Latest / Mr. Justice Raffles / 12 - Mr Justice Raffles by E W Hornung

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: W Hornum, Chapter twelve, A midsummer night's work. The dense
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and total darkness was broken in one place, and one only,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: by a plateful of light proceeding from a tiny bulb
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of incandescence in its center. This blinding atom of white
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: heat lit up a hand hardly moving, a pen continually
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: poised over a disc of snowy paper, and on the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: other side, something that lay handy on the table, reflecting
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the light in its plaited parts. It was Raffles at
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: his latest deviltry. He had not heard me, and he
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: could not see. But for that matter, he never looked
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: up from his task. Sometimes his face bent over it,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: and I could watch its absolute concentration. The brow was
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: furrowed and the mouth pursed. Yet there was a hint
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of the same quiet and weary smile with which Raffles
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: would bowln over or drill holes in a door. I
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: stood for some moments, fascinated, before creeping in to warn
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: him of my presence in a whisper. But this time
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: he heard my step, snatched up electric torch and glittering revolver,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and cut me with the one in the other's light Aje,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I gasped, bunny, he exclaimed, in equal amazement and displeasure.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: What the devil do you mean by this? You're in danger,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I whispered. I came to warn you danger. I'm never
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: out of it. But how did you know where to
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: find me? And how on God's earth did you get here?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you some other time. You know those two
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: brutes you dodged the other day, I ought to they're
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: waiting below for you at this very moment, Raffles peered
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: a few moments through the handful of white light between
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: our faces. Let them wait, said he, and replaced the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: torch upon the table and put down his revolver for
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: his pen. They're detectives, I urged, Are they bunny? What
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: else could they be? Would indeed, murmured Raffles as he
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: fell to work again with bent head and deliberate pen.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: You gave them the slip on Friday, But they must
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: have known your game and lain in wait for you here,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: one or other of them ever since it's my belief,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Dan Letty put them up to it, And the yarn
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: about the letter was just to tempt you into this
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: trap and get you caught in the act. He didn't
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: want to copy one bit. For God's sake, don't stop
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to finish it now. I don't agree with you, said Raffles,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: without looking up, and I don't do things by halves.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Your precious detectives must have patience, Bunny, and so much you.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: He held his watch to the bulb. In about twenty minutes,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: there'll be real danger, but we couldn't be safer in
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: our beds for the next ten. So perhaps you'll let
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: me finish without further interruption, or else get out by yourself.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: As you came in, I turned away from Raffles and
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: his light and blundered back to the landing. The blood
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: boiled in my veins. Here had I fought and groped
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: my way to his side through difficulties, it might have
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: taxed even him to surmount as one man swims ashore
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: with a rope from the wreck, at the same mortal risk,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: with the same humane purpose, and not a word of thanks,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: not one syllable of congratulation. But get out by yourself
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: as you came in. I had more than half a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: mind to get out, and for good nay. As I
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: stood and listened on the landing, I could have found
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: it in my outraged heart to welcome those very sleuth
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: hounds from the square with a cordon of police behind them.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Yet my boiling blood ran cold when warm breath smote
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: my cheek and a hand on my shoulder at one
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: and the same awful moment, Raffles, I cried in a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: strangled voice. Hush, bunny, he chuckled in my ear. Didn't
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: you know who it was? I never heard you. Why
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: did you steal on me like that? You see, you're
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: not the only one who can do it, Bunny, I
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: own it would have served me right if you'd brought
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the square about our ears. Have you finished in there,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I asked gruffly. Rather, then you'd better hurry up and
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: put everything as you found it. It's all done, bunny,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: red tape tied on such a perfect forgery that the
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: crucks will be to prove it is, one, say, locked up,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and every paper in its place. I never heard a sound.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I never made one, said Raffles, leading me upstairs by
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: the arm. You see how you put me on my metal, bunny,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: old boy, I said no more till we reached the
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: self contained flat at the top of the house. Then
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: I begged Raffles to be quiet in a lower whisper
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: with than his own. Why, Bunny, do you think there
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: are people inside? Arn't there? I cried aloud in my relief.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: You flatter me, bunny, laughed Raffles as we groped our
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: way in. This is where they keep their John Bulldog,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: A magnificent figure of a commissionaire with the v C
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: itself on his manly bosom. Catch me come when he
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: was at home. One of us would have had to die,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and it would have been a shame either way, Poor Poissy. There, porpois,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: we had reached the kitchen and the cat was rubbing
