Latest / Mr. Justice Raffles / 18 - Mr Justice Raffles by E W Hornung

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18 - Mr Justice Raffles by E W Hornung · Mr. Justice Raffles

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Speaker 1: E. W. Hornum, Chapter eighteen, The Death of a Sinner?
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Speaker 1: What was I to do? I knew what Raffles would
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Speaker 1: have done. He would have outstripped Mackenzie in his descent
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Speaker 1: upon the money lender, beaten the cab on foot, most probably,
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Speaker 1: and dared dan Levy to denounce him to the detective.
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Speaker 1: I could see a delicious situation, and Raffles conducting it
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Speaker 1: inimitably to a triumphant issue. But I was not Raffles,
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Speaker 1: and what was more, I was due already at his
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Speaker 1: chambers in the Albany. I must have been talking to
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Speaker 1: Miss Belsize by the hour together. To my horror, I
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Speaker 1: found it close upon seven by the station clock, and
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Speaker 1: it was some minutes past when I plunged into the
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Speaker 1: first up train. Waterloo was reached before eight. But I
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Speaker 1: was a good hour late at the Albany, and Raffles
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Speaker 1: let me know it in his shirt sleeves from the window.
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Speaker 1: I thought you were dead, bunny, he muttered down, as
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Speaker 1: though he wished I were. I scaled his staircase at
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Speaker 1: two or three bounds and began all about Mackenzie and
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Speaker 1: the lobby. So soon, says Raffles, with a mere lift
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Speaker 1: of the eyebrows. Well, thank god I was ready for
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Speaker 1: him again. I now saw that Raffles was not dressing,
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Speaker 1: though he had changed his clothes, and this surprised me
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Speaker 1: for all my breathless preoccupation, but I had the reason
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Speaker 1: at a glance through the folding doors into his bedroom.
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Speaker 1: The bed was cumbered with clothes and an open suit case.
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Speaker 1: A gladstone bag stood strapped and bulging. A traveling rug
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Speaker 1: lay ready for rolling up, and Raffles himself looked out
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Speaker 1: of training in his traveling tweeds. Going away, I ejaculated, rather,
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Speaker 1: said he folding a smoking jacket. Isn't it about time
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Speaker 1: after what you've told me? But you were packing before
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Speaker 1: you knew then, for God's sake, go and do the
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Speaker 1: same yourself, he cried, And don't ask questions now. I
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Speaker 1: was beginning to pack enough for us both. But you'll
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Speaker 1: have time to shove in a shirt and collar of
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Speaker 1: your own if you jump straight into a hansom. I'll
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Speaker 1: take the tickets and we'll meet on the platform at
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Speaker 1: five to nine. What platform, Raffles charing? Cross continental train?
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Speaker 1: But where the deuce do you think of going Australia?
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Speaker 1: If you like, we'll discuss it in our flight across Europe.
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Speaker 1: Our flight, I repeated, what has happened since I left you? Raffles,
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Speaker 1: Look here, Bunny, you go and pack? Was all my
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Speaker 1: answer from a savage face, as I was fairly driven
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Speaker 1: to the door. Do you realize that you were due
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Speaker 1: here one golden hour ago? And have I asked what
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Speaker 1: happened to you? Then? Don't you ask rotten question that
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Speaker 1: there's no time to answer. I'll tell you everything in
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Speaker 1: the train, Bunny and my name at the end in
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Speaker 1: a different voice, and his hand for an instant on
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Speaker 1: my shoulder as I passed out were my only consolation
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Speaker 1: for his truly terrifying behavior, my only comfort and reassurance
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Speaker 1: of any kind until we really were off by the
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Speaker 1: night mail from Charing Cross. Raffles was himself again. By
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Speaker 1: that time I was thankful to find. Nor did he
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Speaker 1: betray that dread or expectation of pursuit, which would have
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Speaker 1: tallied with his previous manner. He merely looked relieved when
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Speaker 1: the embankment lights ran right and left in our wake.
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Speaker 1: I remember one of his remarks that they made the
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Speaker 1: finest necklace in the world when all was said, and
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Speaker 1: another that Big Ben was the coiner of the London Lights.
