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^v 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
The 
 Amateur Cracksman 
 
 By E. W. Hornung 
 
 George N. Morang & Company, Limited 
 Toronto 1899 
 
/V yi(. .-in. 
 
 2020 
 
 
:0 
 
 TO 
 
 A. C. D. 
 
 THIS FORM OF FLATTERY 
 
4 
 
 s. 
 
 ■'i 
 
 i 
 
4 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 The Ides of March ; 
 
 A Costume Piece ^^ 
 
 Gentlemen and Players ny 
 
 Le Premier Pas jjc 
 
 Wilful Murder , .- 
 
 J^ine Points of the Law ijy 
 
 The Return Match 211 
 
 The Gift of the Emperor 242 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 THE IDES OF MARCH 
 
 J T was about half-past twelve when I re- 
 turned to the Albany as a last desper- 
 ate resort. The scene of my disaster was 
 much as I had left it. The baccarat-count- 
 ers still strewed the table, with the empty 
 glasses and the loaded ash-trays. A win- 
 dow had been opened to let the smoke out, 
 and was letting in the fog instead. Raffles 
 himself had merely discarded his dining 
 jacket for one of his innumerable blazers. 
 Yet he arched his eyebrows as though I had 
 dragged him from his bed. 
 
 " Forgotten something? " said he, when 
 he saw me on his mat. 
 
 " No," said I, pushing past him without 
 
 I 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 ceremony. And I led the way into his room 
 with an impudence amazing to myself. 
 
 ** Not come back for your revenge, have 
 you? Because I'm afraid I can't give it you 
 single-handed. I was sorry myself that the 
 others " 
 
 We were face to face by his fireside, and 
 I cut him short. 
 
 " Raffles," said I, " you may well be sur- 
 prised at my coming back in this way and 
 at this hour. I hardly know you. I was 
 never in your rooms before to-night. But 
 I fagged for you at school, and you said 
 you remembered me. Of course that's no 
 excuse; but will you listen to me — for two 
 minutes? " 
 
 In my emotion I had at first to struggle 
 for evc-y word; but his face reassured me 
 as I went on, and I was not mistaken in its 
 expression. 
 
 " Certainly, my dear man," said he; "as 
 many minutes as you like. Have a Sulli- 
 van and sit down." And he handed me his 
 silver cigarette-case. 
 
 " No," said I, finding a full voice as I 
 shook my head; ** no, I won't smoke, and I 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 won't sit down, thank you. Nor will you 
 ask me to do either when you've heard what 
 I have to say." 
 
 "Really?" said he, lighting his own 
 cigarette with one clear blue eye upon me. 
 " How do you know? " 
 
 '• Because you'll probably show me the 
 door," I cried bitterly; '' and you'll be justi- 
 fied in doing it! But it's no use beating 
 about the bush. You know I dropped over 
 two hundred just now? " 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " I hadn't the money in my pocket." 
 " I remember." 
 
 " But I had my cheque-book, and I wrote 
 each of you a cheque at that desk " 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Not one of them was worth the paper it 
 
 was written on, Raffles. I am overdrawn 
 
 already at my bank!" 
 " Surely only for the moment? " 
 " No. I have spent everything." 
 " But somebody told me you were so well 
 
 off. I heard you had come in for money? " 
 "So I did. Three years ago. It has been 
 
 my curse; now it's all gone— every penny! 
 
 3 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 Yes, I've been a fool; there never was nor 
 will be such a fool as I've been. . . . 
 Isn't this enough for you? Why don't you 
 turn me out? " He was walking up and 
 down with a very long face instead. 
 
 " Couldn't your people do anything? " he 
 asked at length. 
 
 '* Thank God," I cried, " I have no peo- 
 ple! I was an only child. I came in for 
 everything there was. My one comfort is 
 that they're gone, and will never know." 
 
 I cast myself into a chair aud hid my 
 face. RafBes continued to pace the rich 
 carpet that was of a piece with everything 
 else in his rooms. There was no variation 
 in his soft and even footfalls. 
 
 ** You used to be a literary Httle cuss," he 
 said at length; "didn't you edit the mag. 
 before you left? Anyway I recollect fag- 
 ging you to do my verses; and literature of 
 all sorts is the very thing nowadays; any 
 fool can make a living at it." 
 
 I shook my head. " Any fool couldn't 
 write ofT my debts," said I. 
 
 "Then you have a flat somewhere?" he 
 went on. 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 " Yes, in Mount Street." 
 
 " Well, what about the furniture? " 
 
 I laughed aloud in my misery. " There's 
 
 been a bill of sale on every stick for 
 
 months ! " 
 
 And at that Raffles stood still, with raised 
 eyebrows and stern eyes that I could meet 
 the better now that he knew the worst; 
 then, with a shrug, he resumed his walk,' 
 and for some minutes neither of us spoke.' 
 But in his handsome unmoved face I read 
 my fate and death-warrant; and with every 
 breath I cursed my folly and my cowardice 
 in coming to him at all. Because he had 
 been kind to me at school, when he was 
 captain of the eleven, and I his fag, I had 
 dared to look for kindness from him now; 
 because I was ruined, and he rich enough 
 to play cricket all the summer, and do 
 nothing for the rest of the year, I had fatu- 
 ously counted on his mercv, his sympathy 
 his help! Yes, I had relied on him in my 
 heart, for all my outward diffidence and hu- 
 mility; and I was nghtly served. There was 
 as little of mercy as of svmpathy in 
 that curhng nostril, that rigid jaw, that cold 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 blue eye which never glanced my way. I 
 caught up my lat. I bkmdered to my feet. 
 I would have gone without a word; but 
 Raffles stood between me .and the door. 
 
 " Where are you going? " said he. 
 
 " That's my business," I replied. " I 
 won't trouble you any more." 
 
 " Then how am I to help you? " 
 
 " I didn't ask your help." 
 
 " Then why come to me? " 
 
 "Why, indeed!" I echoed. "Will you 
 let me pass?" 
 
 " Not until you tell me where you are 
 going and what you mean to do." 
 
 "Can't you guess?" I cried. And for 
 many seconds we stood staring in each 
 other's eyes. 
 
 "Have you got the pluck?" said he, 
 breaking the spell in a tone so cynical that 
 it brought my last drop of blood to the boil. 
 
 " You shall see," said I, as I stepped 
 back and whipped the pistol from my over- 
 coat pocket. " Now, will you let me pass 
 or shall I do it here?" 
 . The barrel touched my temple, and my 
 thumb the trigger. Mad with excitement as 
 
 6 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 I was, ruined, dishonoured, and now finally 
 determined to make an end of my mis- 
 spent life, my only surprise to this day is 
 that I did not do so then and there. The 
 despicable satisfaction of involving another 
 in one's destruction added its miserable ap- 
 peal to my baser egoism; and had fear or 
 horror fiown to my companion's face, I 
 shudder to think I might have died dia- 
 bolically happy with that look for my last 
 impious consolation. It was the look that 
 came instead which held my hand. Neither 
 fear nor horror were in it; only wonder, ad- 
 miration, and such a measure of pleased 
 expectancy as caused me after all to pocket 
 my levolver with an oath. 
 
 "You devil!" I said. "I believe you 
 wanted me to do it! " 
 
 " Not quite," was the reply, made with a 
 little start, and a change of colour that came 
 too late. " To tell you the truth, though, 
 I half thought you meant it, and 1 was never 
 more fascinated in my life. I never dreamt 
 you had such stuff in you, Bunny! No. I'm 
 hanged if I let you go now. And you'd 
 better not try that game again, for you 
 
 7 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 * 
 
 won't catch me stand and look on a second 
 time. We must think of some way out of 
 the mess. I had no idea you were a chap 
 of that sort! There, let me have the gun." 
 
 One of his hands fell kindly on my 
 shoulder, while the other slipped into my 
 overcoat pocket, and I suffered him to de- 
 prive me of my weapon without a murmur. 
 Nor was this simply because Raffles had 
 the subtle power of making himself irre- 
 sistible at will. He was beyond comparison 
 the most masterful man whom I have ever 
 known; yet my acquiescence was due to 
 more than the mere subjection of the weaker 
 nature to the stronger. The forlorn hope 
 which had brought me to the Albany was 
 turned as by magic into an almost stagger- 
 ing sense of safety. Raffles would help me 
 after all! A. J. Raffles would be my friend! 
 It was as though all the world had come 
 round suddenly to my side; so far therefore 
 from resisting his action, I caught and 
 clasped his hand with a fervour as uncon- 
 trollable as the frenzy which had pre- 
 ceded it. 
 
 God bless you ! " I cried. " Forgive me 
 
 8 
 
 « 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 for everything. I will tell you the truth. I 
 did think you might help me in my extrem- 
 ity, though I well knew that I had no claim 
 upon you. Still — for the old school's sake 
 — the sake of old times — I thought you 
 might give me another chance. If you 
 wouldn't I meant to blow out my brains — 
 and will still if you change your mind! " 
 
 In truth I feared that it was changing, 
 with his expression, even as I spoke, and 
 in spite of his kindly tone and kindlier use 
 of my old school nickname. His next words 
 showed me my mistake. 
 
 " What a boy it is for jumping to conclu- 
 sions! I have my vices. Bunny, but back- 
 ing and filling is not one of them. Sit 
 down, my good fellow, and have a cigarette 
 to soothe your nerves. I insist. Whisky? 
 The worst thing for you ; here's some coffee 
 that I was brewing when you came in. Now 
 listen to me. You speak of ' another chance.' 
 What do you mean? Another chance at 
 baccarat? Not if I know it ! You think the 
 luck must turn; suppose it didn't? We 
 should only have made bad worse. No. 
 my dear chap, you've plunged enough. Do 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 you put yourself in my hands or do you 
 not? Very well, then you plunge no more, 
 and I undertake not to present my cheque. 
 Unfortunately there are the other men; and 
 still more unfortunately, Bunny, I'm as hard 
 up at this moment as you are yourself ! " 
 
 It was my turn to stare at Raffles. 
 "You?" I vociferated. "You hard up? 
 How am I to sit here and believe that? " 
 
 " Did I refuse to believe it of you?" he 
 returned, smiling. " And, with your own 
 experience, do you think that because a fel- 
 low has rooms in this place, and belongs to 
 a club or two, and plays a little cricket, he 
 must necessarily have a balance at the 
 bank? I tell you, my dear man, that at this 
 moment I'm as hard up as you ever were. 
 I have nothing but my wits to live on — 
 absolutely nothing else. It was as neces- 
 sary for me to win some money this even- 
 ing as it was for you. We're in the same 
 boat, Bunny; we'd better pull together." 
 
 "Together!" I jumped at it. "I'll do 
 anything in this world for you, Raffles," 
 I said, " if you really mean that you won't 
 give me away. Think of anything you like, 
 
 lO 
 
h 
 
 The Ides of March 
 
 and I'll do it! I was a desperate man when 
 1 came here, and I'm just as desperate now. 
 I don't mind what I do if only I can get out 
 of this without a scandal." 
 
 Again I see him, leaning back in one of 
 the luxurious chairs with which his room 
 was furnished. I see his indolent, athletic 
 figure ; his pale, sharp, clean-shaven feat- 
 ures; his curly black hair ; his strong, un- 
 scrupulous mouth. And again I feel the 
 clear beam of his wonderful eye, cold and 
 luminous as a star, shining into my brain 
 —sifting the very secrets of my heart. 
 
 " I wonder if you mean all that! " he said 
 at length. " You do in your present mood; 
 but who can back his mood to last? Still, 
 there's hope when a chap takes that tone. 
 Now I think of it, too, you were a plucky 
 little devil at school ; you once did me rather 
 a good turn, I recollect. Remember it. 
 Bunny? Well, wait a bit, and perhaps I'll 
 be able to do you a better one. Give me 
 time to think." 
 
 He got up, lit a fresh cigarette, and fell 
 to pacing the room once more, but with a 
 slower and more thoughtful step, and for 
 
 II 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 a much longer period than before. Twice 
 he stopped at my chair as though on the 
 point of speaking, but each time he checked 
 himself and resumed his stride in silence. 
 Once he threw up the window, which he 
 had shut some time since and stood for 
 some moments leaning out into the fog 
 which filled the Albany courtyard. Mean- 
 while a clock on the chimney-piece struck 
 one, and one again for the half-hour, with- 
 out a word between us. 
 
 Yet I not only kept my chair with patience, 
 but I acquired an incongruous equanimity 
 in that half-hour. Insensibly I had shifted 
 my burden to the broad shoulders of this 
 splendid friend, and my thoughts wandered 
 with my eyes as the minutes passed. The 
 room was the good-sized, square one, with 
 the folding doors, the marble mantel-piece, 
 and the gloomy, old-fashioned distinction 
 peculiar to the Albany. It was charmingly 
 furnished and arranged, with the right 
 amount of negligence and the right amount 
 of taste. What struck me most, however, 
 was the absence of the usual insignia of a 
 cricketer's den. Instead of the conventional 
 
 12 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 Si 
 
 rack of war-worn bats, a carved oak book- 
 case, with every shelf in a litter, filled the 
 better part of one wall; and where I looked 
 for cricketing groups, I found reproduc- 
 tions of such works as " Love and Death " 
 and " The Blessed Damozel," in dusty 
 frames and different parallc's. The man 
 might have been a minor poet instead of an 
 athlete of the first water. But there had 
 always been a fine streak of aestheticism in 
 his complex composition; some of these 
 very pictures I had myself dusted in his 
 study at school; and they set me thinking 
 of yet another of his many sides — and of 
 the little incident to which he had just re- 
 ferred. 
 
 Everybody knows how largely the tone 
 of a public school depends on that of the 
 eleven, and on the character of the captain 
 of cricket in particular; and I have never 
 heard it denied that in A. J. Raffles's time 
 our tone was good, or that such influence 
 as he troubled to exert was on the side of 
 the angels. Yet it was whispered in the 
 school that he was in the habit of parading 
 the town at night in loud checks and a false 
 beard. It was whispered, and disbelieved. 
 
 13 
 
m 
 
 'I I 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 I alone knew it for a fact; for night after 
 night had I pulled the rope up after him 
 when the rest of the dormitory were asleep, 
 and kept awake by the hour to let it down 
 again on a given signal. Well, one night he 
 was over-bold, and within an ace of igno- 
 minious expulsion in the hey-day of his 
 fame. Consummate daring and extraordi- 
 nary nerve on his part, aided, doubtless, by 
 some little presence of mind on mine, 
 averted that untoward result; and no more 
 need be said of a discreditable incident. But 
 I cannot pretend to have forgotten it in 
 throwing myself on this man's mercy in 
 my desperation. And I was wondering 
 how much of his leniency was owing to the 
 fact that Raffles had not forgotten it either, 
 when he stopped and stood over my chair 
 once more. 
 
 " I've been thinking of that night we had 
 the narrow squeak," he began. " Why do 
 vou start?" 
 
 " I was thinking of it too." 
 
 He smiled, as though he had read my 
 thoughts. 
 
 " Well, you were the right sort of little 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 J 
 
 :! 
 
 ■9^ 
 
 beggar then, Bunny; you didn't talk and 
 you didn't flinch. You asked no questions 
 and you told no tales. I wonder if you're 
 like that now?" 
 
 " I don't know," said I, slightly puzzled 
 by his tone. *' I've made such a mess of 
 my own affairs that I trust myself about 
 as little as I'm likely to be trusted by any- 
 body else. Yet I never in my life went 
 back on a friend. I will say that; other- 
 wise perhaps I mightn't be in such a hole 
 to-night." 
 
 " Exactly," said Raffles, nodding to him- 
 self, as though in assent to some hidden 
 train of thought ; " exactly what I remem- 
 ber of you, and I'll bet it's as true now as 
 it was ten years ago. We don't alter, Bunny. 
 We only develop. I suppose neither you 
 nor I are really altered since you used to 
 let down that rope and I used to come up 
 it hand over hand. You would stick at 
 nothing for a pal — what?" 
 
 " At nothing in this world," I was pleased 
 to cry. 
 
 " Not even at a crime? " said Raffles, 
 smiling. 
 
 15 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 I stopped to think, for his tone had 
 changed, and I felt sure he was chaffing 
 me. Yet his eye seemed as much in earnest 
 as ever, and for my part I was in no mood 
 for reservations. 
 
 " No, not even at that," I declared; 
 " name your crime, and I'm your man." 
 
 He looked at me one moment in won- 
 der, and another moment in doub^; then 
 turned the matter off with a shake of his 
 head, and the little cynical laugh that was 
 all his own. 
 
 " You're a nice chap, Bunny ! A real 
 desperate character — what? Suicide one 
 moment, and any crime I like the . ext! 
 What you want is a drag, my boy, and you 
 did well to come to a decent law-abiding 
 citizen with a reputation to lose. None 
 the less we must have that money to-night 
 — by hook or crook." 
 
 "To-night, Raffles?" 
 
 "The sooner the better. Every hour 
 after ten o'clock to-morrow morning is an 
 hour of risk. Let one of those cheques get 
 round to your own bank, and you and it 
 are dishonoured together. No, we must 
 
 i6 
 
 vs. 
 I 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 raise the wind to-night and reopen your ac- 
 count first thing to-morrow. And I rather 
 think t know where the wind can be raised." 
 
 " At two o'clock in the morning? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " But how — but where — at such an 
 hour? " 
 
 " From a friend of mine here in Bond 
 Street." 
 
 " He must be a very intimate friend! " 
 
 " Intimate's not the word. I have the run 
 of his place and a latch-key all to myself." 
 
 " You would knock him up at this hour 
 of the night?" 
 
 " If he's in bed." 
 
 "And it's essential that I should go in 
 with you?" 
 
 " Absolutely." 
 
 "Then I must; but Vm bound to say I 
 don't like the idea, Rafifles." 
 
 " Do you prefer the alternative? " asked 
 my companion, with a sneer. " No, hang 
 it, that's unfair! " he cried apologetically in 
 the same breath. " I quite underrtand. It's 
 a beastly ordeal. But it would never do 
 for you to stay outside. I tell you what, 
 
 17 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 you shall have a peg before we start — just 
 one. There's the whisky, here's a syphon, 
 and I'll be putting on an overcoat while 
 you help yourself." 
 
 Well, I daresay I did so with some free- 
 dom, for this plan of his was not the less 
 distasteful to me from its apparent inevi- 
 tability. I must own, however, that it pos- 
 sessed fewer terrors before my glass was 
 empty. Meanwhile Raffles rejoined me, 
 with a covert coat over his blazer, and a 
 soft felt hat set carelessly on the curly head 
 he shook with a smile as I passed him the 
 decanter. 
 
 " When we come back," said he. " Work 
 first, play afterward. Do you see what day 
 it is?" he added, tearing a leaflet from a 
 Shakespearian calendar, as I drained my 
 glass. " March 15th. ' The Ides of March, 
 the Ides of March, remember.' Eh, Bunny, 
 my boy? You won't forget them, will you? " 
 
 And, with a laugh, he threw some coals 
 on the fire before turning down the gas 
 like a careful householder. So we went out 
 together as the clock on the chimney-piece 
 was striking two. 
 
 18 
 
 "4 
 
 m. 
 
 I 
 
 ■S 
 •s 
 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 II 
 
 ''S 
 
 Piccadilly was a trench of raw white fog, 
 rimmed with blurred street-lamps, and lined 
 with a thin coating of adhesive mud. We 
 met no other wayfarers on the deserted flag- 
 stones, and were ourselves favoured with 
 a very hard stare from the constable of the 
 beat, who, however, touched his helmet on 
 recognising my companion. 
 
 *' Yoi see, I'm known to the police," 
 laughed Raffles as we passed on. " Poor 
 devils, they've got to keep their weather eye 
 open on a night like this! A fog may be a 
 bore to you and me, Lunny, but it's a per- 
 fect godsend to the criminal classes, espe- 
 cially so late in their season. Here we are, 
 though— and I'm hanged if the beggar isn't 
 in bed and asleep after all! " 
 
 We had turned into Bond Street, and had 
 halted on the curb a few yards down on the 
 right. Raffles was gazing up at some win- 
 dows across the road, windows barely dis- 
 cernible through the mist, and without the 
 glimmer of a light to throw them out. They 
 
 19 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 were over a jeweller's shop, as I could see 
 by the peep-hole in the shop door, and the 
 bright light burning within. But the en- 
 tire " upper part," with the private street- 
 door next the shop, was blacH and blank as 
 the sky itself. 
 
 ^^^ " Better give it up for to-night," I urged. 
 " Surely the morning will be time enough ! " 
 
 " Not a bit of it," said Raffles. " I have 
 his key. We'll surprise him. Come along." 
 
 And seizing my right arm, he hurried 
 me across the road, opened th- door with 
 his latch-key, and in another moment had 
 shut it swiftly but softly behind us. We 
 stood together in the dark. Outside, a meas- 
 ured step was approaching; we had heard 
 it through the fog as we crossed the street; 
 now, as it drew nearer, my companion's 
 fingers tightened on my arm. 
 
 " It may be the chap himself," he whis- 
 pered. " He's the devil of a night-bird. Not 
 a sound, Bunny! We'll startle the life out 
 of him. Ah ! " 
 
 The measured step had passed without 
 a pause. Raffles drew a deep breath, and 
 his singular grip of rne slowly relaxed. 
 
 20 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 " But still, not a sound," he continued in 
 the same whisper; " we'll take a rise out of 
 him, wherever he is! Slip off your shoes 
 and follow me." 
 
 Well, you may wonder at my doing so; 
 but you can never have met A. J. Raffles. 
 Half his power lay in a conciliating trick 
 of sinking the commander in the leader. 
 And it was impossible not to follow one 
 who led with such a zest. You might ques- 
 tion, but you followed first. So now, when 
 I heard him kick off his own shoes, I did 
 the same, and was on the stairs at his heels 
 before I realised what an extraordinary way 
 was this of approaching a stranger for 
 money in the dead of night. But obviously 
 Rafifles and he were on exceptional terms of 
 intimacy, and I could not but infer that they 
 were in the habit of playing practical jokes 
 upon each other. 
 
 We groped our way so slowly upstairs 
 that I had time to make more than one note 
 before we reached the top. The stair was 
 uncarpeted. The spread fingers of my right 
 hand encountered nothing on the damp 
 wall; those of my left trailed through a dust 
 
 21 
 
 m 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 that could be felt oii the banisters. An eerie 
 sensation had been upon me since we en- 
 tered the house. It increased with every 
 step we cHmbed. What hermit were we 
 going to startle in his cell? 
 
 We came to a landing. The banisters 
 led us to the left, and to the left again. Four 
 steps more, and we were on another and 
 a longer landing, and suddenly a match 
 blazed from the black. I never heard it 
 struck. Its flash was blinding. When my 
 eyes became accustomed to the light, there 
 was Raffles holding up the match with one 
 hand, and shading it with the other, be- 
 tween bare boards, stripped walls, and the 
 open doors of empty rooms. 
 
 " Where have you brought me? " I cried. 
 " The house is unoccupied ! " 
 
 "Hush! Wait!" he whispered, and he 
 led the way into one of the empty rooms. 
 His match went out as we crossed the thres- 
 hold, and he struck another without the 
 slightest noise. Then he stood with his 
 back to me, fumbling with something that 
 I could not see. But, when he threw the 
 second match away, there was some other 
 
 22 
 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 light in its stead, and a slight smell of oil. 
 I stepped forward to look over his shoulder, 
 but before I could do so he had turned and 
 flashed a tiny lantern in my face. 
 
 " What's this? " I gasped. " What rotten 
 trick are you going to play? " 
 
 " It's played," he answered, with his quiet 
 laugh. 
 
 "On me?" 
 
 " I'm afraid so, Bunny." 
 
 " Is there no one in the house, then?" 
 
 " No one but ourselves." 
 
 " So it was mere chafif about your friend 
 in Bond Street, who could let us have that 
 money?" 
 
 "Not altogether. It's quite true that 
 Danby is a friend of mine." 
 
 " Danby? " 
 
 " The jeweller underneath." 
 
 "What do you mean?" I whispered, 
 trembling like a leaf as his meaning dawned 
 upon me. " Are we to get the money from 
 the jeweller? " 
 
 <( 
 
 (( 
 
 « 
 
 a 
 
 Well, not exactly 
 What then?" 
 
 The equivalent — from his shop, 
 
 23 
 
 » 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 There was no need for another question. 
 I understood everything but my own den- 
 sity. He had given me a dozen hints, and 
 I had taken none. And there I stood star- 
 ing at him, in that empty room; and there 
 he stood with his dark lantern, laughing 
 at me. 
 " A burglar! " I gasped. " You— you! " 
 " I told you I lived by my wits." 
 " Why couldn't you tell me what you 
 were going to do? Why couldn't you trust 
 me? Why must you lie?" I demanded, 
 piqued to the quick for all my horror. 
 
 " I wanted to tell you," said he. " I was 
 on the point of telling you more than once. 
 You may remember how I sounded you 
 about crime, though you have probably for- 
 gotten what you said yourself. I didn't think 
 you meant it at the time, but I thought I'd 
 put you to the test. Now I see you didn't, 
 and I don't blame you. I only am to blame. 
 Get out of it, my dear boy, as quick as you 
 can; leave it to me. You won't give me 
 away, whatever else you do! " 
 
 Oh, his cleverness! His fiendish clever- 
 ness! Had he fallen back on threats, co- 
 
 24 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 
 !• .4 
 
 ercion, sneers, all might have been different 
 even yet. But he set me free to leave him 
 in the lurch. He would not blame me. He 
 did not even bind me to secrecy ; he trusted 
 me. He knew my weakness and my 
 strength, and was playing on both with his 
 master's touch. 
 
 " Not so fast/' said I. " Did I put this 
 into your head, or were you going to do it 
 in any case? " 
 
 " Not in any case," said Raffles. " It's 
 true I've had the key for days, but when I 
 won to-night I thought of chucking it ; for, 
 as a matter of fact, it's not a one-man job." 
 " That settles it. I'm your man." 
 " You mean it? " 
 " Yes— for to-night." 
 " Good old Bunny," he murmured, hold- 
 ing the lantern for one moment to my face; 
 the next he was explaining his plans, and 
 I was nodding, as though we had been fel- 
 low-cracksmen all our days. 
 
 " I know the shop," he whispered, " be- 
 cause I've got a few things there. I know 
 this upper part too; it's been to let for a 
 month, and I got an order to view, and took 
 
 25 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 a cast of the key before using it. The one 
 thing I don't know is how to make a con- 
 nection between the two; at present there's 
 none. We may make it up here, though I 
 rather fancy the basement myself. If you 
 wait a minute I'll tell you." 
 
 He set his lantern on the floor, crept to 
 a back window, and opened it with scarcely 
 a so'ind : only to return, shaking his head, 
 after shutting the window with the same 
 care. 
 
 " That was our one chance," said he : "a 
 back window above a back window; but 
 it's too dark to see anything, and we daren't 
 show an outside light. Come down after 
 me to the basement; and remember, though 
 there's not a soul on the premises, you can't 
 make too little noise. There — there — listen 
 to that!" 
 
 It was the measured tread that we had 
 heard before on the flag-stones outside. 
 Raffles darkened his lantern, and again we 
 stood motionless till it had passed. 
 
 *• Either a policeman," he muttered, " or 
 a watchman that all these jewellers run be- 
 tween them. The watchman's the man for 
 
 26 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 le 
 1- 
 
 's 
 I 
 u 
 
 \ 
 
 us to watch; he's simply paid to spot this 
 kind of thing." 
 
 We crept very gingerly down the stairs, 
 which creaked a bit in spite of us, and we 
 picked up our shoes in the passage; then 
 down some narrow stone steps, at the foot 
 of which Raffles showed his light, and put 
 on his shoes once more, bidding me do the 
 same in a rather louder tone than he had 
 permitted himself to employ overhead. We 
 were now considerably below the level of 
 the street, in a small space with as many 
 doors as it had sides. Three were ajar, and 
 we saw through them into empty cellars; 
 but in the fourth a key was turned and a 
 bolt drawn; and this one presently let us 
 out into the bottom of a deep, square well 
 of fog. A similar door faced it across this 
 area, and Raffles had the lantern close 
 against it, and was hiding the light with 
 his body, when a short and sudden crash 
 made my heart stand still. Next moment 
 I saw the door wide open, and Raffles stand- 
 ing within and beckoning me with a jemmy. 
 
 " Door number one," he whispered. 
 " Deuce knows how many more there'll be, 
 
 27 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 but I know of two at least. We won't have 
 to make much noise over them, either; 
 down here there's less risk." 
 
 We were now at the bottom of the exact 
 fellow to the narrow stone stair which we 
 had just descended: the yard, or well, being 
 the one part common to both the private 
 and the business premises. But this flight 
 led to no open passage ; instead, a singularly 
 solid mahogany door confronted us at the 
 top. 
 
 " I thought so," muttered Raffles, hand- 
 ing me the lantern, and pocketing a bunch 
 of skeleton keys, after tampering for a few 
 minutes with the lock. " It'll be an hour's 
 work to get through that! " 
 
 "Can't you pick it?" 
 
 " No. I know these locks. It's no use 
 trying. We must cut it out, and it'll take 
 us an hour." 
 
