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

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  Speaker 1: As Raffles by E. W. Hornum, Chapter fourteen, Corpless DELECTI
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  Speaker 1: Raffles was still stamping and staggering, with his knuckles in
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  Speaker 1: his eyes, and I heard him saying the letter, Bunny,
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  Speaker 1: the letter in a way that made me realize all
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  Speaker 1: at once that he had been saying nothing else since
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  Speaker 1: the moment of the foul assault. It was too late now,
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  Speaker 1: and must have been from the first. A few filmy
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  Speaker 1: scraps of blackened paper stirring on the hearth were all
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  Speaker 1: that remained of the letter by which Levey had set
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  Speaker 1: such store for which Raffles had risked so much. Burned it,
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  Speaker 1: said I. He was too quick for me, and he's
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  Speaker 1: nearly burnt my eyes out, returned Raffles, rubbing them again.
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  Speaker 1: He was too quick for us, both, not altogether, said
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  Speaker 1: I grimly. I believe I've cracked his skull and finished
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  Speaker 1: him off. Raffles rubbed and rubbed until his bloodshot eyes
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  Speaker 1: were blinking out of a blood stained face into that
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  Speaker 1: of the fallen man He found and felt the pulse
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  Speaker 1: in a risk like a ship's cable. No, Bunny, there's
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  Speaker 1: still some life in him yet. Run out and see
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  Speaker 1: if there are any lights in the other part of
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  Speaker 1: the house. When I came back, Raffles was listening at
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  Speaker 1: the door leading into the long glass passage. Not a light,
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  Speaker 1: said I, nor a sound, he whispered. We're in better
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  Speaker 1: luck than we might have been. Even his revolver didn't
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  Speaker 1: go off, Raffles extracted it from under the prostrate body.
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  Speaker 1: It might just as easily have gone off and shot
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  Speaker 1: him or one of us. And he put the pistol
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  Speaker 1: in his own pocket. But have I killed him, Raffles,
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  Speaker 1: not yet, Bunny. But do you think he's going to die?
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  Speaker 1: I was overcome by reaction. Now, my knees knocked together,
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  Speaker 1: my teeth chattered in my head. Nor could I look
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  Speaker 1: any longer upon the great body sprawling prone, or the
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  Speaker 1: incensate head twisted sideways on the parquet floor. He's all right,
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  Speaker 1: said Raffles. When he had knelt and felt and listened again,
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  Speaker 1: I whimpered a pious but inconsistent ejaculation. Raffles sat back
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  Speaker 1: on his heels and meditatively wiped a smear of his
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  Speaker 1: own blood from the polished floor. He'd better leave him
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  Speaker 1: to me, he said, looking and getting up with sudden decision.
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  Speaker 1: But what am I to do? Go down to the
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  Speaker 1: boat house and wait in the boat. Where is the
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  Speaker 1: boat house? You can't miss it if you follow the
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  Speaker 1: lawn down to the water's edge. There's a door on
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  Speaker 1: this side. If it isn't open, force it with this.
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  Speaker 1: And he passed me his pocket jimmy, as naturally as
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  Speaker 1: another would have handed over a bunch of keys. And
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  Speaker 1: what then You'll find yourself on the top step leading
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  Speaker 1: down to the water. Stand tight and lash out all
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  Speaker 1: round till you find a windlass. Wind that windlass as
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  Speaker 1: gingerly as though it were a watch with a weak heart.
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  Speaker 1: You will be raising a kind of portcullis at the
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  Speaker 1: other end of the boat house. But if you're heard
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  Speaker 1: doing it at dead of night, we may have to
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  Speaker 1: run or swim for it. Raise the thing just high
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  Speaker 1: enough to let us under in the boat, and then
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  Speaker 1: lie low on board till I come reluctant to leave
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  Speaker 1: that ghastly form upon the floor. But now stricken helpless
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  Speaker 1: in its presence, I was softer wax than ever in
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  Speaker 1: the hands of raffles, and soon found myself alone in
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  Speaker 1: the dew upon an errand in which I neither saw
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  Speaker 1: nor sought for any point enough that Raffles had given
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  Speaker 1: me something to do for our salvation. What part he
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  Speaker 1: had assigned to himself, what he was about in doors already,
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  Speaker 1: and the nature of his ultimate design were questions quite
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  Speaker 1: beyond me. For the moment I did not worry about them.
