The evening world. Newspaper, May 27, 1905, Page 10

(MP Melbourne; but, with the vague- which characterized al) his in- tials are W. F., said the doctor, who ee certain enough of the immate- to take things over and You might find him up there and you write.’ Vand more if he isn’t there,’ for I'd ‘Frown quite keen on this up-coun- Ni fry manager, and I felt that if 1 i] l sould get at him while the holidays were still on a eight help matters considerably. fidea of the bush, Mr, you'll see the sources of the water ~ supply of this city, sir. , Where every drop of it comes from, - he. or #o, and then I should know you'd have no temptation to use that hand. _Mying thing 1 did meet was the sort to give you the ereeps; it ‘that this Raffcs was the man I wanted, and was awfully ct moment that he wasn't a high official at all, Nor had the doc- ‘be met him, but had merely read of him in connection with a small Mion at the suburban branch which ny namesake managed; an armed bot haa been rather pluckily beaten off, with a bullet in him, by this nition; @nd the sort of thing was so common out there that this was the Pi had heard of it! A suburban my @nancier had faded into B excelleat fellow with a billet ff he balled his'soul his own. MY & manager was a manager, and TI would soon see whether this me the relative 1 was looking for, would be good enough to give the name of that branch. 71) do more, says the doc- ‘IM get you the name of the he's been promoted to, for I tak I heard they'd moved him up already.’ And the next day he me the name of the town- of Yea, some fifty miles north tion, he was unable to say er 1 should find my relative or not, “He's a single man, and his ini- points, ‘He left his old post sev- days ago, but it appears he's not at the new one till the New » No doubt he'll go before then settle in, If I were you I should “*That'll lose two days,’ said I \ wz little conviviality (eet: # Then,’ said the doctor, ‘I should sf. @ quiet horse and ride, You (a Meern't use that Nand,’ “*Qan't 1 go by train” “*You cin and you can't. You ) would still have to ride, 1 suppose you're a horseman?’ “*¥es.’ “Then I should certainly ride all the way. It's a delightful road, A through Whittlesea and over t! th Plenty Ranges. It'll give you some Raffles, and You'll see the pure Yan Yean. 1 wish I had time to ride with you.’ ““But where can | get a horse?’ “The doctor thought for a moment “Tye a mare of my own that’s as fat as butter for want of work,’ said ‘It would be a charity to me to sit on her back for a hundred miles “*You're far too good,’ I protested. © vee! You're A. J. Raffles,’ he sald. “And if ever there was a prettier compliment or a finer instance of even Colonial hospitality I can only say, Bunny, that I never heard of either.” He sipped his whiskey, threw away the stump of his cigarette and Mt another before continuing “Well, 1 managed to write a line to W. F. with my own hand. which, as you will gather, was not very badly wounded—it was simply this third finger that was split and in splints—and next morning the doctor packed me off on a bovine beast that would have done for an ambulance, Half the team came up to see me start; the rest were rather sick with me for not stopping {0 see the match out, as if T could help them to win by w ie 8 did them, They little knew the gamle I'd got on myself, but still less know the game | was going to play “Tt was an interesting ride enough, especially after pissing the place called Whittlesea, « real wild township on the lower slope of the rang where I recollect ving a deadly meal of hot mutton and tea, with the thermometer at thred figures in the shade, The first thirty miles or so was @ g00d aetal road, tov good to go half round the world to ride on, but after Whittlesea it was a mere track over the ranges, a track I often couldn't fee and left entirely to the mare, Now it dipped into a gully and ran through a creek, and all the time the local color was inches thick—guin trees galore and parrots all colors of the rainbow. In one place a whole forest of gums had been ring-barked and were just as though they had een painted white, without a leaf or a living thing for miles. And the first a rider! around horse coming ful) tilt through the bush, with the saddle t ed and the stirrup-irons ringing. Without thinking, | had a shot at heading him with the doctor's mare, and blocked him just enough to allow a man who came galloping after to do the rest “'Thank ye, mister,’ growled the man. a huge chap in a red-cheeked birt, with a beard like W. G. Grace, but the very devil of an expression, “ ‘Been an accident?’ said 1, reining up. “Yes, sald he, scowling as though he defied me to ask any more. “Well, Bunny, I may be a blackguard myself, but I don't think [ ever Jooked at a fellow as that chap inoked at me, But I stared him out and forced him to admit that it was blood on the twisted saddle, and arter that he became quite tame. He told me oxactly what had happened, A mate of bis had been dragged under a branch and bad his nose smashed, but that * was all; vad gat tight after it till he dropped from loss of blood; unoter mate was with him back in the burh, “As I've sald already, Bunny, 1 wasn't the old stager that | am now dm any respect--and we parted good enough friends, He asked me whica Woy I was come, oud, when I told him, he said I should saye seven miles and get a good hour earner to Yeu by striking off the track and making for a peak that we could see through the trees and following a creck that TD should sce from the peak, Don’t smile, Bunny! 1 began by saying 1 Was a child in those days, Of course, the short cut was the long way found, and it was nearly (> hen that unlucky mare and J saw the wingle street of Yea "IT was looking for the bank when a fellow in a white sult ran down from a veranda “OMT, Rafiles?! said he *°My, Raffles!’ said | laughing, ae J shook his hand, “*You're late,” *'f was niisdirected,’ “Phat all? I'm relieved, he said, ‘Do you know what they are say There are some brand new bushrangers on the road between Whittle ‘and this—v secand Kelly gang! They'd have caught a Tartar In you, eh?’ *'Mhoy would in you, I retorted, and my tu quoquo shut him up and te puzzle him. Yet there was much more sense in it than in bis mt to me, which was absolutely pointless. Bfraid you'll find things pretty rough,’ he resumed, when he had Yallse and handed my reine to his man. ‘It’s lucky you're Uke RI TPE EET hospitality!” (Posed by Kyrle Bellows Permiasion of Liebler & Co.) Just as | was about to go tWere came a violent knocking at the outer door. CORE PTR TRAN “T could not quite see the point of this remark either, since, had I been married f ehould hardly have sprung my wife upon him in this ¢ree-and- easy fashion, I muttered the conventional sort of thing, and then he sald } should find ft all right when I settled, as though J had come to graze upon him for weeks! ‘Well,’ thought 1, ‘these Colonials do take the cake tor And, still maryolling, I det him lead me into the private part of the bank. |" ‘Dinner will he ready in a quarter of an hour,’ said he as we entered, ‘I thought you might like a tub first, and you'll find ull ready in the room at the end of the passage, Sing out if there’s anything you want. Your luggage hasn't turned up yet, by the way, but here's a letter that came this morning.’ “‘Not for me?’ “Yes; didn't you expect one?’ “Tl certainly did not!’ “Well, here it is,’ “And as he lit me to my room I read my Own superscription of the previous day—to W. F, Raffles! “Bunny, you've had your wind bagged at footer, I daresay; you know what that’s like? All I can say is that my moral wind was bagged by that letter as [T hope, old chap, I have never yet bagged yours, I couldn't speak, I could only stand with my own letter in my bands until he had the good taste to leave me by mys self. “W. F. Haffles! We had mistaken each other for W, F. Raffles—for the new manager who nud not yet ar- rived! Small wonder we had con- versed at cross-purposes: the only won‘er was that we had not discov- ered our mutual mistake, How the otber man would have laughed! But J—! could not laugh By jove, no, it was no laughing matter for me! I saw the whole thing in a flaeh, with- out a tremor, but with the direst de- pression from my own single point of view. Call it callous, if you like, Bun- ny, but remember that I was in much the same hole as you've since been in yourself and that I had counted on thie W, F. Raffles even as you count ed on A, J. I thought of the man with the W. G. beard—the ridorless horse with the bloody saddle—the deliberate misdirection that had put me off the track and out of the way and now the missing manager and the report of bushrangers at this end, But I simply don't pretend to have felt any personn) pity for a man whom 1 had never seen; that kind of pity'’s usually cant; and, besides, Aa all mine was needed for myself. “Twas in as big a hole as ever, What the devil was I to do? 1 doubt if i have sufficiently impressed upon you the absolute necessity of my re- turning to Melbourne in funds. As a matter of fact, 1t was less the neces- sity than my own determination which I can truthfully describe as abso- lute. “Money I would have—but how—but how? Would this stranger be I pulled up and lay with my ear to open to persuasion—if I told him the truth? scouting the country for the rest of the night, definite intention in my heal, or one premeditated lie upon my lips, time; on the other hand, there. was no hurry, YORAM METH MEST IEPA TEN ‘ LJ THE WORLD: SATURDAY ' EVENING, MAY 27, 1905 No; that would set us all Why should I tell him? Suppose I left him to find out his mistake, would anything be gained? Bunny, I give you my word that 1 went in to dinner without back to the subject. He admitted that the staff was amall, but as for hime I gelf, he had a lodded revolyer under his pillow all night, undér the counter might do the decent natural thing and explain matter without loss of aji day, dnd he was only waiting for his chance, 1 had not opened the letter, and covid always pretend 1 had not noticed the Anitials; meanwhile some, PETE TE thing might turn up. 1 could wait a little and see, Tempted I already was, but a yet the temptation was vague, and its very vagueness made me tremble, “Bad news, I'm afraid?’ said the manager when at last I sat down at his table, “*A mere annoyunce,’ T answered—I do assure you—on the spur of the moment and nothing else. But my Me was (old; my position wes taken; from that moment onward there was no retreat. By implication, without realizing what I was doing, I had al- ready declared myself W. F. Raffles, Therefore W, F. Raffles | would by in that bank for that night. And the devil teach me how to use my lie!" Again he raised his glass to his Ups—I had forgotten mine, His cie- arette-case canght the gaslight as he handed. it to me, | shock my head, without taking my eyes from his, “The devil played up" continued Raffles, with a laugh. “Before I tasted my soup I had decided what to do, T had determined to rob that bank ingtead of going to bed and to be back In Melbourne for breakfast if the doctor's mare could do it. I would tell the old fellow that I had missod my way and been bushed for hours, as I easily might have been, and had never got to Yea at all, At Yen, on the other hand, the personation and robbery would ever after be attrib- uted to a member of the gang that had waylaid and murdered the new manager with that very object. You are acquiring some experience in such matters, Bunny, I ask you, was there ever a better get-out? Last night's was ‘something like it, only never such a certainty, And | saw it from the beginning—saw to the end before 1 had finished my soup. “To increase my chances the cash- jer, who also lived in the bank, was Away ovor the holldays, had actually gone down to Melbourne to sve us play; and the man who had taken my horse also waited at table, for ho and his wife were the only servants, and they slept in a separate building. You may depend I ascertained this before we had finished dinner, Indeed, I was by way of asking too many ques- tions (the most oblique and delicate was that which elicited my host's name, Ewhank), nor was I careful enough to conceal their drift. “Do you know,' said this fellow Ewhbank, who was one of the down- right sort, ‘if it wasn’t you, I should Bay you were in a funk of robbers? Have you lost your nerve?’ “I hope not,’ said I, turning jolly hot, I can tell you; ‘but—well, it's not a pleasant thing to have to put a bullet through a fellow.’ “ ‘No?’ said he coolly, ‘I should enjoy nothing better myself; besides, youre didn't go through.’ “I wish it had!’ I was smart enough to cry. “*Amen,’ said he, (Poped by K yrle Bellow, Permisaton of Liebler & Co.) the ground for two or three minutes. “And @ emptied my glass, wounded bank robber was in prison, dead or at large. « “ “My God! You're bleeding like a pig!”’ Actually I did not know whether my “But, now that I had had more than enough of It, Hwbank would come ———o— “He was looking at me in surprise, and something told me taat to say ‘Of course; I had forgotten!’ would have been quite fatal, considering what I was supposed to have done. head. “But the papers said you had!’ he erled. “Not under the counter,’ sald 1, 80 I looked. down my nose and shook my “Rut it’s the regulatiog!’ “For the moment, Bunny, 1 felt stumped, though I trust 1 only looked more superior than before, and | think T justified my look. “"The regulation!’ I said at length, in the most offensive tone at my command, ‘Yes, the regulation would Nave us all dead men! My dear eir, de you expect your bank robber to let you rereh for yoursgun in the place where he knows it's kept? I had mine in my pocket, and I got my chance by retreating from the coun- ter with all visible reluctance.’ “Ewbank stared at me with open eyes and a five-barred forehead, then down came his fist on the table, “By God! that was smart! still,’ he added, like @ man who would not be in the wrong, ‘the papers said the other thing, you know!’ “Of course,’ I rejoined, ‘because they sald what I told them. You wouldn't have had me advertise the fact that I improved upon the bank's regulations, would you? “So that cloud rolled over, and, by Jove, it was a cloud with a golden Uning! Not silver—real good Aus- trallan gold! For old Ewbank hadn't quite appreciated me till then; he was a hard nut. a much older. man than myself, and I felt pretty sure he thought me young for the place and my fupposed feat a fluxe. But 1 never saw a man change his mind more openly, He got out his best brandy, he made me throw away the clgar 1 was smoking, and opened a fresh box. He was a convivial-look- ing party, with a red mustache and a very humorous face (not unlike Tom Emmett's), and from that mo- ment I lala myself out to attack him on his convivial flank. But he wasn't a Rosenthall, Bunny; he had a treble- seamed hand-sewed head, and could have drunk me under the table ten times over. UM right’ I thought, ‘you may go to bel sober, but you'll sleep like a timber-yard!’ And I threw half he gave me through the open window when he wasn't looking. “But he was a good chap, Ewbank, and don't you imagine the was at all intemperate. Convivial I called him, and I only wish he had been something more. He did, however, become more and more genial as the evening advanced, and I had not much difficulty in getting him to show mp round the bani at what was really an unearthly hour for such a fosuine It was when he went to fetch the revolver before turning in. I kept him out of his bed another twenty minutes, and T knew avery inch of the bisiness premises .before I shook hands with Ewvank in my room } “You won't guess what I did with myself for the\next hour. 1 undressed and went to bed. ‘The incessant'strain involved in even the most deliberate impersonation is the mdst wearing thing I know. Then how much more so when the impersonation 1s impromptu! There's no getting your eyein; the Next word may bowl you out; it's batting in a bad light all through. 1 haven't told ycu of half the tight nlaces I was in during a conversation that ran into hours and became dangerously intimate toward the end. You can imagine them for yourself, and then picture me spread out on my bed, get- ting my second wind for the big deed of the night “Once more I was in luck, for 1 had not been lying there long before I heard my dear Bwhank snoring Ake a harmonium, and the music never ceased for a: moment; it was as loud as ever when I crept out and closed my door behind me, as regular as ever when I stopped to listen at his, And T have still to hear the concert that I shall enjoy more, The good fellow Snored me out of the bank und was etill snoring when I again stood and listened under his open window, "Why did’ I leave the bank iret? To catch and saddle the mare and tether her in a clump of trees close by—to have the means of escape nice and handy before I went to work, 1 have often wondered at the instinctive wisdom of the precaution. Unconsclously I was acting*on what has been one of my guiding principles ever since. Pains and patience were required —I had to get my saddle without waking the man, and I was not used tc catching horses In a horse paddock, ‘hen I distrusted the poor mare, and I went back to the stables for a hatful of oats, which I left with her in the clump, hat and all. There waa a dog, tuo, to reckon with (our very worst enemy, Bunny); but I had been ‘cute enough to make immense friends with him during the evening, and he wagged his tail, not only when I came downstairs, but when I reappeared at the back door, “As the sol-disant new manager, J had been able, in the most ordinary course, to puinp poor Ewbank about anything and everything connecte¢ with the. working of, the bank, especiAlly in those twenty iust invaluable minutes before turning in. And I had made a very natura! point of asking him where he kept, and would recommend me to keep, the keys at night.’ Of course I thought he would take them with him to his room; but ne such thing; he Had a dodge worth two of that. What it was doesn’t muct matter, but no outsider would have found those keys in a month of Sun: days, is ‘I, of course, had them in a few seconds, and in a few more T was tn the strong-rvom itself, I forgot to say that the moon had risen and was let ting quite a lot of light into the bank. 1 had, however, brought a bit of candle with me from my room; and in the strong-room, which was dowr some narrow stairs behind the counter in the banking chamber, I had nc hesitation In lighting it, There was no window down there, and, though 4 could no longer hear old Ewbank snoring, I had not the slightest reason to antivipate disturbance from that quarter, 1 did think of locking mysel! in while 1 was at work, but, thank goodness, the iron door had no keyhole on the Inside, ‘ “Well, there were tena of gold in the safe, but 1 only took what } ceded and could comfortably carry, not much more He altogether. Not a ugte would I touch, and my native caution ala out niso i the way 1 divided the sovereigns between all my pockets, an packed them up so that I shouldn't be like the old woman of Banbury Cross, Well, you think me too cautious still, but I was insanely cauyour then, And so it was that, Just as 1 was ready to go, wherens 1 might have been rone ten minutes, there camo a violent knooking at .the outer door. “funny, it was the outer door of the banking chamber! My canal must heve boen acon! And there I stood, with the grease running ho! over my fingers, in that brick grave of a strong-room! ‘ “'’here was only ono thing ta be dong, 1 must trust to the sound slcep- ing of Ewbank upstaira, open the door myBelf, knock the visitor down or shoot him with the revolver I had been new chum uy before than a couple of hun: