the Swadizon new manager I had been able in the most ordinary course to pump poor Eubank about anything and everything connected with the working of the bank especially in those twenty last invaluable minutes before turning in and I had made a very natural point of asking him where he kept and would recommend me to keep the keys at night of course I thought he would take them with him to his room but no such thing he had a dodge worth two of that what it was doesn't much matter but no outsider would have found those keys in a month of Sundays I of course had them in a few seconds and in a few more I was in the strong room itself I forgot to say that the moon had risen and was letting quite a lot of light into the bank I had however brought a bit of a candle with me from my room and in the strong room which was down some narrow stairs behind the counter in the banking chamber I had no hesitation in lighting it there was no window down there and though I could no longer hear old Eubank snoring I had not the slightest reason to anticipate disturbance from that 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 I needed and could comfortably carry not much more than a couple of hundred altogether not a note would I touch and my native caution came out also in the way I divided the sovereigns between all my pockets and packed them up so that I shouldn't be like the old woman of Banbury Cross well you think me too cautious still but I was insanely 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 violent knocking at the outer door Bunny it was the outer door of the banking chamber my candle must have been seen there I stood with the grease running hot over my fingers in that brick grave of a strong room there was only one thing to be done I must trust to the sound sleeping of Eubank upstairs open the door myself knock the visitor down as shoot him with the revolver I had been new chum enough to buy before leaving Melbourne and make a dash for that clump of trees in the doctor's mare my mind was made up in an instant and I was at the top of the strong room stairs the knocking still continued when a second sound drove me back it was the sound of bare feet coming along the corridor my narrow stair was stone I tumbled down it with little noise and had only to push open the iron door for I had left the keys in the safe as I did so I heard a handle turn overhead and thanked my guards that I had shut every single door behind me you see old chap one's caution doesn't always let one in who's that knocking? said Eubank up above I could not make out the answer but it sounded to me like the irrelevant supplication of a spent man what I did here plainly was the caulking of the bank revolver before the bolts were shot back then a tottering step, a hard short shallow breathing and Eubank's voice in horror my god good lord what's happened to you you're bleeding like a pig not now came with a grateful sort of sigh but you have been what's done it bush rangers down the road this and widdle sea tied to tree cock shots left me bleed to death the weak voice failed and the bare feet bolted now was my time if the poor devil had fainted but I could not be sure and there I crouched down below in the dark at the half shut iron door not less spellbound than imprisoned it was just as well for Eubank wasn't gone a minute drink this I heard him say and when the other spoke again his voice 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 you must let me tell you in case I don't well have another sip thank you I said bush rangers of course there are no such things nowadays what were they then bank thieves the one that had the potcharts was the very brood I drove out of the bank at Coburg with the bullet in him I knew it of course you did bunny so did I down in that strong room but old Eubank 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 you are the new manager the new manager is 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 just revenge but now I see what it was my dear sir the man upstairs is an imposter if he's upstairs still he must be one of the gang he's going to rob the bank if he hasn't done so already if he hasn't done so already muttered Eubank after him if he's upstairs still by God if he is I'm sorry for him his tone was quiet enough but about the nastiest I've ever heard I tell you bunny I was glad I'd brought that revolver it looked as though 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 infamous career I say it was that moment there I stood at the bottom of those narrow stone stairs inside the strong room with the door a good foot open and I didn't know whether it would creak or not the light was coming nearer and I didn't know I had a chance at it and it didn't creak a bit it was far too solid and well hung and I couldn't have banged it if I tried it was too heavy it fitted so close that I felt and heard the air squeeze out in my face every shred of light went out except the streak underneath and it brightened how I blessed that door no he's not down there I heard as though through carton wool then the streak went out too and in a few seconds I ventured to open once more and wasn't time to hear them creeping to my room well now there was not a fifth of a second to be lost but I'm proud to say I came up those stairs on my toes and fingers and out of that bank they'd gone and left the door open just as gingerly as though my time had been my own I didn't even forget to put on the hat that the doctor's mare was eating her oats out of as well as she could with a bit or it alone would have landed me I didn't even gallop away but just 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 bank was 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 Kane and the coachman and now Bunny he stood up and stretched himself with a smile that ended in a yarn the black windows had faded through every shade of indigo they now framed their opposite neighbors stark and livid in the dawn and the gas 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 thing should have ended with an exciting chase I know but somehow it didn't I suppose they thought I had got no end of a start then they had made up their minds that I belonged to the gang which was not so many miles away and one of them had got as much as he could carry from that gang as it was but I wasn't to know that and I'm bound to say that there was plenty of excitement left for me Lord how I made that poor brute travel when I got among the trees though we must have made it over fifty miles from Melbourne we had done it at a snail's pace and those stolen oats had brisk the old girl up to such a pitch that she fairly bolted when she felt her nose turn south by Jove it was no joke in and out among those trees and under branches with your face in the main I told you about the forest of dead gums it looked perfectly ghostly in the moonlight and I found it as still as I had left it so still that I pulled up there my first halt I lay with my ear to the ground for two or three minutes but I heard nothing not a thing but the mare's bellow in my own heart I'm sorry Bunny but if ever you write my memoirs you won't have any difficulty in working up that chase lay those dead gum-trees for all their worth and let the bullets fly like hail I'll turn round in my saddle to see Eubank coming up held to leather in his white suit and I'll duly paint it red do it in the third person then they won't know how it's going to end but I don't know myself I complained did the mare carry you all the way back to Melbourne? every rod-polar perch I had a well-seen to at our hotel and returned her to the doctor in the evening he was tremendously tickled to hear that I had been bushed next morning he brought me the paper to show me what I had escaped at yay without suspecting anything ah said raffles as he put out the gas that's a point on which I've never made up my mind the mare and her colour was a coincidence luckily she was only a bay and I fancied the condition of the beast must have told a tale the doctor's manner was certainly different I'm inclined to think he suspected something though not the right thing I wasn't expecting him and I fear my appearance may have increased his suspicions I asked why I used to have a rather heavy moustache said raffles but I lost it the day after I lost my innocence End of Le Premier Part This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Reading by Kristen Hughes The Amateur Cracksman by E. W. Horning Willful Murder Of the various robberies in which we are both concerned it is not but the few I find that will bear telling at any length not that the others contain details which even I would hesitate to recount it is rather the very absence of untoward incident which renders them useless for my present purposes in point of fact our plans were so craftily laid by raffles that the chances of a hitch were invariably reduced to a minimum before we went to work we might be disappointed in the market value of our haul but it was quite the exception for us to find ourselves confronted by unforeseen impediments or involved in a really dramatic dilemma there was a sameness even in our spoil for of course only the most precious stones are worth the trouble we took and the risks we ran in short our most successful escapades would prove the greatest weariness of all in narrative form and none more so than the dull affair of the Ardog Emeralds some eight or nine weeks after the Milchester Cricket Week the former however had a sequel that I would rather forget than all our burglaries put together it was the evening after our return from Ireland and I was waiting at my rooms for raffles who had gone off as usual to dispose of the plunder raffles had his own method of conducting this very vital branch of our business which I was well content to leave entirely in his hands he drove the bargains I believe in a thin but subtle disguise of the flashy seed order and always in the cockney dialect of which he had made himself a master moreover he invariably employed the same fence who was ostensibly a moneylender in a small but yet notorious way and in reality a rascal as remarkable as raffles himself only lately I had also been to the man but in my proper person we had needed capital for the getting of these very emeralds and I had raised a hundred pounds on the terms you would expect from a soft spoken grey beard with an ingratiating smile and the shiftiest old eyes that ever flew from rim to rim of a pair of spectacles so the original sinners and the final spoils of war came in this case from the self-same source a circumstance which appealed to us both but these same final spoils I was still to see and I waited and waited with an impatience that grew upon me with the growing dusk at my open window I had played sister Anne until the faces in the street below were no longer distinguishable and now I was tearing to and fro in the grip of horrible hypotheses a grip that tightened when at last the lift gates opened with a clatter outside that held me breathless until a well-known tattoo followed on my door in the dark said raffles as I dragged him in why bunny what's wrong nothing now you've come said I shutting the door behind him in a fever of relief and anxiety well well what did they fetch 500 down got it in my pocket good man I cried you don't know what a stew I've been in I'll switch on the light I've been thinking of you and nothing else for the 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 the moment I did not perceive the peculiarity of his smile I was fatuously full of my own late tremors and present relief and my first idiotic act was to spill some whiskey and squirt the soda water all over in my anxiety to do instant justice to the occasion so you thought something had happened said raffles leaning back in my chairs he lit a cigarette and looking much amused what would you say if something had sit tight my dear chap it was nothing of the slightest consequence and it's all over now a stern chase and a long 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 boots thick 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 really nothing to get in the least excited about old Baird has at last spotted that I'm not quite the common cracksman I would have him think me 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 is still to do that I admit however that he made me set up for the time being it all comes of going on the job so far from home there was the old brute with the whole thing in his morning paper he knew it must have been 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 with the same old twang that you could with a paper knife I did my best to get out of it so I had a pal who was real swell but I saw very plainly that I had given myself away he gave up haggling he paid my price as though he enjoyed it but I felt him follow me when I made tracks though of course I didn't turn round to see why not my dear bunny it's the very worst thing you can do as long as you look unsuspecting they'll keep their distance and so long as they keep their distance you stand a chance once show that you know you're being followed and it's flight or fight for all your worth I never even looked round and mind you never do in the same hole I just hurried up to Blackfriars and booked for High Street Kensington at the top of my voice and as the train was leaving Sloan Square out I hopped and up all those streets like a lamp lighter and round to the studio by the back streets well to be on the safe side I lay low there all the afternoon hearing nothing in the least suspicious and only wishing I had a window to look through instead of that beastly skylight however the coast seemed clear enough and thus far it was my 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 old Bard's arms what on earth did you do walked past him as though I'd never set eyes on him in my life and didn't then took a handsome