NINE POINTS OF THE LAW
"Well," said Raffles, "what do you make of it?"
I read the advertisement once more before replying. It was in the lastcolumn of the Daily Telegraph, and it ran:
TWO THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD--The above sum may be earned by any onequalified to undertake delicate mission and prepared to run certainrisk.--Apply by telegram, Security, London.
"I think," said I, "it's the most extraordinary advertisement that evergot into print!"
Raffles smiled.
"Not quite all that, Bunny; still, extraordinary enough, I grant you."
"Look at the figure!"
"It is certainly large."
"And the mission--and the risk!"
"Yes; the combination is frank, to say the least of it. But the reallyoriginal point is requiring applications by telegram to a telegraphicaddress! There's something in the fellow who thought of that, andsomething in his game; with one word he chokes off the million whoanswer an advertisement every day--when they can raise the stamp. Myanswer cost me five bob; but then I prepaid another."
"You don't mean to say that you've applied?"
"Rather," said Raffles. "I want two thousand pounds as much as anyman."
"Put your own name?"
"Well--no, Bunny, I didn't. In point of fact I smell somethinginteresting and illegal, and you know what a cautious chap I am. Isigned myself Glasspool, care of Hickey, 38, Conduit Street; that's mytailor, and after sending the wire I went round and told him what toexpect. He promised to send the reply along the moment it came. Ishouldn't be surprised if that's it!"
And he was gone before a double-knock on the outer door had doneringing through the rooms, to return next minute with an open telegramand a face full of news.
"What do you think?" said he. "Security's that fellow Addenbrooke, thepolice-court lawyer, and he wants to see me INSTANTER!"
"Do you know him, then?"
"Merely by repute. I only hope he doesn't know me. He's the chap whogot six weeks for sailing too close to the wind in the Sutton-Wilmercase; everybody wondered why he wasn't struck off the rolls. Insteadof that he's got a first-rate practice on the seamy side, and everyblackguard with half a case takes it straight to Bennett Addenbrooke.He's probably the one man who would have the cheek to put in anadvertisement like that, and the one man who could do it withoutexciting suspicion. It's simply in his line; but you may be surethere's something shady at the bottom of it. The odd thing is that Ihave long made up my mind to go to Addenbrooke myself if accidentsshould happen."
"And you're going to him now?"
"This minute," said Raffles, brushing his hat; "and so are you."
"But I came in to drag you out to lunch."
"You shall lunch with me when we've seen this fellow. Come on, Bunny,and we'll choose your name on the way. Mine's Glasspool, and don't youforget it."
Mr. Bennett Addenbrooke occupied substantial offices in WellingtonStreet, Strand, and was out when we arrived; but he had only just gone"over the way to the court"; and five minutes sufficed to produce abrisk, fresh-colored, resolute-looking man, with a very confident,rather festive air, and black eyes that opened wide at the sight ofRaffles.
"Mr.--Glasspool?" exclaimed the lawyer.
"My name," said Raffles, with dry effrontery.
"Not up at Lord's, however!" said the other, slyly. "My dear sir, Ihave seen you take far too many wickets to make any mistake!"
For a single moment Raffles looked venomous; then he shrugged andsmiled, and the smile grew into a little cynical chuckle.
"So you have bowled me out in my turn?" said he. "Well, I don't thinkthere's anything to explain. I am harder up than I wished to admitunder my own name, that's all, and I want that thousand pounds reward."
"Two thousand," said the solicitor. "And the man who is not above analias happens to be just the sort of man I want; so don't let thatworry you, my dear sir. The matter, however, is of a strictly privateand confidential character." And he looked very hard at me.
"Quite so," said Raffles. "But there was something about a risk?"
"A certain risk is involved."
"Then surely three heads will be better than two. I said I wanted thatthousand pounds; my friend here wants the other. We are both cursedlyhard up, and we go into this thing together or not at all. Must youhave his name too? I should give him my real one, Bunny."
Mr. Addenbrooke raised his eyebrows over the card I found for him; thenhe drummed upon it with his finger-nail, and his embarrassmentexpressed itself in a puzzled smile.
