Latest / Mr. Justice Raffles / 17 - Mr Justice Raffles by E W Hornung
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Arnham, Chapter seventeen, a secret service. This house also was
- 0:06Speaker 1: on the river, but it was very small bricks and
- 0:09Speaker 1: mortar compared with the other two. One of a semi
- 0:12Speaker 1: detached couple, built close to the road, with narrow strips
- 0:15Speaker 1: of garden to the river's brim, its dingy stucco front,
- 0:19Speaker 1: and its green Venetian blinds, conveyed no conceivable attraction beyond
- 0:22Speaker 1: that of a situation more likely to prove a drawback.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Three seasons out of the four, the wooden gate had
- 0:28Speaker 1: not swung home behind me before I was at the
- 0:30Speaker 1: top of a somewhat dirty flight of steps, contemplating blistered
- 0:34Speaker 1: paint and ground glass fit for a bathroom window, and
- 0:37Speaker 1: listening to the last reverberations of an obsolete type of bell.
- 0:41Speaker 1: There was indeed something oppressively and yet prettily victorian about
- 0:44Speaker 1: the Riparian retreat to which Lady Laura Belsize had retired
- 0:47Speaker 1: in her impoverished widowhood. It was not for Lady Laura
- 0:51Speaker 1: that I asked, however, but for Miss Belsize, and the
- 0:54Speaker 1: almost flatternly Maide really couldn't say whether Miss Belsize was
- 0:57Speaker 1: in or whether she wasn't. She might be the garden
- 1:00Speaker 1: where she might be on the river. Would I step
- 1:02Speaker 1: inside and wait a minute? I would, and did. But
- 1:06Speaker 1: it was more minutes than one that I was kept
- 1:08Speaker 1: languishing in an interior as dingy as the outside of
- 1:10Speaker 1: the house. I had time to take the whole thing in.
- 1:14Speaker 1: There were massive remnants of deservedly unfashionable furniture, the sofa
- 1:18Speaker 1: I can still see in my mind's eye, and the
- 1:20Speaker 1: steel fire irons, and the crystal chandelier. An aged and
- 1:24Speaker 1: gigantic broadwood occupied nearly half the room, and in a
- 1:28Speaker 1: cheap frame thereon, inviting all sorts of comparisons and contrasts,
- 1:32Speaker 1: stood a full length portrait of Camello Belsize, resplendent in
- 1:35Speaker 1: contemporary court kit. I was still studying that frankly barbaric paraphernalia,
- 1:41Speaker 1: the feather, the necklace, the coiled train, and wondering what
- 1:44Speaker 1: noble kinsman had come to the rescue for the great occasion,
- 1:47Speaker 1: and why Camilla should have looked so bored with her
- 1:49Speaker 1: finery when the door opened and she herself entered, not
- 1:53Speaker 1: even very smartly dressed, and looking anything but bored. Although
- 1:56Speaker 1: I say it, but she did seem astonished anxio, indignant, reproachful,
- 2:02Speaker 1: and to my mind still more nervous and distressed, though
- 2:04Speaker 1: this hardly showed through the loopholes of her pride. And
- 2:07Speaker 1: as for her white serge coat and skirt, they looked
- 2:10Speaker 1: as though they had seen considerable service on the river.
- 2:12Speaker 1: And I immediately perceived that one of the large enamel
- 2:15Speaker 1: buttons was missing from the coat. Up to that moment,
- 2:18Speaker 1: I may now confess I had been suffering from no
- 2:21Speaker 1: slight nervous anxiety of my own, but all qualms were
- 2:24Speaker 1: lost in sheer excitement when I spoke, you may well
- 2:27Speaker 1: wonder at this intrusion, I began, but I thought this
- 2:30Speaker 1: must be yours, Miss Belsize, And from my waistcoat pocket
- 2:33Speaker 1: I produced the missing button of enamel. Where did you
- 2:37Speaker 1: find it? Inquired Miss Belsize, with an admirably slight increase
- 2:41Speaker 1: of astonishment in voice. And look, and how did you
- 2:43Speaker 1: know it was mine? Came quickly in the next breath.
