "

"By no means; there's at least one other man with him; and it'ssuggested that there may be an accomplice here in the house. "

"Did Lord Crowley tell you so?"

"Crowley and the champagne between them. In confidence, of course, just as your girl told you; but even in confidence he never let onabout Mackenzie. He told me there was a detective in the background, but that was all. Putting him up as a guest is evidently their bigsecret, to be kept from the other guests because it might offend them, but more particularly from the servants whom he's here to watch. That's my reading of the situation, Bunny, and you will agree with methat it's infinitely more interesting than we could have imagined itwould prove. "

"But infinitely more difficult for us, " said I, with a sigh ofpusillanimous relief. "Our hands are tied for this week, at allevents. "

"Not necessarily, my dear Bunny, though I admit that the chances areagainst us. Yet I'm not so sure of that either. There are all sortsof possibilities in these three-cornered combinations. Set A to watchB, and he won't have an eye left for C. That's the obvious theory, butthen Mackenzie's a very big A. I should be sorry to have any boodleabout me with that man in the house. Yet it would be great to nip inbetween A and B and score off them both at once! It would be worth arisk, Bunny, to do that; it would be worth risking something merely totake on old hands like B and his men at their own old game! Eh, Bunny?That would be something like a match. Gentlemen and Players at singlewicket, by Jove!"

His eyes were brighter than I had known them for many a day. Theyshone with the perverted enthusiasm which was roused in him only by thecontemplation of some new audacity. He kicked off his shoes and beganpacing his room with noiseless rapidity; not since the night of the OldBohemian dinner to Reuben Rosenthall had Raffles exhibited suchexcitement in my presence; and I was not sorry at the moment to bereminded of the fiasco to which that banquet had been the prelude. 

"My dear A. J. , " said I in his very own tone, "you're far too fond ofthe uphill game; you will eventually fall a victim to the sportingspirit and nothing else. Take a lesson from our last escape, and flylower as you value our skins. Study the house as much as you like, butdo--not--go and shove your head into Mackenzie's mouth!"

My wealth of metaphor brought him to a stand-still, with his cigarettebetween his fingers and a grin beneath his shining eyes. 

"You're quite right, Bunny. I won't. I really won't. Yet--you sawold Lady Melrose's necklace? I've been wanting it for years! But I'mnot going to play the fool; honor bright, I'm not; yet--by Jove!--toget to windward of the professors and Mackenzie too! It would be agreat game, Bunny, it would be a great game!"

"Well, you mustn't play it this week. "

"No, no, I won't. But I wonder how the professors think of going towork? That's what one wants to know. I wonder if they've really gotan accomplice in the house? How I wish I knew their game! But it'sall right, Bunny; don't you be jealous; it shall be as you wish. "

And with that assurance I went off to my own room, and so to bed withan incredibly light heart. I had still enough of the honest man in meto welcome the postponement of our actual felonies, to dread theirperformance, to deplore their necessity: which is merely another way ofstating the too patent fact that I was an incomparably weaker man thanRaffles, while every whit as wicked. 

I had, however, one rather strong point. I possessed the gift ofdismissing unpleasant considerations, not intimately connected with thepassing moment, entirely from my mind. Through the exercise of thisfaculty I had lately been living my frivolous life in town with as muchignoble enjoyment as I had derived from it the year before; andsimilarly, here at Milchester, in the long-dreaded cricket-week, I hadafter all a quite excellent time. 

It is true that there were other factors in this pleasingdisappointment. In the first place, mirabile dictu, there were one ortwo even greater duffers than I on the Abbey cricket-field. Indeed, quite early in the week, when it was of most value to me, I gainedconsiderable kudos for a lucky catch; a ball, of which I had merelyheard the hum, stuck fast in my hand, which Lord Amersteth himselfgrasped in public congratulation. This happy accident was not to beundone even by me, and, as nothing succeeds like success, and theconstant encouragement of the one great cricketer on the field was initself an immense stimulus, I actually made a run or two in my verynext innings. Miss Melhuish said pretty things to me that night at thegreat ball in honor of Viscount Crowley's majority; she also told methat was the night on which the robbers would assuredly make theirraid, and was full of arch tremors when we sat out in the garden, though the entire premises were illuminated all night long. Meanwhilethe quiet Scotchman took countless photographs by day, which hedeveloped by night in a dark room admirably situated in the servants'part of the house; and it is my firm belief that only two of hisfellow-guests knew Mr. Clephane of Dundee for Inspector Mackenzie ofScotland Yard. 

The week was to end with a trumpery match on the Saturday, which two orthree of us intended abandoning early in order to return to town thatnight. The match, however, was never played. In the small hours ofthe Saturday morning a tragedy took place at Milchester Abbey. 

Let me tell of the thing as I saw and heard it. My room opened uponthe central gallery, and was not even on the same floor as that onwhich Raffles--and I think all the other men--were quartered. I hadbeen put, in fact, into the dressing-room of one of the grand suites, and my too near neighbors were old Lady Melrose and my host andhostess. Now, by the Friday evening the actual festivities were at anend, and, for the first time that week, I must have been sound asleepsince midnight, when all at once I found myself sitting up breathless. A heavy thud had come against my door, and now I heard hard breathingand the dull stamp of muffled feet. 

"I've got ye, " muttered a voice. "It's no use struggling. "

It was the Scotch detective, and a new fear turned me cold. There wasno reply, but the hard breathing grew harder still, and the muffledfeet beat the floor to a quicker measure. In sudden panic I sprang outof bed and flung open my door. A light burnt low on the landing, and byit I could see Mackenzie swaying and staggering in a silent tussle withsome powerful adversary. 

"Hold this man!" he cried, as I appeared. "Hold the rascal!"

But I stood like a fool until the pair of them backed into me, when, with a deep breath I flung myself on the fellow, whose face I had seenat last. He was one of the footmen who waited at table; and no soonerhad I pinned him than the detective loosed his hold. 

"Hang on to him, " he cried. "There's more of 'em below. "

And he went leaping down the stairs, as other doors opened and LordAmersteth and his son appeared simultaneously in their pyjamas. Atthat my man ceased struggling; but I was still holding him when Crowleyturned up the gas. 

"What the devil's all this?" asked Lord Amersteth, blinking. "Who wasthat ran downstairs?"

"Mac--Clephane!" said I hastily. 

"Aha!" said he, turning to the footman. "So you're the scoundrel, areyou? Well done! Well done! Where was he caught?"

I had no idea. 

"Here's Lady Melrose's door open, " said Crowley. "Lady Melrose! LadyMelrose!"

"You forget she's deaf, " said Lord Amersteth. "Ah! that'll be her maid. "

An inner door had opened; next instant there was a little shriek, and awhite figure gesticulated on the threshold. 

"Ou donc est l'ecrin de Madame la Marquise? La fenetre est ouverte. Il a disparu!"

"Window open and jewel-case gone, by Jove!" exclaimed Lord Amersteth. "Mais comment est Madame la Marquise? Est elle bien?"

"Oui, milor. Elle dort. "

"Sleeps through it all, " said my lord. "She's the only one, then!"

"What made Mackenzie--Clephane--bolt?" young Crowley asked me. 

"Said there were more of them below. "

"Why the devil couldn't you tell us so before?" he cried, and wentleaping downstairs in his turn. 

He was followed by nearly all the cricketers, who now burst upon thescene in a body, only to desert it for the chase. Raffles was one ofthem, and I would gladly have been another, had not the footman chosenthis moment to hurl me from him, and to make a dash in the directionfrom which they had come. Lord Amersteth had him in an instant; butthe fellow fought desperately, and it took the two of us to drag himdownstairs, amid a terrified chorus from half-open doors. Eventuallywe handed him over to two other footmen who appeared with theirnightshirts tucked into their trousers, and my host was good enough tocompliment me as he led the way outside. 

"I thought I heard a shot, " he added. "Didn't you?"

"I thought I heard three. "

And out we dashed into the darkness. 

I remember how the gravel pricked my feet, how the wet grass numbedthem as we made for the sound of voices on an outlying lawn. So darkwas the night that we were in the cricketers' midst before we saw theshimmer of their pyjamas; and then Lord Amersteth almost trod onMackenzie as he lay prostrate in the dew. 

"Who's this?" he cried. "What on earth's happened?"

"It's Clephane, " said a man who knelt over him. "He's got a bullet inhim somewhere. "

"Is he alive?"

"Barely. "

"Good God! Where's Crowley?"

"Here I am, " called a breathless voice. "It's no good, you fellows. There's nothing to show which way they've gone. Here's Raffles; he'schucked it, too. " And they ran up panting. 

"Well, we've got one of them, at all events, " muttered Lord Amersteth. "The next thing is to get this poor fellow indoors. Take hisshoulders, somebody. Now his middle. Join hands under him. Alltogether, now; that's the way. Poor fellow! Poor fellow! His nameisn't Clephane at all. He's a Scotland Yard detective, down here forthese very villains!"

Raffles was the first to express surprise; but he had also been thefirst to raise the wounded man. Nor had any of them a stronger or moretender hand in the slow procession to the house. 

In a little we had the senseless man stretched on a sofa in thelibrary. And there, with ice on his wound and brandy in his throat, his eyes opened and his lips moved. 

Lord Amersteth bent down to catch the words. 

"Yes, yes, " said he; "we've got one of them safe and sound. The bruteyou collared upstairs. " Lord Amersteth bent lower. "By Jove! Loweredthe jewel-case out of the window, did he? And they've got clean awaywith it! Well, well! I only hope we'll be able to pull this goodfellow through. He's off again. "

An hour passed: the sun was rising. 

It found a dozen young fellows on the settees in the billiard-room, drinking whiskey and soda-water in their overcoats and pyjamas, andstill talking excitedly in one breath. A time-table was being passedfrom hand to hand: the doctor was still in the library. At last thedoor opened, and Lord Amersteth put in his head. 

"It isn't hopeless, " said he, "but it's bad enough. There'll be nocricket to-day. "

Another hour, and most of us were on our way to catch the early train;between us we filled a compartment almost to suffocation. And still wetalked all together of the night's event; and still I was a little heroin my way, for having kept my hold of the one ruffian who had beentaken; and my gratification was subtle and intense. Raffles watched meunder lowered lids. Not a word had we had together; not a word did wehave until we had left the others at Paddington, and were skimmingthrough the streets in a hansom with noiseless tires and a tinklingbell. 

"Well, Bunny, " said Raffles, "so the professors have it, eh?"

"Yes, " said I. "And I'm jolly glad!"

"That poor Mackenzie has a ball in his chest?"

"That you and I have been on the decent side for once. "

He shrugged his shoulders. 

"You're hopeless, Bunny, quite hopeless! I take it you wouldn't haverefused your share if the boodle had fallen to us? Yet you positivelyenjoy coming off second best--for the second time running! I confess, however, that the professors' methods were full of interest to me. I, for one, have probably gained as much in experience as I have lost inother things. That lowering the jewel-case out of the window was avery simple and effective expedient; two of them had been waiting belowfor it for hours. "

"How do you know?" I asked. 

"I saw them from my own window, which was just above the dear oldlady's. I was fretting for that necklace in particular, when I went upto turn in for our last night--and I happened to look out of my window. In point of fact, I wanted to see whether the one below was open, andwhether there was the slightest chance of working the oracle with mysheet for a rope. Of course I took the precaution of turning my lightoff first, and it was a lucky thing I did. I saw the pros. Right downbelow, and they never saw me. I saw a little tiny luminous disk justfor an instant, and then again for an instant a few minutes later. Ofcourse I knew what it was, for I have my own watch-dial daubed withluminous paint; it makes a lantern of sorts when you can get no better. But these fellows were not using theirs as a lantern. They were underthe old lady's window. They were watching the time. The whole thingwas arranged with their accomplice inside. Set a thief to catch athief: in a minute I had guessed what the whole thing proved to be. "

"And you did nothing!" I exclaimed. 

"On the contrary, I went downstairs and straight into Lady Melrose'sroom--"

"You did?"

"Without a moment's hesitation. To save her jewels. And I wasprepared to yell as much into her ear-trumpet for all the house tohear. But the dear lady is too deaf and too fond of her dinner to wakeeasily. "

"Well?"

"She didn't stir. "

"And yet you allowed the professors, as you call them, to take herjewels, case and all!"

"All but this, " said Raffles, thrusting his fist into my lap. "I wouldhave shown it you before, but really, old fellow, your face all day hasbeen worth a fortune to the firm!"

And he opened his fist, to shut it next instant on the bunch ofdiamonds and of sapphires that I had last seen encircling the neck ofLady Melrose. 

LE PREMIER PAS

That night he told me the story of his earliest crime. Not since thefateful morning of the Ides of March, when he had just mentioned it asan unreported incident of a certain cricket tour, had I succeeded ingetting a word out of Raffles on the subject. It was not for want oftrying; he would shake his head, and watch his cigarette smokethoughtfully; a subtle look in his eyes, half cynical, half wistful, asthough the decent honest days that were no more had had their meritsafter all. Raffles would plan a fresh enormity, or glory in the last, with the unmitigated enthusiasm of the artist. It was impossible toimagine one throb or twitter of compunction beneath those franklyegotistic and infectious transports. And yet the ghost of a deadremorse seemed still to visit him with the memory of his first felony, so that I had given the story up long before the night of our returnfrom Milchester. Cricket, however, was in the air, and Raffles'scricket-bag back where he sometimes kept it, in the fender, with theremains of an Orient label still adhering to the leather. My eyes hadbeen on this label for some time, and I suppose his eyes had been onmine, for all at once he asked me if I still burned to hear that yarn. 

"It's no use, " I replied. "You won't spin it. I must imagine it formyself. "

"How can you?"

"Oh, I begin to know your methods. "

"You take it I went in with my eyes open, as I do now, eh?"

"I can't imagine your doing otherwise. "

"My dear Bunny, it was the most unpremeditated thing I ever did in mylife!"

His chair wheeled back into the books as he sprang up with suddenenergy. There was quite an indignant glitter in his eyes. 

"I can't believe that, " said I craftily. "I can't pay you such a poorcompliment!"

"Then you must be a fool--"

He broke off, stared hard at me, and in a trice stood smiling in hisown despite. 

"Or a better knave than I thought you, Bunny, and by Jove it's theknave! Well--I suppose I'm fairly drawn; I give you best, as they sayout there. As a matter of fact I've been thinking of the thing myself;last night's racket reminds me of it in one or two respects. I tellyou what, though, this is an occasion in any case, and I'm going tocelebrate it by breaking the one good rule of my life. I'm going tohave a second drink!"

The whiskey tinkled, the syphon fizzed, the ice plopped home; andseated there in his pyjamas, with the inevitable cigarette, Rafflestold me the story that I had given up hoping to hear. The windows werewide open; the sounds of Piccadilly floated in at first. Long beforehe finished, the last wheels had rattled, the last brawler was removed, we alone broke the quiet of the summer night. 

". . . No, they do you very well, indeed. You pay for nothing but drinks, so to speak, but I'm afraid mine were of a comprehensive character. Ihad started in a hole, I ought really to have refused the invitation;then we all went to the Melbourne Cup, and I had the certain winnerthat didn't win, and that's not the only way you can play the fool inMelbourne. I wasn't the steady old stager I am now, Bunny; my analysiswas a confession in itself. But the others didn't know how hard up Iwas, and I swore they shouldn't. I tried the Jews, but they're extrafly out there. Then I thought of a kinsman of sorts, a second cousin ofmy father's whom none of us knew anything about, except that he wassupposed to be in one or other of the Colonies. If he was a rich man, well and good, I would work him; if not there would be no harm done. Itried to get on his tracks, and, as luck would have it, I succeeded (orthought I had) at the very moment when I happened to have a few days tomyself. I was cut over on the hand, just before the big Christmasmatch, and couldn't have bowled a ball if they had played me. 

"The surgeon who fixed me up happened to ask me if I was any relationof Raffles of the National Bank, and the pure luck of it almost took mybreath away. A relation who was a high official in one of the banks, who would finance me on my mere name--could anything be better? I madeup my mind that this Raffles was the man I wanted, and was awfully soldto find next moment that he wasn't a high official at all. Nor had thedoctor so much as met him, but had merely read of him in connectionwith a small sensation at the suburban branch which my namesakemanaged; an armed robber had been rather pluckily beaten off, with abullet in him, by this Raffles; and the sort of thing was so common outthere that this was the first I had heard of it! A suburban branch--myfinancier had faded into some excellent fellow with a billet to lose ifhe called his soul his own. Still a manager was a manager, and I said Iwould soon see whether this was the relative I was looking for, if hewould be good enough to give me the name of that branch. 

"'I'll do more, ' says the doctor. 'I'll get you the name of the branchhe's been promoted to, for I think I heard they'd moved him up onealready. ' And the next day he brought me the name of the township ofYea, some fifty miles north of Melbourne; but, with the vagueness whichcharacterized all his information, he was unable to say whether Ishould find my relative there or not. 

"'He's a single man, and his initials are W. F. , ' said the doctor, whowas certain enough of the immaterial points. 'He left his old postseveral days ago, but it appears he's not due at the new one till theNew Year. No doubt he'll go before then to take things over and settlein. You might find him up there and you might not. If I were you Ishould write. '

"'That'll lose two days, ' said I, 'and more if he isn't there, ' for I'dgrown quite keen on this up-country manager, and I felt that if I couldget at him while the holidays were still on, a little convivialitymight help matters considerably. 

"'Then, ' said the doctor, 'I should get a quiet horse and ride. Youneedn't use that hand. '

"'Can't I go by train?'

"'You can and you can't. You would still have to ride. I supposeyou're a horseman?'

"'Yes. '

"'Then I should certainly ride all the way. It's a delightful road, through Whittlesea and over the Plenty Ranges. It'll give you someidea of the bush, Mr. Raffles, and you'll see the sources of the watersupply of this city, sir. You'll see where every drop of it comesfrom, the pure Yan Yean! I wish I had time to ride with you. '

"'But where can I get a horse?'

"The doctor thought a moment. 

"'I've a mare of my own that's as fat as butter for want of work, ' saidhe. 'It would be a charity to me to sit on her back for a hundredmiles or so, and then I should know you'd have no temptation to usethat hand. '

"'You're far too good!' I protested. 

"'You're A. J. Raffles, ' he said. 

"And if ever there was a prettier compliment, or a finer instance ofeven Colonial hospitality, I can only say, Bunny, that I never heard ofeither. "

He sipped his whiskey, threw away the stump of his cigarette, and litanother before continuing. 

"Well, I managed to write a line to W. F. With my own hand, which, asyou will gather, was not very badly wounded; it was simply this thirdfinger that was split and in splints; and next morning the doctorpacked me off on a bovine beast that would have done for an ambulance. Half the team came up to see me start; the rest were rather sick withme for not stopping to see the match out, as if I could help them towin by watching them. They little knew the game I'd got on myself, butstill less did I know the game I was going to play. 

"It was an interesting ride enough, especially after passing the placecalled Whittlesea, a real wild township on the lower slope of theranges, where I recollect having a deadly meal of hot mutton and tea, with the thermometer at three figures in the shade. The first thirtymiles or so was a good metal road, too good to go half round the worldto ride on, but after Whittlesea it was a mere track over the ranges, atrack I often couldn't see and left entirely to the mare. Now itdipped into a gully and ran through a creek, and all the time the localcolor was inches thick; gum-trees galore and parrots all colors of therainbow. In one place a whole forest of gums had been ring-barked, andwere just as though they had been painted white, without a leaf or aliving thing for miles. And the first living thing I did meet was thesort to give you the creeps; it was a riderless horse coming full tiltthrough the bush, with the saddle twisted round and the stirrup-ironsringing. Without thinking, I had a shot at heading him with thedoctor's mare, and blocked him just enough to allow a man who camegalloping after to do the rest. 

