it was half-past ten when we left the flat, in an interval of silence on the noisy stairs. the silence was unbroken by our wary feet. yet for me a surprise was in store upon the very landing. instead of going downstairs, raffles led me up two flights, and so out upon a perfectly flat roof.
"there are two entrances to these mansions," he explained between stars and chimney-stacks: "one to our staircase, and another round the corner. but there's only one porter, and he lives on the basement underneath us, and affects the door nearest home. we miss him by using the wrong stairs, and we run less risk of old theobald. i got the tip from the postmen, who come up one way and down the other. now, follow me, and look out!"
there was indeed some necessity for caution, for each half of the building had its l-shaped well dropping sheer to the base, the parapets so low that one might easily have tripped over them into eternity. however, we were soon upon the second staircase, which opened on the roof like the first. and twenty minutes of the next twenty-five we spent in an admirable hansom, skimming east.
"not much change in the old hole, bunny. more of these magic-lantern advertisements ... and absolutely the worst bit of taste in town, though it's saying something, in that equestrian statue with the gilt stirrups and fixings; why don't they black the buffer's boots and his horse's hoofs while they are about it? ... more bicyclists, of course. that was just beginning, if you remember. it might have been useful to us.... and there's the old club, getting put into a crate for the jubilee; by jove, bunny, we ought to be there. i wouldn't lean forward in piccadilly, old chap. if you're seen i'm thought of, and we shall have to be jolly careful at kellner's.... ah, there it is! did i tell you i was a low-down stage yankee at kellner's? you'd better be another, while the waiter's in the room."
we had the little room upstairs; and on the very threshold i, even i, who knew my raffles of old, was taken horribly aback. the table was laid for three. i called his attention to it in a whisper.
"why, yep!" came through his nose. "say, boy, the lady, she's not comin', but you leave that tackle where 'tis. if i'm liable to pay, i guess i'll have all there is to it."
i have never been in america, and the american public is the last on earth that i desire to insult; but idiom and intonation alike would have imposed upon my inexperience. i had to look at raffles to make sure that it was he who spoke, and i had my own reasons for looking hard.
"who on earth was the lady?" i inquired aghast at the first opportunity.
"she isn't on earth. they don't like wasting this room on two, that's all. bunny—my bunny—here's to us both!"
and we clinked glasses swimming with the liquid gold of steinberg, 1868; but of the rare delights of that supper i can scarcely trust myself to write. it was no mere meal, it was no coarse orgy, but a little feast for the fastidious gods, not unworthy of lucullus at his worst. and i who had bolted my skilly at wormwood scrubbs, and tightened my belt in a holloway attic, it was i who sat down to this ineffable repast! where the courses were few, but each a triumph of its kind, it would be invidious to single out any one dish; but the jambon de westphalie au champagne tempts me sorely. and then the champagne that we drank, not the quantity but the quality! well, it was pol roger, '84, and quite good enough for me; but even so it was not more dry, nor did it sparkle more, than the merry rascal who had dragged me thus far to the devil, but should lead me dancing the rest of the way. i was beginning to tell him so. i had done my honest best since my reappearance in the world; but the world had done its worst by me. a further antithesis and my final intention were both upon my tongue when the waiter with the chateau margaux cut me short; for he was the bearer of more than that great wine; bringing also a card upon a silver tray.
"show him up," said raffles, laconically.
"and who is this?" i cried when the man was gone. raffles reached across the table and gripped my arm in a vice. his eyes were steel points fixed on mine.
"bunny, stand by me," said he in the old irresistible voice, a voice both stern and winning. "stand by me, bunny—if there's a row!"
and there was time for nothing more, the door flying open, and a dapper person entering with a bow; a frock-coat on his back, gold pince-nez on his nose; a shiny hat in one hand, and a black bag in the other.
"good-evening, gentlemen," said he, at home and smiling.