- 2:46Speaker 1: I didn't know, I answered. I guessed it was the
- 2:49Speaker 1: shot of my life. But you don't say where you
- 2:52Speaker 1: found it? In an empty house not far from here,
- 2:56Speaker 1: she had held her breath. Now I felt it like
- 2:59Speaker 1: the lightest and quite unconsciously, I had retained the enamel button. Well,
- 3:04Speaker 1: mister Manders, I'm very much obliged to you, but may
- 3:08Speaker 1: I have it back again? I returned her property. We
- 3:11Speaker 1: had been staring at each other all the time. I
- 3:14Speaker 1: stared still harder as she repeated her perfunctory thanks. So
- 3:18Speaker 1: it was you, I said, and was very sorry to
- 3:20Speaker 1: see her looking purposely puzzled at that, but thankful When
- 3:23Speaker 1: the wreck was light outshone all the rest in those
- 3:26Speaker 1: chameleon eyes of hers. Who did you think it was,
- 3:29Speaker 1: she asked me, with a frosty little smile. I didn't
- 3:32Speaker 1: know if it was anybody at all. I didn't know
- 3:34Speaker 1: what to think, said I quite candidly. I simply found
- 3:37Speaker 1: his pistol in my hand. Whose pistol, dan Levi's good,
- 3:43Speaker 1: she said, grimly. That makes it all the better. You've
- 3:46Speaker 1: saved my life. I thought you had taken his and
- 3:49Speaker 1: i'd collaborated. There was not a tremor in her voice.
- 3:53Speaker 1: It was cautious, eager, daring, intense, but absolutely her own voice. Now, No,
- 4:00Speaker 1: I said, I didn't shoot the fellow, but I made
- 4:02Speaker 1: him think I had. You made me think so too,
- 4:05Speaker 1: until I heard what you said to him, Yet you
- 4:08Speaker 1: never made a sound yourself. I should think not I
- 4:11Speaker 1: made myself scarce instead. But miss Belsize, I shall go
- 4:15Speaker 1: perfectly mad if you don't tell me how you happen
- 4:17Speaker 1: to be there at all? Don't you think it's for
- 4:20Speaker 1: you to tell me that about yourself and all of you? Oh,
- 4:24Speaker 1: I don't mind which of as fires first, said I excitedly.
- 4:28Speaker 1: Then I will, she said at once, and took me
- 4:30Speaker 1: to the dreadful sofa at the inner end of the
- 4:32Speaker 1: room and sat down, as though it were the most
- 4:34Speaker 1: ordinary experience she had to relate. Nor could I believe
- 4:37Speaker 1: the things that had really happened, and also recently, as
- 4:40Speaker 1: we talked them over in that commonplace environment of faded gentility,
- 4:44Speaker 1: there was a window behind us, overlooking the ribbon of
- 4:47Speaker 1: lawn and the cord of gravel, and the bunch of
- 4:49Speaker 1: willows that hedged them from the Thames. It all looked
- 4:52Speaker 1: unreal to me, unreal in its very realism. As the
- 4:55Speaker 1: scene of our incredible conversation. You know what happened the
- 4:59Speaker 1: other afternoon, I mean, the day they couldn't play began,
- 5:02Speaker 1: Miss Belsize, because you were there, and though you didn't
- 5:05Speaker 1: stay to hear all that came out afterwards. I expect
- 5:07Speaker 1: you know everything now, mister Raffles would be sure to
- 5:10Speaker 1: tell you. In fact, I heard poor dear mister Garland
- 5:13Speaker 1: give him leave. It's a dreadful story from every point
- 5:16Speaker 1: of view. Nobody comes out of it with flying collars.
- 5:19Speaker 1: But what nice person could cope with a horrid monulender?