"'Thank ye, mister, ' growled the man, a huge chap in a red checkedshirt, with a beard like W. G. Grace, but the very devil of anexpression. 

"'Been an accident?' said I, reining up. 

"'Yes, ' said he, scowling as though he defied me to ask any more. 

"'And a nasty one, ' I said, 'if that's blood on the saddle!'

"Well, Bunny, I may be a blackguard myself, but I don't think I everlooked at a fellow as that chap looked at me. But I stared him out, and forced him to admit that it was blood on the twisted saddle, andafter that he became quite tame. He told me exactly what had happened. A mate of his had been dragged under a branch, and had his nosesmashed, but that was all; had sat tight after it till he dropped fromloss of blood; another mate was with him back in the bush. 

"As I've said already, Bunny, I wasn't the old stager that I am now--inany respect--and we parted good enough friends. He asked me which wayI was going, and, when I told him, he said I should save seven miles, and get a good hour earlier to Yea, by striking off the track andmaking for a peak that we could see through the trees, and following acreek that I should see from the peak. Don't smile, Bunny! I began bysaying I was a child in those days. Of course, the short cut was thelong way round; and it was nearly dark when that unlucky mare and I sawthe single street of Yea. 

"I was looking for the bank when a fellow in a white suit ran down fromthe veranda. 

"'Mr. Raffles?' said he. 

"'Mr. Raffles, ' said I, laughing as I shook his hand. 

"'You're late. '

"'I was misdirected. '

"'That all? I'm relieved, ' he said. 'Do you know what they aresaying? There are some brand-new bushrangers on the road betweenWhittlesea and this--a second Kelly gang! They'd have caught a Tartarin you, eh?'

"'They would in you, ' I retorted, and my tu quoque shut him up andseemed to puzzle him. Yet there was much more sense in it than in hiscompliment to me, which was absolutely pointless. 

"'I'm afraid you'll find things pretty rough, ' he resumed, when he hadunstrapped my valise, and handed my reins to his man. 'It's luckyyou're a bachelor like myself. '

"I could not quite see the point of this remark either, since, had Ibeen married, I should hardly have sprung my wife upon him in thisfree-and-easy fashion. I muttered the conventional sort of thing, andthen he said I should find it all right when I settled, as though I hadcome to graze upon him for weeks! 'Well, ' thought I, 'these Colonialsdo take the cake for hospitality!' And, still marvelling, I let himlead me into the private part of the bank. 

"'Dinner will be ready in a quarter of an hour, ' said he as we entered. 'I thought you might like a tub first, and you'll find all ready in theroom at the end of the passage. Sing out if there's anything you want. Your luggage hasn't turned up yet, by the way, but here's a letter thatcame this morning. '

"'Not for me?'

"'Yes; didn't you expect one?'

"'I certainly did not!'

"'Well, here it is. '

"And, as he lit me to my room, I read my own superscription of theprevious day--to W. F. Raffles!

"Bunny, you've had your wind bagged at footer, I daresay; you know whatthat's like? All I can say is that my moral wind was bagged by thatletter as I hope, old chap, I have never yet bagged yours. I couldn'tspeak. I could only stand with my own letter in my hands until he hadthe good taste to leave me by myself. 

"W. F. Raffles! We had mistaken EACH OTHER for W. F. Raffles--for thenew manager who had not yet arrived! Small wonder we had conversed atcross-purposes; the only wonder was that we had not discovered ourmutual mistake. How the other man would have laughed! But I--I couldnot laugh. By Jove, no, it was no laughing matter for me! I saw thewhole thing in a flash, without a tremor, but with the direstdepression from my own single point of view. Call it callous if youlike, Bunny, but remember that I was in much the same hole as you'vesince been in yourself, and that I had counted on this W. F. Raffleseven as you counted on A. J. I thought of the man with the W. G. Beard--the riderless horse and the bloody saddle--the deliberatemisdirection that had put me off the track and out of the way--and nowthe missing manager and the report of bushrangers at this end. But Isimply don't pretend to have felt any personal pity for a man whom Ihad never seen; that kind of pity's usually cant; and besides, all minewas needed for myself. 

"I was in as big a hole as ever. What the devil was I to do? I doubtif I have sufficiently impressed upon you the absolute necessity of myreturning to Melbourne in funds. As a matter of fact it was less thenecessity than my own determination which I can truthfully ascribe asabsolute. 

"Money I would have--but how--but how? Would this stranger be open topersuasion--if I told him the truth? No; that would set us allscouring the country for the rest of the night. Why should I tell him?Suppose I left him to find out his mistake . . . Would anything begained? Bunny, I give you my word that I went in to dinner without adefinite intention in my head, or one premeditated lie upon my lips. Imight do the decent, natural thing, and explain matters without loss oftime; on the other hand, there was no hurry. I had not opened theletter, and could always pretend I had not noticed the initials;meanwhile something might turn up. I could wait a little and see. Tempted I already was, but as yet the temptation was vague, and itsvery vagueness made me tremble. 

"'Bad news, I'm afraid?' said the manager, when at last I sat down athis table. 

"'A mere annoyance, ' I answered--I do assure you--on the spur of themoment and nothing else. But my lie was told; my position was taken;from that moment onward there was no retreat. By implication, withoutrealizing what I was doing, I had already declared myself W. F. Raffles. Therefore, W. F. Raffles I would be, in that bank, for thatnight. And the devil teach me how to use my lie!"

Again he raised his glass to his lips--I had forgotten mine. Hiscigarette-case caught the gas-light as he handed it to me. I shook myhead without taking my eyes from his. 

"The devil played up, " continued Raffles, with a laugh. "Before Itasted my soup I had decided what to do. I had determined to rob thatbank instead of going to bed, and to be back in Melbourne for breakfastif the doctor's mare could do it. I would tell the old fellow that Ihad missed my way and been bushed for hours, as I easily might havebeen, and had never got to Yea at all. At Yea, on the other hand, thepersonation and robbery would ever after be attributed to a member ofthe gang that had waylaid and murdered the new manager with that veryobject. You are acquiring some experience in such matters, Bunny. Iask you, was there ever a better get-out? Last night's was somethinglike it, only never such a certainty. And I saw it from thebeginning--saw to the end before I had finished my soup!

"To increase my chances, the cashier, who also lived in the bank, wasaway over the holidays, had actually gone down to Melbourne to see usplay; and the man who had taken my horse also waited at table; for heand his wife were the only servants, and they slept in a separatebuilding. You may depend I ascertained this before we had finisheddinner. Indeed I was by way of asking too many questions (the mostoblique and delicate was that which elicited my host's name, Ewbank), nor was I careful enough to conceal their drift. 

"'Do you know, ' said this fellow Ewbank, who was one of the downrightsort, 'if it wasn't you, I should say you were in a funk of robbers?Have you lost your nerve?'

"'I hope not, ' said I, turning jolly hot, I can tell you; 'but--well, it is not a pleasant thing to have to put a bullet through a fellow!'

"'No?' said he, coolly. 'I should enjoy nothing better, myself;besides, yours didn't go through. '

"'I wish it had!' I was smart enough to cry. 

"'Amen!' said he. 

"And I emptied my glass; actually I did not know whether my woundedbank-robber was in prison, dead, or at large!

"But, now that I had had more than enough of it, Ewbank would come backto the subject. He admitted that the staff was small; but as forhimself, he had a loaded revolver under his pillow all night, under thecounter all day, and he was only waiting for his chance. 

"'Under the counter eh?' I was ass enough to say. 

"'Yes; so had you!'

"He was looking at me in surprise, and something told me that to say'of course--I had forgotten!' would have been quite fatal, consideringwhat I was supposed to have done. So I looked down my nose and shookmy head. 

"'But the papers said you had!' he cried. 

"'Not under the counter, " said I. 

"'But it's the regulation!'

"For the moment, Bunny, I felt stumped, though I trust I only lookedmore superior than before, and I think I justified my look. 

"'The regulation!' I said at length, in the most offensive tone at mycommand. 'Yes, the regulation would have us all dead men! My dearsir, do you expect your bank robber to let you reach for your gun inthe place where he knows it's kept? I had mine in my pocket, and I gotmy chance by retreating from the counter with all visible reluctance. '

"Ewbank stared at me with open eyes and a five-barred forehead, thendown came his fist on the table. 

"'By God! That was smart! Still, ' he added, like a man who would notbe in the wrong, 'the papers said the other thing, you know!'

"'Of course, ' I rejoined, 'because they said what I told them. Youwouldn't have had me advertise the fact that I improved upon the bank'sregulations, would you?'

"So that cloud rolled over, and by Jove it was a cloud with a goldenlining. Not silver--real good Australian gold! For old Ewbank hadn'tquite appreciated me till then; he was a hard nut, a much older manthan myself, and I felt pretty sure he thought me young for the place, and my supposed feat a fluke. But I never saw a man change his mindmore openly. He got out his best brandy, he made me throw away thecigar I was smoking, and opened a fresh box. He was aconvivial-looking party, with a red moustache, and a very humorous face(not unlike Tom Emmett's), and from that moment I laid myself out toattack him on his convivial flank. But he wasn't a Rosenthall, Bunny;he had a treble-seamed, hand-sewn head, and could have drunk me underthe table ten times over. 

"'All right, ' I thought, 'you may go to bed sober, but you'll sleeplike a timber-yard!' And I threw half he gave me through the openwindow, when he wasn't looking. 

"But he was a good chap, Ewbank, and don't you imagine he was at allintemperate. Convivial I called him, and I only wish he had beensomething more. He did, however, become more and more genial as theevening advanced, and I had not much difficulty in getting him to showme round the bank at what was really an unearthly hour for such aproceeding. It was when he went to fetch the revolver before turningin. I kept him out of his bed another twenty minutes, and I knew everyinch of the business premises before I shook hands with Ewbank in myroom. 

"You won't guess what I did with myself for the next hour. I undressedand went to bed. The incessant strain involved in even the mostdeliberate impersonation is the most wearing thing I know; then howmuch more so when the impersonation is impromptu! There's no gettingyour eye in; the next word may bowl you out; it's batting in a badlight all through. I haven't told you of half the tight places I wasin during a conversation that ran into hours and became dangerouslyintimate towards the end. You can imagine them for yourself, and thenpicture me spread out on my bed, getting my second wind for the bigdeed of the night. 

"Once more I was in luck, for I had not been lying there long before Iheard my dear Ewbank snoring like a harmonium, and the music neverceased for a moment; it was as loud as ever when I crept out and closedmy door behind me, as regular as ever when I stopped to listen at his. And I have still to hear the concert that I shall enjoy much more. Thegood fellow snored me out of the bank, and was still snoring when Iagain stood and listened under his open window. 

"Why did I leave the bank first? To catch and saddle the mare andtether her in a clump of trees close by: to have the means of escapenice and handy before I went to work. I have often wondered at theinstinctive wisdom of the precaution; unconsciously I was acting onwhat has been one of my guiding principles ever since. Pains andpatience were required: I had to get my saddle without waking the man, and I was not used to catching horses in a horse-paddock. Then Idistrusted the poor mare, and I went back to the stables for a hatfulof oats, which I left with her in the clump, hat and all. There was adog, too, to reckon with (our very worst enemy, Bunny); but I had been'cute enough to make immense friends with him during the evening; andhe wagged his tail, not only when I came downstairs, but when Ireappeared at the back-door. 

"As the soi-disant new manager, I had been able, in the most ordinarycourse, to pump poor Ewbank about anything and everything connectedwith the working of the bank, especially in those twenty lastinvaluable minutes before turning in. And I had made a very naturalpoint of asking him where he kept, and would recommend me to keep, thekeys at night. Of course I thought he would take them with him to hisroom; but no such thing; he had a dodge worth two of that. What it wasdoesn't much matter, but no outsider would have found those keys in amonth of Sundays. 

"I, of course, had them in a few seconds, and in a few more I was inthe strong-room itself. I forgot to say that the moon had risen andwas letting quite a lot of light into the bank. I had, however, brought a bit of candle with me from my room; and in the strong-room, which was down some narrow stairs behind the counter in thebanking-chamber, I had no hesitation in lighting it. There was nowindow down there, and, though I could no longer hear old Ewbanksnoring, I had not the slightest reason to anticipate disturbance fromthat quarter. I did think of locking myself in while I was at work, but, thank goodness, the iron door had no keyhole on the inside. 

"Well, there were heaps of gold in the safe, but I only took what Ineeded and could comfortably carry, not much more than a couple ofhundred altogether. Not a note would I touch, and my native cautioncame out also in the way I divided the sovereigns between all mypockets, and packed them up so that I shouldn't be like the old womanof Banbury Cross. Well, you think me too cautious still, but I wasinsanely cautious then. And so it was that, just as I was ready to go, whereas I might have been gone ten minutes, there came a violentknocking at the outer door. 

"Bunny, it was the outer door of the banking-chamber! My candle musthave been seen! And there I stood, with the grease running hot over myfingers, in that brick grave of a strong-room!

"There was only one thing to be done. I must trust to the soundsleeping of Ewbank upstairs, open the door myself, knock the visitordown, or shoot him with the revolver I had been new chum enough to buybefore leaving Melbourne, and make a dash for that clump of trees andthe doctor's mare. My mind was made up in an instant, and I was at thetop of the strong-room stairs, the knocking still continuing, when asecond sound drove me back. It was the sound of bare feet coming alonga corridor. 

"My narrow stair was stone, I tumbled down it with little noise, andhad only to push open the iron door, for I had left the keys in thesafe. As I did so I heard a handle turn overhead, and thanked my godsthat I had shut every single door behind me. You see, old chap, one'scaution doesn't always let one in!

"'Who's that knocking?' said Ewbank up above. 

"I could not make out the answer, but it sounded to me like theirrelevant supplication of a spent man. What I did hear, plainly, wasthe cocking of the bank revolver before the bolts were shot back. Then, a tottering step, a hard, short, shallow breathing, and Ewbank'svoice in horror--

"'My God! Good Lord! What's happened to you? You're bleeding like apig!'

"'Not now, ' came with a grateful sort of sigh. 

"'But you have been! What's done it?'

"'Bushrangers. '

"'Down the road?'

"'This and Whittlesea--tied to tree--cock shots--left me--bleed todeath . . . '"

The weak voice failed, and the bare feet bolted. Now was my time--ifthe poor devil had fainted. But I could not be sure, and there Icrouched down below in the dark, at the half-shut iron door, not lessspellbound than imprisoned. It was just as well, for Ewbank wasn'tgone a minute. 

"'Drink this, ' I heard him say, and, when the other spoke again, hisvoice was stronger. 

"'Now I begin to feel alive . . . '

"'Don't talk!'

"'It does me good. You don't know what it was, all those miles alone, one an hour at the outside! I never thought I should come through. Youmust let me tell you--in case I don't!'

"'Well, have another sip. '

"'Thank you . . . I said bushrangers; of course, there are no suchthings nowadays. '

"'What were they, then?'

"'Bank-thieves; the one that had the pot shots was the very brute Idrove out of the bank at Coburg, with a bullet in him!"'

"I knew it!"

"Of course you did, Bunny; so did I, down in that strong-room; but oldEwbank didn't, and I thought he was never going to speak again. 

"'You're delirious, ' he says at last. 'Who in blazes do you think youare?'

"'The new manager. '

"'The new manager's in bed and asleep upstairs. '

"'When did he arrive?'

"'This evening. '

"'Call himself Raffles?'

"'Yes. '

"'Well, I'm damned!' whispered the real man. 'I thought it was justrevenge, but now I see what it was. My dear sir, the man upstairs isan imposter--if he's upstairs still! He must be one of the gang. He'sgoing to rob the bank--if he hasn't done so already!'

"'If he hasn't done so already, ' muttered Ewbank after him; 'if he'supstairs still! By God, if he is, I'm sorry for him!'

"His tone was quiet enough, but about the nastiest I ever heard. Itell you, Bunny, I was glad I'd brought that revolver. It looked asthough it must be mine against his, muzzle to muzzle. 

"'Better have a look down here, first, ' said the new manager. 

"'While he gets through his window? No, no, he's not down here. '

"'It's easy to have a look. '

"Bunny, if you ask me what was the most thrilling moment of my infamouscareer, I say it was that moment. There I stood at the bottom of thosenarrow stone stairs, inside the strong-room, with the door a good footopen, and I didn't know whether it would creak or not. The light wascoming nearer--and I didn't know! I had to chance it. And it didn'tcreak a bit; it was far too solid and well-hung; and I couldn't havebanged it if I tried, it was too heavy; and it fitted so close that Ifelt and heard the air squeeze out in my face. Every shred of lightwent out, except the streak underneath, and it brightened. How Iblessed that door!

"'No, he's not down THERE, ' I heard, as though through cotton-wool;then the streak went out too, and in a few seconds I ventured to openonce more, and was in time to hear them creeping to my room. 

"Well, now there was not a fifth of a second to be lost; but I'm proudto say I came up those stairs on my toes and fingers, and out of thatbank (they'd gone and left the door open) just as gingerly as though mytime had been my own. I didn't even forget to put on the hat that thedoctor's mare was eating her oats out of, as well as she could with abit, or it alone would have landed me. I didn't even gallop away, butjust jogged off quietly in the thick dust at the side of the road(though I own my heart was galloping), and thanked my stars the bankwas at that end of the township, in which I really hadn't set foot. The very last thing I heard was the two managers raising Cain and thecoachman. And now, Bunny--"

He stood up and stretched himself, with a smile that ended in a yawn. The black windows had faded through every shade of indigo; they nowframed their opposite neighbors, stark and livid in the dawn; and thegas seemed turned to nothing in the globes. 

"But that's not all?" I cried. 

"I'm sorry to say it is, " said Raffles apologetically. "The thingshould have ended with an exciting chase, I know, but somehow itdidn't. I suppose they thought I had got no end of a start; then theyhad made up their minds that I belonged to the gang, which was not somany miles away; and one of them had got as much as he could carry fromthat gang as it was. But I wasn't to know all that, and I'm bound tosay that there was plenty of excitement left for me. Lord, how I madethat poor brute travel when I got among the trees! Though we must havemade it over fifty miles from Melbourne, we had done it at a snail'space; and those stolen oats had brisked the old girl up to such a pitchthat she fairly bolted when she felt her nose turned south. By Jove, it was no joke, in and out among those trees, and under branches withyour face in the mane! I told you about the forest of dead gums? Itlooked perfectly ghostly in the moonlight. And I found it as still asI had left it--so still that I pulled up there, my first halt, and laywith my ear to the ground for two or three minutes. But I heardnothing--not a thing but the mare's bellow and my own heart. I'msorry, Bunny; but if ever you write my memoirs, you won't have anydifficulty in working up that chase. Play those dead gum-trees for allthey're worth, and let the bullets fly like hail. I'll turn round inmy saddle to see Ewbank coming up hell-to-leather in his white suit, and I'll duly paint it red. Do it in the third person, and they won'tknow how it's going to end. "

"But I don't know myself, " I complained. "Did the mare carry you allthe way back to Melbourne?"

"Every rod, pole or perch! I had her well seen to at our hotel, andreturned her to the doctor in the evening. He was tremendously tickledto hear that I had been bushed; next morning he brought me the paper toshow me what I had escaped at Yea!"

"Without suspecting anything?"

"Ah!" said Raffles, as he put out the gas; "that's a point on whichI've never made up my mind. The mare and her color was acoincidence--luckily she was only a bay--and I fancied the condition ofthe beast must have told a tale. The doctor's manner was certainlydifferent. I'm inclined to think he suspected something, though notthe right thing. I wasn't expecting him, and I fear my appearance mayhave increased his suspicions. "

I asked him why. 

