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

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Speaker 1: By E. W. Hornham, Chapter fifteen, Trial by Raffles. When
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Speaker 1: I awoke, it was dazzling daylight in the tower, and
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Speaker 1: the little scene was quite a surprise to me. It
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Speaker 1: had felt far larger in the dark. I suppose the
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Speaker 1: floor space was about twelve feet square, but it was
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Speaker 1: contracted on one side by the well and banisters of
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Speaker 1: a wooden staircase from the room below, on another by
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Speaker 1: the ship's bunk, and opposite that by the locker on
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Speaker 1: which I lay. Moreover, the four walls, or rather the
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Speaker 1: four triangles of roof, sloped so sharply to the apex
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Speaker 1: of the tower as to leave an inner margin in
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Speaker 1: which few grown persons could have stood upright. The porthole
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Speaker 1: windows were shrouded with rags of cobweb, spotted with dead flies.
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Speaker 1: They had evidently not been opened for years. It was
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Speaker 1: even more depressingly obvious that we must not open them.
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Speaker 1: One was thankful for such modicum of comparatively pure air
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Speaker 1: as came up the open stair from the floor below.
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Speaker 1: But in the freshness of the morning, one trembled to
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Speaker 1: anticipate the atmosphere of this stale and stuffy eerie through
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Speaker 1: the heat of a summer's day. And yet neither the size,
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Speaker 1: nor the scent of the place, nor any other merely
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Speaker 1: scenic feature, was half so disturbing or fantastic as the
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Speaker 1: appearance of my two companions. Raffles, not quite at the
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Speaker 1: top of the stairs but near enough to loll over
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Speaker 1: the banisters, and Levee, cumbering the ship's bunk, were indeed
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Speaker 1: startling figures to an eye still dim with sleep. Raffles
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Speaker 1: had an ugly cut from the left nostril to the
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Speaker 1: corner of the mouth. It washed the blood from his face,
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Speaker 1: but the dark and angry streak remained to heighten his
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Speaker 1: unusual pallor. Levee looked crumpled and debauched, flabby and feebly senile,
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Speaker 1: yet with his vital forces making the last flicker in
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Speaker 1: his fiery eyes, he was grotesquely swallowed in scarlet bunting,
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Speaker 1: from which his doubled fists protruded in handcuffs. A bit
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Speaker 1: of thin rope attached the handcuffs to a peg on
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Speaker 1: which his coat and hat were also hanging, and a
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Speaker 1: longer bit was taken round the banisters from the other
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Speaker 1: end of the bunting, which I now perceived to be
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Speaker 1: a tattered and torn red ensign. This led to the
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Speaker 1: discovery that I myself had been sleeping in the Union
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Speaker 1: Jack and had brought my eyes back to the ghastly
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Speaker 1: face of Raffles, who was already smiling at mine. Enjoyed
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Speaker 1: your night under canvas, Bunny, then you might get up
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Speaker 1: and present your colors to the prisoner in the bunk.
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Speaker 1: You needn't be frightened of him, Bunny. He's such a devilish,
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Speaker 1: tough customer that I've had to clap him in irons
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Speaker 1: as you see. Yet he can't say I haven't given
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Speaker 1: him rope enough. He's got lashings of rope, eh, Bunny,
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Speaker 1: that's right, said Levy with a bitter snarl. Get a
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Speaker 1: man down by foul play, and then wipe your boots
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Speaker 1: on him. I'd stick it like a lamb, if only
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Speaker 1: you'd give me that drink. And then it was as
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Speaker 1: I got to my feet and shook myself free from
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Speaker 1: the folds of the Union Jack, that I saw the
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Speaker 1: unopened pint of champagne standing against the banisters in full
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Speaker 1: view of the bunk. I confess I eyed it wistfully myself,
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Speaker 1: but Raffles was adamant alike to friend and foe, and
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Speaker 1: merely beckoned me to follow him down the wooden stair
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Speaker 1: without EMPs from levee at all. I certainly thought it
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Speaker 1: a risk to leave that unworthy unwatched for a moment,
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Speaker 1: but it was scarcely for more. The room below was
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Speaker 1: fitted with a bath and a lavatory basin, which Raffles
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Speaker 1: pointed out to me without going all the way down himself.