in the King's Road and drove like a deuce to Clapham Junction rushed on to the nearest platform without a ticket jumped on to the first train I saw got out at Twickenham walked full tilt back to Richmond took the district to Charring Cross and here I am ready for a tub and a change and the best dinner the club can give us I came to you first because I thought you might be getting 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 our hats 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 down in the street all right I asked him all right said he and we went downstairs forthwith and so to the Albany arm and arm but we're both rather silent on our way I for my part was wondering what raffles would do about the studio in Chelsea wither at all events he had been successfully dogged to me the point seemed one of immediate importance but when I mentioned it he said there was time enough to think about that his one other remark was made after we had nodded in Bond Street to a young blood of our acquaintance who happened to be getting himself a bad name poor Jack Rutter said raffles with a sigh nothing sadder than to see a fellow going to the bad like that he's about mad with drink and debt poor devil did you see his eye odd that we should have met him tonight by the way it's old bad who's said to have skinned him by God but I'd like to skin old bad and his tone took a sudden low fury made the more noticeable by another long silence which lasted indeed throughout an admirable dinner at the club and for some time after we had settled down in a quiet corner of the smoking room with our coffee and cigars then at last I saw raffles looking at me with his lazy smile and I knew that the morose fit was at I dare say 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 by halves well said I returning his smile that's not a charge that you can bring against yourself is it I'm not so sure said raffles blowing a meditative puff as a matter of fact I was thinking less of myself than of that poor devil there's a fellow who does things by halves he's only half gone to the bad and look at the difference between him and us he's under the thumb of a villainous moneylender we are solvent citizens he's taken to drink we're as sober as we are solvent his pals are begging to cut him our difficulty is to keep the pal from the door on fire he begs and borrows which is stealing by halves and we steal outright on our done with it obviously ours is the more honest course yet I'm not sure bunny but we're doing the thing by halves ourselves why what more could we do I exclaimed in soft division looking round however to make sure that we were not overheard what more said raffles well murder for one thing right a matter of opinion my dear bunny I don't mean it for rot I've told you before that the biggest man alive is the man who's committed a murder and not yet been found out at least he ought to be but he so very seldom has the soul to appreciate himself just think of it think of coming in here and talking to the men very likely about the murder itself and knowing you've done it and wondering how they'd look if they knew oh it would be great simply great but besides all that when you were caught there'd be a merciful and dramatic end of you you'd fill the bill for a few weeks and then snuff out with a flourish of extra specials you wouldn't rust with a vile repose for seven of fourteen years good old raffles I chuckled I begin to forgive you for being in bad 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 else you might do I know very well I'm going to commit one tonight he had been leaning back in the saddlebag chair watching me with keen eyes sheathed by languid lids now he started forward and his eyes leapt to mine like cold steel from the scabbard they struck home to my slow wits their meaning was no longer in doubt I who knew the man 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 you this evening but when I looked out of your window you remember to make assurance doubly sure there he was on the opposite pavement down below and you never said a word about it I wasn't going to spoil your dinner bunny I wasn't going to let you spoil mine and there he was as large as life and of course he followed us to the Albany a fine game for him to play a game after his mean old heart blackmail from me bribes from the police and one bidding against the other but he shan't play it with me he shan't live to and the world will have an extortion of the less waiter to scotch whiskies and sodas I'm off at 11 bunny it's the only thing to be done you know where he lives then yes out wills didn't weigh and alone the fellows a miser among other things I long ago found out all about him again I looked round the room it was a young man's club and young men were laughing chatting smoking drinking on every hand one nodded to me through the smoke like a machine I nodded to him and turned back to raffles with a groan surely will give him a chance I urged the very sight of your pistol 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 to 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 your own peril my dear man but if you are coming well the sooner the better for I must stop at my rooms on the way five minutes later I was waiting for him at the Piccadilly entrance to the Albany I had reason for remaining outside it was the feeling half hope half fear that Angus Baird might still be on our trail that some more immediate and less cold-blooded way of dealing with him might result from a sudden encounter between the moneylender and myself I would not warn him of his danger but I would avert tragedy at all costs and when no such encounter had taken place and raffles and I were fairly on our way to Wilson that I think was still 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 an understood penalty alas I fear my good intentions were tainted with a devouring curiosity and overlaid by the fascination which goes hand in hand with horror I have a poignant recollection of the hour it took us to reach the house 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 minutes to wait for the last train to Wilson it's left at eleven twenty one I remember and raffles was put out to find it did not go on to Kensal Rise we had to get out at Wilson Junction and walk on through the streets into fairly open country that happened to be quite new to me I could never find the house again I remember however that we were on a dark footpath 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 doubted at all the ultimate crime had monopolized my mind beside it burglary was a bagatelle but one to depreciate nonetheless I saw obvious objections the man was off-fay with cracksman in their ways he would certainly have firearms and might be the first to use them I could wish nothing better said raffles then it will be man to man and devil take the worst shot you don't suppose I prefer foul play to fair do you but die he must by one or the other or it's a long stretch for you and me better that than this then stay where you are my good fellow I told you I didn't want you and this is the house so good night I could see no house at all only the angle of a high wall rising solitary in the night with the starlight glittering on battlements of broken glass and in the wall a tall green gate bristling with spikes and showing a front for battering rams in the feeble rays an outlying lamp post cast across the new-made road it seemed to me a road of building sites with but this one house built all by itself at one end but the night was too dark for more than a mere impression raffles however had seen the place by daylight and had come prepared for the special obstacles already he was reaching up and putting champagne corks on the spikes and in another moment he had his folded covert coat across the corks I stepped back as he raised himself and saw a little pyramid of slates snip the sky above the gate as he squirmed over I ran forward and had my own weight on the spikes and corks and covert coat when he gave the latter a tug coming after all rather take care then this place is all bellwires and springs it's no soft thing this there stand still while I take off the corks the garden was very small and new with a grass plot still in separate sides but a quantity of full grown laurel stuck into the raw clay beds bells in themselves as raffle whispered there's nothing else rustle so cunning old beast and we gave them a wide berth as we 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 it reappeared like a golden thread under the lintel and vanished for good we heard the stairs creak creak and cease also for good we neither saw nor heard anymore though we stood waiting on the grass till our feet were soaked with the dew I'm going in said raffles at last I don't believe he saw us at all I wish he had this way we trod gingerly on the path but the gravel stuck to our wet souls and grated horribly in a little tiled veranda with a glass door leading within it was through this glass that raffles had first seen the light and now he proceeded to take out a pain with the diamond the pot of treacle and the sheet of brown paper which was seldom omitted from 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 on the brown paper and pressed the latter to the glass until the diamond had completed its circuit and the pain fell gently back into our hands raffles now inserted his hand turned the key in the lock and by making a long arm succeeded in drawing the bolt at the bottom of the door it proved to be the only one and the door opened though not very wide what's that said raffles as something crunched beneath his feet on the very threshold a pair of spectacles I whispered picking them up I was still fingering the broken lenses and the bent rims when raffles tripped and almost 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 with his matches no bunny he won't hear us whispered raffles presently and he rose from his knees and lit a gas as the match burnt down Angus Baird was lying on his own floor dead with his grey hairs glued together by his blood near him a poker with the black end glistening in a corner of his desk ransacked littered a clock ticked noisily on the chimneypiece for perhaps a hundred seconds there was no other sound raffles stood very still staring down at the dead as a man might stare into an abyss after striding blindly to its brink his breath came audibly through the wide nostrils he made no other sign and his lips seemed 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 will soon route him out come on instead I laid a hand upon his arm imploring him to reflect that his enemy was dead now that we should certainly be involved that now or never was our own time to escape he shook me off in a sudden fury of impatience a reckless contempt in his eyes and bidding me save my own skin if I liked he once more turned his back upon me and this time left me half resolved to take him at his word had he forgotten on what errand he himself was here was he determined that this night should end in black disaster as I asked myself these questions has match flared in the hall in another moment the stairs were creaking under his feet even as they had creaked under those of the murderer and the humane instinct that inspired him in defiance of his risk was born in also upon my slower sensibilities could we let the murderer go my answer was to bound up the creaking stairs and overhaul raffles on the landing but three doors presented themselves the first opened into a bedroom with the bed turned down but undisturbed the second room was empty in every sense the third door was locked raffles lit the landing gas he's in there said he cocking his revolver do you remember how we used to break into the studies at school here goes his flat foot crashed the keyhole the lock gave the door flew open and in the sudden draft the landing gas healed over like a cobble in a squall as the flame righted itself I saw a fixed bath two bath towels knotted together an open window a cowering figure and raffles struck a gas on the threshold Jack Rutter the words came thick and slow with horror and in a horror I heard myself repeating them while the cowering figure by the bathroom window rose gradually erect it's you he whispered an amazement no less than our own it's you too what's it mean raffles I saw you get over the gate a bell rang the places full of them then you broke in what's it all mean we may tell you that when you tell us what in God's name you've done what have I done the unhappy wretch came out into the light with bloodshot blinking eyes and a bloody shirt front you know you've seen but I'll tell you if you like I've killed a robber that's all I've killed a robber a user a jackal a blackmailer the cleverest and cruelest villain unhung I'm ready to hang from I'd kill him again and he looked us fiercely in the face a fine defiance in his dissipated eyes his breast heaving his jaw like a rock shall I tell you how it happened he went passionately on he's made my life a hell these weeks and months past you may know that a perfect hell well tonight I met him in Bond Street do you remember when I met you fellows he wasn't 20 yards behind you he was on your tracks raffles he saw me nod to you and stopped me and asked me who you were he seemed as keen as knives to know I couldn't think why and didn't care either for I saw my chance I said I'd tell him all about you if he'd give me a private interview he said he wouldn't I said he should and held him by the coat by the time I let him go you were out of sight and I waited where I was till he came back in despair I had the whip hand of him then I could dictate where 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 off and 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 mistaken I doubt she would come when she was called and I yelled three times at the top of my voice of course there was