"I used to have rather a heavy moustache, " said Raffles, "but I lost itthe day after I lost my innocence. "

WILFUL MURDER

Of the various robberies in which we were both concerned, it is but thefew, I find, that will bear telling at any length. Not that the otherscontained details which even I would hesitate to recount; it is, rather, the very absence of untoward incident which renders themuseless for my present purpose. In point of fact our plans were socraftily laid (by Raffles) that the chances of a hitch were invariablyreduced to a minimum before we went to work. We might be disappointedin the market value of our haul; but it was quite the exception for usto find ourselves confronted by unforeseen impediments, or involved ina really dramatic dilemma. There was a sameness even in our spoil;for, of course, only the most precious stones are worth the trouble wetook and the risks we ran. In short, our most successful escapadeswould prove the greatest weariness of all in narrative form; and nonemore so than the dull affair of the Ardagh emeralds, some eight or nineweeks after the Milchester cricket week. The former, however, had asequel that I would rather forget than all our burglaries put together. 

It was the evening after our return from Ireland, and I was waiting atmy rooms for Raffles, who had gone off as usual to dispose of theplunder. Raffles had his own method of conducting this very vitalbranch of our business, which I was well content to leave entirely inhis hands. He drove the bargains, I believe, in a thin but subtledisguise of the flashy-seedy order, and always in the Cockney dialect, of which he had made himself a master. Moreover, he invariablyemployed the same "fence, " who was ostensibly a money-lender in a small(but yet notorious) way, and in reality a rascal as remarkable asRaffles himself. Only lately I also had been to the man, but in myproper person. We had needed capital for the getting of these veryemeralds, and I had raised a hundred pounds, on the terms you wouldexpect, from a soft-spoken graybeard with an ingratiating smile, anincessant bow, and the shiftiest old eyes that ever flew from rim torim of a pair of spectacles. So the original sinews and the finalspoils of war came in this case from the self-same source--acircumstance which appealed to us both. 

But these same final spoils I was still to see, and I waited and waitedwith an impatience that grew upon me with the growing dusk. At my openwindow I had played Sister Ann until the faces in the street below wereno longer distinguishable. And now I was tearing to and fro in the gripof horrible hypotheses--a grip that tightened when at last thelift-gates opened with a clatter outside--that held me breathless untila well-known tattoo followed on my door. 

"In the dark!" said Raffles, as I dragged him in. "Why, Bunny, what'swrong?"

"Nothing--now you've come, " said I, shutting the door behind him in afever of relief and anxiety. "Well? Well? What did they fetch?"

"Five hundred. "

"Down?"

"Got it in my pocket. "

"Good man!" I cried. "You don't know what a stew I've been in. I'llswitch on the light. I've been thinking of you and nothing else forthe last hour. I--I was ass enough to think something had gone wrong!"

Raffles was smiling when the white light filled the room, but for themoment I did not perceive the peculiarity of his smile. I wasfatuously full of my own late tremors and present relief; and my firstidiotic act was to spill some whiskey and squirt the soda-water allover in my anxiety to do instant justice to the occasion. 

"So you thought something had happened?" said Raffles, leaning back inmy chair as he lit a cigarette, and looking much amused. "What wouldyou say if something had? Sit tight, my dear chap! It was nothing ofthe slightest consequence, and it's all over now. A stern chase and along one, Bunny, but I think I'm well to windward this time. "

And suddenly I saw that his collar was limp, his hair matted, his bootsthick with dust. 

"The police?" I whispered aghast. 

"Oh, dear, no; only old Baird. "

"Baird! But wasn't it Baird who took the emeralds?"

"It was. "

"Then how came he to chase you?"

"My dear fellow, I'll tell you if you give me a chance; it's reallynothing to get in the least excited about. Old Baird has at lastspotted that I'm not quite the common cracksman I would have him thinkme. So he's been doing his best to run me to my burrow. "

"And you call that nothing!"

"It would be something if he had succeeded; but he has still to dothat. I admit, however, that he made me sit up for the time being. Itall comes of going on the job so far from home. There was the oldbrute with the whole thing in his morning paper. He KNEW it must havebeen done by some fellow who could pass himself off for a gentleman, and I saw his eyebrows go up the moment I told him I was the man, withthe same old twang that you could cut with a paper-knife. I did mybest to get out of it--swore I had a pal who was a real swell--but Isaw very plainly that I had given myself away. He gave up haggling. He paid my price as though he enjoyed doing it. But I FELT himfollowing me when I made tracks; though, of course, I didn't turn roundto see. "

"Why not?"

"My dear Bunny, it's the very worst thing you can do. As long as youlook unsuspecting they'll keep their distance, and so long as they keeptheir distance you stand a chance. Once show that you know you'rebeing followed, and it's flight or fight for all you're worth. I nevereven looked round; and mind you never do in the same hole. I justhurried up to Blackfriars and booked for High Street, Kensington, atthe top of my voice; and as the train was leaving Sloane Square out Ihopped, and up all those stairs like a lamplighter, and round to thestudio by the back streets. Well, to be on the safe side, I lay lowthere all the afternoon, hearing nothing in the least suspicious, andonly wishing I had a window to look through instead of that beastlyskylight. However, the coast seemed clear enough, and thus far it wasmy mere idea that he would follow me; there was nothing to show he had. So at last I marched out in my proper rig--almost straight into oldBaird's arms!"

"What on earth did you do?"

"Walked past him as though I had never set eyes on him in my life, anddidn't then; took a hansom in the King's Road, and drove like the deuceto Clapham Junction; rushed on to the nearest platform, without aticket, jumped into the first train I saw, got out at Twickenham, walked full tilt back to Richmond, took the District to Charing Cross, and here I am! Ready for a tub and a change, and the best dinner theclub can give us. I came to you first, because I thought you might begetting anxious. Come round with me, and I won't keep you long. "

"You're certain you've given him the slip?" I said, as we put on ourhats. 

"Certain enough; but we can make assurance doubly sure, " said Raffles, and went to my window, where he stood for a moment or two looking downinto the street. 

"All right?" I asked him. 

"All right, " said he; and we went downstairs forthwith, and so to theAlbany arm-in-arm. 

But we were both rather silent on our way. I, for my part, waswondering what Raffles would do about the studio in Chelsea, whither, at all events, he had been successfully dogged. To me the point seemedone of immediate importance, but when I mentioned it he said there wastime enough to think about that. His one other remark was made afterwe had nodded (in Bond Street) to a young blood of our acquaintance whohappened to be getting himself a bad name. 

"Poor Jack Rutter!" said Raffles, with a sigh. "Nothing's sadder thanto see a fellow going to the bad like that. He's about mad with drinkand debt, poor devil! Did you see his eye? Odd that we should havemet him to-night, by the way; it's old Baird who's said to have skinnedhim. By God, but I'd like to skin old Baird!"

And his tone took a sudden low fury, made the more noticeable byanother long silence, which lasted, indeed, throughout an admirabledinner at the club, and for some time after we had settled down in aquiet corner of the smoking-room with our coffee and cigars. Then atlast I saw Raffles looking at me with his lazy smile, and I knew thatthe morose fit was at an end. 

"I daresay you wonder what I've been thinking about all this time?"said he. "I've been thinking what rot it is to go doing things byhalves!"

"Well, " said I, returning his smile, "that's not a charge that you canbring against yourself, is it?"

"I'm not so sure, " said Raffles, blowing a meditative puff; "as amatter of fact, I was thinking less of myself than of that poor devilof a Jack Rutter. There's a fellow who does things by halves; he'sonly half gone to the bad; and look at the difference between him andus! He's under the thumb of a villainous money-lender; we are solventcitizens. He's taken to drink; we're as sober as we are solvent. Hispals are beginning to cut him; our difficulty is to keep the pal fromthe door. Enfin, he begs or borrows, which is stealing by halves; andwe steal outright and are done with it. Obviously ours is the morehonest course. Yet I'm not sure, Bunny, but we're doing the thing byhalves ourselves!"

"Why? What more could we do?" I exclaimed in soft derision, lookinground, however, to make sure that we were not overheard. 

"What more, " said Raffles. "Well, murder--for one thing. "

"Rot!"

"A matter of opinion, my dear Bunny; I don't mean it for rot. I'vetold you before that the biggest man alive is the man who's committed amurder, and not yet been found out; at least he ought to be, but he sovery seldom has the soul to appreciate himself. Just think of it!Think of coming in here and talking to the men, very likely about themurder itself; and knowing you've done it; and wondering how they'dlook if THEY knew! Oh, it would be great, simply great! But, besidesall that, when you were caught there'd be a merciful and dramatic endof you. You'd fill the bill for a few weeks, and then snuff out with aflourish of extra-specials; you wouldn't rust with a vile repose forseven or fourteen years. "

"Good old Raffles!" I chuckled. "I begin to forgive you for being inbad form at dinner. "

"But I was never more earnest in my life. "

"Go on!"

"I mean it. "

"You know very well that you wouldn't commit a murder, whatever elseyou might do. "

"I know very well I'm going to commit one to-night!"

He had been leaning back in the saddle-bag chair, watching me with keeneyes sheathed by languid lids; now he started forward, and his eyesleapt to mine like cold steel from the scabbard. They struck home tomy slow wits; their meaning was no longer in doubt. I, who knew theman, read murder in his clenched hands, and murder in his locked lips, but a hundred murders in those hard blue eyes. 

"Baird?" I faltered, moistening my lips with my tongue. 

"Of course. "

"But you said it didn't matter about the room in Chelsea?"

"I told a lie. "

"Anyway you gave him the slip afterwards!"

"That was another. I didn't. I thought I had when I came up to youthis evening; but when I looked out of your window--you remember? tomake assurance doubly sure--there he was on the opposite pavement downbelow. "

"And you never said a word about it!"

"I wasn't going to spoil your dinner, Bunny, and I wasn't going to letyou spoil mine. But there he was as large as life, and, of course, hefollowed us to the Albany. A fine game for him to play, a game afterhis mean old heart: blackmail from me, bribes from the police, the onebidding against the other; but he sha'n't play it with me, he sha'n'tlive to, and the world will have an extortioner the less. Waiter! TwoScotch whiskeys and sodas. I'm off at eleven, Bunny; it's the onlything to be done. "

"You know where he lives, then?"

"Yes, out Willesden way, and alone; the fellow's a miser among otherthings. I long ago found out all about him. "

Again I looked round the room; it was a young man's club, and young menwere laughing, chatting, smoking, drinking, on every hand. One noddedto me through the smoke. Like a machine I nodded to him, and turnedback to Raffles with a groan. 

"Surely you will give him a chance!" I urged. "The very sight of yourpistol should bring him to terms. "

"It wouldn't make him keep them. "

"But you might try the effect?"

"I probably shall. Here's a drink for you, Bunny. Wish me luck. "

"I'm coming too. "

"I don't want you. "

"But I must come!"

An ugly gleam shot from the steel blue eyes. 

"To interfere?" said Raffles. 

"Not I. "

"You give me your word?"

"I do. "

"Bunny, if you break it--"

"You may shoot me, too!"

"I most certainly should, " said Raffles, solemnly. "So you come at yourown peril, my dear man; but, if you are coming--well, the sooner thebetter, for I must stop at my rooms on the way. "

Five minutes later I was waiting for him at the Piccadilly entrance tothe Albany. I had a reason for remaining outside. It was thefeeling--half hope, half fear--that Angus Baird might still be on ourtrail--that some more immediate and less cold-blooded way of dealingwith him might result from a sudden encounter between the money-lenderand myself. I would not warn him of his danger; but I would averttragedy at all costs. And when no such encounter had taken place, andRaffles and I were fairly on our way to Willesden, that, I think, wasstill my honest resolve. I would not break my word if I could help it, but it was a comfort to feel that I could break it if I liked, on anunderstood penalty. Alas! I fear my good intentions were tainted witha devouring curiosity, and overlaid by the fascination which goes handin hand with horror. 

I have a poignant recollection of the hour it took us to reach thehouse. We walked across St. James's Park (I can see the lights now, bright on the bridge and blurred in the water), and we had some minutesto wait for the last train to Willesden. It left at 11. 21, I remember, and Raffles was put out to find it did not go on to Kensal Rise. We hadto get out at Willesden Junction and walk on through the streets intofairly open country that happened to be quite new to me. I could neverfind the house again. I remember, however, that we were on a darkfootpath between woods and fields when the clocks began striking twelve. 

"Surely, " said I, "we shall find him in bed and asleep?"

"I hope we do, " said Raffles grimly. 

"Then you mean to break in?"

"What else did you think?"

I had not thought about it at all; the ultimate crime had monopolizedmy mind. Beside it burglary was a bagatelle, but one to deprecate nonethe less. I saw obvious objections: the man was au fait with cracksmenand their ways: he would certainly have firearms, and might be thefirst to use them. 

"I could wish nothing better, " said Raffles. "Then it will be man toman, and devil take the worst shot. You don't suppose I prefer foulplay to fair, do you? But die he must, by one or the other, or it's along stretch for you and me. "

"Better that than this!"

"Then stay where you are, my good fellow. I told you I didn't wantyou; and this is the house. So good-night. "

I could see no house at all, only the angle of a high wall risingsolitary in the night, with the starlight glittering on battlements ofbroken glass; and in the wall a tall green gate, bristling with spikes, and showing a front for battering-rams in the feeble rays an outlyinglamp-post cast across the new-made road. It seemed to me a road ofbuilding-sites, with but this one house built, all by itself, at oneend; but the night was too dark for more than a mere impression. 

Raffles, however, had seen the place by daylight, and had come preparedfor the special obstacles; already he was reaching up and puttingchampagne corks on the spikes, and in another moment he had his foldedcovert-coat across the corks. I stepped back as he raised himself, andsaw a little pyramid of slates snip the sky above the gate; as hesquirmed over I ran forward, and had my own weight on the spikes andcorks and covert-coat when he gave the latter a tug. 

"Coming after all?"

"Rather!"

"Take care, then; the place is all bell-wires and springs. It's nosoft thing, this! There--stand still while I take off the corks. "

The garden was very small and new, with a grass-plot still in separatesods, but a quantity of full-grown laurels stuck into the raw claybeds. "Bells in themselves, " as Raffles whispered; "there's nothingelse rustles so--cunning old beast!" And we gave them a wide berth aswe crept across the grass. 

"He's gone to bed!"

"I don't think so, Bunny. I believe he's seen us. "

"Why?"

"I saw a light. "

"Where?"

"Downstairs, for an instant, when I--"

His whisper died away; he had seen the light again; and so had I. 

It lay like a golden rod under the front-door--and vanished. Itreappeared like a gold thread under the lintel--and vanished for good. We heard the stairs creak, creak, and cease, also for good. We neithersaw nor heard any more, though we stood waiting on the grass till ourfeet were soaked with the dew. 

"I'm going in, " said Raffles at last. "I don't believe he saw us atall. I wish he had. This way. "

We trod gingerly on the path, but the gravel stuck to our wet soles, and grated horribly in a little tiled veranda with a glass door leadingwithin. It was through this glass that Raffles had first seen thelight; and he now proceeded to take out a pane, with the diamond, thepot of treacle, and the sheet of brown paper which were seldom omittedfrom his impedimenta. Nor did he dispense with my own assistance, though he may have accepted it as instinctively as it was proffered. In any case it was these fingers that helped to spread the treacle onthe brown paper, and pressed the latter to the glass until the diamondhad completed its circuit and the pane fell gently back into our hands. 

Raffles now inserted his hand, turned the key in the lock, and, bymaking a long arm, succeeded in drawing the bolt at the bottom of thedoor; it proved to be the only one, and the door opened, though notvery wide. 

"What's that?" said Raffles, as something crunched beneath his feet onthe very threshold. 

"A pair of spectacles, " I whispered, picking them up. I was stillfingering the broken lenses and the bent rims when Raffles tripped andalmost fell, with a gasping cry that he made no effort to restrain. 

"Hush, man, hush!" I entreated under my breath. "He'll hear you!"

For answer his teeth chattered--even his--and I heard him fumbling withhis matches. "No, Bunny; he won't hear us, " whispered Raffles, presently; and he rose from his knees and lit a gas as the match burntdown. 

Angus Baird was lying on his own floor, dead, with his gray hairs gluedtogether by his blood; near him a poker with the black end glistening;in a corner his desk, ransacked, littered. A clock ticked noisily onthe chimney-piece; for perhaps a hundred seconds there was no othersound. 

Raffles stood very still, staring down at the dead, as a man mightstare into an abyss after striding blindly to its brink. His breathcame audibly through wide nostrils; he made no other sign, and his lipsseemed sealed. 

"That light!" said I, hoarsely; "the light we saw under the door!"

With a start he turned to me. 

"It's true! I had forgotten it. It was in here I saw it first!"

"He must be upstairs still!"

"If he is we'll soon rout him out. Come on!"

Instead I laid a hand upon his arm, imploring him to reflect--that hisenemy was dead now--that we should certainly be involved--that now ornever was our own time to escape. He shook me off in a sudden fury ofimpatience, a reckless contempt in his eyes, and, bidding me save myown skin if I liked, he once more turned his back upon me, and thistime left me half resolved to take him at his word. Had he forgottenon what errand he himself was here? Was he determined that this nightshould end in black disaster? As I asked myself these questions hismatch flared in the hall; in another moment the stairs were creakingunder his feet, even as they had creaked under those of the murderer;and the humane instinct that inspired him in defiance of his risk wasborne in also upon my slower sensibilities. Could we let the murderergo? My answer was to bound up the creaking stairs and to overhaulRaffles on the landing. 

But three doors presented themselves; the first opened into a bedroomwith the bed turned down but undisturbed; the second room was empty inevery sense; the third door was locked. 

Raffles lit the landing gas. 

"He's in there, " said he, cocking his revolver. "Do you remember how weused to break into the studies at school? Here goes!"

His flat foot crashed over the keyhole, the lock gave, the door flewopen, and in the sudden draught the landing gas heeled over like acobble in a squall; as the flame righted itself I saw a fixed bath, twobath-towels knotted together--an open window--a cowering figure--andRaffles struck aghast on the threshold. 

"JACK--RUTTER?"

The words came thick and slow with horror, and in horror I heard myselfrepeating them, while the cowering figure by the bathroom window rosegradually erect. 

"It's you!" he whispered, in amazement no less than our own; "it's youtwo! What's it mean, Raffles? I saw you get over the gate; a bellrang, the place is full of them. Then you broke in. What's it allmean?"

"We may tell you that, when you tell us what in God's name you've done, Rutter!"

"Done? What have I done?" The unhappy wretch came out into the lightwith bloodshot, blinking eyes, and a bloody shirt-front. "Youknow--you've seen--but I'll tell you if you like. I've killed arobber; that's all. I've killed a robber, a usurer, a jackal, ablackmailer, the cleverest and the cruellest villain unhung. I'm readyto hang for him. I'd kill him again!"

And he looked us fiercely in the face, a fine defiance in hisdissipated eyes; his breast heaving, his jaw like a rock. 

"Shall I tell you how it happened?" he went passionately on. "He'smade my life a hell these weeks and months past. You may know that. Aperfect hell! Well, to-night I met him in Bond Street. Do youremember when I met you fellows? He wasn't twenty yards behind you; hewas on your tracks, Raffles; he saw me nod to you, and stopped me andasked me who you were. He seemed as keen as knives to know, I couldn'tthink why, and didn't care either, for I saw my chance. I said I'dtell him all about you if he'd give me a private interview. He said hewouldn't. I said he should, and held him by the coat; by the time Ilet him go you were out of sight, and I waited where I was till he cameback in despair. I had the whip-hand of him then. I could dictatewhere the interview should be, and I made him take me home with him, still swearing to tell him all about you when we'd had our talk. Well, when we got here I made him give me something to eat, putting him offand off; and about ten o'clock I heard the gate shut. I waited a bit, and then asked him if he lived alone. 

