Mr. Justice Raffles | Page 7

until the sixth payment fell
due. That was soon after Christmas, when one's always hard up, and for
the first time I was a day or two late--not more, mind you; yet what do
you suppose happened? My cheque was returned, and the whole
blessed balance demanded on the nail!"
Raffles was following intently, with that complete concentration which
was a signal force in his equipment. His face no longer changed at
anything he heard; it was as strenuously attentive as that of any judge
upon the bench. Never had I clearer vision of the man he might have
been but for the kink in his nature which had made him what he was.
"The promissory note was for four-fifty-six," said he, "and this sudden
demand was for the lot less the hundred you had paid?"
"That's it."
"What did you do?" I asked, not to seem behind Raffles in my grasp of
the case.
"Told them to take my instalment or go to blazes for the rest!"
"And they?"

"Absolutely drop the whole thing until this very week, and then come
down on me for--what do you suppose?"
"Getting on for a thousand," said Raffles after a moment's thought.
"Nonsense!" I cried. Garland looked astonished too.
"Raffles knows all about it," said he. "Seven hundred was the actual
figure. I needn't tell you I have given the bounders a wide berth since
the day I raised the wind; but I went and had it out with them over this.
And half the seven hundred is for default interest, I'll trouble you, from
the beginning of January down to date!"
"Had you agreed to that?"
"Not to my recollection, but there it was as plain as a pikestaff on my
promissory note. A halfpenny in the shilling per week over and above
everything else when the original interest wasn't forthcoming."
"Printed or written on your note of hand?"
"Printed--printed small, I needn't tell you--but quite large enough for
me to read when I signed the cursed bond. In fact I believe I did read it;
but a halfpenny a week! Who could ever believe it would mount up like
that? But it does; it's right enough, and the long and short of it is that
unless I pay up by twelve o'clock to-morrow the governor's to be called
in to say whether he'll pay up for me or see me made a bankrupt under
his nose. Twelve o'clock, when the match begins! Of course they know
that, and are trading on it. Only this evening I had the most insolent
ultimatum, saying it was my 'dead and last chance.'"
"So then you came round here?"
"I was coming in any case. I wish I'd shot myself first!"
"My dear fellow, it was doing me proud; don't let us lose our sense of
proportion, Teddy."
But young Garland had his face upon his hand, and once more he was

the miserable man who had begun brokenly to unfold the history of his
shame. The unconscious animation produced by the mere unloading of
his heart, the natural boyish slang with which his tale had been freely
garnished, had faded from his face, had died upon his lips. Once more
he was a soul in torments of despair and degradation; and yet once
more did the absence of the abject in man and manner redeem him from
the depths of either. In these moments of reaction he was pitiful, but
not contemptible, much less unlovable. Indeed, I could see the qualities
that had won the heart of Raffles as I had never seen them before.
There is a native nobility not to be destroyed by a single descent into
the ignoble, an essential honesty too bright and brilliant to be dimmed
by incidental dishonour; and both remained to the younger man, in the
eyes of the other two, who were even then determining to preserve in
him all that they themselves had lost. The thought came naturally
enough to me. And yet I may well have derived it from a face that for
once was easy to read, a clear-cut face that had never looked so sharp in
profile, or, to my knowledge, half so gentle in expression.
"And what about these Jews?" asked Raffles at length.
"There's really only one."
"Are we to guess his name?"
"No, I don't mind telling you. It's Dan Levy."
"Of course it is!" cried Raffles with a nod for me. "Our Mr. Shylock in
all his glory!"
Teddy snatched his face from his hands.
"You don't know him, do you?"
"I might almost say I know him at home," said Raffles. "But as a matter
of fact I met him abroad."
Teddy was on his feet.

"But do you know him well enough--"
"Certainly. I'll see him in the