no servant to come I knew that because I came to see him one night last week and he interviewed 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 as white as that ceiling then I told him we could have our chat at last and I picked up the poker out of the fender and told him how he'd robbed me but by God he shouldn't rob me any more I gave him three minutes to write and sign a settlement of all his iniquitous claims against me or have his brains beaten out over his own carpet he thought a minute and then went to his desk for pen and paper in two seconds he was round like lightning with a revolver and I went for him bald headed he fired two or three times and missed you can find the holes if you like but I hit him every time my God I was like a savage till the thing was done and then I didn't care I went through his desk looking for my own bills and was coming away when you turned up I said I didn't care nor do I but I was going to give myself up tonight and shall still so you see I shan't give you fellows much trouble he was done and there we stood on the landing of the lonely house the low thick eager voice still racing and ringing through our ears the dead man below and in front of us his impenitent slayer I knew to whom the impenitence would appeal when he had heard the story and I was not mistaken that's all rot said raffles speaking after a pause we shan't let you give yourself up you shan't stop me what would be the good the woman saw me it would 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 he floundered it was as though a clearer perception of his position had come with the bare idea of escape 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 like your own but don't you see we took out a pain did the thing like regular burglars regular burglars will get the credit for all the rest you mean I shan't be suspected I do but I don't want to get off scott free cried rudder hysterically I've killed him I know that but it was in self defense it wasn't murder I must own up and take the consequence I shall go mad if I don'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 you know what those consequences would be we should swing in a row at Newgate in six weeks time you talk as though we were sitting in a club don't you know it's one o'clock in the morning and the lights on 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 rudder sobbed I wish I had his revolver to blow my own brains out it's lying under him oh 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 door and out into the open air all was still outside all but the smothered weeping of the unstrung wretch upon our hands raffles returned for a moment to the house then all was dark as well the gate opened from within we closed it carefully behind us and so left the starlight shining on broken glass and polished spikes one and all as we had found them we escaped no need to dwell on our escape a murderer seemed set upon the scaffold drunk with his deed he was more trouble than six men drunk with wine again and again we threatened to leave him to his fate to wash our hands of him but incredible and unmerited luck was with the three of us not a soul did we meet between that and Wilson and of those who saw us later did one think of the two men with crooked white ties supporting a third in a seemingly unmistakable condition when the evening papers apprised the town of a terrible tragedy at Kenzel Rise we walked to made a veil and then strove openly to my rooms but I alone went upstairs the other two proceeded to the Albany and I saw no more of raffles for 48 hours he was not at his rooms when I called in the morning he had left no word when he reappeared the papers were full of the murder and the man who had committed it was on the wide Atlantic a steerage passenger from Liverpool to New York there was no arguing with him so raffles told me either he must make a clean breast of it or flee the country so I'd rigged him up at the studio and we took the first train to Liverpool nothing would induce him to sit tight and enjoy the situation as I should have endeavored to do in his place and it's just as well I went to his diggings and destroyed some papers and what do you think I found the police in possession there's a warrant out against him already the idiots think that window wasn't genuine and warrants out it won't be my fault if it's ever served nor after all these years can I think it will be mine end of willful murder this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Kristen Hughes the amateur cracksmen by EW Horning 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 last column of the Daily Telegraph and it ran two thousand pounds reward the above some may be earned by anyone qualified to undertake delicate mission and prepared to run certain risk apply by telegram security London I think said I it's the most extraordinary advertisement that ever gotten to 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 really original point is requiring applications by telegram to a telegraphic address there's something in the fellow who thought of that and something in his game with one word he chokes off the million who answer an advertisement every day when they can raise the stamp my answer 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 any man put your own name well no bunny I didn't in point of fact I smell something interesting and illegal and you know what a cautious chap I am I signed myself glass pool care of Hickey 38 conduit street that's my tailor and after sending the wire I went round and told him what to expect he promised to send the reply along the moment it came I shouldn't be surprised if that's it and he was gone before a double knock on the outer door had done ringing through the rooms to return next minute with an open telegram full of news what do you think said he security is that fellow adenbrook the police court lawyer and he wants to see me instant a you know him then merely by repute I only hope he doesn't know me he's the chap who got six weeks for sailing too close to the wind in the Sutton Wilmer case everybody wondered why he wasn't struck off the roles instead of that he's got a first rate practice on the seamy side and every blaggard with half a case takes it straight to Bennett adenbrook he's probably the one man who would have the cheek to put in an advertisement like that and the one man who could do it without exciting suspicion it's simply in his line but you may be sure there's something shady at the bottom of it the odd thing is that I have long made up my mind to go to adenbrook myself if accidents should 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 we'll choose your name on the way mine's glass pool and don't you forget it Mr. Bennett adenbrook occupied substantial offices in wellington street strand and was out when we arrived but he had only just gone over the way to the court and five minutes suffice to produce a brisk, fresh-colored, resolute-looking man with a very confident, rather festive air and black eyes that opened wide at the side of raffles Mr. Glass Pool exclaimed the lawyer my name said raffles with dry effrontery not up at Lord's, however said the other slyly my dear sir, I have seen you take far too many wickets to make any mistake for a single moment raffles looked venomous then he shrugged and smiled and the smile grew into a cynical little chuckle so you have bowled me out in my turn said he well I don't think there's anything to explain I am harder up than I wish to admit under my own name that's all and I want that thousand pound reward two thousand said the solicitor and the man who is not above an alias happens to be just the sort of man I want so don't let that worry you my dear sir the matter, however, is of a strictly private and confidential character and he looked very hard at me quite so, said raffles but there was something about risk a certain risk is involved then surely three heads will be better than two I said I wanted that thousand pounds my friend here wants the other we are both cursively hard up and we go into this thing together or not at all must you have his name too I should give him my real one bunny Mr. Addenbrook raised his eyebrows over the card I found for him then he drummed upon it with his fingernail and his embarrassment expressed 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 to send long telegrams don't rush to the advertisements in the daily telegraph but on the other hand I was not quite prepared to hear from men like yourselves candidly and on consideration I am not sure that you are the stamp of men for me men who belong to good clubs 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 said Raffles smiling but on our beam ends we are we would do a good deal for a thousand pounds apiece, eh bunny anything, I murmured the solicitor wrapped his desk I'll tell you what I want you to do you can but refuse it's illegal but it's illegality and a good cause that's the risk and my client is prepared to pay for it he will pay for the attempt in case of failure the money is as good as yours once you consent to run the risk my client is Sir Bernard Debenham of Brooke Hall Escher I know his son, I remarked Raffles knew him too but said nothing and his eye drooped disapproval in my direction Bennett Addenbrook turned to me then said he you have the privilege of knowing one of the most complete young blaggards about town and the font et origo of the whole trouble as you know the son you may know the father too at all events by reputation and in that case I needn't tell you that he is a very peculiar man he lives alone in a storehouse of treasures which no eyes but his ever behold he is said to have the finest collection of pictures in the south of England though nobody ever sees them to judge pictures, fiddles, and furniture are his hobby and he is undoubtedly very eccentric nor can one deny that there has been considerable eccentricity in his treatment of his son for years Sir Bernard paid his debts and the other day without the slightest warning not only refused to do so anymore but absolutely stopped the lads allowance well I'll tell you what has happened but first of all you must know or you may remember that I appeared for young Debenham in a little scrape he got into a year or two ago I got him off all right and Sir Bernard paid me handsomely on the nail and no more did I hear or see of them until one day last week the lawyer drew his chair nearer ours and leaned forward with a hand on either knee on Tuesday of last week I had a telegram from Sir Bernard I was to go to him at once I found him waiting for me in the drive without a word he led me to the picture gallery which was locked and darkened I 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 last he told me that that frame had contained one of the rarest and most valuable pictures in England in the world an original Velazquez I have checked this said the lawyer and it seems literally true the picture was a portrait of the unfaunt Maria Theresa one of the artist's greatest works only second to another portrait of one of the popes in Rome so they told me at the National Gallery where they have its history by heart they say there that the picture is practically priceless and young Debenham has sold it for five thousand pounds the deuce he has said Raffles I inquired who had bought it a Queensland legislator of the name of Craig's the honourable John Montague Craig's MLC to give him his full title not that we knew anything about him on Tuesday last we didn't even know for certain that young Debenham had stole the picture but he had gone down for money on the Monday evening had been refused and it was plain enough that he had helped 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 confessed as much in the most brazen manner imaginable but he wouldn't tell me who was the purchaser and finding out took the rest of the week but I did find out and a nice time I've had of it ever since backwards and forwards between Escher and the Metropole where the Queenslanders staying sometimes twice a day threats, offers, prayers and treaties 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 my client declines to face he would rather lose even his picture than have the whole thing get into the papers he has disowned his son but he will not disgrace him yet his picture he must have by Hooker Crook and there's the rob I am to get it back by fair means or foul he gives me carte blanche in the matter and I verily believe would throw in a bank check if asked he offered one to the Queenslander but Craig simply tore it in two the one old boys as much character as the other and between the two of them I met my wit's end so you put that advertisement in the paper said Raffles in the dry tones 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 his collar I knew you were not the men he groaned I never thought of men of your stamp but it's not stealing he exclaimed heatedly it's recovering stolen property besides Sir Bernard will pay him his five thousand as soon as he has the picture and you'll see old Craig's will be just as loathe 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 not only 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 of your man Addenbrook wavered do you think we 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 Addenbrook growing firm then it's more than you can expect us to risk you are an earnest God what? say three thousand if you succeed four is our figure Mr. Addenbrook then I think it should be nothing if you fail double your quits cried Raffles well that's sporting done Addenbrook opened his lips half rose then sat back in his chair and looked long and shrewdly at Raffles never once at me I know you're bowling he said reflectively I go up to lords whenever I want now as real rest and I've seen you bowl again and again yes and take the best wickets in England on a plum pitch