The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 9, 1905, Page 2

LRE'S THE SKIFFLE IS BIN * THE TAT WILL N FIVE MINDTES This is the sixth of a weries of thir- ies entitied “Raffles, the sman.” destined to = fame in his own peculiar sheriock Holmes in a to- Rafles widesprend ux did tally different sphere, for Raffies and Holmes arc exmct opposites in view, charncter and career. While Sherlock Holmes exereised his wonderful powers toward the deteetion of me, Rafiles is represented as a man of wausual imtellect and of high birth and breeding who bas sunk to employing bis undoubted gemius to en- able bim to life by his wits. weventh advenfure of Raffles— Sinecurc”—will appear mext Sun- The Charjes Scribner’'s 18, King of the Cannibai e faces at Queen & European mc the cables omplime! n England was not for the thing was e become a gift of pe- low the con- the nd ting and present who ild have been & god- tew weeks later. Even J were leaders, letters, large rest quill of the hour which ob- topic ric verse Raffies (who me there), lying 1 sculled and pay you pretty I thought they paid cm time and you'll get said 1 gloomily. nt with the honor of editor wrote to say so in dded. But I gave the ed name. ay you've written ng 1 had intended it. The mur- s no sense in fur- ad written for my needeu it; if he rd up. ¥ ew al- my woes. It was keep your end up as & ters; for my part v efther well enough ess. 1 suffered ual feeling after ge, but it did ragraphs and the 1 would i agein, this time with a n his eves as he leaned I knew that he was hings 1 had stooped ew what he was g d it before so often; it agem. 1 had my t evidently he was tired ame question. His lids c paper he had dropped ength of the old red ourt before he spoke ¢ Hampton you nothing for these! v, they’re capital, not only for srystallizing your sub- ng it in a nutshell. Cer- d they gave ht me more about it But is it really worth nr eve; but that wouldn't thousand pounds!” sald is eyes shut. And again what was coming, but as mistaken. “If it's worth all d at last, “there would be id of it at all; it's not like a d that you can subdivide. But I r pardon, Bunny, I was forget- i we said no more about the Em- peror's gift, for pride thrives on an empty pocket, and mno privation would have drawn from me the proposal which I had expected Raffles to make. My expecta- tion had been half a hope, though I only knew it now. But neither did we touch egain on what Raffles professed to/ have forgotten—my “‘apostasy,” my “lapse into virtue,” as he had been pleased to call it. We were both a little silent, a little con- N& ‘THE WHIPPERSNAPFPLR CA AT BE IN TAE FIEE each preoccupied with his own ghts. It was months since we had and as I saw him off toward 11 night I fancied it that we were say- ned met o'clock that Sund was for more mor ing go0d-by But as we waited for the train I saw those cl peering at me under the station and when I met their glance Raffles shook his head. don’'t look well on it, Bunn said h never did belleve in this Thames Valiey. You want a change of 1 d T might get it v want is a sea voyage.” tz, or do you It's all y don't want look here, a I want a u shall come with spend July in the change myse me as my guest fediterranean.” ‘But you're playing cricket—" “Hang the cricket!’ “Well, I thought you meant it—" “Of cof ant it. Will you come?” Like a shot—if you go.” And I shook his hand and waved mine farewell, with the perfectly good-hu- red conviction that 1 should hear no more of the matter. It was a passing ht, no more, no less. I soon wished re; that week found me wishing out of England for good and all. I was making nothing. I could but sub- on the difference between the rent I sis paid for my flat and the rent at which 1 had sublet it, furnished, for the sea- s near its end Was season when I had money in my pocket, e more downright dishonesty ed to me the less ignoble. But from Raffles of course I heard ¢; a week went by, and hailf ¢ ; then, late on the second Wednesday night, 7 found a telegram fr him at my lodgings, after seeking y in town and dining with des- peration at the solitary club to which 1 no bil 1ge to leave Waterloo by North vd special,” he wired, “9:35 y next; will meet you South- board Uhlan with tickets; am rite he did, a light-hearted letter , but full of serlous solicitude for se and for my health and prospects—a letter almost touching in the light of our past relations, in the twilight of their compiete rupture. He said that he had booked two berths to Naples; that we were bound for Capri, which was clearly the island of the Lotos-eaters; that we would bask there together “and for a while {orget.” It was a charming letter. I had never seen Italy; the privilege of initiation should be his. No mistake was greater than to deem it an impossible country for the summer.