- 5:22Speaker 1: Mister Raffles, perhaps if you called him nice, I said,
- 5:26Speaker 1: that was about the worst thing I called him. I
- 5:28Speaker 1: mentioned some of the other things. Miss Belsize listened to
- 5:31Speaker 1: them with exemplary patience. Well, she resumed, he was quite
- 5:35Speaker 1: nice about this, I will say that for him. He
- 5:38Speaker 1: said he knew mister Levy pretty well and would see
- 5:40Speaker 1: what could be done. But he spoke like an executioner
- 5:43Speaker 1: who was going to see what could be done with
- 5:44Speaker 1: the condemned man. And all the time I was wondering
- 5:47Speaker 1: what had been done already at Carlsbad. What exactly that
- 5:50Speaker 1: horrid creature meant when he was talking at mister Raffles
- 5:53Speaker 1: before us all. Well, of course I knew what he
- 5:55Speaker 1: meant us to think he meant, but was there could
- 5:58Speaker 1: there be anything in it? Miss Belsize looked at me
- 6:02Speaker 1: as though she expected an answer, only to stop me
- 6:04Speaker 1: the moment I opened my mouth to speak. I don't
- 6:07Speaker 1: want to know, mister Manders. Of course you know all
- 6:09Speaker 1: about mister Raffles. There was a touch of feeling in this,
- 6:13Speaker 1: but it's nothing to me. Though in this case I
- 6:15Speaker 1: should certainly have been on his side. You said yourself
- 6:18Speaker 1: that it could only have been a practical joke, if
- 6:20Speaker 1: there was anything in it at all, And so I
- 6:22Speaker 1: tried to think. In spite of those horrid men who
- 6:24Speaker 1: were following him about at Lord's, even in spite of
- 6:27Speaker 1: the way he vanished with them after him, but he
- 6:29Speaker 1: never came near the match again, though he had traveled
- 6:32Speaker 1: all the way from Carlsbad to see it. Why had
- 6:34Speaker 1: he ever been there? What had he really done there?
- 6:37Speaker 1: And what could he possibly do to rescue anybody from
- 6:39Speaker 1: mister Levy if he himself was already in Levy's power.
- 6:43Speaker 1: You don't know, Raffles, said I promptly enough. This time
- 6:46Speaker 1: he never was in any man's power. For many minutes.
- 6:49Speaker 1: I would back him to save the most desperate situation
- 6:51Speaker 1: you could devise. You mean, by some desperate deed. That's
- 6:55Speaker 1: what I feared declared Miss Belsize rather strenuously. Something really
- 7:00Speaker 1: had happened at Carlsbad. Something worse was by the way
- 7:03Speaker 1: of happening next. For Teddy's sake, she whispered, and his
- 7:06Speaker 1: poor father's. I agreed that old Raffles stuck at nothing
- 7:10Speaker 1: for his friends, and Miss Belsize again said that was
- 7:13Speaker 1: what she had feared. Her tone had completely altered about
- 7:16Speaker 1: Raffles as well it might. I thought it would have
- 7:19Speaker 1: broken with gratitude when she spoke of the unlucky father
- 7:21Speaker 1: and son. And I was right, she exclaimed, with that
- 7:25Speaker 1: other kind of feeling to which I found it harder
- 7:27Speaker 1: to put a name. I came home miserable from the
- 7:30Speaker 1: match on Saturday. Though Teddy had done so well, I
- 7:33Speaker 1: was fool enough to interject. I couldn't help thinking about
- 7:37Speaker 1: mister Raffles, replied Camilla, with a flash of her frank eyes,
- 7:40Speaker 1: and wondering and wondering what had happened. And then on
- 7:43Speaker 1: Sunday I saw him on the river. He didn't tell me,
- 7:47Speaker 1: he didn't know I recognized him. He was disguised, absolutely,
- 7:51Speaker 1: said Camilla Belsize under her breath. But he couldn't disguise himself.
- 7:55Speaker 1: From me, she added, as though glorying in her perspicacity.
- 7:59Speaker 1: Did you tell him so, miss Belsize? Not I. Indeed
- 8:03Speaker 1: I didn't speak to him. It was no business of mine.