I don't forget the last gentleman in players I was there you're up to every trick everyone I'm inclined to think that if anybody could bowl out this old Australian damn I believe you're my very man the bargain was clinched at the cafe Royal where Bennett Addenbrook insisted on playing host at an extravagant luncheon I remember that he took his whack of champagne with the nervous freedom of a man at high pressure and have no doubt I kept him in countenance by an equal indulgence but Raffles ever an exemplar in such matters was more absteminius even than his want and very poor company to boot I can see him now his eyes in his plate thinking thinking I can see the solicitor glancing from him to me in an apprehension of which I did my best to disabuse him by my reassuring looks at the close Raffles apologized for his preoccupation called for an ABC timetable and announced his intention of catching the 320 to Escher you must excuse me Mr. Addenbrook said he but I have my own idea and for the moment I should much prefer to keep it to myself it may end in fizzle so I would rather not speak about it to either of you just yet but speak to Sir Bernard I must so will you write me one line to him on your card of course if you wish you must come down with me and hear what I say but I really don't see much point in it and as usual Raffles had his way though Bennett Addenbrook showed some temper when he was gone and I myself shared his annoyance to no small extent I could only tell him that it was in the nature of Raffles to be self-willed and secretive but that no man of my acquaintance had half his audacity and determination that I for my part would trust him through and through and let him gang his own gate every time more I dared not say even to remove those chill misgivings 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 was dressing for dinner be in your rooms tomorrow 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 I should have hunted him up then and there but now I knew better his telegram meant that he had no desire for my society that night or the following four noon 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 him from my window in Mount Street when he drove up furiously in a handsome and jumped out without a word to the man I met him next minute at the lift 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 of campaign yesterday at lunch the first thing was to get in with this man Craig's you can't break into a place like the Metropole it's got to 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 this blessed picture so I might see where he got it and all that well I couldn't go and ask to see it out of curiosity and I couldn't go as a second representative of the other old chap and it was thinking how I could go that made me such a bear at lunch but I saw my way before we got up if I could only lay hold of a copy of the picture I might ask leave to go and compare it with the original so down I went to Escher to find out if there was a copy in existence and was at Broomhall for one hour and a half yesterday afternoon there was no copy there but they must exist for Suburnard himself there's copy there has allowed a couple to be made since the picture has been in his possession he hunted up the painter's addresses and the rest of the evening I spent in hunting up the painter's themselves but their work had been done on commission one copy had gone out of the country and I'm still on the track of the other then you haven't seen Craigs yet? seen him and made friends with him and if possible he's the funnier old cuss of the two but you should study him both I took the bull by the horns this morning went in and lied like Ananias and it was just as well I did the old ruffian sails for Australia by tomorrow's boat I told him a man wanted to sell me a copy of the celebrated on Fanta Maria Teresa of Velazquez that I'd been down to the supposed owner of the picture only to find that he had just sold it to him you should have seen his face when I told him that he grinned all round his wicked old head did old Debenham admit the sale? says he and when I said he had he chuckled to himself for about five minutes he was so pleased that he did just what I hoped he would do he showed me the great picture luckily it isn't by any means large one also the case he's got it in it's an iron map case in which he brought over the plans of his land in Brisbane he wants to know who would suspect it of containing an old master too he's had it fitted with a new chubb's lock he managed to take an interest in the key while he was gloating over the canvas I had the wax in the palm of my hand and I shall make my duplicate this afternoon Raffles looked at his watch and jumped up saying he had given me a minute too much by the way he added you've got to dine with him at the Metropole tonight I? yes don't look so scared both of us are invited I swore you were dining with me for us both but I shan'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 adjoins his bedroom you must keep him sitting as long as possible Bunny and talking all the time in a flash I saw his plan you're going for the picture while we're at dinner I am and if he hears you he shan'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 certainly take a life preserver but it's ghastly I cried to sit and talk to an utter stranger and to 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 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't turn up he's a terror to talk you'll have no difficulty in keeping the ball rolling but head him off his picture for all your worth if he offers to show it to you say you must go he locked up the case elaborately this afternoon and there's no earthly reason why he should unlock it again in this hemisphere where shall I find you when I get away I shall be down at Escher hope to catch the nine fifty-five but surely I can see you again this afternoon I cried in affirmant for his hand was on the door I'm not half-coached up yet I know I shall 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 find me at my rooms why not come down to Escher yourself by the last train that's it down you come with the latest news I'll tell old Debenham to expect you he shall give us both a bed by Jove he won't be able to do us too well if he's got his picture if I groaned as he nodded his adieu and then left me limp with apprehension, sick with fear in a perfectly pitiable condition of pure stage fright for after all I had only to act my part unless Raffles failed where he never did fail unless Raffles, the neat and noiseless was for once clumsy and inept all I had to do was indeed to smile and smile and be a villain I practiced that smile half the afternoon I rehearsed putative parts in hypothetical conversations I got up stories I dipped in a book on Queensland at the club and at last it was 745 and I was making my bow to a somewhat elderly man with a small bald head and a retreating brow to your Mr. Raffles friend he said overhauling me rather rudely with his light small eyes seen anything of him? expected him early to show me something but he's never come no more evidently had his telegram and my troubles were beginning early I said I had not seen Raffles since one o'clock telling the truth with unction while I could even as we spoke there came a knock at the door it was the telegram at last and after reading it himself 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 of invention then I replied that I had never met any of his people and again felt fortified by my veracity thought you were bosom pals he said with as I imagined a gleam of suspicion 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 he wouldn't come and have his dinner first like to see the deathbed I'd go to without my dinner it's a full-skinned billet if you ask me well must just dine without him and he'll have to buy his pig in a poke after all mind touching that bell suppose you know what he came to see me about sorry I shan't see him again for his own sake I like raffles took to him amazingly he's a cynic like cynics one myself rank bad form of his mother or his aunt and I hope she will go and kick the bucket I connected these specimens of his conversation though they were doubtless detached at the time and interspersed with remarks of mine here and there they filled the interval until our dinner was served and they gave me an impression of the man which is every subsequent utterance confirmed it was an impression which did away with all remorse for my treacherous presence at his table he was that terrible type the silly cynic him a caustic commentary on all things and all men his achievement mere vulgar reverence and unintelligent scorn ill-bred and ill-informed he had on his own showing fluked into fortune on a rise in land yet cunning he possessed as well as malice and he chuckled until he choked over the misfortunes of less astute spectators in the same boom even now I cannot feel much compunction for my behaviour by the honourable J. M. Craig's M. L. C. but never shall I forget the private agonies of the situation the listening to my host with one ear and for raffles with the other once I heard him though the rooms were not divided by the old-fashioned folding doors and though the door that did divide them was not only shut but richly curtained I could have sworn I heard him once I spilt my wine and laughed at the top of my voice some coarse sally of my hosts and I heard nothing more though my ears were on the strain but later to my horror when the waiter had finally withdrawn Craig's himself sprang up and rushed to his bedroom without a word I sat 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 priceless treasure I got in there it was the picture at last up to this point I had kept him to Queensland and the making of his pile I tried to get him back there now 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 with the confidential grulity of a man who has dined too well he plunged into his darling topic and I looked past him at the clock it was only a quarter to ten in common decency I could not go yet so there I sat we were still at port and learned what had originally fired my hosts ambition to possess what he was pleased to call a real, genuine, twin-screw, double-funneled, copper-bottomed old master it was to go one better than some rival legislator of pictorial proclivities but even an epitome of his monologue would be so much weariness suffice it that it ended inevitably in the invitation that 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 heap suspicion upon myself against the moment of impending discovery I therefore followed him into his bedroom without further protest and suffered him first to show me the iron map case which stood in one corner he took a crafty pride in this receptacle and I thought he would never cease descanting on its innocent appearance and its chubb's lock 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 Craig's drawing it out and unrolling it for my benefit grand thing ain't it wouldn't think it had been painted two hundred and thirty years it has though my word old Johnson's face will be a treat when he sees it won't go bragging about his pictures much more why this one's worth all the pictures in Colonia Queensland put together worth fifty thousand pounds my boy 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 first by my relief I continued silent from a very different cause a new tangle of emotions tied my tongue raffles had failed raffles had failed 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 rolled it 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 his pocket it goes straight into the strong room on board if I could but send him out to Australia with only its legitimate contents in his precious map case if I could but succeed where raffles had failed we returned to the other room I have no notion how long he talked or what about whiskey and soda became the order of the hour I scarcely touched it but he drank copiously and before eleven I left him incoherent and the last train for Escher was the eleven fifty out of Waterloo I took a handsome to my rooms I was back at the hotel in thirteen minutes I walked upstairs the corridor was empty I stood an instant on the sitting room threshold heard a snore within and admitted myself softly with my gentleman's own key which it had been a very simple matter to take away with me Craig's never moved he was stretched on the sofa fast asleep but not fast enough for me I saturated my handkerchief with the chloroform I had brought and laid it gently over his mouth two or three statorious breaths 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 picture about my body beneath my invenous cape I took some whiskey and soda water before I went the train was easily caught so easily that I trembled for ten minutes in my first class smoking carriage in terror of every footstep on the platform in unreasonable terror till the end then at last I sat back and lit a cigarette and the lights of Waterloo reeled out behind some men were returning from the theatre I can recall their conversation even now they were disappointed with the peace they had seen it was one of the later Savoy operas and they spoke wistfully of the days of pinafore and patience one of them hummed a stave and there was an argument as to whether the air was out of patience or the Mikado they all got out at Serbeten and I was alone with my triumph for a few intoxicating minutes to think that I had succeeded where raffles had failed adventures this was the first in which I had played a commanding part and of all of them this was infinitely the least discreditable it left me without a conscience qualm I had but robbed a robber when all was said and I had done it myself single-handed ipsay egomet I pictured raffles, his surprise, his delight he would think a little more of me in future and that future it should be