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Speaker 1: At the same time, he handed me a stale remnant
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Speaker 1: of the sandwiches removed with levee from his house. I'm
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Speaker 1: afraid you'll have to wash these down at the tap,
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Speaker 1: said he. The poor devil has finished what you left
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Speaker 1: at daybreak, besides making a hole in my flask. But
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Speaker 1: he can't or won't eat a bite. And if only
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Speaker 1: he stands his trial and takes his sentence like a man,
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Speaker 1: I think he might have the other pite to his
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Speaker 1: own infernal cheek trial and sentence, I exclaimed. I thought
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Speaker 1: you were going to hold him up to ransom, not
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Speaker 1: without a fair trial, my dear bunny, said Raffles, in
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Speaker 1: the accents of reproof. We must hear what the old
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Speaker 1: swab has to say for himself. When he's heard what
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Speaker 1: I've got to say to him, So you stick your
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Speaker 1: head under the tap when you've had your snack, Bunny,
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Speaker 1: it won't come up to the swim I had after
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Speaker 1: I'd taken the boat back when you and Shylock were
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Speaker 1: fast asleep. But it's all you've time for. If you
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Speaker 1: want to hear me, open my case and open it,
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Speaker 1: he did before himself as judge and counsel in one,
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Speaker 1: sitting on the locker, as on the bench the very
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Speaker 1: moment I reappeared in court, prisoner in the bunk. Before
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Speaker 1: we formulate the charge against you, we had better deal
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Speaker 1: with your last request for drink, made in the same
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Speaker 1: breath as a preposterous complaint about foul play. The request
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Speaker 1: has been made and granted more than once already this morning.
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Speaker 1: This time it's refused. Drink has been your undoing prisoner
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Speaker 1: in the bunk. It is drink that necessitates your annual
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Speaker 1: purification at Carlsbad. And yet within a week of that
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Speaker 1: chastening experience, you come before me without knowing where you
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Speaker 1: are or how you got here. That wasn't the whisky,
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Speaker 1: muttered Levy with a tortured brow. That was something else,
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Speaker 1: which you'll hear more about foul play. It was, and
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Speaker 1: you'll pay for it. Yet there's not a headache and
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Speaker 1: a hogshead of my whisky. Well resumed, raffles, Your champagne
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Speaker 1: is on the same high level, and here's a pint
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Speaker 1: of the best which you can open for yourself if
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Speaker 1: only you show your sense before I've done with you.
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Speaker 1: But you won't advance that little millennium by talking about
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Speaker 1: foul play as though it were all on one side,
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Speaker 1: and the foul'st of the fowl not on yours. You
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Speaker 1: will only retard the business of the court. You are
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Speaker 1: indicted with extortion and sharp practice in all your dealings,
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Speaker 1: with cheating and misleading your customers, attempting to cheat and
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Speaker 1: betray your friends, and breaking all the rules of civilized crime.
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Speaker 1: You are not invited to plead either way, because this
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Speaker 1: court would not attach the slightest value to your plea.
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Speaker 1: But presently you will get an opportunity of addressing the
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Speaker 1: court in mitigation of your sentence, or, if you like,
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Speaker 1: continued raffles with a wink at me, you may be
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Speaker 1: represented by counsel. My learned friend here I am sure
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Speaker 1: will be proud to undertake your defense as a docker,
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Speaker 1: or perhaps I should say a bunker, mister bunny, and
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Speaker 1: Raffles laughed as coolly as a real judge at a
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Speaker 1: real judicial joke, whereupon I joined in so uproariously as
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Speaker 1: to find myself degraded from the position of leading counsel
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Speaker 1: to that of the general public. In a single flash
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Speaker 1: from the judge's eye. If I hear any more laughter,
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Speaker 1: said Raffles, I shall clear the court. It's perfectly monstrous
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Speaker 1: that people should come here to a court of justice
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Speaker 1: and behave as though they were at a theater. Levy
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Speaker 1: had been reclining with his yellow face twisted and his
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Speaker 1: red eyes shut, but now these burst open as with flames,
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Speaker 1: and the dry lips spat a hearty curse at the
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Speaker 1: judge upon the locker. Take care, said Raffles. Contempt of
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Speaker 1: court won't do you any good, you know, And what
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Speaker 1: good will all this foolery? Do you say what you've
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Speaker 1: got to say against me? And be damned to you.
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Speaker 1: I fear your confusing our functions, sadly, said Raffles, with
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Speaker 1: a compassionate shake of the head. But so far as
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Speaker 1: your first exhortation goes, I shall endeavor to take you
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Speaker 1: at your word. You are a money lender, trading, among
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Speaker 1: other places in Jermyn Street, Saint James's, under the style
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Speaker 1: and title of Daniel Levy. It happens to be my
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Speaker 1: name that I can well believe, rejoined Raffles, And if
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Speaker 1: I may say so, mister Levy, I respect you for it.
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Speaker 1: You don't call yourself mac Gregor or Montgomery. You don't
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Speaker 1: sail under false colors at all. You fly the skull
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Speaker 1: and cross bones of Daniel Levy, and it's one of
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Speaker 1: the points that distinguish you from the rock of money
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Speaker 1: lenders and put you in a class by yourself. Unfortunately,
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Speaker 1: the other points are not so creditable. If you are
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Speaker 1: more brazen than most, you are also more unscrupulous. If
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Speaker 1: you fly at higher game, you descend to lower dodges.
