"yes, bunny, it was the very devil of a swim; but i defy you to sink in the mediterranean. that sunset saved me. the sea was on fire. i hardly swam under water at all, but went all i knew for the sun itself; when it set i must have been a mile away; until it did i was the invisible man. i figured on that, and only hope it wasn't set down as a case of suicide. i shall get outed quite soon enough, bunny, but i'd rather be dropped by the hangman than throw my own wicket away."
"oh, my dear old chap, to think of having you by the hand again! i feel as though we were both aboard that german liner, and all that's happened since a nightmare. i thought that time was the last!"
"it looked rather like it, bunny. it was taking all the risks, and hitting at everything. but the game came off, and some day i'll tell you how."
"oh, i'm in no hurry to hear. it's enough for me to see you lying there. i don't want to know how you came there, or why, though i fear you must be pretty bad. i must have a good look at you before i let you speak another word!"
i raised one of the blinds, i sat upon the bed, and i had that look. it left me all unable to conjecture his true state of health, but quite certain in my own mind that my dear raffles was not and never would be the man that he had been. he had aged twenty years; he looked fifty at the very least. his hair was white; there was no trick about that; and his face was another white. the lines about the corners of the eyes and mouth were both many and deep. on the other hand, the eyes themselves were alight and alert as ever; they were still keen and gray and gleaming, like finely tempered steel. even the mouth, with a cigarette to close it, was the mouth of raffles and no other: strong and unscrupulous as the man himself. it was only the physical strength which appeared to have departed; but that was quite sufficient to make my heart bleed for the dear rascal who had cost me every tie i valued but the tie between us two.
"think i look much older?" he asked at length.
"a bit," i admitted. "but it is chiefly your hair."
"whereby hangs a tale for when we've talked ourselves out, though i have often thought it was that long swim that started it. still, the island of elba is a rummy show, i can assure you. and naples is a rummier!"
"you went there after all?"
"rather! it's the european paradise for such as our noble selves. but there's no place that's a patch on little london as a non-conductor of heat; it never need get too hot for a fellow here; if it does it's his own fault. it's the kind of wicket you don't get out on, unless you get yourself out. so here i am again, and have been for the last six weeks. and i mean to have another knock."
"but surely, old fellow, you're not awfully fit, are you?"
"fit? my dear bunny, i'm dead—i'm at the bottom of the sea—and don't you forget it for a minute."
"but are you all right, or are you not?"
"no, i'm half-poisoned by theobald's prescriptions and putrid cigarettes, and as weak as a cat from lying in bed."
"then why on earth lie in bed, raffles?"
"because it's better than lying in gaol, as i am afraid you know, my poor dear fellow. i tell you i am dead; and my one terror is of coming to life again by accident. can't you see? i simply dare not show my nose out of doors—by day. you have no idea of the number of perfectly innocent things a dead man daren't do. i can't even smoke sullivans, because no one man was ever so partial to them as i was in my lifetime, and you never know when you may start a clew."
"what brought you to these mansions?"
"i fancied a flat, and a man recommended these on the boat; such a good chap, bunny; he was my reference when it came to signing the lease. you see i landed on a stretcher—most pathetic case—old australian without a friend in old country—ordered engadine as last chance—no go—not an earthly—sentimental wish to die in london—that's the history of mr. maturin. if it doesn't hit you hard, bunny, you're the first. but it hit friend theobald hardest of all. i'm an income to him. i believe he's going to marry on me."
"does he guess there's nothing wrong?"
"knows, bless you! but he doesn't know i know he knows, and there isn't a disease in the dictionary that he hasn't treated me for since he's had me in hand. to do him justice, i believe he thinks me a hypochondriac of the first water; but that young man will go far if he keeps on the wicket. he has spent half his nights up here, at guineas apiece."
"guineas must be plentiful, old chap!"
"they have been, bunny. i can't say more. but i don't see why they shouldn't be again."
i was not going to inquire where the guineas came from. as if i cared! but i did ask old raffles how in the world he had got upon my tracks; and thereby drew the sort of smile with which old gentlemen rub their hands, and old ladies nod their noses. raffles merely produced a perfect oval of blue smoke before replying.
"i was waiting for you to ask that, bunny; it's a long time since i did anything upon which i plume myself more. of course, in the first place, i spotted you at once by these prison articles; they were not signed, but the fist was the fist of my sitting rabbit!"
"but who gave you my address?"
"i wheedled it out of your excellent editor; called on him at dead of night, when i occasionally go afield like other ghosts, and wept it out of him in five minutes. i was your only relative; your name was not your own name; if he insisted i would give him mine. he didn't insist, bunny, and i danced down his stairs with your address in my pocket."
"last night?"
"no, last week."
"and so the advertisement was yours, as well as the telegram!"
i had, of course, forgotten both in the high excitement of the hour, or i should scarcely have announced my belated discovery with such an air. as it was i made raffles look at me as i had known him look before, and the droop of his eyelids began to sting.
"why all this subtlety?" i petulantly exclaimed. "why couldn't you come straight away to me in a cab?"
he did not inform me that i was hopeless as ever. he did not address me as his good rabbit.
he was silent for a time, and then spoke in a tone which made me ashamed of mine.
