The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 23, 1905, Page 2

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL This is the eighth of = wseries of thirteen pew entitied “Raffies, the Amateur Cracksman.” Raflics destined to nchicve as widespread fame in his own peeuliar Sherlock Holmes in a to- stories is line as did tally difierent sphere, for Rafles and Holmes are exact opposites in view, character and career. While Sherlock Holmes exercised his wonderful powers toward the detection of crime, Raflles is represented as a man of unusual intellect and of high birth and breeding who has sunk to employing his undoubted genius to en- able » live by his wits. The nipth adventure of Raflles—*The Fate of Faustina”—will appear mext Sunday g rles Scribner's ~ in the British enough ng alien and gold is gold, and if we how @0 you prop to get eway,” at length I asked, “to while?” here you have it.” said Raffles propose to reconnoiter the to see what we can see We some hiding place for a , I am afraid, would be our there before?” the one good I believe that now. It's a long time of it—I can't remember u know they have got & p of sorts worth several thou- number of the immorally rich ed together and presented it to t 4 two of the richly im- snaffie it for them- v rate we might go and ever been they e a look it, Bunny, don't you I seized his arm. When? When?” I asked " firing gun. sooner the better, while old s away on his honeymoon.” fellow practitioner least not that of it which con- ring his brief ab- There were reasons, vious to us, why such a e been highly unwise d. I, however, was send- d both matuti- the com- flies not a I began I sighed. “But to-mor- to-merrow it really was. t night and, I still beolute allegiance for n itself. turin (as T try while I was my- possible harm come of Would orter help me in so innocent ntrigue? ] my half sovereign. And at half-past 8 the heat of th rove to Kew Gardens until we came. The d me to carry my in- ] /'/é'/"// 114 51 ,///1/ v l// 7 ,’ ,’/"I"/,Z""" valid downstairs, in =& hired (like the landau) Stores for the occasion. It was a little after nine when we crawled together into the gardens; by -past my invalild had had enough, and out he tottered on my arm; a cab, a message to our coachman, a timely train to Baker strqet, another eab, and we were at the Britlsh Museum—brisk pe- destrians now—not very many minutes after the opening hour of ten a. m, It was one of those glowing days which will not be forgotten by many who were in town at that time. The Diamond Ju- bllee was upon us, the Queen's weather had already set in. Raflies, indeed, de- clared it was as hot as Italy and Austra- lia put together; and certainly the short summer nights gave the channels of wood and asphalt and the continents of brick and mortar but little time to cool. At the British Museum the pigeons were crovning among tne shadows of the grimy colonnade, and the stalwart jani- tors looked less stalwart than usual, as though their medals were too heavy for them. I recognizeéd some habitual read- ers going to ineir labore underneath the dome; of mere visitors we seemed among first. hat’s the room,” said Raffles, who had bought the two-penny guide, as we studied it openly on the nearest bench; “number 43, upstairs and sharp round to the right. Come on, Bunny!” Aud he led the in silence, but with a long metnodical stride which I could not understand until.we came to:the cor- ridor leading to the Room of w..., when he turned to me for a moment. carrying-chair from Harrod's ”,’\ OF AN “‘A hundred and thirty-nine yards from this to the open street” said ..affles, ‘“not counting the stairs. I suppose we could do it in twenty seconds, but if we did we should have to jump the gates. No, you must remember to loaf out slow march, Bunny, whether you like it or not.” “But you talked about a hiding place for a night?” “Quite so—for all night, We should have to get back, go on lying low, and saunter out with the crowd next day— after doing the whoie show thoroughly.” ““What! With gold in our pockets—" “And gold in our boots, and gold up the sleeves and legs of our suits! You leave that to me, Bunny, and wait till you've tried two pairs of trousers sewn together at the foot! This is only a pre- liminary reconnoiter. And here we are.” It is none of my business to describe the so-called Room of Gold, with which 1, for one, was not a little disappointed. The glass cases, which boti fill and line it, may contain unique examples of the goldsmith’s art in times and