 It took us forty-seven minutes by my 
 watch ; or, rather, it took Raffles ; and never 
 in my life have I seen anything more de- 
 liberately done. My part was simply to 
 stand by with the dark lantern in one hand, 
 and a small bottle of rock-oil in the other. 
 
 28 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 Raffles had produced a pretty embroidered 
 case, intended obviously for his razors, but 
 filled instead with the tools of his secret 
 trade, including the rock-oil. From this 
 case he selected a " bit," capable of drilling 
 a hole an inch in diameter, and fitted it to a 
 small but very strong steel " brace." Then 
 he took off his covert-coat and his blazer, 
 spread them neatly on the top step — knelt 
 on them — turned up his shirt-cufTs — and 
 went to ^ )rk with brace-and-bit near the 
 key-hole. But first he oiled the bit to mini- 
 mise the noise, and this he did invariably 
 before beginning a fresh hole, and often 
 in the middle of one. It took thirty-two 
 separate borings to cut round that lock. 
 
 I noticed that through the first circular 
 orifice Rafales thrust a forefinger; then, as 
 the circle became an ever-lengthening oval, 
 he got his hand through up to the thumb; 
 and I heard him swear softly to himself. 
 
 " I was afraid so!" 
 
 " What is it? " 
 
 " An iron gate on the other side! " 
 
 "How on earth are we to get through 
 that? " I asked in dismay. 
 
 39 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 (t 
 
 Pick the lock. But there may be two. 
 In that case they'll be top and bottom, and 
 we shall have two fresh holes to make, as 
 the door opens inwards. It won't open two 
 inches as it is." 
 
 I confess I did not feel sanguine about 
 the lock-picking, seeing that one lock had 
 bafifled us already; and my disappointment 
 and impatience must have been a revelation 
 to me had I stopped to think. The truth 
 is that I was entering into our nefarious 
 undertaking with an involuntary zeal ot 
 which I was myself quite unconscious at the 
 time. The romance and the peril of the 
 whole proceeding held me spellbound and 
 entranced. My moral sense and my sense 
 of fear were stricken by a common paraly- 
 sis. And there I stood, shining my light 
 and holding my phial with a keener interest 
 than I had ever brought to any honest 
 avocation. And there knelt A. J. Raffles, 
 with his black hair tumbled, and the same 
 watchful, quiet, determined half-smile with 
 which I have seen him send down over 
 after over in a county match! 
 
 At last the chain of holes was complete, 
 
 30 
 
 ^ 
 
 '.Ml 
 
 
 m 
 
JW,'. 
 
 The Ides of March 
 
 the lock wrenched out bodily, and a splen- 
 did bare arm plunged up to the shoulder 
 through the aperture, and through the bars 
 of the iron gate beyond. 
 
 " Now ;" whispered Raffles, " if there's 
 only one lock it'll be in the middle. Joy! 
 Here it is! Only let me pick it, and we're 
 through at last." 
 
 He withdrew his arm, a skeleton key was 
 selected from the bunch, and then back 
 went his arm to the shoulder. It was a 
 breathless moment. I heard the heart throb- 
 bing in my body, the very watch ticking in 
 my pocket, and ever and anon the tinkle- 
 tinkle of the skeleton key. Then— at last 
 — there came a single unmistakable click. 
 In another minute the mahogany door and 
 the iron gate yawned behind us; and Raffles 
 was sitting on an offlce table, wiping his 
 face, with the lantern throwing a steady 
 beam by his side. 
 
 We were now in a bare and roomy lobby 
 behind the shop, but separated therefrom 
 by an iron curtain, the very sight of which 
 filled me with despair. Raffles, however, 
 did not appear in the least depressed, but 
 
 3' 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 hung up his coat and hat on some pegs in 
 the lobby before examining this curtain 
 with his lantern. 
 
 " That's nothing," said he, after a min- 
 ute's inspection; "we'll be through that in 
 no time, but there's a door on the other 
 side which may give us trouble." 
 
 ** Another door! " I groaned. " And how 
 do you mean to tackle this thing? " 
 
 " Prise it up with the jointed jemmy. 
 The weak point of these iron curtains is 
 the leverage you can get from below. But 
 it makes a noise, and this is where you're 
 coming in, Bunny ; this is where I couldn't 
 do without you. I must have you over- 
 head to knock through when the street's 
 clear. I'll come with you and show a 
 light." 
 
 Well, you may imagine how little I liked 
 the prospect of this lonely vigil; and yet 
 there was something very stimulating in 
 the vital responsibility which it involved. 
 Hitherto I had been a mere spectator. Now 
 I was to take part in the game. And the 
 fresh excitement made me more than ever 
 insensible to those considerations of con- 
 
 5a 
 
 • 'liiiiiM' 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 science and of safety which were already as 
 dead nerves in my breast. 
 
 So I took my post without a murmur in 
 the front room above the shop. Tlie fixt- 
 ures had been left for the refusal of the 
 incominj^ tenant, and fortunately for us they 
 included Venetian blinds which were al- 
 ready down. It was the simplest matter in 
 the world to stand peeping through the 
 laths into the street, to beat twice with my 
 foot when anybody was approaching, and 
 once when all was clear again. The noises 
 that even I could hear below, with the ex- 
 ception of one metallic crash at the begin- 
 ning, were indeed incredibly slight; but they 
 ceased altogether at each double rap from 
 my toe; and a policeman passed quite half 
 a dozen times beneath my eyes, and the 
 man whom I took to be the jeweller's watch- 
 man oftener still, during the better part of 
 an hour that I spent at the window. Once, 
 indeed, my heart was in my mouth, but only 
 once. It was when the watchman stopped 
 and peered through the peep-hole into the 
 lighted shop. I waited for his whistle— I 
 waited for the gallows or the gaol! But 
 
 33 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 my signals had been studiously obeyed, and 
 the man passed en in undisturbed serenity. 
 In the end I had a signal in my turn, and 
 retraced my steps with lighted matches, 
 down the broad stairs, down the narrow 
 ones, across the area, and up into the lobby 
 where Raffles awaited me with an out- 
 stretched hand. 
 
 " Well done, my boy! " said he. " You're 
 the same good man in a pinch, and you 
 shall have your reward. I've got a thou- 
 sand pound's worth if I've got a penn'oth. 
 It's all in my pockets. And here's some- 
 thing else I found in this locker; very de- 
 cent port and some cigars, meant for poor 
 dear Danby's business friends. Take a pull, 
 and you shall light up presently. I've found 
 a lavatory, too, and we must have a wash- 
 and-brush-up before we go, for I'm as black 
 as your boot." 
 
 The iron curtain was down, but he in- 
 sisted on raising it until I could peep 
 through the glass door on the other side 
 and see his handiwork in the shop beyond. 
 Here two electric lights were left burning 
 all night long, and in their cold white rays 
 
 34 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 
 I could at first see nothing amiss. I looked 
 along an orderly lane, an empty glass coun- 
 ter on my left, glass cupboards of untouched 
 silver on my right, and facing me the filmy 
 black eye of the peep-hole that shone like a 
 stage moon on the street. The counter 
 had not been emptied by Rafiles; its con- 
 tents were in the Chubb's safe, which he 
 had given up at a glance; nor had he looked 
 at the silver, except to choose a cigarette- 
 case for me. He had confined himself en- 
 tirely to the shop window. This was in 
 three compartments, each secuied for the 
 night by removable panels with separate 
 locks. Raffles had removed i.hem a few 
 hours before their time, and the electric 
 light shone on a corrugated shutter bare 
 as the ribs of an empty carcase. Every 
 article of value was gone from the one place 
 which was invisible from the little window 
 in the door; elsewhere all was as it had 
 been left overnight. And but for a train of 
 mangled doors behind the iron curtain, a 
 bottle of wine and a cigar-box with which 
 liberties had been taken, a rather black 
 towel in the lavatory, a burnt match here 
 
 35 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 and there, and our finger-marks on the 
 dusty banisters, not a trace of our visit did 
 we leave. 
 
 " Had it in my head for long? " said 
 Raffles, as we strolled through the streets 
 towards dawn, for all the world as though 
 we were returning from a dance. " No, 
 Bunny, I never thought of it till I saw that 
 upper part empty .'bout a month ago, and 
 bought a few things in the shop to get the 
 lie of the land. That reminds me that I 
 never paid for them; but, by Jove, I will 
 to-morrow, and if that isn't poetic justice, 
 what is? One visit showed me the possi- 
 bilities of the place, but a second convinced 
 me of its impossibilities without a pal. So 
 I had practically given up the idea, when 
 you came along on the very night and in 
 the very plight for it! But here we are at 
 the Albany, and I hope there's some fire 
 left; for I don't know how you feel. Bunny, 
 but for my part I'm as cold as Keats's owl." 
 
 He could think of Keats on his way from 
 a felony! He could hanker for his fireside 
 like another ! Floodgates were loosed with- 
 in me, and the plain English of our advent- 
 
 36 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 lire rushed over me as cold as ice. Raffles 
 was a burglar. I had helped him to com- 
 mit one burglary, therefore I was a burglar 
 too. Yet I could stand and warm myself 
 by his fire, and watch him empty his 
 pockets, as though we had done nothing 
 wonderful or wicked! 
 
 My blood froze. My heart sickened. My 
 brain whirled. Hov/ 1 had liked this villain! 
 How I had admired him! Now my liking 
 and admiration must turn to loathing and 
 disgust. I waited for the change. I longed 
 to feel it in my heart. But — I longed and I 
 waited in vain! 
 
 I saw that he was emptying his pockets; 
 the table sparkled with their hoard. Rings 
 by the dozen, diamonds by the score ; brace- 
 lets, pendants, aigrettes, necklaces; pearls, 
 rubies, amethysts, sapphires; and diamonds 
 always, diamonds in everything, flashing 
 bayonets of light, dazzling me — blinding 
 me — making me disbelieve because I could 
 no longer forget. Last of all came no gem, 
 indeed, but my own revolver from an inner 
 pocket. And that struck a chord. I sup- 
 pose I said something — my hand flew out. 
 
 37 
 
 ■ H 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 I can see Raffles now, as he looked at me 
 once more with a high arch over each clear 
 eye. 1 can see him pick out the cartridges 
 with his quiet, cv.iical smile, before he 
 would give mc my pistol back again. 
 
 " You mayn't believe it, Bunny," said he, 
 " but I never carried a loaded one before. 
 On the whole I think it gives one con- 
 fidence. Yet it would be very awkward if 
 anything went wrong; one might use it, 
 and that's not the game at all, though I 
 have often thought that the murderer who 
 has just done the trick must have great sen- 
 sations before things get too hot for him. 
 Don't look so distressed, my dear chap. I've 
 never had those sensations, and I don't sup- 
 pose I ever shall." 
 
 " But this much you have done before?" 
 said I hoarsely. 
 
 " Before? My dear Bunny, you offend 
 me! Did it look like a first attempt? Of 
 course I have done it before." 
 
 "Often?" 
 
 "Well — no! Not often enough to de- 
 stroy the charm, at all events; never, as a 
 matter of fact, unless I'm cursedly hard up. 
 
 38 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 Did you hear about the Thimbleby dia- 
 monds? Well, that was the last time — and 
 a poor lot of paste they were. Then there 
 was the little business of the Dormer house- 
 boat at Henley last year. That was mine 
 also — such as it was. I've never brought 
 ofif a really big coup yet; when I do I shall 
 chuck it up." 
 
 Yes, I remembered both cases very well. 
 To think that he was their author! It was 
 incredible, outrageous, inconceivable. Then 
 my eyes would fall upon the table, twinkling 
 and glittering in a hundred places, and in- 
 credulity was at an end. 
 
 " How came you to begin? " I asked, as 
 curiosity overcame mere wonder, and a 
 fascination for his career gradually wove 
 itself into my fascination for the man. 
 
 "Ah! that's a long story," said Rafifles. 
 " It was in the Colonies, when I was out 
 there playing cricket. It's too long a story 
 to tell you now, but I was in much the same 
 fix that you were in to-night, and it was 
 my only way out. I never meant it for any- 
 thing more; but I'd tasted blood, and it 
 was all over with me. Why should I work 
 
 39 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 III I 
 
 II i! 
 
 when I could steal? Why se'ttle down to 
 some humdrum uncongenial billet, when 
 excitement, romance, danger and a decent 
 living were all going begging together? Of 
 course it's very wrong, but we can't all be 
 moralists, and the distribution of wealth is 
 very wrong to begin with. Besides, you're 
 not at it all the time. I'm sick of quoting 
 Gilbert's lines to myself, but they're pro- 
 foundly true. I only wonder if you'll like 
 the life as much as I do!" 
 
 "Like it?" I cried out. "Not I! It's 
 no life for me. Once is enough! " 
 
 " You wouldn't give me a hand another 
 time?" 
 
 " Don't ask me. Raffles. Don't ask me, 
 for God's sake ! " 
 
 " Yet you said you would do anything 
 for me ! You asked me to name my crime ! 
 But I knew at the time you didn't mean it; 
 you didn't go back on me to-night, and 
 that ought to satisfy me, goodness knows! 
 I suppose I'm ungrateful, and unreasonable, 
 and all that. I ought to let it end at this. 
 But you're the very man for me. Bunny, 
 the — very — man! Just think how we got 
 
 40 
 
 ■ - ' "r-— ffifif 
 
The Ides of March 
 
 through to-night. Not a scratch — not a 
 hitch! There's nothing very terrible in it, 
 you see; there never would be, while we 
 worked together." 
 
 He was standing in front of me with a 
 hand on either shoulder; he was smiling as 
 he knew so well how to smile. I turned on 
 my heel, planted my elbows on the chimney- 
 piece, and my burning head between my 
 hands. Next instant a still heartier hand 
 had fallen on my back. 
 
 " All right, my boy! You are quite right 
 and I'm worse than wrong. I'll never ask 
 it again. Go, if you want to, and come 
 again about mid-day for the cash. There 
 was no bargain ; but, of course, I'll get you 
 out of your scrape — especially after the way 
 you've stood by me to-night." 
 
 I was round again with my blood on fire. 
 
 " I'll do it again," I said, through my 
 teeth. 
 
 He shook his head. " Not you," he said, 
 smiling quite good-humouredly on my in- 
 sane enthusiasm. 
 
 " I will," I cried with an oath. " I'll lend 
 you a hand as often as you like! What 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 does it matter now? I've been in it once. 
 I'll be in it again. I've gone to the devil 
 anyhow. I can't go bac' nd wouldn't if 
 I could Nothing matt . another rap! 
 When you want me I'm your man! " 
 
 And that is how Raffles and I joined 
 felonious forces on the Ides of March. 
 
 I> 
 
A COSTUME PIECE 
 
 f ON DON was just then talking of one 
 whose name is already a name and 
 nothing more. Reuben Rosenthall had made 
 his millions on the diamond fields of South 
 Africa, and had come home to enjoy them 
 according to his lights ; how he went to 
 work will scarcely be forgotten by any read- 
 er of the halfpenny evening papers, which 
 revelled in endless anecdotes of his original 
 indigence and present prodigality, varied 
 with interesting particulars of the extraor- 
 dinary establishment which the millionaire 
 set up in St. John's Wood. Here he kept 
 a retinue of Kaffirs, who were literally his 
 slaves ; and hence he would sally, with enor- 
 mous diamonds in his shirt and on his 
 finger, in the convoy of a prize-fighter of 
 heinous repute, who was not, however, by 
 any means the worst element in the Rosen- 
 
 43 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 thall menage. So said common gossip; 
 but the fact was sufficiently established by 
 the interference of the police on at least one 
 occasion, followed by certain magisterial 
 proceedings which were reported with jus- 
 tifiable gusto and huge headlines in the 
 newspapers aforesaid. And this was all one 
 knew of Reuben Rosenthall up to the time 
 when the Old Bohemian Club, having fallen 
 on evil days, found it worth its while to 
 organise a great dinner in honour of so 
 wealthy an exponent of the club's principles. 
 I was not at the banquet myself, but a 
 member took Raffles, who told me all about 
 it that very night. 
 
 " Most extraordinary show I ever went to 
 in my life," said he. " As for the man him- 
 self — well, I was prepared for something 
 grotesque, but the fellow fairly took my 
 breath away. To begin with, he's the most 
 astounding brute to look at, well over six 
 feet, with a chest like a barrel, and a great 
 hook-nose, and the reddest hair and whisk- 
 ers you ever saw. Drank like a fire-engine, 
 but only got drunk enough to make us a 
 speech that I wouldn't have missed for ten 
 
 44 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 pounds. I'm only sorry you weren't there, 
 too, Bunny, old chap." 
 
 I began to be sorry myself, for Raffles 
 was anything but an excitable person, and 
 never had I seen him so excited before. 
 Had he been following Rosenthall's exam- 
 ple ? His coming to my rooms at midnight, 
 merely to tell me about his dinner, was in 
 itself enough to excuse a suspicion which 
 was certainly at variance with my knowl- 
 edge of A. J. Raffles. 
 
 " What did he say ? " I inquired mechan- 
 ically, divining some subtler explanation of 
 this visit, and wondering what on earth it 
 could be. 
 
 " Say ? " cried Raffles, " What did he not 
 say ! He boasted of his rise, he bragged of 
 his riches, and he blackguarded society for 
 taking him up for his money and dropping 
 him out of sheer pique and jealousy because 
 he had so much. He mentioned names, tjo, 
 with the most charming freedom, and swore 
 he was as good a man as the Old Country 
 had to show — pace the Old Bohemians. To 
 prove it he pointed to i^reat diamond in 
 the middle of his shirt-.ront with a little 
 
 45 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 finger loaded with another just like it: 
 which of our bloated princes could show a 
 pair Hke that? As a matter of fact they 
 seemed quite wonderful stones, with a 
 curious purple gleam to them that must 
 mean a pot of money. But old Rosenthall 
 swore he wouldn't take fifty thousand 
 pounds foi the two, and wanted to know 
 where the other man was who went about 
 with twenty-five thousand in his shirt-front, 
 and other twenty-five on his little finger. 
 He didn't exist. If he did, he wouldn't have 
 the pluck to wear them. But lie had — he'd 
 tell us why. And before you could say 
 Jack Robinson he had whipped out a whack- 
 ing great revolver ! " 
 
 '^Not at the table?" 
 
 '* At the table ! In the middle of his 
 speech! But it was nothing to what he 
 wanted to do. He actually wanted us to 
 let him write his name in bullets on the 
 opposite wall to show us why he wasn't 
 afraid to go about in all his diamonds ! That 
 brute Purvis, the prize-fighter, who is his 
 paid bully, had to bully his master before 
 he could be persuaded out of it. There was 
 
 46 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 quite a panic for the moment; one fellow 
 was saying his prayers under the table, and 
 the waiters bolted to a man." 
 
 " What a grotesque scene ! " 
 
 *' Grotesque enough, but I rather wish 
 they had let him go the whole hog and 
 blaze away. He was as keen as knives to 
 show us how he couM take care of his 
 purple diamonds; and, do you know. Bun- 
 ny, /was as keen as knives to see." 
 
 And Raffles leant towards me with a sly, 
 slow smile that made the hidden meaning of 
 his visit only too plain to me at last. 
 
 *' So you think of having a try for his 
 diamonds yourself?" 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " It is horridly obvious, I admit. But — 
 yes, I have set my heart upon them! To 
 be quite frank, I have had them on my con- 
 science for some time; one couldn't hear 
 so much of the man, and his prize-fighter, 
 and his diamonds, without feeling it a kind 
 of duty to have a go for them; but when 
 it comes to brandishing a revolver and prac- 
 tically challenging the world, the thing be- 
 comes inevitable. It is simply thrust upon 
 
 47 
 
'f^ 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 one. I was fated to hear that challenge, 
 Bunny, and I, for one, must take it up. 1 
 was only sorry I couldn't get on my hind 
 legs and say so then and there." 
 
 *' Well," I said, '* 1 don't see the necessity 
 as things are with us; but, of course, I'm 
 your man." 
 
 My tone may have been half-hearted. I 
 did my best to make it otherwise. But it 
 was barely a month since our Bond Street 
 exploit, and we certainly could have af- 
 forded to behave ourselves for some time 
 to come. We had been getting along so 
 nicely : by his adyjce I had scribble:' a thing 
 or two ; inspired by Raffles, I had even done 
 an article on our own jewel robbery ; and 
 for the moment I was quite satisfied with 
 this sort of adventure. I thought we ought 
 to know when we were well of¥, and could 
 see no point in our running fresh risks be- 
 fore we were obliged. On the other hand, 
 I was anxious not to show the least dis- 
 position to break the pledge that I had given 
 a month ago. But it was not on my man- 
 ifest disinclination that Raffles fastened. 
 
 ** Necessity, my dear Bunny ? Does the 
 
 48 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 writer only write when the wolf is at the 
 door? Does the painter paint for bread 
 alone ? Must you and I be driven to crime 
 like Tom of Bow and Dick of Whitechapel ? 
 You pain me, my dear chap; you needn't 
 laugh, because you do. Art for art's sake 
 is a vile catchword, but I confess it appeals 
 to me. In this case my motives are abso- 
 lutely pure, for I doubt if we shall ever be 
 able to dispose of such peculiar stones. But 
 if I don't have a try for them — after to- 
 night — I shall never be able to hold up my 
 head again." 
 
 His eye twinkled, but it glittered too. 
 
 " We shall have our work cut out," was 
 all I said. 
 
 " And do you suppose I should be keen 
 on it if we hadn't?" cried Raffles. '' My 
 dear fellow, I would rob St. Paul's Cathedral 
 if I could, but I could no more scoop a till 
 when the shopwalker wasn't looking than I 
 could bag the apples out of an old woman's 
 basket. Even that little business last month 
 was a sordid affair, but it was necessary, 
 and I think its strategy redeemed it to some 
 extent. Now there's some credit, and more 
 
 49 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 sport, in going where they boast they're on 
 their guard against you. The Bank of Eng- 
 land, for example, is the ideal crib; but 
 that would need half a dozen of us with 
 years to give to the job; and meanwhile 
 Reuben Rosenthall is high enough game for 
 you and me. We know he's armed. We 
 know how Billy Purvis can fight. It'll be 
 no soft thing, I grant you. But what of 
 that, my good Bunny — what of that? A 
 man's reach must exceed his grasp, dear 
 boy, or what the dickens is a heaven for ? '* 
 
 " I would rather we didn't exceed ours 
 just yet," I answered laughing, for his spirit 
 was irresistible, and the plan was growing 
 upon me, despite my qualms. 
 
 " Trust me for that," was his reply ; " I'll 
 see you through. After all I expect to find 
 that the difficulties are nearly all on the sur- 
 face. These fellows both drink like the 
 devil, and that should simplify matters con- 
 siderably. But v/e shall see, and we must 
 take our time. There will probably turn out 
 to be a dozen different ways in which the 
 thing might be done, and we shall have to 
 choose between them. It will mean watch- 
 
 50 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 ing the house for at least a week in any case ; 
 it may mean lots of other things that will 
 take much longer ; but give me a week, and 
 I will tell you more. That's to say if you're 
 really on ? " 
 
 " Of course I am," I replied indignantly. 
 " But why should I giv^ you a week ? Why 
 shouldn't we watch the house together?" 
 
 " Because two eyes are as good as four 
 and take up less room. Never hunt in 
 couples unless you're obliged. But don't 
 you look offended, Bunny ; there'll be plenty 
 for you to do when the time comes, that I 
 promise you. You shall have your share 
 of the fun, never fear, and a purple dia- 
 mond all to yourself — if we're lucky." 
 
 On the whole, however, this conversation 
 left me less than lukewarm, and I still re- 
 member the depression which came upon me 
 when Raffles was gone. I saw the folly of 
 the enterprise to which I had committed 
 myself — the sheer, gratuitous, unnecessary 
 folly of it. And the paradoxes in which 
 Raffles revelled, and the frivolous casuistry 
 which was nevertheless half sincere, and 
 which his mere personality rendered wholly 
 
 SI 
 
 I 
 I 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 plausible at the moment of utterance, ap- 
 pealed very little to me when recalled in cold 
 blood. I admired the spirit of pure mischief 
 in which he seemed prepared to risk his 
 liberty and his life, but I did not find it an 
 infectious spirit on calm reflection. Yet the 
 thought of withdrawal was not to be enter- 
 tained for a moment. On the contrary, I 
 was impatient of the delay ordained by 
 Raffles; and, perhaps, no small part of my 
 secret disaffection came of his galling de- 
 termination to do without me until the last 
 moment. 
 
 It made it no better that this was charac- 
 teristic of the man and of his attitude to- 
 wards me. For a month we had been, I 
 suppose, the thickest thieves in all London, 
 and yet our intimacy was curiously incom- 
 plete. With all his charming frankness, 
 there was in Raffles a vein of capricious re- 
 serve which was perceptible enough to be 
 very irritating. He had the instinctive 
 secretiveness of the inveterate criminal. He 
 would make mysteries of matters of com- 
 mon concern ; for example, I never knew 
 how or where he disposed of the Bond Street 
 
 52 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 jewels, on the proceeds of which we were 
 both still leading the outward lives of hun- 
 dreds of other young fellows about town. 
 He was consistently mysterious about that 
 and other details, of which it seemed to me 
 that I had already earned the right to know 
 everything. I could not but remember how 
 he had led me into my first felony, by means 
 of a trick, while yet uncertain whether he 
 could trust me or not. That I could no 
 longer afford to resent, but I did resent his 
 want of confidence in me now. I said noth- 
 ing about it, but it rankled every day, and 
 never more than in the week that succeeded 
 the Rosenthall dinner. When I met Raffles 
 at the club he would tell me othing ; when 
 I went to his rooms he was O' .t, or pretended 
 to be. 
 
 One day he told me he was getting on 
 well, but slowly ; it was a more ticklish 
 game than he had thought ; but when I be- 
 gan to ask questions he would say no more. 
 Then and there, in my annoyance, I took 
 my own decision. Since he would tell me 
 nothing of the result of his vigils, I deter- 
 mined to keep one on my own account, and 
 
 53 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 that very evening found my way to the mil- 
 Honairc's front gates. 
 
 The house he was occupying is, I believe, 
 quite the largest in the St. John's Wood 
 district. It stands in the angle formed by 
 two broad thoroughfares, neither of which, 
 as it happens, is a 'bus route, and I doubt 
 if many quieter spots exist within the four- 
 mile radius. Quiet also was the great 
 square house, in its garden of grass-plots 
 and shrubs ; the lights were low, the million- 
 aire and his friends obviously spending 
 their eveniuj-^^ elsewhere. The garden walls 
 were only a fow feet high. In one there was 
 a side door opening into a glass passage; 
 in the other two five-barred, grained-and- 
 varnished gates, one at either end of the 
 little semi-circular drive, and both wide 
 open. So still was the place that I had 
 a great mind to walk boldly in and learn 
 something of the premises ; in fact, I was on 
 the point of doing so, when I heard a quick, 
 shuffling step on the pavement behind me. 
 I turned round and faced the dark scowl 
 and the dirty clenched fists of a dilapidated 
 tramp. 
 
 54 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 " You fool ! " said he. " You utter idiot ! " 
 
 '• Raffles ! " 
 
 *' That's it," he whispered savagely ; 
 ** tell all the neighbourhood — give me away 
 at the top of your voice 1 " 
 
 With that he turned his back upon me, 
 and shambled down the road, shrugging his 
 shoulders and muttering to himself as 
 though I had refused him alms. A few 
 moments I stood astounded, indignant, at a 
 loss ; then I followed him. His feet trailed, 
 his knees gave, his back was bowed, his head 
 kept nodding; it was the gait of a man 
 eighty years of age. Presently he waited 
 for me midway between two lamp-posts. 
 As I came up he was lighting rank tobacco, 
 in a cutty pipe, with an evil-smelling match, 
 and the flame showed me the suspicion of a 
 smile. 
 
 " You must forgive my heat. Bunny, but 
 it really was very foolish of you. Here am 
 I trying every dodge — begging at the door 
 one night — hiding in the shrubs the next — 
 doing every mortal thing but stand and 
 stare at the house as you went and did. It's 
 a costume piece, and in you rush in your 
 
 55 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 ordinary clothes. I tell you they're on the 
 look-out for us nigl i and day. It's the 
 toughest nut I ever tackled ! " 
 
 " Well," said I, *' if you had told me so 
 before I shouldn't have come. You told me 
 nothing." 
 
 He looked hard at me from under the 
 broken brim of a battered billycock. 
 
 " You're right," he said at length. " I've 
 been too close. It's become second nature 
 with me when I've anything on. But he:e's 
 an end of it, Bunny, so far as you're con- 
 cerned. I'm going home now, and I want 
 you to follow me; but for heaven's sake 
 keep your distance, and don't speak to me 
 again till I speak to you There — give me 
 a start." And he was off again, a decrepit 
 vagabond, with his hands in his pockets, 
 his elbows squared, and frayed coat-tails 
 swinging raggedly from side to side. 
 
 I followed him to the Finchley Road. 
 There he took an Atlas omnibus, and I sat 
 some rows behind him on the top, but not 
 far enough to escape the pest of his vile 
 tobacco. That he could carry his character- 
 sketch to such a pitch — he who would only 
 
 56 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 smoke one brand of cigarette! It was the 
 last, least touch of the insatiable artist, and 
 it charmed away what mortification there 
 still remained in me. Once more I felt the 
 fascination of a comrade who was forever 
 dazzling one with a fresh and unsuspected 
 facet of his character. 
 