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: itself against raffles legs. But how on earth did you
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: get rid of him for the night? Made friends with
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: him when I called on Friday? Didn't I tell you
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I had an appointment with the bloated head of this
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: notorious firm when I cleared out of Lord's. I'm about
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: to strengthen his already unrivaled list of clients. You shall
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: hear all about that later. We had another interview this
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: afternoon when I asked my v C if he ever
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: went to the theater. You see, he had spotted Tom
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Fool and told me he never had a chance of
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: getting to Lord's so I got him tickets for Rosemary instead,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: But of course I swore they had just been given
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: to me and I couldn't use them. Should have seen
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: how the hero beamed, So that's where he is, he
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and his wife, or was until the curtain went down.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Good Lord Raffles is the piece over nearly ten minutes ago.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: But it'll take em all that unless they come home
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: in a cab. And Raffles had been sitting before the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: fire on the kitchen table, encouraging the cat. When this
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: formidable v C in his wife must be coming every
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: instant nearer Gray's Inn Square, Why, my dear bunny, I
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: should back myself to swarm up and out without making
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: a sound or leaving a sign. If I heard our
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: hero's key in the lock this moment after you, Bunny,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I climbed up with trembling knees, Raffles holding the rope
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: topped to make it easier. Once more, I stood upright
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: under the stars and the telephone wires and leaned against
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: a chimney stack to wait for Raffles. But before I
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: saw him, before I even heard his unnecessarily noiseless movements,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I heard something else that sent a chill all through me.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: It was not the sound of a key in the lock.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: It was something far worse than that. It was the
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: sound of voices on the roof, and of footsteps drawing
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: nearer through the very next valley leads and tiles. I
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: was crouching on the leads outside the dormer window as
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Raffles climbed into sight within. They're after us up here,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I whispered in his face. On the next roof, I
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: hear them up. Came Raffles, with his hands upon the sill,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: then with his knees between his hands, and so out
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: on all fours, into the narrow rivulet of lead between
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the sloping tiles. Out of the opposite slope a yard
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: or two on rose a stout stack of masonry and
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: many headed monster with a chimney pot on each, and
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: a full supply of wires for whiskers. Behind this gorgon
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: of the housetops. Raffles hustled me without a word, and
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: himself took shelter as the muffled voices on the next
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: roof grew more distinct. They were the voices that I
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: had overheard already in the square, the voices, but not
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the tones. The tones the words were those of an
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: enemy divided against itself. And now we've gone and come
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: too far, grumbled the one who had been last to
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: arrive upon the scene below. We did that, The other
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: muttered the moment we came in after him. We should
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: have stopped where we were, without other cove driving up
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and going in, without ever showing a glimb. Raffles nudged me,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: and I saw what I had done. But the weakling
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: of the pair still defended the position he had reluctantly
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: abandoned on terra firma. He was all for returning while
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: there was time, And there were fragments of the broken
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: argument that were beginning to puzzle me. When a soft
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: oath from the man in front proclaimed the discovery of
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: the open window in the rope. We got em, he whispered, stagily,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: like rats in a trap. You forget what it is
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: we've got to get. Well, we must first catch our man,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: mustn't we? And how do you know his pal hasn't
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: gone in to warn him where we were. If he
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: has and we'd stopped there, they'd do us easy. They
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: may do us easier down there in the dark replied
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the other with a palpable shiver. They'll hear us and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: lie in wait in the dark. We shall have a
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: dog's chance, all right. You get out of it and
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: save your skin, and rather work alone than with a
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: blessed funk. The situation was identical with many a one
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: in the past between Raffles and me. The poor brute,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: in my part, resented the charge again his courage as
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: warmly as I had always done. He was merely for
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the better part of valor. And how right he was.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Raffles and I only knew. I hoped the lesson was
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: not lost upon Raffles. Dialog and action alike resembled one
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: of our own performances, far more than ordinary police methods
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: as we knew them. We heard the squeeze of the
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: leader's clothes and the rattle of his buttons over the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: window ledge. It's like old times. We heard him mutter,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and before many moments the weakling was impulsively whispering down
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to know if he should follow. I felt for that
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: fellow at every stage of his unwilling proceedings. I was
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: to feel for him still more. Raffles had stepped down