"The fact is, I find myself in a difficulty," he confessed at last."Yours is the first reply I have received; people who can afford tosend long telegrams don't rush to the advertisements in the DailyTelegraph; but, on the other hand, I was not quite prepared to hearfrom men like yourselves. Candidly, and on consideration, I am notsure that you ARE the stamp of men for me--men who belong to goodclubs! I rather intended to appeal to the--er--adventurous classes."
"We are adventurers," said Raffles gravely.
"But you respect the law?"
The black eyes gleamed shrewdly.
"We are not professional rogues, if that's what you mean," saidRaffles, smiling. "But on our beam-ends we are; we would do a gooddeal for a thousand pounds apiece, eh, Bunny?"
"Anything," I murmured.
The solicitor rapped his desk.
"I'll tell you what I want you to do. You can but refuse. It'sillegal, but it's illegality in a good cause; that's the risk, and myclient is prepared to pay for it. He will pay for the attempt, in caseof failure; the money is as good as yours once you consent to run therisk. My client is Sir Bernard Debenham, of Broom Hall, Esher."
"I know his son," I remarked.
Raffles knew him too, but said nothing, and his eye drooped disapprovalin my direction. Bennett Addenbrooke turned to me.
"Then," said he, "you have the privilege of knowing one of the mostcomplete young black-guards about town, and the fons et origo of thewhole trouble. As you know the son, you may know the father too, atall events by reputation; and in that case I needn't tell you that heis a very peculiar man. He lives alone in a storehouse of treasureswhich no eyes but his ever behold. He is said to have the finestcollection of pictures in the south of England, though nobody ever seesthem to judge; pictures, fiddles and furniture are his hobby, and he isundoubtedly very eccentric. Nor can one deny that there has beenconsiderable eccentricity in his treatment of his son. For years SirBernard paid his debts, and the other day, without the slightestwarning, not only refused to do so any more, but absolutely stopped thelad's allowance. Well, I'll tell you what has happened; but first ofall you must know, or you may remember, that I appeared for youngDebenham in a little scrape he got into a year or two ago. I got himoff all right, and Sir Bernard paid me handsomely on the nail. And nomore did I hear or see of either of them until one day last week."
The lawyer drew his chair nearer ours, and leant forward with a hand oneither knee.
"On Tuesday of last week I had a telegram from Sir Bernard; I was to goto him at once. I found him waiting for me in the drive; without aword he led me to the picture-gallery, which was locked and darkened,drew up a blind, and stood simply pointing to an empty picture-frame.It was a long time before I could get a word out of him. Then at lasthe told me that that frame had contained one of the rarest and mostvaluable pictures in England--in the world--an original Velasquez. Ihave checked this," said the lawyer, "and it seems literally true; thepicture was a portrait of the Infanta Maria Teresa, said to be one ofthe artist's greatest works, second only to another portrait of one ofthe Popes in Rome--so they told me at the National Gallery, where theyhad its history by heart. They say there that the picture ispractically priceless. And young Debenham has sold it for fivethousand pounds!"
"The deuce he has," said Raffles.
I inquired who had bought it.
"A Queensland legislator of the name of Cra
ggs--the Hon. John MontaguCraggs, M.L.C., to give him his full title. Not that we knew anythingabout him on Tuesday last; we didn't even know for certain that youngDebenham had stolen the picture. But he had gone down for money on theMonday evening, had been refused, and it was plain enough that he hadhelped himself in this way; he had threatened revenge, and this was it.Indeed, when I hunted him up in town on the Tuesday night, he confessedas much in the most brazen manner imaginable. But he wouldn't tell mewho was the purchaser, and finding out took the rest of the week; but Idid find out, and a nice time I've had of it ever since! Backwards andforwards between Esher and the Metropole, where the Queenslander isstaying, sometimes twice a day; threats, offers, prayers, entreaties,not one of them a bit of good!"
"But," said Raffles, "surely it's a clear case? The sale was illegal;you can pay him back his money and force him to give the picture up."