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  Speaker 1: Had I killed my man, that was the one thing
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  Speaker 1: that mattered to me, and I frankly doubt whether even
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  Speaker 1: it mattered at the time, so supremely as it seemed
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  Speaker 1: to have mattered now away from the corpus to LECTI
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  Speaker 1: my horror was already less of the deed than of
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  Speaker 1: the consequences, and I had quite a level view of those.
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  Speaker 1: What I had done was barely even manslaughter at the worst,
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  Speaker 1: but at the best the man was not dead. Raffles
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  Speaker 1: was bringing him to life again, alive or dead. I
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  Speaker 1: could trust him to Raffles and go about my own
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  Speaker 1: part of the business, as indeed I did, in a
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  Speaker 1: kind of torpor of the normal sensibilities. Not much do
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  Speaker 1: I remember of that dreamy interval, until the dream became
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  Speaker 1: the nightmare that was still in store. The river ran
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  Speaker 1: like a broad road under the stars, with hardly a
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  Speaker 1: glimmer and not a floating thing upon it. The boat
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  Speaker 1: house stood at the foot of a file of poplars,
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  Speaker 1: and I only found it by stooping low and getting
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  Speaker 1: everything over my own height against the stars. The door
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  Speaker 1: was not locked, but the darkness within was such that
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  Speaker 1: I could not see my own hand. As it wound
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  Speaker 1: the windlass inch by inch between the slow tickings of
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  Speaker 1: the cogs. I listened jealously for foreign sounds, and heard
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  Speaker 1: at length a gentle dripping across the breadth of the
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  Speaker 1: boat house. That was the last of the portcullis, as
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  Speaker 1: Raffles called it, rising out of the river. Indeed, I
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  Speaker 1: could now see the difference in the stretch of stream underneath,
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  Speaker 1: for the open end of the boat house was much
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  Speaker 1: less dark than mine. And when the faint band of
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  Speaker 1: reflected starlight had broadened, as I thought enough, I ceased
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  Speaker 1: winding and groped my way down the steps into the boat.
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  Speaker 1: But in action at such a crisis was an intolerable state,
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  Speaker 1: and the last thing I wanted was time to think.
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  Speaker 1: With nothing more to do, I must needs wonder what
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  Speaker 1: I was doing in the boat, and than what Raffles
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  Speaker 1: could want with the boat. If it was true that
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  Speaker 1: Levee was not seriously hurt, I could see the strategic
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  Speaker 1: value of my position if we had been robbing the house.
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  Speaker 1: But Raffles was not out for robbery this time, and
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  Speaker 1: I did not believe he would suddenly change his mind.
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  Speaker 1: Could it be that he had never been quite confident
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  Speaker 1: of the recovery of Levee, but had sent me to
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  Speaker 1: prepare this means of escape from the scene of a tragedy.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot have been long in the boat, for my
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  Speaker 1: thwart was still rocking under me when this suspicion shot
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  Speaker 1: me ashore in a cold sweat. In my haste, I
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  Speaker 1: went into the river up to one knee and ran
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  Speaker 1: across the lawn with that boot squelching. Raffles came out
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  Speaker 1: of the lighted room to meet me, and as he
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  Speaker 1: stood like Levee against the electric glare, the first thing
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  Speaker 1: I noticed was that he was wearing an overcoat that
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  Speaker 1: did not belong to him, and that the pockets of
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  Speaker 1: this overcoat were bulging grotesquely. But it was the last
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  Speaker 1: thing I remembered in the horror that was to come.
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  Speaker 1: Levy was lying where I had left him, only straighter
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  Speaker 1: and with a cushion under his head, as though he
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  Speaker 1: were not merely dead, but laid out in his clothes
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  Speaker 1: where he had fallen. I was just coming for you, Bunny,
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  Speaker 1: whispered Raffles, before I could find my voice. I want
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  Speaker 1: you to take hold of his boots, his boots, I gasped,
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  Speaker 1: taking Raffles by the sleeve instead. What on earth for
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  Speaker 1: to carry him down to the boat? But is he?