 As we neared Piccadilly I wondered what 
 he ':vould do. Surely he was not going into 
 the Albany like that? No, he took another 
 omnibus to Sloane Street, I sitting behind 
 him as before. At Sloane Street we changed 
 again, and ivere presently in the long lean 
 artery of th( King's Road. I was now all 
 agog to know our destination, nor was I 
 kept many mo"-^ minutes in doubt. Raffles 
 got down. I followed. He crossed the road 
 and disappeared up a dark turning. I 
 pressed after him, and was in time to see 
 his coat-tails as he plunged into a still dark- 
 er flagged alley to the right. He was hold- 
 ing himself up and stepping out like a young 
 man once more; also, in some subtle way, 
 he already looked less disreputable. But I 
 alone was there to see him, the alley was 
 absolutely deserted, and desperately dark. 
 
 57 
 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 At the further end he opened a door with 
 a latch-key, and it was darker yet within. 
 
 Instinctively I drew back and heard him 
 chuckle. We could no longer see each 
 other. 
 
 "All right, Bunny! There's no hanky- 
 panky this time. These are studios, my 
 friend, and I'm one of the lawful tenants." 
 
 Indeed, in another minute we were in a 
 loft/ room with skylight, easels, dressing- 
 cupboard, platform, and every other adjunct 
 save the signs of actual labour. The first 
 thing I saw, as Raffles lit the gas, was its 
 reflection in his silk hat on the pegs beside 
 the rest of his normal garments. 
 
 " Looking for the works of art?" con- 
 tinued Raffles, lighting a cigarette and be- 
 ginning to divest himself of his rags. " I'm 
 afraid you won't find any, but there's the 
 canvas I'm always going to make a start 
 upon. I tell them I'm looking high and low 
 for my ideal model. I have the stove lit on 
 principle twice a week, and look in and leave 
 a newspaper and a smell of Sullivans — how 
 good they are after shag ! Meanwhile I pay 
 my rent and am a good tenant in every way ; 
 
 58 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 and it's a very useful little pied-a-terre — 
 there's no saying how useful it might be at 
 a pinch. As it is, the billycock comes in and 
 the topper goes out, and nobody takes the 
 slightest notice of either; at this time of 
 night the chances are that there's not a soul 
 in the building except ourselves." 
 
 " You never told me you went in for dis- 
 guises," said I, watching him as he cleansed 
 the grime from his face and hands. 
 
 " No, Bunny, I've treated you very shab- 
 bily all round. There was really no reason 
 why I shouldn't have shown you this place 
 a month ago, and yet there was no point in 
 my doing so, and circumstances are just 
 conceivable in which it would have suited 
 us both for you to be in genuine ignorance 
 of my whereabouts. I have something to 
 sleep on, as you perceive, in case of need, 
 and, of course, my name is not Raffles in the 
 King's Road. So you will see that one 
 might bolt further and fare worse." 
 
 " Meanwhile you use the place as a dress- 
 ing-room ? " 
 
 " It's my private pavilion," said Raffles, 
 " Disguises ? In some cases they're half the 
 
 59 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 battle, and it's always pleasant to feel that, 
 if the worst comes to the worst, you needn't 
 necessarily be convicted under your own 
 name. Then they're indispensable in deal- 
 ing with the fences. 1 drive all my bargains 
 in the tongue and raiment of Shoreditch. 
 If I uidn't there'd be the very devil to pay 
 in blackmail. Now, this cupboard's full of 
 all sorts of toggery. I tell the woman who 
 cleans the room that it's for my models 
 when I find 'em. By the way, I only hope 
 I've got something that'll fit you, for you'll 
 want a rig for to-morrow night." 
 
 " To - morrow night ! " I exclaimed. 
 " Why, what do you mean to do? " 
 
 " The trick," said Raffles. " I intended 
 writing to you as soon as I got back to my 
 i'ooms, to ask you to look me up to-morrow 
 afternoon ; itien I was going to unfold my 
 plan of campaign, and take you straight 
 into action then and there. There's nothing 
 like putting the nervous players in fii st ; it's 
 the sitting with their pads on that upsets 
 their applecart ; that was another of my rea- 
 sons for being so confoundedly close. You 
 must try to forgive me. I couldn't help 
 
 60 
 
in 
 
 A Costume Piece 
 
 remembering how well you played up last 
 trip, without any time to weaken on it 
 beforehand. All 1 want is for you to be 
 as cool and smart to-morrow night as you 
 were then ; though, by Jove, there's no com- 
 parison between the two cases ! " 
 " I thought you would find it so." 
 " You were right. I have. Mind you, 
 I don't say this will be the tougher job all 
 round ; we shall probably get in without any 
 difficulty at all ; it's the getting out again 
 that may flummox us. That's the worst of 
 an irregular household ! " cried Raffles, with 
 quite a burst of virtuous indignation. ** I 
 assure you, Bunny, I spent the whole of 
 Monday night in the shrubbery of the gar- 
 den next door, looking over the wall, and, 
 if you'll believe me, somebody was about 
 all night long! I don't mean the Kaffirs. 
 I don't believe they ever get to bed at all — 
 poor devils! No, I mean Rosenthall him- 
 self, and that pasty-faced beast Purvis. 
 They were up and drinking from midnight, 
 when they came in, to broad daylight, when 
 I cleared out. Even then I left them sober 
 enough to slang each other. By the way, 
 
 6i 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 they very nearly came to blows in the gar- 
 den, within a few yards of me, and I heard 
 something that might come in useful and 
 make Rosenthall shoot crooked at a criti- 
 cal moment. You know what an I. D. B. 
 is?" 
 
 " Illicit Diamond Buyer? " 
 
 " Exactly. Well, it seems that Rosenthall 
 was one. He must have let it out to Purvis 
 in his cups. Anyhow, I heard Purvis taunt- 
 ing him with it, and threatening him with 
 the breakwater at Capetown; and I begin 
 to think our friends are friend and foe. But 
 about to-morrow night: there's nothing 
 subtle in my plan. It's simply to get in 
 while these fellows are out on the loose, and 
 to lie low till they come back, and longer. 
 If possible we must doctor the whisky. 
 That would simplify the whole thing, 
 though it's not a very sporting game to 
 play; still, we must remember Rosenthall's 
 revolver; we don't want him to sign his 
 name on us. With all those Kaffirs about, 
 however, it's ten to one on the whiskv, and 
 a hundred to one against us if we go look- 
 ing for it. A brush with the heathen would 
 
 62 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 spoil everything, if it did no more. Besides, 
 there are the ladies " 
 
 " The deuce there are ! " 
 
 " Ladies with an i, and the very voices 
 for raising Cain. I fear, I fear the clamour ! 
 It would be fatal to us. Au contrairc, if 
 we can manage to stow ourselves away un- 
 beknowns, half the battle will be won. If 
 Rosenthall turns in drunk, it's a purple dia- 
 mond a-piece. It he sits up sober, it may 
 be a bullet instead. We will hope not. Bun- 
 ny; and all the firing wouldn't be on one 
 side ; but it's on the knees of the gods." 
 
 And so we left it when we shook hands 
 in Piccadilly — not by any means as much 
 later as I could have wished. Raffles would 
 not ask me to his rooms that night. He 
 said he made it a rule to have a long night 
 before playing cricket and — other games. 
 His final word to me was framed on the 
 same principle. 
 
 " Mind, only one drink to-night, Bunny. 
 Two at the outside — as you value your life 
 — and mine ! " 
 
 I remember my abject obedience ; and the 
 endless, sleepless night it gave me ; and the 
 
 63 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 roofs of the houses opposite standing out 
 at last against the blue-grey London dawn. 
 I wondered whether I should ever see an- 
 other, and was very hard on myself for that 
 little expedition which I had made on my 
 own wilful account. 
 
 It was between eight and nine o'clock in 
 the evening when we took up our position 
 in the garden adjoining that of Reuben 
 Rosenthall; the house itself was shut up, 
 thanks to the outrageous libertine next 
 door, who, by driving away the neighbours, 
 had gone far towards delivering himself in- 
 to our hands. Practically secure from sur- 
 prise on that side, we could watch our house 
 under cover of a wall just high enough to 
 see over, while a fair margin of shrubs in 
 either garden afforded us additional protec- 
 tion. Thus entrenched, we had stood an 
 hour, watching a pair of lighted bow-win- 
 dows with vague shadows flitting continual- 
 ly across the blinds, and listening to the 
 drawing of corks, the clink of glasses, and 
 a gradual crescendo of coarse voices with- 
 in. Our luck seemed to have deserted us : 
 the owner of the purple diamonds was din- 
 
 64 
 
 ---^^---. 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 ing at home and dining at undue length. 
 I thought it was a dinner-party. Raffles 
 differed; in the end he proved right. 
 Wheels grated in the drive, a carriage and 
 pair stood at the steps; there was a stam- 
 pede from the dining-room, and the loud 
 voices died away, to burst forth presently 
 from the porch. 
 
 Let me make our position perfectly clear. 
 We were over the wall, at the side of the 
 house, but a few feet from the dining-room 
 windows. On our right, one angle of the 
 building cut the back lawn in two diagonal- 
 ly; on our left, another angle just per- 
 mitted us to see the jutting steps and the 
 waiting carriage. We saw Rosenthall come 
 out — saw the glimmer of his diamonds be- 
 fore anything. Then came the pugilist; 
 then a lady with a head of hair like a bath 
 sponge; then another, and the party was 
 complete. 
 
 Raffles ducked and pulled me down in 
 great excitement. 
 
 " The ladies are going with them," he 
 whispered. " This is great I " 
 
 " That's better still." 
 
 65 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " The Gardenia ! " the millionaire had 
 bawled. 
 
 " And that's best of all," said Raffles, 
 standing upright as hoofs and wheels 
 crunched through the gates and rattled off 
 at a fine speed. 
 
 "Now what?" I whispered, trembling 
 with excitement. 
 
 '* They'll be clearing away. Yes, here 
 come their shadows. The drawing-room 
 windows open on the lawn. Bunny, it's 
 the psychological moment. Where's that 
 mask?" 
 
 I produced it with a hand whose 
 trembling I tried in vain to still, and could 
 have died for Raffles when he made no 
 comment on what he could not fail to no- 
 tice. His own hands were firm and cool as 
 he adjusted my mask for me, and then his 
 own. 
 
 " By Jove, old boy," he whispered cheer- 
 ily, " you look about the greatest ruffian I 
 ever saw ! These masks alone will down a 
 nigger, if we meet one. But I'm glad I re- 
 membered to tell you not to shave. You'll 
 pass for Whitechapel if the worst comes 
 
 66 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 to the worst and you don't forget to talk the 
 lingo. Better sulk like a mule if you're not 
 sure of it, and leave the dialogue to me ; but, 
 please our stars, there will be no need. 
 Now, are you ready ? " 
 
 " Quite." 
 
 *' Got your gag?" 
 
 *' Yes." 
 
 ''Shooter?" 
 
 •' Yes." 
 
 " Then follow me." 
 
 In an instant we were over the wall, in 
 another on the lawn behind the house. There 
 was no moon. The very stars in their 
 courses had veiled themselves for our ben- 
 efit. I crept at my leader's heels to some 
 French windows opening upon a shallow 
 verandah. He pushed. They yielded. 
 
 " Luck again," he whispered ; " nothing 
 but luck ! Now for a light." 
 
 And the light came ! 
 
 A good score of electric burners glowed 
 red for the fraction of a second, then rained 
 merciless white beams into our blinded eyes. 
 When we found our sight four revolvers 
 covered us, and between two of them the 
 
 67 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 colossal frame of Reuben Rosenthall shook 
 with a wheezy laughter from head to foot. 
 
 " Good evening, boys," he hiccoughed. 
 " Glad to see ye at last. Shift foot or finger, 
 you on the left, though, and you're a dead 
 boy. I mean you, you greaser! " he roared 
 out at Raffles. " I know you. I've been 
 waitin' for you. I've been zvatchin' you all 
 this week ! Plucky smart you thought yer- 
 self, didn't you? One day beggin', next 
 time sliammin' tight, and next one o' them 
 old pals from Kimberley what never come 
 when I'm in. But you left the same tracks 
 every day, you buggins, an' the same tracks 
 every night, all round the blessed premises." 
 
 " All right, guv'nor," drawled Raffles ; 
 " don't excite. It's a fair cop. We don't 
 sweat to know 'ow you brung it orf. On'y 
 don't you go for to shoot, 'cos we 'int 
 awmed, s'help me Gord ! " 
 
 " Ah, you're a knowin' one," said Rosen- 
 thall, fingering his triggers. " But you've 
 struck a knowin'er." 
 
 ** Ho, yuss, we know all abaht thet ! Set 
 a thief to ketch a thief — ho, yuss." 
 
 My eyes had torn themselves from the 
 
 68 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 rotind black muzzles, from the accursed dia- 
 monds that had been our snare, the pasty 
 pig-face of the over-fed pugilist, and the 
 flaming cheeks and hook nose of Rosenthall 
 himself. I was looking beyond them at the 
 doorway filled with quivering silk and plush, 
 black faces, white eye-balls, woolly pates. 
 But a sudden silence recalled my attention 
 to the millionaire. And only his nose re- 
 tained its colour. 
 
 *' What d'ye mean ? " he whispered with a 
 hoarse oath. " Spit it out, or, by Christ- 
 mas, I'll drill you ! " 
 
 " Whort price thet brikewater? " drawled 
 Raffles coolly. 
 
 "Eh?" 
 
 Rosenthall's revolvers were describing 
 widening orbits. 
 
 ** Whort price thet brikewater — old /. D. 
 
 " Where in hell did you get hold o' that ? " 
 asked Rosenthall, with a rattle in his thick 
 neck, meant for mirth. 
 
 " You may well arst," says Raffles. " It's 
 all over the plice w'ere / come from." 
 
 '* Who can have spread such rot ? " 
 
 69 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " I diinno," says Raffles ; " arst the gen'le- 
 nian on yer left ; p'raps 'c knows." 
 
 The gentleman on his left had turned 
 livid with emotion. Guilty conscience nev- 
 er declared itself in plainer terms. For a 
 moment his small eyes bulged like currants 
 in the suet of his face ; the next, he had pock- 
 eted his pistols on a professional instinct, 
 and was upon us with his fists. 
 
 "Out o' the light— out o' the light!" 
 yelled Rosenthall in a frenzy. 
 
 He was too late. No sooner had the 
 burly pugilist obstructed his fire than 
 Raffles was through the window at a bound ; 
 while I, for standing still and saying noth- 
 ing, was scientifically felled to ^he floor. 
 
 I cannot have been many moments with- 
 out my senses. When I recovered them 
 there was a great to-do in the garden, but I 
 had the drawing-room to myself. I sat up. 
 Rosenthall and Purvis were rushing about 
 outside, cursing the Kaffirs and nagging at 
 each other. 
 
 ''Over that wall, I tell yer!" 
 " I tell you it was this one. Can't you 
 whistle for the police ? " 
 
 70 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 " Police be damned ! I've had enough of 
 the blessed police." 
 
 " Then we'd better get back and make 
 sure of the other rotter." 
 
 " Oh, make sure o' yer skin. That's what 
 you'd better do. Jala, you black hog, if I 
 catch yoH skulkin'. . . ." 
 
 I never heard the threat. I was creeping 
 from the drawing-room on my hands and 
 knees, my own revolver swinging by its 
 steel ring from my teeth. 
 
 For an instant I thought that the hall also 
 was deserted. I was wrong, and I crept up- 
 on a Kaffir on all fours. Poor devil, I could 
 not bring myself to deal him a base blow, 
 but I threatened him most hideously with 
 my revolver, and left the white teeth chat- 
 tering in his black head as I took the stairs 
 three at a time. Why I went upstairs in 
 that decisive fashion, as though it were my 
 only course, I cannot explain. But garden 
 and ground floor seemed alive with men, and 
 I might have done worse. 
 
 I turned into the first room I came to. It 
 was a bedroom — empty, though lit up ; and 
 never shall I forget how I started as I en- 
 
 71 
 
 ; 
 
■i^Uj" 
 
 WS^M 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 tered, on encountering the awful villain that 
 'vas myself at full length in a pier-glass! 
 Masked, armed, and ragged, I was indeed 
 fit carrion for a bullet or the hangman, and 
 to one or the other I made up my mind. 
 Nevertheless, I hid myself in the wardrobe 
 behind the mirror ; and there I stood shiver- 
 ing and cursing my fate, my folly, and 
 Raffles most of all — Raffles first and last — 
 for I daresay half an hour. Then the ward- 
 robe door was flung suddenly open; they 
 had stolen into the room without a sound; 
 and I was hailed downstairs, an ignomin- 
 ious captive. 
 
 Gross scenes followed in the hall ; the la- 
 dies were now upon the stage, and at sight 
 of the desperate criminal they screamed with 
 one accord. L, truth I must have given 
 them fair cause, though my mask was now 
 torn away and hid nothing but my \<tit ear. 
 Rosenthall answered their shrieks with a 
 roar for silence ; the woman with the bath- 
 sponge hail Swore at him shrilly in return ; 
 the place became a Babel impos-^ible to de- 
 scribe. I remember v/onderinj^ iiow long it 
 would be before the police appeared. Pur- 
 
 72 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 vis and the ladies were for calling them in 
 and giving me in charge without delay. 
 Rosenthall would not hear of it. He swore 
 that he would shoot man or woman who 
 lett his sight. He had had enough of the 
 police. He was ;iot going to have them 
 coming there to spoil sport; he was going 
 to deal with me in his own way. With that 
 he dragged me from all other hands, flung 
 me against a door, and sent a bullet crashing 
 through the wood within an inch of my 
 ear. 
 
 " You drunken fool ! It'll be murder ! " 
 shouted Purvis, getting in the way a second 
 time. 
 
 *' Wha' do I care? He's armed, isn't he? 
 I shot him in self-defence. It'll be a warn- 
 ing to others. Will you stand aside, or 
 d'ye want it yourself? " 
 
 " You're drunk," said Purvis, still be- 
 tween us. *' I saw you take a neat tumbler- 
 ful since you come \n, and it's made you 
 drunk as a fool. Pull yourself together, old 
 man. You ain t a-going to do what you'll 
 be sorry for." 
 
 " Then I won't shoot at him, I'll only 
 
 73 
 
^•i«i 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 shoot roun' an' roun' the beggar. You're 
 quite right, ole feller. Wouldn't hurt him. 
 Great mishtake. Roun' an' roun'. There 
 —like that 1 " 
 
 His freckled paw shot up over Purvis's 
 shoulder, mauve lightning came from his 
 ring, a red flash from his revolver, and 
 shrieks from the women as the reverbera- 
 tions died away. Some splinters lodged in 
 
 my hair. 
 
 Next instant the prize-fighter disarmed 
 hiin; and I was safe from the devil, but 
 finally doomed to the deep sea. A police- 
 man was in our midst. He had entered 
 through the drawing-room window ; he was 
 an officer of few words and creditable 
 promptitude. In a twinkling he had the 
 handcuffs on my wrists, while the pugilist 
 explained the situation, and his patron re- 
 viled the force and its representative with 
 impotent malignity. A fine watch they 
 kept ; a lot of good they did ; coming in when 
 all was over and the whole household might 
 have been murdered in their sleep. The 
 officer only deigned to notice him as he 
 marched me oflf. 
 
 74 
 
A Costume Piece 
 
 i^iii 
 
 tt 
 
 We know all about you, sir," said he 
 contemptuously, and he refused the sov- 
 ereign Purvis proffered. " You will be see- 
 ing me again, sir, at Marylebciie." 
 
 " Shall I come now? " 
 
 " As you please, sir. I rather think the 
 other gentleman requires you more, and I 
 don't fancy this young man means to give 
 much trouble." 
 
 " Oh, I'm coming quietly," I said. 
 
 And I went. 
 
 In silence we traversed perhaps a hun- 
 dred yards. It must have been midnight. 
 We did not meet a soul. At last I whis- 
 pered : 
 
 " How on earth did you manage it ? " 
 
 " Purely by luck," said Raffles. " I had 
 the luck vo get clear away through knowing 
 every brick of those back-garden walls, and 
 the double luck to have these togs with the 
 rest over at Chelsea. The helmet is one of 
 a collection I made up at Oxford ; here it 
 goes over this wall, and we'd better carry the 
 coat and belt before we meet a real officer. 
 I got them once for a fancy ball — ostensibly 
 — and thereb" hangs a yarn. I always 
 
 75 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 thought they might come in useful a sec- 
 ond time. My chief crux to-night was get- 
 ting rid of the hansom that brought me 
 back. I sent him off to Scotland Yard with 
 ten bob and a special message to good old 
 Mackenzie. The whole detective depart- 
 ment will be at Rosenthall's in about half 
 an hour. Of course, I speculated on our 
 gentleman's hatred of the police — another 
 huge slice of luck. If you'd got away, well 
 and good; if not, I felt he was the man 
 to play with his mouse as long as possible. 
 Yes, Bunny, it's been more of a costume 
 piece than I intended, and we've come out 
 of it with a good deal less credit. But, by 
 Jove, we're jolly lucky to have come out of 
 it at all ! " 
 
 76 
 
 J/- 
 
GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS 
 
 /^LD Raffles may or may not have been 
 an exceptional criminal, but as a 
 cricketer I dare swear he was unique. Him- 
 self a dangerous bat, a brilliant field, and 
 perhaps the very finest slow bowler of his 
 decade, he took incredibly little interest in 
 the game at large. He never went up to 
 Lord's without his cricket-bag, or showed 
 the slightest interest in the result of a match 
 in which he was not himself engaged. Nor 
 was this mere hateful egotism on his part. 
 He professed to have lost all enthusiasm 
 for the game, and to keep it up only from 
 the very lowest motives. 
 
 " Cricket," said Raffles, " like everything 
 else, is goo«^ enough sport until you dis- 
 cover a better. As a source of excitement 
 it isn't in it with other things you wot of, 
 Bunny, and the involuntary comparison be- 
 comes a bore. What's the satisfaction of 
 
 77 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 taking a man's wicket when you want his 
 spoons? Still, if you can bowl a bit your 
 low cunning won't get rusty, and always 
 looking for the weak spot's just the kind 
 of mental exercise one wants. Yes, per- 
 haps there's some affinity between the two 
 things after all. But I'd chuck up cricket 
 to-morrow, Bunny, if it wasn't for the glori- 
 ous protection it affords a person of my 
 proclivities." 
 
 '' How so? " said I. " It brings you be- 
 fore the public, I should have thought, far 
 more than is either safe or wise." 
 
 ** My dear Bunny, that's exactly where 
 you make a mistake. To follow Crime with 
 reasonable impunity you simply must have 
 a parallel, ostensible career— the more pub- 
 lic the better. The principle is obvious. 
 Mr. Peace, of pious memory, disarmed sus- 
 picion by acquiring a local reputation for 
 playing the fiddle and taming animals, and 
 it's my profound conviction that Jack the 
 Ripper was a really eminent public man, 
 whose speeches were very likely reported 
 alongside his atrocities. Fill the bill in 
 some prominent part, and you'll never be 
 
 78 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 suspected of doubling it with another of 
 equal prominence. That's why I want you 
 to cultivate journalism, my boy, and sign 
 all you can. And it's the one and only 
 reason why I don't burn my bats for fire- 
 wood." 
 
 Nevertheless, when he did play there was 
 no keener performer on the field, nor one 
 more anxious to do well for his side. I re- 
 member how he went to the nets, before the 
 first match of the season, with his pocket 
 full of sovereigns, which he put on the 
 stumps instead of bails. It was a sight to 
 see the professionals bowling like demons 
 for the hard cash, for whenever a stump 
 was hit a pound was tossed to the bow^ler 
 and another balanced in its stead, while 
 one man took £3 with a ball that spread- 
 eagled the wicket. Raffles's practice cost 
 him either eight or nine sovereigns; but he 
 had absolutely first-class bowling all the 
 time ; and he made fifty-seven runs next 
 day. 
 
 It became my pleasure to ac ^mpany 
 him to all his matches, to watch e\ ry ball 
 he bowled, or played, or fielded, and to sit 
 
 79 
 
 lit 
 
 III 
 
 i. •■ 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 chatting with him in the paviHon when he 
 was doing none of these three things. You 
 might have seen us there, side by side, dur- 
 ing the greater part of the Gentlemen's first 
 innings against the Players (who had lost 
 the toss) on the second Monday in July. 
 We were to be seen, but not heard, for Raf- 
 fles had failed to score, and was uncommon- 
 ly cross for a player who cared so little for 
 the game. Merely taciturn with me, he was 
 positively rude to more than one member 
 who wanted to know how it had happened, 
 or who ventured to commiserate him on 
 his luck; there he sat, with a straw hat tilted 
 over his nose and a cigarette stuck between 
 lips that curled disagreeably at every ad- 
 vance. I was therefore much surprised 
 when a young fellow of the exquisite type 
 came and squeezed himself in between us, 
 and met with a perfectly civil reception de- 
 spite the liberty. I did not know the boy 
 by sight, nor did RafBes introduce us; but 
 their conversation proclaiined at once a 
 slightness of acquaintanceship and a licence 
 on the lad's part which combined to puzzle 
 me. Mystification reached its height when 
 
 80 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 Raffles was informed that the other's father 
 was anxious to meet him, and he instantly 
 consented to gratify that whim. 
 
 '* He's in the Ladies' Enclosure. Will 
 you come round now? " 
 
 " With pleasure," says RafKes. " Keep a 
 place for me, Bunny." 
 
 And they were gone. 
 
 " Young Crowley," said some voice fur- 
 ther back. " Last year's Harrow Eleven." 
 
 " I remember him. Worst man in the 
 team." 
 
 " Keen cricketer, however. Stopped till 
 he was twenty to get his colours. Governor 
 made him. Keen breed. Oh, pretty, sir! 
 Very pretty! " 
 
 The game was boring me. I only came 
 to see old Raffles perform. Soon I was 
 looking wistfully for his return, and at 
 length I saw him beckoning me from the 
 palings to the right. 
 
 " Want to introduce you to old Amer- 
 steth," he whispered, when I joined him. 
 " They've a cricket week next month, when 
 this boy Crowley comes of age, and we've 
 both got to go down and play." 
 
 8i 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " Both! " I echoed. " But I'm no crick- 
 eter!" 
 
 " Shut up," says Raffles. " Leave that 
 to me. I've been lying for all I'm worth," 
 he added sepulchrally as we reached the 
 bottom of the steps. " I trust to you not 
 to give the show away." 
 
 There was the gleam in his eye that I 
 knew well enough elsewhere, but was un- 
 prepared for in those healthy, sane sur- 
 roundings; and it was with very definite 
 misgivings and surmises that I followed the 
 Zingiri blazer through the vast flower-bed 
 of hats and bonnets that bloomed beneath 
 the ladies' awning. 
 
 Lord Amersteth was a fine-looking man 
 with a short moustache and a double chin. 
 He received me with much dry courtesy, 
 through which, however, it was not difficult 
 to read a less flattering tale. I was accepted 
 as the inevitable appendage of the invalu- 
 able Raffles, with whom I felt deeply in- 
 censed as I made my bow. 
 
 " I have been bold enough," said Lord 
 Amersteth, " to ask one of the Gentlemen 
 of England to come down and play some 
 
 82 
 
If 
 
 Gentlemen and Players 
 
 rustic cricket for us next month. He is kind 
 enough to say that he would have Hked 
 nothing better, but for this httle fishing ex- 
 pedition of yours, Mr. , Mr. ," and 
 
 Lord Amersteth succeeded in remembering 
 my name. 
 
 It was, of course, the first I had ever 
 heard of that fishing expedition, but I made 
 haste to say that it could easily, and should 
 certainly, be put oE. Raffles gleamed ap- 
 proval through his eyelashes. Lord Amer- 
 steth bowea and shrugged. 
 
 " You're very good, I'm sure," said he. 
 " But I understand you're a cricketer your- 
 self?" 
 
 " He was one at school," said Raffles, 
 with infamous readiness. 
 
 " Not a real cricketer," I was stammering 
 meanwhile. 
 
 " In the eleven? " said Lord Amersteth. 
 
 " I'm afraid not," said I. 
 
 " But only just out of it," declared Raf- 
 fles, to my horror. 
 
 " Well, well, we can't all play for the Gen- 
 tlemen," snid Lord Amersteth slyly. " My 
 son Crowley only just scraped into the 
 
 83 
 
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 (716) 872-4503 
 
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as 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 eleven at Harrow, and he*s going to play. 
 I may even come in myself at a pinch; so 
 you won't be the only duffer, if you are one, 
 and I shall be very glad if you will come 
 down and help us too. You shall flog a 
 stream before breakfast and after dinner, 
 if you like." 
 
 " I should be very proud," I was begin- 
 ning, as the mere prelude to resolute ex- 
 cuses; but the eye of Raffles opened wide 
 upon me; and I hesitated weakly, to be duly 
 lost. 
 