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Speaker 1: But he had also quizzical eye upon the paper bag
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Speaker 1: from which I was endeavoring to make a meal at last,
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Speaker 1: And more than once he wagged his head with a
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Speaker 1: humorous admixture of reproof and sympathy for with shame faced
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Speaker 1: admissions and downcast pauses, I was allowing him to suppose
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Speaker 1: I had been drinking at some riverside public house instead
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Speaker 1: of hurrying up to town, but that the ren comte
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Speaker 1: with Mackenzie had served to sober me. Poor bunny. We
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Speaker 1: won't pursue the matter any further, but I do know
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Speaker 1: where we both should have been between seven and eight.
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Speaker 1: It was as nice a little dinner as I ever
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Speaker 1: ordered in my life. And to think that we never
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Speaker 1: turned up to eat a bite of it, didn't you,
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Speaker 1: I queried, and my sets of guilt deep into remorse
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Speaker 1: as Raffles shook his head. No fear, Bunny, I wanted
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Speaker 1: to see you safe and sound. That was what made
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Speaker 1: me so stuffy when you did turn up. Loud were
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Speaker 1: my lamentations and earnest my entreaties to Raffles to share
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Speaker 1: the contents of my paper bag, but not he to
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Speaker 1: replace such a feast as he had ordered, with sandwiches
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Speaker 1: and hard boiled eggs, would be worse than going healthily hungry.
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Speaker 1: For once, it was all very well for me, who
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Speaker 1: knew not what I had missed, not that Raffles was hungry.
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Speaker 1: By his own accounts, he had merely fetch he'd a
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Speaker 1: little dinner more after my heart than his for our
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Speaker 1: last on British soil. This and the way he said
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Speaker 1: it brought me back to the heart of things. For
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Speaker 1: beneath his frothy phrases, I felt that the wine of
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Speaker 1: life was bitter to his taste. His gaiety now afforded
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Speaker 1: no truer criterion to his real feelings than had his
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Speaker 1: petulance at the Albany. What had happened since our parting
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Speaker 1: in that fatal tower to make this wild flight necessary?
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Speaker 1: Without my news? And whither in all earnest were we
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Speaker 1: to fly? Oh? Nothing, said Raffles in unsatisfactory answer to
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Speaker 1: my first question. I thought you would have seen that
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Speaker 1: we couldn't clear out too soon after restoring poor Shylock,
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Speaker 1: like our brethren in the song, to his friends and
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Speaker 1: his relations. But I thought you had something else for
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Speaker 1: him to sign. So I had bunny. What was that
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Speaker 1: a plain statement of all he had subborined me to
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Speaker 1: do for him, and what he had given me for
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Speaker 1: doing it, said Raffles, as he lit a sullivan from
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Speaker 1: his last easeful. One might almost call it a receipt
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Speaker 1: for the letter I stole and he destroyed. And did
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Speaker 1: he sign that I insisted on it for our protection?
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Speaker 1: Then we are protected, And yet we cut and run.
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Speaker 1: Raffles shrugged his shoulders as we hurtled between the lighted
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Speaker 1: platforms of Herne Hill. There's no immunity from a clever
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Speaker 1: cove like that, bunny, unless you send him to another world,
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Speaker 1: or put the thick of this one between you. He
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Speaker 1: may hold his tongue about the last twenty four hours.
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Speaker 1: I believe he will, but that needn't prevent him from
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Speaker 1: setting old Mackenzie to watch us day and night. So
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Speaker 1: we are not going to stay to be watched. We
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Speaker 1: are starting off round the world for a change. Before
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Speaker 1: we get very far, mister Shylock may be in the
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Speaker 1: jug himself that a cursed letter won't be the only
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Speaker 1: incriminating thing against him. You take my word, then we
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Speaker 1: can come back trailing clouds of glory and blowing clouds
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Speaker 1: of Sullivan. Then we can have our sogund Nuss meaning
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Speaker 1: second Knox Bunny, and more power to our elbows when
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Speaker 1: we get them. But I was not convinced there was
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Speaker 1: something else at the bottom of this sudden impulse and
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Speaker 1: its inconceivably sudden execution. Why had he never told me
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Speaker 1: of this plan? Well, because it had never become one
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Speaker 1: until after the morning's work at Levee's Bank, in itself
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Speaker 1: a reason for being out of the way, as I
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Speaker 1: myself admitted. But he would have told me if only
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Speaker 1: I had turned up at seven. He had never meant
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Speaker 1: to give me much time for packing, added Raffles, as
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Speaker 1: he was anxious that neither us should leave the impression
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Speaker 1: that we had gone far afield. I thought this was
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Speaker 1: childish and treating me like a child, to which, however,
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Speaker 1: I was used. But more than ever did I feel
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Speaker 1: that Raffles was not being frank with me, that he,
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Speaker 1: for one, was making good his escape from something or
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Speaker 1: somebody besides Dan Levy. And in the end he admitted
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Speaker 1: that this was so. But we had not dashed through
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Speaker 1: Sittingbourne and Faversham before I wormed my way to about
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Speaker 1: the last discovery that I expected to make concerning a
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Speaker 1: j Raffles, What an inquisitor you are, Bunny, said he
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Speaker 1: putting down an evening paper that he had only just
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Speaker 1: taken up. Can't you see that this whole show has
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Speaker 1: been no ordinary one for me? I've been fighting for
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Speaker 1: a crowd I rather love. Their battle has got on
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Speaker 1: my nerves as none of my own ever did, and
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Speaker 1: now one, I honestly funk their gratitude as much as anything.