"'Not at all, ' says he; 'did you not see the servant?'

"I said I'd seen her, but I thought I'd heard her go; if I was mistakenno doubt she would come when she was called; and I yelled three timesat the top of my voice. Of course there was no servant to come. Iknew that, because I came to see him one night last week, and heinterviewed me himself through the gate, but wouldn't open it. Well, when I had done yelling, and not a soul had come near us, he was aswhite as that ceiling. Then I told him we could have our chat at last;and I picked the poker out of the fender, and told him how he'd robbedme, but, by God, he shouldn't rob me any more. I gave him threeminutes to write and sign a settlement of all his iniquitous claimsagainst me, or have his brains beaten out over his own carpet. Hethought a minute, and then went to his desk for pen and paper. In twoseconds he was round like lightning with a revolver, and I went for himbald-headed. He fired two or three times and missed; you can find theholes if you like; but I hit him every time--my God! I was like asavage till the thing was done. And then I didn't care. I went throughhis desk looking for my own bills, and was coming away when you turnedup. I said I didn't care, nor do I; but I was going to give myself upto-night, and shall still; so you see I sha'n't give you fellows muchtrouble!"

He was done; and there we stood on the landing of the lonely house, thelow, thick, eager voice still racing and ringing through our ears; thedead man below, and in front of us his impenitent slayer. I knew towhom the impenitence would appeal when he had heard the story, and Iwas not mistaken. 

"That's all rot, " said Raffles, speaking after a pause; "we sha'n't letyou give yourself up. "

"You sha'n't stop me! What would be the good? The woman saw me; itwould only be a question of time; and I can't face waiting to be taken. Think of it: waiting for them to touch you on the shoulder! No, no, no; I'll give myself up and get it over. "

His speech was changed; he faltered, floundered. It was as though aclearer perception of his position had come with the bare idea ofescape from it. 

"But listen to me, " urged Raffles; "We're here at our peril ourselves. We broke in like thieves to enforce redress for a grievance very likeyour own. But don't you see? We took out a pane--did the thing likeregular burglars. Regular burglars will get the credit of all therest!"

"You mean that I sha'n't be suspected?"

"I do. "

"But I don't want to get off scotfree, " cried Rutter hysterically. "I've killed him. I know that. But it was in self-defence; it wasn'tmurder. I must own up and take the consequences. I shall go mad if Idon't!"

His hands twitched; his lips quivered; the tears were in his eyes. Raffles took him roughly by the shoulder. 

"Look here, you fool! If the three of us were caught here now, do youknow what those consequences would be? We should swing in a row atNewgate in six weeks' time! You talk as though we were sitting in aclub; don't you know it's one o'clock in the morning, and the lightson, and a dead man down below? For God's sake pull yourself together, and do what I tell you, or you're a dead man yourself. "

"I wish I was one!" Rutter sobbed. "I wish I had his revolver to blowmy own brains out. It's lying under him. O my God, my God!"

His knees knocked together: the frenzy of reaction was at its height. We had to take him downstairs between us, and so through the front doorout into the open air. 

All was still outside--all but the smothered weeping of the unstrungwretch upon our hands. Raffles returned for a moment to the house;then all was dark as well. The gate opened from within; we closed itcarefully behind us; and so left the starlight shining on broken glassand polished spikes, one and all as we had found them. 

We escaped; no need to dwell on our escape. Our murderer seemed setupon the scaffold--drunk with his deed, he was more trouble than sixmen drunk with wine. Again and again we threatened to leave him to hisfate, to wash our hands of him. But incredible and unmerited luck waswith the three of us. Not a soul did we meet between that andWillesden; and of those who saw us later, did one think of the twoyoung men with crooked white ties, supporting a third in a seeminglyunmistakable condition, when the evening papers apprised the town of aterrible tragedy at Kensal Rise?

We walked to Maida Vale, and thence drove openly to my rooms. But Ialone went upstairs; the other two proceeded to the Albany, and I sawno more of Raffles for forty-eight hours. He was not at his rooms whenI called in the morning; he had left no word. When he reappeared thepapers were full of the murder; and the man who had committed it was onthe wide Atlantic, a steerage passenger from Liverpool to New York. 

"There was no arguing with him, " so Raffles told me; "either he mustmake a clean breast of it or flee the country. So I rigged him up atthe studio, and we took the first train to Liverpool. Nothing wouldinduce him to sit tight and enjoy the situation as I should haveendeavored to do in his place; and it's just as well! I went to hisdiggings to destroy some papers, and what do you think I found. Thepolice in possession; there's a warrant out against him already! Theidiots think that window wasn't genuine, and the warrant's out. Itwon't be my fault if it's ever served!"

Nor, after all these years, can I think it will be mine. 

NINE POINTS OF THE LAW

"Well, " said Raffles, "what do you make of it?"

I read the advertisement once more before replying. It was in the lastcolumn of the Daily Telegraph, and it ran:

TWO THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD--The above sum may be earned by any onequalified to undertake delicate mission and prepared to run certainrisk. --Apply by telegram, Security, London. 

"I think, " said I, "it's the most extraordinary advertisement that evergot into print!"

Raffles smiled. 

"Not quite all that, Bunny; still, extraordinary enough, I grant you. "

"Look at the figure!"

"It is certainly large. "

"And the mission--and the risk!"

"Yes; the combination is frank, to say the least of it. But the reallyoriginal point is requiring applications by telegram to a telegraphicaddress! There's something in the fellow who thought of that, andsomething in his game; with one word he chokes off the million whoanswer an advertisement every day--when they can raise the stamp. Myanswer cost me five bob; but then I prepaid another. "

"You don't mean to say that you've applied?"

"Rather, " said Raffles. "I want two thousand pounds as much as anyman. "

"Put your own name?"

"Well--no, Bunny, I didn't. In point of fact I smell somethinginteresting and illegal, and you know what a cautious chap I am. Isigned myself Glasspool, care of Hickey, 38, Conduit Street; that's mytailor, and after sending the wire I went round and told him what toexpect. He promised to send the reply along the moment it came. Ishouldn't be surprised if that's it!"

And he was gone before a double-knock on the outer door had doneringing through the rooms, to return next minute with an open telegramand a face full of news. 

"What do you think?" said he. "Security's that fellow Addenbrooke, thepolice-court lawyer, and he wants to see me INSTANTER!"

"Do you know him, then?"

"Merely by repute. I only hope he doesn't know me. He's the chap whogot six weeks for sailing too close to the wind in the Sutton-Wilmercase; everybody wondered why he wasn't struck off the rolls. Insteadof that he's got a first-rate practice on the seamy side, and everyblackguard with half a case takes it straight to Bennett Addenbrooke. He's probably the one man who would have the cheek to put in anadvertisement like that, and the one man who could do it withoutexciting suspicion. It's simply in his line; but you may be surethere's something shady at the bottom of it. The odd thing is that Ihave long made up my mind to go to Addenbrooke myself if accidentsshould happen. "

"And you're going to him now?"

"This minute, " said Raffles, brushing his hat; "and so are you. "

"But I came in to drag you out to lunch. "

"You shall lunch with me when we've seen this fellow. Come on, Bunny, and we'll choose your name on the way. Mine's Glasspool, and don't youforget it. "

Mr. Bennett Addenbrooke occupied substantial offices in WellingtonStreet, Strand, and was out when we arrived; but he had only just gone"over the way to the court"; and five minutes sufficed to produce abrisk, fresh-colored, resolute-looking man, with a very confident, rather festive air, and black eyes that opened wide at the sight ofRaffles. 

"Mr. --Glasspool?" exclaimed the lawyer. 

"My name, " said Raffles, with dry effrontery. 

"Not up at Lord's, however!" said the other, slyly. "My dear sir, Ihave seen you take far too many wickets to make any mistake!"

For a single moment Raffles looked venomous; then he shrugged andsmiled, and the smile grew into a little cynical chuckle. 

"So you have bowled me out in my turn?" said he. "Well, I don't thinkthere's anything to explain. I am harder up than I wished to admitunder my own name, that's all, and I want that thousand pounds reward. "

"Two thousand, " said the solicitor. "And the man who is not above analias happens to be just the sort of man I want; so don't let thatworry you, my dear sir. The matter, however, is of a strictly privateand confidential character. " And he looked very hard at me. 

"Quite so, " said Raffles. "But there was something about a risk?"

"A certain risk is involved. "

"Then surely three heads will be better than two. I said I wanted thatthousand pounds; my friend here wants the other. We are both cursedlyhard up, and we go into this thing together or not at all. Must youhave his name too? I should give him my real one, Bunny. "

Mr. Addenbrooke raised his eyebrows over the card I found for him; thenhe drummed upon it with his finger-nail, and his embarrassmentexpressed itself in a puzzled smile. 

"The fact is, I find myself in a difficulty, " he confessed at last. "Yours is the first reply I have received; people who can afford tosend long telegrams don't rush to the advertisements in the DailyTelegraph; but, on the other hand, I was not quite prepared to hearfrom men like yourselves. Candidly, and on consideration, I am notsure that you ARE the stamp of men for me--men who belong to goodclubs! I rather intended to appeal to the--er--adventurous classes. "

"We are adventurers, " said Raffles gravely. 

"But you respect the law?"

The black eyes gleamed shrewdly. 

"We are not professional rogues, if that's what you mean, " saidRaffles, smiling. "But on our beam-ends we are; we would do a gooddeal for a thousand pounds apiece, eh, Bunny?"

"Anything, " I murmured. 

The solicitor rapped his desk. 

"I'll tell you what I want you to do. You can but refuse. It'sillegal, but it's illegality in a good cause; that's the risk, and myclient is prepared to pay for it. He will pay for the attempt, in caseof failure; the money is as good as yours once you consent to run therisk. My client is Sir Bernard Debenham, of Broom Hall, Esher. "

"I know his son, " I remarked. 

Raffles knew him too, but said nothing, and his eye drooped disapprovalin my direction. Bennett Addenbrooke turned to me. 

"Then, " said he, "you have the privilege of knowing one of the mostcomplete young black-guards about town, and the fons et origo of thewhole trouble. As you know the son, you may know the father too, atall events by reputation; and in that case I needn't tell you that heis a very peculiar man. He lives alone in a storehouse of treasureswhich no eyes but his ever behold. He is said to have the finestcollection of pictures in the south of England, though nobody ever seesthem to judge; pictures, fiddles and furniture are his hobby, and he isundoubtedly very eccentric. Nor can one deny that there has beenconsiderable eccentricity in his treatment of his son. For years SirBernard paid his debts, and the other day, without the slightestwarning, not only refused to do so any more, but absolutely stopped thelad's allowance. Well, I'll tell you what has happened; but first ofall you must know, or you may remember, that I appeared for youngDebenham in a little scrape he got into a year or two ago. I got himoff all right, and Sir Bernard paid me handsomely on the nail. And nomore did I hear or see of either of them until one day last week. "

The lawyer drew his chair nearer ours, and leant forward with a hand oneither knee. 

"On Tuesday of last week I had a telegram from Sir Bernard; I was to goto him at once. I found him waiting for me in the drive; without aword he led me to the picture-gallery, which was locked and darkened, drew up a blind, and stood simply pointing to an empty picture-frame. It was a long time before I could get a word out of him. Then at lasthe told me that that frame had contained one of the rarest and mostvaluable pictures in England--in the world--an original Velasquez. Ihave checked this, " said the lawyer, "and it seems literally true; thepicture was a portrait of the Infanta Maria Teresa, said to be one ofthe artist's greatest works, second only to another portrait of one ofthe Popes in Rome--so they told me at the National Gallery, where theyhad its history by heart. They say there that the picture ispractically priceless. And young Debenham has sold it for fivethousand pounds!"

"The deuce he has, " said Raffles. 

I inquired who had bought it. 

"A Queensland legislator of the name of Craggs--the Hon. John MontaguCraggs, M. L. C. , to give him his full title. Not that we knew anythingabout him on Tuesday last; we didn't even know for certain that youngDebenham had stolen the picture. But he had gone down for money on theMonday evening, had been refused, and it was plain enough that he hadhelped himself in this way; he had threatened revenge, and this was it. Indeed, when I hunted him up in town on the Tuesday night, he confessedas much in the most brazen manner imaginable. But he wouldn't tell mewho was the purchaser, and finding out took the rest of the week; but Idid find out, and a nice time I've had of it ever since! Backwards andforwards between Esher and the Metropole, where the Queenslander isstaying, sometimes twice a day; threats, offers, prayers, entreaties, not one of them a bit of good!"

"But, " said Raffles, "surely it's a clear case? The sale was illegal;you can pay him back his money and force him to give the picture up. "

"Exactly; but not without an action and a public scandal, and that myclient declines to face. He would rather lose even his picture thanhave the whole thing get into the papers; he has disowned his son, buthe will not disgrace him; yet his picture he must have by hook orcrook, and there's the rub! I am to get it back by fair means or foul. He gives me carte blanche in the matter, and, I verily believe, wouldthrow in a blank check if asked. He offered one to the Queenslander, but Craggs simply tore it in two; the one old boy is as much acharacter as the other, and between the two of them I'm at my wits'end. "

"So you put that advertisement in the paper?" said Raffles, in the drytones he had adopted throughout the interview. 

"As a last resort. I did. "

"And you wish us to STEAL this picture?"

It was magnificently said; the lawyer flushed from his hair to hiscollar. 

"I knew you were not the men!" he groaned. "I never thought of men ofyour stamp! But it's not stealing, " he exclaimed heatedly; "it'srecovering stolen property. Besides, Sir Bernard will pay him his fivethousand as soon as he has the picture; and, you'll see, old Craggswill be just as loath to let it come out as Sir Bernard himself. No, no--it's an enterprise, an adventure, if you like--but not stealing. "

"You yourself mentioned the law, " murmured Raffles. 

"And the risk, " I added. 

"We pay for that, " he said once more. 

"But not enough, " said Raffles, shaking his head. "My good sir, consider what it means to us. You spoke of those clubs; we should notonly get kicked out of them, but put in prison like common burglars!It's true we're hard up, but it simply isn't worth it at the price. Double your stakes, and I for one am your man. "

Addenbrooke wavered. 

"Do you think you could bring it off?"

"We could try. "

"But you have no--"

"Experience? Well, hardly!"

"And you would really run the risk for four thousand pounds?"

Raffles looked at me. I nodded. 

"We would, " said he, "and blow the odds!"

"It's more than I can ask my client to pay, " said Addenbrooke, growingfirm. 

"Then it's more than you can expect us to risk. "

"You are in earnest?"

"God wot!"

"Say three thousand if you succeed!"

"Four is our figure, Mr. Addenbrooke. "

"Then I think it should be nothing if you fail. "

"Doubles or quits?" cried Raffles. "Well, that's sporting. Done!"

Addenbrooke opened his lips, half rose, then sat back in his chair, andlooked long and shrewdly at Raffles--never once at me. 

"I know your bowling, " said he reflectively. "I go up to Lord'swhenever I want an hour's real rest, and I've seen you bowl again andagain--yes, and take the best wickets in England on a plumb pitch. Idon't forget the last Gentleman and Players; I was there. You're up toevery trick--every one . . . I'm inclined to think that if anybody couldbowl out this old Australian . . . Damme, I believe you're my very man!"

The bargain was clinched at the Cafe Royal, where Bennett Addenbrookeinsisted on playing host at an extravagant luncheon. I remember thathe took his whack of champagne with the nervous freedom of a man athigh pressure, and have no doubt I kept him in countenance by an equalindulgence; but Raffles, ever an exemplar in such matters, was moreabstemious even than his wont, and very poor company to boot. I cansee him now, his eyes in his plate--thinking--thinking. I can see thesolicitor glancing from him to me in an apprehension of which I did mybest to disabuse him by reassuring looks. At the close Rafflesapologized for his preoccupation, called for an A. B. C. Time-table, andannounced his intention of catching the 3. 2 to Esher. 

"You must excuse me, Mr. Addenbrooke, " said he, "but I have my ownidea, and for the moment I should much prefer to keep it to myself. Itmay end in fizzle, so I would rather not speak about it to either ofyou just yet. But speak to Sir Bernard I must, so will you write meone line to him on your card? Of course, if you wish, you must comedown with me and hear what I say; but I really don't see much point init. "

And as usual Raffles had his way, though Bennett Addenbrooke showedsome temper when he was gone, and I myself shared his annoyance to nosmall extent. I could only tell him that it was in the nature ofRaffles to be self-willed and secretive, but that no man of myacquaintance had half his audacity and determination; that I for mypart would trust him through and through, and let him gang his own gaitevery time. More I dared not say, even to remove those chillmisgivings with which I knew that the lawyer went his way. 

That day I saw no more of Raffles, but a telegram reached me when I wasdressing for dinner:

"Be in your rooms to-morrow from noon and keep rest of day clear, Raffles. "

 It had been sent off from Waterloo at 6. 42. 

So Raffles was back in town; at an earlier stage of our relations Ishould have hunted him up then and there, but now I knew better. Histelegram meant that he had no desire for my society that night or thefollowing forenoon; that when he wanted me I should see him soon enough. 

And see him I did, towards one o'clock next day. I was watching for himfrom my window in Mount Street, when he drove up furiously in a hansom, and jumped out without a word to the man. I met him next minute at thelift gates, and he fairly pushed me back into my rooms. 

"Five minutes, Bunny!" he cried. "Not a moment more. "

And he tore off his coat before flinging himself into the nearest chair. 

"I'm fairly on the rush, " he panted; "having the very devil of a time!Not a word till I tell you all I've done. I settled my plan ofcampaign yesterday at lunch. The first thing was to get in with thisman Craggs; you can't break into a place like the Metropole, it's gotto be done from the inside. Problem one, how to get at the fellow. Only one sort of pretext would do--it must be something to do with thisblessed picture, so that I might see where he'd got it and all that. Well, I couldn't go and ask to see it out of curiosity, and I couldn'tgo as a second representative of the other old chap, and it wasthinking how I could go that made me such a bear at lunch. But I sawmy way before we got up. If I could only lay hold of a copy of thepicture I might ask leave to go and compare it with the original. Sodown I went to Esher to find out if there was a copy in existence, andwas at Broom Hall for one hour and a half yesterday afternoon. Therewas no copy there, but they must exist, for Sir Bernard himself(there's 'copy' THERE!) has allowed a couple to be made since thepicture has been in his possession. He hunted up the painters'addresses, and the rest of the evening I spent in hunting up thepainters themselves; but their work had been done on commission; onecopy had gone out of the country, and I'm still on the track of theother. "

"Then you haven't seen Craggs yet?"

"Seen him and made friends with him, and if possible he's the funnierold cuss of the two; but you should study 'em both. I took the bull bythe horns this morning, went in and lied like Ananias, and it was justas well I did--the old ruffian sails for Australia by to-morrow's boat. I told him a man wanted to sell me a copy of the celebrated InfantaMaria Teresa of Velasquez, that I'd been down to the supposed owner ofthe picture, only to find that he had just sold it to him. You shouldhave seen his face when I told him that! He grinned all round hiswicked old head. 'Did OLD Debenham admit the sale?' says he; and whenI said he had he chuckled to himself for about five minutes. He was sopleased that he did just what I hoped he would do; he showed me thegreat picture--luckily it isn't by any means a large one--also the casehe's got it in. It's an iron map-case in which he brought over theplans of his land in Brisbane; he wants to know who would suspect it ofcontaining an Old Master, too? But he's had it fitted with a newChubb's lock, and I managed to take an interest in the key while he wasgloating over the canvas. I had the wax in the palm of my hand, and Ishall make my duplicate this afternoon. "

Raffles looked at his watch and jumped up saying he had given me aminute too much. 