 " Then that's settled," said Lord Amer- 
 steth, with the slightest suspicion of grim- 
 ness. " It's to be a little week, you know, 
 when my son comes of age. We play the 
 Free Foresters, the Dorsetshire Gentlemen, 
 and probably some local lot as well. But 
 Mr. Raffles will tell you all about it, and 
 Crowley shall write. Another wicket! By 
 Jove, they're all out ! Then I rely on you 
 both." And, with a little nod, Lord Amer- 
 steth rose and sidled to the gangway. 
 
 Raffles rose also, but I caught the sleeve 
 of his blazer. 
 
 " What are you thinking of? " I whis- 
 
 84 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 pered savagely. " I was nowhere near the 
 eleven. Fm no sort of cricketer. I shall 
 have to get out of this! " 
 
 " Not you," he whispered back. " You 
 needn't play, but come you must. If you 
 wait for me after half-past six I'll tell you 
 why." 
 
 But I could guess the reason; and I am 
 ashamed to sav that it revolted me much 
 less than did the notion of making a public 
 fool of myself on a cricket-field. My gorge 
 rose at this as it no longer rose at crime, 
 and it was in no tranquil humour that I 
 strolled about the ground while Raffles dis- 
 appeared in the pavilion. Nor was my an- 
 noyance lessened by a little meeting I wit- 
 nessed between young Crowley and his 
 father, who shrugged as he stopped and 
 stooped to convey some information which 
 made the young man look a little blank. 
 It may have been pure self-consciousness 
 on my part, but I could have sworn that the 
 trouble was their inability to secure the great 
 Raffles without his insignificant friend. 
 
 Then the bell rang, and I climbed to the 
 top of the pavilion to watch Raffles bowl. 
 
 
 I 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 No subtleties are lost up there; and if ever 
 a bowler was full of them, it was A. J. Raf- 
 fles on this day, as, indeed, all the cricket 
 world remembers. One had not to be a 
 cricketer oneself to appreciate his perfect 
 command of pitch and break, his beautifully 
 easv action, which never varied with the 
 varying pace, his great ball on the leg-stump 
 — his dropping head-ball — in a word, the 
 infinite ingenuity of that versatile attack. 
 It was no mere exhibition of athletic prow- 
 ess, it was an intellectual treat, and one 
 with a special significance in my eyes. I 
 saw the " affinity between the two things," 
 saw it in that afternoon's tireless warfare 
 against the flower of professional cricket. 
 It was not that Raffles took many wickets 
 for few runs; he was too fine a bowler to 
 mind being hit; and time was short, and 
 the wicket good. What I admired, and 
 what I remember, was the combination of 
 resource and cunning, of patience and pre- 
 cision, of head-work and handiwork, which 
 made every over an artistic whole. It was 
 all so characteristic of that other Raffles 
 whom I alone knew! 
 
 86 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 (( 
 
 I felt like bowling this afternoon," he 
 told me later in the hansom. " With a 
 pitch to help me, I'd have done something 
 big; as it is, three for forty-one, out of the 
 four that fell, isn't so bad for a slow bowler 
 on a plumb wicket against those fellows. 
 But I felt venomous! Nothing riles me 
 more than being asked about for my cricket 
 as though I were a pro. myself." 
 
 " Then why on earth go? " 
 
 " To punish them, and — because we shall 
 be jolly hard up. Bunny, before the season's 
 over!" 
 
 " Ah! " said I. " I bought it was that." 
 
 " Of course, it was ! It seems they're go- 
 ing to have the very devil of a week of it 
 — balls — dinner-parties — swagger house- 
 party — general junketings — and obviously 
 a houseful of diamonds as well. Diamonds 
 galore! As a general rule nothing would 
 induce me to abuse my position as a guest. 
 I've never done it, Bunny. But in this case 
 we're engaged like the waiters and the band, 
 and by heaven we'll take our toll! Let's 
 have a quiet dinner somewhere and talk it 
 
 over. 
 
 87 
 
i ■ 
 
 ■■fe 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " It seems rather a vulgar sort of theft," 
 I could not help saying; and to this, my 
 single protest. Raffles instantly assented. 
 
 "It is a vulgar sort," said he; "but I 
 can't help that. We're getting vulgarly 
 hard up again, and there's an end on 't. 
 Besides, these people deserve it, and can 
 afford it. And don't you run away with 
 the idea that all will be plain sailing; noth- 
 ing will be easier than getting some stuff, 
 and nothing harder than avoiding all sus- 
 picion, as, of course, we must. We may 
 come away with no more than a good work- 
 ing plan of the premises. Who knows? In 
 any case there's weeks of thinking in it for 
 you and me." 
 
 But with those weeks I will not weary 
 you further than by remiirking that the 
 ** thinking," was done entirely by Raffles, 
 who did not always trouble to communicate 
 his thoughts to me. His reticence, how- 
 ever, was no longer an irritant. I began to 
 accept it as a necessary convention of these 
 little enterprises. And, after our last ad- 
 venture of the kind, more especially after its 
 denouement, my trust in Raffles was much 
 
 88 
 
ipl 
 
 Gentlemen and Players 
 
 too solid to be shaken by a want of trust 
 in me, which I still believe to have been 
 more the instinct of the criminal than the 
 judgment of the man. 
 
 It was on Monday, the tenth of August, 
 that we were due at Milchester Abbey, Dor- 
 set; and the beginning of the month found 
 us cruising about that very county, with 
 fly-rods actually in our hands. The idea 
 was that we should acquire at once a local 
 reputation as decent fishermen, and some 
 knowledge of the countryside, with a view 
 to further and more deliberate operations in 
 the event of an unprofitable week. There 
 was another idea which Rafties kept to him- 
 self until he had got me down there. Then 
 one day he produced a cricket-ball in a 
 meadow we were crossing, and threw me 
 catches for an hour together. More hours 
 he spent in bowling to me on the nearest 
 green; and, if I was never a cricketer, at 
 least I came nearer to being one, by the 
 end of that week, than ever before or since. 
 
 Incident began early on the Monday. 
 We had sallied forth from a desolate little 
 junction within quite a few miles of Milches- 
 
 89 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 ter, had been caught in a shower, had run 
 for sheker to a wayside inn. A florid, over- 
 dressed man was drinking in the parlour, 
 and I could have sworn it was at the sight 
 of him that Raffles recoiled on the threshold, 
 and afterwards insisted on returning to the 
 station through the rain. He assured me, 
 however, that the odour of stale ale had 
 almost knocked him down. And I had to 
 make what I could of his speculative, down- 
 cast eyes and knitted brows. 
 
 Milchester Abbey is a grey, quadrangu- 
 lar pile, deep-set in rich woody country, and 
 twinkling with triple rows of quaint win- 
 dows, every one of which seemed alight as 
 we drove up just in time to dress for din- 
 ner. The carriage had whirled us under I 
 know not hov; many triumphal arches in 
 process of construction, and past the tents 
 and flag-poles of a juicy-looking cricket- 
 field, on which Raffles undertook to bowl 
 up to his reputation. But the chief signs 
 of festival were within, where we found an 
 enormous house-party assembled, including 
 more persons of pomp, majesty, and domin- 
 ion than I had ever encountered in one 
 
 90 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 room before. I confess I felt overpowered. 
 Our errand and my own pretences com- 
 bined to rob me of an address upon which 
 I have sometimes plumed myself; and I 
 have a grim recollection of my nervous 
 relief when dinner was at last announced. 
 I little knew what an ordeal it was to prove. 
 I had taken in a much less formidable 
 young lady than might have fallen to my 
 lot. Indeed I began by blessing my good 
 fortune in this respect. Miss Melhuish was 
 merely the rector's daughter, and she had 
 only been asked to make an even number. 
 She informed me of both facts before the 
 soup reached us, and her subsequent con- 
 versation was characterised by the same en- 
 gaging candour. It exposed what was little 
 short of a mania for imparting information. 
 I had simply to listen, to nod, and to be 
 thankful. When I confessed to knowing 
 very few of those present, even by sight, 
 my entertaining companion proceeded to 
 tell me who everybody was, beginning on 
 my left and working conscientiously round 
 to her right. This lasted quite a long time, 
 and really interested me; but a great deal 
 
 91 
 
 
 i: 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 that followed did not; and, obviously to 
 recapture my unworthy attention, Miss 
 Melhuish suddenly asked me, in a sensa- 
 tional whisper, whether I could keep a se- 
 cret. 
 
 I said I thought I might, whereupon an- 
 other question followed, in still lower and 
 more thrilling accents: 
 
 " Are you afraid of burglars? " 
 
 Burglars! I was roused at last. The 
 word stabbed me. I repeated it in horrified 
 query. 
 
 " So I've found something to interest you 
 at last!'* said Miss Melhuish, in naive tri- 
 umph. "Yes — burglars! But don't speak 
 so loud. It's supposed to be kept a great 
 secret. I really oughtn't to tell you at all! " 
 
 " But what is there to tell? " I whispered 
 with satisfactory impatience. 
 
 "You promise not to speak of it?" 
 
 "Of course!" 
 
 " Well, then, there are burglars in the 
 neighbourhood." 
 
 "Have they committed any robberies?" 
 
 " Not "et." 
 
 "Then how do you know?" 
 
 92 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 " They've been seen. In the district. Two 
 well-known London thieves! " 
 
 Two! I looked at Raffles. I had done 
 so often during the evening, envying him 
 his high spirits, his iron nerve, his buoyant 
 wit, his perfect ease and self-possession. 
 But now I pitied him; through all my own 
 terror and consternation, I pitied him as 
 he sat eating and drinking, and laughing 
 and talking, without a cloud of fear or of 
 embarrassment on his handsome, taking, 
 daredevil fare. I caught up my champagne 
 and emptied the glass. 
 
 "Who has seen them?" I then asked 
 calmly. 
 
 " A detective. They were traced down 
 from town a few days ago. They are be- 
 lieved to have designs on the Abbey! " 
 
 " But why aren't they run in? " 
 
 " Exactly what I asked papa on the way 
 here this evening; he says there is no war- 
 rant out against the men at present, and 
 all that can be done is to watch their move- 
 ments." 
 
 " Oh! so they are being watched? " 
 
 ** Yes, by a detective who is down here 
 
 93 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 on purpose. .Vnd I heard Lord Amersteth 
 tell papa that they had been seen this after- 
 noon at Warbeck Junction! " 
 
 The very place where Raffles and I had 
 been caught in the rain! Our stampede 
 from the inn was now explained; on the 
 other hand, I was no longer to be taken 
 by surprise by anything that my compan- 
 ion might have to tell me; and I succeeded 
 in looking her in the face with a smile. 
 
 " This is really quite exciting, Miss Mel- 
 huish," said I. " May I ask how you come 
 to know so much about it? " 
 
 " It's papa," was the confidential reply. 
 " Lord Amersteth consulted him, and he 
 consulted me. But for goodness' sake don't 
 let it get about! I can't think what tempted 
 me to tell you I " 
 
 " You may trust me, Miss Melhuish. But 
 — aren't you frightened ? " 
 
 Miss Melhuish giggled. 
 
 *' Not a bit ! They won't come to the rec- 
 tory. There's nothing for them there. But 
 look round the table: look at the diamonds: 
 look at old Lady Melrose's necklace 
 alone!" 
 
 94 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 The Dowager Marchioness of Melrose 
 was one of the few persons whom it had 
 been unnecessary to point out to me. She 
 sat on Lord Amersteth's right, flourishing 
 her ear-trumpet, and drinking champagne 
 with her usual notorious freedom, as dissi- 
 pated and kindly a dame as the world has 
 ever seen. It was a necklace of diamonds 
 and sapphires that rose and fell about her 
 ample neck. 
 
 " They say it's worth five thousand 
 pounds at least," continued my companion. 
 " Lady Margaret told me so this morning 
 (that's Lady Margaret next your Mr. Raf- 
 fles, you know) ; and the old dear will wear 
 them every night. Think what a haul they 
 would be! No; we don't feel in immediate 
 danger at the rectory." 
 
 When the ladies rose, Miss Melhuish 
 bound me to fresh vows of secrecy; and left 
 
 me, I should think, with some remorse for 
 her indiscretion, but more satisfaction at 
 the importance which it had undoubtedly 
 given her in my eyes. The opinion may 
 smack of vanity, though, in reality, the very 
 springs of conversation reside in that same 
 
 95 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 human, universal itch to thrill the auditor. 
 The peculiarity of Miss Melhuish was that 
 she must be thrilling at all costs. And 
 thrilling she had surely been. 
 
 I spare you my feelings of the next two 
 hours. 1 tried hard to get a word with 
 Raffles, but again and again I failed. In 
 the dining-room he and Crowley lit their 
 cigarettes with the same match, and had 
 their heads together all the time. In the 
 drawing-room I had the mortification of 
 hearing him talk interminable nonsense into 
 the ear-trumpet of Lady Melrose, whom he 
 knew in town. Lastly, in the billiard-room, 
 they had a great and lengthy pool, while I 
 sat aloof and chafed more than ever in the 
 company of a very serious Scotchman, who 
 had arrived since dinner, and who would 
 talk of nothing but the recent improvements 
 in instantaneous photography. He had not 
 come to play in the matches (he told me), 
 but to obtain for Lord Amersteth such a 
 series of cricket photographs as had never 
 been taken before; whether as an amateur 
 or a professional photographer I was un- 
 able to determine. I remember, however, 
 
 96 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 seeking distraction in little bursts of reso- 
 lute attention to the conversation of this 
 bore. And so at last the long ordeal ended; 
 glasses were emptied, men said good-night, 
 and I followed Raffles to his room. 
 
 " It's all up! " I gasped, as he turned up 
 the gas and I shut the door. *' We're being 
 watched. We've been followed down from 
 town. There's a detective here on the 
 spot!" 
 
 "How do you know?" asked Raffles, 
 turning upon me quite sharply, but without 
 the least dismav. And I told him how I 
 knew. 
 
 " Of course," I added, " it was the fellow 
 we saw in the inn this afternoon." 
 
 " The detective? " said Raffles. " Do you 
 rrcan to say you don't know a detective 
 when you see one, Bunny? " 
 
 " If that wasn't the fellow, which is? " 
 
 Raffles shook his head. 
 
 " To think that you've been talking to 
 him for the last hour in the billiard-room 
 and couldn't spot what he wis!" 
 
 " The Scotch photographer- 
 
 I paused aghast. 
 
 97 
 
 j» 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " Scotch he is," said Raffles, " and pho- 
 tographer he may be. He is also Inspector 
 Mackenzie of Scotland Yard— the very man 
 I sent the message to that night last April. 
 And you couldn't spot who he was in a 
 whole hour! O Bunny, Bunny, you were 
 never built for crime! " 
 
 " But," said I, " if that was Mackenzie, 
 who was the fellow you bolted from at War- 
 beck?" 
 
 " The man he's watching." 
 " But he's watching us! " 
 Raffles looked at me with a pitying eye, 
 and shook his head again before handing 
 me his open cigarette-case. 
 
 " I don't know whether smoking's for- 
 bidden in one's bedroom, but you'd better 
 take one of these and stand tight, Bunny, 
 because I'm going to say something ofifen- 
 
 sive. 
 
 I helped myself with a laugh. 
 
 " Say what you like, my dear fellow, if it 
 really isn't you and I that Mackenzie's 
 
 ' after." 
 
 " Well, then, it isn't, and it couldn't be, 
 and nobody but a born Bunny would sup- 
 
 98 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 pose for a moment that it was! Do you 
 seriously think he would sit there and know- 
 ingly watch hio man playing pool under 
 his nose? Well, he might; he's a cool hand, 
 Mackenzie; but I'm not cool enough to 
 win a pool under such conditions. At least 
 I don't think I am; it would be interesting 
 to see. The situation wasn't free from strain 
 as it was, though I knew he wasn't think- 
 ing of us. Crowley told me all about it 
 after dinner, you see, and then I'd seen 
 one of the men for myself this afternoon. 
 You thought it was a detective who made 
 me turn tail at that inn. I really don't know 
 why I didn't tell you at the time, but it was 
 just the opposite. That loud, red-faced 
 brute is one of the cleverest thieves in Lon- 
 don, and I once had a drink with him and 
 our mutual fence. I was an Eastender from 
 tongue to toe at the moment, but you will 
 understand that I don't run unnecessary 
 risks of recognition by a brute like that." 
 
 ** He's not alone, I hear." 
 
 " By no means ; there's at least one other 
 man with him ; and it's suggested that there 
 may be an accomplice here in the house." 
 
 99 
 
 
 ij 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " Did Lord Crowley tell you so? " 
 
 " Crowley and the champagne between 
 them. In confidence, of course, just as your 
 girl told you; but even in confidence he 
 "never let on about Mackenzie. He told me 
 there was a detective in the background, but 
 that was all. Putting him up as a guest is 
 evidently their big secret, to be kept from 
 the other guests because it might oflfend 
 them, but more particulaily from the ser- 
 vants whom he's here to watch. That's my 
 reading of the situation. Bunny, and you 
 will agree with me that it's infinitely more 
 interesting than we could have imagined it 
 would prove." 
 
 " But infinitely more difficult for us," 
 said I, with a sigh of pusillanimous relief. 
 " Our hands are tied for this week, at all 
 events." 
 
 " Not necessarily, my dear Bunny, 
 though I admit that the chances are against 
 us. Yet I'm not so sure of that either. 
 There are all sorts of possibilities in these 
 three-cornered combinations. Set A to 
 watch B, and he won't have an eye left for 
 C. That's the obvious theory, but then 
 
 1 09 
 
^ 
 
 Gentlemen and Players 
 
 Mackenzie's a very big A. I should be 
 sorry to have any boodle about me with 
 that man in the house. Yet it would be 
 great to nip in between A and B and score 
 off them both at once! It would be worth 
 a risk, Bunny, to do that ; it would be worth 
 risking something merely to take on old 
 hands Hke B and his men at their own old 
 game! Eh, Bunny? That would be some- 
 thing Hke a match. Gentlemen and Play- 
 ers at single wicket, by Jove! " 
 
 His eyes were brighter than I had known 
 them for many a day. They shone with 
 the perverted enthusiasm which was roused 
 in him only by the contemplation of some 
 new audacity. He kicked off his shoes and 
 began pacing his room with noiseless rapid- 
 ity; not since the night of the Old Bohe- 
 mian dinner to Reuben Rosenthal! had Raf- 
 fles exhibited such excitement in my pres- 
 ence; and I was not sorry at the moment 
 to be reminded of the fiasco to which that 
 banquet had been the prelude. 
 
 '* My dear A. J.," said I in his very own 
 tone, " you're far too fond of the uphill 
 game; you will eventually fall a victim to 
 
 lOI 
 
 V ' Mi 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 the sporting spirit and nothing else. Take 
 a lesson from our last escape, and fly lower 
 as you value our skins. Study the house 
 as much as you like, but do — not — go 
 and shove your head into Mackenzie's 
 mouth ! " 
 
 My wealth of metaphor brought him to 
 a standstill, with his cigarette between his 
 fingers and a g.-in beneath his shining eyes. 
 
 " You're quite right, Bunny. I won't. I 
 really won't. Yet — you saw old Lady Mel- 
 rose's necklace? I've been wanting it for 
 years! But Fm not going to play the fool; 
 honour bright, I'm not; yet — by Jove! — to 
 get to windward of the professors and 
 Mackenzie too! It would be a great game, 
 Bunny, it would be a great game! " 
 
 " Well, you mustn't play it this week." 
 
 " No, no, I won't. But I wonder how 
 the professors think of going to work? 
 That's what one wants to know. I wonder 
 if they've really got an accomplice in the 
 house? How I wish I knew their game! 
 But it's all right, Bunny; don't you be jeal- 
 ous; it shall be as you wish." 
 
 And with that assurance I went ofif to 
 
 I02 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 my own room, and so to bed with an in- 
 credibly light heart. I had still enough of 
 the honest man in me to welcome the post- 
 ponement of our actual felonies, to dread 
 their performance, to deplore their neces- 
 sity: which is merely another way of stating 
 the too patent fact that I was an incom- 
 parably weaker man than Raffles, while 
 every whit as wicked. I had, however, one 
 rather strong point. I possessed the gift 
 of dismissing unpleasant considerations, not 
 intimately connected with the passing mo- 
 ment, entirely from my mind. Through 
 the exercise of this faculty I had lately been 
 living my frivolous life in town with as 
 much ignoble enjoyment as I had derived 
 from it the year before ; and similarly, here 
 at Milchester, in the long-dreaded cricket 
 week, I had after all a quite excellent time. 
 It is true that there were other factors 
 in this pleasing disappointment. In the 
 first place, mirabile dictu, there were one or 
 two even greater duffers than I on the Ab- 
 bey cricket field. Indeed, quite early in 
 the week, when it was of most value to me, 
 I gained considerable kudos for a lucky 
 
 103 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 catch; a ball, of which I had merely heard 
 the hum, stuck fast in my hand, which Lord 
 Amersteth himself grasped in public con- 
 gratulation. This happy accident was not 
 to be undone even by me, and, as nothing 
 succeeds like success, and the constant en- 
 couragement of the one great cricketer on 
 the field was in itself an immense stimulus, 
 I actually made a run or two in my very 
 next innings. Miss Melhuish said pretty 
 things to me that night at the great ball 
 in honour of Viscount Crowley's majority; 
 she also told me that was the night on which 
 the robbers would assuredly make their 
 raid, and was full of arch tremors when we 
 sat out in the garden, though the entire 
 premises were illuminated all night long. 
 Meanwhile the quiet Scotchman took 
 countless photographs by day, which he de- 
 veloped by night in a dark room admirably 
 situated in the servants' part of the house; 
 and it is my firm belief that only two of 
 his fellow-guests knew Mr. Clephane of 
 Dundee for Inspector Mackenzie of Scot- 
 land Yard. 
 The week was to end with a trumpery 
 
 104 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 match on the Saturday, which two or three 
 of us intended abandoning early in order 
 to return to town that night. The match, 
 however, was never played. In the small 
 hours of the Saturday morning a tragedy 
 took place at Milchester Abbey. 
 
 Let me tell of the thing as I saw and 
 heard it. My room opened upon the cen- 
 tral gallery, and was not even on the same 
 floor as that on which Raffles — and I think 
 all the other men — were quartered. I had 
 been put, in fact, into the dressing-room of 
 one of the grand suites, and my too near 
 neighbours were old Lady Melrose and my 
 host and hostess. Now, by the Friday even- 
 ing the actual festivities were at an end, 
 and, for the first i^me that week, I must 
 have been sound asleep since midnight, 
 when all at once I found myself sitting up 
 breathless. A heavy thud had come against 
 my door, and now I heard hard breathing 
 and the dull stamp of muffled feet. 
 
 " Fve got ye," muttered a voice. " It's 
 no use struggling." 
 
 It was the Scotch detective, and a new 
 tear turned me cold. There was no reply. 
 
 I 
 
 
 ■ 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 MM 
 
 fljW 
 
 but the hard breathing grew harder still, 
 and the muftled feet beat the floor to a 
 quicker measure. In sudden panic I sprang 
 out of bed and flung open my door. A 
 light burnt low on the landing, and by it I 
 cjuld see Mackenzie swaying and stagger- 
 ing in a silent tussle with some powerful 
 adversary. 
 
 "Hold this man!" he cried, as I ap- 
 peared. " Hold the rascal! " 
 
 But I stood like a fool until the pair of 
 them backed into me, when, with a deep 
 breath I flung mysr't on the fellow, whose 
 face I had seen at last. He was one of the 
 footmen who waited at table ; and no sooner 
 had I pinned him than the detective loosed 
 his hold. 
 
 " Hang on to him," he cried. " There's 
 more of 'em below." 
 
 And he went leaping down the stairs, as 
 other doors opened and Lord Amersteth 
 and his son appeared simultaneously in their 
 pyjamas. At that my man ceased strug- 
 gling; but I was still holding him when 
 Crowley turned up the gas. 
 
 "What the devil's all this?" asked Lord 
 
 1 06 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 Amersteth, blinking. " Who was that ran 
 downstairs? " 
 
 " Mac — Clephane! " said I hastily. 
 
 " Aha! " said he, turning to the footman. 
 ** So you're the scoundrel, are you? Well 
 done! Well done! Where was he caught? " 
 
 I had no idea. 
 
 ** Here's Lady Melrose's door open," said 
 Crowley. " Lady Melrose ! Lady Melrose ! " 
 
 " You forget '^he's deaf," said Lord Amer- 
 steth. " Ah! that'll be her maid." 
 
 An inner door had opened; next instant 
 there was a little shriek, and a white figure 
 gesticulated on the threshold. 
 
 " Ou done est I'ecrin de Madame la Mar- 
 quise? La fenetre est ouverte. II a dis- 
 paru ! " 
 
 " Window open and jewel-case gone, by 
 Jove! " exclaimed Lord Amersteth. " Mais 
 comment est Madame la Marquise? Est- 
 elle bien?" 
 
 " Oui, milor. Elle dort." 
 
 " Sleeps through it all," said my lord. 
 " She's the only one, then! " 
 
 " What made Mackenzie — Clephane — 
 bolt? " young Crowley asked me. 
 
 107 
 
 I'W 
 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 II 
 
 *' Said there were more of them below." 
 
 " Why the devil couldn't you tell us so 
 before?" he cried, and went leaping down- 
 stairs in his turn. 
 
 He was followed by nearly all the cricket- 
 ers, who now burst upon the scene in a 
 body, only to desert it for the chase. Raffles 
 was one of them, and I would gladly have 
 been another, had not the footman chosen 
 this moment to hurl me from him, and to 
 make a dash in the direction from which 
 they had jome. Lord Amersteth had him 
 in an instant; but the fellow fought desper- 
 ately, and it took the two of us to drag him 
 downstairs, amid a terrified chorus from 
 half-open doors. Eventually we handed 
 him over to two other footmen who ap- 
 peared with their nightshirts tucked into 
 their trousers, and my host was good 
 enough to compliment me as he led the 
 way outside. 
 
 " I thought I heard a shot," he added. 
 "Didn't you?" 
 
 " I thought I heard three." 
 
 And out we dashed into the darkness. 
 
 I remember how the gravel pricked my 
 
 io8 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 feet, how the wet grass numbed them as 
 we made for the sound of voices on an out- 
 lying lawn. So dark was the night that 
 we were in the cricl<eters' midst before we 
 saw the shimmer of their pyjamas ; and tlien 
 Lord Amersteth almost trod on Mackenzie 
 as he lay prostrate in the dew. 
 
 "Who's this?" he cried. "What on 
 earth's happened? " 
 
 " It's Clephane," said a man who knelt 
 over him. *' He's got a bullet in him some- 
 where." 
 
 "Is he alive?" 
 
 " Barely." 
 
 "Good God! Where's Crowley? " 
 
 " Here I am," called a breathless voice. 
 " It's no good, you fellows. There's noth- 
 ing to show which way they've gone. Here's 
 Rafifles; he's chucked it, too." And they 
 ran up panting. 
 
 " Well, we've got one of them, at all 
 events," muttered Lord Amersteth. " The 
 next thing is to get this poor fellow mdoors. 
 Take his shoulders, somebody. Now his 
 middle. Join hands under him. All to- 
 gether, now; that's the way. Poor fellow! 
 
 109 
 
 II '' 
 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 Poor fellow! His name isn't Clephane at 
 all. He's a Scotland Yard detective, down 
 here for these very villains! " 
 
 Rafiles was the first to express surprise; 
 but he had also been the first to raise the 
 wounded man. Nor had any of them a 
 stronger or more tender hand in the slow 
 procession to the house. In a little we 
 had the senseless man stretched on a sofa 
 in the library. And there, with ice on his 
 wound and brandy in his throat, his eyes 
 opened and his lips moved. 
 
 Lord Amersteth bent down to catch the 
 words. 
 
 "Yes, yes," said he; "we've got one of 
 them safe and sound. The brute you col- 
 lared upstairs." Lord Amersteth bent 
 lower. " By Jove! Lowered the jewel-case 
 out of the window, did he? And they've 
 got clean away with it! Well, well! I only 
 hope we'll be able to pull this good fellow 
 through. He's off again." 
 
 An hour passed: the sun was rising. 
 
 It found a dozen young fellows on the 
 settees in the billiard-room, drinking 
 whisky and soda-water in their overcoats 
 
 no 
 
■i ! 
 
 Gentlemen and Players 
 
 and pyjamas, and still talking excitedly in 
 one breath. A time-table was being passed 
 from hand to hand: the doctor was still in 
 the library. At last the door opened, and 
 Lord Amersteth put in his head. 
 
 " It isn't hopeless," said he, ** but it's bad 
 enough. There'll be no cricket to-day." 
 
 Another hour, and most of us were on our 
 way to catch the early train; between us 
 we filled a compartment almost to suffoca- 
 tion. And still we talked all together of 
 the night's event; and still I was a little 
 hero in my way, for having kept my hold 
 of the one raflfian who had been taken; and 
 my gratification was subtle and intense. 
 Raffles watched me under lowered lids. Not 
 a word had we had together; not a wo^-d 
 did we have until we had left the others 
 at Paddington, and were skimming through 
 the streets in a hansom with noiseless tyres 
 and a tinkling bell. 
 
