THE RETURN MATCH
I had turned into Piccadilly, one thick evening in the followingNovember, when my guilty heart stood still at the sudden grip of a handupon my arm. I thought--I was always thinking--that my inevitable hourwas come at last. It was only Raffles, however, who stood smiling atme through the fog.
"Well met!" said he. "I've been looking for you at the club."
"I was just on my way there," I returned, with an attempt to hide mytremors. It was an ineffectual attempt, as I saw from his broadersmile, and by the indulgent shake of his head.
"Come up to my place instead," said he. "I've something amusing totell you."
I made excuses, for his tone foretold the kind of amusement, and it wasa kind against which I had successfully set my face for months. I havestated before, however, and I can but reiterate, that to me, at allevents, there was never anybody in the world so irresistible as Raffleswhen his mind was made up. That we had both been independent of crimesince our little service to Sir Bernard Debenham--that there had beenno occasion for that masterful mind to be made up in any such directionfor many a day--was the undeniable basis of a longer spell of honestythan I had hitherto enjoyed during the term of our mutual intimacy. Besure I would deny it if I could; the very thing I am to tell you woulddiscredit such a boast. I made my excuses, as I have said.
But his arm slid through mine, with his little laugh of light-heartedmastery. And even while I argued we were on his staircase in theAlbany.
His fire had fallen low. He poked and replenished it after lightingthe gas. As for me, I stood by sullenly in my overcoat until hedragged it off my back.
"What a chap you are!" said Raffles, playfully. "One would really thinkI had proposed to crack another crib this blessed night! Well, itisn't that, Bunny; so get into that chair, and take one of theseSullivans and sit tight."
He held the match to my cigarette; he brought me a whiskey and soda.Then he went out into the lobby, and, just as I was beginning to feelhappy, I heard a bolt shot home. It cost me an effort to remain inthat chair; next moment he was straddling another and gloating over mydiscomfiture across his folded arms.
"You remember Milchester, Bunny, old boy?"
His tone was as bland as mine was grim when I answered that I did.
"We had a little match there that wasn't down on the card. Gentlemenand Players, if you recollect?"
"I don't forget it."
"Seeing that you never got an innings, so to speak, I thought youmight. Well, the Gentlemen scored pretty freely, but the Players wereall caught."
"Poor devils!"
"Don't be too sure. You remember the fellow we saw in the inn? Theflorid, over-dressed chap who I told you was one of the cleverestthieves in town?"
"I remember him. Crawshay his name turned out to be."
"Well, it was certainly the name he was convicted under, so Crawshaylet it be. You needn't waste any pity on HIM, old chap; he escapedfrom Dartmoor yesterday afternoon."
"Well done!"
Raffles smiled, but his eyebrows had gone up, and his shouldersfollowed suit.
"You are perfectly right; it was very well done indeed. I wonder youdidn't see it in the paper. In a dense fog on the moor yesterday goodold Crawshay made a bolt for it, and got away without a scratch underheavy fire. All honor to him, I agree; a fellow with that much gritdeserves his liberty. But Crawshay has a good deal more. They huntedhim all night long; couldn't find him for nuts; and that was all youmissed in the morning papers."
He unfolded a Pall Mall, which he had brought in with him.
"But listen to this; here's an account of the escape, with just theaddition which puts the thing on a higher level. 'The fugitive hasbeen traced to Totnes, where he appears to have committed a peculiarlydaring outrage in the early hours of this morning. He is reported tohave entered the lodgings of the Rev. A. H. Ellingworth, curate of theparish, who missed his clothes on rising at the usual hour; later inthe morning those of the convict were discovered neatly folded at thebottom of a drawer. Meanwhile Crawshay had made good his secondescape, though it is believed that so distinctive a guise will lead tohis recapture during the day.' What do you think of that, Bunny?"
"He is certainly a sportsman," said I, reaching for the paper.
"He's more," said Raffles, "he's an artist, and I envy him. Thecurate, of all men! Beautiful--beautiful! But that's not all. I sawjust now on the board at the club that there's been an outrage on theline near Dawlish. Parson found insensible in the six-foot way. Ourfriend again! The telegram doesn't say so, but it's obvious; he'ssimply knocked some other fellow out, changed clothes again, and comeon gayly to town. Isn't it great? I do believe it's the best thing ofthe kind that's ever been done!"
"But why should he come to town?"
In an instant the enthusiasm faded from Raffles's face; clearly I hadreminded him of some prime anxiety, forgotten in his impersonal joyover the exploit of a fellow-criminal. He looked over his shouldertowards the lobby before replying.
"I believe," said he, "that the beggar's on MY tracks!"
And as he spoke he was himself again--quietly amused--cynicallyunperturbed--characteristically enjoying the situation and my surprise.
"But look here, what do you mean?" said I. "What does Crawshay knowabout you?"
"Not much; but he suspects."
"Why should he?"
"Because, in his way he's very nearly as good a man as I am; because,my dear Bunny, with eyes in his head and brains behind them, hecouldn't help suspecting. He saw me once in town with old Baird. Hemust have seen me that day in the pub on the way to Milchester, as wellas afterwards on the cricket-field. As a matter of fact, I know hedid, for he wrote and told me so before his trial."
"He wrote to you! And you never told me!"
The old shrug answered the old grievance.
"What was the good, my dear fellow? It would only have worried you."
"Well, what did he say?"
"That he was sorry he had been run in before getting back to town, ashe had proposed doing himself the honor of paying me a call; however,he trusted it was only a pleasure deferred, and he begged me not to goand get lagged myself before he came out. Of course he knew theMelrose necklace was gone, though he hadn't got it; and he said thatthe man who could take that and leave the rest was a man after his ownheart. And so on, with certain little proposals for the far future,which I fear may be the very near future indeed! I'm only surprised hehasn't turned up yet."
He looked again towards the lobby, which he had left in darkness, withthe inner door shut as carefully as the outer one. I asked him what hemeant to do.
"Let him knock--if he gets so far. The porter is to say I'm out oftown; it will be true, too, in another hour or so."
"You're going off to-night?"
"By the 7.15 from Liverpool Street. I don't say much about my people,Bunny, but I have the best of sisters married to a country parson inthe eastern counties. They always make me welcome, and let me read thelessons for the sake of getting me to church. I'm sorry you won't bethere to hear me on Sunday, Bunny. I've figured out some of my bestschemes in that parish, and I know of no better port in a storm. But Imust pack. I thought I'd just let you know where I was going, and why,in case you cared to follow my example."
He flung the stump of his cigarette into the fire, stretched himself ashe rose, and remained so long in the inelegant attitude that my eyesmounted from his body to his face; a second later they had followed hiseyes across the room, and I also was on my legs. On the threshold ofthe folding doors that divided bedroom and sitting-room, a well-builtman stood in ill-fitting broadcloth, and bowed to us until his bullethead presented an unbroken disk of short red hair.
Brief as was my survey of this astounding apparition, the interval waslong enough for Raffles to recover his composure; his hands were in hispockets, and a smile upon his face, when my eyes flew back to him.
"Let me introduce you, Bunny," said he
, "to our distinguishedcolleague, Mr. Reginald Crawshay."
The bullet head bobbed up, and there was a wrinkled brow above thecoarse, shaven face, crimson also, I remember, from the grip of acollar several sizes too small. But I noted nothing consciously at thetime. I had jumped to my own conclusion, and I turned on Raffles withan oath.
"It's a trick!" I cried. "It's another of your cursed tricks! You gothim here, and then you got me. You want me to join you, I suppose?I'll see you damned!"
So cold was the stare which met this outburst that I became ashamed ofmy words while they were yet upon my lips.
"Really, Bunny!" said Raffles, and turned his shoulder with a shrug.
"Lord love yer," cried Crawshay, "'_E_ knew nothin'. _'E_ didn'texpect me; 'E'S all right. And you're the cool canary, YOU are," hewent on to Raffles. "I knoo you were, but, do me proud, you're oneafter my own kidney!" And he thrust out a shaggy hand.
"After that," said Raffles, taking it, "what am I to say? But you musthave heard my opinion of you. I am proud to make your acquaintance.How the deuce did you get in?"
"Never you mind," said Crawshay, loosening his collar; "let's talkabout how I'm to get out. Lord love yer, but that's better!"