"Exactly; but not without an action and a public scandal, and that myclient declines to face. He would rather lose even his picture thanhave the whole thing get into the papers; he has disowned his son, buthe will not disgrace him; yet his picture he must have by hook orcrook, and there's the rub! I am to get it back by fair means or foul.He gives me carte blanche in the matter, and, I verily believe, wouldthrow in a blank check if asked. He offered one to the Queenslander,but Craggs simply tore it in two; the one old boy is as much acharacter as the other, and between the two of them I'm at my wits'end."
"So you put that advertisement in the paper?" said Raffles, in the drytones he had adopted throughout the interview.
"As a last resort. I did."
"And you wish us to STEAL this picture?"
It was magnificently said; the lawyer flushed from his hair to hiscollar.
"I knew you were not the men!" he groaned. "I never thought of men ofyour stamp! But it's not stealing," he exclaimed heatedly; "it'srecovering stolen property. Besides, Sir Bernard will pay him his fivethousand as soon as he has the picture; and, you'll see, old Craggswill be just as loath to let it come out as Sir Bernard himself. No,no--it's an enterprise, an adventure, if you like--but not stealing."
"You yourself mentioned the law," murmured Raffles.
"And the risk," I added.
"We pay for that," he said once more.
"But not enough," said Raffles, shaking his head. "My good sir,consider what it means to us. You spoke of those clubs; we should notonly get kicked out of them, but put in prison like common burglars!It's true we're hard up, but it simply isn't worth it at the price.Double your stakes, and I for one am your man."
Addenbrooke wavered.
"Do you think you could bring it off?"
"We could try."
"But you have no--"
"Experience? Well, hardly!"
"And you would really run the risk for four thousand pounds?"
Raffles looked at me. I nodded.
"We would," said he, "and blow the odds!"
"It's more than I can ask my client to pay," said Addenbrooke, growingfirm.
"Then it's more than you can expect us to risk."
"You are in earnest?"
"God wot!"
"Say three thousand if you succeed!"
"Four is our figure, Mr. Addenbrooke."
"Then I think it should be nothing if you fail."
"Doubles or quits?" cried Raffles. "Well, that's sporting. Done!"
Addenbrooke opened his lips, half rose, then sat back in his chair, andlooked long and shrewdly at Raffles--never once at me.
"I know your bowling," said he reflectively. "I go up to Lord'swhenever I want an hour's real rest, and I've seen you bowl again andagain--yes, and take the best wickets in England on a plumb pitch. Idon't forget the last Gentleman and Players; I was there. You're up toevery trick--every one ... I'm inclined to think that if anybody couldbowl out this old Australian ... Damme, I believe you're my very man!"
The bargain was clinched at the Cafe Royal, where Bennett Addenbrookeinsisted on playing host at an extravagant luncheon. I remember thathe took his whack of champagne with the nervous freedom of a man athigh pressure, and have no doubt I kept him in countenance by an equalindulgence; but Raffles, ever an exemplar in such matters, was moreabstemious even than his wont, and very poor company to boot. I cansee him now, his eyes in his plate--thinking--thinking. I can see thesolicitor glancing from him to me in an apprehension of which I did mybest to disabuse him by reassuring looks. At the close Rafflesapologized for his preoccupation, called for an A.B.C. time-table, andannounced his intention of catching the 3.2 to Esher.
"You must excuse me, Mr. Addenbrooke," said he, "but I have my ownidea, and for the moment I should much prefer to keep it to myself. Itmay end in fizzle, so I would rather not speak about it to either ofyou just yet. But speak to Sir Bernard I must, so will you write meone line to him on your card? Of course, if you wish, you must comedown with me and hear what I say; but I really don't see much point init."
And as usual Raffles had his way, though Bennett Addenbrooke showedsome temper when he was gone, and I myself shared his annoyance to nosmall extent. I could only tell him that it was in the nature ofRaffles to be self-willed and secretive, but that no man of myacquaintance had half his audacity and determination; that I for mypart would trust him through and through, and let him gang his own gaitevery time. More I dared not say, even to remove those chillmisgivings with which I knew that the lawyer went his way.