- 8:06Speaker 1: But there he was at the bottom of mister Levy's garden,
- 8:08Speaker 1: having a good look at the boat house when nobody
- 8:10Speaker 1: was about. Why what could his object be? And why
- 8:14Speaker 1: disguise himself? I thought of the affair at Carlsbad, and
- 8:17Speaker 1: I felt certain that something of the kind was going
- 8:19Speaker 1: to happen again. Well, what could I do? Should I
- 8:24Speaker 1: do anything at all? Was it any business of mine?
- 8:27Speaker 1: You may imagine the way I cross questioned myself, and
- 8:30Speaker 1: you may imagine the crooked answers I got. I won't
- 8:33Speaker 1: bore you with the psychology of the thing. It's pretty obvious,
- 8:36Speaker 1: after all, it was not so much a case of
- 8:38Speaker 1: doing the best as of knowing the worst. All day
- 8:41Speaker 1: yesterday there were no developments of any sort, and there
- 8:43Speaker 1: was no sign of mister Raffles. Nothing had happened in
- 8:46Speaker 1: the night, or we should have heard of it. But
- 8:48Speaker 1: that made me all the more certain that something or
- 8:50Speaker 1: other would happen. Last night. The week's grace was nearly up.
- 8:54Speaker 1: You know what, I mean, their last week at their
- 8:56Speaker 1: own house. If anything was to be done, it was
- 8:59Speaker 1: about time. And I knew mister Raffles was going to
- 9:01Speaker 1: do something. I wanted to know what. That was all
- 9:06Speaker 1: quite right too, I murmured, But I doubt if Miss
- 9:09Speaker 1: Belsize heard me. She was in no need of my
- 9:11Speaker 1: encouragement or my approval. The old light, her own light,
- 9:15Speaker 1: the reckless light, was burning away in her brilliant eyes.
- 9:19Speaker 1: The night before she went on. I hardly slept a
- 9:22Speaker 1: wink last night. I preferred not to go to bed
- 9:24Speaker 1: at all. I told you I sometimes did weird things
- 9:27Speaker 1: that astonished the natives of these suburban shores. Well last night,
- 9:31Speaker 1: if it wasn't early this morning, I made my weirdest
- 9:34Speaker 1: effort yet. I have a canoe, you know just now.
- 9:37Speaker 1: I almost live in it. Last night I went out
- 9:39Speaker 1: unbeknowns after midnight, partly to reassure myself. Partly I beg
- 9:44Speaker 1: your pardon, mister Manders. I didn't speak your face shouted.
- 9:50Speaker 1: I'd rather you went on. But if you know what
- 9:53Speaker 1: I'm going to say, of course I knew, but I
- 9:55Speaker 1: dragged it from her none the less. The nebulous white
- 9:58Speaker 1: shirted figure in the canoe that had skimmed past Dan
- 10:01Speaker 1: Levy's frontage as we were trying to get him aboard
- 10:03Speaker 1: his own pleasure boat, and again past the empty house
- 10:05Speaker 1: when we were in the act of disembarking him. There
- 10:08Speaker 1: that figure was the trim and slim one now at
- 10:10Speaker 1: my side. She had seen us, searched for us, each
- 10:14Speaker 1: time our voices, she had heard and recognized only our actions,
- 10:18Speaker 1: or rather that midnight deed of ours had she misinterpreted.