"sit down," drawled raffles in casual response. "say, let me introduce you to mr. ezra b. martin, of shicawgo. mr. martin is my future brother-in-law. this is mr. robinson, ezra, manager to sparks & company, the cellerbrated joolers on re-gent street."
i pricked up my ears, but contented myself with a nod. i altogether distrusted my ability to live up to my new name and address.
"i figured on miss martin bein' right here, too," continued raffles, "but i regret to say she's not feelin' so good. we light out for parrus on the 9 a. m. train to-morrer mornin', and she guessed she'd be too dead. sorry to disappoint you, mr. robinson; but you'll see i'm advertisin' your wares."
raffles held his right hand under the electric light, and a diamond ring flashed upon his little finger. i could have sworn it was not there five minutes before.
the tradesman had a disappointed face, but for a moment it brightened as he expatiated on the value of that ring and on the price his people had accepted for it. i was invited to guess the figure, but i shook a discreet head. i have seldom been more taciturn in my life.
"forty-five pounds," cried the jeweller; "and it would be cheap at fifty guineas."
"that's right," assented raffles. "that'd be dead cheap, i allow. but then, my boy, you gotten ready cash, and don't you forget it."
i do not dwell upon my own mystification in all this. i merely pause to state that i was keenly enjoying that very element. nothing could have been more typical of raffles and the past. it was only my own attitude that was changed.
it appeared that the mythical lady, my sister, had just become engaged to raffles, who seemed all anxiety to pin her down with gifts of price. i could not quite gather whose gift to whom was the diamond ring; but it had evidently been paid for; and i voyaged to the moon, wondering when and how. i was recalled to this planet by a deluge of gems from the jeweller's bag. they lay alight in their cases like the electric lamps above. we all three put our heads together over them, myself without the slightest clew as to what was coming, but not unprepared for violent crime. one does not do eighteen months for nothing.
"right away," raffles was saying. "we'll choose for her, and you'll change anything she don't like. is that the idea?"
"that was my suggestion, sir."
"then come on, ezra. i guess you know sadie's taste. you help me choose."
and we chose—lord! what did we not choose? there was her ring, a diamond half-hoop. it cost l95, and there was no attempt to get it for l90. then there was a diamond necklet—two hundred guineas, but pounds accepted. that was to be the gift of the bridegroom. the wedding was evidently imminent. it behooved me to play a brotherly part. i therefore rose to the occasion; calculated she would like a diamond star (l116), but reckoned it was more than i could afford; and sustained a vicious kick under the table for either verb. i was afraid to open my mouth on finally obtaining the star for the round hundred. and then the fat fell in the fire; for pay we could not; though a remittance (said raffles) was "overdo from noo york."
"but i don't know you, gentlemen," the jeweller exclaimed. "i haven't even the name of your hotel!"
"i told you we was stoppin' with friends," said raffles, who was not angry, though thwarted and crushed. "but that's right, sir! oh, that's dead right, and i'm the last man to ask you to take quixotic risks. i'm tryin' to figure a way out. yes, sir, that's what i'm tryin' to do."
"i wish you could, sir," the jeweller said, with feeling. "it isn't as if we hadn't seen the color of your money. but certain rules i'm sworn to observe; it isn't as if i was in business for myself; and—you say you start for paris in the morning!"
"on the 9 a. m. train," mused raffles; "and i've heard no-end yarns about the joolers' stores in parrus. but that ain't fair; don't you take no notice o' that. i'm tryin' to figure a way out. yes, sir!"
he was smoking cigarettes out of a twenty-five box; the tradesman and i had cigars. raffles sat frowning with a pregnant eye, and it was only too clear to me that his plans had miscarried. i could not help thinking, however, that they deserved to do so, if he had counted upon buying credit for all but l400 by a single payment of some ten per cent. that again seemed unworthy of raffles, and i, for my part, still sat prepared to spring any moment at our visitor's throat.
"we could mail you the money from parrus," drawled raffles at length. "but how should we know you'd hold up your end of the string, and mail us the same articles we've selected to-night?"
the visitor stiffened in his chair. the name of his firm should be sufficient guarantee for that.