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Speaker 1: You may be the biggest man alive at your job.
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Speaker 1: You are certainly the biggest villain. But I'm up against
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Speaker 1: a bigger now, said Levy, shifting his position and closing
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Speaker 1: his crimson eyes, possibly, said Raffles, as he produced a
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Speaker 1: long envelope and unfolded a sheet of foolscap. But permit
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Speaker 1: me to remind you of a few of your own
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Speaker 1: proven villanies before you take any more shots at mine.
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Speaker 1: Last year you had three of your great bargains set
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Speaker 1: aside by the law as hard and unconscionable. But every
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Speaker 1: year you have these cases, and at best the terms
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Speaker 1: are modified in favor of your wretched client. But it's
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Speaker 1: only the exception who will face the music of the law,
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Speaker 1: courts and the press, and your figure. On the general run,
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Speaker 1: you prefer people like the Lincolnshire vicar you hounded into
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Speaker 1: an asylum the year before last. You cherish the memory
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Speaker 1: of the seven poor devils that you drove to suicide
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Speaker 1: between eighteen ninety and eighteen ninety four. That sort pay
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Speaker 1: the uttermost farthing before the nature. You set great store
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Speaker 1: by the impoverished gentry and nobility, who have you to
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Speaker 1: stay with them when the worst comes to the worst,
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Speaker 1: and secure a respite in exchange for introductions to their pals.
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Speaker 1: No fish is too large for your net, and none
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Speaker 1: is too small. From his Highness of Hathapoort to that
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Speaker 1: poor little Buildret Bromley, who cut the throats. Stop it,
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Speaker 1: cried Levy in a ladder of impotent rage. By all means,
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Speaker 1: said Raffles, restoring the paper to its envelope. It's an
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Speaker 1: ugly little load for one man's soul, I admit, but
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Speaker 1: you must see it was about time somebody beach at
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Speaker 1: your own beastly game. It's a pack of blithering lies,
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Speaker 1: retorted Levy. And you haven't beaten me yet. Stick to
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Speaker 1: facts within your own knowledge, and then tell me if
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Speaker 1: your precious Garlands haven't brought their troubles on themselves. Certainly
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Speaker 1: they have, said Raffles. But it isn't your treatment of
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Speaker 1: the Garlands that has brought you to this pretty pass.
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Speaker 1: What is it, then, your treatment of me, mister Levee,
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Speaker 1: A cursed crook like you, a party to a pretty
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Speaker 1: definite bargain, however, and a discredited person only so far
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Speaker 1: as that bargain is concerned, and the rest, said the
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Speaker 1: money lender, jeering feebly, I know more about you than you, guess.
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Speaker 1: I should have put it the other way round, replied Raffles, smiling.
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Speaker 1: But we are both forgetting ourselves prisoner in the bunk.
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Speaker 1: Kindly note that your trial is resumed and further contempt
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Speaker 1: will not be allowed to go unpurged. You referred a
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Speaker 1: moment ago to my unfortunate friends. You say they were
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Speaker 1: the engineers of their own misfortunes. That might be said
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Speaker 1: of all who ever put themselves in your clutches. You
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Speaker 1: squeeze them as hard as the law will let you.
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Speaker 1: And in this case, I don't see how the law
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Speaker 1: is to interfere. So I interfere myself in the first instance,
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Speaker 1: as disastrously as you please. You did so, exclaimed Levy
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Speaker 1: with a flicker of his inflamed eyes. You brought things
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Speaker 1: to a head, that's all you did. On the contrary,
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Speaker 1: you and I came to an agreement which still holds good,
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Speaker 1: said Raffles. Significantly, you are to return me a certain
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Speaker 1: note of hand for thirteen thousand and odd pounds taken
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Speaker 1: in exchange for a loan of ten thousand. And you
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Speaker 1: are also to give an understanding to leave another fifteen
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Speaker 1: thousand of yours on mortgage for another year at least,
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Speaker 1: instead of foreclosing, as you threatened and had a right
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Speaker 1: to do this week. That was your side of the bargain, well,
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Speaker 1: said Levy. And when did I go back on it?
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Speaker 1: My side, continued Raffles, ignoring the interpolation was to get you,
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Speaker 1: by hook or krook a certain letter which you say
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Speaker 1: you never wrote, as a matter of fact, it was
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Speaker 1: only to be got by krook Aha. I got hold
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Speaker 1: of it, nevertheless. I brought it to you at your
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Speaker 1: house last night, and you instantly destroyed it. After a
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Speaker 1: stoul and attack as one man ever made upon another.