There was a livid ring round his bull-neck, that he fingered tenderly."Didn't know how much longer I might have to play the gent," heexplained; "didn't know who you'd bring in."
"Drink whiskey and soda?" inquired Raffles, when the convict was in thechair from which I had leapt.
"No, I drink it neat," replied Crawshay, "but I talk business first.You don't get over me like that, Lor' love yer!"
"Well, then, what can I do for you?"
"You know without me tellin' you."
"Give it a name."
"Clean heels, then; that's what I want to show, and I leaves the way toyou. We're brothers in arms, though I ain't armed this time. It ain'tnecessary. You've too much sense. But brothers we are, and you'll seea brother through. Let's put it at that. You'll see me through in yerown way. I leaves it all to you."
His tone was rich with conciliation and concession; he bent over andtore a pair of button boots from his bare feet, which he stretchedtowards the fire, painfully uncurling his toes.
"I hope you take a larger size than them," said he. "I'd have had asee if you'd given me time. I wasn't in long afore you."
"And you won't tell me how you got in?"
"Wot's the use? I can't teach YOU nothin'. Besides, I want out. Iwant out of London, an' England, an' bloomin' Europe too. That's all Iwant of you, mister. I don't arst how YOU go on the job. You knoww'ere I come from, 'cos I 'eard you say; you know w'ere I want to 'eadfor, 'cos I've just told yer; the details I leaves entirely to you."
"Well," said Raffles, "we must see what can be done."
"We must," said Mr. Crawshay, and leaned back comfortably, and begantwirling his stubby thumbs.
Raffles turned to me with a twinkle in his eye; but his forehead wasscored with thought, and resolve mingled with resignation in the linesof his mouth. And he spoke exactly as though he and I were alone inthe room.
"You seize the situation, Bunny? If our friend here is 'copped,' tospeak his language, he means to 'blow the gaff' on you and me. He isconsiderate enough not to say so in so many words, but it's plainenough, and natural enough for that matter. I would do the same in hisplace. We had the bulge before; he has it now; it's perfectly fair. Wemust take on this job; we aren't in a position to refuse it; even if wewere, I should take it on! Our friend is a great sportsman; he has gotclear away from Dartmoor; it would be a thousand pities to let him goback. Nor shall he; not if I can think of a way of getting him abroad."
"Any way you like," murmured Crawshay, with his eyes shut. "I leavesthe 'ole thing to you."
"But you'll have to wake up and tell us things."
"All right, mister; but I'm fair on the rocks for a sleep!"
And he stood up, blinking.
"Think you were traced to town?"
"Must have been."
"And here?"
"Not in this fog--not with any luck."
Raffles went into the bedroom, lit the gas there, and returned nextminute.
"So you got in by the window?"
"That's about it."
"It was devilish smart of you to know which one; it beats me how youbrought it off in daylight, fog or no fog! But let that pass. Youdon't think you were seen?"
"I don't think it, sir."
"Well, let's hope you are right. I shall reconnoitre and soon findout. And you'd better come too, Bunny, and have something to eat andtalk it over."
As Raffles looked at me, I looked at Crawshay, anticipating trouble;and trouble brewed in his blank, fierce face, in the glitter of hisstartled eyes, in the sudden closing of his fists.
"And what's to become o' me?" he cried out with an oath.
"You wait here."
"No, you don't," he roared, and at a bound had his back to the door."You don't get round me like that, you cuckoos!"
Raffles turned to me with a twitch of the shoulders. "That's the worstof these professors," said he; "they never will use their heads. Theysee the pegs, and they mean to hit 'em; but that's all they do see andmean, and they think we're the same. No wonder we licked them lasttime!"
"Don't talk through yer neck," snarled the convict. "Talk outstraight, curse you!"
"Right," said Raffles. "I'll talk as straight as you like. You sayyou put yourself in my hands--you leave it all to me--yet you don'ttrust me an inch! I know what's to happen if I fail. I accept therisk. I take this thing on. Yet you think I'm going straight out togive you away and make you give me away in my turn. You're a fool, Mr.Crawshay, though you have broken Dartmoor; you've got to listen to abetter man, and obey him. I see you through in my own way, or not atall. I come and go as I like, and with whom I like, without yourinterference; you stay here and lie just as low as you know how, be aswise as your word, and leave the whole thing to me. If you won't--ifyou're fool enough not to trust me--there's the door. Go out and saywhat you like, and be damned to you!"
Crawshay slapped his thigh.
"That's talking!" said he. "Lord love yer, I know where I am when youtalk like that. I'll trust yer. I know a man when he gets his tonguebetween his teeth; you're all right. I don't say so much about thisother gent, though I saw him along with you on the job that time in theprovinces; but if he's a pal of yours, Mr. Raffles, he'll be all righttoo. I only hope you gents ain't too stony--"
And he touched his pockets with a rueful face.
"I only went for their togs," said he. "You never struck two suchstony-broke cusses in yer life!"
"That's all right," said Raffles. "We'll see you through properly.Leave it to us, and you sit tight."
"Rightum!" said Crawshay. "And I'll have a sleep time you're gone.But no sperrits--no, thank'ee--not yet! Once let me loose on the lush,and, Lord love yer, I'm a gone coon!"
Raffles got his overcoat, a long, light driving-coat, I remember, andeven as he put it on our fugitive was dozing in the chair; we left himmurmuring incoherently, with the gas out, and his bare feet toasting.
"Not such a bad chap, that professor," said Raffles on the stairs; "areal genius in his way, too, though his methods are a little elementaryfor my taste. But technique isn't everything; to get out of Dartmoorand into the Albany in the same twenty-four hours is a whole thatjustifies its parts. Good Lord!"
We had passed a man in the foggy courtyard, and Raffles had nipped myarm.
"Who was it?"
"The last man we want to see! I hope to heaven he didn't hear me!"
"But who is he, Raffles?"
"Our old friend Mackenzie, from the Yard!"
I stood still with horror.
"Do you think he's on Crawshay's track?"
"I don't know. I'll find out."
And before I could remonstrate he had wheeled me round; when I found myvoice he merely laughed, and whispered that t
he bold course was thesafe one every time.
"But it's madness--"
"Not it. Shut up! Is that YOU, Mr. Mackenzie?"
The detective turned about and scrutinized us keenly; and through thegaslit mist I noticed that his hair was grizzled at the temples, andhis face still cadaverous, from the wound that had nearly been hisdeath.
"Ye have the advantage o' me, sirs," said he.
"I hope you're fit again," said my companion. "My name is Raffles, andwe met at Milchester last year."
"Is that a fact?" cried the Scotchman, with quite a start. "Yes, now Iremember your face, and yours too, sir. Ay, yon was a bad business,but it ended vera well, an' that's the main thing."
His native caution had returned to him. Raffles pinched my arm.
"Yes, it ended splendidly, but for you," said he. "But what about thisescape of the leader of the gang, that fellow Crawshay? What do youthink of that, eh?"
"I havena the parteeculars," replied the Scot.
"Good!" cried Raffles. "I was only afraid you might be on his tracksonce more!"
Mackenzie shook his head with a dry smile, and wished us good eveningas an invisible window was thrown up, and a whistle blown softlythrough the fog.
"We must see this out," whispered Raffles. "Nothing more natural than alittle curiosity on our part. After him, quick!"
And we followed the detective into another entrance on the same side asthat from which we had emerged, the left-hand side on one's way toPiccadilly; quite openly we followed him, and at the foot of the stairsmet one of the porters of the place. Raffles asked him what was wrong.
"Nothing, sir," said the fellow glibly.
"Rot!" said Raffles. "That was Mackenzie, the detective. I've justbeen speaking to him. What's he here for? Come on, my good fellow; wewon't give you away, if you've instructions not to tell."
The man looked quaintly wistful, the temptation of an audience hot uponhim; a door shut upstairs, and he fell.
"It's like this," he whispered. "This afternoon a gen'leman comesarfter rooms, and I sent him to the orfice; one of the clurks, 'e goesround with 'im an' shows 'im the empties, an' the gen'leman's partic'lystruck on the set the coppers is up in now. So he sends the clurk tofetch the manager, as there was one or two things he wished to speakabout; an' when they come back, blowed if the gent isn't gone! Beg yerpardon, sir, but he's clean disappeared off the face o' the premises!"And the porter looked at us with shining eyes.