 " Well, Bunny," said Raffles, " so the pro- 
 fessors have it, eh? " 
 
 " Yes," said I. " And I'm jolly glad! " 
 
 " That poor Mackenzie has a ball in his 
 chest? " 
 
 TIT 
 
 i^ 
 
 ■' 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " That you and I have been on the de- 
 cent side for once." 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " You're hopeless, Bunny, quite hopeless! 
 I take it you wouldn't have refused your 
 share if the boodle had fallen to us? Yet 
 you positively enjoy coming of? second best 
 — for the second time running! I confess, 
 however, that the professors' methods were 
 full of interest to me. I, for one, have prob- 
 ably gained as much in experience as I have 
 lost in other things. That lowering the 
 jewel-case out of the window was a very 
 simple and effective expedient; two of them 
 had been waiting below for it for hours." 
 
 " How do you know? " I asked. 
 
 " I saw them from my own window, 
 which was just above the dear old lady's. 
 I was fretting for that necklace in particu- 
 lar, when I went up to turn in for our last 
 night — and I happened to look out of my 
 window. In point of fact, I wanted to see 
 whether the one below was open, and 
 whether there was the slightest chance, of 
 working the oracle with my sheet for a rope. 
 Of course I took the precaution of turning 
 
 112 
 
Gentlemen and Players 
 
 my light off first, and it was a lucky thing 
 I did. I saw the pros, right down below, 
 and they never saw me. I saw a little tiny 
 luminous disc just for an instant, and then 
 again for an instant a few minutes later. 
 Of course I knew what it was, for I have 
 my own watch-dial daubed with luminous 
 paint; it makes a lantern of sorts when you 
 can get no better. But these fellows were 
 not using theirs as a lantern. They were 
 under the old lady's window. They were 
 watchmg the time. The whole thing was 
 arranged with their accomplice inside. Set 
 a thie o catch a thief: in a m.inute I had 
 guessed what the whole thing proved to be." 
 
 " And you did nothing! " I exclaimed. 
 
 '* On the contrarv, I went downstairs and 
 straight into Lady Melrose's room " 
 
 " You did? " 
 
 " Without a moment's hesitation. To 
 save her jewels. And I was prepared to 
 yell as much into her ear-trumpet for all 
 the house to hear. But the dear lady is 
 too deaf and too fond of her dinner to wake 
 easily." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " She didn't stir." 
 
 " And yet you allowed the professors, as 
 you call them, to take her jewels, case and 
 
 all!" 
 
 " All but this," said Raffles, thrusting his 
 fist into my lap. " I would have shown it 
 you before, but really, old fellow, your face 
 all day has been worth a fortune to the 
 
 firm!" 
 
 And he opened his fist, to shut it next in- 
 stant on the bunch of diamonds and of sap- 
 phires that I had last seen encircUng the 
 neck of Lady Melrose. 
 
 T14 
 
LE PREMIER PAS 
 
 'T'HAT night he told me the story of his 
 earhest crime. Not since the fateful 
 morning of the Ides of March, when he had 
 just mentioned it as an unreported incident 
 of a certain cricket tour, had I succeeded 
 in getting a word out of Raffles on the sub- 
 ject. It was not for want of trying ; he 
 would shake his head, and watch his cigar- 
 ette smoke thoughtfully ; a subtle look in his 
 eyes, half cynical, half wistful, as though 
 the decent honest days that were no more 
 had had their merits after all. Raffles 
 would plan a fresh enormity, or glory in the 
 last, with the unmitigated enthusiasm of the 
 artist. It was impossible to imagine one 
 throb or twitter of compunction beneath 
 those frankly egoistic and infectious trans- 
 ports. And yet the ghost of a dead remorse 
 seemed still to visit him with the memory 
 of his first felony, so that I had given the 
 
 IIS 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 story up 'ong before the night of our return 
 from Milchester. Cricket, however, was in 
 the air, and Raffles's cricket-bag back where 
 he sometimes kept it, in the fender, with th'c 
 remains of an Orient label still adhering 
 to the leather. My eyes had been on this 
 label for some time, and I suppose his eyes 
 had been on mine, for all at once he asked 
 me if I still burned to hear that yarn, 
 
 " It's no use," I replied. " You won't 
 spin it. I must imagine it for myself." 
 
 " How can you ? " 
 
 " Oh, I begin to know your methods." 
 
 " You take it I went in with my eyes 
 open, as I do now, eh ? " 
 
 " I can't imagine your doing otherwise." 
 
 " My dear Bunny, it was the most unpre- 
 meditated thing I ever did in my life ! " 
 
 His chair wheeled back into the books as 
 he sprang up with sudden energy. There 
 was quite an indignant glitter in his eyes. 
 
 " I can't believe that," said I craftily. " I 
 can't pay you such a poor compliment ! " 
 
 " Then you must be a fool " 
 
 He broke off, stared hard at me, and in 
 a trice stood smiling in his own despite, 
 
 ii6 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 " Or a better knave than I thought you, 
 Bunny, and by Jove it's the knave! Well 
 — I suppose I'm fairly drawn; I give you 
 best, as they say out there. As a matter 
 of fact I've been thinking of the thing my- 
 self ; last night's racket reminds me of it in 
 one or two respects. I tell you what, 
 though, this is an occasion in any case, and 
 I'm going to celebrate it by breaking the 
 one good rule of my life. I'm going to 
 have a second drink ! " 
 
 The whisky tinkled, the syphon fizzed, the 
 ice plopped home; and seated there in his 
 pyjamas, with the inevitable cigarette, 
 Raffles told me the story that I had given 
 up hoping to hear. The windows were 
 wide open ; the sounds of Piccadilly floated 
 in at first. Long before he finished, the 
 last wheels had rattled, the last brawler was 
 removed, we alone broke the quiet of the 
 summer night. 
 
 u 
 
 . . No, they do you very well, in- 
 deed. You pay for nothing but drinks, so 
 to speak, but I'm afraid mine were of a com- 
 prehensive character. I had started in a 
 
 117 
 
 : ! 
 
 ; i 
 
 I 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 hole, I ought really to have refused tlic 
 invitation; then we all went to the Mel- 
 bourne Cup, and I had the certain winner 
 that didn't win, and that's not the only 
 way you can play the fool in Melbourne. I 
 wasn't the steady old stager I am now, 
 Bunny; my analysis was a confession in 
 itself. But the others didn't know how hard 
 up I was, and I swore they shouldn't. I 
 tried the Jews, but they're extra fly out 
 there. Then I thought of a kinsman of 
 sorts, a second cousin of my father's whom 
 none of us knew anything about, except that 
 he was supposed to be in one or other of the 
 Colonies. If he was a rich man, well and 
 good, I would work him ; if not there would 
 be no harm done. I tried to get on his 
 tracks, and, as luck would have it, I suc- 
 ceeded (or thought I had) at the very mo- 
 ment when I happened to have a few days 
 to myself. I was cut over on the hand, 
 just before the big Christmas match, and 
 couldn't have bowled a ball if they had 
 played me. 
 
 " The surgeon who fixed me up hap- 
 pened to ask me if I was any relation of 
 
 ii8 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 Raffles of the National Bank, and the pure 
 luck of it almost took my breath away. A 
 relation who was a high official in one of 
 the banks, who would finance me on my 
 mere name — could anything be better? I 
 made up my mind that this Raffles was the 
 man I wanted, and was awfully sold to find 
 next moment that he wasn't a high official 
 at all. Nor l;iad the doctor so much as met 
 him, but had merely read of him in con- 
 nection with a small sensation at the suburb- 
 an branch which my namesake managed ; an 
 armed robber had been rather pluckily beat- 
 en off, with a bullet in him, by this Raffles ; 
 and the sort of thing was so common out 
 there that this was the first I had heard of 
 it! A suburban branch — my financier had 
 faded into some excellent fellow with a 
 billet to lose if he called his soul his own. 
 Still a manager was a manager, and I said 
 I would soon see whether this was the rela- 
 tive I was looking for, if he would be good 
 enough to give me the name of that branch. 
 " * I'll do more,' says the doctor. ' I'll 
 get you the name of the branch he's been 
 promoted to, for I think I heard they'd 
 
 119 
 
 i (f 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 moved him up one already.* And the next 
 day he brought me the name of the township 
 of Yea, some fifty miles north of Mel- 
 bourne; but, with the vagueness which 
 characterised all his information, he was 
 unable to say whether I should find my 
 relative there or not. 
 
 " ' He's a single man, and his initials are 
 W. F.,' said the doctor, who. was certain 
 enough of the immaterial points. ' He left 
 his old post several days ago, but it appears 
 he's not due at the new one till the New 
 Year. No doubt he'll go before then to 
 take things over and settle in. You might 
 find him up there and you might not. If I 
 were you I should write.' 
 
 "'That'll lose two days,' said I, 'and 
 more if he isn't there,' for I'd grown quite 
 keen on this up-country manager, and I felt 
 that if I could get at him while the holidays 
 were still on, a little conviviality might help 
 matters considerably. 
 
 " * Then/ said the doctor, * I should get a 
 quiet horse and ride. You needn't use that 
 hand.* 
 
 "* Can't I go by train?' 
 
 1 20 
 
Lc Premier Fas 
 
 " * You can and you can't. You would 
 still have to ride. 1 suppose you're a horse- 
 man? ' 
 
 " • Yes.' 
 
 " ' Then I should certainly ride all the 
 way. It's a delightful road, through Whit- 
 tlesea and over the Plenty Ranges. It'll 
 give you some idea of the bush, Mr. Raffles, 
 and you'll see the sources of the water sup- 
 ply of this city, sir. You'll see where every 
 drop of it comes from, the pure Yan Yean ! 
 I wish I had time to ride with you.' 
 
 " * But where can I get a horse ? ' 
 
 " The doctor thought a moment. 
 
 " * I've a mare of my own that's as fat 
 as butter for want of work,' said he. * It 
 would be a charity to me to sit on her back 
 for a hundred miles or so, and then I 
 should know you'd have no temptation to 
 use that hand.' 
 
 You're far too good ! ' I protested. 
 You're A. J. Raffles,' he said. 
 
 " And if ever there was a prettier compli- 
 ment, or a finer instance of even Colonial 
 hospitality, I can only say. Bunny, that I 
 never heard of either." 
 
 121 
 
 « < 
 
 (( ( 
 
 I i t 
 
 1® 
 
 
 ill 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 He sipped his whisky, threw away the 
 stump of his cigarette, and lit another be- 
 fore continuing. 
 
 " Well, I managed to write a line to W. 
 F. with my own hand, which, as you will 
 gather, was not very badly wounded; it 
 was simply this third finger that was split 
 and in splints ; and next morning the doctor 
 packed me off on a bovine beast that would 
 have done for an ambulance. Half the 
 team came up to see me start ; the rest were 
 rather sick with me for not stopping to 
 see the match out, as if I could help them 
 to win by watching them. They little knew 
 the game I'd got on myself, but still less 
 did I know the game I was going to play. 
 
 " It was an interesting ride enough, espe- 
 cially after passing the place called Whit- 
 tlesea, a real wild township on the lower 
 slope of the ranges, where I recollect hav- 
 ing a deadly meal of hot mutton and tea, 
 with the thermometer at three figures in 
 the shade. The first thirty miles or so was 
 a good metal road, too good to go half 
 round the world to ride on, but after Whit- 
 
 ][22 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 tlesea it was a mere track over the ranges, 
 a track I often couldn't see and left entirely 
 to the mare. Now it dipped into a gully 
 and ran through a creek, and all the time 
 the local colour was inches thick : gum- 
 trees galore and parrots all colours of the 
 rainbow. In one place a whole forest of 
 gums had been ring-barked, and were just as 
 though they had been painted white, with- 
 out a leaf or a living thing for miles. And 
 the first living thing I did meet was the sort 
 to give you the creeps; it was a riderless 
 horse coming full tilt through the bush, with 
 the saddle twisted round and the stirrup- 
 irons ringing. Without thinking, I had a 
 shot at heading him with the doctor's mare, 
 and blocked him just enough to allow a 
 man who came galloping after to do the 
 rest. 
 
 " ' Thank ye, mister,' growled the man, a 
 huge chap in a red checked shirt, with a 
 beard like W. G. Grace, but the very devil 
 of an expression. 
 
 " * Been an accident? * said I, reining up. 
 
 " * Yes,' said he, scowling as though he 
 defied me to ask any more. 
 
 12;; 
 
 1^ 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 tt € 
 
 And a nasty one,' I said, * if that's 
 blood on the saddle ! ' 
 
 " Well, Bunny, I may be a blackguard 
 myself, but I don't think I ever looked at a 
 fellow as that chap looked at me. But I 
 stared him out, and forced him to admit 
 that it was blood on the twisted saddle, and 
 after that he became quite tame. He told 
 me exactly what had happened. A mate of 
 his had been dragged under a branch, and 
 had his nose smashed, but that was all ; had 
 sat tight after it till he dropped from loss 
 of blood ; another "nate was with him back 
 in the bush. 
 
 " As I've said already. Bunny, I wasn't 
 the old stagex- that I am now — in any respect 
 — and we parted good enough friends. He 
 asked me which way I was going, and, 
 when I told him, he said I should save 
 seven miles, and get a good hour earlier 
 to Yea, by striking off the track and making 
 for a peak that we could see through the 
 trees, and following a creek that I should 
 see from the peak. Don't smile, Bunny ! I 
 began by saying I was a child in those days. 
 Of course, the short cut was the long way 
 
 124 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 round; and it was nearly dark when that 
 unlucky mare and I saw the single street of 
 Yea. 
 
 " I was looking for the bank when a fel- 
 low in a white suit ran down from a veran- 
 dah. 
 
 '"Mr. Raffles?' said he. 
 
 •' ' Mr. Raffles ! ' said I, laughing as I 
 shook his hand. 
 
 " ' You're late.' 
 
 " * I was misdirected.* 
 
 '"That all? I'm relieved,' he said. 
 * Do you know what they are saying ? 
 There are some brand-new bushrangers on 
 the road between Whittlesea and this — a 
 second Kelly gang! They'd have caught 
 a Tartar in you, eh ? ' 
 
 " * They would in you,' I retorted, and 
 my tu quoqrte shut him up and seemed to 
 puzzle him. Yet there was much more 
 sense in it than in his compliment to me, 
 which was absolutely pointless. 
 
 " * I'm afraid you'll find things pretty 
 rough,' he resumed, when he had un- 
 strapped my valise, and 'landed my reins to 
 his man. * It's lucky you're a bachelor like 
 myself.' 
 
 "5 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " I could not quite see the point of this 
 remark either, since, had I been married, I 
 should hardly have sprung my wife upon 
 him in this free-and-easy fashion. I muttered 
 the conventional sort of thing, and then he 
 said I should find it all right when I settled, 
 as though I had come to graze upon him for 
 weeks ! ' Well,' thought I, ' these Colonials 
 do take the cake for hospitality ! ' And, 
 still marvelling, I let him lead me into the 
 private part of the bank. 
 
 " * Dinner will be ready in a quarter of an 
 hour,' said he as we entered. ' I thought 
 you might like a tub first, and you'll find 
 all ready in the room at the end of the 
 passage. Sing out if there's anything you 
 want. Your luggage hasn't turned up yet, 
 by the way, but here's a letter that came 
 this morning.' 
 
 "'x^otfor me?' 
 
 " ' Yes ; didn't you expect one ? ' 
 
 "'I certainly did not!' 
 
 " ' Well, here it is.' 
 
 *' And, as he lit me to my room, I read 
 my own superscription of the previous day 
 —to W. F. Raffles ! 
 
 126 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 " Bunny, you've had your wind bagged 
 at footer, I daresay; you know what that's 
 like? All I can say is that my moral wind 
 was bagged by that letter as I hope, old 
 chap, I have never yet bagged yours. I 
 couldn't speak. I conld only stand with 
 my own letter in my hands until he had the 
 good taste to leave me by myself. 
 
 "W. F. Raffles! We had mistaken 
 each other for W. F. Raffles — for the new 
 manager who had not yet arrived! Small 
 wonder we had conversed at cross-pur- 
 poses ; the only wonder was that we had not 
 discovered our mutual mistake. How the 
 other man would have laughed ! But I — 
 I could not laugh. By Jove, no, it was no 
 laughing matter for me I I saw the whole 
 thing in a flash, without a tremor, but with 
 the direst depression from my own single 
 point of view. Call it callous if you like, 
 Bunny, but remember that I was in much 
 the same hole as you've since been in your- 
 self, and that I had counted on this W. F. 
 Raffles even as you counted on A. J. I 
 thought of the man with the W. G. beard — 
 the riderless horse with the bloody saddle — 
 
 127 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 the deHberate misdirection that had put me 
 off the track and out of the way — and now 
 the missing manager and the report of bush- 
 rangers at this end. But I simplv don't 
 pretend to have felt any personal ^ ity for 
 a man whom I had never seen ; that kind of 
 pity's usually cant; and besides, all mine 
 was needed for myself. 
 
 " I was in as big a hole as ever. What 
 the devil was I to do? I doubt if I have 
 sufficiently impressed upon you the absolute 
 necessity of my returning to Melbourne in 
 funds. As a matter of fact it was less the 
 necessity than my own determination which 
 I can truthfully describe as absolute. 
 
 " Money I would have — but how — ^but 
 how ? Would this stranger be open to per- 
 suasion — if I told him the truth ? No ; that 
 would set us all scouring the country for 
 the rest of the night. Why should I tell 
 him? Suppose I left him to find out his 
 mistake . . . would anything be 
 gained? Bunny, I give you my word that 
 I went in to dinner without a definite in- 
 tention in my head, or one premeditated lie 
 upon my lips. I might do the decent nat- 
 
 128 
 
! 
 
 Le Premier Pas 
 
 ural thing, and explain matters without loss 
 of time; on the other hand, there was no 
 hurry. J had not opened the letter, and 
 could always pretend I had not noticed the 
 initials ; meanwhile something might turn 
 up. I could wait a little and see. Tempted 
 I already was, but as yet the temptation 
 was vague, and its very vagueness made 
 me tremble. 
 
 " * Bad news, I'm afraid ? ' said the 
 manager, when at last I sat down at his 
 table. 
 
 " * A mere annoyance,' I answered — I do 
 assure you — on the spur of the moment and 
 nothing else. But my lie was told ; my po- 
 sition was taken ; from that moment onward 
 there was no retreat. By implication, with- 
 out realising what I was doing, I had al- 
 ready declared myself W. F. Raffles. 
 Therefore, W. F. Raffles I would be, in that 
 bank, for that night. And the devil teach 
 me how to use my lie ! " 
 
 Again he raised his glass to his lips — I 
 had forgotten mine. His cigarette-Lase 
 caught the gaslight as he handed it to me. 
 
 129 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 I shook my head without taking my eyes 
 from his. 
 
 " The devil played up," continued Raffles, 
 with a laugh. " Before I tasted my soup I 
 had decided what to do. I had determined 
 to rob that bank instead of going to bed, 
 and to be back in Melbourne for breakfast 
 if the doctor's mare could do it. I would 
 tell the old fellow that I had missed my 
 way and been bushed for hours, as I easily 
 might have been, and had never got to Yea 
 at all. At Yea, on the other hand, the per- 
 sonation and robbery would ever after be 
 attributed to a member of the gang that 
 had waylaid and murdered the new manager 
 with that very object. You are acquiring 
 some experience in such matters, Bunny. I 
 ask you, was there ever a better get-out? 
 Last night's was something like it, only 
 never such a certainty. And I saw it from 
 the beginnmg — saw to the end before I had 
 finished my soup ! 
 
 " To increase my chances, the cashier, 
 who also lived in the bank, was away over 
 the holidays, had actually gone down to Mel- 
 bourne to see us play ; and the man who 
 
 130 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 had taken my horse also waited at table; 
 for he and his wife were the only servants,' 
 and they slept in a separate building. You' 
 may depend I ascertained this before we 
 had finished dinner. Indeed I was by way 
 of asking too many questions (the most 
 oblique and delicate was that which elicited 
 my host's name, Ewbank), nor was I care- 
 ful enough to conceal their drift. 
 
 " ' Do you know,' said this fellow Ew- 
 bank, who was one of the downright sort, 
 * if it wasn't you, I should say you were in 
 a funk of robbers? Have you lost your 
 nerve ? ' 
 
 " ' I hope not,* said I, turning jolly hot, I 
 can tell you ; ' but-well, it's not a pleasant 
 thing to have to put a bullet through a fel- 
 low ! ' 
 
 '" No ? ' said he, coolly. * I should enjoy 
 nothing better, myself; besides, yours 
 didn't go through.' 
 
 " * I wish it had ! ' I was smart enough to 
 cry. 
 
 " ' Amen ! ' said he. 
 
 " And I emptied my glass ; actually I did 
 not know whether my wounded bank-robber 
 was in prison, dead, or at large ! 
 
 1*1 
 
 '^1 ^ ' 
 
 I! 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " But, now that I had had more than 
 enough of it, Ewbank would come back to 
 the subject. He admitted that the staff was 
 small ; but as for himself, he had a loaded 
 revolver under his pillow all night, under 
 the counter all day, and he was only waiting 
 for his chance. 
 
 " * Under the counter, eh ? ' I was ass 
 enough to say. 
 
 " ' Yes ; so had you ! * 
 
 " He was looking at me in surprise, and 
 something told me that to say ' of course — I 
 had forgotten ! ' would have been quite fatal, 
 considering what I was supposed to have 
 done. So I looked down my nose and 
 shook my head. 
 
 " ' But the papers said you had ! ' he cried. 
 
 " * Not under the counter,' said I. 
 
 " * But it's the regulation ! * 
 
 " For the moment. Bunny, I felt stumped, 
 though I trust I only looked more superior 
 than before, and I think I justified my look. 
 
 " * The regulation ! ' I said at length, in 
 the most offensive tone at my command. 
 * Yes, the regulation would have us all dead 
 men! My dear sir, do you expect your 
 
 132 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 bank-robber to let you reach for your gun 
 in the place where he knows it's kept? I 
 had mine in my pocket, and I got my chance 
 by retreating from the counter with all visi- 
 ble reluctance.' 
 
 *' Ewbank stared at me with open eyes 
 and a five-barred forehead, then down came 
 his fist on the table. 
 
 " ' By God ! that was smart ! Still,' he 
 added, like a man who would not be in the 
 wrong, ' the papers said the other thing, you 
 know ! ' 
 
 " ' Of course,' I rejoined, ' because they 
 said what I told them. You wouldn't have 
 had me advertise the fact that I improved 
 upon the bank's regulations, would you ? ' 
 
 " So that cloud rolled over, and by Jove 
 it was a cloud with a golden lining! Not 
 silver — real good Australian gold ! For old 
 Ewbank hadn't quite appreciated me till 
 then ; he was a hard nut, a much older man 
 than myself, and I felt pretty sure he 
 thought me young for the place, and my 
 supposed feat a fluke. But I never saw a 
 man change his mind more openly. He got 
 out his best brandy, he made me throw away 
 
 133 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 the cigar I was smoking, and opened a 
 fresh box. He was a convivial-looking 
 party, with a red moustache, and a very 
 humorous face (not unhke Tom Emmett's), 
 and from that moment I laid myself out to 
 attack him on his convivial flank. But he 
 wasn't a Rosenthall, Bunny ; he had a treble- 
 seamed, hand-sewn head, and could have 
 drunk me under the table ten times over. 
 
 " ' All right,' I thought, ' you may go to 
 bed sober, but you'll sleep like a timber- 
 yard ! ' And I threw half he gave me 
 through the open window, when he wasn't 
 looking. 
 
 " But he was a good chap, Ewbank, and 
 don't you imagine he was at all intemperate. 
 Convivial I called him, and I only wish he 
 had been something more. He did, how- 
 ever, become more and more genial as the 
 evening advanced, and I had not much diffi- 
 culty in getting him to show me round 
 the bank at what was really an unearthly 
 hour for such a proceeding. It was when 
 he went to fetch the revolver before turning 
 in. I kept him out of his bed another 
 twenty minutes, and I knew every inch of 
 
 134 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 the business premises before I shook hands 
 with Ewbank in my room. 
 
 " You won't e^uess what I did with my- 
 self for the next hour. I undressed and 
 went to bed. The incessant strain involved 
 in even the most deliberate impersonation is 
 the most wearing thing I know ; then how 
 much more so when the impersonation is 
 impromptu! There's no getting your eye 
 in; the next word may bowl you out; it's 
 batting in a bad light all through. I 
 haven't told you of half the tight places I 
 was in during a conversation that ran into 
 hours and became dangerously intimate to- 
 wards the end. You can imagine them for 
 yourself, and then picture me spread out 
 on my bed, getting my second wind for the 
 big deed of the night. 
 
 " Once more I was in luck, for I had not 
 been lying there long before I heard my 
 dear Ewbank snoring like a harmonium, 
 and the music never ceased for a moment ; 
 it was as loud as ever when I crept out and 
 closed my door behind me, as regular as 
 ever when I stopped to listen at his. And 
 I have still to hear the concert that I shall 
 
 135 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 enjoy much more. The good fellow snored 
 me out of the bank, and was still snoring 
 when I again stood and listened under his 
 open window. 
 
 "Why did I leave the bank first? To 
 catch and saddle the mare and tether her 
 in a clump of trees close by : to have the 
 means of escape nice and handy before I 
 went to work. I have often wondered at 
 the instinctive wisdom of the precaution; 
 unconsciously I was acting on what has 
 been one of my guiding principles ever 
 since. Pains and patience were required : 
 I had to get my saddle without waking the 
 man, and I was not used to catching horses 
 in a horse-paddock. Then I distrusted the 
 poor mare, and I went back to the stables 
 for a hatful of oats, which I left with her 
 in the clump, hat and all. There was a 
 dog, too, to reckon with (our very worst 
 enemy, Bunny) ; but I had been 'cute enough 
 to make immense friends with him during 
 the evening; and he wagged his tail, not 
 only when I came downstairs, but when I 
 reappeared at the back-door. 
 
 " As the soi-disant new manager, I had 
 
 136 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 been able, in the most ordinary course, to 
 pump poor Ewbank about anything and 
 everything connected with the working of 
 the bank, especially in those twenty last in- 
 valuable minutes before turning in. And I 
 had made a very natural point cf 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 sec- 
 onds, 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 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 Ewbank snoring, I had not the slight- 
 est reason to anticipate disturbance from 
 
 137 
 
 ,.jf 
 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 that quarter. I did think of locking myself 
 in while I was at work, but, thank good- 
 ness, the iron door had no keyhole on the 
 inside. 
 
 " Well, there were heaps of gold in the 
 safe, but I only took what 1 needed and 
 could comfortably carry, not much more 
 than a couple of hundred altogether. Not 
 a note would I touch, and my native cau- 
 tion 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! And 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 Ew- 
 bank upstairs, open the door myself, 
 
 138 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 knock the visitor down, or 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 and the doc- 
 tor's mare. My mind was made up in an 
 instant, and I was at the top of the strong- 
 room stairs, the knocking still continuing, 
 when a second sound drove me back. It 
 was the sound of bare feet coming along a 
 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 gods 
 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 Ewbank 
 up above. 
 
 " I cocild not make out the answer, but 
 it sounded to m« like the irrelevant suppli- 
 cation of a spent mar. What I did hear, 
 plainly, was the cocking of the bank revol- 
 ver before the bolts were shot back. Then, 
 a tottering step, a hard, short, shallow 
 
 139 
 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 breathing, and Ewbank's voice in hor- 
 ror — 
 
 •' ' My God ! Good Lord ! What's hap- 
 pened to you ? You're bleeding Hke a pig ! ' 
 
 ** ' Not now/ came with a grateful sort 
 of sigh. 
 
 " ' But you have been ! What's done it ? ' 
 
 " ' Bushrangers.' 
 
 "'Down the road?' 
 
 " ' This and Whittlesea — tied to tree — 
 cock shots — left me — bleed 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 Ewbank 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 
 
 140 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 should come through. You must let me 
 tell you — in case I don't ! ' 
 
 " ' Well, have another sip.' 
 
 " * Thank you ... I said bushran- 
 gers; of course, there are no such things 
 nowadays.' 
 
 " ' What were they, then? ' 
 
 " ' Bank-thieves ; the one that had the pot 
 shots was the very brute I drove out of the 
 bank at Coburg, with a bullet in him ! ' " 
 
 " I knew it ! " 
 
 " Of course you did, Bunny ; so did I, 
 down in that strong-room ; but old Ewbank 
 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's in bed and asleep 
 upstairs ! ' 
 
 " * When did he arrive? ' 
 
 " ' This evening.' 
 
 "'Call himself Raffles?' 
 
 " ' Yes.' 
 
 141 
 
 I m 
 
'I 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 "'Well, Tm 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 impostor — if he's up- 
 stairs 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 
 Ewbank 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 ever heard. I tell you. Bun- 
 ny, I '.vas glad I'd brought that revolver. 
 It looked as though it must be mine against 
 his, muzzle to muzz'c. 
 
 " * 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 ca- 
 reer, 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 
 
 142 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 
 whether it would creak or not. The light 
 was coming nearer — and 1 didn't know ! I 
 had to chance 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'd tried, it was 
 too heavy; and 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 cotton-wool ; then the 
 streak went out too, and in a few seconds 1 
 ventured to open once more, and was in 
 time to hear them creeping to my room. 
 