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Speaker 1: Raffles had risen in his wrath, was towering over the
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Speaker 1: prostrate prisoner, forgetful of the mock trial, dead even to
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Speaker 1: the humor which he himself had infused into a sufficiently
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Speaker 1: lurid situation, but quite terribly alive to the act of
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Speaker 1: treachery and violence which had brought that situation about. And
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Speaker 1: I must say that Levee looked no less alive to
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Speaker 1: his own enormity. He quailed in his bonds with a
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Speaker 1: guilty fearfulness, strange to witness in so truculent a brune.
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Speaker 1: And it was with something near a quaver that his
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Speaker 1: voice came next. I know that was wrong, the poor
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Speaker 1: devil owned. I'm very sorry for it, I'm sure, but
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Speaker 1: you wouldn't trust me with my own property, and that
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Speaker 1: and the drink together made me mad. So you acknowledged
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Speaker 1: the alcoholic influence at last. Oh yes, I must have
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Speaker 1: been as drunk as an owl. You know you've been
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Speaker 1: suggesting that we drugged you. Not seriously, mister Raffles. I
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Speaker 1: knew the old stale taste too well. It must have
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Speaker 1: been the best part of a bottle I had before
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Speaker 1: you got down in your anxiety deceived me safe and sound.
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Speaker 1: That's it with the letter. You never dreamt of playing
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Speaker 1: me false until I hesitated to let you handle it.
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Speaker 1: Never for one moment, my dear Raffles. Raffles was still
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Speaker 1: standing up to his last inch under the apex of
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Speaker 1: the tower, his head and shoulders the butt of a
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Speaker 1: climbing sunbeam full of fretful moats. I could not see
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Speaker 1: his expression from the banister's, but only its effect upon
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Speaker 1: Dan Levy, who first held up his manacled hands in
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Speaker 1: hypocritical protest station, and then dropped them as though it
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Speaker 1: were a bad job. Then, why, said Raffles, did you
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Speaker 1: have me watch almost from the moment that we parted
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Speaker 1: company at the Albany last Friday morning? I have you watched?
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Speaker 1: Exclaimed the other, in real horror. Why should I? It
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Speaker 1: must have been the police. It was not the police,
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Speaker 1: though the blackguards did their best to look as if
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Speaker 1: they were. I happened to be too familiar with both
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Speaker 1: classes to be deceived. Your fellows were waiting for me
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Speaker 1: up at Lord's, but I had no difficulty in shaking
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Speaker 1: them off when I got back to the Albany. They
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Speaker 1: gave me no further trouble until last night, when they
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Speaker 1: got on my traps at grayze Inn, in the guise
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Speaker 1: of the two common low detectives, whom I believe I
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Speaker 1: have already mentioned to you. You said you left them
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Speaker 1: there in their glory. It was glorious from my point
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Speaker 1: of view, rather than theirs. Letty struggled into a less
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Speaker 1: recomment posture. And what makes you think, said he that
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Speaker 1: I set this watch upon you? I don't think, returned Raffles,
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Speaker 1: I know, And how the devil do you know? Raffles
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Speaker 1: answered with a slow smile and a still slower shake
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Speaker 1: of the head. You really mustn't ask me to give
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Speaker 1: everybody away. Mister Levy, the money lender, swore an oath
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Speaker 1: of sheer incredulous surprise, but checked himself at that and
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Speaker 1: tried one more poser. And what do you suppose was
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Speaker 1: my object in having you watched? If it wasn't to
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Speaker 1: insure your safety, it might have been to make doubly
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Speaker 1: sure of the letter, and to cut down expenses at
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Speaker 1: the same swoop by knocking me on the head and
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Speaker 1: abstracting the treasure from my person. It was a jolly
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Speaker 1: cunning idea prisoner in the bunk. I shouldn't be upset
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Speaker 1: about it just because it didn't come off my compliments,
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Speaker 1: especially on making up your varlets in the quite colorful
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Speaker 1: image of the true detective. If they had fallen upon me,
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Speaker 1: and it had been the case of my liberty or
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Speaker 1: your letter, you know well enough, which I should let go.
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Speaker 1: But Levee had fallen back upon his pillow of folded flag,
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Speaker 1: and the red ensign over him bubbled and heaved with
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Speaker 1: his impotent paroxysms. They told you, they must have told you.
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Speaker 1: He ground out through his teeth. The traitors, the blasted traitors.
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Speaker 1: It's a catching complaint, you see, mister Levey, said raffles,
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Speaker 1: especially when one's elders and betters themselves succumb to it.
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Speaker 1: But they're such liars, cried Levee, shifting his ground again.
