society persons are not likely to have forgotten the series of audacious robberies by which so many of themselves suffered in turn during the brief course of a recent season. raid after raid was made upon the smartest houses in town, and within a few weeks more than one exalted head had been shorn of its priceless tiara. the duke and duchess of dorchester lost half the portable pieces of their historic plate on the very night of their graces' almost equally historic costume ball. the kenworthy diamonds were taken in broad daylight, during the excitement of a charitable meeting on the ground floor, and the gifts of her belted bridegroom to lady may paulton while the outer air was thick with a prismatic shower of confetti. it was obvious that all this was the work of no ordinary thief, and perhaps inevitable that the name of raffles should have been dragged from oblivion by callous disrespecters of the departed and unreasoning apologists for the police. these wiseacres did not hesitate to bring a dead man back to life because they knew of no living one capable of such feats; it is their heedless and inconsequent calumnies that the present paper is partly intended to refute. as a matter of fact, our joint innocence in this matter was only exceeded by our common envy, and for a long time, like the rest of the world, neither of us had the slightest clew to the identity of the person who was following in our steps with such irritating results.
"i should mind less," said raffles, "if the fellow were really playing my game. but abuse of hospitality was never one of my strokes, and it seems to me the only shot he's got. when we took old lady melrose's necklace, bunny, we were not staying with the melroses, if you recollect."
we were discussing the robberies for the hundredth time, but for once under conditions more favorable to animated conversation than our unique circumstances permitted in the flat. we did not often dine out. dr. theobald was one impediment, the risk of recognition was another. but there were exceptions, when the doctor was away or the patient defiant, and on these rare occasions we frequented a certain unpretentious restaurant in the fulham quarter, where the cooking was plain but excellent, and the cellar a surprise. our bottle of '89 champagne was empty to the label when the subject arose, to be touched by raffles in the reminiscent manner indicated above. i can see his clear eye upon me now, reading me, weighing me. but i was not so sensitive to his scrutiny at the time. his tone was deliberate, calculating, preparatory; not as i heard it then, through a head full of wine, but as it floats back to me across the gulf between that moment and this.
"excellent fillet!" said i, grossly. "so you think this chap is as much in society as we were, do you?"
i preferred not to think so myself. we had cause enough for jealousy without that. but raffles raised his eyebrows an eloquent half-inch.
"as much, my dear bunny? he is not only in it, but of it; there's no comparison between us there. society is in rings like a target, and we never were in the bull's-eye, however thick you may lay on the ink! i was asked for my cricket. i haven't forgotten it yet. but this fellow's one of themselves, with the right of entre into the houses which we could only 'enter' in a professional sense. that's obvious unless all these little exploits are the work of different hands, which they as obviously are not. and it's why i'd give five hundred pounds to put salt on him to-night!"
"not you," said i, as i drained my glass in festive incredulity.
"but i would, my dear bunny. waiter! another half-bottle of this," and raffles leant across the table as the empty one was taken away. "i never was more serious in my life," he continued below his breath. "whatever else our successor may be, he's not a dead man like me, or a marked man like you. if there's any truth in my theory he's one of the last people upon whom suspicion is ever likely to rest; and oh, bunny, what a partner he would make for you and me!"
under less genial influences the very idea of a third partner would have filled my soul with offence; but raffles had chosen his moment unerringly, and his arguments lost nothing by the flowing accompaniment of the extra pint. they were, however, quite strong in themselves. the gist of them was that thus far we had remarkably little to show for what raffles would call "our second innings." this even i could not deny. we had scored a few "long singles," but our "best shots" had gone "straight to hand," and we were "playing a deuced slow game." therefore we needed a new partner—and the metaphor failed raffles.
it had served its turn. i already agreed with him. in truth i was tired of my false position as hireling attendant, and had long fancied myself an object of suspicion to that other impostor the doctor. a fresh, untrammelled start was a fascinating idea to me, though two was company, and three in our case might be worse than none. but i did not see how we could hope, with our respective handicaps, to solve a problem which was already the despair of scotland yard.
"suppose i have solved it," observed raffles, cracking a walnut in his palm.
"how could you?" i asked, without believing for an instant that he had.
"i have been taking the morning post for some time now."
"well?"
"you have got me a good many odd numbers of the less base society papers."
"i can't for the life of me see what you're driving at."
raffles smiled indulgently as he cracked another nut.
"that's because you've neither observation nor imagination, bunny—and yet you try to write! well, you wouldn't think it, but i have a fairly complete list of the people who were at the various functions under cover of which these different little coups were brought off."
i said very stolidly that i did not see how that could help him. it was the only answer to his good-humored but self-satisfied contempt; it happened also to be true.
"think," said raffles, in a patient voice.
"when thieves break in and steal," said i, "upstairs, i don't see much point in discovering who was downstairs at the time."
"quite," said raffles—"when they do break in."