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  Speaker 1: Is he still alive? Raffles was smiling as though I
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  Speaker 1: amused him mightily. Rather, Bunny, too full of life to
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  Speaker 1: be left, I can tell you. But it'll be daylight
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  Speaker 1: if we stop for explanations. Now, are you going to
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  Speaker 1: lend a hand? Or am I to drag him through
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  Speaker 1: the dew myself? I lent every fiber, and Raffles raised
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  Speaker 1: the lifeless trunk I suppose by the armpits, and led
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  Speaker 1: the way backward into the night, after switching off the
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  Speaker 1: lights within. But the first stage of our revolting journey
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  Speaker 1: was a very short one. We deposited our poor burden
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  Speaker 1: as cheerily as possible on the gravel, and I watched
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  Speaker 1: over it for some of the longest minutes of my life,
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  Speaker 1: while Raffles shut and fastened all the windows left the room,
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  Speaker 1: as Levy himself might have left it, and finally found
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  Speaker 1: his way out by one of the doors. And all
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  Speaker 1: the while not a movement or a sound came from
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  Speaker 1: the senseless clay at my feet, But once, when I
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  Speaker 1: bent over him, the smell of whiskey was curiously vital
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  Speaker 1: and reassuring. We started off again, Raffles with every muscle
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  Speaker 1: on the strain, I with every nerve. This time we
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  Speaker 1: staggered across the lawn without a rest, but at the
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  Speaker 1: boat house we put him down in the dew until
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  Speaker 1: I took off my coat and we got him lying
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  Speaker 1: on that while we debated about the boat house, its
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  Speaker 1: darkness and its steps. The combination beat us on a
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  Speaker 1: moment's consideration, and again I was the one to stay
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  Speaker 1: and watch and listen to my own heart beating, and
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  Speaker 1: then to the water bubbling at the prow and dripping
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  Speaker 1: from the blades. As Raffles sculled round to the edge
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  Speaker 1: of the lawn. I need dwell no more upon the difficulty,
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  Speaker 1: in the horror of getting that inanimate mass on board.
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  Speaker 1: Both were bad enough, but candor compels me to admit
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  Speaker 1: that the difficulty dwarfed all else, until at last we
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  Speaker 1: overcame it. How near we were to swamping our craft
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  Speaker 1: and making sure of our victim by drowning. I still
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  Speaker 1: shudder to remember, but I think it must have prevented
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  Speaker 1: me from shuddering over more remote possibilities at the time.
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  Speaker 1: It was a time, if ever there was one to
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  Speaker 1: trust in raffles and keep one's powder dry. And to
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  Speaker 1: that extent, I may say I played the game, but
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  Speaker 1: it was his game, not mine, and its very object
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  Speaker 1: was unknown to me. Never, in fact, had I followed
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  Speaker 1: my inveterate leader quite so implicitly, so blindly, or with
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  Speaker 1: such restless excitement. And yet if the worst did happen,
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  Speaker 1: and our mute passenger was never to open his eyes again,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: it seemed to me that we were well on the
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  Speaker 1: road to turn manslaughter into murder in the eyes of
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  Speaker 1: any British jury, the road that might easily lead to
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  Speaker 1: destruction at the hangman's hands, but a more immediate menace
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  Speaker 1: seemed only to have awaited the actual moment of embarkation,
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  Speaker 1: when as we were pushing off, the rhythmical plash and
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  Speaker 1: swish of a paddle fell suddenly upon our ears, and
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  Speaker 1: we clutched the bank, while a canoe shot down stream
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  Speaker 1: within a length of us. Luckily the night was as
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  Speaker 1: dark as ever, and all we saw of the paddler
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  Speaker 1: was a white shirt fluttering as it passed. But there
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  Speaker 1: lay Levy, with his heavy head between my shins in
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  Speaker 1: the stern sheets, with his waistcoat open and his white
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  Speaker 1: shirt catching what light there was, as greedily as the other,
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  Speaker 1: and his white face as conspicuous to my guilty mind,
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  Speaker 1: as though we had rubbed it with phosphorus. Nor was
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  Speaker 1: I the only one to lay this last peril to heart.
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  Speaker 1: Raffles sat silent for several minutes on his thwart, and
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  Speaker 1: when he did dip his culls, it was to muffle
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  Speaker 1: his stroke so that even I could scarcely hear them,
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  Speaker 1: and to keep peering behind him down the Stygian stream.
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  Speaker 1: So long had we been getting under way that nothing
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  Speaker 1: surprised me more than the extreme brevity of our actual voyage.