That day I saw no more of Raffles, but a telegram reached me when I wasdressing for dinner:
"Be in your rooms to-morrow from noon and keep rest of day clear,Raffles."
It had been sent off from Waterloo at 6.42.
So Raffles was back in town; at an earlier stage of our relations Ishould have hunted him up then and there, but now I knew better. Histelegram meant that he had no desire for my society that night or thefollowing forenoon; that when he wanted me I should see him soon enough.
And see him I did, towards one o'clock next day. I was watching for himfrom my window in Mount Street, when he drove up furiously in a hansom,and jumped out without a word to the man. I met him next minute at thelift gates, and he fairly pushed me back into my rooms.
"Five minutes, Bunny!" he cried. "Not a moment more."
And he tore off his coat before flinging himself into the nearest chair.
"I'm fairly on the rush," he panted; "having the very devil of a time!Not a word till I tell you all I've done. I settled my plan ofcampaign yesterday at lunch. The first thing was to get in with thisman Craggs; you can't break into a place like the Metropole, it's gotto be done from the inside. Problem one, how to get at the fellow.Only one sort of pretext would do--it must be something to do with thisblessed picture, so that I might see where he'd got it and all that.Well, I couldn't go and ask to see it out of curiosity, and I couldn'tgo as a second representative of the other old chap, and it wasthinking how I could go that made me such a bear at lunch. But I sawmy way before we got up. If I could only lay hold of a copy of thepicture I might ask leave to go and compare it with the original. Sodown I went to Esher to find out if there was a copy in existence, andwas at Broom Hall for one hour and a half yesterday afternoon. Therewas no copy there, but they must exist, for Sir Bernard himself(there's 'copy' THERE!) has allowed a couple to be made since thepicture has been in his possession. He hunted up the painters'addresses, and the rest of the evening I spent in hunting up thepainters themselves; but their work had been done on commission; onecopy had gone out of the country, and I'm still on the track of theother."
"Then you haven't seen Craggs yet?"
"Seen him and made friends with him, and if possible he's the funnierold cuss of the two; but you should study 'em both. I took the bull bythe horns this morning, went in and lied like Ananias, and it was justas well I did--the old ruffian sails for Australia by to-morrow's boat.I told him a man wanted to sell me a copy of the celebrated InfantaMaria Teresa of Velasquez, that I'd been down to the supposed ow
ner ofthe picture, only to find that he had just sold it to him. You shouldhave seen his face when I told him that! He grinned all round hiswicked old head. 'Did OLD Debenham admit the sale?' says he; and whenI said he had he chuckled to himself for about five minutes. He was sopleased that he did just what I hoped he would do; he showed me thegreat picture--luckily it isn't by any means a large one--also the casehe's got it in. It's an iron map-case in which he brought over theplans of his land in Brisbane; he wants to know who would suspect it ofcontaining an Old Master, too? But he's had it fitted with a newChubb's lock, and I managed to take an interest in the key while he wasgloating over the canvas. I had the wax in the palm of my hand, and Ishall make my duplicate this afternoon."
Raffles looked at his watch and jumped up saying he had given me aminute too much.
"By the way," he added, "you've got to dine with him at the Metropoleto-night!"
"I?"
"Yes; don't look so scared. Both of us are invited--I swore you weredining with me. I accepted for us both; but I sha'n't be there."
His clear eye was upon me, bright with meaning and with mischief.
I implored him to tell me what his meaning was.
"You will dine in his private sitting-room," said Raffles; "it adjoinshis bedroom. You must keep him sitting as long as possible, Bunny, andtalking all the time!"
In a flash I saw his plan.
"You're going for the picture while we're at dinner?"
"I am."
"If he hears you?"
"He sha'n't."
"But if he does!"
And I fairly trembled at the thought.
"If he does," said Raffles, "there will be a collision, that's all.Revolver would be out of place in the Metropole, but I shall certainlytake a life-preserver."
"But it's ghastly!" I cried. "To sit and talk to an utter stranger andto know that you're at work in the next room!"