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Speaker 1: That was another hard saying to swallow. And yet as
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Speaker 1: Raffles said it, I knew it to be true. He
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Speaker 1: was looking me full in the face, in the ample
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Speaker 1: light of the first class compartment, which we of course
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Speaker 1: had to ourselves. Some softening influence seemed to have been
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Speaker 1: at work upon him. He looked resolute as ever, but
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Speaker 1: full of regret than which nothing was rarer in a J.
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Speaker 1: I suppose, said I that poor old Garland has treated
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Speaker 1: you to a pretty good dose already, Yes, Bunny, that
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Speaker 1: he has, and well he may, and well made Teddy
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Speaker 1: and Camilla bell size ha ha. But I couldn't do
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Speaker 1: with it from them, said Raffles, with quite a bitter
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Speaker 1: little laugh. Teddy wasn't there of course he's up north
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Speaker 1: for that rotten match the team plays now a days
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Speaker 1: against Liverpool, but the game's fizzling. He'll be home tomorrow
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Speaker 1: and I simply can't face him and his Camilla. He'll
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Speaker 1: be a married man before we see him again, added Raffles,
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Speaker 1: getting hold of his evening paper once more, is that
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Speaker 1: to come off so soon? The sooner the better, said Raffles. Strange,
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Speaker 1: you're not quite happy about it, said I, with execrable tact.
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Speaker 1: I know, and yet deliberately, because his view of this
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Speaker 1: marriage had always puzzled me. I'm happy as long as
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Speaker 1: they are, responded Raffles, not without a laugh at his
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Speaker 1: own meritorious sentiment. Ah, I only wish, he sighed, that
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Speaker 1: they were both absolutely worthy of each other. And you
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Speaker 1: don't think they are, no, I don't you think such
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Speaker 1: a lot of young Garland. I'm very fond of him, bunny.
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Speaker 1: But you see his faults. I've always seen them. They're
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Speaker 1: not full fathom five like mine. Yet you think she's
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Speaker 1: not good enough for him? Not good enough she and
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Speaker 1: he stopped himself at that, but his voice was enough
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Speaker 1: for me. The unspoken antithesis was stronger than words could
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Speaker 1: have made it. Scales fell from my eyes. Where on
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Speaker 1: earth did you get that idea? I thought it was yours, Aja,
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Speaker 1: But why you seem to disapprove of the engagement from
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Speaker 1: the first, So I did, after what poor Teddy had
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Speaker 1: been up to in his extremity, I may as well
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Speaker 1: be honest about that. Now. It was all right in
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Speaker 1: a pal of ours, Bunny, but all wrong in the
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Speaker 1: man who dreamt of marrying a Camilla bell size. Yet
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Speaker 1: you have been just moving heaven and hell to make
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Speaker 1: it possible for them to marry. After all, Raffles made
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Speaker 1: another attempt upon his paper. I marvel now that he
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Speaker 1: let me catechize him as I was doing. But the
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Speaker 1: truth had just dawned upon me, and I simply had
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Speaker 1: to see it whole as the risen sun, whereas Raffles
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Speaker 1: seemed under no such passionate necessity to keep it to himself.