| “The Bay of Naples was never so divine,” and he wrote of “faery lands forlorn,” as though the poetry sprang unbidden to his pen. To ceme back to earth and prosg, I might think it unpatriotic of him to choose a German boat, but on no other line did vou recelve such attention and accommo- dation for your money. There was & hint of better reagons. Raffles wrote, as he had telegraphed, from Bremen; and I gathered that the personal use of some iittle influence with the authoriies there had resulted in a material reduction of our fares. Imagine my excitement and delight! 1 managed to pay what 1 owed at Thames Ditton, to squeeze a small editor for a very small check and my tallors for one more flannel suit. 1 remember that I broke my last sovereign to get a box of Sullivan's cigarettes for Rafiies tg smoke on the voyage. But my heart was as light as my purse on the Monday morn- ing, the fairest morning of an unfair summer, when the special whirled me through the sunshine to the sea. A tender awaited us at S.uthampton. Raffies was not on bogrd, nor did I really look for him tilll we reached the liner's side. And then I looked in vain. His fuce was not among the many that fringed the rail; his hand was not of the few that waved to friends. I climbed aboard in @ sudden heaviness. 1 had no ticket nor the money to pay for ome. I did not even know the number of my room. My heart was in my mouth as I waylald a steward and asked if a Mr. es was on board. Thank heaven—he was! But where? The man did not know, was plainly on some other errand, and a- hunting I must go. But there Was no sign of him on the promenade deck and none below in the saloon; the smoking- room was empty but for a little German with a red mustache twisted into his eves; nor was Raffles in his own cabin, whither I inquired my way in despera- tion, but where the sight of.his own name on the baggage was certainly & further reassurance. Why he himself kept in the background, however, I could not con- ceive, and only sinister reasons would suggest themselves In explanation. “So there you are! I've been looking for you all over the ship!” Despite the graven prohibition I had tried the bridge as a last resort and there indeed was A. J. Raffles seated on a sky- light and leaning over one of the officers’ long chairs, in which reclined a girl in a white drill coat and skirt—a slip of a girl with a pale skin, dark hair and rather L A BEVOLVER A THE C VON, ?‘IFEUQEH COMPLETED THE FPARTY remarkable eyes. So much I noted as he rose and quickly turned: theréupon I could think of nothing but ‘the swift grimace which preceded a start of well- feigned astonishment. » “Why, Bunny?” cried Raffles. have you sprung from?" 1 stammered something as he pinched my hand. £ “Aud are you coming in ‘this ship? And to Naples, too? 'Well, upon my word! Miss Werner, may I introduce him?" And he did so without a blush, _ describ- g me as an old school-fellow whom he had 1ot seen for months, with willful cir- cumstance and gratultéus detafl that filled me at once with confusion, sus- picion and revolt. I felt myself blushing for us both, and I did not care. My ad- dress utterly deserted me, and I made no effort to recover it, to carry the thing off. All T would do was to mumble such words as Raffles actually put into my mouth, and that I doubt not with a ther- oughly evil grace., ‘S0 you saw my name in the list of passengers -and came in search of me? Good old Bunny! I-say, though, F wish you'd share my cabin. 1've got a beauty on the promenade deck, but they wouldn't promise to keep me by myself, We ought to see about It before tliey shove in some “Where allen. In any casc, we shall have to get out of this."” For a quartermaster had entered the wheelbousc, and even while/ we had been speaking the pllot ‘had tuken possession of the bridge; as we descended the tender left us with flying handkerchlefs and shrill good-bys and as we bowed to Miss Werner on the promenade deck there came a decp, slow throbbing under foot @nd our voyage had begun. s It did not begin pleasantly, between Raffles and me. On deck he over- borne my stibborn perplexity by dint of & forced though forceful joviality; in his cabin the gloves were off. . “You idiot,” he snarled, *‘you've given me away again!” “How have I given you away?’ 1 tgnored the separate insult in his last. word. ¥ “How? 1 lhn? :v thought any clod could see that - us to meet by chance!” * Ereer e “After taking both tickéts yourself?” “They knew nothing 'about that on board; besides, 1 hadn't decided when I took the tickets.” “Then you should have let me know when you ‘did decide. You'lay your plans end pever say a word, and expect me to tumble to them by light of nature. How- was 1 kiiow you'bad anything on?" T had turned the tables with some ef- . fect. Raffiles almost hung his head. “The fact Is, Bunny, I didi't mean you to know. You—you've grown such a plous rabbit in your old age.” My nickname and his tone went far to mollify me; other things went. further, - but I had much to forgive him still. “1f you were afrald of writing," I pur- sued, “it was your business to give me thie tip the moment I set foot dn board.’ 