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Speaker 1: Don't you see what liars they are. I did set
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Speaker 1: them to watch you, but for your own good. As
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Speaker 1: I've just been telling you, I was so afraid something
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Speaker 1: might happen to you. They were there to see that
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Speaker 1: nothing did. Now do you spot their game. I'd got
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Speaker 1: to take the skunks into the secret more or less,
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Speaker 1: and they played at double on us. Both meant bagging
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Speaker 1: the letter from you to blackmail me with it. That's
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Speaker 1: what they meant. Of course, when they failed to bring
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Speaker 1: it off, they'd pitch any yarn to you. But that
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Speaker 1: was their game, all right. You must see for yourself
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Speaker 1: it could never have been mine, Raffles, and let me
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Speaker 1: out of this like a good feller. Is this your defense,
14:50
Speaker 1: asked Raffles as he resumed his seat on the judicial locker.
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Speaker 1: Isn't it your own? The other asked in his turn,
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Speaker 1: with an eager removal of all resentment from his manner.
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Speaker 1: Haven't we both been got at by those two jackets?
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Speaker 1: Of course I was sorry ever to have trusted em
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Speaker 1: an inch, and you were quite right to serve me
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Speaker 1: as you did if what they had been telling you
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Speaker 1: had been the truth. But now you see it was
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Speaker 1: all a pack of lies. It's surely about time to
15:12
Speaker 1: stop treating me like a mad dog. Then you really
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Speaker 1: mean to stand by your side of the original arrangement?
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Speaker 1: Always did, declared, our captive never had the slightest intention
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Speaker 1: of doing anything else. Then where's the first thing you
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Speaker 1: promised me in fair exchange for what you destroyed last night?
15:29
Speaker 1: Where's mister Garland's note of hand in my pocket book?
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Speaker 1: And that's in my pocket in case the worst comes
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Speaker 1: to the worst, murmured Raffles in sly commentary, And with
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Speaker 1: a sidelong glance at me, what's that? Don't you believe me?
15:44
Speaker 1: I'll end it over this minute, if only you'll take
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Speaker 1: these damn things off my wrists. There's no excuse for em,
15:49
Speaker 1: now you know, Raffles shook his head. I'd rather not
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Speaker 1: trust myself within reach of your raw fists yet, prisoner.
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Speaker 1: But my marshal will produce the note from your person
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Speaker 1: if it's there. It was there in a swollen pocket book,
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Speaker 1: which I replaced otherwise intact. While Raffles compared the signature
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Speaker 1: on the note of hand with samples which had brought
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Speaker 1: with him for the purpose. It's genuine enough, said Levy,
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Speaker 1: with a sudden snarl and a lethal look that I
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Speaker 1: intercepted at close quarters. So I perceive, said Raffles, And
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Speaker 1: now I require an equally genuine signature to this little document,
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Speaker 1: which is also a part of your bond. The little
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Speaker 1: document turned out to be a veritable deed, engrossed on parchment,
16:29
Speaker 1: embossed with a ten shilling stamp, and duly calling itself
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Speaker 1: an indenture in fourteenth century capitals. So much I saw
16:37
Speaker 1: as I held it up for the prisoner to read over.
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Speaker 1: The illegally legal instrument is still in existence, with its
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Speaker 1: unpunctuated jargon about quote unquote hereditaments and quote unquote fee
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Speaker 1: simple its quote, and whereas the said Daniel Levy end
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Speaker 1: quote in every other line, and its eventual plain provision
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Speaker 1: for a quote the said sum of fifteen thousand pounds
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Speaker 1: to remain charged upon the security of the hares in
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Speaker 1: the said recited indenture until the expiration of one year
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Speaker 1: computed from that summer's day in that empty tower. The
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Speaker 1: whole thing had been properly and innocently prepared by old
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Speaker 1: mother Hubbard, the little solicitor whom Raffles had mentioned as
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Speaker 1: having been in our house at school, from a copy
17:18
Speaker 1: of the original mortgage deed supplied in equal innocence by
17:21
Speaker 1: mister Garland. I sometimes wonder what those worthy citizens would
17:24
Speaker 1: have said if they had dreamed for a moment, under
17:26
Speaker 1: what conditions of acute duress their deed was to be signed. Signed.
17:31
Speaker 1: It was, however, and with less demur than might have
17:33
Speaker 1: been expected of so inveterate a fighter as dan Levy.