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Speaker 1: Teddy's all right, said he inconsistently. He'll never try anything
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Speaker 1: of the kind again. He's had a lesson for life. Besides,
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Speaker 1: I don't often take my hand from the plow. As
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Speaker 1: you ought to know, Bunny, it was I who brought
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Speaker 1: those two together. But it was none of my mundane
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Speaker 1: business to put them asunder again. It was you who
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Speaker 1: brought them together, I repeated, insidiously, more or less, Bunny,
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Speaker 1: it was at some cricket week, if it wasn't two
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Speaker 1: weeks running. They were pals already. But she and I
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Speaker 1: were greater pals before the first week was over. And
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Speaker 1: yet you didn't cut him out, My dear Bunny, I
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Speaker 1: should hope not, but you might have done, ye, Jay,
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Speaker 1: don't tell me you couldn't if you'd tried. Raffles plagued
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Speaker 1: with his paper without replying. He was no Coxcomb, but
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Speaker 1: neither would he ape an alien humility. It wouldn't have
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Speaker 1: been the game Bunny won or lost, Teddy or no Teddy.
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Speaker 1: And yet he added, with pensive candor, they were get
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Speaker 1: him on like a semi detached house on fire. I
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Speaker 1: burnt my fingers. I don't mind telling you. If I
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Speaker 1: hadn't been what I am, Bunny, I might have taken
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Speaker 1: my courage in all ten of em and put it
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Speaker 1: to the touch to win or lose it all. I
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Speaker 1: wish you had, I whispered, as he studied his paper
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Speaker 1: upside down. Why Bunny, what brought you do? Talk? He cried,
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Speaker 1: but only with the skin deep irritation of a half
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Speaker 1: hearted displeasure. She's the only woman I ever met. I
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Speaker 1: went on, unguardedly, Who was your mate at heart? In pluck,
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Speaker 1: in temperament? How the devil do you know? Cried Raffles,
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Speaker 1: off his own guard now and staring in my guilty face.
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Speaker 1: But I have never denied that I could emulate his
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Speaker 1: presence of mind upon occasion. You forget what a lot
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Speaker 1: we saw of each other last Thursday in the rain.
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Speaker 1: Did she talk about me then? A little? Had she
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Speaker 1: her knife in me? Bunny? Well, yes, a little, Raffles
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Speaker 1: smiled stoically. It was a smile of duty done and
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Speaker 1: odds well damned up to the hilt, Bunny, up to
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Speaker 1: the hilt, is what you mean. I stuck it in
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Speaker 1: for her. It's easily done, and it needed doing for
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Speaker 1: my sake, If not for hers, sooner or later I
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Speaker 1: should have choked her off. So the sooner the better
11:36
Speaker 1: you play them false, you cut a dance. You'll let
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Speaker 1: them down over something that doesn't matter, and they'll never
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Speaker 1: give you a dog's chance over anything that does. I
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Speaker 1: got her to write and never answered, what do you
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Speaker 1: think of that? For a cavalier's swine. I said I'd
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Speaker 1: call before I went abroad, and only wired to say sorry,
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Speaker 1: I couldn't. I don't say it would or could have
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Speaker 1: been all right otherwise, But you see, it was all
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Speaker 1: right for Teddy before I got back, which was as
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Speaker 1: it was to be. She would hardly look at me
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Speaker 1: at first last week, but Bunny, she wasn't above looking
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Speaker 1: when that old shylock was playing at giving me away
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Speaker 1: before them all, she looked at him, and she looked
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Speaker 1: at me, And I've got one of the looks she
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Speaker 1: gave him, and another that she never meant me to
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Speaker 1: see bottled in my blaggard heart forever. Raffles looked dim
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Speaker 1: to me across the narrow compartment, but there was no
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Speaker 1: nonsense in his look or voice. I longed to tell
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Speaker 1: him all. I knew all that she had said to me,
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Speaker 1: and he had unwittingly interpreted that she loved him, as
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Speaker 1: now at last I knew she did. But I had
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Speaker 1: given her my word, and after all it was a
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Speaker 1: word to keep for both their sakes as well as
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Speaker 1: for its own. You were made for each other, you two,
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Speaker 1: that was all I said, and Raffles only laughed, all
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Speaker 1: the more reason to hook it round the world, bunny,
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Speaker 1: before there's a dog's chance of our meeting again. He
12:49
Speaker 1: opened his paper the proper way up. At last the
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Speaker 1: train rushed on, with flying sparks and flying lights along
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Speaker 1: the line. We were getting nearer dover now. My next
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Speaker 1: brilliant remark was that I could smell the sea, Raffles,
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Speaker 1: let it pass. He had been talking of the close
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Speaker 1: of play scores in the stop press column, and I
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Speaker 1: thought he was studying them rather silently, or perhaps he
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Speaker 1: was not studying them at tall, but still thinking of
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Speaker 1: Camilla Bell's eye and the look from those brave, bright
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Speaker 1: eyes that she had never meant him to see. Then
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Speaker 1: suddenly I perceived that his forehead was glistening white and
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Speaker 1: wet in the lamp light. What is it, Raffles, what's
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Speaker 1: the matter. He reversed his paper with a shaky hand
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Speaker 1: and thrust it upon me without a word, merely pointing
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Speaker 1: out four or five ill printed lines of latest news.