different we had two thousand pounds apiece surely enough to start afresh as honest men and all through me in a glow I sprang out at Escher and took the one belated cab that was waiting under the bridge in a perfect fever I beheld Broom Hall with the low story still lit up and saw the front door open as I climbed the steps thought it was you said raffles cheerily it's all right, there's a bed for you so Bernard's sitting up to shake your hand his good spirits disappointed me but I knew the man he was one of those who wear their brightest smile in the blackest hour I knew him too 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 but 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 I was 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 my success so Craig said I hardly looked at it myself well look now look closely by jove I must have faked it better than I thought it's a copy? I cried it's the copy he answered it's the copy I've been tearing all over the country to procure it's the copy I faked back in front so that on your own showing it imposed upon Craig's and might have made him 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 I told my story hoarsely, excitedly for it was all that I could do to keep from breaking down but as I spoke I became calmer and I finished in mere bitterness with the remark that another time raffles might tell me what he meant to do another time he cried instantly my dear bunny you speak as though we are going to turn burglars for a living I trust you won't said Sir Bernard smiling for you are certainly two very daring young men let us hope our friend from Queensland will do as he has said and not open his map case till he gets back there he will find my check awaiting him and I shall be very much surprised if he troubles any of us again raffles and I did not speak till I was in the room which had been prepared for me nor was I anxious to do so then but he followed me and took my hand bunny said he don't you be hard on a fellow I was in the doost of a hurry and didn't know that I should ever get what I wanted in time and that's a fact but it serves me right that you should have gone and undone one of the best things I ever did as for your handy work old chap you won't mind my saying that I didn't think you had 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 end of nine points of the law this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Kristen Hughes The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Horning The Return Match I had turned into Piccadilly one thick evening in the following November when my guilty heart stood still at the sudden grip of a hand upon my arm I thought I was always thinking that my inevitable hour was come at last it was only raffles however who stood smiling at me 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 my tremors it was an ineffectual attempt as I saw from his broader smile and by the indulgent shake of his head come up to my place instead said he I've something amusing to tell you I made excuses for his tone foretold the kind of amusement and it was a kind against which I had successfully set my face for months I have stated before however and I can but reiterate that to me at all events there was never anybody in the world so irresistible as raffles when his mind was made up that we had both been independent of crime since our little service to Sir Bernard Debenham that there had been no occasion for that masterful mind to be made up in any such direction for many a day was the undeniable basis of a longer spell of honesty than I had hitherto enjoyed during the term of our mutual intimacy be sure I would deny it if I could the very thing I am to tell you would discredit such a boast I made my excuses as I have said but his arms slid through mine with his little laugh of light-hearted mastery and even while I argued we were on his staircase in the Albany his fire had fallen low he poked and replenished it after lighting the gas as for me I stood by sullenly in my overcoat until he dragged it off my back what a chap you are said raffles playfully one would really think I had proposed to crack another crib this blessed night well it isn't that bunny so get into that chair and take one of these solvents 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 feel happy I heard a bolt shot home it cost me an effort to remain in that chair next moment he was straddling another and gloating over my discomforture 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 gentlemen and players if you recollect I don't forget it seeing that you never got an inning so to speak I thought you might well the gentlemen scored pretty freely but the players were all caught poor devils don't be too sure you remember the fellow we saw in the inn the florid overdressed chap who I told you was one of the cleverest thieves in town I remember him crochet his name turned out to be well it certainly was the name he was convicted under so crochet let it be you needn't waste any pity on him old chap he escaped from Dartmoor yesterday afternoon well done Raffles smiled but his eyebrows had gone up and his shoulders followed suit you are perfectly right it was very well done indeed I wonder you didn't see it in the paper in a dense fog on the moor yesterday good old crochet made a bolt for it and got away without a scratch under heavy fire all honour to him I agree a fellow with that much grit deserves his liberty but crochet has a good deal more they hunted him all night couldn't find him for nuts and that was all you missed in the morning papers he unfolded a palmale which he had brought with him but listen to this here's an account of the escape with just the addition which puts the thing on a higher level the fugitive has been traced to Tartneys where he appears to have committed a peculiarly daring outrage in the early hours of this morning he is reported to have entered the lodgings of the Reverend A. H. Ellingworth curate of the parish who missed his clothes on rising at the usual hour later in the morning those of the convict were discovered neatly folded at the bottom of a drawer meanwhile crochet had made good his second escape though it is believed that so distinctive a guise will lead to his 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 the curate of all men beautiful, beautiful but that's not all I saw just now on the board at the club there's been an outrage on the line near Dallish Parson found insensible in the six foot way our friend again the telegram doesn't say so but it's obvious he's simply knocked some other fellow out changed his clothes again and come on gaily to town isn't it great? I do believe it's the best thing of the kind that's ever been done but why should he come to town? in an instant the enthusiasm faded from Raffles face clearly I had reminded him of some private anxiety forgotten in his impersonal joy over the exploit of a fellow criminal he looked over his shoulder towards the lobby before replying I believe, said he, that the beggars on my tracks as he spoke he was himself again quite amused, cynically unperturbed characteristically enjoying the situation and my surprise but look here what do you mean? said I what does Crochet know about 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 he couldn't help suspecting he saw me once in town with old Baird he must have seen me that day in the pub on the way to Milchester as well as afterwards on the cricket field as a matter of fact I know he did 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 as he had proposed doing himself the honour of paying me a call however he trusted it was only a pleasure deferred and he begged me not to go and get lagged myself before he came out of course he knew the Melrose necklace was gone though he hadn't got it and he said that the man who could take that and leave the rest was a man after his own heart and so on with certain little proposals for the far future the fear may be the very near future indeed I'm only surprised he hasn't turned up yet he looked again towards the lobby which he had left in darkness with the inner door shut as carefully as the outer one I asked him what he meant to do let him knock if he gets so far the porter is to say I'm out of town it will be true too in another hour or so you're going off tonight? by the 715 from Liverpool Street I don't say much about my people, Bunny but I have the best of sisters married to a country passing in the East Countries they always make me welcome and let me read the lessons for the sake of getting me to church I'm sorry you won't be there to hear me on Sunday, Bunny I've figured out some of my best schemes in that parish and I know of no better port in a storm but I must pack I thought I'd just let you know where I was going and why in case you care to follow my example he flung the stump of his cigarette into the fire stretched himself as he rose and remained so long in the inelegant attitude that my eyes mounted from his body to his face a second later they had followed his eyes across the room and I also was on my legs on the threshold of the folding doors that divided bedroom and sitting room a well-built man stood in ill-fitting broadcloth and bowed to us until his bullet head presented an unbroken disc of short red hair brief as was my survey of this astounding apparition the interval was long enough for raffles to recover his composure his hands were in his pockets and a smile upon his face when my eyes flew back to him let me introduce you, Bunny said he to our distinguished colleague, Mr. Reginald Crochet the bullet head bobbed up and there was a wrinkled brow above the coarse shaven face crimson also I remember from the grip of a collar several sizes too small but I noted nothing consciously at the time I had jumped to my own conclusion and I turned on raffles with an oath it's a trick, I cried it's another of your cursed tricks you got him 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 of my words while they were yet upon my lips really Bunny said raffles and turned his shoulder with a shrug Lord Lovier cried Crochet he knew nothing he didn't expect me he's all right and you're the cool canary you are he went on to raffles I knew you were but do me proud you're one after my own kidney and he thrust out a shaggy hand after that said raffles taking it what am I to say but you must have heard my opinion of you I am proud to make your acquaintance how the deuce did you get in never you mind said Crochet loosening his collar let's talk about how I'm to get out Lord Lovier 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 he explained didn't know who you'd bring in drink whiskey and soda inquired raffles when the convict was in the chair from which I had leapt no I drink it neat replied Crochet but I talk business first you don't get over me like that Lord Lovier well then what can I do for you you know without me telling you give it a name clean heels then that's what I want to show and I leave the way to you we're brothers in arms though I ain't armed this time it ain't necessary you've too much sense but brothers we are and you'll see a brother through let's put it at that you'll see me through in your own way I leaves it all to you his tone was rich with conciliation and concession he bent over and tore a pair of buttoned boots from his bare feet which he stretched toward the fire painfully uncurling his toes I hope you take a larger size than them said he I'd have had a sea if you'd given me time I wasn't in longer for you and you won't tell me how you got in what's the use I can't teach you nothing besides I want out I want out of London and England and Bloomin' Europe too that's all I want to you mister I don't harvest how you go on the job you know where I come from because I heard you say you know where I want to head for because I just told you the details I leave entirely to you well said Raffles I'll see what can be done we must said Mr. Crochet and leaned back comfortably and began twirling his stubby thumbs Raffles turned to me with a twinkle in his eye but his forehead was scored with thought and resolve mingled with resignation in the lines of his mouth and he spoke exactly as though he and I were alone in the room you seize the situation Bunny if our friend here is copped to speak his language he means to blow the gaff on you and me he is considerate enough not to say so in so many words but it's plain enough and natural enough for that matter I would do the same in his place we had the bulge before he has it now it's perfectly fair we must take on this job we aren't in a position to refuse it even if we were I should take it on our friend is a great sportsman he has got clear away from Dartmoor it would be a thousand pities to let him go back nor shall he not if I can think of a way of getting him abroad any way you like Mermit Crochet with his eyes shut I leave the whole thing to you but you'll have to wake up and tell us things all right Mr. but I'm fair on the rocks for a sleep and he stood up blinking think you a trace 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 next minute 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 you brought it off in daylight fog or no but let that pass you don't think you were seen I don't think it sir well let's hope you're right I shall reconnoiter and soon find out and you'd better come to Bunny and have something to eat and talk it over as Raffles looked at me I looked at Crochet anticipating trouble and trouble brood in his blank fierce face in the glitter of his startled eyes in the sudden closing of his fists and what's to become of 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 shoulder that's the worst of these professors said he they never will use their heads they see the pegs and they mean to hit them but that's all they do see and mean and they think we're the same no wonder we licked