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  Speaker 1: Not many houses and gardens had slipped behind us on
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  Speaker 1: the Middlesex shore. When we turned into an inlet running
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  Speaker 1: under the very windows of a house so near the
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  Speaker 1: river itself that even I might have thrown a stone
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  Speaker 1: from any one of them into Surrey. The inlet was
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  Speaker 1: empty and ill smelling. There was a crazy landing stage,
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  Speaker 1: and the many windows overlooking us had the black gloss
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  Speaker 1: of empty darkness within, seen by starlight with a troubled eye.
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  Speaker 1: The house had one salient feature in the shape of
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  Speaker 1: a square tower, which stood out from the facade fronting
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  Speaker 1: the river and rose to nearly twice the height of
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  Speaker 1: the main roof. But this curious excrescence only added to
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  Speaker 1: the forbidding character of as gloomy a mansion as one
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  Speaker 1: could wish to approach by stealth at dead of night.
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  Speaker 1: What's this place, I whispered, as Raffles made fast to
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  Speaker 1: a post an unoccupied house. Bunny, do you mean to
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  Speaker 1: occupy it? I mean our passenger to so if we
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  Speaker 1: can land him alive or dead. Hush, Raffles, it's a
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  Speaker 1: case of heels first this time shut up. Raffles was
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  Speaker 1: kneeling on the landing stage, luckily on a level with
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  Speaker 1: our row locks, and reaching down into the boat. Give
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  Speaker 1: me his heels, he muttered. You can look after his business. End.
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  Speaker 1: You needn't be afraid of waking the old hound, nor
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  Speaker 1: yet hurting him. I'm not, I whispered, though mere words
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  Speaker 1: had never made my blood run colder. You don't understand me.
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  Speaker 1: Listen to that, And as Raffles knelt on the landing
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  Speaker 1: stage and I crouched in the boat with something desperately
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  Speaker 1: like a dead man stretched between us, there was a
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  Speaker 1: swish and a dip outside the inlet, and a flutter
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  Speaker 1: of white on the river beyond another narrow squeak. He
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  Speaker 1: muttered with grim levity, when the sound had died away.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I wonder who it is paddling his own canoe at
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  Speaker 1: dead of night. I'm wondering how much he saw? Nothing,
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  Speaker 1: said Raffles, as though there could be no two opinions
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  Speaker 1: on the point. What did we see to swear to
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  Speaker 1: between a sweater and a pocket handkerchief? Only something white?
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: And we were looking out and it's far darker in
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  Speaker 1: here than out there on the main stream. But it'll
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  Speaker 1: soon be getting light, and we really may be seen
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  Speaker 1: unless we land our big fish first. And without more adieu,
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  Speaker 1: he dragged the lifeless levee ashore by the heels, while
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  Speaker 1: I alternately grasped the landing stage to steady the boat
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  Speaker 1: and did my best to protect the limb members and
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  Speaker 1: the leaden head from actual injury. All my efforts could
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  Speaker 1: not avert a few hard knocks, however, and These were
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  Speaker 1: sustained with such a horrifying insensibility of body and limb
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  Speaker 1: that my worst suspicions were renewed before I crawled ashore
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  Speaker 1: myself and remained kneeling over the prostrate form. Are you certain, Raffles,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I began, and could not finish the awful question. That
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: he's alive, said Raffles, Rather, Bunny, and he'll be kicking
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  Speaker 1: below the belt again in a few more hours. A
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: few more hours, aje, I give him four or five.
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  Speaker 1: Then it's concussion of the brain. It's the brain, all right,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: said Raffles. But for concussion, I should say coma. If
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  Speaker 1: I were you, what have I done? I murmured, shaking
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: my head over the poor old brute, you, said, Raffles,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: less than you think, perhaps, But the man's never moved
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  Speaker 1: a muscle. Oh, yes he has, Bunny, when I'll tell
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  Speaker 1: you at the next stage, said Raffles. Up with his
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: heels and come this way. And we trailed across the
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: lawn so woefully neglected that the big body sagging between us,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: though it cleared the ground by several inches, swept the
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: dew from the rank growth until we got it propped
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: up on some steps at the base of the tower,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: and Raffles ran up to open the door. More steps
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: there were within stone steps, allowing so little room for
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: one foot and so much for the other as to
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: suggest a spiral staircase from top to bottom of the tower.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: So it turned out to be. But there were landings
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: communicating with the house, and on the first of them
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: we laid our man and sat down to rest. How
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I love a silent, uncomplaining stone staircase, sighed the now
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: quite invisible Raffles. So of course we find one thrown
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: away upon an empty house. Are you there, bunny father?