13:33
Speaker 1: This was the item that danced before my eyes. Tragic
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Speaker 1: death of famous money lender mister Daniel Levy, the financier
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Speaker 1: reported shot dead at front gates of his residence in
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Speaker 1: Thames Valley at five thirty this afternoon by unknown men
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Speaker 1: who made good his escape. I looked up into a
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Speaker 1: ghastly face. It was half past five when I left him. Bunny,
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Speaker 1: you left him? I could not ask it, but the
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Speaker 1: ghastly face had given me a vastlier thought. As well
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Speaker 1: as you are, Bunny, so Raffles completed my sentence. Do
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Speaker 1: you think I'd leave him for dead at his own gaits?
14:08
Speaker 1: Of course I denied the thought, but it had come
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Speaker 1: to haunt me none the less. For if I had
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Speaker 1: sailed so near such a deed, what about Raffles under
14:15
Speaker 1: equal provocation? And what such motive for the very flight
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Speaker 1: that we were making with but a moment's preparation. It
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Speaker 1: all fitted in, except the face and voice of Raffles
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Speaker 1: as they had been while he was speaking of Camilla Belsize.
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Speaker 1: But again, the fatal act would indeed have made him
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Speaker 1: feel that he had lost her, and loosened his tongue
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Speaker 1: upon his loss, as something had done without doubt. And
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Speaker 1: as for voice and face, there was no longer in
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Speaker 1: either any lack of the mad excitement of the hunted man.
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Speaker 1: What were you doing at his gaits? A jaye? I
14:43
Speaker 1: saw him home? It was on my way why not?
14:46
Speaker 1: And you say you left him at half past five,
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Speaker 1: I swear it. I looked at my watch thinking of
14:51
Speaker 1: my train, and my watch is plumb right. And you
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Speaker 1: heard no shot as you went on. No I was hurrying.
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Speaker 1: I even ran. I must have been seen running, ha
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Speaker 1: ha ha. And now I'm like Charley's aunt. He went
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Speaker 1: on with his sardonic laugh, and bound to stick to
15:06
Speaker 1: it until they catched me by the leg. Now you
15:08
Speaker 1: know what Mackenzie was doing down there. The old hound
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Speaker 1: may be on my track already. There's no going back now,
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Speaker 1: not for an innocent man, not for such dubious innocence
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Speaker 1: as mine. Bunny. Remember all we've been up to with
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Speaker 1: poor old Levy for the last twenty four hours. He paused,
15:24
Speaker 1: remembering everything himself, as I could see, and the human
15:27
Speaker 1: compassion in his face should have been sufficient answer to
15:30
Speaker 1: my vile misgivings. But there was contrition in his look
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Speaker 1: as well, and that was a much rarer sign in raffles.
15:36
Speaker 1: Rarer still was a glance of alarm, almost akin to panic, alike,
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Speaker 1: without precedent in my experience of my friend, and beyond
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Speaker 1: belief in my reading of his character. But through all
15:46
Speaker 1: there pequed a conscious enjoyment of these new sensations, a
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Speaker 1: very zest in the novelty of fear, which I knew
15:51
Speaker 1: to be at once signally characteristic and yet compatible either
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Speaker 1: with his story or with my own base dread. Nobody
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Speaker 1: need ever know about that, with the certainty that nobody
16:01
Speaker 1: ever would know through the one other who knew already.
16:04
Speaker 1: But Raffles threw cold water upon that poor little flicker
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Speaker 1: of confidence, and good hope it's bound to come out, Bunny.
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Speaker 1: They'll start accounting for his last hours on earth, and
16:13
Speaker 1: they'll stick ominously in the first five minutes, working backwards.