"Well?" said Raffles.
"Well, sir, they looked about, an' looked about, an' at larst they givehim up for a bad job; thought he'd changed his mind an' didn't want totip the clurk; so they shut up the place an' come away. An' that's alltill about 'alf an hour ago, when I takes the manager his extry-speshulStar; in about ten minutes he comes running out with a note, an' sendsme with it to Scotland Yard in a hansom. An' that's all I know,sir--straight. The coppers is up there now, and the tec, and themanager, and they think their gent is about the place somewhere still.Least, I reckon that's their idea; but who he is, or what they want himfor, I dunno."
"Jolly interesting!" said Raffles. "I'm going up to inquire. Come on,Bunny; there should be some fun."
"Beg yer pardon, Mr. Raffles, but you won't say nothing about me?"
"Not I; you're a good fellow. I won't forget it if this leads tosport. Sport!" he whispered as we reached the landing. "It looks likeprecious poor sport for you and me, Bunny!"
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know. There's no time to think. This, to start with."
And he thundered on the shut door; a policeman opened it. Rafflesstrode past him with the air of a chief commissioner, and I followedbefore the man had recovered from his astonishment. The bare boardsrang under us; in the bedroom we found a knot of officers stooping overthe window-ledge with a constable's lantern. Mackenzie was the firstto stand upright, and he greeted us with a glare.
"May I ask what you gentlemen want?" said he.
"We want to lend a hand," said Raffles briskly. "We lent one oncebefore, and it was my friend here who took over from you the fellow whosplit on all the rest, and held him tightly. Surely that entitles him,at all events, to see any fun that's going? As for myself, well, it'strue I only helped to carry you to the house; but for old acquaintanceI do hope, my dear Mr. Mackenzie, that you will permit us to share suchsport as there may be. I myself can only stop a few minutes, in anycase."
"Then ye'll not see much," growled the detective, "for he's not uphere. Constable, go you and stand at the foot o' the stairs, and letno other body come up on any conseederation; these gentlemen may beable to help us after all."
"That's kind of you, Mackenzie!" cried Raffles warmly. "But what is itall? I questioned a porter I met coming down, but could get nothingout of him, except that somebody had been to see these rooms and notsince been seen himself."
"He's a man we want," said Mackenzie. "He's concealed himselfsomewhere about these premises, or I'm vera much mistaken. D'ye residein the Albany, Mr. Raffles?"
"I do."
"Will your rooms be near these?"
"On the next staircase but one."
"Ye'll just have left them?"
"Just."
"Been in all the afternoon, likely?"
"Not all."
"Then I may have to search your rooms, sir. I am prepared to searchevery room in the Albany! Our man seems to have gone for the leads;but unless he's left more marks outside than in, or we find him upthere, I shall have the entire building to ransack."
"I will leave you my key," said Raffles at once. "I am dining out, butI'll leave it with the officer down below."
I caught my breath in mute amazement. What was the meaning of thisinsane promise? It was wilful, gratuitous, suicidal; it made me catchat his sleeve in open horror and disgust; but, with a word of thanks,Mackenzie had returned to his window-sill, and we sauntered unwatchedthrough the folding-doors into the adjoining room. Here the windowlooked down into the courtyard; it was still open; and as we gazed outin apparent idleness, Raffles reassured me.
"It's all right, Bunny; you do what I tell you and leave the rest tome. It's a tight corner, but I don't despair. What you've got to dois to stick to these chaps, especially if they search my rooms; theymustn't poke about more than necessary, and they won't if you're there."
"But where will you be? You're never going to leave me to be landedalone?"
"If I do, it will be to turn up trumps at the right moment. Besides,there are such things as windows, and Crawshay's the man to take hisrisks. You must trust me, Bunny; you've known me long enough."
"Are you going now?"
"There's no time to lose. Stick to them, old chap; don't let themsuspect YOU, whatever else you do." His hand lay an instant on myshoulder; then he left me at the window, and recrossed the room.
"I've got to go now," I heard him say; "but my friend will stay and seethis through, and I'll leave the gas on in my rooms, and my key withthe constable downstairs. Good luck, Mackenzie; only wish I couldstay."
"Good-by, sir," came in a preoccupied voice, "and many thanks."
Mackenzie was still busy at his window, and I remained at mine, a preyto mingled fear and wrath, for all my knowledge of Raffles and of hisinfinite resource. By this time I felt that I knew more or less whathe would do in any given emergency; at least I could conjecture acharacteristic course of equal cunning and audacity. He would returnto his rooms, put Crawshay on his guard, and--stow him away? No--therewere such things as windows. Then why was Raffles going to desert usall? I thought of many things--lastly of a cab. These bedroom windowslooked into a narrow side-street; they were not very high; from them aman might drop on to the roof of a cab--even as it passed--and bedriven away even under the noses of the police! I pictured Rafflesdriving that cab, unrecognizable in the foggy night; the vision came tome as he passed under the window, tucking up the collar of his greatdriving-coat on the way to his rooms; it was still with me
when hepassed again on his way back, and stopped to hand the constable his key.
"We're on his track," said a voice behind me. "He's got up on theleads, sure enough, though how he managed it from yon window is amyst'ry to me. We're going to lock up here and try what like it isfrom the attics. So you'd better come with us if you've a mind."
The top floor at the Albany, as elsewhere, is devoted to theservants--a congeries of little kitchens and cubicles, used by many aslumber-rooms--by Raffles among the many. The annex in this case was,of course, empty as the rooms below; and that was lucky, for we filledit, what with the manager, who now joined us, and another tenant whomhe brought with him to Mackenzie's undisguised annoyance.
"Better let in all Piccadilly at a crown a head," said he. "Here, myman, out you go on the roof to make one less, and have your truncheonhandy."
We crowded to the little window, which Mackenzie took care to fill; anda minute yielded no sound but the crunch and slither of constabularyboots upon sooty slates. Then came a shout.
"What now?" cried Mackenzie.
"A rope," we heard, "hanging from the spout by a hook!"
"Sirs," purred Mackenzie, "yon's how he got up from below! He would doit with one o' they telescope sticks, an' I never thocht o't! How longa rope, my lad?"
"Quite short. I've got it."
"Did it hang over a window? Ask him that!" cried the manager. "He cansee by leaning over the parapet."
The question was repeated by Mackenzie; a pause, then "Yes, it did."
"Ask him how many windows along!" shouted the manager in highexcitement.
"Six, he says," said Mackenzie next minute; and he drew in his head andshoulders. "I should just like to see those rooms, six windows along."
"Mr. Raffles," announced the manager after a mental calculation.
"Is that a fact?" cried Mackenzie. "Then we shall have no difficultyat all. He's left me his key down below."
The words had a dry, speculative intonation, which even then I foundtime to dislike; it was as though the coincidence had already struckthe Scotchman as something more.
"Where is Mr. Raffles?" asked the manager, as we all filed downstairs.
"He's gone out to his dinner," said Mackenzie.
"Are you sure?"
"I saw him go," said I. My heart was beating horribly. I would nottrust myself to speak again. But I wormed my way to a front place inthe little procession, and was, in fact, the second man to cross thethreshold that had been the Rubicon of my life. As I did so I uttereda cry of pain, for Mackenzie had trod back heavily on my toes; inanother second I saw the reason, and saw it with another and a loudercry.
A man was lying at full length before the fire on his back, with alittle wound in the white forehead, and the blood draining into hiseyes. And the man was Raffles himself!
"Suicide," said Mackenzie calmly. "No--here's the poker--looks morelike murder." He went on his knees and shook his head quitecheerfully. "An' it's not even murder," said he, with a shade ofdisgust in his matter-of-fact voice; "yon's no more than a flesh-wound,and I have my doubts whether it felled him; but, sirs, he just stinkso' chloryform!"
He got up and fixed his keen gray eyes upon me; my own were full oftears, but they faced him unashamed.
"I understood ye to say ye saw him go out?" said he sternly.
"I saw that long driving-coat; of course, I thought he was inside it."
"And I could ha' sworn it was the same gent when he give me the key!"
It was the disconsolate voice of the constable in the background; onhim turned Mackenzie, white to the lips.