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: like a cat from behind our cover. Grasping an angle
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: of the stack with either hand, I put my head
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: round after him. The wretched player of my old part
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: was on his haunches at the window, stooping forward more
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: in than out. I saw Raffles grinning in the starlight,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: saw his foot poised, and the other poor devil disappear.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Then a dull bump, then a double crash, and such
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: a cursing as left no doubt that the second fellow
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: had fallen plumb on top of the first. Also from
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: his language, I fastened he would survive the fall. But
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Raffles took no peep at his handiwork hardly had the
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: rope whipped out at my feet than he had untied
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: the other end. Like lamp lighters. Bunny and back we went,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: helter skelter along the valleys of lead and over the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: hills of tile. The noise in the kitchen died away
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: as we put a roof or two between us and
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: that of Burroughs and Burrows. This is where I came out,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: I called to Raffles as he passed the place. There's
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: a ladder here where I left it in the loft.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: No time for ladders, cried Raffles, over his shoulder, and
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: not for some moments did he stop in his stride,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Nor was it I who stopped him. Then it was
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: a sudden hubbub somewhere behind us, somewhere below the blowing
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: of a police whistle and the sound of many footsteps
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: in the square. That's for us, I gasped the ladder.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: The ladder, ladder be damned, returned Raffles roughly, it isn't
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: for us at all. It's my pal the v C,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: who has come home and bottled. The other blighters ticking
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: their thieves, thinking any rot you like. Our course is
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: over the rest of the roofs on this side, over
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the whole lot at the top end, and if possible,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: down the last staircase in the corner. Then we only
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: have to show ourselves in the square for a tick
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: before we're out by way of Varilum buildings. Is there
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: another gate there, i asked, as he scampered on with
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: me after him. Yes, but it's closed, and the porter
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: leaves at twelve, and it must be jolly near that. Now, wait, bunny,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: some one or other is sure to be looking out
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: at the top windows across the square. They'll see us
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: if we take our fences too freely. We had come
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: to one of the transverse tile slopes, which hitherto we
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: had run boldly up and down in our helpful and
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: noiseless rubber soles. Now, not to show ourselves against the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: stars to a stray pair of eyes on some other
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: high level, we crept up on all fours and rolled
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: over at full length. It added considerably to our time
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: over more than a whole side of the square. Meanwhile,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: the police whistles had stopped, but the company in the
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: square had swollen audibly. It seemed an age, but I
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: suppose it was not many minutes before we came to
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the last of the door armer windows. Looking into the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: last veil of tiles in the northeast angle of the square,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: something gleamed in the starlight. There was a sharp little
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: sound of splitting wood, and Raffles led me on hands
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and knees into just such a loft as I had
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: entered before by ladder. His electric torch discovered the trap
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: door at a gleam. Raffles opened it and let down
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the rope, only to whisk it up again so smartly
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: that it struck my face like a whiplash. A door
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: had opened on the top landing. We listened over the
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: open trap door and knew that another stood listening on
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the invisible threshold underneath. Then we saw him running down stairs,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and my heart leapt, for he never once looked up.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: I could see him, still foreshortened by our bird's eye view,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: into a Turkish fez, and a fringe of white hair
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and red neck, a billow of dressing gown and bare
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: heels peeping out of bedroom slippers at every step that
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: we could follow. But no face all the way down,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: because he was a bent old boy who never looked
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: like looking up. Raffles threw his rope aside, gave me
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: his hand instead, and dropped me on the landing like
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a feather, dropping after me without a moment's pause. In fact,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the old fellow at the fez could hardly have completed
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: his descent of the stairs when we began ours. Yet
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: through the landing window we saw him charging diagonally across
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the square, shouting and gesticulating. In his flight to the
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: gathering crowd. Near the far corner he spotted us, Bunny,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: exclaimed Raffles, after listening an instant in the entrance. Stick
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: to me like my shadow into every blessed thing I
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: do out He dived. I after him and round to
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: the left with the speed of lightning, but apparently not
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: without the lightning's attribute of attracting attention to itself. There
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: was a hollow balloo across the square behind us, and
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: I looked round to see the crowd there breaking in
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: our direction. As I rushed after Raffles under an arch
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: and up the alley in front of Verulam buildings. It