"By the way, " he added, "you've got to dine with him at the Metropoleto-night!"

"I?"

"Yes; don't look so scared. Both of us are invited--I swore you weredining with me. I accepted for us both; but I sha'n't be there. "

His clear eye was upon me, bright with meaning and with mischief. 

I implored him to tell me what his meaning was. 

"You will dine in his private sitting-room, " said Raffles; "it adjoinshis bedroom. You must keep him sitting as long as possible, Bunny, andtalking all the time!"

In a flash I saw his plan. 

"You're going for the picture while we're at dinner?"

"I am. "

"If he hears you?"

"He sha'n't. "

"But if he does!"

And I fairly trembled at the thought. 

"If he does, " said Raffles, "there will be a collision, that's all. Revolver would be out of place in the Metropole, but I shall certainlytake a life-preserver. "

"But it's ghastly!" I cried. "To sit and talk to an utter stranger andto know that you're at work in the next room!"

"Two thousand apiece, " said Raffles, quietly. 

"Upon my soul I believe I shall give it away!"

"Not you, Bunny. I know you better than you know yourself. "

He put on his coat and his hat. 

"What time have I to be there?" I asked him, with a groan. 

"Quarter to eight. There will be a telegram from me saying I can'tturn up. He's a terror to talk, you'll have no difficulty in keepingthe ball rolling; but head him off his picture for all you're worth. If he offers to show it to you, say you must go. He locked up the caseelaborately this afternoon, and there's no earthly reason why he shouldunlock it again in this hemisphere. "

"Where shall I find you when I get away?"

"I shall be down at Esher. I hope to catch the 9. 55. "

"But surely I can see you again this afternoon?" I cried in a ferment, for his hand was on the door. "I'm not half coached up yet! I know Ishall make a mess of it!"

"Not you, " he said again, "but _I_ shall if I waste any more time. I've got a deuce of a lot of rushing about to do yet. You won't findme at my rooms. Why not come down to Esher yourself by the last train?That's it--down you come with the latest news! I'll tell old Debenhamto expect you: he shall give us both a bed. By Jove! he won't be ableto do us too well if he's got his picture. "

"If!" I groaned as he nodded his adieu; and he left me limp withapprehension, sick with fear, in a perfectly pitiable condition of purestage-fright. 

For, after all, I had only to act my part; unless Raffles failed wherehe never did fail, unless Raffles the neat and noiseless was for onceclumsy and inept, all I had to do was indeed to "smile and smile and bea villain. " I practiced that smile half the afternoon. I rehearsedputative parts in hypothetical conversations. I got up stories. Idipped in a book on Queensland at the club. And at last it was 7. 45, and I was making my bow to a somewhat elderly man with a small baldhead and a retreating brow. 

"So you're Mr. Raffles's friend?" said he, overhauling me rather rudelywith his light small eyes. "Seen anything of him? Expected him earlyto show me something, but he's never come. "

No more, evidently, had his telegram, and my troubles were beginningearly. I said I had not seen Raffles since one o'clock, telling thetruth with unction while I could; even as we spoke there came a knockat the door; it was the telegram at last, and, after reading ithimself, the Queenslander handed it to me. 

"Called out of town!" he grumbled. "Sudden illness of near relative!What near relatives has he got?"

I knew of none, and for an instant I quailed before the perils ofinvention; then I replied that I had never met any of his people, andagain felt fortified by my veracity. 

"Thought you were bosom pals?" said he, with (as I imagined) a gleam ofsuspicion in his crafty little eyes. 

"Only in town, " said I. "I've never been to his place. "

"Well, " he growled, "I suppose it can't be helped. Don't know why hecouldn't come and have his dinner first. Like to see the death-bed I'Dgo to without MY dinner; it's a full-skin billet, if you ask me. Well, must just dine without him, and he'll have to buy his pig in a pokeafter all. Mind touching that bell? Suppose you know what he came tosee me about? Sorry I sha'n't see him again, for his own sake. Iliked Raffles--took to him amazingly. He's a cynic. Like cynics. Onemyself. Rank bad form of his mother or his aunt, and I hope she willgo and kick the bucket. "

I connect these specimens of his conversation, though they weredoubtless detached at the time, and interspersed with remarks of minehere and there. They filled the interval until dinner was served, andthey gave me an impression of the man which his every subsequentutterance confirmed. It was an impression which did away with allremorse for my treacherous presence at his table. He was that terribletype, the Silly Cynic, his aim a caustic commentary on all things andall men, his achievement mere vulgar irreverence and unintelligentscorn. Ill-bred and ill-informed, he had (on his own showing) flukedinto fortune on a rise in land; yet cunning he possessed, as well asmalice, and he chuckled till he choked over the misfortunes of lessastute speculators in the same boom. Even now I cannot feel muchcompunction for my behavior by the Hon. J. M. Craggs, M. L. C. 

But never shall I forget the private agonies of the situation, thelistening to my host with one ear and for Raffles with the other! OnceI heard him--though the rooms were not divided by the old-fashionedfolding-doors, and though the door that did divide them was not onlyshut but richly curtained, I could have sworn I heard him once. Ispilt my wine and laughed at the top of my voice at some coarse sallyof my host's. And I heard nothing more, though my ears were on thestrain. But later, to my horror, when the waiter had finally withdrawn, Craggs himself sprang up and rushed to his bedroom without a word. Isat like stone till he returned. 

"Thought I heard a door go, " he said. "Must have been mistaken . . . Imagination . . . Gave me quite a turn. Raffles tell you pricelesstreasure I got in there?"

It was the picture at last; up to this point I had kept him toQueensland and the making of his pile. I tried to get him back therenow, but in vain. He was reminded of his great ill-gotten possession. I said that Raffles had just mentioned it, and that set him off. Withthe confidential garrulity of a man who has dined too well, he plungedinto his darling topic, and I looked past him at the clock. It wasonly a quarter to ten. 

In common decency I could not go yet. So there I sat (we were still atport) and learnt what had originally fired my host's ambition topossess what he was pleased to call a "real, genuine, twin-screw, double-funnelled, copper-bottomed Old Master"; it was to "go onebetter" than some rival legislator of pictorial proclivities. But evenan epitome of his monologue would be so much weariness; suffice it thatit ended inevitably in the invitation I had dreaded all the evening. 

"But you must see it. Next room. This way. "

"Isn't it packed up?" I inquired hastily. 

"Lock and key. That's all. "

"Pray don't trouble, " I urged. 

"Trouble be hanged!" said he. "Come along. "

And all at once I saw that to resist him further would be to heapsuspicion upon myself against the moment of impending discovery. Itherefore followed him into his bedroom without further protest, andsuffered him first to show me the iron map-case which stood in onecorner; he took a crafty pride in this receptacle, and I thought hewould never cease descanting on its innocent appearance and its Chubb'slock. It seemed an interminable age before the key was in the latter. Then the ward clicked, and my pulse stood still. 

"By Jove!" I cried next instant. 

The canvas was in its place among the maps!

"Thought it would knock you, " said Craggs, drawing it out and unrollingit for my benefit. "Grand thing, ain't it? Wouldn't think it had beenpainted two hundred and thirty years? It has, though, MY word! OldJohnson's face will be a treat when he sees it; won't go bragging aboutHIS pictures much more. Why, this one's worth all the pictures inColony o' Queensland put together. Worth fifty thousand pounds, myboy--and I got it for five!"

He dug me in the ribs, and seemed in the mood for further confidences. My appearance checked him, and he rubbed his hands. 

"If you take it like that, " he chuckled, "how will old Johnson take it?Go out and hang himself to his own picture-rods, I hope!"

Heaven knows what I contrived to say at last. Struck speechless firstby my relief, I continued silent from a very different cause. A newtangle of emotions tied my tongue. Raffles had failed--Raffles hadfailed! Could I not succeed? Was it too late? Was there no way?

"So long, " he said, taking a last look at the canvas before he rolledit up--"so long till we get to Brisbane. "

The flutter I was in as he closed the case!

"For the last time, " he went on, as his keys jingled back into hispocket. "It goes straight into the strong-room on board. "

For the last time! If I could but send him out to Australia with onlyits legitimate contents in his precious map-case! If I could butsucceed where Raffles had failed!

We returned to the other room. I have no notion how long he talked, orwhat about. Whiskey and soda-water became the order of the hour. Iscarcely touched it, but he drank copiously, and before eleven I lefthim incoherent. And the last train for Esher was the 11. 50 out ofWaterloo. 

I took a hansom to my rooms. I was back at the hotel in thirteenminutes. I walked upstairs. The corridor was empty; I stood an instanton the sitting-room threshold, heard a snore within, and admittedmyself softly with my gentleman's own key, which it had been a verysimple matter to take away with me. 

Craggs never moved; he was stretched on the sofa fast asleep. But notfast enough for me. I saturated my handkerchief with the chloroform Ihad brought, and laid it gently over his mouth. Two or three stertorousbreaths, and the man was a log. 

I removed the handkerchief; I extracted the keys from his pocket. 

In less than five minutes I put them back, after winding the pictureabout my body beneath my Inverness cape. I took some whiskey andsoda-water before I went. 

The train was easily caught--so easily that I trembled for ten minutesin my first-class smoking carriage--in terror of every footstep on theplatform, in unreasonable terror till the end. Then at last I sat backand lit a cigarette, and the lights of Waterloo reeled out behind. 

Some men were returning from the theatre. I can recall theirconversation even now. They were disappointed with the piece they hadseen. It was one of the later Savoy operas, and they spoke wistfully ofthe days of "Pinafore" and "Patience. " One of them hummed a stave, andthere was an argument as to whether the air was out of "Patience" orthe "Mikado. " They all got out at Surbiton, and I was alone with mytriumph for a few intoxicating minutes. To think that I had succeededwhere Raffles had failed!

Of all our adventures this was the first in which I had played acommanding part; and, of them all, this was infinitely the leastdiscreditable. It left me without a conscientious qualm; I had butrobbed a robber, when all was said. And I had done it myself, single-handed--ipse egomet!

I pictured Raffles, his surprise, his delight. He would think a littlemore of me in future. And that future, it should be different. We hadtwo thousand pounds apiece--surely enough to start afresh as honestmen--and all through me!

In a glow I sprang out at Esher, and took the one belated cab that waswaiting under the bridge. In a perfect fever I beheld Broom Hall, withthe lower story still lit up, and saw the front door open as I climbedthe steps. 

"Thought it was you, " said Raffles cheerily. "It's all right. There'sa bed for you. Sir Bernard's sitting up to shake your hand. "

His good spirits disappointed me. But I knew the man: he was one ofthose who wear their brightest smile in the blackest hour. I knew himtoo well by this time to be deceived. 

"I've got it!" I cried in his ear. "I've got it!"

"Got what?" he asked me, stepping back. 

"The picture!"

"WHAT?"

"The picture. He showed it me. You had to go without it; I saw that. So I determined to have it. And here it is. "

"Let's see, " said Raffles grimly. 

I threw off my cape and unwound the canvas from about my body. While Iwas doing so an untidy old gentleman made his appearance in the hall, and stood looking on with raised eyebrows. 

"Looks pretty fresh for an Old Master, doesn't she?" said Raffles. 

His tone was strange. I could only suppose that he was jealous of mysuccess. 

"So Craggs said. I hardly looked at it myself. "

"Well, look now--look closely. By Jove, I must have faked her betterthan I thought!"

"It's a copy!" I cried. 

"It's THE copy, " he answered. "It's the copy I've been tearing allover the country to procure. It's the copy I faked back and front, sothat, on your own showing, it imposed upon Craggs, and might have madehim happy for life. And you go and rob him of that!"

I could not speak. 

"How did you manage it?" inquired Sir Bernard Debenham. 

"Have you killed him?" asked Raffles sardonically. 

I did not look at him; I turned to Sir Bernard Debenham, and to him Itold my story, hoarsely, excitedly, for it was all that I could do tokeep from breaking down. But as I spoke I became calmer, and Ifinished in mere bitterness, with the remark that another time Rafflesmight tell me what he meant to do. 

"Another time!" he cried instantly. "My dear Bunny, you speak asthough we were going to turn burglars for a living!"

"I trust you won't, " said Sir Bernard, smiling, "for you are certainlytwo very daring young men. Let us hope our friend from Queensland willdo as he said, and not open his map-case till he gets back there. Hewill find my check awaiting him, and I shall be very much surprised ifhe troubles any of us again. "

Raffles and I did not speak till I was in the room which had beenprepared for me. Nor was I anxious to do so then. But he followed meand took my hand. 

"Bunny, " said he, "don't you be hard on a fellow! I was in the deuceof a hurry, and didn't know that I should ever get what I wanted intime, and that's a fact. But it serves me right that you should havegone and undone one of the best things I ever did. As for YOURhandiwork, old chap, you won't mind my saying that I didn't think youhad it in you. In future--"

"Don't talk to me about the future!" I cried. "I hate the whole thing!I'm going to chuck it up!"

"So am I, " said Raffles, "when I've made my pile. "

THE RETURN MATCH

I had turned into Piccadilly, one thick evening in the followingNovember, when my guilty heart stood still at the sudden grip of a handupon my arm. I thought--I was always thinking--that my inevitable hourwas come at last. It was only Raffles, however, who stood smiling atme through the fog. 

"Well met!" said he. "I've been looking for you at the club. "

"I was just on my way there, " I returned, with an attempt to hide mytremors. It was an ineffectual attempt, as I saw from his broadersmile, and by the indulgent shake of his head. 

"Come up to my place instead, " said he. "I've something amusing totell you. "

I made excuses, for his tone foretold the kind of amusement, and it wasa kind against which I had successfully set my face for months. I havestated before, however, and I can but reiterate, that to me, at allevents, there was never anybody in the world so irresistible as Raffleswhen his mind was made up. That we had both been independent of crimesince our little service to Sir Bernard Debenham--that there had beenno occasion for that masterful mind to be made up in any such directionfor many a day--was the undeniable basis of a longer spell of honestythan I had hitherto enjoyed during the term of our mutual intimacy. Besure I would deny it if I could; the very thing I am to tell you woulddiscredit such a boast. I made my excuses, as I have said. 

But his arm slid through mine, with his little laugh of light-heartedmastery. And even while I argued we were on his staircase in theAlbany. 

His fire had fallen low. He poked and replenished it after lightingthe gas. As for me, I stood by sullenly in my overcoat until hedragged it off my back. 

"What a chap you are!" said Raffles, playfully. "One would really thinkI had proposed to crack another crib this blessed night! Well, itisn't that, Bunny; so get into that chair, and take one of theseSullivans and sit tight. "

He held the match to my cigarette; he brought me a whiskey and soda. Then he went out into the lobby, and, just as I was beginning to feelhappy, I heard a bolt shot home. It cost me an effort to remain inthat chair; next moment he was straddling another and gloating over mydiscomfiture across his folded arms. 

"You remember Milchester, Bunny, old boy?"

His tone was as bland as mine was grim when I answered that I did. 

"We had a little match there that wasn't down on the card. Gentlemenand Players, if you recollect?"

"I don't forget it. "

"Seeing that you never got an innings, so to speak, I thought youmight. Well, the Gentlemen scored pretty freely, but the Players wereall caught. "

"Poor devils!"

"Don't be too sure. You remember the fellow we saw in the inn? Theflorid, over-dressed chap who I told you was one of the cleverestthieves in town?"

"I remember him. Crawshay his name turned out to be. "

"Well, it was certainly the name he was convicted under, so Crawshaylet it be. You needn't waste any pity on HIM, old chap; he escapedfrom Dartmoor yesterday afternoon. "

"Well done!"

Raffles smiled, but his eyebrows had gone up, and his shouldersfollowed suit. 

"You are perfectly right; it was very well done indeed. I wonder youdidn't see it in the paper. In a dense fog on the moor yesterday goodold Crawshay made a bolt for it, and got away without a scratch underheavy fire. All honor to him, I agree; a fellow with that much gritdeserves his liberty. But Crawshay has a good deal more. They huntedhim all night long; couldn't find him for nuts; and that was all youmissed in the morning papers. "

He unfolded a Pall Mall, which he had brought in with him. 

"But listen to this; here's an account of the escape, with just theaddition which puts the thing on a higher level. 'The fugitive hasbeen traced to Totnes, where he appears to have committed a peculiarlydaring outrage in the early hours of this morning. He is reported tohave entered the lodgings of the Rev. A. H. Ellingworth, curate of theparish, who missed his clothes on rising at the usual hour; later inthe morning those of the convict were discovered neatly folded at thebottom of a drawer. Meanwhile Crawshay had made good his secondescape, though it is believed that so distinctive a guise will lead tohis recapture during the day. ' What do you think of that, Bunny?"

"He is certainly a sportsman, " said I, reaching for the paper. 

"He's more, " said Raffles, "he's an artist, and I envy him. Thecurate, of all men! Beautiful--beautiful! But that's not all. I sawjust now on the board at the club that there's been an outrage on theline near Dawlish. Parson found insensible in the six-foot way. Ourfriend again! The telegram doesn't say so, but it's obvious; he'ssimply knocked some other fellow out, changed clothes again, and comeon gayly to town. Isn't it great? I do believe it's the best thing ofthe kind that's ever been done!"

"But why should he come to town?"

In an instant the enthusiasm faded from Raffles's face; clearly I hadreminded him of some prime anxiety, forgotten in his impersonal joyover the exploit of a fellow-criminal. He looked over his shouldertowards the lobby before replying. 

"I believe, " said he, "that the beggar's on MY tracks!"

And as he spoke he was himself again--quietly amused--cynicallyunperturbed--characteristically enjoying the situation and my surprise. 

"But look here, what do you mean?" said I. "What does Crawshay knowabout you?"

"Not much; but he suspects. "

"Why should he?"

"Because, in his way he's very nearly as good a man as I am; because, my dear Bunny, with eyes in his head and brains behind them, hecouldn't help suspecting. He saw me once in town with old Baird. Hemust have seen me that day in the pub on the way to Milchester, as wellas afterwards on the cricket-field. As a matter of fact, I know hedid, for he wrote and told me so before his trial. "

"He wrote to you! And you never told me!"

The old shrug answered the old grievance. 

"What was the good, my dear fellow? It would only have worried you. "

"Well, what did he say?"

"That he was sorry he had been run in before getting back to town, ashe had proposed doing himself the honor of paying me a call; however, he trusted it was only a pleasure deferred, and he begged me not to goand get lagged myself before he came out. Of course he knew theMelrose necklace was gone, though he hadn't got it; and he said thatthe man who could take that and leave the rest was a man after his ownheart. And so on, with certain little proposals for the far future, which I fear may be the very near future indeed! I'm only surprised hehasn't turned up yet. "

He looked again towards the lobby, which he had left in darkness, withthe inner door shut as carefully as the outer one. I asked him what hemeant to do. 

"Let him knock--if he gets so far. The porter is to say I'm out oftown; it will be true, too, in another hour or so. "

"You're going off to-night?"

"By the 7. 15 from Liverpool Street. I don't say much about my people, Bunny, but I have the best of sisters married to a country parson inthe eastern counties. They always make me welcome, and let me read thelessons for the sake of getting me to church. I'm sorry you won't bethere to hear me on Sunday, Bunny. I've figured out some of my bestschemes in that parish, and I know of no better port in a storm. But Imust pack. I thought I'd just let you know where I was going, and why, in case you cared to follow my example. "

He flung the stump of his cigarette into the fire, stretched himself ashe rose, and remained so long in the inelegant attitude that my eyesmounted from his body to his face; a second later they had followed hiseyes across the room, and I also was on my legs. On the threshold ofthe folding doors that divided bedroom and sitting-room, a well-builtman stood in ill-fitting broadcloth, and bowed to us until his bullethead presented an unbroken disk of short red hair. 