"You'd think anything, some of you damned policemen," said he. "What'syour number, you rotter? P 34? You'll be hearing more of this, Mr. P34! If that gentleman was dead--instead of coming to himself while I'mtalking--do you know what you'd be? Guilty of his manslaughter, youstuck pig in buttons! Do you know who you've let slip, butter-fingers?Crawshay--no less--him that broke Dartmoor yesterday. By the God thatmade ye, P 34, if I lose him I'll hound ye from the forrce!"
Working face--shaking fist--a calm man on fire. It was a new side ofMackenzie, and one to mark and to digest. Next moment he had flouncedfrom our midst.
"Difficult thing to break your own head," said Raffles later;"infinitely easier to cut your own throat. Chloroform's anothermatter; when you've used it on others, you know the dose to a nicety.So you thought I was really gone? Poor old Bunny! But I hopeMackenzie saw your face?"
"He did," said I. I would not tell him all Mackenzie must have seen,however.
"That's all right. I wouldn't have had him miss it for worlds; and youmustn't think me a brute, old boy, for I fear that man, and, know, wesink or swim together."
"And now we sink or swim with Crawshay, too," said I dolefully.
"Not we!" said Raffles with conviction. "Old Crawshay's a truesportsman, and he'll do by us as we've done by him; besides, this makesus quits; and I don't think, Bunny, that we'll take on the professorsagain!"
THE GIFT OF THE EMPEROR
I
When the King of the Cannibal Islands made faces at Queen Victoria, anda European monarch set the cables tingling with his compliments on theexploit, the indignation in England was not less than the surprise, forthe thing was not so common as it has since become. But when ittranspired that a gift of peculiar significance was to follow thecongratulations, to give them weight, the inference prevailed that thewhite potentate and the black had taken simultaneous leave of theirfourteen senses. For the gift was a pearl of price unparalleled,picked aforetime by British cutlasses from a Polynesian setting, andpresented by British royalty to the sovereign who seized thisopportunity of restoring it to its original possessor.
The incident would have been a godsend to the Press a few weeks later.Even in June there were leaders, letters, large headlines, leaded type;the Daily Chronicle devoting half its literary page to a charmingdrawing of the island capital which the new Pall Mall, in a leadingarticle headed by a pun, advised the Government to blow to flinders. Iwas myself driving a poor but not dishonest quill at the time, and thetopic of the hour goaded me into satiric verse which obtained a betterplace than anything I had yet turned out. I had let my flat in town,and taken inexpensive quarters at Thames Ditton, on the plea of adisinterested passion for the river.
"First-rate, old boy!" said Raffles (who must needs come and see methere), lying back in the boat while I sculled and steered. "I supposethey pay you pretty well for these, eh?"
"Not a penny."
"Nonsense, Bunny! I thought they paid so well? Give them time, andyou'll get your check."
"Oh, no, I sha'n't," said I gloomily. "I've got to be content with thehonor of getting in; the editor wrote to say so, in so many words," Iadded. But I gave the gentleman his distinguished name.
"You don't mean to say you've written for payment already?"
No; it was the last thing I had intended to admit. But I had done it.The murder was out; there was no sense in further concealment. I hadwritten for my money because I really needed it; if he must know, I wascursedly hard up. Raffles nodded as though he knew already. I warmedto my woes. It was no easy matter to keep your end up as a rawfreelance of letters; for my part, I was afraid I wrote neither wellenough nor ill enough for success. I suffered from a persistentineffectual feeling after style. Verse I could manage; but it did notpay. To personal paragraphs and the baser journalism I could not and Iwould not stoop.
Raffles nodded again, this time with a smile that stayed in his eyes ashe leant back watching me. I knew that he was thinking of other thingsI had stooped to, and I thought I knew what he was going to say. Hehad said it before so often; he was sure to say it again. I had myanswer ready, but evidently he was tired of asking the same question.His lids fell, he took up the paper he had dropped, and I sculled thelength of the old red wall of Hampton Court before he spoke again.
"And they gave you nothing for these! My dear Bunny, they're capital,not only qua
verses but for crystallizing your subject and putting itin a nutshell. Certainly you've taught ME more about it than I knewbefore. But is it really worth fifty thousand pounds--a single pearl?"
"A hundred, I believe; but that wouldn't scan."
"A hundred thousand pounds!" said Raffles, with his eyes shut. Andagain I made certain what was coming, but again I was mistaken. "Ifit's worth all that," he cried at last, "there would be no getting ridof it at all; it's not like a diamond that you can subdivide. But Ibeg your pardon, Bunny. I was forgetting!"
And we said no more about the emperor's gift; for pride thrives on anempty pocket, and no privation would have drawn from me the proposalwhich I had expected Raffles to make. My expectation had been half ahope, though I only knew it now. But neither did we touch again onwhat Raffles professed to have forgotten--my "apostasy," my "lapse intovirtue," as he had been pleased to call it. We were both a littlesilent, a little constrained, each preoccupied with his own thoughts.It was months since we had met, and, as I saw him off towards eleveno'clock that Sunday night, I fancied it was for more months that wewere saying good-by.
But as we waited for the train I saw those clear eyes peering at meunder the station lamps, and when I met their glance Raffles shook hishead.
"You don't look well on it, Bunny," said he. "I never did believe inthis Thames Valley. You want a change of air."
I wished I might get it.
"What you really want is a sea voyage."
"And a winter at St. Moritz, or do you recommend Cannes or Cairo? It'sall very well, A. J., but you forget what I told you about my funds."
"I forget nothing. I merely don't want to hurt your feelings. But,look here, a sea voyage you shall have. I want a change myself, andyou shall come with me as my guest. We'll spend July in theMediterranean."
"But you're playing cricket--"
"Hang the cricket!"
"Well, if I thought you meant it--"
"Of course I mean it. Will you come?"
"Like a shot--if you go."
And I shook his hand, and waved mine in farewell, with the perfectlygood-humored conviction that I should hear no more of the matter. Itwas a passing thought, no more, no less. I soon wished it were more;that week found me wishing myself out of England for good and all. Iwas making nothing. I could but subsist on the difference between therent I paid for my flat and the rent at which I had sublet it,furnished, for the season. And the season was near its end, andcreditors awaited me in town. Was it possible to be entirely honest?I had run no bills when I had money in my pocket, and the moredownright dishonesty seemed to me the less ignoble.
But from Raffles, of course, I heard nothing more; a week went by, andhalf another week; then, late on the second Wednesday night, I found atelegram from him at my lodgings, after seeking him vainly in town, anddining with desperation at the solitary club to which I still belonged.
"Arrange to leave Waterloo by North German Lloyd special," he wired,"9.25 A. M. Monday next will meet you Southampton aboard Uhlan withtickets am writing."
And write he did, a light-hearted letter enough, but full of serioussolicitude for me and for my health and prospects; a letter almosttouching in the light of our past relations, in the twilight of theircomplete rupture. He said that he had booked two berths to Naples,that we were bound for Capri, which was clearly the island of theLotos-eaters, that we would bask there together, "and for a whileforget." It was a charming letter. I had never seen Italy; theprivilege of initiation should be his. No mistake was greater than todeem it an impossible country for the summer. The Bay of Naples wasnever so divine, and he wrote of "faery lands forlorn," as though thepoetry sprang unbidden to his pen. To come back to earth and prose, Imight think it unpatriotic of him to choose a German boat, but on noother line did you receive such attention and accommodation for yourmoney. There was a hint of better reasons. Raffles wrote, as he hadtelegraphed, from Bremen; and I gathered that the personal use of somelittle influence with the authorities there had resulted in a materialreduction in our fares.
Imagine my excitement and delight! I managed to pay what I owed atThames Ditton, to squeeze a small editor for a very small check, and mytailors for one more flannel suit. I remember that I broke my lastsovereign to get a box of Sullivan's cigarettes for Raffles to smoke onthe voyage. But my heart was as light as my purse on the Mondaymorning, the fairest morning of an unfair summer, when the specialwhirled me through the sunshine to the sea.