"Two thousand apiece," said Raffles, quietly.
"Upon my soul I believe I shall give it away!"
"Not you, Bunny. I know you better than you know yourself."
He put on his coat and his hat.
"What time have I to be there?" I asked him, with a groan.
"Quarter to eight. There will be a telegram from me saying I can'tturn up. He's a terror to talk, you'll have no difficulty in keepingthe ball rolling; but head him off his picture for all you're worth.If he offers to show it to you, say you must go. He locked up the caseelaborately this afternoon, and there's no earthly reason why he shouldunlock it again in this hemisphere."
"Where shall I find you when I get away?"
"I shall be down at Esher. I hope to catch the 9.55."
"But surely I can see you again this afternoon?" I cried in a ferment,for his hand was on the door. "I'm not half coached up yet! I know Ishall make a mess of it!"
"Not you," he said again, "but _I_ shall if I waste any more time.I've got a deuce of a lot of rushing about to do yet. You won't findme at my rooms. Why not come down to Esher yourself by the last train?That's it--down you come with the latest news! I'll tell old Debenhamto expect you: he shall give us both a bed. By Jove! he won't be ableto do us too well if he's got his picture."
"If!" I groaned as he nodded his adieu; and he left me limp withapprehension, sick with fear, in a perfectly pitiable condition of purestage-fright.
For, after all, I had only to act my part; unless Raffles failed wherehe never did fail, unless Raffles the neat and noiseless was for onceclumsy and inept, all I had to do was indeed to "smile and smile and bea villain." I practiced that smile half the afternoon. I rehearsedputative parts in hypothetical conversations. I got up stories. Idipped in a book on Queensland at the club. And at last it was 7.45,and I was making my bow to a somewhat elderly man with a small baldhead and a retreating brow.
"So you're Mr. Raffles's friend?" said he, overhauling me rather rudelywith his light small eyes. "Seen anything of him? Expected him earlyto show me something, but he's never come."
No more, evidently, had his telegram, and my troubles were beginningearly. I said I had not seen Raffles since one o'clock, telling thetruth with unction while I could; even as we spoke there came a knockat the door; it was the telegram at last, and, after reading ithimself, the Queenslander handed it to me.
"Called out of town!" he grumbled. "Sudden illness of near relative!What near relatives has he got?"
I knew of none, and for an instant I quailed before the perils ofinvention; then I replied that I had never met any of his people, andagain felt fortified by my veracity.
"Thought you were bosom pals?" said he, with (as I imagined) a gleam ofsuspicion in his crafty little eyes.
"Only in town," said I. "I've never been to his place."
"Well," he growled, "I suppose it can't be helped. Don't know why hecouldn't come and have his dinner first. Like to see the death-bed I'Dgo to without MY dinner; it's a full-skin billet, if you ask me. Well,must just dine without him, and he'll have to buy his pig in a pokeafter all. Mind touching that bell? Suppose you know what he came tosee me about? Sorry I sha'n't see him again, for his own sake. Iliked Raffles--took to him amazingly. He's a cynic. Like cynics. Onemyself. Rank bad form of his mother or his aunt, and I hope she willgo and kick the bucket."
I connect these specimens of his conversation, though they weredoubtless detached at the time, and interspersed with remarks of minehere and there. They filled the interval until dinner was served, andthey gave me an impression of the man which his every subsequentutterance confirmed. It was an impression which did away with allremorse for my treacherous presence at his table. He was that terribletype, the Silly Cynic, his aim a caustic commentary on all things andall men, his achievement mere vulgar irreverence and unintelligentscorn. Ill-bred and ill-informed, he had (on his own showing) flukedinto fortune on a rise in land; yet cunning he possessed, as well asmalice, and he chuckled till he choked over the misfortunes of lessastute speculators in the same boom. Even now I cannot feel muchcompunction for my behavior by the Hon. J. M. Craggs, M.L.C.