- 10:21Speaker 1: She would not admit it to me, But I still
- 10:23Speaker 1: believe she feared it was a dead body that we
- 10:25Speaker 1: had shipped at dead of night to hide away in
- 10:27Speaker 1: that desolate tower. Yet I cannot think she thought it
- 10:30Speaker 1: in her heart. I rather fancy, but she indeed averred
- 10:34Speaker 1: that some vague inkling of the truth flashed across her
- 10:37Speaker 1: at least as often as that monstrous hypothesis. But no,
- 10:40Speaker 1: she must. Therefore, after boldly ascertaining that nothing was known
- 10:43Speaker 1: of the master's whereabouts at Letty's house, but that no
- 10:46Speaker 1: uneasiness was entertained on his account, this young woman, true
- 10:50Speaker 1: to the audacity which I had seen in her eyes
- 10:52Speaker 1: from the first, had taken the still bolder step of
- 10:55Speaker 1: landing on the rank lawn and entering the empty tower
- 10:57Speaker 1: to discover its secret for herself. Her stealthy step upon
- 11:01Speaker 1: the spiral stair had been the signal for my mortal
- 11:03Speaker 1: struggle with Dan Letty. She had heard the whole and
- 11:06Speaker 1: even seen a little of that. In fact, she had
- 11:08Speaker 1: gathered enough from Letty's horrible imprecations to form later a
- 11:12Speaker 1: rough but not incorrect impression of the situation between him
- 11:15Speaker 1: and Raffles and me. As for the money lender's language,
- 11:18Speaker 1: it was with a welcome gleam of humor that Miss
- 11:20Speaker 1: Belsize assured me she had gone too straight to hounds
- 11:23Speaker 1: in her time to be as completely paralyzed by it
- 11:25Speaker 1: as her mother's neighbors might have been. And as for
- 11:28Speaker 1: the revolver, it had fallen at her feet, and first
- 11:31Speaker 1: she thought I was going to follow it over the
- 11:32Speaker 1: banister's and before she could think again, she had restored
- 11:35Speaker 1: the weapon to my wildly clutching hand. But when you fired,
- 11:39Speaker 1: I felt a murderer, she said. So you see I
- 11:41Speaker 1: misjudged you for the second time. If I am conveying
- 11:44Speaker 1: a dash of flippancy in our talk, let me earnestly
- 11:47Speaker 1: declare that it was hardly even a dash. It was
- 11:50Speaker 1: but a wry and rueful humor on the girl's part,
- 11:52Speaker 1: and that only towards the end. But I can promise
- 11:55Speaker 1: my worst critic that I was never less facetious in
- 11:57Speaker 1: my life. I was thinking, in my heavy way, that
- 12:00Speaker 1: I had never looked into such eyes as these, so bold,
- 12:03Speaker 1: so sad, so merry with it all. I was thinking
- 12:07Speaker 1: that I had never listened to such a voice, or
- 12:09Speaker 1: come across recklessness and sentiment so harmonized. Save also in
- 12:13Speaker 1: her eyes. I was thinking that there never was a
- 12:16Speaker 1: girl to touch Camilla Bell's eye, or a man either,
- 12:18Speaker 1: except a j Raffles. And yet, and yet it was
- 12:23Speaker 1: over Raffles that she took all the wind from my sails,
- 12:25Speaker 1: exactly as she had done at Lord's, only now she
- 12:28Speaker 1: did it at parting, and sent me off into the
- 12:30Speaker 1: dusk a slightly puzzled and exceedingly exasperated man. Of course,
- 12:36Speaker 1: said Camilla at her garden gate. Of course you won't
- 12:38Speaker 1: repeat a word of what I've told you, mister Manders.
- 12:41Speaker 1: You mean about your adventures last night and to day,
- 12:43Speaker 1: said I, somewhat taken aback. I mean every single thing
- 12:47Speaker 1: we've talked about was her sweeping reply. Not a syllable
- 12:51Speaker 1: must go an inch further, otherwise I shall be very
- 12:53Speaker 1: sorry I ever spoke to you as though she had
- 12:55Speaker 1: come and confided in me of her own accord. But
- 12:58Speaker 1: I passed that even if I know noticed it at
- 13:00Speaker 1: the time, I won't tell a soul, of course, I said,
- 13:03Speaker 1: and fidgeted. That is, except I suppose you don't mind
- 13:09Speaker 1: I do. There must be no exceptions, not even old Raffles.