1 would have taken it all right. I am not %0 virtuous as all that.” _ Was it my imagination or did Raffies Took slightly ashamed? 1f so it was for ihe first time in all the years I knew him, nor can b swear to it even now. “That,” said he, “was the very thing I.mcant to do—to lie in wait in my rcom and get you as you passed. But—" o “You were better engaged? “Say otherwise.” 3 “The charming Miss Werner?” “She is quite charming?” “Most Australian girls are,” eaid T. “How did you know she was one?” he cried. 1 heard her speak.” “Brute!' .-ald Raffles, laughini ‘she has no more twang than you have. Her people are German, she has been to school in Dresden and is on kher way out alone.” oney?" I inquired. “Coénfdund you!" he sald, and, though he was'laughing, 1 thought it was a point at which the subject might be changed. ? “Well,” T sald, “it wasn't for Miss Werner-you wanted us to play stran- . vigd You have some deeper game than that, eh?" 1 suppose I havi “Then hadn't you better tell me what it ia?” Raffles treated fiie to the old, cautious scruitny that I knew so well; the very famillarity of it, after all these ‘months, set me smiling in a way that ht have reassured him, for dimly already I divined his enterprise. 7 “It won't send you oft in the pliot's boat, Bunny?”’ - ) - “Not quite.” “Then-—you remember the pearl you wrote the —" I did not wait for him to finish his sentence. “You've gotl t!” I cried, my face on fire, for I caught sight of it that moe- ment in the stateroom mirror. Raffles seemed taken aback. “Not yet,” gald he; *“but I mean to have it before we get to Naples.” “Is it on board?" “Yes.” s = X ; "But how-—where—who's got it?” “A little German officer, 8 whipper- snapper with perpendicular mustaches.” “I saw him In the smokeroom.” “Thwt's the chap; he's always there. Herr Captain Wilhelm von Heumann, if You look in the list:” Well, he's the spe- clal envoy of the Emperor, and he's tak- ing the pearl out witn him!” “You found this out in Bremen?” . .“No, in Berlin, from a newspaper man I know there. I'm ashamed to tell you, Bunny, that I went there on purpbse!” ‘1 burstsout laughing. “You needn’t be .ashamed. : You are doing the very thing ‘I was rather hoping you were golng to propose the other day on the river.” J *‘You were hoping it?" said Raffles, with eyes wide open. Indeed, it was his SN _less. \ DO N NN - 4TS 7‘55’«‘7"7 turn to show surprise and mine to be muck more gshamed than I felt. “‘Yes,” 1 angwered, “I was quite keen on the idea, but I wasn't going to pro- pose {t.” ' “Yet rou would have listened to me the other aay?" Certainly I would, and I told him s without regerve; not brazenly, you undey- stand: not even now with the gusto of a man who savors such an adventure for his own sdke, but doggendly, deflanitly, through my teeth, as ope who had-tried to live honestly and fafled. And while 1 was about it I told him much more. Klo- quently enough, I dare say, I gave him chapter and verse of my hopeless strug- e, my inavitable defeat; for hopeless and fnevitable they were to a man with my recard, even though that record was written only in one's own soul. It was the old story of the thief trying to turn henest man; the thing was agalnst na- tere, and there was an end of it. Raffles entirely disagreed with me. He shook his head over my conventional view. Human nature was a board of checkers; why not reconcile one's self to alternate black and white? Why de- sire to be all one thing or all the other, like our forefathers on the stage or in the old-fashioned-fietlon? Far his part he en- Joyed himself on all squares of the board and liked the light the better for the shade. My conclusion he considered ab- surd. “But you err i g6od company, Bunny, “And he has?” “Must bave.” “Then we have only him to deal with?" He answercd me without a word. Sewething white yas fluttering past cnee more, and Raflles. stepping forth, inide the probienaders three. I 1:do not ask to set foot aboard a finer steamship than the Uhlan of the Nerddeytseher Lloyd, to meet a kind- lier geitleman than her then com- ménder or better fellows than his of- ficers. Thie much, at least, let me have the grace te admit. 