17:37
Speaker 1: But his one remaining course was obviously the line of
17:39
Speaker 1: least resistance. No other would swear with his ingenious repudiation
17:43
Speaker 1: of the charge of treachery to Raffles, much less with
17:46
Speaker 1: his repeated protestations than had always intended to perform his
17:49
Speaker 1: part of their agreement. It was to his immediate interest
17:52
Speaker 1: to convince us of his good faith, and up to
17:54
Speaker 1: this point he might well have thought he had succeeded
17:56
Speaker 1: in so doing. Raffles had concealed his full knowledge of
18:00
Speaker 1: the creature's duplicity, had enjoyed leading him on from lie
18:03
Speaker 1: to lie, and I had enjoyed listening almost as much
18:05
Speaker 1: as I now delighted in the dilemma in which Levee
18:08
Speaker 1: had landed himself, For either he must sign and look pleasant,
18:12
Speaker 1: or else abandon his innocent posture altogether. And so he
18:15
Speaker 1: looked as pleasant as he could, and signed in his
18:17
Speaker 1: handcuffs with but the shadow of a fight for their
18:19
Speaker 1: immediate removal, And now, said Levee, when I had duly
18:24
Speaker 1: witnessed his signature, I think I've about earned that little
18:26
Speaker 1: drop of my own Champagne. Not quite yet, replied Raffles,
18:32
Speaker 1: in a tone like thin ice. We are only at
18:34
Speaker 1: the point we should have reached the moment I arrived
18:36
Speaker 1: at your house last night. You have now done under
18:38
Speaker 1: compulsion what you had agreed to do of your own
18:41
Speaker 1: free will. Then Letty lay back in the bunk, plunged
18:44
Speaker 1: in billows of incongruous bunting, with fallen jaw and fiery
18:48
Speaker 1: eyes an equal blend of anger and alarm. But I
18:51
Speaker 1: told you I wasn't myself last night, he whined. I've
18:55
Speaker 1: said I was very sorry for all I'd done, but
18:57
Speaker 1: can't hardly remember doing. I say it again, from the
19:00
Speaker 1: bottom of my art. I've no doubt you do, said Raffles.
19:04
Speaker 1: But what you did after our arrival was nothing to
19:06
Speaker 1: what you had already done. It was only the last
19:09
Speaker 1: of those acts of treachery for which you are still
19:11
Speaker 1: on your trial. Prisoner in the bunk, But I thought
19:14
Speaker 1: I'd explained all the rest, cried the prisoner, in a
19:17
Speaker 1: palsy of impotent rage. And disappointment. You have said, Raffles,
19:21
Speaker 1: in the sense of making your perfidy even plainer than
19:23
Speaker 1: it was before. Come, mister Levy, I know every move
19:26
Speaker 1: you've made, and the game's been up longer than you think.
19:29
Speaker 1: You won't score a point by telling lies that contradict
19:31
Speaker 1: each other and aggravate your guilt. Have you nothing better
19:34
Speaker 1: to say? Why the sentence of the court should not
19:36
Speaker 1: be passed upon you? A sullen silence was broken by
19:40
Speaker 1: a more precise and staccato repetition of the question. And then,
19:44
Speaker 1: to my amazement, I beheld the gross lower lip of
19:46
Speaker 1: levee actually trembling, and a distressing flicker of the inflamed eyelids.
19:52
Speaker 1: I've felt you'd swindled me. He quavered out, And I
19:56
Speaker 1: thought I'd swindled you, Ravo, cried Raffles. That's the first
20:03
Speaker 1: honest thing you've said. Let me tell you, for your
20:06
Speaker 1: encouragement that it reduces your punishment by twenty five percent.
20:10
Speaker 1: You will nevertheless pay a fine of fifteen hundred pounds
20:12
Speaker 1: for your latest little effort in low treason. Though not
20:16
Speaker 1: unprepared for some such ultimatum, I must own I heard
20:19
Speaker 1: it with dismay on all sorts of grounds, some of
20:22
Speaker 1: them as unworthy as itself. This last demand failed to
20:25
Speaker 1: meet with my approval, and I determined to expostulate with
20:28
Speaker 1: Raffles before it was too late. Meanwhile, I hid my
20:31
Speaker 1: feelings as best I could, and admired the spirit with
20:33
Speaker 1: which dan Levy expressed his See you damned first, he cried,
20:38
Speaker 1: it's blackmail, guineas, said Raffles, for contempt of court. And
20:44
Speaker 1: more to my surprise than ever, not a little, indeed,
20:47
Speaker 1: to my secret disappointment, our captives speedily collapsed again, whimpering, moaning,
20:52
Speaker 1: gnashing his teeth, and clutching at the red ensign with
20:55
Speaker 1: closed eyes and distorted face, so much as though he
20:57
Speaker 1: were about to have a fit, that I caught up
20:59
Speaker 1: the house bottle of champagne and began removing the wire
21:02
Speaker 1: at a nod from Raffles. Don't cut the string just yet,
21:06
Speaker 1: he added, however, with an eye on Levee, who instantly
21:08
Speaker 1: opened his I'll pay up, he whispered, feebly, yet eagerly.