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Are you quite sure nobody else is here? I asked
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: for he was scarcely troubling to lower his voice. Only levy,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and he won't count till all hours. I'm waiting to hear.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: How you know? Have a Sullivan first? Are we as
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: safe as all that if we're careful to make an
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: ashtray of our own pockets? Said Raffles, and I heard
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: him tapping his cigarette in the dark. I refused to
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: run any risks. Next moment, his match revealed him sitting
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of one flight and me at the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: top of the flight below. Either spiral was lost in shadow,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: and all I saw besides was a cloud of smoke
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: from the blood stained lips of Raffles, more clouds of cobwebs,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: and Levee's boots lying over on their uppers, almost in
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: my lap. Raffles called my attention to them before he
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: blew out his match. He hasn't turned his toes up yet,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: you see. It's a hog's sleep, but not by any
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: means his last. Did you mean just now that he
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: woke up while I was in the boat house, almost
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: as soon as your back was turned, Bunny, if you
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: call it waking up, you had knocked him out, you know,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: but only for a few minutes. Do you mean to
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: tell me that he was none the worse? Very little bunny,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: my feeble heart jumped about in my body. Then what
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: knocked him out? Again? A jay? I did in the
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: same way, No, bunny. He asked for a drink, and
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I gave him one, a doctor drink. I whispered, with
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: some horror. It was refreshing to feel once more horrified
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: at some act not one's own, so to speak, said Raffles,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: with a gesture that I followed by the red end
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: of his cigarette. I certainly touched it up a bit,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: but I always meant to touch up his liquor. If
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: the beggar went back on his word, he did a
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: good deal worse for the second time of asking. And
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: you did better than I ever knew you do before, Bunny.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I simply carried on the good work. Our friend is
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: full of a judicious blend of his own whisky and
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: the stuff poor Teddy had the other night. And when
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: he does come to his senses, I believe we shall
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: find him damned sensible. And if he isn't, I suppose
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: you'll keep him here until he is. I shall hold
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: him up to ransom, said Raffles, at the top of
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: this ruddy tower, until he pays through both nostrils for
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the privilege of climbing down alive. You mean until he
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: stands by his side of your or bargain, said I,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: only hoping that was his meaning, but not without other apprehensions,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: which Raffles speedily confirmed. And the rest, he replied significantly.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: You don't suppose the skunk's going to get off as
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: lightly as if he'd played the game, do you. I've
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: got one of my own to play now, Bunny, and
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: I mean to play it for all I'm worth, I
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: thought it would come to this. In fact, he had
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: foreseen treachery from the first, and the desperate device of
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: kidnapping the traitor proved to have been as deliberate a
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: move as Raffles had ever planned. To meet a probable contingency,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: he had brought down a pair of handcuffs, as well
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: as a sufficient supply of somnol. My own deed of
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: violence was the only entirely unforeseen effect, and Raffles vowed
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: it had been a help. But when I inquired whether
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: he had ever been over this empty house before, an
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: irritable jerk of his cigarette end foretold the answer. My
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: good bunny, is this a time for rotten questions? Of
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: course I've been over the whole place. Didn't I tell you?
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I'd been spending the week end in these parts I've
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: got in order to view the place, and have bribed
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: the gardener not to let any one else see over
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: it till I've made up my mind. The gardener's cottage
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: is on the other side of the main road, which
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: runs flush with the front of the house. Was a
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: splendid garden on that side, but it takes him all
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: his time to keep it up, so he's given up
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: bothering about this bit here. He only sets foot in
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the house to show people over. His wife comes in
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: sometimes to open the downstairs windows. The ones upstairs are
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: never shut. So you perceive we shall be fairly free
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: from interruption at the top of this tower, especially when
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I tell you that it finishes in a room as
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: sound proof as Old Carlyle's crow's nest in Shane Row.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: It flashed across me that another great man of letters
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: had made his local habitation, if not his name, in
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: this part of the Thames Valley. And when I ask
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: if this was that celebrity's house, Riffles seemed surprised that
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I had not recognized it as such in the dark.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: He said it would never let again, as the place
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: was far too good for its position, which was now
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: much too near London. He also told me that the
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: idea of holding Dan Levee up to ransom had occurred
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: to him when he found himself being followed about town
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: by Levee's mamelukes and saw what a traitor he had
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: to cope with. I hope you liked the idea, bunny,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: he added, because I was never caught kidnapping before, and
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: in all London, there wasn't a bigger man to kidnap.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I love it, said I, And it was true enough
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: of the abstract idea. But don't you think he's just
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a bit too big? Won't the country ring with his disappearance,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: my dear bunny? Nobody will dream he's disappeared, said Raffles, confidently.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: I know the habits of the beast, didn't I tell you?