16:17
Speaker 1: Then I am described as bolting from the scene, then
16:19
Speaker 1: identified with myself, then found to have fled the country,
16:23
Speaker 1: Then Carlsbad then our first row with him, then yesterday's
16:26
Speaker 1: big check, my heavy double finds he was impersonated at
16:29
Speaker 1: the bank. It all comes out bit by bit, and
16:31
Speaker 1: if I'm caught it means the dingy old bailey dock
16:34
Speaker 1: on the capital charge. Then I'll be with you, said I,
16:37
Speaker 1: as accessory before and after the fact. That's one thing. No, no, Bunny,
16:42
Speaker 1: you must shake me off and get back to town.
16:44
Speaker 1: I'll push you out as we slow down through the
16:46
Speaker 1: streets of Dover, and you can put up for the
16:48
Speaker 1: night at the Lord Warden. That's the sort of public
16:50
Speaker 1: place for the likes of us to lie low in, Bunny,
16:52
Speaker 1: don't forget all my rules when I'm gone. You're not
16:55
Speaker 1: going without me, a jay, not even if I did it, Bunny,
16:59
Speaker 1: no less than ever. Then Raffles leaned across and took
17:03
Speaker 1: my hand. There was a flash of mischief in his eyes,
17:06
Speaker 1: but a very tender light as well. It makes me
17:09
Speaker 1: almost wish I were what I do believe you thought
17:11
Speaker 1: I was, said he to see you stick to me
17:13
Speaker 1: all the same. But it's about time that we were
17:15
Speaker 1: making the lights of Dover, he added, beating an abrupt
17:18
Speaker 1: retreat from sentiment, even to the length of getting up
17:20
Speaker 1: and looking out. As we clattered through a country station.
17:23
Speaker 1: His head was in again before the platform was left behind,
17:26
Speaker 1: a pale face peering into mine, real panic flaring in
17:29
Speaker 1: those altered eyes like blue lights at sea. My god, Bunny,
17:34
Speaker 1: cried Raffles. I believe dovers as far as I shall
17:37
Speaker 1: ever get. Why what's the matter now? A head sticking
17:40
Speaker 1: out of the next compartment, but one mc kenzie's. Yes,
17:46
Speaker 1: I had seen it in his face after us all ready,
17:50
Speaker 1: god knows, not necessarily they watched the ports after a
17:54
Speaker 1: big murder swag or detectives from Scotland yard. Raffles did
17:59
Speaker 1: not answer. He had something else to do already. He
18:02
Speaker 1: was turning his pockets inside out. A false beard rolled
18:05
Speaker 1: off the seat. That's for you, he said. As I've
18:08
Speaker 1: picked it up, I'll finish making you up. He was
18:10
Speaker 1: busy on himself in one of the oblong mirrors, kneeling
18:13
Speaker 1: on the cushions to be near his work. If it's
18:16
Speaker 1: a scent at all, it must be a pretty hot one, Bunny,
18:18
Speaker 1: to have landed him in the very train and coach.
18:21
Speaker 1: But it mayn't be as bad as it looked at
18:22
Speaker 1: first sight. He can't have much to go upon yet.
18:25
Speaker 1: If he's only going to shadow us while they find
18:27
Speaker 1: out more at home, we shall give him the slip,
18:29
Speaker 1: all right. Do you think he saw you looking out? No,
18:33
Speaker 1: thank goodness, he was looking toward Dover too, But before
18:36
Speaker 1: we started, No, Bunny, I don't believe he came aboard
18:39
Speaker 1: before Cannon Street. I remember hearing a bit of fuss there,
18:43
Speaker 1: but our blinds were down, Thank god, they were all
18:46
Speaker 1: down now but by our decreasing speed, I felt that
18:49
Speaker 1: we were already gliding over level crossings to the admiration
18:51
Speaker 1: of belated townsfolk waiting at the gates. Raffles turned from
18:55
Speaker 1: his mirror, and i've from mine simultaneously, and even to
18:58
Speaker 1: my initiated eye, it was not Raffles at all, but
19:01
Speaker 1: another noble scamp, who, even in those days before the war,
19:04
Speaker 1: was the observed of all observers about town. It's ever
19:08
Speaker 1: so much better than anonymous disguises, said Raffles, as he
19:11
Speaker 1: went to work upon me with his pocket make up
19:13
Speaker 1: box and his lightning touch. I was always rather like him,
19:17
Speaker 1: and I tried him on yesterday with such success at
19:19
Speaker 1: the bank that I certainly can't do better to night.