21:14
Speaker 1: It serves me right. I promise I'll pay up, good,
21:17
Speaker 1: said Raffles. Here's your own check book, from your own room,
21:20
Speaker 1: and here's my fountain pen. You won't take my word.
21:25
Speaker 1: It's quite enough to have to take your check. It
21:27
Speaker 1: should have been hard cash, so it shall be in raffles.
21:30
Speaker 1: If you come with me to my office, I dare
21:33
Speaker 1: say to my bank, then I prefer to go alone.
21:38
Speaker 1: You will kindly make it an open check, payable to bearer.
21:41
Speaker 1: The fountain pen was poised over the check book, but
21:44
Speaker 1: only because I had placed it in Levee's fingers and
21:46
Speaker 1: was holding the check book under them. And what if
21:49
Speaker 1: I refuse, he demanded, with the last flash of his
21:52
Speaker 1: native spirit, we shall say good bye and give you
21:55
Speaker 1: until to night all day to call for help. In
21:59
Speaker 1: muttered Levee all to himself. Do you happen to know
22:02
Speaker 1: where you are? Raffles asked him. No, but I can
22:05
Speaker 1: find out. If you knew already, you would also know
22:08
Speaker 1: that you might call till you were black in the face.
22:10
Speaker 1: But to keep you in blissful ignorance, you will be
22:13
Speaker 1: bound a good deal more securely than you are at present,
22:15
Speaker 1: And to spare your poor voice, you will also be
22:18
Speaker 1: very thoroughly gagged. Levy took remarkably little notice of either
22:22
Speaker 1: threat or gibe. And if I give in and sign,
22:25
Speaker 1: said he after a pause. You will remain exactly as
22:29
Speaker 1: you are, with one of us to keep you company
22:31
Speaker 1: while the other goes up to town to cash your check.
22:34
Speaker 1: You can't expect me to give you a chance of
22:35
Speaker 1: stopping it. You know this again struck me as a
22:38
Speaker 1: hard condition, if only prudent, when one came to think
22:41
Speaker 1: of it from our point of view. Still, it took
22:44
Speaker 1: even me by surprise, and I expected Levee to fling
22:46
Speaker 1: away the pen in disgust. He balanced it, however, as
22:49
Speaker 1: though also weighing the two alternatives very carefully in his mind,
22:53
Speaker 1: and during his deliberations his bloodshot eyes wandered from Raffles
22:56
Speaker 1: to me, and back to Raffles again. In a word,
23:00
Speaker 1: the latest prospect appeared to disturb mister Levy less than
23:03
Speaker 1: for obvious reasons it did me. Certainly, for him, it
23:06
Speaker 1: was the lesser of the two evils, and as such
23:08
Speaker 1: he seemed to accept it when he finally wrote out
23:10
Speaker 1: the check for fifteen hundred guineas Raffles insisting on these,
23:14
Speaker 1: and signed it firmly before sinking back, as though exhausted
23:17
Speaker 1: by the effort. Raffles was as good as his word
23:20
Speaker 1: about the champagne. Now dram by dram He poured the
23:23
Speaker 1: whole pint into the cup belonging to his flask, and
23:26
Speaker 1: dram by dram our prisoner tossed it off, but with
23:29
Speaker 1: closed eyes, like a delirious invalid, and towards the end
23:32
Speaker 1: with a head so heavy that Raffles had to raise
23:34
Speaker 1: it from the rolled flag, though foul talons still came
23:37
Speaker 1: twitching out for more. It was an unlovely process, I
23:40
Speaker 1: will confess. But what was a pint? As Raffles said,
23:44
Speaker 1: At any rate, I could bear him out that these
23:46
Speaker 1: potations had not been hocussed, and Raffles whispered the same
23:49
Speaker 1: for the flask, which he handed me with Levee's revolver
23:51
Speaker 1: at the head of the wooden stairs. I'm coming down,
23:54
Speaker 1: said I for a word with you in the room below.
