Mr. Justice Raffles | Page 9

shrug.
Archives and arcana he tested or examined, and so a good many
minutes passed without a word. But when he stole back into the inner
room, after waiting a little at the folding-doors, there was still some
faint strain upon his lips; it was only when he returned, shutting the
door none too quietly behind him, that he stopped humming and spoke
out with a grimmer face than he had worn all night.
"That boy's in a bigger hole than he thinks. But we must pull him out
between us before play begins. It's one clear call for us, Bunny!"
"Is it a bigger hole than you thought?" I asked, thinking myself of the
conversation which I had managed not to overhear.

"I don't say that, Bunny, though I never should have dreamt of his old
father being in one too. I own I can't understand that. They live in a
regular country house in the middle of Kensington, and there are only
the two of them. But I've given Teddy my word not to go to the old
man for the money, so it's no use talking about it."
But apparently it was what they had been talking about behind the
folding-doors; it only surprised me to see how much Raffles took it to
heart.
"So you have made up your mind to raise the money elsewhere?"
"Before that lad in there opens his eyes."
"Is he asleep already?"
"Like the dead," said Raffles, dropping into his chair and drinking
thoughtfully; "and so he will be till we wake him up. It's a ticklish
experiment, Bunny, but even a splitting head for the first hour's play is
better than a sleepless night; I've tried both, so I ought to know. I
shouldn't even wonder if he did himself more than justice to-morrow;
one often does when just less than fit; it takes off that dangerous edge
of over-keenness which so often cuts one's own throat."
"But what do you think of it all, A.J.?"
"Not so much worse than I let him think I thought."
"But you must have been amazed?"
"I am past amazement at the worst thing the best of us ever does, and
contrariwise of course. Your rich man proves a pauper, and your honest
man plays the knave; we're all of us capable of every damned thing.
But let us thank our stars and Teddy's that we got back just when we
did."
"Why at that moment?"
Raffles produced the unfinished cheque, shook his head over it, and

sent it fluttering across to me.
"Was there ever such a childish attempt? They'd have kept him in the
bank while they sent for the police. If ever you want to play this game,
Bunny, you must let me coach you up a bit."
"But it was never one of your games, A.J.!"
"Only incidentally once or twice; it never appealed to me," said Raffles,
sending expanding circlets of smoke to crown the girls on the Golden
Stair that was no longer tilted in a leaning tower. "No, Bunny, an
occasional exeat at school is my modest record as a forger, though I
admit that augured ill. Do you remember how I left my cheque-book
about on purpose for what's happened? To be sinned against instead of
sinning, in all the papers, would have set one up as an honest man for
life. I thought, God forgive me, of poor old Barraclough or somebody
of that kind. And to think it should be 'the friend in whom my soul
confided'! Not that I ever did confide in him, Bunny, much as I love
this lad."
Despite the tense of that last statement, it was the old Raffles who was
speaking now, the incisively cynical old Raffles that I still knew the
best, the Raffles of the impudent quotations and jaunty jeux d'esprit.
This Raffles only meant half he said--but had generally done the other
half! I met his mood by reminding him (out of his own Whitaker) that
the sun rose at 3.51, in case he thought of breaking in anywhere that
night. I had the honour of making Raffles smile.
"I did think of it, Bunny," said he. "But there's only one crib that we
could crack in decency for this money; and our Mr. Shylock's is not the
sort of city that Caesar himself would have taken ex itinere. It's a case
for the testudo and all the rest of it. You must remember that I've been
there, Bunny; at least I've visited his 'moving tent,' if one may jump
from an ancient to an 'Ancient and Modern.' And if that was as
impregnable as I found it, his permanent citadel must be perched upon
the very rock of defence!"
"You must tell me about that,