19:22
Speaker 1: As for you, Bunny, if you slouch your hat and
19:24
Speaker 1: stick your beard in your bread basket, you ought to
19:26
Speaker 1: pass for a poor relation or a disreputable dune. But
19:29
Speaker 1: here we are, my lad, and now for mister Mackenzie
19:32
Speaker 1: Scotland Yard, the gaunt detective was in fact the first
19:37
Speaker 1: person we beheld upon the pure platform, raw boned, stiff jointed,
19:41
Speaker 1: and more than middle aged. He must nevertheless have jumped
19:44
Speaker 1: out once again before the train stopped, and that almost
19:46
Speaker 1: on top of a diminutive telegraph boy who was waiting
19:49
Speaker 1: while the old hound read his telegram with one eye
19:52
Speaker 1: and watched emerging passengers with both. Whether we should have
19:55
Speaker 1: passed him unobserved, I cannot say we could, but have tried.
19:59
Speaker 1: But no, both preferred to grasp the nettle and salute
20:01
Speaker 1: Mackenzie with a pleasant nod. Good evening, my lord, says
20:05
Speaker 1: the scotchman, with a canny smirk. I can guess why
20:09
Speaker 1: you're down here, says Raffles, actually producing a palpable Sullivan.
20:12
Speaker 1: Under the nose of the law is that a fact
20:15
Speaker 1: inquires the other, oiling the rebuff with a deferential grin.
20:19
Speaker 1: And I mustn't stand between you and poor dan Letty's murderer,
20:22
Speaker 1: adds my lord, nodding finally, when Mackenzie steps after him,
20:25
Speaker 1: to my horror, but it is only to show Raffles
20:28
Speaker 1: his telegram, and it does not follow us on board.
20:31
Speaker 1: Neither did our disguise as accompany our countenances across the channel.
20:35
Speaker 1: It was at dead of night on the upper deck
20:37
Speaker 1: whence all but us had fled that Raffles showed me
20:40
Speaker 1: how to doff my beard and still look as though
20:41
Speaker 1: I had merely buttoned it inside my overcoat. Meanwhile, his
20:45
Speaker 1: own mustachios and imperial were disappearing by discreet degrees. And
20:49
Speaker 1: at last he told me why, though not by any
20:51
Speaker 1: means without pressing. I'm only afraid you'll want to turn
20:54
Speaker 1: straight back from calaib Banny. Oh no, I sha'n't. You'll
20:58
Speaker 1: come with me round the world so to speak to
21:01
Speaker 1: its uttermost ends a j You do know now who
21:05
Speaker 1: it really is that I don't want to see again?
21:07
Speaker 1: Just yet? Yes, I know? Now, tell me what Mackenzie
21:10
Speaker 1: told you. It was all in the wire he showed me,
21:13
Speaker 1: said Raffles. The wire was to say that the murderer
21:16
Speaker 1: of dan Letty had given himself up to the police.
21:19
Speaker 1: Profane expltus flew from my lips. Those of much holier
21:22
Speaker 1: men might have been no less unguardedly emphatic in the
21:25
Speaker 1: self same circumstances. But who was it? I could have
21:29
Speaker 1: told you all along if you hadn't suspected me. It
21:32
Speaker 1: wasn't a suspicion, Raffles. It was never more than a dread,
21:35
Speaker 1: And I didn't even dread it in my heart of hearts.
21:38
Speaker 1: Do tell me now, Raffles watched the red end of
21:41
Speaker 1: a ruined Sullivan make a fine trajectory as it flew
21:44
Speaker 1: to leeward between sea and stars. It was that poor,
21:47
Speaker 1: unlucky little alien who was waiting for him the other
21:49
Speaker 1: morning in Jermyn Street, and again last night near his
21:52
Speaker 1: own garden gate. That's where he got him in the end.
21:55
Speaker 1: But it wasn't a shooting case at all, Bunny, That's
21:57
Speaker 1: why I never heard anything. It was a case of staff,
22:00
Speaker 1: in accordance with the best traditions of the Latin races.
22:03
Speaker 1: God forgive both poor devils, said I at last, and
22:07
Speaker 1: other two said raffles, who have rather more to be forgiven.
22:12
Speaker 1: And of Chapter eighteen,