places of which one heard quite emough in the course of one's classical education; but, from a professional int of view, I would as lief have th of a single window in the West End as the pick of all those spolls of Btruria and of ancient Greece. The gold may not be so soft as it appears, but it certairly looks as though you eeuld bite off the business ends of the spoons, and step your own teeth in doing so. Nor should I care to be seen wearing one of the rings; but the greatest fraud of all (frpm the afore- said standpoint) is assuredly that very THE T\/O 'GUARDS WERE STIL INCONACIOUD AING \JBONG- cup of which Raffles had spoken. More- over, he felt this himself, “Why, it's as ¢hin as paper,’’.sald he, “and enameled lke a middle-aged lady of quality! But. by Jove, it's one of the most beautiful things 1 ever saw in my life, Bunny. I should ke to have it'for. its own sake, by all my gods!” The thing had a little square case of plate glass all to itself at one end of the room. It may have been the thing of beauty that Raffies affected to consider it, but I for my part was in no moed to look at ft in that Mght. Underneath were the names of the plutocrats who had subscribed for this ‘national gew- gaw, and I fell to wondering where their 25900 came in, while Raffles devoured his two-penny guidebook as greedily as a schoolgirl with a zeal for culture. “Those are scenes from the martyrdom of St. Agnes,” said he * * * * ‘trgnslu- cent on relief * ¢ * one of the fines specimens of its kind." T should think !t was! Bunny, vou Philistine, why cln: you admire the thing for its own sake? It would be worth having only to If up to! Theré never was such rich enam- eling on such thin gold, and what a good scheme \to hang the lid up over it, so thut you can see how thin it is. T wonder if we could Hft it; Bunny, by hook or crook?” “You'd better try, sir’, said a dry voice at his elbow. g The madman seemed to think we had the room to ourselves. - I knew better, but, like another madman, let ghim ramble on uncheécked. And Here was a stolid fonstable confronting us in the short tunic that they wear in summer, his whistle on its chain, but no trunch- con at his side. Heavens! how I see Im now—a man of medium size. with a broad, goed-huino perspiring face and a limp m he. He looked sternly at Raffles and Raffles looked merrily at him. “Gof to run me in, officer?”’ said he. “That would be & joke—my hat!” “I didn’t say as I was sir,” replied the policeman. “But that's queer talk for a gentleman like you, sir, in the British Museum!” And he wagged his helmet at my invalid, who had taken his airing In frock coat and top hat, the more readily to assume his present part. “What!" crled Raffles, “simply saying to my friend that I'd like to lift the gold cup? Why, so I should, officer, so I should! I don't mind who hears me say so. It's one of the most beautiful things I ever saw in all my life.” The constable’s face had already re- laxed, and now a grin peeped under the limp mustache. “T dare say there's many as feels like that, sir,” said he. “Exactly; and I say' what I feel, that's all, sald Raffles airily. “But serfously, officer, is a valuable thing like this quite safe in a case like that?" “Safe enough as long as I'm here replied the other. between griin jest and stout earnest. Raffles studied his face; he was still watching Raffles, and 1 kept an eye on them both without putting in my word. i 3 “You appear to be single. ohserved Raffles. “Is that wise The note of anxiety was capitally caught; it was at once personal and public-spirited, that of the enthusiastic savant, afrald for a’national treasure which few appreciated as he did him- self. And, to be sure, the three of us now had this treasury to ourselves. One or two others had been there when we entered, but now they were gone. “I'm not single-handed,” said the cer comfortably. “See that seat by the door? One of the attendants sits there all day long.” “Then where is he now?" “Talking to another attendant just outside. If you listen you'll hear them for yourself.” 'l ‘We listened and we did hear them, but not just outside. Tn my own mind I even questioned whether they were in the cor- ridor through which we had come. To e it sounded as though they were just outside the corridor. “You mean the fellow with the billiard cue wha was here when we came in?’ pursued Raffles, “That wasn't a billiard cue! It was a pointer,” the intelligent: officer explained. “It ought to be a javelin,” sald Raffles nervously, ~“It ought to be a poleax! The public treasure ought te be better ded than this. 1 shall write to the mes about it, ‘¥eu see if I don't!” All at once, yet somenow not so sud- denly as to excite suspicion, Raffles had beccme the elderly busybody ' with nerves; why I could not for the life of nded,” M- me imagine, and the policeman seemed equally at sea. “Lor’ bless you, sir,” said he, “I'm all right. Don't you bother your head about me.” “But you haven't even got a trunch- eon!"