Brief as was my survey of this astounding apparition, the interval waslong enough for Raffles to recover his composure; his hands were in hispockets, and a smile upon his face, when my eyes flew back to him. 

"Let me introduce you, Bunny, " said he, "to our distinguishedcolleague, Mr. Reginald Crawshay. "

The bullet head bobbed up, and there was a wrinkled brow above thecoarse, shaven face, crimson also, I remember, from the grip of acollar several sizes too small. But I noted nothing consciously at thetime. I had jumped to my own conclusion, and I turned on Raffles withan oath. 

"It's a trick!" I cried. "It's another of your cursed tricks! You gothim here, and then you got me. You want me to join you, I suppose?I'll see you damned!"

So cold was the stare which met this outburst that I became ashamed ofmy words while they were yet upon my lips. 

"Really, Bunny!" said Raffles, and turned his shoulder with a shrug. 

"Lord love yer, " cried Crawshay, "'_E_ knew nothin'. _'E_ didn'texpect me; 'E'S all right. And you're the cool canary, YOU are, " hewent on to Raffles. "I knoo you were, but, do me proud, you're oneafter my own kidney!" And he thrust out a shaggy hand. 

"After that, " said Raffles, taking it, "what am I to say? But you musthave heard my opinion of you. I am proud to make your acquaintance. How the deuce did you get in?"

"Never you mind, " said Crawshay, loosening his collar; "let's talkabout how I'm to get out. Lord love yer, but that's better!"

There was a livid ring round his bull-neck, that he fingered tenderly. "Didn't know how much longer I might have to play the gent, " heexplained; "didn't know who you'd bring in. "

"Drink whiskey and soda?" inquired Raffles, when the convict was in thechair from which I had leapt. 

"No, I drink it neat, " replied Crawshay, "but I talk business first. You don't get over me like that, Lor' love yer!"

"Well, then, what can I do for you?"

"You know without me tellin' you. "

"Give it a name. "

"Clean heels, then; that's what I want to show, and I leaves the way toyou. We're brothers in arms, though I ain't armed this time. It ain'tnecessary. You've too much sense. But brothers we are, and you'll seea brother through. Let's put it at that. You'll see me through in yerown way. I leaves it all to you. "

His tone was rich with conciliation and concession; he bent over andtore a pair of button boots from his bare feet, which he stretchedtowards the fire, painfully uncurling his toes. 

"I hope you take a larger size than them, " said he. "I'd have had asee if you'd given me time. I wasn't in long afore you. "

"And you won't tell me how you got in?"

"Wot's the use? I can't teach YOU nothin'. Besides, I want out. Iwant out of London, an' England, an' bloomin' Europe too. That's all Iwant of you, mister. I don't arst how YOU go on the job. You knoww'ere I come from, 'cos I 'eard you say; you know w'ere I want to 'eadfor, 'cos I've just told yer; the details I leaves entirely to you. "

"Well, " said Raffles, "we must see what can be done. "

"We must, " said Mr. Crawshay, and leaned back comfortably, and begantwirling his stubby thumbs. 

Raffles turned to me with a twinkle in his eye; but his forehead wasscored with thought, and resolve mingled with resignation in the linesof his mouth. And he spoke exactly as though he and I were alone inthe room. 

"You seize the situation, Bunny? If our friend here is 'copped, ' tospeak his language, he means to 'blow the gaff' on you and me. He isconsiderate enough not to say so in so many words, but it's plainenough, and natural enough for that matter. I would do the same in hisplace. We had the bulge before; he has it now; it's perfectly fair. Wemust take on this job; we aren't in a position to refuse it; even if wewere, I should take it on! Our friend is a great sportsman; he has gotclear away from Dartmoor; it would be a thousand pities to let him goback. Nor shall he; not if I can think of a way of getting him abroad. "

"Any way you like, " murmured Crawshay, with his eyes shut. "I leavesthe 'ole thing to you. "

"But you'll have to wake up and tell us things. "

"All right, mister; but I'm fair on the rocks for a sleep!"

And he stood up, blinking. 

"Think you were traced to town?"

"Must have been. "

"And here?"

"Not in this fog--not with any luck. "

Raffles went into the bedroom, lit the gas there, and returned nextminute. 

"So you got in by the window?"

"That's about it. "

"It was devilish smart of you to know which one; it beats me how youbrought it off in daylight, fog or no fog! But let that pass. Youdon't think you were seen?"

"I don't think it, sir. "

"Well, let's hope you are right. I shall reconnoitre and soon findout. And you'd better come too, Bunny, and have something to eat andtalk it over. "

As Raffles looked at me, I looked at Crawshay, anticipating trouble;and trouble brewed in his blank, fierce face, in the glitter of hisstartled eyes, in the sudden closing of his fists. 

"And what's to become o' me?" he cried out with an oath. 

"You wait here. "

"No, you don't, " he roared, and at a bound had his back to the door. "You don't get round me like that, you cuckoos!"

Raffles turned to me with a twitch of the shoulders. "That's the worstof these professors, " said he; "they never will use their heads. Theysee the pegs, and they mean to hit 'em; but that's all they do see andmean, and they think we're the same. No wonder we licked them lasttime!"

"Don't talk through yer neck, " snarled the convict. "Talk outstraight, curse you!"

"Right, " said Raffles. "I'll talk as straight as you like. You sayyou put yourself in my hands--you leave it all to me--yet you don'ttrust me an inch! I know what's to happen if I fail. I accept therisk. I take this thing on. Yet you think I'm going straight out togive you away and make you give me away in my turn. You're a fool, Mr. Crawshay, though you have broken Dartmoor; you've got to listen to abetter man, and obey him. I see you through in my own way, or not atall. I come and go as I like, and with whom I like, without yourinterference; you stay here and lie just as low as you know how, be aswise as your word, and leave the whole thing to me. If you won't--ifyou're fool enough not to trust me--there's the door. Go out and saywhat you like, and be damned to you!"

Crawshay slapped his thigh. 

"That's talking!" said he. "Lord love yer, I know where I am when youtalk like that. I'll trust yer. I know a man when he gets his tonguebetween his teeth; you're all right. I don't say so much about thisother gent, though I saw him along with you on the job that time in theprovinces; but if he's a pal of yours, Mr. Raffles, he'll be all righttoo. I only hope you gents ain't too stony--"

And he touched his pockets with a rueful face. 

"I only went for their togs, " said he. "You never struck two suchstony-broke cusses in yer life!"

"That's all right, " said Raffles. "We'll see you through properly. Leave it to us, and you sit tight. "

"Rightum!" said Crawshay. "And I'll have a sleep time you're gone. But no sperrits--no, thank'ee--not yet! Once let me loose on the lush, and, Lord love yer, I'm a gone coon!"

Raffles got his overcoat, a long, light driving-coat, I remember, andeven as he put it on our fugitive was dozing in the chair; we left himmurmuring incoherently, with the gas out, and his bare feet toasting. 

"Not such a bad chap, that professor, " said Raffles on the stairs; "areal genius in his way, too, though his methods are a little elementaryfor my taste. But technique isn't everything; to get out of Dartmoorand into the Albany in the same twenty-four hours is a whole thatjustifies its parts. Good Lord!"

We had passed a man in the foggy courtyard, and Raffles had nipped myarm. 

"Who was it?"

"The last man we want to see! I hope to heaven he didn't hear me!"

"But who is he, Raffles?"

"Our old friend Mackenzie, from the Yard!"

I stood still with horror. 

"Do you think he's on Crawshay's track?"

"I don't know. I'll find out. "

And before I could remonstrate he had wheeled me round; when I found myvoice he merely laughed, and whispered that the bold course was thesafe one every time. 

"But it's madness--"

"Not it. Shut up! Is that YOU, Mr. Mackenzie?"

The detective turned about and scrutinized us keenly; and through thegaslit mist I noticed that his hair was grizzled at the temples, andhis face still cadaverous, from the wound that had nearly been hisdeath. 

"Ye have the advantage o' me, sirs, " said he. 

"I hope you're fit again, " said my companion. "My name is Raffles, andwe met at Milchester last year. "

"Is that a fact?" cried the Scotchman, with quite a start. "Yes, now Iremember your face, and yours too, sir. Ay, yon was a bad business, but it ended vera well, an' that's the main thing. "

His native caution had returned to him. Raffles pinched my arm. 

"Yes, it ended splendidly, but for you, " said he. "But what about thisescape of the leader of the gang, that fellow Crawshay? What do youthink of that, eh?"

"I havena the parteeculars, " replied the Scot. 

"Good!" cried Raffles. "I was only afraid you might be on his tracksonce more!"

Mackenzie shook his head with a dry smile, and wished us good eveningas an invisible window was thrown up, and a whistle blown softlythrough the fog. 

"We must see this out, " whispered Raffles. "Nothing more natural than alittle curiosity on our part. After him, quick!"

And we followed the detective into another entrance on the same side asthat from which we had emerged, the left-hand side on one's way toPiccadilly; quite openly we followed him, and at the foot of the stairsmet one of the porters of the place. Raffles asked him what was wrong. 

"Nothing, sir, " said the fellow glibly. 

"Rot!" said Raffles. "That was Mackenzie, the detective. I've justbeen speaking to him. What's he here for? Come on, my good fellow; wewon't give you away, if you've instructions not to tell. "

The man looked quaintly wistful, the temptation of an audience hot uponhim; a door shut upstairs, and he fell. 

"It's like this, " he whispered. "This afternoon a gen'leman comesarfter rooms, and I sent him to the orfice; one of the clurks, 'e goesround with 'im an' shows 'im the empties, an' the gen'leman's partic'lystruck on the set the coppers is up in now. So he sends the clurk tofetch the manager, as there was one or two things he wished to speakabout; an' when they come back, blowed if the gent isn't gone! Beg yerpardon, sir, but he's clean disappeared off the face o' the premises!"And the porter looked at us with shining eyes. 

"Well?" said Raffles. 

"Well, sir, they looked about, an' looked about, an' at larst they givehim up for a bad job; thought he'd changed his mind an' didn't want totip the clurk; so they shut up the place an' come away. An' that's alltill about 'alf an hour ago, when I takes the manager his extry-speshulStar; in about ten minutes he comes running out with a note, an' sendsme with it to Scotland Yard in a hansom. An' that's all I know, sir--straight. The coppers is up there now, and the tec, and themanager, and they think their gent is about the place somewhere still. Least, I reckon that's their idea; but who he is, or what they want himfor, I dunno. "

"Jolly interesting!" said Raffles. "I'm going up to inquire. Come on, Bunny; there should be some fun. "

"Beg yer pardon, Mr. Raffles, but you won't say nothing about me?"

"Not I; you're a good fellow. I won't forget it if this leads tosport. Sport!" he whispered as we reached the landing. "It looks likeprecious poor sport for you and me, Bunny!"

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. There's no time to think. This, to start with. "

And he thundered on the shut door; a policeman opened it. Rafflesstrode past him with the air of a chief commissioner, and I followedbefore the man had recovered from his astonishment. The bare boardsrang under us; in the bedroom we found a knot of officers stooping overthe window-ledge with a constable's lantern. Mackenzie was the firstto stand upright, and he greeted us with a glare. 

"May I ask what you gentlemen want?" said he. 

"We want to lend a hand, " said Raffles briskly. "We lent one oncebefore, and it was my friend here who took over from you the fellow whosplit on all the rest, and held him tightly. Surely that entitles him, at all events, to see any fun that's going? As for myself, well, it'strue I only helped to carry you to the house; but for old acquaintanceI do hope, my dear Mr. Mackenzie, that you will permit us to share suchsport as there may be. I myself can only stop a few minutes, in anycase. "

"Then ye'll not see much, " growled the detective, "for he's not uphere. Constable, go you and stand at the foot o' the stairs, and letno other body come up on any conseederation; these gentlemen may beable to help us after all. "

"That's kind of you, Mackenzie!" cried Raffles warmly. "But what is itall? I questioned a porter I met coming down, but could get nothingout of him, except that somebody had been to see these rooms and notsince been seen himself. "

"He's a man we want, " said Mackenzie. "He's concealed himselfsomewhere about these premises, or I'm vera much mistaken. D'ye residein the Albany, Mr. Raffles?"

"I do. "

"Will your rooms be near these?"

"On the next staircase but one. "

"Ye'll just have left them?"

"Just. "

"Been in all the afternoon, likely?"

"Not all. "

"Then I may have to search your rooms, sir. I am prepared to searchevery room in the Albany! Our man seems to have gone for the leads;but unless he's left more marks outside than in, or we find him upthere, I shall have the entire building to ransack. "

"I will leave you my key, " said Raffles at once. "I am dining out, butI'll leave it with the officer down below. "

I caught my breath in mute amazement. What was the meaning of thisinsane promise? It was wilful, gratuitous, suicidal; it made me catchat his sleeve in open horror and disgust; but, with a word of thanks, Mackenzie had returned to his window-sill, and we sauntered unwatchedthrough the folding-doors into the adjoining room. Here the windowlooked down into the courtyard; it was still open; and as we gazed outin apparent idleness, Raffles reassured me. 

"It's all right, Bunny; you do what I tell you and leave the rest tome. It's a tight corner, but I don't despair. What you've got to dois to stick to these chaps, especially if they search my rooms; theymustn't poke about more than necessary, and they won't if you're there. "

"But where will you be? You're never going to leave me to be landedalone?"

"If I do, it will be to turn up trumps at the right moment. Besides, there are such things as windows, and Crawshay's the man to take hisrisks. You must trust me, Bunny; you've known me long enough. "

"Are you going now?"

"There's no time to lose. Stick to them, old chap; don't let themsuspect YOU, whatever else you do. " His hand lay an instant on myshoulder; then he left me at the window, and recrossed the room. 

"I've got to go now, " I heard him say; "but my friend will stay and seethis through, and I'll leave the gas on in my rooms, and my key withthe constable downstairs. Good luck, Mackenzie; only wish I couldstay. "

"Good-by, sir, " came in a preoccupied voice, "and many thanks. "

Mackenzie was still busy at his window, and I remained at mine, a preyto mingled fear and wrath, for all my knowledge of Raffles and of hisinfinite resource. By this time I felt that I knew more or less whathe would do in any given emergency; at least I could conjecture acharacteristic course of equal cunning and audacity. He would returnto his rooms, put Crawshay on his guard, and--stow him away? No--therewere such things as windows. Then why was Raffles going to desert usall? I thought of many things--lastly of a cab. These bedroom windowslooked into a narrow side-street; they were not very high; from them aman might drop on to the roof of a cab--even as it passed--and bedriven away even under the noses of the police! I pictured Rafflesdriving that cab, unrecognizable in the foggy night; the vision came tome as he passed under the window, tucking up the collar of his greatdriving-coat on the way to his rooms; it was still with me when hepassed again on his way back, and stopped to hand the constable his key. 

"We're on his track, " said a voice behind me. "He's got up on theleads, sure enough, though how he managed it from yon window is amyst'ry to me. We're going to lock up here and try what like it isfrom the attics. So you'd better come with us if you've a mind. "

The top floor at the Albany, as elsewhere, is devoted to theservants--a congeries of little kitchens and cubicles, used by many aslumber-rooms--by Raffles among the many. The annex in this case was, of course, empty as the rooms below; and that was lucky, for we filledit, what with the manager, who now joined us, and another tenant whomhe brought with him to Mackenzie's undisguised annoyance. 

"Better let in all Piccadilly at a crown a head, " said he. "Here, myman, out you go on the roof to make one less, and have your truncheonhandy. "

We crowded to the little window, which Mackenzie took care to fill; anda minute yielded no sound but the crunch and slither of constabularyboots upon sooty slates. Then came a shout. 

"What now?" cried Mackenzie. 

"A rope, " we heard, "hanging from the spout by a hook!"

"Sirs, " purred Mackenzie, "yon's how he got up from below! He would doit with one o' they telescope sticks, an' I never thocht o't! How longa rope, my lad?"

"Quite short. I've got it. "

"Did it hang over a window? Ask him that!" cried the manager. "He cansee by leaning over the parapet. "

The question was repeated by Mackenzie; a pause, then "Yes, it did. "

"Ask him how many windows along!" shouted the manager in highexcitement. 

"Six, he says, " said Mackenzie next minute; and he drew in his head andshoulders. "I should just like to see those rooms, six windows along. "

"Mr. Raffles, " announced the manager after a mental calculation. 

"Is that a fact?" cried Mackenzie. "Then we shall have no difficultyat all. He's left me his key down below. "

The words had a dry, speculative intonation, which even then I foundtime to dislike; it was as though the coincidence had already struckthe Scotchman as something more. 

"Where is Mr. Raffles?" asked the manager, as we all filed downstairs. 

"He's gone out to his dinner, " said Mackenzie. 

"Are you sure?"

"I saw him go, " said I. My heart was beating horribly. I would nottrust myself to speak again. But I wormed my way to a front place inthe little procession, and was, in fact, the second man to cross thethreshold that had been the Rubicon of my life. As I did so I uttereda cry of pain, for Mackenzie had trod back heavily on my toes; inanother second I saw the reason, and saw it with another and a loudercry. 

A man was lying at full length before the fire on his back, with alittle wound in the white forehead, and the blood draining into hiseyes. And the man was Raffles himself!

"Suicide, " said Mackenzie calmly. "No--here's the poker--looks morelike murder. " He went on his knees and shook his head quitecheerfully. "An' it's not even murder, " said he, with a shade ofdisgust in his matter-of-fact voice; "yon's no more than a flesh-wound, and I have my doubts whether it felled him; but, sirs, he just stinkso' chloryform!"

He got up and fixed his keen gray eyes upon me; my own were full oftears, but they faced him unashamed. 

"I understood ye to say ye saw him go out?" said he sternly. 

"I saw that long driving-coat; of course, I thought he was inside it. "

"And I could ha' sworn it was the same gent when he give me the key!"

It was the disconsolate voice of the constable in the background; onhim turned Mackenzie, white to the lips. 

"You'd think anything, some of you damned policemen, " said he. "What'syour number, you rotter? P 34? You'll be hearing more of this, Mr. P34! If that gentleman was dead--instead of coming to himself while I'mtalking--do you know what you'd be? Guilty of his manslaughter, youstuck pig in buttons! Do you know who you've let slip, butter-fingers?Crawshay--no less--him that broke Dartmoor yesterday. By the God thatmade ye, P 34, if I lose him I'll hound ye from the forrce!"

Working face--shaking fist--a calm man on fire. It was a new side ofMackenzie, and one to mark and to digest. Next moment he had flouncedfrom our midst. 

"Difficult thing to break your own head, " said Raffles later;"infinitely easier to cut your own throat. Chloroform's anothermatter; when you've used it on others, you know the dose to a nicety. So you thought I was really gone? Poor old Bunny! But I hopeMackenzie saw your face?"

"He did, " said I. I would not tell him all Mackenzie must have seen, however. 

"That's all right. I wouldn't have had him miss it for worlds; and youmustn't think me a brute, old boy, for I fear that man, and, know, wesink or swim together. "

"And now we sink or swim with Crawshay, too, " said I dolefully. 

"Not we!" said Raffles with conviction. "Old Crawshay's a truesportsman, and he'll do by us as we've done by him; besides, this makesus quits; and I don't think, Bunny, that we'll take on the professorsagain!"

THE GIFT OF THE EMPEROR

I

When the King of the Cannibal Islands made faces at Queen Victoria, anda European monarch set the cables tingling with his compliments on theexploit, the indignation in England was not less than the surprise, forthe thing was not so common as it has since become. But when ittranspired that a gift of peculiar significance was to follow thecongratulations, to give them weight, the inference prevailed that thewhite potentate and the black had taken simultaneous leave of theirfourteen senses. For the gift was a pearl of price unparalleled, picked aforetime by British cutlasses from a Polynesian setting, andpresented by British royalty to the sovereign who seized thisopportunity of restoring it to its original possessor. 