But never shall I forget the private agonies of the situation, thelistening to my host with one ear and for Raffles with the other! OnceI heard him--though the rooms were not divided by the old-fashionedfolding-doors, and though the door that did divide them was not onlyshut but richly curtained, I could have sworn I heard him once. Ispilt my wine and laughed at the top of my voice at some coarse sallyof my host's. And I heard nothing more, though my ears were on thestrain. But later, to my horror, when the waiter had finally withdrawn,Craggs himself sprang up and rushed to his bedroom without a word. Isat like stone till he returned.
"Thought I heard a door go," he said. "Must have been mistaken ...imagination ... gave me quite a turn. Raffles tell you pricelesstreasure I got in there?"
It was the picture at last; up to this point I had kept him toQueensland and the making of his pile. I tried to get him back therenow, but in vain. He was reminded of his great ill-gotten possession.I said that Raffles had just mentioned it, and that set him off. Withthe confidential garrulity of a man who has dined too well, he plungedinto his darling topic, and I looked past him at the clock. It wasonly a quarter to ten.
In common decency I could not go yet. So there I sat (we were still atport) and learnt what had originally fired my host's ambition topossess what he was pleased to call a "real, genuine, twin-screw,double-funnelled, copper-bottomed Old Master"; it was to "go onebetter" than some rival legislator of pictorial proclivities. But evenan epitome of his monologue would be so much weariness; suffice it thatit ended inevitably in the invitation I had dreaded all the evening.
"But you must see it. Next room. This way."
"Isn't it packed up?" I inquired hastily.
"Lock and key. That's all."
"Pray don't trouble," I urged.
"Trouble be hanged!" said he. "Come along."
And all at once I saw that to resist him further would be to
heapsuspicion upon myself against the moment of impending discovery. Itherefore followed him into his bedroom without further protest, andsuffered him first to show me the iron map-case which stood in onecorner; he took a crafty pride in this receptacle, and I thought hewould never cease descanting on its innocent appearance and its Chubb'slock. It seemed an interminable age before the key was in the latter.Then the ward clicked, and my pulse stood still.
"By Jove!" I cried next instant.
The canvas was in its place among the maps!
"Thought it would knock you," said Craggs, drawing it out and unrollingit for my benefit. "Grand thing, ain't it? Wouldn't think it had beenpainted two hundred and thirty years? It has, though, MY word! OldJohnson's face will be a treat when he sees it; won't go bragging aboutHIS pictures much more. Why, this one's worth all the pictures inColony o' Queensland put together. Worth fifty thousand pounds, myboy--and I got it for five!"
He dug me in the ribs, and seemed in the mood for further confidences.My appearance checked him, and he rubbed his hands.
"If you take it like that," he chuckled, "how will old Johnson take it?Go out and hang himself to his own picture-rods, I hope!"
Heaven knows what I contrived to say at last. Struck speechless firstby my relief, I continued silent from a very different cause. A newtangle of emotions tied my tongue. Raffles had failed--Raffles hadfailed! Could I not succeed? Was it too late? Was there no way?
"So long," he said, taking a last look at the canvas before he rolledit up--"so long till we get to Brisbane."
The flutter I was in as he closed the case!
"For the last time," he went on, as his keys jingled back into hispocket. "It goes straight into the strong-room on board."
For the last time! If I could but send him out to Australia with onlyits legitimate contents in his precious map-case! If I could butsucceed where Raffles had failed!
We returned to the other room. I have no notion how long he talked, orwhat about. Whiskey and soda-water became the order of the hour. Iscarcely touched it, but he drank copiously, and before eleven I lefthim incoherent. And the last train for Esher was the 11.50 out ofWaterloo.
I took a hansom to my rooms. I was back at the hotel in thirteenminutes. I walked upstairs. The corridor was empty; I stood an instanton the sitting-room threshold, heard a snore within, and admittedmyself softly with my gentleman's own key, which it had been a verysimple matter to take away with me.
Craggs never moved; he was stretched on the sofa fast asleep. But notfast enough for me. I saturated my handkerchief with the chloroform Ihad brought, and laid it gently over his mouth. Two or three stertorousbreaths, and the man was a log.
I removed the handkerchief; I extracted the keys from his pocket.