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: He ran another show somewhere Nobody seems to know where.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: But when he isn't here, that's where he's supposed to be,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: And when he's there he cuts town for days on end.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I suppose you never noticed I've been wearing an overcoat
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: all this time, Bunny. Oh yes I did, said I.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Of course it's one of his, the very one he'd
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: have worn to night, and his soft hat from the
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: same peg as in one of the pockets. Their absence
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: won't look as if he'd come out feet first, will it, Bunny.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: I thought a stick might be in the way, so
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: instead of bringing it too, I stowed it away behind
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: his books. But these things will serve a second turn
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: when we see our way to letting him go again,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Like a gentleman. The red end of the Sullivan went out,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: sizzling between a moistened thumb and finger, and no doubt
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Raffles put it carefully in his pocket as he rose
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: to resume the ascent. It was still perfectly dark on
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the tower stairs, but by the time we reached the
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: sanctum at the top we could see each other's outlines
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: against certain ovals of wild gray sky and dying stars.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: For there was a window more like a port hole
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: than three of the four walls. In the fourth wall
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: was a cavity like a ship's bunk into which we
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: lifted our still unconscious prisoner as gently as we might.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Nor was that the last that was done for him.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Now that some slight amends were possible from an invisible locker,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Raffles produced bundles of thin, coarse stuff, one of which
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: he placed as a pillow under the sleeper's head, while
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: the other was shaken out into a covering for his body.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: And you asked me if I'd ever been over the place,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: said Raffles, putting a third bundle in my hands. Why
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I've slept up here last night, just to see if
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: it was all as quiet as it looked. These were
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: my bed clothes, and I want you to follow my example.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I go to sleep, I cried. I couldn't and wouldn't
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: for a thousand pounds Raffles. Oh yes you could, said
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: rap Raffles, And as he spoke, there was a horrible
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: explosion in the tower. Upon my word, I thought one
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: of us was shot, until there came the smaller sounds
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: of froth pattering on the floor and liquor bubbling from
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: a bottle. Champagne, I exclaimed. When he had handed me
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: the metal cap of a flask and I had taken
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: a sip? Did you hard that up here? As well?
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: I had nothing I peer except myself, returned Raffles, laughing.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: This is one of a couple of pints from the
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: celarette in Levee's billiard. Den. Take your well of it, bunny,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and perhaps the old man may have the other when
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: he's a good boy. I fancy we shall find it
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: a stronger card than it looks. Meanwhile, let sleeping dogs
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: lie and lying dogs sleep, and you'd be far more
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: used to me later, Bunny, if only you'd try to
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: do the same. I was beginning to feel that I
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: might try for Raffles was filling up the metal cup
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: every minute, and also plying me with sandwiches from Lette's
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: table brought hence with the champagne in Levee's overcoat pocket.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: It was still pleasing to reflect that they had been
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: originally intended for the rival bravos of Gray's Inn. But
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: another idea that did occur to me I dismissed at
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the time, and so justly that I would disabuse any
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: other suspicious mind of it without delay. Dear Old Raffles
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: was scarcely more skillful and audacious as amateur cracksmen than
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: as amateur a nisthetist, nor was he ever averse from
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the practice of his uncanny genius at either game. But sleepy,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: as I soon found myself at the close of our
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: very long night's work, I had no subsequent reason to
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: suppose that Raffles had given me drop or morsel of
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: anything but sandwiches and champagne. So I rolled myself up
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: on the locker just as things were beginning to take
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: visible shape, even without the tower windows behind them, and
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: I was almost dropping off to sleep, when a sudden
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: anxiety smote my mind. What about the boat, I asked.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: There was no answer Raffles, I cried, what are you
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: going to do about the beggar's boat? You go to sleep,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: came the sharp reply, and leave the boat to me.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: And I fancied from his voice that Raffles also had
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: lain him down, but on the floor. End of chapter fourteen,