 " Well, now there was not a fifth of a 
 second to be lost; but I'm 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 mc. I didn't even gallop away, 
 but just jogged oflf quietly in the thick dust 
 
 143 
 
 mf 
 
 
 ^Hh 
 
 
 
 
 |HP 
 
 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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 Cain and the coachman. And now, 
 Bunny " 
 
 He stood up and stretched himself, with 
 a smile that ended in a yawn. The black 
 windows had faded through every shade of 
 indigo ; they now framed their opposite 
 neighbours, 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 all that, and I'm bound 
 to say that there was plenty of excitement 
 
 144 
 
Le Premier Pas 
 
 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 
 brisked the old girl up to such a pitch 
 that she fairly bolted when she felt her 
 nose turned south. By Jove it was no joke, 
 in and out among those trees, and under 
 branches with your face in the mane! 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, and 
 lay with my ear to the ground for two or 
 three minutes. But I heard nothing— not 
 a thing but the mare's bellow and my own 
 heart. I'm sorry, Bunny; but if ever you 
 write my memoirs, you won't have any diffi- 
 culty in working up that chase. Play those 
 dead gum-trees for all they're worth, and 
 let the bullets fly like hail. I'll turn round 
 in my saddle to see Ewbank coming up 
 hell-to-leather in his white suit, and I'll duly 
 paint it red. Do it in the third person, and 
 they won't know how it's going to end." 
 
 M5 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " But I don't know myself," I com- 
 plained. " Did the mare carry you all the 
 way back to Melbourne ? " 
 
 " Every rod, pole or perch ! I had her 
 well seen to at our hotel, and returned her 
 to the doctor in the evening. He was tre- 
 mendously tickled to hear I had been 
 bushed; next morning he brought me the 
 paper to show me what 1 had escaped at 
 Yea!" 
 
 *' 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 fancy the condition of the 
 beast must have told a tale. The doctor's 
 manner was certainly different. I'm in-, 
 clined to think he suspected something, 
 though not the right thing. I wasn't ex- 
 pecting him, and I fear my appearance may 
 have increased his suspicions." 
 
 I asked him why. 
 
 " I used to have rather a heavy mous- 
 tache," said Raffles, " but I lost it the day 
 after I lost my innocence." 
 
 146 
 
WILFUL MURDER 
 
 QF the various robberies in which we 
 were both concerned, it is but 
 the few, I find, that will bear telHng at any 
 length. Not that the others contained de- 
 tails which even I would hesitate to re- 
 count; it is, rather, the very absence of un- 
 toward incident which renders them useless 
 for my present purpose. In point of fact 
 our plans were so craftily laid (by Raf- 
 fles) that the chances of a hitch were invari- 
 ably 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 con- 
 fronted by unforeseen impediments, or in- 
 volved 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 
 
 M7 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 would prove the greatest weariness of all 
 in narrative {orm; and none more so than 
 the dull affair of the Ardagh emeralds, some 
 eight or nine weeks after the Milchester 
 cricket week. The former, however, had 
 a sequel that 1 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 'or 
 Raffles, who had gone off as usual to dis- 
 pose 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 dis- 
 guise of the flashy-seedy order, and always 
 in the Cockney dialect of which he had 
 made himself a master. Moreover, he in- 
 variably employed the same " fence," who 
 was ostensibly a money-lender in a small 
 (but yet notorious) way, and in reality a 
 rascal as remarkable as Raffles himself. 
 Only lately I also had been to the man, 
 but in my proper person. We had needed 
 capital for the getting of 
 emeralds, and I had raised 
 
 148 
 
 these very 
 a hundred 
 
Wilful Murder 
 
 pounds, on the terms you would expect, 
 from a soft-spoken greybeard with an in- 
 gratiating smile, an incessant bow, and the 
 shiftiest old eyes that ever flew from rim to 
 rim of a pair of spectacles. So the original 
 sinews and the final spoils of war came in 
 this case from the self-same source — a cir- 
 cumstance which appealed to us both. 
 
 But these same final spoils I was still to 
 see, and I waited and waited with an im- 
 patience that grew upon me with the grow- 
 ing dusk. At my open window I had played 
 Sister Ann until the iaces in the street be- 
 low 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 un- 
 til 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 fetci.'?" 
 
 149 
 
 I 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " Five hundred." 
 
 "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 whisky and squirt the 
 soda-water all over in my anxiety to do in- 
 stant justice to the occasion. 
 
 " So you thought something had hap- 
 pened?" said Raffles, leaning back in my 
 chair as he lit a cigarette, and looking much 
 amused. " What should you say if some- 
 thing 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." 
 
 ISO 
 
Wilful Murder 
 
 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 Bajrd." 
 "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 suc- 
 ceeded; but he has still to do that. I ad- 
 mit, however, that he made me sit 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 morn- 
 ing paper. He knciv it must have been 
 done by some fellow who could pass him- 
 self ofif for a gentleman, and I saw his cye- 
 
 i<\:. 
 
 Ju 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 brows go up the moment I told him I was 
 the man, with the same old twang that you 
 could cut with a paper-knife. I did my 
 best to get out of it — swore I had a pal 
 who was a real swell — but I saw very plain- 
 ly that I had given myself away. He gave 
 up haggling. He paid my price as though 
 he enjoyed doing it. But I felt him follow- 
 ing 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 un- 
 suspecting 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 you're worth. I never even looked 
 round ; and mind vou 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 leav- 
 ing Sloane Square out I hopped, and up all 
 these stairs like a lamplighter, and round 
 to the studio by the back streets. Well, to 
 be on the safe side, I lay low there all the 
 
 152 
 
-.~ , -.S,^_„«_^, 
 
 Wilful Murder 
 
 afternoon, hearing nothing in the least sus- 
 picious, and only wishing I had a window 
 to look through instead of that beastly sky- 
 light. However, the coast seemed clear 
 enough, and thus far it was my n.ere 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 
 Baird's arms! " 
 
 " What on earth did you do? " 
 " Walked past him as though I had never 
 set eyes on him in my Hfe, and didn't then; 
 took a hansom in the King's Road, and 
 drove like the deuce to Clapham Junction ; 
 rushed on to the nearest platform, without 
 a ticket, jumped into the first triin I saw, 
 got out at Twickenham, walked full tilt back 
 to Richmond, took the District to Charing 
 Cross, and here I am ! Ready for a tub and 
 a change, and the best dinner 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 vou 
 long." 
 
 "You're certain you've given him the 
 slip? " I said, as we put on our hats. 
 
 153 
 
 ill 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " Certain enough ; but we can make as- 
 surance doubly sure," said Raffles, and went 
 to my window, where he stood for a minute 
 or two looking down into the street. 
 
 "All right?" I asked him. 
 
 " All right," said he; and we went down- 
 stairs forthwith, and so to the Albany arm- 
 in-arm. 
 
 But we were both rather silent on the 
 way. I, for my part, was wondering what 
 Raffles would do about the studio in Chel- 
 sea, whither, at all events, he had been suc- 
 cessfully 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 acquaint- 
 ance who happened to be getting himself a 
 bad name. 
 
 " Poor Jack Rutter! " said Raffles, with 
 a sigh. " Nothing's 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 to-night, by the way; it's 
 
 154 
 
Wilful Murder 
 
 old Baird who's said to have skinned him. 
 By God, but I'd like to skin old Baird! " 
 
 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 look- 
 ing at me with his lazy . e, and I knew 
 that the morose fit was at an end. 
 
 " I daresay you wonder what I've been 
 thinking about all this time? " said he. " I've 
 been thinking what rot it is to go doing 
 things 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 of a Jack Rutter. There's a fel- 
 low who does things by halves; he's only 
 half gone to the bad; and look at the differ- 
 ence between him and us! He's under the 
 thumb of a villainous money-lender; we are 
 
 '55 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 solvent citizens. He's taken to drink; we're 
 as sober as we are solvent. His pals are 
 beginning to cut him; our difficulty is to 
 keep the pal from the door. Enfin, he begs 
 or borrows, which is stealing by halves; 
 and we steal outright and are 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 mor- could we do?" I 
 < exclaimed in soft derision, looking round, 
 however, to make sure that we were rot 
 overheard. 
 
 "What more?" said Raffles. "Well, 
 murder — for one thing." 
 
 "Rot!" 
 
 " A matter of opinion, my dear Bunny; 
 I don't mean it for rot. I'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 him- 
 self. Just think of it! Think of coming in 
 here and talking to the men, very likely 
 about the murder itself; and knowing youVe 
 done it; and wondering how they'd look if 
 
 156 
 
llvJ'-IMMl''- 
 
 .'t,.^ 
 
 Wilful Murder 
 
 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 or fourteen years." 
 
 " Good old Raffles! " I chuckled. " I be- 
 gin to forgive you for being in bad form at 
 dinner." 
 
 " But I was never more earnest in my 
 life." 
 
 "Goon!" 
 
 " 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 to-night ! " 
 
 He had been leaning back in the saddle- 
 bag 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, 
 
 157 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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 toM a lie." 
 
 " Anyway you gave him the slip after- 
 wards! " 
 
 " 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 pave- 
 ment down below." 
 
 " And you never said a word about it! " 
 
 " I wasn't going to spoil your dinner, 
 Bunny, and I wasn't going to let you spoil 
 mine. But 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, the one bidding 
 against the other; but he sha'n't play it 
 
 158 
 
mm 
 
 Wilful Murder 
 
 with me, he shan't Hve to, and the world 
 will have an extortioner the less. Waiter! 
 Two Scotch whiskies and sodas. I'm off at 
 eleven, Bunny; it's the only thing to be 
 done." 
 
 " You know where he lives, then?" 
 
 " Yes, out Willesden way, and alone; the 
 fellow's 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, smokmg, drinking, on 
 every hand. One nodded to mc 'trough 
 the smoke. Like a machine I nu d to 
 him, and turned back to RafHes with a 
 groan. 
 
 " Surely you 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 too." 
 
 " I don't want you." 
 
 " But I must come!" 
 
 159 
 
 t;. - i 
 
 1^ ■- 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 An ugly gleam shot from the steel-blue 
 eyes. 
 
 " To interfere ? " said Raffles. 
 
 " Not I." 
 
 "You give mc 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 a reason for remaining outside. It was 
 the feeling — half hope, half fear — that An- 
 gus 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 money- 
 lender 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 Willesden, that, I think, was 
 
 1 60 
 
Wilful Murder 
 
 t 
 i 
 1 
 
 11 
 d 
 
 y 
 
 IS 
 
 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 
 Jiked, 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 Willesden. It left 
 at II.2I, I remember, and Raffles was put 
 out to find it did not go on to Kensal Rise. 
 We had to get out at Willesden 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. 
 
 i6i 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " Then you mean to break in? " 
 
 " What else did you think ? " 
 
 I had not thought about it at all ; the ulti- 
 mate crime had monopolised my mind. Be- 
 side it burglary was a bagatelle, but one to 
 deprecate none the less. I saw obvious ob- 
 jections: the man was an fait with cracks- 
 men and their ways: he would certainly 
 have firearms, and might be the first to use 
 them. 
 
 " 1 could wish nothing better," said Raf- 
 fles. *' Then it will be man to man, and 
 devil take the worst shot. You don't sup- 
 pose 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 fel- 
 low. 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 
 
 1.62 
 
'^^^-i*^-' 
 
 Wilful Murder 
 
 C.U outlying lamp-post cast across the new- 
 made road. It seemed to me a road of 
 bunding 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. 
 
 Rafales, however, had seen the place by 
 daylight, and had come prepared for the 
 special obstacles; already he was reaching 
 "P 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 httle pyramid of slates snip the skv 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; the place is all bell- 
 wires 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 sods, but a 
 quantity of full-grown laurels stuck into the 
 
 163 
 
 i 
 
 IE 
 
 tr 
 
 ::i 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 raw clay beds. *' Bells in themselves," as 
 Raffles whispered; "there's nothing else 
 rustles 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 
 gold thread under the lintel — and vanished 
 for good. We heard the stairs creak, creak, 
 and cease, also for good. We neither saw 
 nor heard any more, though we stood wait- 
 ing 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 
 
 164 
 
Wilful Murder 
 
 gravel stuck to our wet soles, and grated 
 hornWy .„ a little tiled verandah witi a 
 glass door leading within. It was through 
 
 lis glass that Raffles had first seen the 
 "ght; and he now proceeded to take out a 
 pane witI, ,he dian.on.l, the pot of treacle, 
 and the sheet of brown paper which were 
 seldon, omitted from his impedi„,enta. Nor 
 d-d he dispense with my own assistance, 
 hotagh he may have accepted it as instinc- 
 tively as u was proffered. In any case it 
 
 was these fingers tliat helped to spread the 
 reacle on the brown paper, and pressed 
 
 the latter to the glass until the diamond had 
 
 completed its circuit and the pane fell gent- 
 
 iy back nito our hands 
 
 Raffles now inserted his hand, turned the 
 
 key m the lock, and, by making a long arm 
 succeeded in drawing the bolt at the bot- 
 tom of the door; it proved to be the only 
 one, and the door opened, though not verv 
 Wide. 
 
 ''What's that^" «;aiVl P^ffl^. 
 
 '"^^- said Kaffles, as some- 
 thing crunched beneath his feet on the very 
 threshold. ^ 
 
 " A pair of spectacles," I whispered, pick- 
 
 165 
 
 w 
 
 "i 
 
 I 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 ing 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 re- 
 strain. 
 
 "Hush, man, hush!" I entreated under 
 
 my breath. " He'll hear youl " 
 
 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 his desk, 
 ransacked, littered. A clock ticked noisily 
 on the chimney-piece; for perhaps a hun- 
 dred seconds there was no other sound. 
 
 Raffles stood ^^ery 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 wide nos- 
 trils; he made no other si^m, and his lips 
 
 seemed sealed. 
 
 i66 
 
Wilful Murder 
 
 " That light! " said I, hoarsely; " the light 
 we saw under the door! " 
 
 With a start he turned to me. 
 
 "It's true! I had forgotten it. It was 
 in here I saw it first! " 
 
 " He must be upstairs still! '' 
 
 " If he is we'll soon rout him out. Come 
 on!" 
 
 Instead I laid a hand upon his arm, im- 
 ploring him to reflect— that his enemy was 
 dead now— that we should certaii.iy be in- 
 volved—that now or never was our own 
 time to escape. He shook me of¥ i. a sud- 
 den fury of impatience, a reckless contempt 
 in his eyes, and, bidding me save my own 
 skm if I Hked, he once more turned his 
 back upon me, and this time left me half 
 resolved to tale 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 his match flared in 
 the hal! ; 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 de- 
 
 167 
 
 m 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 fiance of his risk was borne in also upon 
 my slower sensibilities. Could we let the 
 murderer go? My answer was to bound 
 up the creaking stairs and to overhaul Raf- 
 fles on the landing. 
 
 But three doors presented themselves; 
 the first opened into a bedroom with the 
 bed turned down but undisturbed; the sec- 
 ond room was empty in every sense; the 
 third door was locked. 
 
 Raffles lit the landing gas. 
 
 " He's in there," said he, cocking his re- 
 volver. " Do you remember how we used 
 to break into the studies at school? Here 
 goes! " 
 
 His flat foot crashed over the keyhole, 
 the lock gave, the door flew open, and 
 in the sudden draught the landing gas 
 heeled over like a cobble in a squall ; as the 
 flame righted itself I saw a fixed bath, two 
 bath-toweki knotted together — an open win- 
 dow — a cowering figure — and Raffles struck 
 aghast on the threshold. 
 
 " Jack—Rutier? " 
 
 The words came thick and slow with hor- 
 ror, and in horror I heard myself repeating 
 
 i68 
 
Wilful Murder 
 
 them, while the cowering figure by the 
 bath-room wmdow rose gradually erect. 
 
 " It's you ! " he whispered, in amazement 
 no less than our own ; " it's you two ! 
 What's it mean. Raffles? I saw you get 
 over the gate ; a bell rang, the place is 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, Rut- 
 ter!" 
 
 " Done? What have I done? " The un- 
 happy 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 ail. I've killed a robber, a usurer, a 
 jackal, a blackmailer, the cleverest and the 
 cruellest villain unhung. I'm ready to hang 
 for him. I'd kill him again! " 
 
 And he looked us fiercely in the face, a 
 fine defiance in his dissippced eyes; his 
 breast heaving, his jtuv like a rock. 
 
 "Shall I tell you how it happened?" he 
 went passionately on. " He's made my life 
 a hijll these weeks and months past, "^iou 
 
 169 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 may know that. A perfect hell! Well, to- 
 night I met him in Bond Street. Do you 
 remember when I met you fellows? He 
 wasn't twenty yards behind you ; he was on 
 your tracks, Riffles; 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 inter- 
 view 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 ofY; 
 and about ten o'clock I heard the gate shut. 
 I waited a bit, and then asked him if he 
 Hved alone. 
 
 " * Not at all,' says he; * did you not see 
 the servant? ' 
 
 170 
 
■■p^ 
 
 Wilful Murder 
 
 " I said I'd seen her, but I thought Fd 
 heard her go; if I was mistaken no 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 yelHng, 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; an(' I picked 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 ail his in- 
 iquitous 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 
 
 171 
 
 a m 
 
 11 
 
■ 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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 to-night, 
 and shall still ; so you see I sha'n'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 sha'n't let you give your- 
 self up." 
 
 "You sha'n'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 vou on the shoulder ! No, 
 no, no ; I'll give myself up and get it over." 
 
 His speech was changed; he faltered, 
 floundered. It was as though a clearer per- 
 ception of his position had come with the 
 bare idea of escape from it. 
 
 172 
 
Wilful Murder 
 
 (( 
 
 But listen to me," urged Raffles; " we're 
 here at our peril ourselves. We broke in 
 like thieves to enforce redress for a griev- 
 ance very like your own. But don't you 
 see? We took out a pane — did the thing 
 like regular burglars. Regular burglars 
 will get the credit of all the rest! " 
 
 '* You mean that I sha'n't be suspected? " 
 
 " I do." 
 
 " But I don't want to get off scot-free," 
 cried Rutter hysterically. " I've killed him. 
 I know that. But it was in self-defence; it 
 wasn't murder. I must own up and take 
 the consequences. 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 fooU 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? ror God's 
 
 ^73 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 sake pull y<urself together, and do what 
 I tell you, or you're a dead man yourself." 
 
 " 1 wish 1 was one! " Rutter sobbed. " I 
 wish 1 had his revolver to blow my own 
 brains out. It's lying under him. O my 
 God, my God! " 
 
 His knees knocked together: the frenzy 
 of reaction was at its height. We had to 
 take him downstairs between us, and so 
 through the front door out into the open 
 air. 
 
 All was still outside — a^' but the smoth- 
 ered 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 care- 
 fully 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 es- 
 cape. Our 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 
 
 174 
 
Wilful Murder 
 
 three of us. Not a soul did we meet be- 
 tween that and Willesden ; and of those who 
 saw us later, did one think of the two young 
 men with crooked white ties, r>upporting a 
 third in a seemingly unmistakable condi- 
 tion, when the evening papers apprised the 
 town of a terrible tragedy at Kensal Rise? 
 
 We walked to Maida Vale, and thence 
 drove openly to my rooms. But I alone 
 went upstairs; the other two proceeded to 
 the Albany, and I saw no more of RafHes 
 for forty-eight hours. He was not at his 
 rooms when I called in tjie morning; he 
 hrd 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 Liver- 
 pool to New York. 
 
 " There was no arguing with him," so 
 Raffles told me; " either he must make a 
 clean b'-east of it or flee the country. So I 
 rigged him up at the studio, and we took 
 the first train to Liverpool. Nothing would 
 induce him to sit tight and enjoy the situa- 
 tion as I should have endeavoured to do 
 in his place; and it's just as well! I went 
 
 175 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 to his diggings to destroy some papers, and 
 what do you think I found? The poHce in 
 possession; there's a warrant out against 
 him already! The idiots think that window 
 wasn't genuine, and the warrant's out. It 
 won't be my fault if it's ever served! " 
 
 Nor, after all these years, can I think it 
 will be mine. 
 
 I'ye 
 
NINE POINTS OF THE LAW. 
 
 ^ELL," said Raffles, " what do you 
 make of it?" 
 I read the advertisement once more be- 
 fore replying. It was in the last column 
 of the Daily Telegraph, and it ran :— 
 
 XWO THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD - 
 The above sum may be earned by any one 
 qualified to undertake delicate mission and pre- 
 pared to run certain risk.-AppIy by telegram, 
 Security, London. 
 
 " I think," said I, " it's the most extraor- 
 dinary advertisement that ever got into 
 print! " 
 
 Raffles smiled. 
 
 " Not quite all that, Bunny; still, extraor- 
 dinary 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 
 
 177 
 
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 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 is requiring applications by telegram to a 
 telegraphic address! There's something in 
 the fellow who thought of that, and some- 
 thing in his game ; with one word he chokes 
 off the million who answer an advertise- 
 ment 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 ap- 
 plied?" 
 
 "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 il- 
 legal, and you know what a cautious chap 
 1 am. I signed myself Glasspool, 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 and a face full of news. 
 
 178 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 
 "What do you think?" said he. "Se- 
 curity's that fellow Addenbrooke, the 
 poHce-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 who got 
 six weeks for sailing too close to the wind 
 in the Sutton-Wilmer case; everybody won- 
 dered why he wasn't struck ofif the rolls. 
 Instead of that he's got a first-rate practice 
 on the seamy side, and every blackguard 
 with half a case takes it straight to Bennett 
 Addenbrooke. He's probably the one man 
 who would have the cheek to put in an ad- 
 vertisement 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 Addenbrooke 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.** 
 
 179 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " 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 you forget it." 
 
 Mr. Bennett Addenbrooke occupied sub- 
 stantial 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 sufficed to produce a 
 brisk, fresh-coloured, resolute-looking man, 
 with a very confident, rather festive air, and 
 black eyes that opened wide at the sight of 
 Raffles. 
 
 "Mr. — Glasspool?" exclaimed the law- 
 yer. 
 
 " My name," said Raffles, with dry ef- 
 frontery. 
 
 " 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 ven- 
 omous; then he shrugged and smiled, and 
 the smile grew into a little cynical chuckle. 
 
 " So you have bowled me out in my 
 turn?" said he. "Well, I don't think 
 
 1 80 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 there's anything to explain. I am harder 
 up than I wished to admit under 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 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 a 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 cursedly 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. Addenbrooke raised his eyebrows 
 over the card I found for him; then he 
 drummed upon it with his finger-nail, and 
 his embarrassment expressed Uself in a 
 puzzled smile. 
 
 i8i 
 
 Si 
 
 'i% 
 
 .•If? 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " The fact is, I find myself in a difhculty," 
 he confessed at last. " Yours is the first re- 
 ply I have received; people who can afiford 
 to send long telegrams don't lUsh to the 
 advertisements in the Daily Telegraph; but, 
 on the other hand, I was not quite prepared 
 to hear from men like yourselves. Can- 
 didly, 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 rapped his desk. 
 
 '* I'll tell you what I want you to do. 
 You can but refuse. It's illegal, but it's 
 illegality in a good cause; that's the risk, 
 
 182 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 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 con- 
 sent to run the risk. My client is Sir Ber- 
 nard Debenham, of Broom Hall, Esher." 
 
 " I know his son," I remarked. 
 
 Raffles knew him too, but said nothing, 
 and his eye drooped disapproval in my di- 
 rection. Bennett Addenbrooke turned to 
 me. 
 
 "Then," said he, "you have the privi- 
 lege of knowing one of the most complete 
 young blackguards about town, and the 
 fons 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 store- 
 house of treasures which no eyes but his 
 ever behold. He is said to have the finest 
 collection of pictures in the south of Eng- 
 land, though nobody ever sees them to 
 judge; pictures, fiddles and furniture are 
 his hobby, and he is undoubtedly very ec- 
 centric. Nor can one deny that there has 
 been considerable eccentricity in his treat- 
 
 183 
 
 IS* •■ 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 ment of his son. For years Sir Bernard 
 paid his debts, and the other day, without 
 the sHghtest warning, not only refused to 
 do so any more, but absolutely stopped the 
 lad's 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 either of them until one day last 
 week." 
 
 The lawyer drew his chair nearer ours, 
 and leant forward with a hand on either 
 knee. 
 
 " On Tuesday of last week I had a tele- 
 gram 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 pic- 
 ture-gallery, which w^as locked and dark- 
 ened, 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 
 
 184 
 
%4h 
 
 Nine Points of the Law 
 
 most valuable pictures in England— in the 
 world — an original \'elasquez. I have 
 checked this," said the lawyer, " and it 
 seems literally true; the picture was a por- 
 trait of the Infanta Maria Teresa, said to be 
 one of the artist's greatest works, second 
 only to another portrait of one of the Popes 
 in Rome — so they told me at the National 
 Gallery, where they had 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 
 Craggs— the Hon. John Montagu Craggs, 
 M.L.C., 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 stolen 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 him- 
 self in this way; he had threatened revenge, 
 and this was it. Indeed, when I hunted him 
 up in town on the Tuesday night, he con- 
 
 185 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 fessed 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! Back- 
 wards and forwards between Esher and the 
 Metropole, where the Queenslander is stay- 
 ing, 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 my client de- 
 clines 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 hook or crook, 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, would throw 
 in a blank cheque if asked. He offered 
 one to the Queenslander, but Craggs sim- 
 
 i86 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 ply tore it in two; the one old boy is as 
 much a character 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 dry tones he 
 had adopted throughout the interview. 
 " As a last resort. I did." 
 " And you vAsh 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 Craggs will be just as loth 
 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," mur- 
 mured 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 
 
 187 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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 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?" 
 
 Rafifles 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, growing firm. 
 
 " 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." 
 
 i88 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 Rafflti. 
 
 " Doubles or quits? " cried 
 "Well, that's sporting. Done!" 
 
 Addenbrooke opened his lips, half rose, 
 then sat back in his chair, and looked long 
 and shrewdly at Raffles — never once at me. 
 
 " I know your bowling," said he reflec- 
 tively. " I go up to Lord's whenever I want 
 an hour's real rest, and I've seen you bowl 
 again and again — yes, and take the best 
 wickets in England on a plumb pitch. I 
 don't forget the last Gentleman and Play- 
 ers; I was there. You're up to every trick 
 — every one . . . I'm inclined to think 
 that if anybody could bowl out this old 
 Australian . . . Damme, I believe 
 you're my very man ! " . . . 
 
 The bargain was clinched at the Cafe 
 Royal, where Bennett Addenbrooke in- 
 sisted on playing host at an extravagant 
 luncheon. I remember that he took his 
 whack of champagne with the nervous free- 
 dom of a man at high pressure, and have 
 no doubt I kept him in countenance by an 
 equal indulgence; but Raffles, ever an ex- 
 emplar in such matters, was more abstemi- 
 ous even than his wont, and very poor com- 
 
 189 
 
 m 
 
 N 
 
 V 
 
( 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 pany to boot. I can see him now, his eyes 
 in his plate — thinking — thinking. I can see 
 the soHcitor glancing from him to me in an 
 apprehension of which I did my best to 
 disabuse him by reassuring looks. At the 
 close Raffles apologized for his preoccupa- 
 tion, called for an A.B.C. time-table, and an- 
 nounced his Intention of catching the 3.2 
 to Esher. 
 
 " You must excuse me, Mr. Adden- 
 brooke," said he, " but I have my own idea, 
 and for the moment I should much prefer 
 to keep it to mysel'. 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 Addenbrooke 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 
 
 190 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 man of my acquaintance had half his au- 
 dacity and determination ; that I for my part 
 would trust him through and through, and 
 let him gang his own gait every time. More 
 I dared not say, even to remove those chill 
 misgivings with which I knew that the law- 
 yer 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 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 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 fol- 
 lowing 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 wptching for him from 
 my window in Mount Street, when he drove 
 up furiously in a hansom, and jumped out 
 
 191 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 without a word to the man. I met him 
 next minute at the Hft gates, and he fairly 
 pushed me back into my rooms. 
 
 " Five minutes, Bun:-»y! " 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 
 Craggs; 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 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't go as a second representative of tho 
 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 com- 
 
 192 
 

 Nine Points of the Law 
 
 pare it with the original. So down I went 
 to Esher to find out if there was a copy in 
 existence, and was at Broom Hall for one 
 hour and a half yesterday afternoon. There 
 was no copy there, but they must exist, for 
 Sir Bernard himself (there's * copy ' there!) 
 has allowed a couple to be made since the 
 picture has been in his possession. He 
 hunted up the painters' addresses, and the 
 rest of the evening I spent in hunting up 
 the painters 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 Craggs yet? " 
 " Seen him and made friends with him, 
 and if possible he's the funnier old cuss of 
 the two; but you should study 'em both. I 
 took the bull by the horns this morning, 
 went in and lied Hke Ananias, and it was 
 just as well 1 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 cele- 
 brated Infanta Maria Teresa of Velasquez, 
 that I'd been down to the supposed owner 
 of the picture, only to find that he had just 
 
 193 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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 Deben- 
 ham 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 a ^arge 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 Mas- 
 ter, too? But he's had it fitted with a new 
 Chubb's lock, and I 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 to-night! " 
 
 "I?" 
 
 " Yes; don't look so scared. Both of us 
 
 194 
 
HO 
 
 Nine Points of the Law 
 
 are invited—I swore you were dining 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 adjoins his bed- 
 room. 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." 
 
 t( 
 
 it 
 
 If he hears you! 
 