1 hated the voy- age. It was no fault of anybody con- nected with the ship; it was no fault .of the. weather, which was monot- onously ideal. Not even in my own heart did the reason reside; consgience and I were divorced at last and the de- Crec made absolute. With my scruples had fec all fear, and I was ready to Tevel between bright skies and spark- ling sea with the light-hearted detach- aignt of Rafes himself. It was Raf- fles himself who prevented me, but not Raffics aloue. Tt was Raffles and that colonial minx on her way home from sehool. ‘What he could see in her—but that begs the question. Of course he saw no more than I did, but to annoy me, or perhaps to punish me for my long defection, he must turn his back on me and devote himself to this chit from Southampton o the Mediterranean. They were always together. Tt was too absurd. After break- fast they would begin and go on until 11 or 12 at t; there was no intervening hour at which you might not hear her nasal laugh or his quiet voice talking soft nopsense into her ear. Of course it was nonsense! Is it concelvable that a man ke Raffles, with his knowledge of the world and his experience of women (a side of his charactgr upen which I have fi“?f“.”" neyer tcuehed, for it deserves anpther volume)—is it’ creditable, T ask, that such a man could find anything but nonsense to talk by the day together to a glddy young schoolgirl? I would net ::; S z‘:" 3 dfgh- E m m""n‘:'.’: be ir for the werld. I think 1 have 4 w‘::“ addie; of you sil. 1 back Admitted that the young person had points. ' # Het eyes, 1'suppose, were really fine, and myself to climb out of Avernus any day 1 like, and mer or liter 1 shall climb out for good. I suppose I can’t very well turn myself into a Limited Liability Com- pany. B&é::qqm retire and settle down and live elensly ever after. L'm nat sure that it couldn't be done on this peayl alone!” “Then you don’t still thigk it too re- ‘markable to seli”” “We might take a fishery and haul it up with smaller fry. It would come after months of fll-luck, just as we were nfla o sell the schooner; by Jove, it wauld the falk of the Pacific!” “Well, we've got to get it first. Is this Von What's-his-name, a formidable cuss?™ . “Mora. 50 than We looks; and he has the cheek of the devil.”™™" A8 he-spokc 1 white drill skirt flut- tered past the open stateroom goor, and T caught a glimpse of an upturned mus- tache bevand. “But is he the ch: with? Won't the pe: Keeping?"' Raflles stobd at the door. frowning ofit upon the Solent, but for an instant he turned to me with a suift. “My good fellow, do you suppose the whole ship’s company krows there is a gem like that aboard? You sald that it was weorth a bhundred thousard pounds; in Beriin they say it i price- 1 doukt if the skipper ~himself we have {o deal be in the purser’s the shape of the little brown face was charming. so far as mere con- tour can charm. I admit also more au- city than 1 cared about, with enviable ith, mettle and vitality. I may not haye oceasion te report any of this young lady's -speeches’ (they would scarcely bear {t), ang am therefore the more anx- iqus to describe her without Injustice. I copfess to some little prejudice against her. 1 resented her success with Raffles, of whom, In conscquence, [ saw less and less epchday. [t is a mean thing to have 10 copléss, but there must have been spmething not unlike jealousy rankling ‘within me. Jealuusy there was in another quarter— criide, rampant, undignified jealousy. Captain von Heuthann would . curl his mustachos into twin spires, shoot his white cuffs over his rings and stare at me involently through his rimless eyeglasses; we ought 't have conscled each other, but we never ¢xchanged a syilable. The captain hygr& murderous scar across one of. his cheeks, a present from Heidelbers. and I used to think how he must long to have Raflles there to serve the same. Tt was not as though Von Heumann never had his innings. Raffles let him go in several times a day for the maliclous pleasure of bowling him out as he was “getting set”; those were his words ‘when 1 d him disingenously with obnoxious condfict' toward a German on a German boul. GIFT *“You'll disliked on board!’” % “By Von Heumann merely. “But is that wise w he's the man we've got to deal with “The wisest thing I ever did. To have chummed up with him would have been fatal—the common dodge.” T wag consoled, encouraged, almost con- tent. I had feared Raffles was neglect- ing things, and I told him so in a burst. Here we were pear Glbraltar, and not a word since the Solent. He shook his head with a smile. “Plenty of time, Bunny; plenty of time. We can do nothing before we get to make yourself Genoa, and that won't be till Sunday night. The voya is still young, and so are we. Let's mdke the most of things while we can.™ It was after dinner on the promenade deck, and as Raffles spoke he glancec sharply fore and aft, leaving me next moment with a step full of purpos I retired to the smoking-room to smoke .and read In a cormer, and to watch Von Heumann, who very soon came to drink beer and to sulk in another. Few travelers tempt the Red Sea at midsummer; the Uhlan was very empty indeed. She had, however, but a limited supply of cabins on the promenade deck and there was just that excuse for m sharing RafMes’ room. I could have had one to myself downstalrs, but I must be up above. Raffles had insisted that I should insist on the point. So we were together, 1 think, without susplcion, though also without any object that I could sce. On the Sunday afterncon I was asleep in my berth, the lower one, when the uria were shaken by Raffles, who was in his shirtsleeves on the settee “Achilles sulking In his bunk!