™ Not likely to want one, either. You see, sir, it's early as yet. In a few min- utes these here rooms will fill up, and there's safety in numbers, hey say.” “Uh, it wiil fill up soen, will it?” “Any minute now, sir.” AR “It isn't often empty as long as this, sir. It's the jubllee, I suppose.” “Meanwhile what if my friend and’I had been professional thieves? Why, we could have overpowered you in an in- stant, my good fellow!" “That you couldn't; leastways not without bringing the whoie place about your ears.” 1 ““Well, I shall write to the Times all the same. I'm a connoisseur in all this sort of thing, and I won't have unne sary risks run with the nation's You said there was an atte outside, but he sounds to me he were at the other end of the ¢ 1 shall write to-day!" For an instant we all three and Raffles was right. Then I saw things in one glance. Raffle a few Inches backward and upan the ball of each foot, raised, a light in his eyes. listened, two kind of light was breaking over the crass features of our friend the constable. “Then shall I tell y what I'll do?” he cried, with a sudden clutch at the whistle chain on his chest. The whistle flew out, buf it never reached his lips. There were a couple of sharp smacks like double barrels discharged all but simultagfeously, and the man reeled against me so that I could not help catching him as he fell. “Well done, Bunn! I've knocked him out—I've knocked him out! Run you to the door and see If the attendants have heard anything, and take them on if they have.” Mechanically T did as I was told. There was no time for thought, still less for re- monstrance or reproach, though my sur- prise must have been even more complets than that of the constable betore Raffles knocked the sense out of him. Even in my utter ‘- bewilderment, however, the instinctive caution of the real criminal did not desert me. I ran to the door, but 1 'sauntered through it to plant myself before a Pompeilan fresco in the corridor, and there were the two aitendants still gossiping outside the further door; mor dd they hear the dull crash which I heard even as I watched them out of the corner of each eve. It was hot weather, as I have sald, but the perspiration on my body seemed al- ready to have turned into a skin of lce. Then T caught the faint reflection of my own face in the casing of the fresco, and it frightened me into some semblance of myself as Raffles joined me with his hands in his pockets. But my fear and indignation were redoubled at the sight of him, when a single glance convinced me that his pockets were as empty as his hands and his mad outrage the most wanton and reckless of his whole career. “Ah, very interesting, very Interesting, but nothing to what they have In the museum at Naples or in Pompeil Ttself. You must go there some day, Bunny. Fve a good mind to take vou myself. Meanwhile—slow mareh—the beggar has not moved an eyelid. We may swing for him. if you show indecent haste!” “We!" I whispered. “We!™ And my knees knocked together as we came to the chatting attendants. But Raffles must needs interrupt them to ask the way to the Prehistoric Saloon. “At the top of the stairs.” “Thank you. Then weil work round that way to the Egyptian part.” And we left them resuming their provi- dential chat. “I belleve you're mad,” terly as we went. “Well, we managed to come through. A huyndred and thirty-nine yards’ wasa't it? Then it can't be more than a hun- dred and twenty now—not as much. Steady, Bunny, for God's sake. It's slow march—for our lives” I said bit- this much management. colossal luck. A ing pald off at the foot steps outside, and in we jumped. Ram s shouting “Charing Cyoss!” for all Bleomsbury to hear. e had turned into Bloomshury street without exchanging a syllable wh the trapdoor with his fist “Where the devil are you driving us?