 " He sha'n't." 
 
 "But if he does!" 
 
 And I fairly trembled at the thought. 
 
 " If he docs," 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! " 
 
 195 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 "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 tele- 
 gram 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 oflF 
 his picture for all you're worth. If he 
 offers to show it 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 Esher. I hope to 
 catch the 9.55." 
 
 " But surely T can see you again this 
 afternoon?" I cried in a ferment, for his 
 hand was on the door. " I'm not half 
 
 Z96 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 coached up yet! I know I shall make a 
 mess of it! " 
 
 " Not you," he said again, " but / 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 Esher 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 he 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 vil- 
 lain." I practised that smile half the after- 
 noon. I rehearsed putative parts in hypo- 
 thetical conversations. I got up stories. I 
 dipped in a book on Queensland at the club. 
 And at last it was 7.45, and I was making 
 
 197 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 my bow to a somewhat elderly man with 
 a small bald head and a retr.-ating brow. 
 
 " So you're Mr. Raffles's friend? " said 
 he, 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, tell- 
 ing 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 verac- 
 ity. 
 
 " Thought you were bosom pals? " said 
 he, with (as I imagined) a gleam of sus- 
 picion in his crafty little eyes. 
 
 198 
 
'ff 
 
 Nine Points of the Law 
 
 " 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 couldn't 
 come and have his dinner first. Like to see 
 the death-bed I'd go 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 poke after all. Mind 
 touchmg that bell? Suppose you know 
 what he came to see me about? Sorry I 
 sha'n't see him again, for his own sake. I 
 liked 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 connect these specimens of his conver- 
 sation, though they were doubtless detached 
 at the time, and interspersed with remarks 
 of mine here and there. They filled the 
 interval until dinner was served, and they 
 gave me an impression of the man which 
 his 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 
 
 199 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 Silly Cynic, his aim a caustic commentary 
 on all things and all men, his achievement 
 mere vulgar irreverence 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 till he 
 choked over the misfortunes of less astute 
 speculators in the same boom. Even now I 
 cannot feel much compunction for my 
 behaviour by the Hon. J. M. Craggs, 
 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 at some coarse sally of my 
 host's. And I heard nothing more, though 
 my ears were on the strain. But later, to 
 my horror, when the waiter had finally 
 withdrawn, Craggs himself sprang up and 
 
 200 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 rushed to his bedroom without a word. I 
 sat Hke stone till he returned. 
 
 "Thought I heard a door go," he said. 
 '• Must have been mistaken . . . im- 
 agination . . . 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 mak- 
 ing 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 garrulity 
 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 
 learnt what had originally fired my host's 
 ambition to possess what he was pleased 
 to call a " real, genuine, twin-screw, double- 
 funnelled, 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 
 
 20I 
 
 "tUiiijiii. u 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 much weariness; suffice it that it ended in- 
 evitably 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 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 in- 
 nocent 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 
 mapsl 
 
 202 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 " Thought it would knock you," said 
 Craggs, 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 Colony o' Queens- 
 land 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 appear- 
 ance 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 las* look 
 
 203 
 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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." 
 
 For the last time! If I could but send 
 him out to Australia with only its legiti- 
 mate 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. Whisky and soda-water 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 
 Esher was the 11.50 out of Waterloo. 
 
 I took a hansom 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 thres- 
 hold, heard a snore within, arid admitted 
 myself softly wilh my gentleman's own key, 
 which it had been a very simple matter to 
 take away with me. 
 
 204 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 •'■ti 
 
 Craggs never moved ; he was stretched on 
 the sofa fast asleep. But not fast enough 
 for me. I i>aturated my handkerchief with 
 the chloroform I had brought, and I laid 
 it gently over his mouth. Two or three 
 stertorous 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 Inver- 
 ness cape. I took some whisky 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 Water- 
 loo reeled out behind. 
 
 Some men were returning from the thea- 
 tre. I can recall their conversation even now. 
 They were disappointed with the piece they 
 had seen. It was one of the later Savoy 
 operas, and they spoke wistfully of the days 
 of " Pinafore " and '' Patience." One oi 
 them hummed a stave, and there was an 
 
 205 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 argument as to whether the air was out of 
 "•Patience" or the "Mikado." They all 
 got out at Surbiton, and I was alone with 
 my triumph for a few intoxicating minutes. 
 To think that I had succeeded where Raf- 
 fles had failed! Of all our adventures this 
 was the first in which I had played a com- 
 manding part; and, of them all, this was 
 infinitely the least discreditable. It left me 
 without a conscientious qualm; I had but 
 robbed a robber, when all was said. And 
 I had done it myself, single-handed — ipse 
 egomet! 
 
 I pictured Raffles, his surprise, his de- 
 light. 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 Esher, and took 
 the one belated cab that was waiting under 
 the bridge. In a perfect fever I beheld 
 Broom Hall, with the lower storey still lit 
 up, and saw the front door open as I climbed 
 the steps. 
 
 " Thought it was you," said Raffles cheer- 
 
 206 
 
Nine Points of the Law 
 
 ily. *' It's all right. There's a 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 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. 
 
 "THt picture!" 
 
 "Whatf" 
 
 " The picture. He rhowed it me. You 
 had to go without it; I saw that. So I de- 
 termined 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 sup- 
 pose that he was jealous of my success. 
 
 207 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " So Craggs said. I hardly looked at it 
 myself." 
 
 " Well, look now — look closely. By Jove, 
 I must have faked her 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 and 
 front, so that, on your own showing, it im- 
 posed upon Craggs, 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 Rafifles 
 sardonically. 
 
 I did not look at him ; I turned to Sir Ber- 
 nard 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 an- 
 other time Raffles might tell me what he 
 meant to do. 
 
 208 
 
■Plf ■! .:1 
 
 Nine Points of the Law 
 
 "Another time!" he cried instantly. 
 "My dear Bunny, you speak as though 
 we were going to turn burglars for a Hy- 
 ing!" 
 
 " 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 said, and 
 not open his map-case till he gets back 
 there. He will find my cheque 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 deuce 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 handiwork, old chap, you 
 won't mind my saying that I didn't think 
 
 you had it in j^ou. In future " 
 
 "Don't talk to me about the future!" I 
 
 209 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 cried. " I hate the whole thing! I'm go- 
 ing to chuck it up! " 
 
 "So am I," said Raffles, "when I've 
 made my pile." 
 
 2IO 
 
■W" 
 
 THE RETURN MATCH 
 
 J HAD turned into Piccadilly, one thick 
 evening in the following November, 
 when my guilty heart stood still at the sud- 
 den 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 look- 
 mg for you at the club." 
 
 "I was just on my way there," I re- 
 turned, 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 
 agamst which I had successfully set my 
 
 211 
 

 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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 serv- 
 ice 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 arm 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 
 tmtil 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 
 
 212 
 
w^ 
 
 The Return Match 
 
 night! Well, it isn't that, Bunny; so get 
 into that chair, and take one of these Sulli- 
 vans and sit tight." 
 
 He held the match to my cigarette; he 
 brought me a whisky 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 discomfiture 
 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 innings, 
 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, over- 
 
 213 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 dressed chap who I told you was one of the 
 cleverest thieves in town ? " 
 
 " I remember him. Crawshay his name 
 turned out to be." 
 
 " Well, it was certainly the name he was 
 convicted under, so Crawshay 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 Crawshay 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 Crawshay has a good deal 
 more. They hunted him all night long: 
 couldn't find him for nuts; and that was 
 all you missed in the morning papers." 
 
 He unfolded a Pall Mall, which he had 
 brought in with him. 
 
 " But listen to this ; here's an account of 
 
 214 
 
The Return Match 
 
 the escape, with just the addition which puts 
 the thing on a higher level. * The fugitive 
 has been traced to Totnes, where he appears 
 to have committed a peculiarly daring out- 
 rage in the early hours of this morning. He 
 is reported to have entered the lodgings of 
 the Rev. 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 Craw- 
 shay 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 art- 
 ist, 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 that 
 there's been an outrage on the line near 
 Dawlish. Parson found insensible in the 
 six-foot way. Our friend again ! The tel- 
 egram doesn't say so, but it's obvious; he's 
 simply knocked some other fellow out, 
 
 215 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 changed 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 
 RafHes's face; clearly I had reminded him 
 of some prime anxiety, forgotten in his im- 
 personal joy over the exploit of a fellow- 
 criminal. He looked over his shoulder to- 
 wards the lobby before replying. 
 
 " I believe," said he, " that the beggar's 
 on my tracks ! " 
 
 And as he spoke he was himself again — 
 quietly amused — cynically unperturbed — 
 characteristically enjoying the situation 
 and my surprise. 
 
 " But look here, what do you mean ? " 
 said I. " What does Crawshay 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 Bun- 
 ny, with eyes in his head and brains behind 
 them, he couldn't help suspecting. He saw 
 
 216 
 
w^ 
 
 The Return Match 
 
 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 griev- 
 ance. 
 
 " 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 pro- 
 posed 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 neck- 
 lace 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 pro- 
 posals for the far future, which I fear may 
 be the very near future indeed ! I'm only 
 surprised he hasn't turned up yet." 
 
 217 
 
 '■■91 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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 to-night? " 
 
 " By the 7.15 from Liverpool Street. I 
 don't say much about my people. Bunny, but 
 I have the best of sisters married to a coun- 
 try parson in the eastern counties. 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 mast pack. I thought I'd just let 
 you know where I was going, and why, in 
 case you cared to follow my example." 
 
 He flung the stump of his cigarette into 
 the fire, stretched himself 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 
 
 218 
 
The Return Match 
 
 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 astound- 
 ing 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. Regi- 
 nald Crawshay." 
 
 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! '* 
 
 319 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 So cold was the stare which met this out- 
 burst 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 love yer," cried Crawshay, " V 
 knew nothin'. '£ didn't expect me ; 'e's all 
 right. And you're the cool canary, you 
 are," he went on to Raffles. " I knoo 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 Crawshay, 
 loosening his collar; " let's talk about how 
 I'm to get out. Lord love yer, but that's 
 better! " There was a livid ring round his 
 bull-neck, that he fingered tenderly. 
 " Didn't know how much longer I might 
 have to play the gent," he explained ; 
 " didn't know who you'd bring in." 
 
 " Drink whisky and soda ? " inquired 
 
 220 
 
The Return Match 
 
 mmf 
 
 Raffles, when the convict was in the chair 
 from which I had leapt. 
 
 " No, I drink it neat," replied Crawshay, 
 " but I talk business first. You don't get 
 over me like that. Lor' love yer ! " 
 
 *' Well, then, what can I do for you ? " 
 
 " You know without me tellin' you." 
 
 " Give it a name." 
 
 " Clean heels, then ; that's what I want to 
 show, and I leaves the way 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 yer own way. I 
 leaves it all to you." 
 
 His tone was rich with conciliation and 
 concession ; he bent over and tore a pair of 
 button boots from his bare feet, which he 
 stretched towards the fire, painfully uncurl- 
 ing his toes. 
 
 " I hope you take a larger size than 
 them," said he. " I'd have had a see if 
 you'd given me time. I wasn't in long 
 afore you." 
 
 " And you won't tell me how you got 
 
 f 
 
 m.-- 
 
 221 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " Wot's the use ? I can't teach you 
 nothin'. Besides, I want out. I want out 
 of London, an' England, an' bloomin' 
 Europe too. That's all I want of you, mis- 
 ter. I don't arst how you go on the job. 
 You know w'ere I come from, 'cos I 'card 
 you say ; you know w'ere I want to 'ead for, 
 'cos I've just told yer; the details I leaves 
 entirely to you." 
 
 " Well," said Raffles, " we must see what 
 can be done." 
 
 " We must," said Mr. Crawshay, and 
 leaned back comfortably, and began twirl- 
 ing his stubby thumbs. 
 
 Raffles turned to me with a twinkle in his 
 eye; but his forehead was scored with 
 thought, and resolve mingled with resigna- 
 tion 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. 
 
 222 
 
The Return Match 
 
 I would do the same in his place. We had 
 the bulge before ; he has it now ; it's perfect- 
 ly fair. We must take on this job; we 
 aren't in a position to refuse it ; even if we 
 were, I should < ke 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," murmured Craw- 
 shay, with his eyes shut. " I leaves the 'ole 
 thing to you." 
 
 " But you'll have to wake up and tell us 
 things." 
 
 " All right, mister ; but Vm fair on the 
 rocks for a sleep ! " 
 
 And he stood up, blinking. 
 
 " Think you were traced to town ? " 
 
 " Must have been." 
 
 "And here?" 
 
 " Not in this fog— not with any luck." 
 
 Raffles went into the bedroom, lit the gas 
 there, and returned next minute. 
 
 " So you got in by the window ? " 
 
 " That's about it." 
 
 223 
 
lili'll'.: 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " It was devilish sqiart of you to know 
 which one ; it beats me how you brought it 
 off in daylight, fog or no fog! But let 
 that pass. You don't think you were 
 seen ? " 
 
 " I don't think it, sir/' 
 
 " Well, let's hope you are right. I shall 
 reconnoitre and soon find out. And you'd 
 better come too. Bunny, and have some- 
 thing to eat and talk it over." 
 
 As Raffles looked at me, I looked at 
 Crawshay, anticipating trouble; and 
 trouble brewed in his blank, fierce face, in 
 the glitter of his startled eyes, in the sud- 
 den closing of his fists. 
 
 " And what's to become o' me? " he cried 
 out with an oath. 
 
 " You wait here." 
 
 " No, you don't," he roared, and at a 
 bound had his back to the door. " You 
 don't get round me like that, you cuckoos ! " 
 
 Raffles turned to me with a twitch of the 
 shoulders. 
 
 " That's the worst of these professors," 
 said he : " they never will use their heads. 
 They see the pegs, and they mean to hit 'em ; 
 
 224 
 
The Return Match 
 
 w 
 
 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 yer neck," snarled 
 the convict. "Talk out straight, curse 
 you ! " 
 
 "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. Crawshay, 
 though you have 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 just as low as you know how, 
 be as wise as your 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 ! " 
 
 225 
 
 ■ 
 

 W 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 Crawshay slapped his thigh. 
 
 " That's talking! " said he. " Lord love 
 yer, I know where I am when you talk 
 like that. I'll trust yer. I know a man 
 when he get's his tongue between his teeth ; 
 you're all right. I don't say so much about 
 this other gent, though I saw him along 
 with you on the job that time in the prov- 
 inces; 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 auch stony-broke 
 cusses in yer life ! " 
 
 " That's all right," said Raffles. " We'll 
 see you through properly. Leave it to us, 
 and you sit tight." 
 
 " Rightum ! " said Crawshay. " And 
 I'll have a sleep time you're gone. But no 
 sperrits — no, thank'ee — not yet! Once let 
 me loose on the lush, and. Lord love yer, 
 I'm a gone coon ! " 
 
 Raffles got his overcoat, a long, light 
 driving-coat, I remember, and even as he 
 
 226 
 
The Return Match 
 
 put it on our fugitive was dozing in the 
 chair ; we left him murmuring incoherently, 
 with the gas out, and his bare feet toast- 
 ing. 
 
 " Not such a bad chap, that professor," 
 said Raffles on the stairs ; " a real genius in 
 his way, too, though his 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 twenty- 
 
 i'Jwx nwuio lo u, vviioic mat juotlllCS 113 partS. 
 
 Good Lord ! " 
 
 We had passed a man in the foggy court- 
 yard, 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 ! " 
 
 1 stood still with horror. 
 
 " Do you think he's on Crawshay's 
 track?" 
 
 " I don't know. I'll find out." 
 
 And before I could remonstrate he had 
 wheeled me round ; when I found my voice 
 
 227 
 
; 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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 scrutin- 
 ised us keenly ; and through the gaslit mist 
 I noticed that his hair was gri?!zled at the 
 temples, and his face still cadaverous, from 
 the wound that had nearly been his death. 
 
 " Ye have the advantage o' me, sirs," 
 said he. 
 
 " I hope you're fit again," said my com- 
 panion. " 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. Ay, yon was 
 a bad business, but it ended vera well, an' 
 that's the main thing." 
 
 His native caution had returned to him. 
 Raffles pinched my arm. 
 
 " Yes, it ended splendidly, but for you," 
 said he. " But what about this escape of 
 the leader of the gang, that fellow Craw- 
 shay? What do you think of that, eh?" 
 
 238 
 
The Return Match 
 
 " I havena the parteeculars," replied the 
 Scot. 
 
 " 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 an- 
 other 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. 
 
 " Rot ! " said Raffles. " That was Mac- 
 kenzie, the detective. I've just been speak- 
 ing 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." 
 
 229 
 
 i 
 
jit 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 i 
 
 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. "T 
 arfternoon a gen'leman comes arl *■ 
 rooms, and I sent him to the orfice ; one of 
 the clurks, 'e goes round with 'im an' shows 
 'im the empties, an' the gen'leman's partic'ly 
 struck on the set the coppers is up in now. 
 So he sends the clurk to fetch the manager, 
 as there was one or two things he wished 
 to speak about ; an' when they come back, 
 blowed if the gent isn't gone! Beg yer 
 pardon, sir, but he's clean disappeared "+' 
 the face o' the premises ! " And the 
 ter looked at us with shining eyes. 
 
 "Well?" said Raffles. 
 
 " Well, sir, they looked about, an' looked 
 about, an' at larst they give him up for a 
 bad job ; thought he'd changed his mind 
 an* didn't want to tip the clurk; so they 
 shut up the place an' come away. An' 
 that's all till about 'alf an hour ago, when 
 I takes the manager his extry-speshul 
 Star; in about ten minutes he comes run- 
 ning out with a note, an' sends me with it 
 
 250 
 
w 
 
 The Return Match 
 
 to Scotland Yard in a hansom. An' that's 
 all I know, sir — straight. The coppers is 
 up there now, and the tec, 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 dunno." 
 
 " Jolly interesting ! " said Raffles. " I'm 
 going up to inquire. Come on. Bunny; 
 there should be some fun." 
 
 " Beg yer pardon, Mr. Raffles, but you 
 won't say nothing about me?" 
 
 '' Not I ; you're a good fellow. I won't 
 forget it if this leads to sport. Sport ! " he 
 whispered as we reached 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 past him 
 with the air of a chief commissioner, and 
 I followed before the man had recovered 
 from his astonishment. The bare boards 
 rang under us; in the bedroom we found 
 
 231 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 . I 
 
 a knot of officers stooping over the window- 
 ledge with a constable's lantern. Macken- 
 zie 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 tight. Surely that entitles him, 
 at all events, to see any fun that's going? 
 As for myself, well, it's true I only helped 
 to carry you to the house ; but for old ac- 
 quaintance I do hope, my dear Mr. Macken- 
 zie, 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 ye'll not see much," growled the 
 detective, " for he's not up here. Consta- 
 ble, go you and stand at the foot o' the 
 stairs, and let no other body come up on 
 any conseederation ; these gentlemen may 
 be able to help us after all." 
 
 " That's kind of you, Mackenzie ! " cried 
 Raffles warmly. " But what is it all ? I 
 
 232 
 
mf 
 
 The Return Match 
 
 questioned a porter I met coming down, but 
 could get nothing out of him, except that 
 somebody had been to see the3e rooms and 
 not since been seen himself." 
 
 "He's a man we want," said Macken- 
 zie. "He's concealed himself somewhere 
 about these premises, or I'm vera much 
 mistaken. D'ye reside in the Albany, Mr 
 Raffles?" 
 
 " I do." 
 
 " Will your rooms be near these?" 
 
 " On the next staircase but one." 
 
 " Ye'll just have left them? " 
 
 " Just." 
 
 "Been in all the afternoon, likely?" 
 " Not all." 
 
 " Then I may have to search your rooms, 
 sir. I am prepared to 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 to 
 ransack." 
 
 " I will leave you my key," said Raffles 
 at once. " I am dining out, but I'll leave it 
 with the officer down below." 
 
 233 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 I caught my breath in mute amazement. 
 What was the meaning of this insane prom- 
 ise? It was wilful, gratuitous, suicidal; it 
 made me catch at his sleeve 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 re- 
 assured 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 to stick to these chaps, especial- 
 ly 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 Crawshay's the 
 man to take his risks. You must trust me, 
 Eunny; you've known me long enough." 
 
 234 
 
The Return Match 
 
 « 
 
 And you're going now ? " 
 
 " There's no time to lose. Stick to them, 
 old chap ; don't let them suspect you, what- 
 ever 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 ?nd of his infinite resource. By 
 this time I felt that I knew more or less 
 what he would 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 Crawshay 
 on his guard, and — stow him away? No — 
 there were such things as windows. Then 
 why was Raffles going to desert us all ? I 
 
 235 
 
 Mi 
 
■^T- 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 thought of many things — lastly of a cab. 
 These bedroom vvindov/s looked into a nar- 
 row side-street; they were not very high; 
 from them a man might drop on to the roof 
 of a cab — even as it passed — and be driven 
 away — even under the noses of the po- 
 lice! I pictured Raffles driving that cab, 
 unrecognisable in the foggy night; the 
 vision came to me as he passed under the 
 window, tucking up the collar of his gteat 
 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 con- 
 stable his key. 
 
 " We're on his track," said a voice behind 
 me. " He's got up on the leads, sure 
 enough, though how he managed it from 
 yon window is a myst'ry to me. We're 
 going to lock up here and try what like 
 it is from the attics. So you'd better come 
 with us if you've a mind." 
 
 The top floor at the Albany, as elsewhere, 
 is devoted to the servants — a congeries of 
 little kitchens and cubicles, used by many 
 as lumber-rooms — by Raffles among the 
 many. The annex in this case was, of 
 
 236 
 
The Return Match 
 
 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 Mac- 
 kenzie's undisguised annoyance. 
 
 " Better let in all Piccadilly at a crown 
 a head," said he. " Here, my man, out you 
 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," purred Mackenzie, " yon's how 
 he got up from below! He would do it 
 with one o' they telescope sticks, an' I 
 never thocht o't! 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 sec 
 by leaning over the parapet." 
 
 237 
 
^i«^ 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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 says," 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's," announced the manager 
 after a 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 intona- 
 tion, which even then I found time to dis- 
 like; it was as though the coincidence had 
 already struck the Scotchman as something 
 more. 
 
 " Where is Mr. Raffles ? " asked the man- 
 ager, as we all filed downstairs. 
 
 " He's gone out to his dinner," said Mac- 
 kenzie. 
 
 " 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 
 
 238 
 
w^ 
 
 n 
 
 The Return Match 
 
 a front place in the 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 him- 
 self! 
 
 " Suicide," said Mackenzie calmly. " No 
 — here's the poker — looks more like mur- 
 der." He went on his knees and shook his 
 head quite cheerfully. " An' 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 
 whether it felled him; but, sirs, he just 
 stinks o' chloryform ! " 
 
 He got up and fixed his keen grey eyes 
 upon me; my own were full of tears, but 
 they faced him unashamed. 
 
 " I understood ye to say ye .saw him go 
 out ? " said he sternly. 
 
 239 
 
 'f^ 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " I saw that long driving-coat ; of 
 course, I thought he was inside it." 
 
 " And I could ha' sworn it was the same 
 gent when he give me the key ! " 
 
 It was the disconsolate voice of the con- 
 stable in the background; on him turned 
 Mackenzie, white to the lips. 
 
 " You'd think anything, some of you 
 damned policemen," said he. " What's 
 your number, you rotter? P 34? You'll 
 be hearing more of this, Mr. P 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've let slip, butter-fingers? Craw- 
 shay — no less — him that broke Dartmoor 
 yesterday. By the God that made ye, P 34, 
 if I lose him I'll hound ye from the forrce ! " 
 
 Working face — shaking fist — a calm 
 man on fire. It was a new side of Macken- 
 zie, and one to mark and to digest. Next 
 moment he had flounced from our midst. 
 
 " Difficult thing to break your own head," 
 said Raffles later ; " infinitely easier to cut 
 
 240 
 
The Return Match 
 
 w^ 
 
 your own throat. Chloroform's 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 
 him miss it for worlds; and you mustn't 
 think me a brute, old boy, for I fear that 
 man, and, know, we sink or swim to- 
 gether." 
 
 " And now we sink or swim with Craw- 
 shay, too," said I dolefully. 
 
 '* Not we ! " said Raffles with conviction. 
 " Old Crawshay's 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 we'll take on the professors 
 again ! " 
 
 241 
 
 ii 
 
THE GIFT OF THE EMPEROR 
 
 \17HEN 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 com- 
 mon 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 fourteen senses. 
 For the gift was a pearl of price unparal- 
 leled, picked aforetime by British cutlasses 
 from a Polynesian setting, and presented 
 by British royalty to the sovereign who 
 seized this opportunity of restoring it to 
 its original possessor. 
 
 242 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 The incident would have been a godsend 
 to the Press a few weeks later. Even in 
 June there were leaders, letters, large head- 
 lines, leaded type; the Daily Chronicle de- 
 voting half its literary page to a charming 
 drawing of the island capital which the new 
 Pall Mall, 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 it 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 Thames Ditton, 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." 
 
 " Nonsense, Bunny! I thought they paid 
 so well? Give them time, and you'll get 
 your cheque." 
 
 "Oh, no, I sha'n't," said I gloomily. 
 
 243 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " 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 con- 
 cealment. I had written for my money be- 
 cause I really needed it; if he must know, 
 I was cursedh 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 free lance of letters; 
 for my part, I was afraid I wrote neither 
 well enough nor ill enough for success. I 
 suffered from a persistent ineffectual feel- 
 ing 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 leant 
 back watching me. I knew that he was 
 thinking of other things I had stooped to, 
 
 244 
 
m 
 
 The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 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. 1 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 
 qh'u verses but for crystallising your sub- 
 ject and putting it in a nutshell. Certainly 
 you've taught me more about it than I knew 
 before. But is it really worth fifty thousand 
 pounds — a single pearl?'* 
 
 " A hundred, I believe; but that wouldn't 
 scan." 
 
 "A hundred thousand pounds!" said 
 Raffles, with his eyes shut. 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 
 
 245 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 gift; for pride thrives on an empty pocket, 
 and no privation would have drawn from 
 me the proposal which I had expected Raf- 
 fles to make. My expectation had been 
 half a hope, though I only knew it now. 
 But neither did we touch again on what 
 Raffles professed 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 pre- 
 occupied with h's own thoughts. It was 
 months since we had met, and, as I saw 
 him off towards eleven 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. 
 
 " You don't look well on it. 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 St. Moritz, or do you 
 recommend Cannes or Cairo? It's all very 
 
 246 
 
^ i 
 
 The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 well, A. J., but you forget what I told you 
 about my funds." 
 
 " I forget nothing. I merely don't want 
 to hurt your feelings. But, look here, a sea 
 voyage you shall have. I want a change 
 myself, and you shall come with me as my 
 guest. We'll spend July in the Mediter- 
 ranean." 
 
 " 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 the 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 T paid 
 for my flat and the rent at which I had sub- 
 let it, furnished, for the season. And the 
 season was near its end, and creditors 
 awaited me in town. Was it possible to be 
 
 247 
 
 m 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 i 
 
 Rt' : 
 
 W' '< 
 
 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 noth- 
 ing 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 belonged. 
 
 " Arrange to leave Waterloo by North 
 German Lloyd special," he wired, " 9.25 
 a.m. Monday next will meet you South- 
 ampton aboard Uhlan with tickets am writ- 
 
 ing. 
 
 And write he did, a light-hearted letter 
 enough, but full of serious solicitude for 
 me and for my health and prospects; a let- 
 ter almost touching in the 'ight of our past 
 relations, in the twilight of their complete 
 rupture. He said that he had booked two 
 berths to Naples, that we were bound for 
 Capri, which was clearly the Island of the 
 Lotos-eaters, that we would bask there to- 
 gether, " and for a while forget." It was a 
 
 248 
 
The Gift of t*he Emperor 
 
 charming letter. I had never seen Italy; 
 the privilege of initiation should be his. No 
 mistake was greater than to deem it an im- 
 possible country for the summer. The Bay 
 of Naples was never so divine, and he wrote 
 of " faery lands forlorn," 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; an J I gathered that the personal 
 use of some little influence with the authori- 
 ties there had resulted in a material reduc- 
 tion in our fares. 
 
 Imagine my excitement and delight! I 
 managed to pay what I owed at Thames 
 Ditton, to squeeze a small editor for a very 
 small cheque, and my tailors for one more 
 flannel suit. I remember that I broke my 
 last sovereign to get a box of Sullivan's 
 cigarettes for Raffles to smoke on the voy- 
 age. But my hean was as light as my 
 purse on the Monday morning, the fairest 
 
 249 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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's side. 
 And then I looked in vain. His face was 
 not among the many that fringed the rail; 
 his hand was not of the few that waved to 
 friends. I climbed aboard 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 waylaid 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, and 
 none below in the saloon; 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, whither I in- 
 quired my way in desperation but where 
 the sight of his own name on the baggage 
 was cer ! inly a further reassurance. Why 
 
 250 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 he himself kept in the background, however, 
 I could not conceive, and only sinister rea- 
 sons would suggest themselves in explana- 
 tion. 
 
 " So there you are! I've been looking for 
 you all over the ship!" 
 