In less than five minutes I put them back, after winding the pictureabout my body beneath my Inverness cape. I took some whiskey andsoda-water before I went.
The train was easily caught--so easily that I trembled for ten minutesin my first-class smoking carriage--in terror of every footstep on theplatform, in unreasonable terror till the end. Then at last I sat backand lit a cigarette, and the lights of Waterloo reeled out behind.
Some men were returning from the theatre. I can recall theirconversation even now. They were disappointed with the piece they hadseen. It was one of the later Savoy operas, and they spoke wistfully ofthe days of "Pinafore" and "Patience." One of them hummed a stave, andthere was an argument as to whether the air was out of "Patience" orthe "Mikado." They all got out at Surbiton, and I was alone with mytriumph for a few intoxicating minutes. To think that I had succeededwhere Raffles had failed!
Of all our adventures this was the first in which I had played acommanding part; and, of them all, this was infinitely the leastdiscreditable. It left me without a conscientious qualm; I had butrobbed a robber, when all was said. And I had done it myself,single-handed--ipse egomet!
I pictured Raffles, his surprise, his delight. He would think a littlemore of me in future. And that future, it should be different. We hadtwo thousand pounds apiece--surely enough to start afresh as honestmen--and all through me!
In a glow I sprang out at Esher, and took the one belated cab that waswaiting under the bridge. In a perfect fever I beheld Broom Hall, withthe lower story still lit up, and saw the front door open as I climbedthe steps.
"Thought it was you," said Raffles cheerily. "It's all right. There'sa bed for you. Sir Bernard's sitting up to shake your hand."
His good spirits disappointed me. But I knew the man: he was one ofthose who wear their brightest smile in the blackest hour. I knew himtoo well by this time to be deceived.
"I've got it!" I cried in his ear. "I've got it!"
"Got what?" he asked me, stepping back.
"The picture!"
"WHAT?"
"The picture. He showed it me. You had to go without it; I saw that.So I determined to have it. And here it is."
"Let's see," said Raffles grimly.
I threw off my cape and unwound the canvas from about my body. While Iwas doing so an untidy old gentleman made his appearance in the hall,and stood looking on with raised eyebrows.
"Looks pretty fresh for an Old Master, doesn't she?" said Raffles.
His tone was strange. I could only suppose that he was jealous of mysuccess.
"So Craggs said. I hardly looked at it myself."
"Well, look now--look closely. By Jove, I must have faked her betterthan I thought!"
"It's a copy!" I cried.
"It's THE copy," he answered. "It's the copy I've been tearing allover the country to procure. It's the copy I faked back and front, sothat, on your own showing, it imposed upon Craggs, and might have madehim happy for life. And you go and rob him of that!"
I could not speak.
"How did you manage it?" inquired Sir Bernard Debenham.
"Have you killed him?" asked Raffles sardonically.
I did not look at him; I turned to Sir Bernard Debenham, and to him Itold my story, hoarsely, excitedly, for it was all that I could do tokeep from breaking down. But as I spoke I became calmer, and Ifinished in mere bitterness, with the remark that another time Rafflesmight tell me what he meant to do.
"Another time!" he cried instantly. "My dear Bunny, you speak asthough we were going to turn burglars for a living!"
"I trust you won't," said Sir Bernard, smiling, "for you are certainlytwo very daring young men. Let us hope our friend from Queensland willdo as he said, and not open his map-case till he gets back there. Hewill find my check awaiting him, and I shall be very much surprised ifhe troubles any of us again."
Raffles and I did not speak till I was in the room which had beenprepared for me. Nor was I anxious to do so then. But he followed meand took my hand.
"Bunny," said he, "don't you be hard on a fellow! I was in the deuceof a hurry, and didn't know that I should ever get what I wanted intime, and that's a fact. But it serves me right that you should havegone and undone one of the best things I ever did. As for YOURhandiwork, old chap, you won't mind my saying that I didn't think youhad it in you. In future--"
"Don't talk to me about the future!" I cried. "I hate the whole thing!I'm going to chuck it up!"
"So am I," said Raffles, "when I've made my pile."