Mr. Justice Raffles | Page 6

Raffles, I don't deserve it!" he added in fresh distress.
But Raffles had unlocked the tantalus and found a syphon in the corner
cupboard, and it was a very yellow bumper that he handed to the guilty
youth.
"Drink some," he said, "or I won't listen to another word."
"I'm going to be ruined before the match begins. I am!" the poor fellow
insisted, turning to me when Raffles shook his head. "And it'll break
my father's heart, and--and--"
I thought he had worse still to tell us, he broke off in such despair; but
either he changed his mind, or the current of his thoughts set inward in
spite of him, for when he spoke again it was to offer us both a further
explanation of his conduct.
"I only came up to leave a line for Raffles," he said to me, "in case he
did get back in time. It was the porter himself who fixed me up at that
bureau. He'll tell you how many times I had called before. And then I
saw before my nose in one pigeon-hole your cheque-book, Raffles, and
your pass-book bulging with old cheques."
"And as I wasn't back to write one for you," said Raffles, "you wrote it
for me. And quite right, too!"
"Don't laugh at me!" cried the boy, his lost colour rushing back. And he
looked at me again as though my long face hurt him less than the
sprightly sympathy of his friend.

"I'm not laughing, Teddy," replied Raffles kindly. "I was never more
serious in my life. It was playing the friend to come to me at all in your
fix, but it was the act of a real good pal to draw on me behind my back
rather than let me feel I'd ruined you by not turning up in time. You
may shake your head as hard as you like, but I never was paid a higher
compliment."
And the consummate casuist went on working a congenial vein until a
less miserable sinner might have been persuaded that he had done
nothing really dishonourable; but young Garland had the grace neither
to make nor to accept any excuse for his own conduct. I never heard a
man more down upon himself, or confession of error couched in
stronger terms; and yet there was something so sincere and ingenuous
in his remorse, something that Raffles and I had lost so long ago, that in
our hearts I am sure we took his follies more seriously than our own
crimes. But foolish he indeed had been, if not criminally foolish as he
said. It was the old story of the prodigal son of an indulgent father.
There had been, as I suspected, a certain amount of youthful riot which
the influence of Raffles had already quelled; but there had also been
much reckless extravagance, of which Raffles naturally knew less,
since your scapegrace is constitutionally quicker to confess himself as
such than as a fool. Suffice it that this one had thrown himself on his
father's generosity, only to find that the father himself was in financial
straits.
"What!" cried Raffles, "with that house on his hands?"
"I knew it would surprise you," said Teddy Garland. "I can't understand
it myself; he gave me no particulars, but the mere fact was enough for
me. I simply couldn't tell my father everything after that. He wrote me
a cheque for all I did own up to, but I could see it was such a tooth that
I swore I'd never come on him to pay another farthing. And I never
will!"
The boy took a sip from his glass, for his voice had faltered, and then
he paused to light another cigarette, because the last had gone out
between his fingers. So sensitive and yet so desperate was the blonde
young face, with the creased forehead and the nervous mouth, that I

saw Raffles look another way until the match was blown out.
"But at the time I might have done worse, and did," said Teddy, "a
thousand times! I went to the Jews. That's the whole trouble. There
were more debts--debts of honour--and to square up I went to the Jews.
It was only a matter of two or three hundred to start with; but you may
know, though I didn't, what a snowball the smallest sum becomes in the
hands of those devils. I borrowed three hundred and signed a
promissory note for four hundred and fifty-six."
"Only fifty per cent!" said Raffles. "You got off cheap if the percentage
was per annum."
"Wait a bit! It was by way of being even more reasonable than that.
The four hundred and fifty-six was repayable in monthly instalments of
twenty quid, and I kept them up religiously