 Despite the graven prohibition, I had 
 tried the bridge as a last resort; and there, 
 indeed, was A. J. Raffles, seated on a sky- 
 light, and leaning over one of the officers' 
 long chairs, in which reclinec' a girl in a 
 white drill coat and skirt— a slip of a girl 
 with a pale skin, dark hair, and rather re- 
 markable 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-feigned as- 
 tonishment. 
 
 " Why Bunny? " cried Raffles. 
 
 " Where have you sprung from? " 
 
 I stammered something as he pinched 
 my hand. 
 
 " And are you coming in this ship? And 
 to Naples, too? Well, upon my word! 
 Miss Werner, may I introduce him?" 
 
 And he did so without a blush, describ- 
 es » 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 h 
 
 IM|!f| 
 
 ing me as an old schoolfellow whom he had 
 not seen for months, with wilful circum- 
 stance and gratuitous detail that filled me 
 at once with confusion, suspicion, and re- 
 volt. I felt myself blushing for us both, 
 and I did not care. My address utterly de- 
 serted me, and I made no effort to recover 
 it, to carry the thing off. All I would do 
 was to mumble such words as Raffles act- 
 ually put into my mouth, and that I doubt 
 not with a thoroughly evil grace. 
 
 " So you saw my name in the list of pas- 
 sengers 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 
 wheel-house, 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 Werner 
 
 252 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 on the promenade deck, there came a deep, 
 slow throbbing under-foot, and our voyage 
 had begun. 
 
 It did not begin pleasantly between Raf- 
 fles and me. On deck he had overborne 
 my stubborn perplexity by dint of a forced 
 though forceful joviality; in his cabin the 
 gloves were oflf. 
 
 '* You idiot," he snarled, " you've given 
 me away again ! " 
 
 " How have I given you away? " 
 
 I ignored the separate insult in his last 
 word. 
 
 ' How? I should have thought any clod 
 could see that I meant us to meet by 
 chance! " 
 
 " After taking both tickets yourself? " 
 
 "They know nothing about that on 
 board; besides, I hadn't decided when I 
 took the tickets." 
 
 "Then you should have let me knov/ 
 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? " 
 
 253 
 
! 1 
 
 t :i 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 
 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 pur- 
 sued, " it was your business to give me the 
 tip the moment I set foot on board. I would 
 have taken it all right. I am not so virtu- 
 ous 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 ; nor can I swear to it even 
 now. 
 
 " That," said he, " was the very thing I 
 meant to do — to lie in 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. 
 
 254 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 "How did you know she was one?" he 
 cried. 
 
 " I heard her speak." 
 "Brute!" said Raffles, laughing; "she 
 has no more twang than you have. Her 
 people are German, she has been to school 
 in Dresden, and is on 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, " it wasn't for Miss Wer- 
 ner you wanted us to play strangers, was 
 it? You have some deeper game than that 
 eh?" 
 
 " I suppose 1 have." 
 
 " Then hadn't you better tell me what it 
 
 - p„ 
 
 is 
 
 Raffles treated me to the old cautious 
 scrutiny that I knew so well; the very famil- 
 iarity of it, after all these months, set me 
 smiling in a way that might have reassured 
 him; for dimly already I divined his enter- 
 prise. 
 
 " It won't send you off in the pilot's boat 
 Bunny?" 
 
 ^5S 
 
 m 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 it 
 
 Not quite." 
 
 " Then — you remember the pearl you 
 wrote the " 
 
 I did not wait for him to finish his sen- 
 tence. 
 
 " You've got it! " I cried, my face on fire, 
 for I caught sight of it that moment in the 
 stateroom mirror. 
 
 Raffles seemed taken aback. 
 
 " Not yet," said he; " but I mean to have 
 it before we get to Naples." 
 
 "Is it on board?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " But how — where — who's got it? " 
 
 ** A little German officer, a whipper-snap- 
 per with perpendicular moustaches." 
 
 " I saw him in the smoke-room." 
 
 " That's the chap; he's always there. Herr 
 Captain Wilhelm von Heumann, if you look 
 in the list. Well, he's the special envoy 
 of the emperor, and he's taking the pearl 
 out with him ! " 
 
 " You found this out in Bremen? " 
 
 " No, in Berlin, from a newspaper man I 
 know there. I'm ashamed to tell you, 
 Bunny, that I went there on purpose! " 
 
 256 
 
wm 
 
 The Gift ot' the Emperor 
 
 I burst out laughing. 
 
 " You needn't be ashamed. You are do- 
 ing the very tiling 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 1 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 with- 
 out reserve; not brazenly, you understand; 
 not even now with the gusto of a man who 
 savours such an adventure for its own sake, 
 but 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 
 daresay, 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 rec- 
 
 257 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 ord was written only in one's own soul. It 
 was the old story of the thief trying 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 chequers; 
 why not reconcile oneself to alternate 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 on all squares 
 of the board, and liked the light the bet- 
 ter for the shade. My conclusion he con- 
 sidered absurd. 
 
 " But you err 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 Avernus 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 couldn't be 
 done on this pearl alone!" 
 
 258 
 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 " Then you don't still think it too remark- 
 able 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 state-room door, and I caught 
 a glimpse of an upturned moustache be- 
 yond. 
 
 " But is he the chap we have to deal with? 
 Won't the pearl be in the purser's keep- 
 ing? " 
 
 Raffles 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 
 hke that aboard? You said that it was worth 
 a hundred thousand pounds; in Berlin they 
 say it's priceless. I doubt if the skipper 
 
 259 
 
 ,i 
 
 i^ 
 
t 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 himseK knows that von Heumann has it on 
 him." 
 
 "And he has?" 
 
 " Must have." 
 
 *" Then we have only him to deal with? " 
 
 He answered me without a word. Some- 
 thing white was fluttering past once more, 
 and Raffles, stepping forth, made the 
 promenaders three. 
 
 11 
 
 I do not ask to set foot aboard a finer 
 steamship than the Uhlan of the Nord- 
 deutscher Lloyd, to meet a kindlier gentle- 
 man than her then commander, or better 
 fellows than his officers. T^'*"^ 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 tault 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 
 
 260 
 
'!l 
 
 The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 ready to revel between bright skies and 
 cparkling sea with the light-hearted detach- 
 ment of Raffles himself. It was Raffles 
 himself who prevented me, but not Raffles 
 alone. It was Raffles and Ihat Colonial 
 minx on her way home fror.i 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 Mediter- 
 ranean. They were always together. It 
 was too absurd. After breakfast they would 
 begin, and go on until eleven or twe've 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 h.'s experi- 
 ence of women (a side of his character upon 
 which I have purposely nev-'- touched, for 
 it deserves another volume) , .3 it credible, 
 I ask, that such a man could xlnd anything 
 but nonsense to talk by the day together 
 
 261 
 

 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 to a giddy young schoolgirl? I would not 
 be unfair for the world. I think I have ad- 
 mitted that the young persnn ha'd 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, mettle, 
 and vitality. I may not have occasion to 
 report any of this young lady's speeches 
 (they would scarcely bear it), and am there- 
 fore the more anxious to describe her with- 
 out injustice. I confess to some little preju- 
 dice 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 joalousy 
 rankling within me. 
 
 Jealousy there was in another quarter — 
 crude, rampant, undignified jealoi'sy. Cap- 
 tain von Heumann would twirl his mous- 
 taches into twin spares, shoot his white cuflfs 
 over his rings, and stare at me insolently 
 through his rimless eye-glasses; we ought 
 to have consoled each other, but we never 
 
 2C2 
 

 The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 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 Heumann never had his in- 
 nings. Raffles let him go in several times 
 a day, for the malicious pleasure of bowling 
 him out as lie was " getting set " ; those 
 were his words when I taxed him disin- 
 genuously with obnoxious conduct towards 
 a German on a German boat. 
 
 " You'll make yourself disliked on 
 board!" 
 
 " By von Heumann merely." 
 
 " But is that wise when he's the man 
 we've got to diddle?" 
 
 " The wisest thing I ever did. To have 
 chummed up with liim would have been 
 fatal — the common dodge." 
 
 I was consoled, encouraged, almost con- 
 tent. I had feared Raffles was neglecting 
 things, and 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. 
 
 263 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " 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 sharp- 
 ly fore and aft, leaving me next moment 
 with a step full of purpose. I retired to 
 the smoking-room, to smoke and read in a 
 cornel, and to watch von Heumann, who 
 very soon came to drink beer and to sulk 
 in another. 
 
 Few travellers tempt the Red Sea at mid- 
 summer; the Uhlan 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 Raf- 
 fles's room. T could have had one to my- 
 self downstairs, but T 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 cur- 
 
 264 
 
 , 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 tains were shaken by Raffles, who was in 
 his shirt- sleeves on the settee. 
 " Achilles sulking in his bunk! " 
 " What else is there to do? " I asked him 
 as I stretched and yawned. I noted, how- 
 ever, the good-humour of his tone, and did 
 my best to catch it. 
 
 " I have found something else, Bun- 
 ny." 
 
 " I daresay! " 
 
 " You misunderstand me. The whipper- 
 snapper's making his century this after- 
 noon. I've had other 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 
 porthole. 
 
 " We shall be at Genoa before sunset," 
 continued Raffles. " It's the place where 
 the deed's got to be done." 
 
 " So you still mean to do it! " 
 
 "Did I ever say I didi. t?" 
 
 " You have said so little either way." 
 
 "Advisedly so, my dear Bunny; why 
 spoil a pleasure trip by talking unnecessary 
 
 265 
 
T^mmtm 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 shop? But now the time has come. It 
 must be done at Genoa or not at all." 
 
 "On land?" 
 
 " No, on board, to-morrow night. To- 
 night would do, but to-morrow is better, 
 in case of mishap. If we were forced to 
 use violence we could get away by the earli- 
 est train, and nothing be known till the ship 
 was sailing and von Heumann found dead 
 or drugged " 
 
 " Not dead! " I exclaimed. 
 
 " Of course not," assented Raffles, " or 
 there 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 time, if 
 the worst came to the worst." 
 
 I asked him how he proposed to enter 
 von Heumann's state-room unobserved, and 
 even through the curtained gloom of ours 
 iiis face lighted up. 
 
 266 
 
IS!— 
 
 The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 " Climb into my bunk, Bunny, and you 
 shall see." 
 
 I did so, but could see nothing. Raffles 
 reached across me and tapped the ventilator, 
 a soit of trap-door in the wall above his 
 bed, some eighteen 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 all 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 von Heumann's. 
 It again will only m.ean a couple of screws, 
 and there's a beam to stand on while you 
 work." 
 
 " But if anybody should look un from be- 
 low? " 
 
 " It's extremely unlikely that anybody 
 will be astir below, so unlikely that we can 
 
 267 
 
i 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 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 ship's 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 von Heumann 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. Von Heumann will be past 
 sensation almost as soon as I get my hand 
 through his ventilator. I shall crawl in over 
 hi: body, Bunny, my boy! " 
 
 "And I?" 
 
 " You will hand me what I want, and 
 hold the fort in case of accidents, and gen- 
 erally lend me the moral support you'v* 
 made me require. It's a luxury, Bunny, 
 but I found it devilish difBcult to do with- 
 out it after you turnv.'d pi! " 
 
 He said that von Heumann was certain 
 to sleep with a bolted door, which he, of 
 
 26b 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 course, would leave unbolted, and spoke 
 of other ways of laying a false scent while 
 rifling the cabin. Not that Raffles antici- 
 pated a tiresome search. The pearl would 
 be about von Heumann'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 an- 
 swer led up to a momentary unpleasantness. 
 
 " It's a very old story, Bunny. I realty 
 forget in what Book it comes; I'm only sure 
 of the Testament. But Samson was the 
 unluc.y hero, and one Delilah the heroine." 
 
 And he looked so knowing that I could 
 not be in a moment's doubt as to his mean- 
 ing. 
 
 " So the fair Australian has been playing 
 Delilah?" said I. 
 
 " In a very harmless, innocent sort of 
 way." 
 
 " She got his mission out of him? " 
 
 " Yes, I've forced him to score all the 
 points he couid, 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? " 
 
 269 
 
iff) 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 " 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 to-morrow." 
 
 " It doesn't occur to you that I might 
 like to draw stumps, start clean, and live 
 happily ever after — in the bush? " 
 
 270 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 "With that voice? It certainly does 
 not!" 
 
 " Bunny! " he cried, so fiercely that I 
 braced myself for a blow. 
 
 But no more followed. 
 
 " Do you think you would live happily? " 
 I made bold to ask him. 
 
 " God knows! " he answered. And with 
 that he left me, to marvel at his look and 
 tone, and, more than ever, at the insuf- 
 ficiently exciting cause. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Of all the mere feats of cracksmanship 
 which 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 Uhlan, 
 lying at anchor in Genoa harbour. 
 
 Not a hitch occurred. Everything had 
 been foreseen; everything happened as I 
 had been assured everything must. No- 
 body was about below, only the ship's boys 
 
 271 
 
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 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, NY. 14580 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 
&? 
 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 on deck, and nobody on the bridge. It 
 was twenty-five minutes past one when Raf- 
 fles, without a stitch of clothing on his body, 
 but with a glass phial, corked with cotton- 
 wool, between his teeth, and a tiny screw- 
 driver behind his ear, squirmed feet first 
 through the ventilator over his berth; and 
 it was nineteen minutes to two when he re- 
 turned, head first, with the phial still be- 
 tween 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 oui; and put them in 
 again; he had unfastened von Heumann's 
 ventilator and had left it fast as he had 
 found it — fast as he instantly proceeded to 
 make his own. As for von Heumann, it 
 had been enough to place the drenched wad 
 first on his moustache, and then to hold it 
 between his gaping lips; thereafter the in- 
 truder 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 finger-nail — this spoil of a filibuster- 
 ing age — this gift from a European em- 
 
 272 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 peror to a South Sea chief. We gloated 
 over it when all was snug. We toasted it 
 in whisky and soda-water laid in overnight 
 in view of the great moment. But the mo- 
 ment was greater, more triumphant, than 
 our most sanguine dreams. All we had 
 now to do was to secrete the gem (which 
 Raffles had prised from its setting, replacing 
 the latter), so that we could stand the strict- 
 est search and yet take it ashore with us at 
 Naples; and this Raffles was doing when I 
 turned in. I myself would have landed in- 
 continently, 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 any- 
 thing 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 
 tell-tale effects, sniff no suspicious odour, 
 in the morning. Nevertheless, von Heu- 
 mann reappeared as though nothing had 
 happened to him, his German cap over his 
 eyes and his moustaches brushing the peak. 
 And by ten o'clock we were quit of Genoa; 
 
 273 
 
 f 
 
 :| 
 

 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 !r;i 
 
 the last lean, blue-chinned official had left 
 our decks; the last fruitseller had been 
 beaten off with bucketsful 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 boatman over 
 half a lira. But at length we were off, the 
 tug was shed, the lighthouse passed, and 
 Rafilles 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 Heumann was having his innings 
 once more; it was part of the design that 
 he should remain in all day, and so post- 
 pone the inevitable hour; and, though the 
 lady looked bored, and was for ever glanc- 
 ing 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 lei me go. 
 
 274 
 
at 
 
 The Gift: of the Emperor 
 
 " Stop where you are, Bunny. I've things 
 to tell you. Can you swim? " 
 
 " A bit." 
 
 "Ten miles?" 
 
 "Ten?" I burst out laughing. "Not 
 one! Why do you ask?" 
 
 " We shall be within a ten miles' swim 
 of the shore most of the day." 
 
 " What on earth are you driving at, Raf- 
 fles?" 
 
 " 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!" 
 
 275 
 
 i 
 
n( 
 
 The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 
 tl\ 
 
 R 
 
 " The man with the beard who came 
 aboard last." 
 
 " Are you sure?" 
 
 "Sure! I was only sorry j:o see you 
 didn't recognise him too." 
 
 I took my handkerchief to my face; now 
 that I thought of it, there had been some- 
 thing familiar in the old man's gait, as well 
 as something rather youthful for his appar- 
 ent years; his very beard seemed unconvinc- 
 ing, 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 Rafifles. 
 " 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 
 
 276 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 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 Mac 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 impatient- 
 Iv. 
 
 " 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 per- 
 fectly 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 Craw- 
 shay slipped clean through his fingers last 
 November. There have been other indica- 
 tions. 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 Fd been inside that Scotchman's 
 skim, and I know what he'll do next. He 
 found out I'd gone abroad, and looked for 
 
 277 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 a motive; he found out about voi. Heumann 
 and 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 skipper beckoning the whipper-snapper 
 to his cabin: the fat will be in the fire in 
 five minutes! " 
 
 Yet there was no conflagration, no fuss, 
 no searching of the passengers, no whisper 
 of what had happened in the air; instead 
 of a stir there was portentous peace; and 
 it was clear to me that Raffles was not a 
 little disturbed at the falsification of all his 
 predictions. There was something sinister 
 in silence under such a loss, and the silence 
 was sustained for hours during which Mac- 
 kenzie never reappeared. But he was 
 abroad during the luncheon-hour — he was 
 in our cabin! I had left my book in Raf- 
 fies's berth, and in taking it after lunch I 
 touched the quilt. It was warm from the 
 recent pressure of flesh and blood, and on 
 an instinct I sprang to the ventilator; as I 
 
 278 
 
wmm 
 
 The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 opened it the ventilator oppostte was closed 
 with a snap. 
 
 I waylaid Raffles. "All right! Let him 
 
 find the pearl." 
 " Have you dumped it overboard? " 
 " That's a question I sha'n't condescend 
 
 to answer." 
 
 He turned on his heel, and at subsequent 
 intervals 1 saw him making the most of his 
 last afternoon with the inevitable Miss Wer- 
 ner. I remember that she looked both cool 
 and smart in quite a simple affair of brown 
 holland, which toned well with her com- 
 plexion, and was cleverly relieved with 
 touches of scarlet. I quite admired her that 
 afternoon, for her eyes were really very 
 good, and so were her teeth, yet I had never 
 admired her more directly in my own de- 
 spite. For I passed them again and again 
 in order to get a word with Rafifles, to tell 
 him I knew there was danger in the wind; 
 but he would not so much as catch my ^ye. 
 So at last I gave it up. And I saw him 
 next in the captain's cabin. 
 
 They had summoned him first; he had 
 gone in smiling; and smiling I found him 
 
 279 
 
 1, 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 v'hen they summoned me. The state-room 
 was spacious, as befitted that of a com- 
 mander. Mackenzie sat on the settee, his 
 beard in front of him on the poHshed table; 
 but a revolver lay in front of the captain; 
 and, when I had entered, the chief officer, 
 who had summoned me, shut the door and 
 put his back to it. Von Heumann com- 
 pleted the party, his fingers busy with his 
 moustache. 
 
 Raffles greeted me. 
 
 " TLis is a great joke! " he cried. " You 
 remember the pearl you were so keen about, 
 Bunny, the emperor's pearl, the pearl money 
 wouldn't buy? It seems it was entrusted to 
 our little friend here, to take out to Canoodle 
 Dum, and the poor little chap's gone and 
 lost it; ergo, as we're Britishers, they think 
 we've got it ! " 
 
 " But I know ye have," put in Mackenzie, 
 nodding to his beard. 
 
 " You will recognise that loyal and pa- 
 triotic voice," said Raffles. " Mon, 'tis our 
 auld acquaintance Mackenzie, o' Scoteland 
 Yarrd an' Scoteland itsel' ! " 
 
 Dat is enough," cried the captain. 
 280 
 
 €( 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 " Have you submid to be searge, or do I 
 vorce you ? " 
 
 "What you will," said Raffles, "but it 
 will do you no harm to give us fair play 
 first. You accuse us of breaking into Cap- 
 tain von Heumann's state-room during the 
 small hours of this morning, and abstract- 
 ing from it this confounded pearl. Well, I 
 can prove that I was in my own room all 
 night long, and I have no doubt my friend 
 can prove the same." 
 
 " Most certainly I can," said I indignant- 
 ly. "The ship's boys can bear witness to 
 that." 
 
 Mackenzie laughed, and shook his head 
 at his reflection h\ 'he polished mahogany. 
 
 "Ihat was ver clever," said he, "and 
 like enough it would ha' served ye had I not 
 stepped aboard. But I've just had a look 
 at they ventilators, and I think I know how 
 ye worrked it. Anyway, captain, it makes 
 no matter. I'll just be clappin' the darbies 
 on these young sparks, an' then " 
 
 "By what right?" roared Rattles, in a 
 ringing voice, and I never saw his face in 
 such a blaze. " Search us if you like; search 
 
 281 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 every scrap and stitch we possess; but you 
 dare to lay a finger on us without a war- 
 rant!" 
 
 " I wouldna' dare," said Mackenzie 
 gravely, as he fumbled in his breast pocket, 
 and Raffles dived his hand into his own. 
 " Haud his wrist! " shouted the Scotchman; 
 and the huge Colt that had been with us 
 many a night, but had never been fired in 
 my hearing, clattered on the table and was 
 raked in by the captain. 
 
 *• All right," said Raffles savagely to the 
 mate. " You can let go now. I won't Iry 
 it again. Now, Mackenzie, let's see your 
 warrant! " 
 
 "Ye'll no mishandle it?" 
 
 " What good would that do me? Let me 
 see it," said Raffles, peremptorily, and the 
 detective obeyed. Raffles raised his eye- 
 brows as he perused the document ; his 
 moutli hardened, but suddenly relaxed; 
 and it was with a smile and a shrug that he 
 returned the paper. 
 
 " Wull that do for ye? " inquired Mac- 
 kenzie. 
 
 It may. I congratulate you, Macken- 
 28a 
 
 n 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 zie; it's a strong hand, at any rate. Two 
 burglaries and the Melrose necklace, 
 Bunny! " And he turned to me with a rue- 
 ful smile. 
 
 " An' ail easy to prove," said the Scotch- 
 man, pocketing the warrant. " I've one o* 
 these for you," he added, nodding to me, 
 " only not such a long one." 
 
 " To think," said the captain reproach- 
 fully, " that my shib should be made a den 
 of thiefs! It shall be a very disagreeable 
 madder, I have been obliged to pud 
 you both in irons until we ged to Na- 
 bles." 
 
 " Surely not! " exclaimed Raffles. " Mac- 
 kenzie, intercede with him; don't give your 
 countrymen away before all hands! Cap- 
 tain, we can't escape; surely you could hush 
 it up for the night? Look here, here's 
 everything I have in my pockets ; you empty 
 yours, too. Bunny, and they shall strip us 
 stark if they suspect we've weapons up our 
 sleeves. All I ask is that we are allowed to 
 get out of this without gyves upon our 
 wrists ! " 
 
 " Webbons you may not have," said the 
 
 a83 
 
 ! i< 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 111 
 
 captain; " but wad atou der bearl dat you 
 were sdealing? " 
 
 " You shall have it! " cried Raffles. " You 
 shall have it this minute if you guarantee 
 no public indignity on board! " 
 
 " That I'll see to," said Mackenzie, " as 
 long as you behave yourselves. There now, 
 where is't ? " 
 
 " On the table under your nose." 
 My eyes fell with the rest, but no pearl 
 was there; only the contents of our pockets 
 — our watches, pocket-books, pencils, pen- 
 knives, cigarette cases — lay on the shiny 
 table along with the revolvers already men- 
 tioned. 
 
 " Ye're humbuggin' us/' said Mackenzie. 
 " What's the use? " 
 
 " I'm doing nothing of the sort," laughed 
 Raffles. " I'm testing y.m. Where's the 
 harm?" 
 
 " It's here, joke apart? " 
 " On that table, by all my gods." 
 Mackenzie opened the cigarette cases and 
 shook each particular cigarette. There- 
 upon Raffles prayed to be allowed to smoke 
 one, and, when his prayer was heard, ob- 
 
 284 
 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 served that the pearl had been on the table 
 much longer than the cigarettes. Macken- 
 zie promptly caught up the Colt and opened 
 the chamber in the butt. 
 
 "Not there, not there," said Raffles; 
 "but you're getting hot. Try the car- 
 tridges." 
 
 Mackenzie emptied them into his palm, 
 and shook each one at his ear without re- 
 sult. 
 
 " Oh, give them to me! " 
 
 And, in an instant, Raffles had found the 
 right one, had bitten out the bullet, and 
 placed the emperor's pearl with a flourish 
 in the centre of the table. 
 
 " After that you will perhaps show me 
 such little consideration as is in your power. 
 Captain, I have been a bit of a villain, as 
 you see, and as such I am ready and willing 
 to lie in irons all night if you deem it requi- 
 site for the safety of the ship. All I ask 
 is that you do me one favour first." 
 
 " That shall debend on wad der vafour 
 has been." 
 
 " Captain, I've done a worse thing aboard 
 your ship than any of you know. I have 
 
 28s 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 become engaged to be married, and I want 
 to say goodbye ! " 
 
 I suppose we were all equally amazed; 
 but the only one to express his amazement 
 was von Heumann, whose deep-chested 
 Gernan oath was almost his first contribu- 
 tion 1 the proceedings. He was not slow 
 to follow it, however, with a vigorous pro- 
 test against the proposed farewell; but he 
 was overruled, and the masterful prisoner 
 had his way. He was to have five minutes 
 with the girl, while the captain and Mac- 
 kenzie stood within range (but not earshot), 
 with their revolvers behind their backs. As 
 we were moving from the cabin, in a body, 
 he stopped and gripped my hand. 
 
 " So I've let you in at last. Bunny — at 
 last and after all! If you knew how sorry 
 I am. . . . But you won't get much — 
 I don't see why you should get anything at 
 all. Can you forgive me? This may be 
 for years, and it may be for ever, you know ! 
 You were a good pal always when it came 
 to the scratch; some day or other you 
 mayn't be so sorry to remember you were 
 a good pal at the last ! " 
 
 286 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 There was a meaning in his eye that I un- 
 deri.iood; and my teeth were set, and my 
 nerves strung ready, as I wrung that strong 
 and cunning hand for the last time in my 
 life. 
 
 How that last scene stays with me, and 
 will stay to my death ! How I see every de- 
 tail, every shadow on the sunlit deck! We 
 were among the islands that dot the course 
 from Genoa to Naples; that was Elba fall- 
 ing back on our starboard quarter, that 
 purple patch with the hot sun setting over 
 it. The captain's cabin opened to starboard, 
 and the starboard promenade deck, sheeted 
 with sunshine and scored with shadow, was 
 deserted but for the group of which I was 
 one, and for the pale, slim, brown figure 
 further aft with Raffles. Engaged? I could 
 not believe it, cannot to this day. Yet there 
 they stood together, and we did not hear 
 a word; there they stood out against the 
 sunset, and the long, dazzling highway of 
 sunlit sea that sparkled from Elba to the 
 Uhlan's plates; and their shadows reached 
 almost to our feet. 
 
 Suddenly — an instant — and the thing was 
 
 287 
 
 (' 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 ] 
 
 done — a thing 1 have never known whether 
 to admire or to detest. He caught her — he 
 kissed her before us all — then flung hei 
 from him so that she almost fell. It was 
 that action which foretold the next. The 
 mate sprang after him, and I sprang after 
 the mate. 
 
 Raffles was on the rail, but only just, 
 " Hold him, Bunny! " he cried. " Hold 
 him tight!" 
 
 And, as I obeyed that last behest with all 
 my might, without a thought of what I was 
 doing, save that he bade me do it, I saw 
 his hands shoot up and his head bob down, 
 and his lithe, spare body cut the sunset as 
 cleanly and precisely as though he had 
 plunged at his leisure from a diver's board! 
 
 Of what followed on deck I can tell you 
 nothing, for I was not there. Nor can my 
 final punishment, my long imprisonment, 
 my ever-lasting disgrace, concern or profit 
 you, beyond the interest and advantage to 
 be gleaned from the knowledge that I at 
 least had my deserts. But one thing I must 
 
 288 
 
The Gift of the Emperor 
 
 set down, believe it who will— one more 
 thing only and I am done. 
 
 It was into d second-class cabin, on the 
 starboard side, that I was promptly thrust 
 in irons, and the door locked upon me as 
 though I were another Raffles. Meanwhile 
 a boat was lowered, and the sea scoured to 
 no purpose, as is doubtless on record else- 
 where. But either the setting sun, flashing 
 over the waves, must have blinded all eyes, 
 or else mine were victims of a strange illu- 
 sion. 
 
 For the boat was back, the screw throb- 
 bing, and the prisoner peering through his 
 porthole across the sunlit waters that he be- 
 lieved had closed for ever over his comrade's 
 head. Suddenly the sun sank behind the 
 Island of Elba, the lane of dancing sunlight 
 was instantaneously quenched and swal- 
 lowed in the trackless waste, and in the 
 middle distance, already miles astern, either 
 my sight deceived me or a black speck 
 bobbed amid the grey. The bugle had 
 blown for dinner: it may well be that all 
 save myself had ceased to strain an eye. 
 And now I lost what I had found, now it 
 
 289 
 
The Amateur Cracksman 
 
 rose, now sank, and now I gave it up utterly. 
 Yet anon it would rise again, a mere mote 
 dancing in the dim grey distance, drifting 
 towards a purple island, beneath a fading 
 western sky, streaked with dead gold and 
 cerise. And night fell before I knew 
 whether it was a human head or not. 
 
 The End. 
 
 r: 
 
 290 
 
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 Es Edgar, 
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