"you see, there are two or three of me now, bunny: one's at the bottom of the mediterranean, and one's an old australian desirous of dying in the old country, but in no immediate danger of dying anywhere. the old australian doesn't know a soul in town; he's got to be consistent, or he's done. this sitter theobald is his only friend, and has seen rather too much of him; ordinary dust won't do for his eyes. begin to see? to pick you out of a crowd, that was the game; to let old theobald help to pick you, better still! to start with, he was dead against my having anybody at all; wanted me all to himself, naturally; but anything rather than kill the goose! so he is to have a fiver a week while he keeps me alive, and he's going to be married next month. that's a pity in some ways, but a good thing in others; he will want more money than he foresees, and he may always be of use to us at a pinch. meanwhile he eats out of my hand."
i complimented raffles on the mere composition of his telegram, with half the characteristics of my distinguished kinsman squeezed into a dozen odd words; and let him know how the old ruffian had really treated me. raffles was not surprised; we had dined together at my relative's in the old days, and filed for reference a professional valuation of his household gods. i now learnt that the telegram had been posted, with the hour marked for its despatch, at the pillar nearest vere street, on the night before the advertisement was due to appear in the daily mail. this also had been carefully prearranged; and raffles's only fear had been lest it might be held over despite his explicit instructions, and so drive me to the doctor for an explanation of his telegram. but the adverse chances had been weeded out and weeded out to the irreducible minimum of risk.
his greatest risk, according to raffles, lay nearest home: bedridden invalid that he was supposed to be, his nightly terror was of running into theobald's arms in the immediate neighborhood of the flat. but raffles had characteristic methods of minimizing even that danger, of which something anon; meanwhile he recounted more than one of his nocturnal adventures, all, however, of a singularly innocent type; and one thing i noticed while he talked. his room was the first as you entered the flat. the long inner wall divided the room not merely from the passage but from the outer landing as well. thus every step upon the bare stone stairs could be heard by raffles where he lay; and he would never speak while one was ascending, until it had passed his door. the afternoon brought more than one applicant for the post which it was my duty to tell them that i had already obtained. between three and four, however, raffles, suddenly looking at his watch, packed me off in a hurry to the other end of london for my things.
"i'm afraid you must be famishing, bunny. it's a fact that i eat very little, and that at odd hours, but i ought not to have forgotten you. get yourself a snack outside, but not a square meal if you can resist one. we've got to celebrate this day this night!"
"to-night?" i cried.
"to-night at eleven, and kellner's the place. you may well open your eyes, but we didn't go there much, if you remember, and the staff seems changed. anyway we'll risk it for once. i was in last night, talking like a stage american, and supper's ordered for eleven sharp."
"you made as sure of me as all that!"
"there was no harm in ordering supper. we shall have it in a private room, but you may as well dress if you've got the duds."
"they're at my only forgiving relative's."
"how much will get them out, and square you up, and bring you back bag and baggage in good time?"
i had to calculate.
"a tenner, easily."
"i had one ready for you. here it is, and i wouldn't lose any time if i were you. on the way you might look up theobald, tell him you've got it and how long you'll be gone, and that i can't be left alone all the time. and, by jove, yes! you get me a stall for the lyceum at the nearest agent's; there are two or three in high street; and say it was given you when you come in. that young man shall be out of the way to-night."
i found our doctor in a minute consulting-room and his shirt-sleeves, a tall tumbler at his elbow; at least i caught sight of the tumbler on entering; thereafter he stood in front of it, with a futility which had my sympathy.
"so you've got the billet," said dr. theobald. "well, as i told you before, and as you have since probably discovered for yourself, you won't find it exactly a sinecure. my own part of the business is by no means that; indeed, there are those who would throw up the case, after the kind of treatment that you have seen for yourself. but professional considerations are not the only ones, and one cannot make too many allowances in such a case."
"but what is the case?" i asked him. "you said you would tell me if i was successful."
dr. theobald's shrug was worthy of the profession he seemed destined to adorn; it was not incompatible with any construction which one chose to put upon it. next moment he had stiffened. i suppose i still spoke more or less like a gentleman. yet, after all, i was only the male nurse. he seemed to remember this suddenly, and he took occasion to remind me of the fact.
"ah," said he, "that was before i knew you were altogether without experience; and i must say that i was surprised even at mr. maturin's engaging you after that; but it will depend upon yourself how long i allow him to persist in so curious an experiment. as for what is the matter with him, my good fellow, it is no use my giving you an answer which would be double dutch to you; moreover, i have still to test your discretionary powers. i may say, however, that that poor gentleman presents at once the most complex and most troublesome case, which is responsibility enough without certain features which make it all but insupportable. beyond this i must refuse to discuss my patient for the present; but i shall certainly go up if i can find time."
he went up within five minutes. i found him there on my return at dusk. but he did not refuse my stall for the lyceum, which raffles would not allow me to use myself, and presented to him off-hand without my leave.
"and don't you bother any more about me till to-morrow," snapped the high thin voice as he was off. "i can send for you now when i want you, and i'm hoping to have a decent night for once."