A tender awaited us at Southampton. Raffles was not on board, nor didI really look for him till we reached the liner's side. And then Ilooked in vain. His face was not among the many that fringed the rail;his hand was not of the few that waved to friends. I climbed aboard ina sudden heaviness. I had no ticket, nor the money to pay for one. Idid not even know the number of my room. My heart was in my mouth as Iwaylaid a steward and asked if a Mr. Raffles was on board. Thankheaven--he was! But where? The man did not know, was plainly on someother errand, and a-hunting I must go. But there was no sign of him onthe promenade deck, and none below in the saloon; the smoking-room wasempty but for a little German with a red moustache twisted into hiseyes; nor was Raffles in his own cabin, whither I inquired my way indesperation, but where the sight of his own name on the baggage wascertainly a further reassurance. Why he himself kept in thebackground, however, I could not conceive, and only sinister reasonswould suggest themselves in explanation.
"So there you are! I've been looking for you all over the ship!"
Despite the graven prohibition, I had tried the bridge as a lastresort; and there, indeed, was A. J. Raffles, seated on a skylight, andleaning over one of the officers' long chairs, in which reclined a girlin a white drill coat and skirt--a slip of a girl with a pale skin,dark hair, and rather remarkable eyes. So much I noted as he rose andquickly turned; thereupon I could think of nothing but the swiftgrimace which preceded a start of well-feigned astonishment.
"Why--BUNNY?" cried Raffles. "Where have YOU sprung from?"
I stammered something as he pinched my hand.
"And are you coming in this ship? And to Naples, too? Well, upon myword! Miss Werner, may I introduce him?"
And he did so without a blush, describing me as an old schoolfellowwhom he had not seen for months, with wilful circumstance andgratuitous detail that filled me at once with confusion, suspicion, andrevolt. I felt myself blushing for us both, and I did not care. Myaddress utterly deserted me, and I made no effort to recover it, tocarry the thing off. All I would do was to mumble such words asRaffles actually put into my mouth, and that I doubt not with athoroughly evil grace.
"So you saw my name in the list of passengers and came in search of me?Good old Bunny; I say, though, I wish you'd share my cabin. I've got abeauty on the promenade deck, but they wouldn't promise to keep me bymyself. We ought to see about it before they shove in some alien. Inany case we shall have to get out of this."
For a quartermaster had entered the wheelhouse, and even while we hadbeen speaking the pilot had taken possession of the bridge; as wedescended, the tender left us with flying handkerchiefs and shrillgood-bys; and as we bowed to Miss Werner on the promenade deck, therecame a deep, slow throbbing underfoot, and our voyage had begun.
It did not begin pleasantly between Raffles and me. On deck he hadoverborne my stubborn perplexity by dint of a forced though forcefuljoviality; in his cabin the gloves were off.
"You idiot," he snarled, "you've given me away again!"
"How have I given you away?"
I ignored the separate insult in his last word.
"How? I should have thought any clod could see that I meant us to meetby chance!"
"After taking both tickets yourself?"
"They knew nothing about that on board; besides, I hadn't decided whenI took the tickets."
"Then you should have let me know when you did decide. You lay yourplans, and never say a word, and expect me to tumble to them by lightof nature. How w
as I to know you had anything on?"
I had turned the tables with some effect. Raffles almost hung his head.
"The fact is, Bunny, I didn't mean you to know. You--you've grown sucha pious rabbit in your old age!"
My nickname and his tone went far to mollify me, other things wentfarther, but I had much to forgive him still.
"If you were afraid of writing," I pursued, "it was your business togive me the tip the moment I set foot on board. I would have taken itall right. I am not so virtuous as all that."
Was it my imagination, or did Raffles look slightly ashamed? If so, itwas for the first and last time in all the years I knew him; nor can Iswear to it even now.
"That," said he, "was the very thing I meant to do--to lie in wait inmy room and get you as you passed. But--"
"You were better engaged?"
"Say otherwise."
"The charming Miss Werner?"
"She is quite charming."
"Most Australian girls are," said I.
"How did you know she was one?" he cried.
"I heard her speak."
"Brute!" said Raffles, laughing; "she has no more twang than you have.Her people are German, she has been to school in Dresden, and is on herway out alone."
"Money?" I inquired.
"Confound you!" he said, and, though he was laughing, I thought it wasa point at which the subject might be changed.
"Well," I said, "it wasn't for Miss Werner you wanted us to playstrangers, was it? You have some deeper game than that, eh?"
"I suppose I have."
"Then hadn't you better tell me what it is?"
Raffles treated me to the old cautious scrutiny that I knew so well;the very familiarity of it, after all these months, set me smiling in away that might have reassured him; for dimly already I divined hisenterprise.
"It won't send you off in the pilot's boat, Bunny?"
"Not quite."
"Then--you remember the pearl you wrote the--"
I did not wait for him to finish his sentence.
"You've got it!" I cried, my face on fire, for I caught sight of itthat moment in the stateroom mirror.
Raffles seemed taken aback.
"Not yet," said he; "but I mean to have it before we get to Naples."
"Is it on board?"
"Yes."
"But how--where--who's got it?"
"A little German officer, a whipper-snapper with perpendicularmustaches."
"I saw him in the smoke-room."
"That's the chap; he's always there. Herr Captain Wilhelm von Heumann,if you look in the list. Well, he's the special envoy of the emperor,and he's taking the pearl out with him."
"You found this out in Bremen?"
"No, in Berlin, from a newspaper man I know there. I'm ashamed to tellyou, Bunny, that I went there on purpose!"
I burst out laughing.
"You needn't be ashamed. You are doing the very thing I was ratherhoping you were going to propose the other day on the river."
"You were HOPING it?" said Raffles, with his eyes wide open. Indeed,it was his turn to show surprise, and mine to be much more ashamed thanI felt.
"Yes," I answered, "I was quite keen on the idea, but I wasn't going topropose it."
"Yet you would have listened to me the other day?"
Certainly I would, and I told him so without reserve; not brazenly, youunderstand; not even now with the gusto of a man who savors such anadventure for its own sake, but doggedly, defiantly, through my teeth,as one who had tried to live honestly and failed. And, while I wasabout it, I told him much more. Eloquently enough, I daresay, I gavehim chapter and verse of my hopeless struggle, my inevitable defeat;for hopeless and inevitable they were to a man with my record, eventhough that record was written only in one's own soul. It was the oldstory of the thief trying to turn honest man; the thing was againstnature, and there was an end of it.
Raffles entirely disagreed with me. He shook his head over myconventional view. Human nature was a board of checkers; why notreconcile one's self to alternate black and white? Why desire to beall one thing or all the other, like our forefathers on the stage or inthe old-fashioned fiction? For his part, he enjoyed himself on allsquares of the board, and liked the light the better for the shade. Myconclusion he considered absurd.
"But you err in good company, Bunny, for all the cheap moralists whopreach the same twaddle: old Virgil was the first and worst offender ofyou all. I back myself to climb out of Avernus any day I like, andsooner or later I shall climb out for good. I suppose I can't verywell turn myself into a Limited Liability Company. But I could retireand settle down and live blamelessly ever after. I'm not sure that itcouldn't be done on this pearl alone!"
"Then you don't still think it too remarkable to sell?"
"We might take a fishery and haul it up with smaller fry. It wouldcome after months of ill luck, just as we were going to sell theschooner; by Jove, it would be the talk of the Pacific!"
"Well, we've got to get it first. Is this von What's-his-name aformidable cuss?"
"More so than he looks; and he has the cheek of the devil!"
As he spoke a white drill skirt fluttered past the open state-roomdoor, and I caught a glimpse of an upturned moustache beyond.
"But is he the chap we have to deal with? Won't the pearl be in thepurser's keeping?"
Raffles stood at the door, frowning out upon the Solent, but for aninstant he turned to me with a sniff.
"My good fellow, do you suppose the whole ship's company knows there'sa gem like that aboard? You said that it was worth a hundred thousandpounds; in Berlin they say it's priceless. I doubt if the skipperhimself knows that von Heumann has it on him."
"And he has?"
"Must have."
"Then we have only him to deal with?"
He answered me without a word. Something white was fluttering pastonce more, and Raffles, stepping forth, made the promenaders three.