The incident would have been a godsend to the Press a few weeks later. Even in June there were leaders, letters, large headlines, leaded type;the Daily Chronicle devoting half its literary page to a charmingdrawing of the island capital which the new Pall Mall, in a leadingarticle headed by a pun, advised the Government to blow to flinders. Iwas myself driving a poor but not dishonest quill at the time, and thetopic of the hour goaded me into satiric verse which obtained a betterplace than anything I had yet turned out. I had let my flat in town, and taken inexpensive quarters at Thames Ditton, on the plea of adisinterested passion for the river. 

"First-rate, old boy!" said Raffles (who must needs come and see methere), lying back in the boat while I sculled and steered. "I supposethey pay you pretty well for these, eh?"

"Not a penny. "

"Nonsense, Bunny! I thought they paid so well? Give them time, andyou'll get your check. "

"Oh, no, I sha'n't, " said I gloomily. "I've got to be content with thehonor of getting in; the editor wrote to say so, in so many words, " Iadded. But I gave the gentleman his distinguished name. 

"You don't mean to say you've written for payment already?"

No; it was the last thing I had intended to admit. But I had done it. The murder was out; there was no sense in further concealment. I hadwritten for my money because I really needed it; if he must know, I wascursedly hard up. Raffles nodded as though he knew already. I warmedto my woes. It was no easy matter to keep your end up as a rawfreelance of letters; for my part, I was afraid I wrote neither wellenough nor ill enough for success. I suffered from a persistentineffectual feeling after style. Verse I could manage; but it did notpay. To personal paragraphs and the baser journalism I could not and Iwould not stoop. 

Raffles nodded again, this time with a smile that stayed in his eyes ashe leant back watching me. I knew that he was thinking of other thingsI had stooped to, and I thought I knew what he was going to say. Hehad said it before so often; he was sure to say it again. I had myanswer ready, but evidently he was tired of asking the same question. His lids fell, he took up the paper he had dropped, and I sculled thelength of the old red wall of Hampton Court before he spoke again. 

"And they gave you nothing for these! My dear Bunny, they're capital, not only qua verses but for crystallizing your subject and putting itin a nutshell. Certainly you've taught ME more about it than I knewbefore. But is it really worth fifty thousand pounds--a single pearl?"

"A hundred, I believe; but that wouldn't scan. "

"A hundred thousand pounds!" said Raffles, with his eyes shut. Andagain I made certain what was coming, but again I was mistaken. "Ifit's worth all that, " he cried at last, "there would be no getting ridof it at all; it's not like a diamond that you can subdivide. But Ibeg your pardon, Bunny. I was forgetting!"

And we said no more about the emperor's gift; for pride thrives on anempty pocket, and no privation would have drawn from me the proposalwhich I had expected Raffles to make. My expectation had been half ahope, though I only knew it now. But neither did we touch again onwhat Raffles professed to have forgotten--my "apostasy, " my "lapse intovirtue, " as he had been pleased to call it. We were both a littlesilent, a little constrained, each preoccupied with his own thoughts. It was months since we had met, and, as I saw him off towards eleveno'clock that Sunday night, I fancied it was for more months that wewere saying good-by. 

But as we waited for the train I saw those clear eyes peering at meunder the station lamps, and when I met their glance Raffles shook hishead. 

"You don't look well on it, Bunny, " said he. "I never did believe inthis Thames Valley. You want a change of air. "

I wished I might get it. 

"What you really want is a sea voyage. "

"And a winter at St. Moritz, or do you recommend Cannes or Cairo? It'sall very well, A. J. , but you forget what I told you about my funds. "

"I forget nothing. I merely don't want to hurt your feelings. But, look here, a sea voyage you shall have. I want a change myself, andyou shall come with me as my guest. We'll spend July in theMediterranean. "

"But you're playing cricket--"

"Hang the cricket!"

"Well, if I thought you meant it--"

"Of course I mean it. Will you come?"

"Like a shot--if you go. "

And I shook his hand, and waved mine in farewell, with the perfectlygood-humored conviction that I should hear no more of the matter. Itwas a passing thought, no more, no less. I soon wished it were more;that week found me wishing myself out of England for good and all. Iwas making nothing. I could but subsist on the difference between therent I paid for my flat and the rent at which I had sublet it, furnished, for the season. And the season was near its end, andcreditors awaited me in town. Was it possible to be entirely honest?I had run no bills when I had money in my pocket, and the moredownright dishonesty seemed to me the less ignoble. 

But from Raffles, of course, I heard nothing more; a week went by, andhalf another week; then, late on the second Wednesday night, I found atelegram from him at my lodgings, after seeking him vainly in town, anddining with desperation at the solitary club to which I still belonged. 

"Arrange to leave Waterloo by North German Lloyd special, " he wired, "9. 25 A. M. Monday next will meet you Southampton aboard Uhlan withtickets am writing. "

And write he did, a light-hearted letter enough, but full of serioussolicitude for me and for my health and prospects; a letter almosttouching in the light of our past relations, in the twilight of theircomplete rupture. He said that he had booked two berths to Naples, that we were bound for Capri, which was clearly the island of theLotos-eaters, that we would bask there together, "and for a whileforget. " It was a charming letter. I had never seen Italy; theprivilege of initiation should be his. No mistake was greater than todeem it an impossible country for the summer. The Bay of Naples wasnever so divine, and he wrote of "faery lands forlorn, " as though thepoetry sprang unbidden to his pen. To come back to earth and prose, Imight think it unpatriotic of him to choose a German boat, but on noother line did you receive such attention and accommodation for yourmoney. There was a hint of better reasons. Raffles wrote, as he hadtelegraphed, from Bremen; and I gathered that the personal use of somelittle influence with the authorities there had resulted in a materialreduction in our fares. 

Imagine my excitement and delight! I managed to pay what I owed atThames Ditton, to squeeze a small editor for a very small check, and mytailors for one more flannel suit. I remember that I broke my lastsovereign to get a box of Sullivan's cigarettes for Raffles to smoke onthe voyage. But my heart was as light as my purse on the Mondaymorning, the fairest morning of an unfair summer, when the specialwhirled me through the sunshine to the sea. 

A tender awaited us at Southampton. Raffles was not on board, nor didI really look for him till we reached the liner's side. And then Ilooked in vain. His face was not among the many that fringed the rail;his hand was not of the few that waved to friends. I climbed aboard ina sudden heaviness. I had no ticket, nor the money to pay for one. Idid not even know the number of my room. My heart was in my mouth as Iwaylaid a steward and asked if a Mr. Raffles was on board. Thankheaven--he was! But where? The man did not know, was plainly on someother errand, and a-hunting I must go. But there was no sign of him onthe promenade deck, and none below in the saloon; the smoking-room wasempty but for a little German with a red moustache twisted into hiseyes; nor was Raffles in his own cabin, whither I inquired my way indesperation, but where the sight of his own name on the baggage wascertainly a further reassurance. Why he himself kept in thebackground, however, I could not conceive, and only sinister reasonswould suggest themselves in explanation. 

"So there you are! I've been looking for you all over the ship!"

Despite the graven prohibition, I had tried the bridge as a lastresort; and there, indeed, was A. J. Raffles, seated on a skylight, andleaning over one of the officers' long chairs, in which reclined a girlin a white drill coat and skirt--a slip of a girl with a pale skin, dark hair, and rather remarkable eyes. So much I noted as he rose andquickly turned; thereupon I could think of nothing but the swiftgrimace which preceded a start of well-feigned astonishment. 

"Why--BUNNY?" cried Raffles. "Where have YOU sprung from?"

I stammered something as he pinched my hand. 

"And are you coming in this ship? And to Naples, too? Well, upon myword! Miss Werner, may I introduce him?"

And he did so without a blush, describing me as an old schoolfellowwhom he had not seen for months, with wilful circumstance andgratuitous detail that filled me at once with confusion, suspicion, andrevolt. I felt myself blushing for us both, and I did not care. Myaddress utterly deserted me, and I made no effort to recover it, tocarry the thing off. All I would do was to mumble such words asRaffles actually put into my mouth, and that I doubt not with athoroughly evil grace. 

"So you saw my name in the list of passengers and came in search of me?Good old Bunny; I say, though, I wish you'd share my cabin. I've got abeauty on the promenade deck, but they wouldn't promise to keep me bymyself. We ought to see about it before they shove in some alien. Inany case we shall have to get out of this. "

For a quartermaster had entered the wheelhouse, and even while we hadbeen speaking the pilot had taken possession of the bridge; as wedescended, the tender left us with flying handkerchiefs and shrillgood-bys; and as we bowed to Miss Werner on the promenade deck, therecame a deep, slow throbbing underfoot, and our voyage had begun. 

It did not begin pleasantly between Raffles and me. On deck he hadoverborne my stubborn perplexity by dint of a forced though forcefuljoviality; in his cabin the gloves were off. 

"You idiot, " he snarled, "you've given me away again!"

"How have I given you away?"

I ignored the separate insult in his last word. 

"How? I should have thought any clod could see that I meant us to meetby chance!"

"After taking both tickets yourself?"

"They knew nothing about that on board; besides, I hadn't decided whenI took the tickets. "

"Then you should have let me know when you did decide. You lay yourplans, and never say a word, and expect me to tumble to them by lightof nature. How was I to know you had anything on?"

I had turned the tables with some effect. Raffles almost hung his head. 

"The fact is, Bunny, I didn't mean you to know. You--you've grown sucha pious rabbit in your old age!"

My nickname and his tone went far to mollify me, other things wentfarther, but I had much to forgive him still. 

"If you were afraid of writing, " I pursued, "it was your business togive me the tip the moment I set foot on board. I would have taken itall right. I am not so virtuous as all that. "

Was it my imagination, or did Raffles look slightly ashamed? If so, itwas for the first and last time in all the years I knew him; nor can Iswear to it even now. 

"That, " said he, "was the very thing I meant to do--to lie in wait inmy room and get you as you passed. But--"

"You were better engaged?"

"Say otherwise. "

"The charming Miss Werner?"

"She is quite charming. "

"Most Australian girls are, " said I. 

"How did you know she was one?" he cried. 

"I heard her speak. "

"Brute!" said Raffles, laughing; "she has no more twang than you have. Her people are German, she has been to school in Dresden, and is on herway out alone. "

"Money?" I inquired. 

"Confound you!" he said, and, though he was laughing, I thought it wasa point at which the subject might be changed. 

"Well, " I said, "it wasn't for Miss Werner you wanted us to playstrangers, was it? You have some deeper game than that, eh?"

"I suppose I have. "

"Then hadn't you better tell me what it is?"

Raffles treated me to the old cautious scrutiny that I knew so well;the very familiarity of it, after all these months, set me smiling in away that might have reassured him; for dimly already I divined hisenterprise. 

"It won't send you off in the pilot's boat, Bunny?"

"Not quite. "

"Then--you remember the pearl you wrote the--"

I did not wait for him to finish his sentence. 

"You've got it!" I cried, my face on fire, for I caught sight of itthat moment in the stateroom mirror. 

Raffles seemed taken aback. 

"Not yet, " said he; "but I mean to have it before we get to Naples. "

"Is it on board?"

"Yes. "

"But how--where--who's got it?"

"A little German officer, a whipper-snapper with perpendicularmustaches. "

"I saw him in the smoke-room. "

"That's the chap; he's always there. Herr Captain Wilhelm von Heumann, if you look in the list. Well, he's the special envoy of the emperor, and he's taking the pearl out with him. "

"You found this out in Bremen?"

"No, in Berlin, from a newspaper man I know there. I'm ashamed to tellyou, Bunny, that I went there on purpose!"

I burst out laughing. 

"You needn't be ashamed. You are doing the very thing I was ratherhoping you were going to propose the other day on the river. "

"You were HOPING it?" said Raffles, with his eyes wide open. Indeed, it was his turn to show surprise, and mine to be much more ashamed thanI felt. 

"Yes, " I answered, "I was quite keen on the idea, but I wasn't going topropose it. "

"Yet you would have listened to me the other day?"

Certainly I would, and I told him so without reserve; not brazenly, youunderstand; not even now with the gusto of a man who savors such anadventure for its own sake, but doggedly, defiantly, through my teeth, as one who had tried to live honestly and failed. And, while I wasabout it, I told him much more. Eloquently enough, I daresay, I gavehim chapter and verse of my hopeless struggle, my inevitable defeat;for hopeless and inevitable they were to a man with my record, eventhough that record was written only in one's own soul. It was the oldstory of the thief trying to turn honest man; the thing was againstnature, and there was an end of it. 

Raffles entirely disagreed with me. He shook his head over myconventional view. Human nature was a board of checkers; why notreconcile one's self to alternate black and white? Why desire to beall one thing or all the other, like our forefathers on the stage or inthe old-fashioned fiction? For his part, he enjoyed himself on allsquares of the board, and liked the light the better for the shade. Myconclusion he considered absurd. 

"But you err in good company, Bunny, for all the cheap moralists whopreach the same twaddle: old Virgil was the first and worst offender ofyou all. I back myself to climb out of Avernus any day I like, andsooner or later I shall climb out for good. I suppose I can't verywell turn myself into a Limited Liability Company. But I could retireand settle down and live blamelessly ever after. I'm not sure that itcouldn't be done on this pearl alone!"

"Then you don't still think it too remarkable to sell?"

"We might take a fishery and haul it up with smaller fry. It wouldcome after months of ill luck, just as we were going to sell theschooner; by Jove, it would be the talk of the Pacific!"

"Well, we've got to get it first. Is this von What's-his-name aformidable cuss?"

"More so than he looks; and he has the cheek of the devil!"

As he spoke a white drill skirt fluttered past the open state-roomdoor, and I caught a glimpse of an upturned moustache beyond. 

"But is he the chap we have to deal with? Won't the pearl be in thepurser's keeping?"

Raffles stood at the door, frowning out upon the Solent, but for aninstant he turned to me with a sniff. 

"My good fellow, do you suppose the whole ship's company knows there'sa gem like that aboard? You said that it was worth a hundred thousandpounds; in Berlin they say it's priceless. I doubt if the skipperhimself knows that von Heumann has it on him. "

"And he has?"

"Must have. "

"Then we have only him to deal with?"

He answered me without a word. Something white was fluttering pastonce more, and Raffles, stepping forth, made the promenaders three. 

II

I do not ask to set foot aboard a finer steamship than the Uhlan of theNorddeutscher Lloyd, to meet a kindlier gentleman than her commander, or better fellows than his officers. This much at least let me havethe grace to admit. I hated the voyage. It was no fault of anybodyconnected with the ship; it was no fault of the weather, which wasmonotonously ideal. Not even in my own heart did the reason reside;conscience and I were divorced at last, and the decree made absolute. With my scruples had fled all fear, and I was ready to revel betweenbright skies and sparkling sea with the light-hearted detachment ofRaffles himself. It was Raffles himself who prevented me, but notRaffles alone. It was Raffles and that Colonial minx on her way homefrom school. 

What he could see in her--but that begs the question. Of course he sawno more than I did, but to annoy me, or perhaps to punish me for mylong defection, he must turn his back on me and devote himself to thischit from Southampton to the Mediterranean. They were always together. It was too absurd. After breakfast they would begin, and go on untileleven or twelve at night; there was no intervening hour at which youmight not hear her nasal laugh, or his quiet voice talking softnonsense into her ear. Of course it was nonsense! Is it conceivablethat a man like Raffles, with his knowledge of the world, and hisexperience of women (a side of his character upon which I havepurposely never touched, for it deserves another volume); is itcredible, I ask, that such a man could find anything but nonsense totalk by the day together to a giddy young schoolgirl? I would not beunfair for the world. 

I think I have admitted that the young person had points. Her eyes, Isuppose, were really fine, and certainly the shape of the little brownface was charming, so far as mere contour can charm. 

I admit also more audacity than I cared about, with enviable health, mettle, and vitality. I may not have occasion to report any of thisyoung lady's speeches (they would scarcely bear it), and am thereforethe more anxious to describe her without injustice. I confess to somelittle prejudice against her. I resented her success with Raffles, ofwhom, in consequence, I saw less and less each day. It is a mean thingto have to confess, but there must have been something not unlikejealousy rankling within me. 

Jealousy there was in another quarter--crude, rampant, undignifiedjealousy. Captain von Heumann would twirl his mustaches into twinspires, shoot his white cuffs over his rings, and stare at meinsolently through his rimless eyeglasses; we ought to have consoledeach other, but we never exchanged a syllable. The captain had amurderous scar across one of his cheeks, a present from Heidelberg, andI used to think how he must long to have Raffles there to serve thesame. It was not as though von Heumann never had his innings. Raffleslet him go in several times a day, for the malicious pleasure ofbowling him out as he was "getting set"; those were his words when Itaxed him disingenuously with obnoxious conduct towards a German on aGerman boat. 

"You'll make yourself disliked on board!"

"By von Heumann merely. "

"But is that wise when he's the man we've got to diddle?"

"The wisest thing I ever did. To have chummed up with him would havebeen fatal--the common dodge. "

I was consoled, encouraged, almost content. I had feared Raffles wasneglecting things, and I told him so in a burst. Here we were nearGibraltar, and not a word since the Solent. He shook his head with asmile. 

"Plenty of time, Bunny, plenty of time. We can do nothing before weget to Genoa, and that won't be till Sunday night. The voyage is stillyoung, and so are we; let's make the most of things while we can. "

It was after dinner on the promenade deck, and as Raffles spoke heglanced sharply fore and aft, leaving me next moment with a step fullof purpose. I retired to the smoking-room, to smoke and read in acorner, and to watch von Heumann, who very soon came to drink beer andto sulk in another. 

Few travellers tempt the Red Sea at midsummer; the Uhlan was very emptyindeed. She had, however, but a limited supply of cabins on thepromenade deck, and there was just that excuse for my sharing Raffles'sroom. I could have had one to myself downstairs, but I must be upabove. Raffles had insisted that I should insist on the point. So wewere together, I think, without suspicion, though also without anyobject that I could see. 

On the Sunday afternoon I was asleep in my berth, the lower one, whenthe curtains were shaken by Raffles, who was in his shirt-sleeves onthe settee. 

"Achilles sulking in his bunk!"

"What else is there to do?" I asked him as I stretched and yawned. Inoted, however, the good-humor of his tone, and did my best to catch it. 

"I have found something else, Bunny. "

"I daresay!"

"You misunderstand me. The whipper-snapper's making his century thisafternoon. I've had other fish to fry. "

I swung my legs over the side of my berth and sat forward, as he wassitting, all attention. The inner door, a grating, was shut andbolted, and curtained like the open porthole. 

"We shall be at Genoa before sunset, " continued Raffles. "It's theplace where the deed's got to be done. "

"So you still mean to do it?"

"Did I ever say I didn't?"

"You have said so little either way. "

"Advisedly so, my dear Bunny; why spoil a pleasure trip by talkingunnecessary shop? But now the time has come. It must be done at Genoaor not at all. "

"On land?"

"No, on board, to-morrow night. To-night would do, but to-morrow isbetter, in case of mishap. If we were forced to use violence we couldget away by the earliest train, and nothing be known till the ship wassailing and von Heumann found dead or drugged--"

"Not dead!" I exclaimed. 

"Of course not, " assented Raffles, "or there would be no need for us tobolt; but if we should have to bolt, Tuesday morning is our time, whenthis ship has got to sail, whatever happens. But I don't anticipateany violence. Violence is a confession of terrible incompetence. Inall these years how many blows have you known me to strike? Not one, Ibelieve; but I have been quite ready to kill my man every time, if theworst came to the worst. "

I asked him how he proposed to enter von Heumann's state-roomunobserved, and even through the curtained gloom of ours his facelighted up. 