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: was striking midnight as we made our sprint along this alley,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: and at the far end the porter was preparing to depart,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: but he waited to let us through the gate into
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Gray's Inn Road, and not until he had done so
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: can the hounds had entered the strait. We did not
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: hear them till the gate had clanged behind us, nor
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: had it opened again. Before we were high and dry,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and a hansom King's cross roared Raffles for all the
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: street to hear. But before we reached Clerkenwell Road he
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: said he meant Waterloo, and round we went to the
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: right along the tram lines. I was too breathless to
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: ask questions, and Raffles offered no explanations until he had
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: lit a Sullivan. That little bit of wrong way may
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: lose us our train, he said, as he puffed the
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: first cloud, But it'll shoot the whole field the King's
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Cross as sure as scent is sent. And if we
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: do catch our train, Bunny, we shall have it to
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: ourselves as far as this pack is concerned. Hurrah, Blackfriar's Bridge,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: and a good five minutes to go. You're going straight
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: down to Levi's with the letter. Yes, that's why I
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: wanted you to meet me under the clock at twelve.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: But why in tennis shoes, I asked, recalling the injunctions
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: in his note and the meaning that I had naturally
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: read into them. I thought we might possibly finish the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: night on the river, replied Raffles darkly. I think so still,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: And I thought you meant me to lend you a
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: hand and graze in. Raffles laughed. The less you think,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: my dear old Bunny, the better it always is to night.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: For example, you have performed prodigies on my account. Your
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: unselfish audacity has only been equaled by your resource. But
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: my dear fellow, it was a sadly unnecessary effort, unnecessary
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: to tell you those brutes were waiting for you down below,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: quite bunny. I saw one of them and let him
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: see me. I knew he'd send off for his pal. Then,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I don't understand your tactics or theirs. Mine. Were to
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: walk out the very way we did, you and I,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: they would never have seen me from the opposite corner
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: of the square or dreamt of going in after me.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: If they hadn't spotted your getting in before them to
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: put me on my guard, the place would have been
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: left exactly as I found it, and those two numbskulls
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: as much in the lurch as I left them last
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: week outside the Albany. Perhaps they were beginning to fear that,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: said I, and meant ferreting for you in any case
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: if he didn't show up, not, they said, raffles. One
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: of them was against it, as it was. It wasn't
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: their job at all not to take you in the
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: act if they could. No, their job was to take
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the letter from me as soon as I got back
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: to earth. That was all I happened to know. Those
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: were their instructions from old levee Levy. Did it never
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: occur to you that I was being dogged by his creatures?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: His creatures Raffles. He set them to shadow me from
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the hour of our interview on Saturday morning. Their instructions
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: were to bag the letter from you as soon as
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I got it, but to let me go free to
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: the devil. How can you know, ah, jay, my dear bunny,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: where do you suppose I've been spending the week end?
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Did you think I'd go in with a sly dog
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: like old Shylock without watching him and finding out his
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: real game? I should have thought it hardly necessary to
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: tell you I've been down the river all the time.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Down the river, added Raffles, chuckling in a Canadian canoe
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: and a torpedo beard. I was cruising near the foot
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: of the Old Brute's garden on Friday evening when one
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: of the precious pear came down to tell him they
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: had let me slip already. I landed and heard the
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: whole thing through the window of the room where we
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: shall find him to night. It was Levee who set
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: them to watch the crib, since they'd lost the cracksman.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: He was good enough to reiterate all his orders for
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: my benefit. You will hear me take him through them
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: when we get down there, so it's no use going
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: over the same ground twice. Finny orders for a couple
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: of Scotland Yard detectives, was my puzzled comment, as Raffles
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: produced an anordinate cab fare. Scotland Yard said he, My
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: good bunny, those were no limbs of the law. Their
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: old thieves set to catch a thief, and they'd been
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: caught themselves for their pains, of course, they were. Every
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: detail of their appearance and their behavior confirmed a statement
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: in the flash that brought them all before my mind.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: And I had never thought of it, never but dreamt
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: that we were doing battle with the arch enemies of
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: our class. But there was no time for further reflection,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: nor had I recovered breath enough for another word, when
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the hansom clattered up the cobbles into Waterloo Station, and
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: our last sprint of that athletic night ended in a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: simultaneous leap into separate carriages as the platform slid away
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: from the twelve ten train. And of Chapter twelve