II
I do not ask to set foot aboard a finer steamship than the Uhlan of theNorddeutscher Lloyd, to meet a kindlier gentleman than her commander,or better fellows than his officers. This much at least let me havethe grace to admit. I hated the voyage. It was no fault of anybodyconnected with the ship; it was no fault of the weather, which wasmonotonously ideal. Not even in my own heart did the reason reside;conscience and I were divorced at last, and the decree made absolute.With my scruples had fled all fear, and I was ready to revel betweenbright skies and sparkling sea with the light-hearted detachment ofRaffles himself. It was Raffles himself who prevented me, but notRaffles alone. It was Raffles and that Colonial minx on her way homefrom school.
What he could see in her--but that begs the question. Of course he sawno more than I did, but to annoy me, or perhaps to punish me for mylong defection, he must turn his back on me and devote himself to thischit from Southampton to the Mediterranean. They were always together.It was too absurd. After breakfast they would begin, and go on untileleven or twelve at night; there was no intervening hour at which youmight not hear her nasal laugh, or his quiet voice talking softnonsense into her ear. Of course it was nonsense! Is it conceivablethat a man like Raffles, with his knowledge of the world, and hisexperience of women (a side of his character upon which I havepurposely never touched, for it deserves another volume); is itcredible, I ask, that such a man could find anything but nonsense totalk by the day together to a giddy young schoolgirl? I would not beunfair for the world.
I think I have admitted that the young person had points. Her eyes, Isuppose, were really fine, and certainly the shape of the little brownface was charming, so far as mere contour can charm.
I admit also more audacity than I cared about, with enviable health,mettle, and vitality. I may not have occasion to report any of thisyoung lady's speeches (they would scarcely bear it), and am thereforethe more anxious to describe her without injustice. I confess to somelittle prejudice against her. I resented her success with Raffles,
ofwhom, in consequence, I saw less and less each day. It is a mean thingto have to confess, but there must have been something not unlikejealousy rankling within me.
Jealousy there was in another quarter--crude, rampant, undignifiedjealousy. Captain von Heumann would twirl his mustaches into twinspires, shoot his white cuffs over his rings, and stare at meinsolently through his rimless eyeglasses; we ought to have consoledeach other, but we never exchanged a syllable. The captain had amurderous scar across one of his cheeks, a present from Heidelberg, andI used to think how he must long to have Raffles there to serve thesame. It was not as though von Heumann never had his innings. Raffleslet him go in several times a day, for the malicious pleasure ofbowling him out as he was "getting set"; those were his words when Itaxed him disingenuously with obnoxious conduct towards a German on aGerman boat.
"You'll make yourself disliked on board!"
"By von Heumann merely."
"But is that wise when he's the man we've got to diddle?"
"The wisest thing I ever did. To have chummed up with him would havebeen fatal--the common dodge."
I was consoled, encouraged, almost content. I had feared Raffles wasneglecting things, and I told him so in a burst. Here we were nearGibraltar, and not a word since the Solent. He shook his head with asmile.
"Plenty of time, Bunny, plenty of time. We can do nothing before weget to Genoa, and that won't be till Sunday night. The voyage is stillyoung, and so are we; let's make the most of things while we can."
It was after dinner on the promenade deck, and as Raffles spoke heglanced sharply fore and aft, leaving me next moment with a step fullof purpose. I retired to the smoking-room, to smoke and read in acorner, and to watch von Heumann, who very soon came to drink beer andto sulk in another.
Few travellers tempt the Red Sea at midsummer; the Uhlan was very emptyindeed. She had, however, but a limited supply of cabins on thepromenade deck, and there was just that excuse for my sharing Raffles'sroom. I could have had one to myself downstairs, but I must be upabove. Raffles had insisted that I should insist on the point. So wewere together, I think, without suspicion, though also without anyobject that I could see.
On the Sunday afternoon I was asleep in my berth, the lower one, whenthe curtains were shaken by Raffles, who was in his shirt-sleeves onthe settee.
"Achilles sulking in his bunk!"
"What else is there to do?" I asked him as I stretched and yawned. Inoted, however, the good-humor of his tone, and did my best to catch it.
"I have found something else, Bunny."
"I daresay!"
"You misunderstand me. The whipper-snapper's making his century thisafternoon. I've had other fish to fry."
I swung my legs over the side of my berth and sat forward, as he wassitting, all attention. The inner door, a grating, was shut andbolted, and curtained like the open porthole.
"We shall be at Genoa before sunset," continued Raffles. "It's theplace where the deed's got to be done."
"So you still mean to do it?"
"Did I ever say I didn't?"
"You have said so little either way."
"Advisedly so, my dear Bunny; why spoil a pleasure trip by talkingunnecessary shop? But now the time has come. It must be done at Genoaor not at all."
"On land?"
"No, on board, to-morrow night. To-night would do, but to-morrow isbetter, in case of mishap. If we were forced to use violence we couldget away by the earliest train, and nothing be known till the ship wassailing and von Heumann found dead or drugged--"
"Not dead!" I exclaimed.
"Of course not," assented Raffles, "or there would be no need for us tobolt; but if we should have to bolt, Tuesday morning is our time, whenthis ship has got to sail, whatever happens. But I don't anticipateany violence. Violence is a confession of terrible incompetence. Inall these years how many blows have you known me to strike? Not one, Ibelieve; but I have been quite ready to kill my man every time, if theworst came to the worst."
I asked him how he proposed to enter von Heumann's state-roomunobserved, and even through the curtained gloom of ours his facelighted up.
"Climb into my bunk, Bunny, and you shall see."
I did so, but could see nothing. Raffles reached across me and tappedthe ventilator, a sort of trapdoor in the wall above his bed, someeighteen inches long and half that height. It opened outwards into theventilating shaft.
"That," said he, "is our door to fortune. Open it if you like; youwon't see much, because it doesn't open far; but loosening a couple ofscrews will set that all right. The shaft, as you may see, is more orless bottomless; you pass under it whenever you go to your bath, andthe top is a skylight on the bridge. That's why this thing has to bedone while we're at Genoa, because they keep no watch on the bridge inport. The ventilator opposite ours is von Heumann's. It again willonly mean a couple of screws, and there's a beam to stand on while youwork."
"But if anybody should look up from below?"
"It's extremely unlikely that anybody will be astir below, so unlikelythat we can afford to chance it. No, I can't have you there to makesure. The great point is that neither of us should be seen from thetime we turn in. A couple of ship's boys do sentry-go on these decks,and they shall be our witnesses; by Jove, it'll be the biggest mysterythat ever was made!"
"If von Heumann doesn't resist."
"Resist! He won't get the chance. He drinks too much beer to sleeplight, and nothing is so easy as to chloroform a heavy sleeper; you'veeven done it yourself on an occasion of which it's perhaps unfair toremind you. Von Heumann will be past sensation almost as soon as I getmy hand through his ventilator. I shall crawl in over his body, Bunny,my boy!"
"And I?"
"You will hand me what I want and hold the fort in case of accidents,and generally lend me the moral support you've made me require. It's aluxury, Bunny, but I found it devilish difficult to do without it afteryou turned pi!"
He said that Von Heumann was certain to sleep with a bolted door, whichhe, of course, would leave unbolted, and spoke of other ways of layinga false scent while rifling the cabin. Not that Raffles anticipated atiresome search. The pearl would be about von Heumann's person; infact, Raffles knew exactly where and in what he kept it. Naturally Iasked how he could have come by such knowledge, and his answer led upto a momentary unpleasantness.
"It's a very old story, Bunny. I really forget in what Book it comes;I'm only sure of the Testament. But Samson was the unlucky hero, andone Delilah the heroine."
And he looked so knowing that I could not be in a moment's doubt as tohis meaning.
"So the fair Australian has been playing Delilah?" said I.
"In a very harmless, innocent sort of way."
"She got his mission out of him?"
"Yes, I've forced him to score all the points he could, and that washis great stroke, as I hoped it would be. He has even shown Amy thepearl."
"Amy, eh! and she promptly told you?"
"Nothing of the kind. What makes you think so? I had the greatesttrouble in getting it out of her."
His tone should have been a sufficient warning to me. I had not thetact to take it as such. At last I knew the meaning of his furiousflirtation, and stood wagging my head and shaking my finger, blinded tohis frowns by my own enlightenment.
"Wily worm!" said I. "Now I see through it all; how dense I've been!"
"Sure you're not still?"
"No; now I understand what has beaten me all the week. I simplycouldn't fathom what you saw in that little girl. I never dreamt itwas part of the game."
"So you think it was that and nothing more?"