23:57
Speaker 1: Raffles looked at me with open eyes, then more narrowly
23:59
Speaker 1: at the red lids of Levy, and finally at his
24:02
Speaker 1: own watch. Very well, bunny, but I must cut run
24:05
Speaker 1: for my train in about a minute. There's a nine
24:07
Speaker 1: twenty four which would get me to the bank before
24:08
Speaker 1: eleven and back here by one or two. Why go
24:12
Speaker 1: to the bank at all? I asked him point blank
24:14
Speaker 1: in the lower room to cash his check before he
24:16
Speaker 1: has a chance of stopping it. Would you like to
24:19
Speaker 1: go instead of me, Bunny? No, thank you. Well, don't
24:22
Speaker 1: get hot about it. You've got the better billet of
24:24
Speaker 1: the two, the softer one, perhaps infinitely Bunny, with the
24:28
Speaker 1: old bird full of his own champagne and his own
24:31
Speaker 1: revolver in your pocket or your hand. The worst he
24:33
Speaker 1: can do is to start yelling out, and I really
24:36
Speaker 1: do believe that not a soul would hear him if
24:37
Speaker 1: he did. The gardeners are always at work on the
24:40
Speaker 1: other side of the main road. A passing boat load
24:43
Speaker 1: is the only danger, and I doubt if even they
24:45
Speaker 1: would hear. My billet's all right, said I valiantly. It's
24:49
Speaker 1: yours that worries me, mind, cried Raffles, with an almost
24:53
Speaker 1: merry laugh. My dear, good bunny, you may make your
24:56
Speaker 1: mind easy about my little bit. Of course, it'll take
24:58
Speaker 1: some doing at the bank. I don't say it's a
25:00
Speaker 1: straight part there, but trust me to play it on
25:03
Speaker 1: my head, Raffles, I said, in a low voice that
25:06
Speaker 1: may have trembled. It's not a part for you to
25:08
Speaker 1: play at all. I don't mean a little bit at
25:11
Speaker 1: the bank. I mean this whole blackmailing part of the business.
25:14
Speaker 1: It's not like you, Raffles. It spoils the whole thing.
25:17
Speaker 1: I had got it off my chest without a hitch,
25:20
Speaker 1: But so far Raffles had not discouraged me. There was
25:23
Speaker 1: a look on his face which even made me think
25:24
Speaker 1: that he agreed with me in his heart both hardened
25:27
Speaker 1: as he thought it over. It's Levee who spoilt the
25:30
Speaker 1: whole thing. He rejoined obdurately in the end. He's been
25:33
Speaker 1: playing me false all the time, and he's got to
25:35
Speaker 1: pay for it. But you never meant to make anything
25:38
Speaker 1: out of him? Ay Jay, Well I do now, and
25:40
Speaker 1: I've told you why Why shouldn't I? Because it's not
25:44
Speaker 1: your game, I cried with all the eager persuasion of
25:47
Speaker 1: my power. Because it's the sort of thing Dan Levee
25:49
Speaker 1: would do himself. It's his game, all right. It simply
25:52
Speaker 1: drags you down to his level. But there he stopped
25:55
Speaker 1: me with a look, and not the kind of look
25:57
Speaker 1: I often had from Raffles. It was no new feet
26:00
Speaker 1: of mine to make him angry, scornful, bitterly cynical or sarcastic, this, however,
26:05
Speaker 1: was a look of pain and even shame, as though
26:07
Speaker 1: he had suddenly seen himself in a new and peculiarly
26:10
Speaker 1: unlovely light. Down to it, he exclaimed, with an irony
26:14
Speaker 1: that was not for me, as though there could be
26:16
Speaker 1: a much lower level than mine. Do you know, Bunny,
26:19
Speaker 1: I sometimes think my moral sense is ahead of yours.
26:22
Speaker 1: I could have laughed outright, but the humor that was
26:25
Speaker 1: the salt of him seemed suddenly to have gone out
26:27
Speaker 1: of Raffles. I know what I am, said he, but
26:30
Speaker 1: I'm afraid you are getting a hopeless villain worshiper. It's
26:33
Speaker 1: not the villain I care about, I answered, meaning every word.
26:37
Speaker 1: It's the sportsman behind the villain, as you know perfectly well. Ah,
26:41
Speaker 1: I know the villain behind the sportsman rather better, replied Raffles,
26:45
Speaker 1: laughing when I least expected it. But you're by way
26:48
Speaker 1: of forgetting his existence altogether. I shouldn't wonder if some
26:51
Speaker 1: day you wrote me up into a heavy hero, Bunny,
26:53
Speaker 1: and made me turn in my quick lime. Let this
26:56
Speaker 1: remind you what I always was and shall be to
26:58
Speaker 1: the end. And he took my head, and as I
27:00
Speaker 1: fondly hoped and surrendered to my appeal to those better
27:03
Speaker 1: feelings which I knew I had, for once succeeded in
27:05
Speaker 1: quickening within him, but it was only to bid me
27:08
Speaker 1: a mischievous good bye. Ere he ran down the spiral stair,
27:11
Speaker 1: leaving me to listen till I lost his feathery footfalls
27:14
Speaker 1: in the base of the tower, and then to mount
27:16
Speaker 1: guard over my tethered, handcuffed, somnolent and yet always formidable prisoner.
27:21
Speaker 1: At the top end of chapter fifteen,