them last time don't talk through your neck snarled the convict talk out straight curse ya right said Raffles I'll talk as straight as you like you say you put yourself in my hands you leave it all to me yet you don't trust me an inch I know what's to happen if I fail I accept the risk I take this thing on yet you think I'm going straight out to give you away and make you give me away in my turn you're a fool Mr. Crochet though you've broken Dartmoor you've got to listen to a better man and obey him I see you through in my own way or not at all I come and go as I like and with whom I like without your interference you stay here and lie as low as you know how and leave the word and leave the whole thing to me if you won't if you're fool enough not to trust me there's the door go out and say what you like and be damned to you Crochet slapped his thigh that's talking said he Lord love ya I know where I am when you talk like that I'll trust ya I know a man when he gets his tongue between his teeth don't say so much about this other gent though I saw him along with you on the job that time in the provinces but if he's a pal of yours Mr. Raffles he'll be all right too 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 such stony broke cusses in your life that's all right said Raffles we'll see you through properly leave it to us and you sit tight write them said Crochet and I'll have a sleep time you're gone but no spirits no thank you not yet once let me loose on the lush and Lord love ya I'm a gone coon Raffles got his overcoat a long light driving coat I remember and even as he put it on our fugitive was dozing in the chair we left him murmuring incoherently with the gas out and his bare feet toasting not such a bad chap that professor said Raffles on the stairs a real genius in his way too those methods are a little elementary for my taste but technique isn't everything to get out of Dartmoor and into the Albany in the same 24 hours is a hole that justifies its parts good lord we had passed a man in the foggy courtyard and Raffles had nipped my arm 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 Crochet's track I don't know I'll find out and before I could remonstrate he had wheeled me round when I found my voice he merely laughed and whispered that the bold course was the safe 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 the gaslit mist I noticed that his hair was grizzled at the temples and his face still cadaverous from the wound that had nearly been his death you have the advantage me sirs said he I hope you're fit again said my companion my name is Raffles and we met at Milchester last year is that a fact cried the Scotchman with quite a start yes now I remember your face and yours too sir I onwards about business but attended very well and 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 this escape of the leader of the gang that fellow crochet what do you think of that eh I have no the particulars replied the Scotch good cried Raffles I was only afraid you might be on his tracks once more Mackenzie shook his head with a dry smile and wished us good evening as an invisible window was thrown up and a whistle blown softly through the fog we must see this out whispered Raffles nothing more natural than a little curiosity on our part after him quick and we followed the detective into another entrance on the same side as that from which we had emerged the left hand side on one's way to Piccadilly quite openly we followed him and at the foot of the stairs met one of the porters of the place Raffles asked him what was wrong nothing sir said the fellow glibly what? said Raffles that was Mackenzie the detective I've just been speaking to him what's he here for come on my good fellow we won't give you away if you've instructions not to tell the man looked quaintly wistful the temptation of an audience hot upon him a door shut upstairs and he fell it's like this he whispered this afternoon a gentleman comes after rooms and I sent him to the orifice one of the clerks he goes round with him and shows him the empties and the gentleman's particularly struck on the sets the coppers is up in now so he sends the clerk to fetch the manager as there was one or two things he wished to speak about and when they come back blowed if the gent isn't gone beg your pardon sir but he's clean disappeared off the face of the premises and the porter looked at us with shining eyes well said raffles well sir they looked about and looked about and at last they give him up for a bad job thought he'd changed his mind and didn't want to tip the clerk so they shut up the place and come away and that's all till about half an hour ago when I takes the manager his extra special star in about ten minutes he comes running out with a note and sends me with it to Scotland Yard in a handsome and that's all I know sir straight the coppers is up there now and the tech and the manager 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 him for I don't know jolly interesting said raffles I'm going up to inquire come on bunny there should be some fun beg your 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 to sport sport he whispered as we reach the landing it looks like precious 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 raffles strode passed him with the air of a chief commissioner and I followed before the man had recovered from his astonishment the bareboards rang under us in the bedroom we found a knot of officers stooping over the window ledge with the constable's lantern Mackenzie was the first to 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 once before and it was my friend here who took over from you the fellow who split 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's true I only help to carry you to the house but for old acquaintance I do hope my dear Mr. Mackenzie that you will permit us to share such sport as there may be I myself can only stop a few minutes in any case then you'll not see much growled the detective shut up here constable go you and stand at the foot of the stairs and let no other body come up on any consideration this gentleman may be able to help us after all that's kind of you Mackenzie cried raffles warmly but what is it all I questioned a porter I met coming down but could get nothing out of him except that somebody had been to see these rooms and not since been seen himself he's a man we want said Mackenzie and sealed himself somewhere about these premises or I'm very much mistaken dear as I than the Albany Mr. Raffles I do will your rooms be near these on the next staircase but one you'll just have left them just been in all the afternoon likely not all then I may have to search your room sir I am prepared to search every 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 up there I shall have the entire building Taransac I will leave you my key said Raffles at once I am dining out but I'll leave it with the officer down below I caught my breath in mute amazement what was the meaning of this insane promise it was willful gratuitous suicidal it made me catch it asleep in open horror and disgust but with a word of thanks Mackenzie had returned to his window sill and we sauntered unwatched through the folding doors into the adjoining room here the window looked down into the courtyard it was still open and as we gazed out in apparent idleness Raffles reassured me it's all right bunny you do what I tell you and leave the rest to me it's a tight corner but I don't despair what you've got to do is stick to these chaps especially if they search my rooms they mustn'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 landed alone if I do it will be to turn up trumps at the right moment besides there are such things as windows and crochet is the man to take his risks 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 them suspect you whatever else you do his hand lay an instant on my shoulder 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 see this through and I'll leave the gas on in my rooms and my key with the constable downstairs good luck Mackenzie only wish I could stay goodbye sir came in a preoccupied voice and many thanks Mackenzie was still busy at his window and I remained at mine a prey to mingled fear and wrath for all my knowledge of raffles and his infinite resources by this time I felt that I knew more or less what he could do in any given emergency at least I could conjecture a characteristic course of equal cunning and audacity he would return to his rooms put crochet on his guard and stow him away no there was such things as windows then why was raffles going to desert us all I thought of many things lastly of a cab these bedroom windows looked into a narrow side street they were not very high from them a man might drop onto the roof of a cab even as it passed and be driven away even under the noses of the police I pictured raffles driving that cab unrecognizable in the foggy night the vision came to me as he passed under the window tucking up the collar of his great driving coat on the way to his rooms it was still with me when he passed again on his way back and stopped to hand the constable his key we're on his truck said a voice behind me he's got up on the lead sure enough though how he managed it from young window is a mystery to me we're going to lock up here and try with like this from the attics so you better come with us if you have a mind the top floor at the Albany as elsewhere is devoted to the servants a conjuries of little kitchens and cubicles used by many as lumber 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 filled it what with the manager who now joined us and another tenant whom he brought with him to Mackenzie's undisguised annoyance better let him all pick a dilly at the crown ahead said he here my man ought to go on the roof to make one less and have your truncheon handy we crowded to the little window which Mackenzie took care to fill and a minute yielded no sound but the crunch and slither of constabulary boots upon sooty slates then came a shout what now? cried Mackenzie a rope we heard hanging from the spout by a hook sirs heard Mackenzie yones how he got up from below he would do it with one of the telescope sticks and I never thought that how long a rope my lad quite short I've got it did it hang over a window ask him that cried the manager he can see 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 high excitement six he said said Mackenzie next minute and he drew in his head and shoulders I should just like to see those rooms six windows along Mr. Raffles announced the manager after mental calculation is that a fact cried Mackenzie then we shall have no difficulty at all he's left me his key down below the words had a dry speculative intonation which even then I found time to dislike it was as though the coincidence had already struck the Scotchman as something more where is Mr. Raffles asked the manager as we all file 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 not trust myself to speak again but I wormed my way to a front place in little procession and was in fact the second man to cross the threshold that had been the rubicon of my life as I did so I uttered a cry of pain for Mackenzie had trod back heavily on my toes in another second I saw the reason and saw it with another and a louder cry a man was lying at full length before the fire on his back with a little wound in the white forehead and the blood draining into his eyes and the man was Raffles himself suicide said Mackenzie calmly no here's the poker looks more like murder he went on his knees and shook his head quite cheerfully and it's not even murder said he with a shade of disgust in his matter of fact voice yon's no more than a flesh wound and I have my doubts where it felled him but sirs he just thinks a chloroform he got up and fixed his keen gray eyes upon me my own were full of tears but they faced him unashamed I understood ye to say you saw him go out said he sternly I saw that long driving coat of course I thought he was inside it and I could have sworn it was the same gent when he give me the key it was the disconsolate voice of the constable in the background on him turned Mackenzie white to the lip I don't think anything some of you damned policemen said he what's your number you rotter pay 34 you'll be hearing more of this Mr. pay 34 if that gentleman was dead instead of coming to himself while I'm talking do you know what you'd be guilty of his manslaughter you stuck pig in buttons do you know who you let slip butterfingers crush a no less him that broke pay 34 if I lose him I'll hold you from the force working face shaking fist a calm man on fire it was a new side of Mackenzie and one to mark and digest next moment he had flounced from our midst difficult thing to break your own head said raffles later infinitely easier to cut your own throat chloroforms another matter 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 hope Mackenzie 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 to miss it for worlds and you mustn't think me a brutal boy for I fear that man and no we sink or swim together and now we sink or swim with crochet too I said dolefully not we said raffles with conviction old crochet is a true sportsman and he'll do by us as we've done by him besides this makes us quits and I don't think bunny that will take on the professors again end of the return match the please visit the reading by the the gift of the emperor part one when the king of the cannibal islands made faces at queen Victoria and a European monarch set the cables tingling with his compliments on the exploit the indignation in England was not less than the surprise for the thing was not so common as it has since become but when it transpired that a gift of peculiar significance was to follow the congratulations to give them weight the inference prevailed that the