"but that's what they have done in all these cases. an upstairs door found screwed up, when things were at their height below; thief gone and jewels with him before alarm could be raised. why, the trick's so old that i never knew you condescend to play it."
"not so old as it looks," said raffles, choosing the cigars and handing me mine. "cognac or benedictine, bunny?"
"brandy," i said, coarsely.
"besides," he went on, "the rooms were not screwed up; at dorchester house, at any rate, the door was only locked, and the key missing, so that it might have been done on either side."
"but that was where he left his rope-ladder behind him!" i exclaimed in triumph; but raffles only shook his head.
"i don't believe in that rope-ladder, bunny, except as a blind."
"then what on earth do you believe?"
"that every one of these so-called burglaries has been done from the inside, by one of the guests; and what's more i'm very much mistaken if i haven't spotted the right sportsman."
i began to believe that he really had, there was such a wicked gravity in the eyes that twinkled faintly into mine. i raised my glass in convivial congratulation, and still remember the somewhat anxious eye with which raffles saw it emptied.
"i can only find one likely name," he continued, "that figures in all these lists, and it is anything but a likely one at first sight. lord ernest belville was at all those functions. know anything about him, bunny?"
"not the rational drink fanatic?"
"yes."
"that's all i want to know."
"quite," said raffles; "and yet what could be more promising? a man whose views are so broad and moderate, and so widely held already (saving your presence, bunny), does not bore the world with them without ulterior motives. so far so good. what are this chap's motives? does he want to advertise himself? no, he's somebody already. but is he rich? on the contrary, he's as poor as a rat for his position, and apparently without the least ambition to be anything else; certainly he won't enrich himself by making a public fad of what all sensible people are agreed upon as it is. then suddenly one gets one's own old idea—the alternative profession! my cricket—his rational drink! but it is no use jumping to conclusions. i must know more than the newspapers can tell me. our aristocratic friend is forty, and unmarried. what has he been doing all these years? how the devil was i to find out?"
"how did you?" i asked, declining to spoil my digestion with a conundrum, as it was his evident intention that i should.
"interviewed him!" said raffles, smiling slowly on my amazement.
"you—interviewed him?" i echoed. "when—and where?"
"last thursday night, when, if you remember, we kept early hours, because i felt done. what was the use of telling you what i had up my sleeve, bunny? it might have ended in fizzle, as it still may. but lord ernest belville was addressing the meeting at exeter hall; i waited for him when the show was over, dogged him home to king john's mansions, and interviewed him in his own rooms there before he turned in."
my journalistic jealousy was piqued to the quick. affecting a scepticism i did not feel (for no outrage was beyond the pale of his impudence), i inquired dryly which journal raffles had pretended to represent. it is unnecessary to report his answer. i could not believe him without further explanation.
"i should have thought," he said, "that even you would have spotted a practice i never omit upon certain occasions. i always pay a visit to the drawing-room, and fill my waistcoat pocket from the card-tray. it is an immense help in any little temporary impersonation. on thursday night i sent up the card of a powerful writer connected with a powerful paper; if lord ernest had known him in the flesh i should have been obliged to confess to a journalistic ruse; luckily he didn't—and i had been sent by my editor to get the interview for next morning. what could be better—for the alternative profession?"
i inquired what the interview had brought forth.
"everything," said raffles. "lord ernest has been a wanderer these twenty years. texas, fiji, australia. i suspect him of wives and families in all three. but his manners are a liberal education. he gave me some beautiful whiskey, and forgot all about his fad. he is strong and subtle, but i talked him off his guard. he is going to the kirkleathams' to-night—i saw the card stuck up. i stuck some wax into his keyhole as he was switching off the lights."
and, with an eye upon the waiters, raffles showed me a skeleton key, newly twisted and filed; but my share of the extra pint (i am afraid no fair share) had made me dense. i looked from the key to raffles with puckered forehead—for i happened to catch sight of it in the mirror behind him.
"the dowager lady kirkleatham," he whispered, "has diamonds as big as beans, and likes to have 'em all on—and goes to bed early—and happens to be in town!"
and now i saw.
"the villain means to get them from her!"
"and i mean to get them from the villain," said raffles; "or, rather, your share and mine."
"will he consent to a partnership?"
"we shall have him at our mercy. he daren't refuse."
raffles's plan was to gain access to lord ernest's rooms before midnight; there we were to lie in wait for the aristocratic rascal, and if i left all details to raffles, and simply stood by in case of a rumpus, i should be playing my part and earning my share. it was a part that i had played before, not always with a good grace, though there had never been any question about the share. but to-night i was nothing loath. i had had just champagne enough—how raffles knew my measure!—and i was ready and eager for anything. indeed, i did not wish to wait for the coffee, which was to be especially strong by order of raffles. but on that he insisted, and it was between ten and eleven when at last we were in our cab.
"it would be fatal to be too early," he said as we drove; "on the other hand, it would be dangerous to leave it too late. one must risk something. how i should love to drive down piccadilly and see the lights! but unnecessary risks are another story."