* “Charing Cross, sir.” : sald King's Cross. Round you spin and drive like blazes or we miss our train! There's one to York at 10:35," added Raffles as the trapdoor slammed; “we'll book there, Bunny, and then we'll slope through the subway to the Metropolitan, and so to ground via Baker street and Earl's Court.” And actually in half an hour he was seated once more in the hired carry- ing ch while the porter and I stag- rs with my decrepit r0se shattered strength, ¢ hour in Kew Gardens had proved too much! Then, and not until then, when we had got rid of the per- ter and were alone at last did I tell Raflles in the most nervous English at v comand, frankly and exactly what I thought of him and of his latest deed. Onge started, moreover, I spoke as I have seldom spoken to living man, and Raffles, all men, stood my abuse with a murmur, or rather he sat it out, too astonished even to take off Ris hat, though I thought his eyebrows weuld have lifted it from his head. But it always was your Iinferaal way,” I was savagely concluding. “You ke one plan and you tell me a@~- “Not to-day. Bunny, I swear!” “You mean to tell me you really 4td art with the bare idea of finding & slace to hide in for a night? “Of course I did.” “It was to be the you pretended?” “There was Bunny.” . o? why on earth go and do what did?* ha reason would be obvious to any said Raffles, still with no “It was the temptation ute—the final impulse of the t a second, when Roberto saw pted, and let me see that ung I care to do, the papers tell But a knock- chance for us P mere reconnoiter noe pretense about, t was the only then. “Why? You dom’t get run in for being "p.:ed, nor yet for showing that you ve deserved running in ded to such a temptation It was a chance In a asand! We might go thera 'our lives and n agaln be siders in the room with the ng Johnnie practically t at one and the same time. was a gift from the gods; take: out It not to have it would have been flying in the of providenee.” ‘But you didn’t take it,” sald L “You nd left it behing, h I had a kodak for the litfls smile with which Raffles shook his head, for it was one that he kept for those great moments of which. our vocation is not deveoid. AIl this time he had been wearing his hat tilted a little over eye- brows no longer raised. And now at last I knew where the gold cup was. It stood for days upon his chimney plece, this costly trophy whose ancient history and final fate filled newspaper columns even in these days of jubilee and for which the flower of BScotland Yard was sald to be seaking high low. Our constable, wa learned, been stunned only, and from the that I brought him an evening with the news Raffles’ spirits rose to & height inconsistent with his equable tem- perament, and as unusual in him as the sudden impulse upon which he had acted with such effect. The cup itself appealed to me no more than it had done defore. Exquisite it might be, handsoms it was, but go light in the hand that the me; gold of it would scarcely have poured three figures out of the meiting pot. And what said Raffles but that he would never melt 1t at all! “Taking it .was an offense against the laws of the land, Bunny. That is no ing. But destroying it would be a crime against God and Art, and may I be spit- ted on the vane of St. Mary Abbot's if I commit it!" Talk such as this was unanswerable; indeed, the whole affair had passed the pale of useful comment, and the one course left to a practical person was to shrug his shoulders and enjoy the joke. This was not a little enhanced by the Dewspaper reports, which described Raffles as a handsome youth and his un- willing accomplice as an older man of blackguardly appearance and low type. “Hits us both off rather neatly, Bunny,” said he. “But what none of them do justice to is my dear cup. Look at it, only look at it, man! Was ever anything so rich and yet so chaste? St. Agnes must have had a pretty bad time, but it would be almost worth it to go down to posterity in such enamel upon such gold. And then the history of the thing. Do you realize that it's five hundred years old and has belonged to Henry VIIL and to Elizabeth among others? Bunny, when you have me cremated you can put my ashes in yonder cup and lay us in the deep-delved earth together!™ * d meanwhile?” t is the joy of my heart, the light the delight of mine eye.” ppose othér eyes catch sight “They never must; they never shall” Raffles would have been too absurd had he not been thoroughly alive to his own absurdity. There was nevertheless an underlying sincerity in Nis appreciation of any and every form of beauty which all his nonsense could not comceal. And his infatuation for the cup was, as he declared, a very pure passion, since the circumstances debarred him from the (Continued on Page Three)