white potentate and the black had taken simultaneous leave of their 14 senses for the gift was a pearl of price and paralleled picked a four-time by British cutlaces from a Polynesian setting and presented by British royalty to the sovereign who seized this opportunity 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 the daily chronicle devoting half its literary page to a charming drawing of the island capital which the new palm all in a leading article headed by a pun advised the government to blow to flinders I was myself driving a poor but not dishonest quill at the time and the topic of the hour goaded me into satiric verse which obtained a better place than anything I had yet turned out I had let my flat in town and taken inexpensive quarters at the Thames Ditten on the plea of a disinterested passion for the river first rate old boy said raffles who must needs come and see me there lying back in the boat while I sculled and steered I suppose they pay you pretty well for these eh not a penny none sense bunny I thought they paid so well give them time and you'll get your check oh no I shan't said I gloomily I've got to be content with the honour of getting in the editor wrote to say so in so many words I added 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 had written for my money because I really needed it if he must know I was cursedly hard up raffles nodded as though he knew already I warmed to my woes it was no easy matter to keep your end up as a raw freelance of letters for my part I was afraid I wrote neither well enough nor ill enough for success I suffered from a persistent ineffectual feeling after style verse I could manage but it did not pay to personal paragraphs and the baser journalism I could not and I would not stoop raffles nodded again this time with a smile that stayed in his eyes as he leaned back watching me I knew that he was thinking of other things I had stooped to and I thought I knew what he was going to say he had said it before so often he was sure to say it again I had my answer 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 the length 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 it in a nutshell certainly you've taught me more about it than I knew before but is it really worth 50,000 pounds a single pearl a hundred I believe but that wouldn't scan a hundred thousand pounds said raffles with his eyes shut and again I made certain what was coming but again I was mistaken if it's worth all that he cried at last there would be no getting rid of it at all it's not like a diamond that you can subdivide but I beg your pardon bunny I was forgetting and we said no more about the emperor's gift for pride thrives on an empty pocket and no privation would have drawn from me the proposal which I had expected raffles to make my expectation had been half a hope though I only knew it now but neither did we touch again on what raffles profess to have forgotten my apostasy my lapse into virtue as he had been pleased to call it we were both a little silent a little constrained each preoccupied with his own thoughts it was months since we had met and as I saw him off towards 11 o'clock that Sunday night I fancied it was for more months that we were saying goodbye but as we waited for the train I saw those clear eyes peering at me under the station lamps and when I met their glance raffles shook his head bunny said he I never did believe in this 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 San Maritz or do you recommend cans or Cairo it's all very well AJ 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 to change myself and you shall come with me as my guest we'll spend July in the Mediterranean 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 perfectly good humoured conviction that I should hear no more of this matter it was 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 I was making nothing I could but subsist on the difference between the rent I paid for my flat and the rent at which I had subled it furnished for the season and the season was near its end and creditors waited me in town was it possible to be entirely honest I had run no bills when I had money in my pocket and the more downright dishonesty seemed to me the less ignoble but from raffles of course I heard nothing more a week went by and half another week then late on the second Wednesday night I found a telegram from him at my lodgings after seeking him vainly in town and dining with desperation at the solitary club to which I still belong arranged to leave Waterloo by North German Lloyd Special he wired 9.25 a.m. Monday next we'll meet you South Hampton aboard Ulan with tickets am writing and write he did a light-hearted enough letter but full of serious solicitude for me and for my health and prospects a letter almost touching in the light of our past relations in the twilight of their complete rupture he said that he had booked two births to Naples that we were bound for Capri which was clearly the island of the lotus-eaters that we would bask there together and for a while forget it was a charming letter I had never seen Italy the privilege of initiation should be his no mistake was greater than to deem it an impossible country for the summer the Bay of Naples was never so divine and he wrote of ferry lands for Lorne as though the poetry sprang unbidden to his pen to come back to earth and prose I might think it unpatriotic of him to choose a German boat but on no other line did you receive such attention and accommodation for your money there was a hint of better reasons Raffles wrote as he had telegraphed from Bremen and I gathered that the personal use of some little influence with the authorities there had resulted in a material reduction in our fares imagine my excitement and delight I managed to pay what I owed at Thames Ditten to squeeze a small editor for a very small check and my tailors for one more flannel suit I remember that I broke my last sovereign to get a box of Sullivan cigarettes for raffles to smoke on the voyage but my heart was as light as my purse on the Monday morning the fairest morning of an unfair summer when the special whirled me through the sunshine to the sea a tender awaited us at Southampton raffles was not on board nor did I really look for him till we reached the liner side and then I looked in vain his face was not among the many that fringe the rail his hand was not of the few that waved to friends and a board in a sudden heaviness I had no ticket nor the money to pay for one I did not even know the number of my room my heart was in my mouth as I waylayed a steward and asked if a Mr. Raffles was on board thank heaven he was but where? the man did not know was plainly on some other errand and a hunting I must go but there was no sign of him on the promenade deck the smoking room was empty but for a little German with a red moustache twisted into his eyes nor was Raffles in his own cabin wither I inquired my way in desperation but where the sight of his own name on the baggage was certainly a further reassurance why he himself kept in the background however I could not conceive and only sinister reasons would suggest themselves in explanation so there you are waiting for you all over the ship despite the grave prohibition I had tried the bridge as a last resort and there indeed was A.J. Raffles seated on a skylight and leaning over one of the officer's long chairs in which reclined a girl in a white drill-coat and skirt a slip of a girl with pale skin dark hair and rather remarkable eyes so much I noted as he rose and quickly turned thereupon I could think of nothing but the swift grimace which preceded a start of well-famed astonishment why bunny cried Raffles where have you sprung from I stammered something as he pinched my hand and are you coming in the ship and to Naples too well upon my word Miss Verna may I introduce him and he did so without a blush describing me as an old school fellow whom he had not seen for months with willful circumstance and gratuitous detail that filled me at once with confusion, suspicion and revolt I felt myself blushing for us both and I did not care my address utterly deserted me and I made no effort to recover it to carry the thing off all I would do was mumble such words as Raffles actually put into my mouth and that I doubt not with a thoroughly 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 a beauty on the promenade deck but they wouldn't promise to keep me by myself we ought to see about it before they shove in some alien in any case we shall have to get out of this for a quartermaster had entered the wheelhouse and even while we had been speaking the pilot had taken possession of the bridge as we descended the tender left us with flying handkerchiefs and shrill goodbyes and as we bowed to Miss Verner on the promenade deck there came a deep, slow throbbing underfoot and our voyage had begun it did not begin pleasantly between Raffles and me on deck he had overborn my stubborn perplexity by dint of a forced though forceful joviality 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 Claude could see that I meant us to meet by chance after taking both tickets yourself they knew nothing about that on board besides I hadn't decided when I took the tickets then you should have let me know when you did decide you lay your plans and never say a word and expect me to tumble to them by light of 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 such a pious rabbit in your old age my nickname and his tone went far to mollify me other things went farther but I had much to forgive him still if you were afraid of writing I pursued it was your business to give me the tip the moment I set foot on board I would have taken it all right I'm not so virtuous as all that was it my imagination or did Raffles look slightly ashamed if so it was for the first and last time in all the years I knew him I swear to it even now that said he was the very thing I meant to do to lie and wait in my 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 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 her way out alone money I inquired confound you he said and though he was laughing I thought it was a point at which the subject might be changed well I said Miss Werner you wanted us to play strangers was it you have some deeper game than that 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 a way that might have reassured him for dimly already I defined his enterprise 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 it that moment in the state room 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 perpendicular mustaches I saw him in the smoke room that's the chap he's always there Captain Wilhelm von Human 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 tell you bunny that I went there on purpose I burst out laughing you needn't be ashamed you are doing the very thing I was rather hoping 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 than I felt yes I answered I was quite keen on the idea but I wasn't going to propose it yet you would have listened to me the other day certainly I would and I told him so without reserve not brazenly you understand not even now with the gusto of a man who savors such an adventure for its own sake doggedly defiantly through my teeth as one who had tried to live honestly and failed and while I was about it I told him much more eloquently enough I dare say I gave him chapter and verse of my hopeless struggle my inevitable defeat for hopeless and inevitable they were to a man with my record even though that record was written only in one's own soul it was the old story of the thief to turn honest man the thing was against nature and there was an end of it raffles entirely disagreed with me he shook his head over my conventional view human nature was a board of checkers why not reconcile oneself to alternative black and white why desire to be all one thing or all the other like our forefathers on the stage or in the old fashioned fiction for his part he enjoyed himself in the chairs of the board and like the light the better for the shade my conclusion he considered absurd but you air in good company bunny for all the cheap moralists who preach the same twaddle old Virgil was the first and worst offender of you all I back myself to climb out of a verness any day I like and sooner or later I shall climb out for good I suppose I can't very well turn myself into a limited liability company but I could retire and settle down and live blamelessly ever after I'm not sure that it could 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 would come after months of ill luck just as we were going to sell the schooner 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 a formidable 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 stateroom door and I caught a glimpse of an upturned mustache beyond but is he the chap we have to deal with won't the pearl be in the pursers keeping raffle stood at the door frowning out upon the solent but for an instant he turned to me with a sniff my good fellow do you suppose the whole ship's company knows there's a gem like that aboard you said that it was worth a hundred thousand pounds in Berlin they say it's priceless I doubt if the skipper himself knows that von human has it on him and has he must have then we have only him to deal with he answered me without a word something white was fluttering past once more and raffles stepping forth made the promenaders three part two I do not ask to set foot aboard a finer steamship than the ulan of the nor-deutcher Lloyd to meet a kindlier gentleman than her commander or better fellows than his officers this much at least let me have the grace to admit I hated the voyage it was no fault of anybody connected with the ship it was no fault of the weather which was monotonously 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 between bright skies and sparkling sea with the lighthearted detachment of raffles himself who prevented me but not raffles alone it was raffles and that colonial minx on her way home from school what he could see in her but that begs the question of course he saw no more than I did but to annoy me or perhaps to punish me for my long defection he must turn his back on me and devote himself to this chit from Southampton to the Mediterranean they were always together it was too absurd after breakfast they would begin and go on until eleven or twelve at night there was no intervening hour at which you might not hear her nasal laugh or his quiet voice talking soft nonsense into her ear of course it was nonsense is it conceivable that a man like raffles with his knowledge of the world and his experience of women a side of his character upon which I have purposely never touched for it deserves another volume is it credible I ask that such a man could find anything but nonsense to talk by the day together to a giddy young school girl I would not be unfair for the world I think I have admitted that the young person had points her eyes I suppose were really fine and certainly the shape of the little brown face was charming so far as mere contour can charm I admit also more audacity than I cared about with enviable health metal and vitality I may not have occasion to report any of this young lady's speeches they would scarcely bear it and I'm therefore more anxious to describe her without injustice I confess to some little prejudice against her I resented her success with raffles of whom in consequence I saw less and less each day it is a mean thing to have to confess but there must have been something not unlike jealousy rankling within me jealousy there was in another quarter crude rampant undignified jealousy captain von human would twirl his mustaches into twin spires shoot his white cuffs over his rings and stare at me insolently through his rimless glasses we ought to have consoled each other but we never exchanged a syllable the captain had a murderous scar across one of his cheeks a present from Heidelberg and I used to think how he must long to have raffles there to serve the same it was not as though von human never had his innings raffles let him go in several times a day for the malicious pleasure of bowling him out as he was getting set those were his words when I taxed him disingenuously with obnoxious conduct toward a German on the German boat you'll make yourself disliked on board by von human merely but is that wise when he's the man you've got to diddle the wisest thing I ever did to have chummed up with him would have been fatal the common dodge I was consoled encouraged almost content but I had feared raffles was neglecting things but I told him so in a burst here we were near Gibraltar and not a word since the Solent he shook his head with a smile plenty of time bunny plenty of time we can do nothing before we get to Genoa and that won't be till Sunday night the voyage is still young 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 he glanced sharply for an aft leaving me next moment with a step full of purpose I retired to the smoking room to smoke and read in a corner and to watch von human who very soon came to drink beer and to sulk in another few travellers tempted the red sea at summer the Ulan was very empty indeed she had however but a limited supply of cabins on the promenade deck and there was just that excuse for my sharing raffles room I could have had one to myself downstairs but I must be up above raffles had insisted that I should insist on the point so we were together I think without suspicion though also without any object that I could see on the Sunday afternoon I was asleep in my berth the lower one when the curtains were shaken by raffles who was in his shirt sleeves on the seti Achilles skulking in his bunk what else is there to do I asked him as I stretched and yawned I noted however the good humour of his tone and did my best to catch it I have found something else bunny I dare say you misunderstand me the whipper snappers making his sentry this afternoon I've had another fish to fry I swung my legs over the side of my berth and sat forward as he was sitting all attention the inner door a grating was shut and bolted and curtained like the open portal we shall be at Genoa before sunset continued raffles it's the place where the deeds 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 talking a necessary shop but now the time has come it must be done at Genoa and not at all unland? no on board tomorrow night tonight would do but tomorrow is better in case of mishap if we were forced to use violence we could get away by the earliest train and nothing be known till the ship was sailing and Von Hümen found dead or drugged not dead I exclaimed of course not a scented raffles although it would be no need for us to bolt but if we should have to bolt Tuesday morning is our time when this ship has got to sail whatever happens but I don't anticipate any violence violence is a confession of terrible incompetence in all these years how many blows have you known me to strike not one I believe but I have been quite ready to kill my man every day and quite ready to kill my man every time if the worst came to the worst I asked him how he proposed to enter Von Hümen's stateroom unobserved and even through the curtained gloom of hours his face lighted up climb into my bunk bunny and you shall see all I did so but could see nothing raffles reached across me and tapped the ventilator a sort of trap door in the wall above his bed fifteen inches long and half that height it opened outwards into the ventilating shaft that said he is our door to fortune open it if you like you won't see much because it doesn't open far but loosening a couple of screws will set that right the shaft as you may see is more or less bottomless you pass under it whenever you go to your bath and the top is a skylight on the bridge that's why this thing has to be done while we're at Genoa because they keep no watch on the bridge in port the ventilator opposite ours is Hümen's it again will only mean a couple of screws and there's a beam to stand on while you work but if anybody should look up from below it's extremely unlikely that anybody will be a stir below so unlikely that we can afford to chance it no I can't have you there to make sure the great point is that neither of us should be seen from the time we turn in a couple of ships boys do sentry go on these decks and they shall be our witnesses by Jove it'll be the biggest mystery that ever was made if van Hemen doesn't resist resist he won't get the chance he drinks too much beer to sleep light and nothing is so easy as to chloroform a heavy sleeper you've even done it yourself on an occasion of which it's perhaps unfair to remind you van Hemen will be past sensation almost as soon as I can get my hand through his ventilator I shall crawl in over his body buddy 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 a luxury bunny but I've found it devilish difficult to do without it after you turned pie he said that van Hemen was certain to sleep with a bolted door which he of course would leave unbolted and spoke of other ways of laying a false scent when rifling the cabin not that raffles anticipated a tiresome search the pearl would be about van Hemen's person in fact raffles knew exactly where and in what he kept it naturally I asked how he could have come by such knowledge and his answer led up to 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 and won Delilah the heroine and he looked so knowing that I could not be in a moment's doubt as to his 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 forced him to score all the points he could and that was his great stroke as I hoped it would be he has even shown Amy the pearl Amy, eh and she promptly told you nothing of the kind what makes you think so I had the greatest trouble in getting it out of her his tone should have been a sufficient warning to me I had not the tact to take it as such at last I knew the meaning of his furious flirtation and stood wagging my head and shaking my finger blinded to his 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 simply couldn't fathom what you saw in that little girl I never dreamt it was 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 tomorrow and 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 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 his look and tone and more than ever at the insufficiently exciting cause part three of all the mere feats of cracksmanship what I have seen raffles perform at once the most delicate and most difficult was that which he accomplished between one and two o'clock on the Tuesday morning aboard the north German steamer Ulan lying at anchor in Genoa harbour not a hitch occurred everything had been foreseen everything happened as I had been assured everything must nobody was about below only the ships boys on deck and nobody on the bridge it was 25 minutes past one when raffles without a stitch of clothing on his body but with a glass file corked with cotton wool between his teeth and a tiny screwdriver behind his ear squirmed feet first through the ventilator over his birth and it was 19 minutes to two when he returned head first with the file still between his teeth and the cotton wool rammed home to still the rattling of that which lay like a great grey bean within he had taken screws out and put them in again he had unfastened von human's ventilator and had left it fast as he had found it fast as he had instantly proceeded to make his own as for von human it had been enough to place the drenched wad first on his mustache and then to hold it between his gasping lips thereafter the intruder had climbed both ways across his shins without eliciting a groan and here was the prize this pearl as large as a filbert with a pale pink tinge like a lady's fingernail this spoil of a filibustering age this gift from a European emperor to a south sea chief we gloated over it when all was snug we toasted it in whiskey and soda water laid in overnight in view of the great moment but the moment was greater more triumphant than our most sanguine dreams all we had now to do was to secrete the jam which raffles had prized from its setting replacing the latter so that we could stand the strictest search and yet take it ashore with us at Naples and this raffles was doing when I turned in I myself would have landed incontinently that night at Genoa and bolted with the spoil he would not hear of it for a dozen good reasons which will be obvious on the whole I do not think that anything was discovered or suspected before we weighed anchor but I cannot be sure it is difficult to believe that a man could be chloroformed in his sleep and feel no telltale effects sniff no suspicious odor in the morning nevertheless von Humann reappeared as though nothing had happened to him 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-chinned official had left our decks the last fruit seller had been beaten off with buckets full of water and left cursing us from his boat the last passenger had come aboard at the last moment a fussy greybeard who kept the big ship waiting while he haggled with his boatsman for half a lira but at length we were off the tug was shed the lighthouse passed and raffles and I leaned together over the rail watching our shadows on the pale green liquid veined marble that again washed the vessel's side von Humann was having his innings once more it was part of the design that he should remain in all day and so postponed the inevitable hour and though the lady looked bored he was forever glancing in our direction he seemed only too willing to avail himself of his opportunities but raffles was moody and ill at ease he had not the air of a successful man I could but opine that the impending parting at 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 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 I suppose you can't swim under water at all I did not answer his question I scarcely heard it cold beads were bursting through my skin why should the worst come to the worst I whispered we aren't found 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 had been something familiar in the old man's gate as well as something rather youthful for his apparent years his very beard seemed unconvincing now that I recalled it in the light of this horrible revelation I looked up and down the deck but the old man was nowhere to be seen that's the worst of it said Raffles I saw him go into the captain's cabin twenty minutes ago but what can have brought him I cried miserably can it be a coincidence 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 begin to wish I'd taken your advice Bunny and left the ship at Genoa but I've not the smallest doubt that Mack was watching both ship and station till the last moment that's why he ran it so fine he took a cigarette and handed me the case but I shook my head impatiently I still don't understand said I why should he be after you he couldn't come all this way about a jewel which was perfectly safe for all he knew what's your own theory simply that he's been on my track for some time probably ever since friend Crochet slipped clean through his fingers last November there have been other indications I am really not unprepared for this but it 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 know how he's got here as well as though I'd been inside that Scotchman's skin and I know what he'll do next he found out I'd gone abroad and looked for a motive he found out about Van Hoeman in his mission and there was his motive cut and dried great chance to nab me on a new job altogether but he won't do it Bunny mark my words he'll search the ship and search us all when the loss is known but he'll search in vain and there's the