"You deep old dog--of course I do!"
"You didn't know she was the daughter of a wealthy squatter?"
"There are wealthy women by the dozen who would marry you to-morrow."
"It doesn't occur to you that I might like to draw stumps, start clean,and live happily ever after--in the bush?"
&
nbsp; "With that voice? It certainly does not!"
"Bunny!" he cried, so fiercely that I braced myself for a blow.
But no more followed.
"Do you think you would live happily?" I made bold to ask him.
"God knows!" he answered. And with that he left me, to marvel at hislook and tone, and, more than ever, at the insufficiently excitingcause.
III
Of all the mere feats of cracksmanship which I have seen Rafflesperform, at once the most delicate and most difficult was that which heaccomplished between one and two o'clock on the Tuesday morning, aboardthe North German steamer Uhlan, lying at anchor in Genoa harbor.
Not a hitch occurred. Everything had been foreseen; everythinghappened as I had been assured everything must. Nobody was aboutbelow, only the ship's boys on deck, and nobody on the bridge. It wastwenty-five minutes past one when Raffles, without a stitch of clothingon his body, but with a glass phial, corked with cotton-wool, betweenhis teeth, and a tiny screw-driver behind his ear, squirmed feet firstthrough the ventilator over his berth; and it was nineteen minutes totwo when he returned, head first, with the phial still between histeeth, and the cotton-wool rammed home to still the rattling of thatwhich lay like a great gray bean within. He had taken screws out andput them in again; he had unfastened von Heumann's ventilator and hadleft it fast as he had found it--fast as he instantly proceeded to makehis own. As for von Heumann, it had been enough to place the drenchedwad first on his mustache, and then to hold it between his gaping lips;thereafter the intruder had climbed both ways across his shins withouteliciting a groan.
And here was the prize--this pearl as large as a filbert--with a palepink tinge like a lady's fingernail--this spoil of a filibusteringage--this gift from a European emperor to a South Sea chief. We gloatedover it when all was snug. We toasted it in whiskey and soda-waterlaid in overnight in view of the great moment. But the moment wasgreater, more triumphant, than our most sanguine dreams. All we hadnow to do was to secrete the gem (which Raffles had prised from itssetting, replacing the latter), so that we could stand the strictestsearch and yet take it ashore with us at Naples; and this Raffles wasdoing when I turned in. I myself would have landed incontinently, thatnight, at Genoa and bolted with the spoil; he would not hear of it, fora dozen good reasons which will be obvious.
On the whole I do not think that anything was discovered or suspectedbefore we weighed anchor; but I cannot be sure. It is difficult tobelieve that a man could be chloroformed in his sleep and feel notell-tale effects, sniff no suspicious odor, in the morning.Nevertheless, von Heumann reappeared as though nothing had happened tohim, his German cap over his eyes and his mustaches brushing the peak.And by ten o'clock we were quit of Genoa; the last lean, blue-chinnedofficial had left our decks; the last fruitseller had been beaten offwith bucketsful of water and left cursing us from his boat; the lastpassenger had come aboard at the last moment--a fussy graybeard whokept the big ship waiting while he haggled with his boatman over half alira. But at length we were off, the tug was shed, the lighthousepassed, and Raffles and I leaned together over the rail, watching ourshadows on the pale green, liquid, veined marble that again washed thevessel's side.
Von Heumann was having his innings once more; it was part of the designthat he should remain in all day, and so postpone the inevitable hour;and, though the lady looked bored, and was for ever glancing in ourdirection, he seemed only too willing to avail himself of hisopportunities. But Raffles was moody and ill-at-ease. He had not theair of a successful man. I could but opine that the impending partingat Naples sat heavily on his spirit.
He would neither talk to me, nor would he let me go.
"Stop where you are, Bunny. I've things to tell you. Can you swim?"
"A bit."
"Ten miles?"
"Ten?" I burst out laughing. "Not one! Why do you ask?"
"We shall be within a ten miles' swim of the shore most of the day."
"What on earth are you driving at, Raffles?"
"Nothing; only I shall swim for it if the worst comes to the worst. Isuppose you can't swim under water at all?"
I did not answer his question. I scarcely heard it: cold beads werebursting through my skin.
"Why should the worst come to the worst?" I whispered. "We aren'tfound out, are we?"
"No."
"Then why speak as though we were?"
"We may be; an old enemy of ours is on board."
"An old enemy?"
"Mackenzie."
"Never!"
"The man with the beard who came aboard last."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure! I was only sorry to see you didn't recognize him too."
I took my handkerchief to my face; now that I thought of it, there hadbeen something familiar in the old man's gait, as well as somethingrather youthful for his apparent years; his very beard seemedunconvincing, now that I recalled it in the light of this horriblerevelation. I looked up and down the deck, but the old man was nowhereto be seen.
"That's the worst of it," said Raffles. "I saw him go into thecaptain's cabin twenty minutes ago."
"But what can have brought him?" I cried miserably. "Can it be acoincidence--is it somebody else he's after?"
Raffles shook his head.
"Hardly this time."
"Then you think he's after you?"
"I've been afraid of it for some weeks."
"Yet there you stand!"
"What am I to do? I don't want to swim for it before I must. I beginto wish I'd taken your advice, Bunny, and left the ship at Genoa. ButI've not the smallest doubt that Mac was watching both ship and stationtill the last moment. That's why he ran it so fine."
He took a cigarette and handed me the case, but I shook my headimpatiently.
"I still don't understand," said I. "Why should he be after you? Hecouldn't come all this way about a jewel which was perfectly safe forall he knew. What's your own theory?"
"Simply that he's been on my track for some time, probably ever sincefriend Crawshay slipped clean through his fingers last November. Therehave been other indications. I am really not unprepared for this. Butit can only be pure suspicion. I'll defy him to bring anything home,and I'll defy him to find the pearl! Theory, my dear Bunny? I knowhow he's got here as well as though I'd been inside that Scotchman'sskin, and I know what he'll do next. He found out I'd gone abroad, andlooked for a motive; he found out about von Heumann and his mission,and there was his motive cut-and-dried. Great chance--to nab me on anew job altogether. But he won't do it, Bunny; mark my words, he'llsearch the ship and search us all, when the loss is known; but he'llsearch in vain. And there's the skipper beckoning the whippersnapperto his cabin: the fat will be in the fire in five minutes!"
Yet there was no conflagration, no fuss, no searching of thepassengers, no whisper of what had happened in the air; instead of astir there was portentous peace; and it was clear to me that Raffleswas not a little disturbed at the falsification of all his predictions.There was something sinister in silence under such a loss, and thesilence was sustained for hours during which Mackenzie neverreappeared. But he was abroad during the luncheon-hour--he was in ourcabin! I had left my book in Raffles's berth, and in taking it afterlunch I touched the quilt. It was warm from the recent pressure offlesh and blood, and on an instinct I sprang to the ventilator; as Iopened it the ventilator opposite was closed with a snap.
I waylaid Raffles. "All right! Let him find the pearl."
"Have you dumped it overboard?"
"That's a question I shan't condescend to answer."
He turned on his heel, and at subsequent intervals I saw him making themost of his last afternoon with the inevitable Miss Werner. I rememberthat she looked both cool and smart in quite a simple affair of brownholland, which toned well with her complexion, and was cleverlyrelieved with touches of scarlet. I quite admired her that afternoon,for her eyes were really very good, and so were her teeth, yet I hadnever
admired her more directly in my own despite. For I passed themagain and again in order to get a word with Raffles, to tell him I knewthere was danger in the wind; but he would not so much as catch my eye.So at last I gave it up. And I saw him next in the captain's cabin.
They had summoned him first; he had gone in smiling; and smiling Ifound him when they summoned me. The state-room was spacious, asbefitted that of a commander. Mackenzie sat on the settee, his beardin front of him on the polished table; but a revolver lay in front ofthe captain; and, when I had entered, the chief officer, who hadsummoned me, shut the door and put his back to it. Von Heumanncompleted the party, his fingers busy with his mustache.
Raffles greeted me.
"This is a great joke!" he cried. "You remember the pearl you were sokeen about, Bunny, the emperor's pearl, the pearl money wouldn't buy?It seems it was entrusted to our little friend here, to take out toCanoodle Dum, and the poor little chap's gone and lost it; ergo, aswe're Britishers, they think we've got it!"