"i guess i'm no better acquainted with their name than they are with mine," remarked raffles, laughing. "see here, though! i got a scheme. you pack 'em in this!"
he turned the cigarettes out of the tin box, while the jeweller and i joined wondering eyes.
"pack 'em in this," repeated raffles, "the three things we want, and never mind the boxes; you can pack 'em in cotton-wool. then we'll ring for string and sealing wax, seal up the lot right here, and you can take 'em away in your grip. within three days we'll have our remittance, and mail you the money, and you'll mail us this darned box with my seal unbroken! it's no use you lookin' so sick, mr. jooler; you won't trust us any, and yet we're goin' to trust you some. ring the bell, ezra, and we'll see if they've gotten any sealing-wax and string."
they had; and the thing was done. the tradesman did not like it; the precaution was absolutely unnecessary; but since he was taking all his goods away with him, the sold with the unsold, his sentimental objections soon fell to the ground. he packed necklet, ring, and star, with his own hands, in cotton-wool; and the cigarette-box held them so easily that at the last moment, when the box was closed, and the string ready, raffles very nearly added a diamond bee-brooch at l51 10s. this temptation, however, he ultimately overcame, to the other's chagrin. the cigarette-box was tied up, and the string sealed, oddly enough, with the diamond of the ring that had been bought and paid for.
"i'll chance you having another ring in the store the dead spit of mine," laughed raffles, as he relinquished the box, and it disappeared into the tradesman's bag. "and now, mr. robinson, i hope you'll appreciate my true hospitality in not offering you any thing to drink while business was in progress. that's chateau margaux, sir, and i should judge it's what you'd call an eighteen-carat article."
in the cab which we took to the vicinity of the flat, i was instantly snubbed for asking questions which the driver might easily overhear, and took the repulse just a little to heart. i could make neither head nor tail of raffles's dealings with the man from regent street, and was naturally inquisitive as to the meaning of it all. but i held my tongue until we had regained the flat in the cautious manner of our exit, and even there until raffles rallied me with a hand on either shoulder and an old smile upon his face.
"you rabbit!" said he. "why couldn't you wait till we got home?"
"why couldn't you tell me what you were going to do?" i retorted as of yore.
"because your dear old phiz is still worth its weight in innocence, and because you never could act for nuts! you looked as puzzled as the other poor devil; but you wouldn't if you had known what my game really was."
"and pray what was it?"
"that," said raffles, and he smacked the cigarette-box down upon the mantelpiece. it was not tied. it was not sealed. it flew open from the force of the impact. and the diamond ring that cost l95, the necklet for l200, and my flaming star at another l100, all three lay safe and snug in the jeweller's own cotton-wool!
"duplicate boxes!" i cried.
"duplicate boxes, my brainy bunny. one was already packed and weighted, and in my pocket. i don't know whether you noticed me weighing the three things together in my hand? i know that neither of you saw me change the boxes, for i did it when i was nearest buying the bee-brooch at the end, and you were too puzzled, and the other johnny too keen. it was the cheapest shot in the game; the dear ones were sending old theobald to southampton on a fool's errand yesterday afternoon, and showing one's own nose down regent street in broad daylight while he was gone; but some things are worth paying for, and certain risks one must always take. nice boxes, aren't they? i only wished they contained a better cigarette; but a notorious brand was essential; a box of sullivans would have brought me to life to-morrow."
"but they oughtn't to open it to-morrow."
"nor will they, as a matter of fact. meanwhile, bunny, i may call upon you to dispose of the boodle."
"i'm on for any mortal thing!"
my voice rang true, i swear, but it was the way of raffles to take the evidence of as many senses as possible. i felt the cold steel of his eyes through mine and through my brain. but what he saw seemed to satisfy him no less than what he heard, for his hand found my hand, and pressed it with a fervor foreign to the man.
"i know you are, and i knew you would be. only remember, bunny, it's my turn next to pay the shot!"
you shall hear how he paid it when the time came.