- 13:14Speaker 1: Mister Raffles least of all, cried Camilla Bell's eyes, with
- 13:18Speaker 1: almost a forked flash from those masterful eyes. Mister Raffles,
- 13:21Speaker 1: is the last person in the world who must ever
- 13:23Speaker 1: know a single thing, not even that it was you
- 13:26Speaker 1: who absolutely saved the situation for him and me. I
- 13:28Speaker 1: asked wistfully, for I much wanted these two to think
- 13:31Speaker 1: better of each other, and it had begun to look
- 13:33Speaker 1: as though I had my wish so far as Camilla
- 13:35Speaker 1: was concerned. While I had only to tell Raffles everything
- 13:38Speaker 1: to make him her slave for life. But now she
- 13:41Speaker 1: was adamant on the point, adamant heated in some hidden flame.
- 13:45Speaker 1: It's rather hard lines on me, mister Manders. If because
- 13:48Speaker 1: I go and get excited and twist off a button
- 13:50Speaker 1: in my excitement, as I suppose I must have done.
- 13:53Speaker 1: Unless it's a judgment on me, it's rather hard lines
- 13:56Speaker 1: if you give me away when I never should have
- 13:58Speaker 1: given myself away to you. This was unkind. It was
- 14:02Speaker 1: still more unfair in view of the former passage between us.
- 14:04Speaker 1: To the same tune, I was evidently getting no credit
- 14:07Speaker 1: for my very irksome fidelity. I helped myself a sum
- 14:11Speaker 1: at once. You gave yourself away to me. At Lord's
- 14:13Speaker 1: all right, said I cheerfully. And I never let out
- 14:16Speaker 1: a word of that, not even to mister Raffles, she asked,
- 14:20Speaker 1: with a quick, unguarded intonation that was almost wistful. Not
- 14:23Speaker 1: a word, was my reply. Raffles has no idea you
- 14:26Speaker 1: noticed anything, much less how keen you were for me
- 14:28Speaker 1: to warn him. Miss Belsize looked at me a moment
- 14:32Speaker 1: with civil war in her splendid eyes. Then something won.
- 14:35Speaker 1: I think it was only her pride, and she was
- 14:37Speaker 1: holding out her hand. You must never know a word
- 14:40Speaker 1: of this either, said she firmly, as at first. And
- 14:43Speaker 1: I hope you'll forgive me for not trusting you quite
- 14:46Speaker 1: as I always shall. For the future I'll forgive you everything,
- 14:49Speaker 1: Miss Belsize, except your dislike of dear old Raffles. I
- 14:53Speaker 1: had spoken quite earnestly, keeping her hand, she drew it
- 14:56Speaker 1: away as I made my point. I don't dislike him,
- 15:00Speaker 1: she answered, in a strange tone, but with a stranger's dress.
- 15:03Speaker 1: She added, I don't like him either, And even then
- 15:07Speaker 1: I could not see what the verb should have been,
- 15:09Speaker 1: or why Miss Belsigh should turn away so quickly in
- 15:11Speaker 1: the end and snatch her eyes away quicker still, I
- 15:15Speaker 1: saw them and thought of her all the way back
- 15:17Speaker 1: to the station, but not an inch further. So I
- 15:20Speaker 1: need no sympathy on that score. If I did, it
- 15:23Speaker 1: would have been just the same that July evening, for
- 15:25Speaker 1: I saw somebody else and had something else to think about.
- 15:28Speaker 1: From the moment I set foot upon the platform. It
- 15:30Speaker 1: was the wrong platform. I was about to cross by
- 15:33Speaker 1: the bridge when a down train came rattling in and
- 15:36Speaker 1: out jumped a man I knew by sight before it stopped.
- 15:39Speaker 1: The man was mc kenzie, the incorrigibly Scotch detective whom
- 15:42Speaker 1: we had met at Milchester Abbey, who I always thought
- 15:45Speaker 1: had kept an eye on Raffles ever since he was
- 15:47Speaker 1: across the platform before the train pulled up, and I
- 15:50Speaker 1: did what Raffles would have done in my place. I
- 15:52Speaker 1: ran after him, ye kin down lady's oas by the river.
- 15:57Speaker 1: I heard him babble to his cabman with wilful breadth
- 15:59Speaker 1: of speed. Then drive theremon like the devil, and sell.
- 16:04Speaker 1: End of Chapter seventeen.