"But I know ye have," put in Mackenzie, nodding to his beard.
"You will recognize that loyal and patriotic voice," said Raffles."Mon, 'tis our auld acquaintance Mackenzie, o' Scoteland Yarrd an'Scoteland itsel'!"
"Dat is enough," cried the captain. "Have you submid to be searge, ordo I vorce you?"
"What you will," said Raffles, "but it will do you no harm to give usfair play first. You accuse us of breaking into Captain von Heumann'sstate-room during the small hours of this morning, and abstracting fromit this confounded pearl. Well, I can prove that I was in my own roomall night long, and I have no doubt my friend can prove the same."
"Most certainly I can," said I indignantly. "The ship's boys can bearwitness to that."
Mackenzie laughed, and shook his head at his reflection in the polishedmahogany.
"That was ver clever," said he, "and like enough it would ha' served yehad I not stepped aboard. But I've just had a look at theyventilators, and I think I know how ye worrked it. Anyway, captain, itmakes no matter. I'll just be clappin' the derbies on these youngsparks, an' then--"
"By what right?" roared Raffles, in a ringing voice, and I never sawhis face in such a blaze. "Search us if you like; search every scrapand stitch we possess; but you dare to lay a finger on us without awarrant!"
"I wouldna' dare," said Mackenzie, as he fumbled in his breast pocket,and Raffles dived his hand into his own. "Haud his wrist!" shouted theScotchman; and the huge Colt that had been with us many a night, buthad never been fired in my hearing, clattered on the table and wasraked in by the captain.
"All right," said Raffles savagely to the mate. "You can let go now. Iwon't try it again. Now, Mackenzie, let's see your warrant!"
"Ye'll no mishandle it?"
"What good would that do me? Let me see it," said Raffles,peremptorily, and the detective obeyed. Raffles raised his eyebrows ashe perused the document; his mouth hardened, but suddenly relaxed; andit was with a smile and a shrug that he returned the paper.
"Wull that do for ye?" inquired Mackenzie.
"It may. I congratulate you, Mackenzie; it's a strong hand, at anyrate. Two burglaries and the Melrose necklace, Bunny!" And he turnedto me with a rueful smile.
"An' all easy to prove," said the Scotchman, pocketing the warrant."I've one o' these for you," he added, nodding to me, "only not such along one."
"To think," said the captain reproachfully, "that my shib should bemade a den of thiefs! It shall be a very disagreeable madder, I havebeen obliged to pud you both in irons until we get to Nables."
"Surely not!" exclaimed Raffles. "Mackenzie, intercede with him; don'tgive your countrymen away before all hands! Captain, we can't escape;surely you could hush it up for the night? Look here, here'severything I have in my pockets; you empty yours, too, Bunny, and theyshall strip us stark if they suspect we've weapons up our sleeves. AllI ask is that we are allowed to get out of this without gyves upon ourwrists!"
"Webbons you may not have," said the captain; "but wad aboud der bearldat you were sdealing?"
"You shall have it!" cried Raffles. "You shall have it this minute ifyou guarantee no public indignity on board!"
"That I'll see to," said Mackenzie, "as long as you behave yourselves.There now, where is't?"
"On the table under your nose."
My eyes fell with the rest, but no pearl was there; only the contentsof our pockets--our watches, pocket-books, pencils, penknives,cigarette cases--lay on the shiny table along with the revolversalready mentioned.
"Ye're humbuggin' us," said Mackenzie. "What's the use?"
"I'm doing nothing of the sort," laughed Raffles. "I'm testing you.Where's the harm?"
"It's here, joke apart?"
"On that table, by all my gods."
Mackenzie opened the cigarette cases and shook each particularcigarette. Thereupon Raffles prayed to be allowed to smoke one, and,when his prayer was heard, observed that the pearl had been on thetable much longer than the cigarettes. Mackenzie promptly caught upthe Colt and opened the chamber in the butt.
"Not there, not there," said Raffles; "but you're getting hot. Try thecartridges."
Mackenzie emptied them into his palm, and shook each one at his earwithout result.
"Oh, give them to me!"
And, in an instant, Raffles had found the right one, had bitten out thebullet, and placed the emperor's pearl with a flourish in the centre ofthe table.
"After that you will perhaps show me such little consideration as is inyour power. Captain, I have been a bit of a villain, as you see, andas such I am ready and willing to lie in irons all night if you deem itrequisite for the safety of the ship. All I ask is that you do me onefavor first."
"That shall debend on wad der vafour has been."
"Captain, I've done a worse thing aboard your ship than any of youknow. I have become engaged to be married, and I want to say good-by!"
I suppose we were all equally amazed; but the only one to express hisamazement was von Heumann, whose deep-chested German oath was almosthis first contribution to the proceedings. He was not slow to followit, however, with a vigorous protest against the proposed farewell; buthe was overruled, and the masterful prisoner had his way. He was tohave five minutes with the girl, while the captain and Mackenzie stoodwithin range (but not earshot), with their revolvers behind theirbacks. As we were moving from the cabin, in a body, he stopped andgripped my hand.
"So I 've let you in at last, Bunny--at last and after all! If youknew how sorry I am.... But you won't get much--I don't see why youshould get anything at all. Can you forgive me? This may be for years,and it may be for ever, you know! You were a good pal always when itcame to the scratch; some day or other you mayn't be so sorry toremember you were a good pal at the last!"
There was a meaning in his eye that I understood; and my teeth wereset, and my nerve strung ready, as I wrung that strong and cunning handfor the last time in my life.
How that last scene stays with me, and will stay to my death! How Isee every detail, every shadow on the sunlit deck! We were among theislands that dot the course from Genoa to Naples; that was Elba fallingback on our starboard quarter, that purple patch with the hot sunsetting over it. The captain's cabin opened to starboard, and thestarboard promenade deck, sheeted with sunshine and scored with shadow,was deserted, but for the group of which I was one, and for the pale,slim, brown figure further aft with Raffles. Engaged? I could notbelieve it, cannot to this day. Yet there they stood together, and wedid not hear a word; there they stood out against the sunset, and thelong, dazzling highway of sunlit sea that sparkled from Elba to theUhlan's plates; and their shadows reached almost to our feet.
Suddenly--an instant--and the thing was done--a thing I have neverknown whether to admire or to detest. He caught her--he kissed herbefore us all--then flung her from him so that she almost fell. It wasthat action which foretold the next. The mate sprang after him, and Isprang after the mate.
Raffle
s was on the rail, but only just.
"Hold him, Bunny!" he cried. "Hold him tight!"
And, as I obeyed that last behest with all my might, without a thoughtof what I was doing, save that he bade me do it, I saw his hands shootup and his head bob down, and his lithe, spare body cut the sunset ascleanly and precisely as though he had plunged at his leisure from adiver's board!
* * * * *
Of what followed on deck I can tell you nothing, for I was not there.Nor can my final punishment, my long imprisonment, my everlastingdisgrace, concern or profit you, beyond the interest and advantage tobe gleaned from the knowledge that I at least had my deserts. But onething I must set down, believe it who will--one more thing only and Iam done.
It was into a second-class cabin, on the starboard side, that I waspromptly thrust in irons, and the door locked upon me as though I wereanother Raffles. Meanwhile a boat was lowered, and the sea scoured tono purpose, as is doubtless on record elsewhere. But either thesetting sun, flashing over the waves, must have blinded all eyes, orelse mine were victims of a strange illusion.
For the boat was back, the screw throbbing, and the prisoner peeringthrough his porthole across the sunlit waters that he believed hadclosed for ever over his comrade's head. Suddenly the sun sank behindthe Island of Elba, the lane of dancing sunlight was instantaneouslyquenched and swallowed in the trackless waste, and in the middledistance, already miles astern, either my sight deceived me or a blackspeck bobbed amid the gray. The bugle had blown for dinner: it may wellbe that all save myself had ceased to strain an eye. And now I lostwhat I had found, now it rose, now sank, and now I gave it up utterly.Yet anon it would rise again, a mere mote dancing in the dim graydistance, drifting towards a purple island, beneath a fading westernsky, streaked with dead gold and cerise. And night fell before I knewwhether it was a human head or not.
The Amateur Cracksman Page 7