"Climb into my bunk, Bunny, and you shall see. "

I did so, but could see nothing. Raffles reached across me and tappedthe ventilator, a sort of trapdoor in the wall above his bed, someeighteen inches long and half that height. It opened outwards into theventilating shaft. 

"That, " said he, "is our door to fortune. Open it if you like; youwon't see much, because it doesn't open far; but loosening a couple ofscrews will set that all right. The shaft, as you may see, is more orless bottomless; you pass under it whenever you go to your bath, andthe top is a skylight on the bridge. That's why this thing has to bedone while we're at Genoa, because they keep no watch on the bridge inport. The ventilator opposite ours is von Heumann's. It again willonly mean a couple of screws, and there's a beam to stand on while youwork. "

"But if anybody should look up from below?"

"It's extremely unlikely that anybody will be astir below, so unlikelythat we can afford to chance it. No, I can't have you there to makesure. The great point is that neither of us should be seen from thetime we turn in. A couple of ship's boys do sentry-go on these decks, and they shall be our witnesses; by Jove, it'll be the biggest mysterythat ever was made!"

"If von Heumann doesn't resist. "

"Resist! He won't get the chance. He drinks too much beer to sleeplight, and nothing is so easy as to chloroform a heavy sleeper; you'veeven done it yourself on an occasion of which it's perhaps unfair toremind you. Von Heumann will be past sensation almost as soon as I getmy hand through his ventilator. I shall crawl in over his body, Bunny, my boy!"

"And I?"

"You will hand me what I want and hold the fort in case of accidents, and generally lend me the moral support you've made me require. It's aluxury, Bunny, but I found it devilish difficult to do without it afteryou turned pi!"

He said that Von Heumann was certain to sleep with a bolted door, whichhe, of course, would leave unbolted, and spoke of other ways of layinga false scent while rifling the cabin. Not that Raffles anticipated atiresome search. The pearl would be about von Heumann's person; infact, Raffles knew exactly where and in what he kept it. Naturally Iasked how he could have come by such knowledge, and his answer led upto a momentary unpleasantness. 

"It's a very old story, Bunny. I really forget in what Book it comes;I'm only sure of the Testament. But Samson was the unlucky hero, andone Delilah the heroine. "

And he looked so knowing that I could not be in a moment's doubt as tohis meaning. 

"So the fair Australian has been playing Delilah?" said I. 

"In a very harmless, innocent sort of way. "

"She got his mission out of him?"

"Yes, I've forced him to score all the points he could, and that washis great stroke, as I hoped it would be. He has even shown Amy thepearl. "

"Amy, eh! and she promptly told you?"

"Nothing of the kind. What makes you think so? I had the greatesttrouble in getting it out of her. "

His tone should have been a sufficient warning to me. I had not thetact to take it as such. At last I knew the meaning of his furiousflirtation, and stood wagging my head and shaking my finger, blinded tohis frowns by my own enlightenment. 

"Wily worm!" said I. "Now I see through it all; how dense I've been!"

"Sure you're not still?"

"No; now I understand what has beaten me all the week. I simplycouldn't fathom what you saw in that little girl. I never dreamt itwas part of the game. "

"So you think it was that and nothing more?"

"You deep old dog--of course I do!"

"You didn't know she was the daughter of a wealthy squatter?"

"There are wealthy women by the dozen who would marry you to-morrow. "

"It doesn't occur to you that I might like to draw stumps, start clean, and live happily ever after--in the bush?"

"With that voice? It certainly does not!"

"Bunny!" he cried, so fiercely that I braced myself for a blow. 

But no more followed. 

"Do you think you would live happily?" I made bold to ask him. 

"God knows!" he answered. And with that he left me, to marvel at hislook and tone, and, more than ever, at the insufficiently excitingcause. 

III

Of all the mere feats of cracksmanship which I have seen Rafflesperform, at once the most delicate and most difficult was that which heaccomplished between one and two o'clock on the Tuesday morning, aboardthe North German steamer Uhlan, lying at anchor in Genoa harbor. 

Not a hitch occurred. Everything had been foreseen; everythinghappened as I had been assured everything must. Nobody was aboutbelow, only the ship's boys on deck, and nobody on the bridge. It wastwenty-five minutes past one when Raffles, without a stitch of clothingon his body, but with a glass phial, corked with cotton-wool, betweenhis teeth, and a tiny screw-driver behind his ear, squirmed feet firstthrough the ventilator over his berth; and it was nineteen minutes totwo when he returned, head first, with the phial still between histeeth, and the cotton-wool rammed home to still the rattling of thatwhich lay like a great gray bean within. He had taken screws out andput them in again; he had unfastened von Heumann's ventilator and hadleft it fast as he had found it--fast as he instantly proceeded to makehis own. As for von Heumann, it had been enough to place the drenchedwad first on his mustache, and then to hold it between his gaping lips;thereafter the intruder had climbed both ways across his shins withouteliciting a groan. 

And here was the prize--this pearl as large as a filbert--with a palepink tinge like a lady's fingernail--this spoil of a filibusteringage--this gift from a European emperor to a South Sea chief. We gloatedover it when all was snug. We toasted it in whiskey and soda-waterlaid in overnight in view of the great moment. But the moment wasgreater, more triumphant, than our most sanguine dreams. All we hadnow to do was to secrete the gem (which Raffles had prised from itssetting, replacing the latter), so that we could stand the strictestsearch and yet take it ashore with us at Naples; and this Raffles wasdoing when I turned in. I myself would have landed incontinently, thatnight, at Genoa and bolted with the spoil; he would not hear of it, fora dozen good reasons which will be obvious. 

On the whole I do not think that anything was discovered or suspectedbefore we weighed anchor; but I cannot be sure. It is difficult tobelieve that a man could be chloroformed in his sleep and feel notell-tale effects, sniff no suspicious odor, in the morning. Nevertheless, von Heumann reappeared as though nothing had happened tohim, his German cap over his eyes and his mustaches brushing the peak. And by ten o'clock we were quit of Genoa; the last lean, blue-chinnedofficial had left our decks; the last fruitseller had been beaten offwith bucketsful of water and left cursing us from his boat; the lastpassenger had come aboard at the last moment--a fussy graybeard whokept the big ship waiting while he haggled with his boatman over half alira. But at length we were off, the tug was shed, the lighthousepassed, and Raffles and I leaned together over the rail, watching ourshadows on the pale green, liquid, veined marble that again washed thevessel's side. 

Von Heumann was having his innings once more; it was part of the designthat he should remain in all day, and so postpone the inevitable hour;and, though the lady looked bored, and was for ever glancing in ourdirection, he seemed only too willing to avail himself of hisopportunities. But Raffles was moody and ill-at-ease. He had not theair of a successful man. I could but opine that the impending partingat Naples sat heavily on his spirit. 

He would neither talk to me, nor would he let me go. 

"Stop where you are, Bunny. I've things to tell you. Can you swim?"

"A bit. "

"Ten miles?"

"Ten?" I burst out laughing. "Not one! Why do you ask?"

"We shall be within a ten miles' swim of the shore most of the day. "

"What on earth are you driving at, Raffles?"

"Nothing; only I shall swim for it if the worst comes to the worst. Isuppose you can't swim under water at all?"

I did not answer his question. I scarcely heard it: cold beads werebursting through my skin. 

"Why should the worst come to the worst?" I whispered. "We aren'tfound out, are we?"

"No. "

"Then why speak as though we were?"

"We may be; an old enemy of ours is on board. "

"An old enemy?"

"Mackenzie. "

"Never!"

"The man with the beard who came aboard last. "

"Are you sure?"

"Sure! I was only sorry to see you didn't recognize him too. "

I took my handkerchief to my face; now that I thought of it, there hadbeen something familiar in the old man's gait, as well as somethingrather youthful for his apparent years; his very beard seemedunconvincing, now that I recalled it in the light of this horriblerevelation. I looked up and down the deck, but the old man was nowhereto be seen. 

"That's the worst of it, " said Raffles. "I saw him go into thecaptain's cabin twenty minutes ago. "

"But what can have brought him?" I cried miserably. "Can it be acoincidence--is it somebody else he's after?"

Raffles shook his head. 

"Hardly this time. "

"Then you think he's after you?"

"I've been afraid of it for some weeks. "

"Yet there you stand!"

"What am I to do? I don't want to swim for it before I must. I beginto wish I'd taken your advice, Bunny, and left the ship at Genoa. ButI've not the smallest doubt that Mac was watching both ship and stationtill the last moment. That's why he ran it so fine. "

He took a cigarette and handed me the case, but I shook my headimpatiently. 

"I still don't understand, " said I. "Why should he be after you? Hecouldn't come all this way about a jewel which was perfectly safe forall he knew. What's your own theory?"

"Simply that he's been on my track for some time, probably ever sincefriend Crawshay slipped clean through his fingers last November. Therehave been other indications. I am really not unprepared for this. Butit can only be pure suspicion. I'll defy him to bring anything home, and I'll defy him to find the pearl! Theory, my dear Bunny? I knowhow he's got here as well as though I'd been inside that Scotchman'sskin, and I know what he'll do next. He found out I'd gone abroad, andlooked for a motive; he found out about von Heumann and his mission, and there was his motive cut-and-dried. Great chance--to nab me on anew job altogether. But he won't do it, Bunny; mark my words, he'llsearch the ship and search us all, when the loss is known; but he'llsearch in vain. And there's the skipper beckoning the whippersnapperto his cabin: the fat will be in the fire in five minutes!"

Yet there was no conflagration, no fuss, no searching of thepassengers, no whisper of what had happened in the air; instead of astir there was portentous peace; and it was clear to me that Raffleswas not a little disturbed at the falsification of all his predictions. There was something sinister in silence under such a loss, and thesilence was sustained for hours during which Mackenzie neverreappeared. But he was abroad during the luncheon-hour--he was in ourcabin! I had left my book in Raffles's berth, and in taking it afterlunch I touched the quilt. It was warm from the recent pressure offlesh and blood, and on an instinct I sprang to the ventilator; as Iopened it the ventilator opposite was closed with a snap. 

I waylaid Raffles. "All right! Let him find the pearl. "

"Have you dumped it overboard?"

"That's a question I shan't condescend to answer. "

He turned on his heel, and at subsequent intervals I saw him making themost of his last afternoon with the inevitable Miss Werner. I rememberthat she looked both cool and smart in quite a simple affair of brownholland, which toned well with her complexion, and was cleverlyrelieved with touches of scarlet. I quite admired her that afternoon, for her eyes were really very good, and so were her teeth, yet I hadnever admired her more directly in my own despite. For I passed themagain and again in order to get a word with Raffles, to tell him I knewthere was danger in the wind; but he would not so much as catch my eye. So at last I gave it up. And I saw him next in the captain's cabin. 

They had summoned him first; he had gone in smiling; and smiling Ifound him when they summoned me. The state-room was spacious, asbefitted that of a commander. Mackenzie sat on the settee, his beardin front of him on the polished table; but a revolver lay in front ofthe captain; and, when I had entered, the chief officer, who hadsummoned me, shut the door and put his back to it. Von Heumanncompleted the party, his fingers busy with his mustache. 

Raffles greeted me. 

"This is a great joke!" he cried. "You remember the pearl you were sokeen about, Bunny, the emperor's pearl, the pearl money wouldn't buy?It seems it was entrusted to our little friend here, to take out toCanoodle Dum, and the poor little chap's gone and lost it; ergo, aswe're Britishers, they think we've got it!"

"But I know ye have, " put in Mackenzie, nodding to his beard. 

"You will recognize that loyal and patriotic voice, " said Raffles. "Mon, 'tis our auld acquaintance Mackenzie, o' Scoteland Yarrd an'Scoteland itsel'!"

"Dat is enough, " cried the captain. "Have you submid to be searge, ordo I vorce you?"

"What you will, " said Raffles, "but it will do you no harm to give usfair play first. You accuse us of breaking into Captain von Heumann'sstate-room during the small hours of this morning, and abstracting fromit this confounded pearl. Well, I can prove that I was in my own roomall night long, and I have no doubt my friend can prove the same. "

"Most certainly I can, " said I indignantly. "The ship's boys can bearwitness to that. "

Mackenzie laughed, and shook his head at his reflection in the polishedmahogany. 

"That was ver clever, " said he, "and like enough it would ha' served yehad I not stepped aboard. But I've just had a look at theyventilators, and I think I know how ye worrked it. Anyway, captain, itmakes no matter. I'll just be clappin' the derbies on these youngsparks, an' then--"

"By what right?" roared Raffles, in a ringing voice, and I never sawhis face in such a blaze. "Search us if you like; search every scrapand stitch we possess; but you dare to lay a finger on us without awarrant!"

"I wouldna' dare, " said Mackenzie, as he fumbled in his breast pocket, and Raffles dived his hand into his own. "Haud his wrist!" shouted theScotchman; and the huge Colt that had been with us many a night, buthad never been fired in my hearing, clattered on the table and wasraked in by the captain. 

"All right, " said Raffles savagely to the mate. "You can let go now. Iwon't try it again. Now, Mackenzie, let's see your warrant!"

"Ye'll no mishandle it?"

"What good would that do me? Let me see it, " said Raffles, peremptorily, and the detective obeyed. Raffles raised his eyebrows ashe perused the document; his mouth hardened, but suddenly relaxed; andit was with a smile and a shrug that he returned the paper. 

"Wull that do for ye?" inquired Mackenzie. 

"It may. I congratulate you, Mackenzie; it's a strong hand, at anyrate. Two burglaries and the Melrose necklace, Bunny!" And he turnedto me with a rueful smile. 

"An' all easy to prove, " said the Scotchman, pocketing the warrant. "I've one o' these for you, " he added, nodding to me, "only not such along one. "

"To think, " said the captain reproachfully, "that my shib should bemade a den of thiefs! It shall be a very disagreeable madder, I havebeen obliged to pud you both in irons until we get to Nables. "

"Surely not!" exclaimed Raffles. "Mackenzie, intercede with him; don'tgive your countrymen away before all hands! Captain, we can't escape;surely you could hush it up for the night? Look here, here'severything I have in my pockets; you empty yours, too, Bunny, and theyshall strip us stark if they suspect we've weapons up our sleeves. AllI ask is that we are allowed to get out of this without gyves upon ourwrists!"

"Webbons you may not have, " said the captain; "but wad aboud der bearldat you were sdealing?"

"You shall have it!" cried Raffles. "You shall have it this minute ifyou guarantee no public indignity on board!"

"That I'll see to, " said Mackenzie, "as long as you behave yourselves. There now, where is't?"

"On the table under your nose. "

My eyes fell with the rest, but no pearl was there; only the contentsof our pockets--our watches, pocket-books, pencils, penknives, cigarette cases--lay on the shiny table along with the revolversalready mentioned. 

"Ye're humbuggin' us, " said Mackenzie. "What's the use?"

"I'm doing nothing of the sort, " laughed Raffles. "I'm testing you. Where's the harm?"

"It's here, joke apart?"

"On that table, by all my gods. "

Mackenzie opened the cigarette cases and shook each particularcigarette. Thereupon Raffles prayed to be allowed to smoke one, and, when his prayer was heard, observed that the pearl had been on thetable much longer than the cigarettes. Mackenzie promptly caught upthe Colt and opened the chamber in the butt. 

"Not there, not there, " said Raffles; "but you're getting hot. Try thecartridges. "

Mackenzie emptied them into his palm, and shook each one at his earwithout result. 

"Oh, give them to me!"

And, in an instant, Raffles had found the right one, had bitten out thebullet, and placed the emperor's pearl with a flourish in the centre ofthe table. 

"After that you will perhaps show me such little consideration as is inyour power. Captain, I have been a bit of a villain, as you see, andas such I am ready and willing to lie in irons all night if you deem itrequisite for the safety of the ship. All I ask is that you do me onefavor first. "

"That shall debend on wad der vafour has been. "

"Captain, I've done a worse thing aboard your ship than any of youknow. I have become engaged to be married, and I want to say good-by!"

I suppose we were all equally amazed; but the only one to express hisamazement was von Heumann, whose deep-chested German oath was almosthis first contribution to the proceedings. He was not slow to followit, however, with a vigorous protest against the proposed farewell; buthe was overruled, and the masterful prisoner had his way. He was tohave five minutes with the girl, while the captain and Mackenzie stoodwithin range (but not earshot), with their revolvers behind theirbacks. As we were moving from the cabin, in a body, he stopped andgripped my hand. 

"So I 've let you in at last, Bunny--at last and after all! If youknew how sorry I am. . . . But you won't get much--I don't see why youshould get anything at all. Can you forgive me? This may be for years, and it may be for ever, you know! You were a good pal always when itcame to the scratch; some day or other you mayn't be so sorry toremember you were a good pal at the last!"

There was a meaning in his eye that I understood; and my teeth wereset, and my nerve strung ready, as I wrung that strong and cunning handfor the last time in my life. 

How that last scene stays with me, and will stay to my death! How Isee every detail, every shadow on the sunlit deck! We were among theislands that dot the course from Genoa to Naples; that was Elba fallingback on our starboard quarter, that purple patch with the hot sunsetting over it. The captain's cabin opened to starboard, and thestarboard promenade deck, sheeted with sunshine and scored with shadow, was deserted, but for the group of which I was one, and for the pale, slim, brown figure further aft with Raffles. Engaged? I could notbelieve it, cannot to this day. Yet there they stood together, and wedid not hear a word; there they stood out against the sunset, and thelong, dazzling highway of sunlit sea that sparkled from Elba to theUhlan's plates; and their shadows reached almost to our feet. 

Suddenly--an instant--and the thing was done--a thing I have neverknown whether to admire or to detest. He caught her--he kissed herbefore us all--then flung her from him so that she almost fell. It wasthat action which foretold the next. The mate sprang after him, and Isprang after the mate. 

Raffles was on the rail, but only just. 

"Hold him, Bunny!" he cried. "Hold him tight!"

And, as I obeyed that last behest with all my might, without a thoughtof what I was doing, save that he bade me do it, I saw his hands shootup and his head bob down, and his lithe, spare body cut the sunset ascleanly and precisely as though he had plunged at his leisure from adiver's board!

 * * * * *

Of what followed on deck I can tell you nothing, for I was not there. Nor can my final punishment, my long imprisonment, my everlastingdisgrace, concern or profit you, beyond the interest and advantage tobe gleaned from the knowledge that I at least had my deserts. But onething I must set down, believe it who will--one more thing only and Iam done. 

It was into a second-class cabin, on the starboard side, that I waspromptly thrust in irons, and the door locked upon me as though I wereanother Raffles. Meanwhile a boat was lowered, and the sea scoured tono purpose, as is doubtless on record elsewhere. But either thesetting sun, flashing over the waves, must have blinded all eyes, orelse mine were victims of a strange illusion. 

For the boat was back, the screw throbbing, and the prisoner peeringthrough his porthole across the sunlit waters that he believed hadclosed for ever over his comrade's head. Suddenly the sun sank behindthe Island of Elba, the lane of dancing sunlight was instantaneouslyquenched and swallowed in the trackless waste, and in the middledistance, already miles astern, either my sight deceived me or a blackspeck bobbed amid the gray. The bugle had blown for dinner: it may wellbe that all save myself had ceased to strain an eye. And now I lostwhat I had found, now it rose, now sank, and now I gave it up utterly. Yet anon it would rise again, a mere mote dancing in the dim graydistance, drifting towards a purple island, beneath a fading westernsky, streaked with dead gold and cerise. And night fell before I knewwhether it was a human head or not.