™ “What_else is there to do?’ I asked him, as I stretched and yawned. I noted, however, the good humor of his tone, and did my best to catch it. “T have 'found something else, Bunny.” “I dare say!” tand me. The whipper- entury this after- fish to fry.” 1 gwung my legs over the side of my berth and sat forward, as he was sitting, all attention. The inner door, a grating. wag shut and bolted and curtained like the open porthole. “We shall be at Genoa before sun- Set,” continued Raffles. “It's t place where the deed's got to be don “Se you still mean to do 1t?” “Did I ever say I didn't?" “You have said so little either way."” “Advisedly so. my dear Bunny: why spoil a pleasure trip by talking un- nécessary shop? But now the time has come. It must be done at Genoa or not at an.” “On land?” “No, on board, to-morrow night. To- night would do, but to-morrow is better in case of mishap. If we were forced to use violence we could #et away by be the earliest train and nothing known till the ship was salling and Heumann foynd dead or drugged—" “Not dead!” I exclaimed. “Of course not,” assented Raffles, ‘“‘or there would be no need for us to bolt: but if we should have to boit, Tuesday morning is our time. when this ship has got to sail whatever happens. But I don't anticipate any violence. Vio- lence is a confession of terrible incom- petence. In all these years how many blows have you known me to strike? Not .one, I believe: but I have been quite ready to kill my man every time it the worsi came to the worst.” I asked himr how he proposed to én ter Von Heumann's statercom unob- served, and even through the cur tained gloom of ours his face lghted up. “Climb into my bunk, Bunny, and you shall see.” 1 did so, but could see nothing. Raf- fles reached across me and tapped the ventilator, a sort of trapdooer in the wall above his bed, some eighteen inches long and half that leagth. It opened outward inte the ventilating shaft. “That,” said he, “is our door to for- tune. Open it if you like; you won't see mueh, because it doesn't open far but loosening a couple of screws will set that all right. The shaft, as you may see, is more or less bottomless: you pass under it whenever you go to your bath, and the top is a skylight on the bridge. That's why this thing has to be done while we're at Genoa, because they keep no watch on the bridge in port. The ventilator opposite ours is Von Heumann's. It again will only mean a couple of screws, and there's a beam to stand on while you work."” “But if anybedy should look up from below 7" “It's extremely unlikely that any- body will be astir below—so unlikely that we can afford to chance it. should be seen from the time we turn in. A couple of ship’s boys do sentry- &0 on these decks, and they shall be our witnesses; by Jove, it's the biggest mystery that ever was made!” “If Von Hewmann doesn’t resist.” “Resist! He won't get the chance. He drinks too much beer to sleep light, and nothing Is so easy as to chloroform a heavy sleeper: you've even done it yougself on an ogccasion of which fit's perhaps unfair to remind youw. Von Heumann will be past sensation almost as soon as I get my hagd through his ventilator. T shall crawl over his body Bunny, my boy!" “And 17" “You will hand me what I want and hold the fort in case of accidents, and generally lend me the moral support you've made me require. It's a luxury, Bunny, but I found it devilish difcult to do without it after vou turned pi™ He said that Von Heumann was cer- tain to sleep with a bolted door. which he, of course, would have unbolted, and spoke of other ways of laying a false scent while rifling the cabin. Not that Raffles anticipated a tiresome search. The pearl would be about Von Heu- mann’s person: in fact, Raffles knew exactly where and in what he kept it Naturally I asked how he could have come by such knowledge, and his an. swer led up to a momentary unpleas- antness. “It's a very old. story, Bunny. forgot in what book I{ \:o!‘:‘t‘::y e sure of the Testament . was the uniucky hero and one mion the heroine.” And he looked so knowing ‘that I could not be in a moment's do to his meaning. ubt as “So the fair Australian has been playing Delilah?” said T “She got his mission out of him" “Yes, I've forced him to score s points he could, and that was heu“‘lr:r;: stroke, as I hoped it would be. He has even shown Amy the pearl™ my, eh! and she prompely teld you “Nothing of the kind. W you think s0? I had t‘;:‘tm:’:!k: trouble in getting it out o n His tone should have ‘b:::{ a sut ficlent warning to me. I had not the tact to take it as such. At last I kn . the meaning of his furious firtation. and stood wagging my head and shak- (Continued on Page Three.) »