The evening world. Newspaper, July 1, 1905, Page 1

aie Price 1 Cent, Including Fiction Supplement A JUBILEE * x PRESENT. By E. W. HORNUNG. (COPYRIGHT, 1890, BY CHARLES SCRIRNER'S SONS) HE Room of Gold in the British Museum is prob- ably well enough known to the inquiring alien and the traveltd American, A true Londoner, however, I myself had never heard of it until Raffles casually proposed a raid. “The older | grow, Bunny, the less I think of your so-called precious stones, When did they ever bring in half their market value in pounds, shillings and pence? There was the first little crib we ever cracked together—you With your innocent eyes shut. A thousand pounds that stuff was worth, but how many hundreds did it actually fetch? The Ardagh emeralds weren't much better, old Lady Melrose’s necklace was far worse, but that little lot the other night has about finished me, A cool hundred for goods priced well over four, and thirty-five pounds to come off for bait, since we only got a tenner for the ring 1 bought and paid for iike an ass, I'll be shot if 1 ever touch a diamond again! Not if it was the Kohinoor; those few whacking stones are too well known, and to cut them up is to decrease their value by arithmetical retrogression. Besides, that brings you up against the Fence once more, and I'm done with the beggars for good and aJl. You talk about your editors and publishers, you literary swine! Barabbas was neither a robber nor a publisher, but barred, barbed-wired, spike-topped Fence. What we really want is an Incorpor- ated Society of Thieves, with some public-spirited old forger to run it for us om business lines,” Raffles uttered these blasphemies under his breath, not, 1am afraid, cut of any respect for my one redeeming profession, but because we were taking a midnight airing on the roof after a whole day of June in the little flat below, The stars shone overhead, the lights of London under- neath, and between the lips of Raffles a cigarette of the old and only brand. I had sent in secret for a box of the best. The boon had arrived that night, and the foregoing speech was the first result. 1 could afford to ignore the insolent asides, however, where the apparent contention was so manifestly unsound, “And how are you going to get rid of your gold?” said I pertinently, “Nothing easier, my dear rabbit.” “Ts your Room of Gold a roomful of sovereigns?” Raffles laughed softly at my scorn, “No, Bunny, it's principally in the shape of archaic ornaments, whose value, I admit, is largely extrinsic, But gold is gold, from Phoenicia to Klondike, and if we cleared the room we should eventually do very well.” “How?” “1 should melt it down into a nugget and bring it home from the U.S. A. to-morrow,” “And then?” “Make them pay in hard cash across the counter of the Bank of England. And you can make them.” That I knew, and so said noth- ing for a time, remaining a hostile though a silent critic, while we paced the cool black leads with our bare feet softly as cats, “And how do you propose to get enough away,” at length I asked, “to make it worth while?” “Ah, there you have it,” said Raffles. “I only propose to reconnoitre the ground to see what we can see. We might find some hiding place for FICTION SUPPLEMENT, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 157 1905. Maturin (as I had to remember to call him), was really or apparently sickening for fresh air. Dr. Theo- (Copyright 1905, by the Prevw Publishing Company.) The Adventures of | RAFFLES. +) } aay a night; that, I am afraid, would be our only chance.” “Have you ever been there before?” “Not since they got the one good, portable piece which I believe that they exhibit now, It’s a long time since | read of it—I can’t remember bald would allow him none; he was pestering me for just one day in the country while the glorious weather lasted, 1 was myself convinced that No possible harm could come of the experiment., Would the porter help me in so innocent and meritorious an intrigue? The man hesitated, 1 where—but I know they have got a gold cup of sorts worth several thou- sands, A number of the immorally rich clubbed together and presented it to the nation, and two of the richly immoral intend to snaffle it for theraselves. At any rate, we might go and have a look at it, Bunny, don’t you think ?” Think! 1 seized his arm. “When? When? When?” I asked like a quick-firing gun. “The sooner the better, while old Theobald’s away on his honey- moon.” Our medico had married the week before. nor was any fellow-prac- titioner taking his work—at least not that considerable branch of it which consisted of Raffles—during his briet absence from town, There were reasons, delightfully obvious to us, why such a plan would have been Wehly unwise in Dr. Theobald, {, however, was sending his daily screeds and both matutinal and nocturnal telegrams, the composition of which afforded Raffles not a little enjoyment. “Well, then, when—when ?” | began to repeat, “To-morrow if you like,” $Only to took 2” The limitation was my one regret, “We must do so, Bunny, before we leap,” “Very well,” I sighed, “But to-morrow it is!” And the morrow it really was, I saw the porter that night, and, 1 still think, bought his absolute allegiance for the second coin of the realm. My story, however, invented by Raffles, was Sufficiently specious in itself. That. oe gentleman, Mr, y ie v produced my half sovereign, The man was lost, And at half-past 8 next morning, before the heat of the day, Raffles and I drove to Kew Gardens in a hired landau, which was to call for us at midday and wait until we came, The porter had assisted me to carry my invalid downstairs in a carrying-chair hired (like the landau) from Harrod’s Stores for the occasion, It was little after 9 when we crawled together into the gardens; by half-past my invalid had had enough, and out he tottered on my arm; a cab, a message to our coachman, a timely train to Baker street, another cab, and we were at the British Museum—brisk pedestrians now—not very many minutes after the opening hour of 10 A. M. It was one of those glowing days which will not be forgotten by many who were in town at the time, The Diamond Jubilee was upon us, the Queen's weather had already set in, Raffles, indeed, declared it was as @t as Italy and Australia put together; and certainly the short summer nights gave the channels of wood and aspbalf and the continents of brick and mortar but little time to cool. At the British Museum the pigeons were crooning aniong the shadows of the grimy colonnade, and the stalwart janitors looked less stalwart than usual, as though their medals were too heavy for them. I recognized some habitual Readers going to their labors underneath the dome; of mere visitors we seemed among the first, “That'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!” ‘And he led the way in silence, but with a long m thodical stridy, which I could not understand until we came to the corridor leading to the Room of Gold, when he turned to me for a moment. “A hundred and thirty-nine yards from this to the open street,’ sxid Raffles, “not counting the stairs. 1 suppose we could do it in twenty seconds, but if we did we should have to jump the gates. No, you must temember to loaf out at slow mi 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 whole 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 preliminary recon- noitre. And here we are.” ed It is none of my business to describe the so-called Room of Gold, with which I, for one, was not a little disappointéd. The glass cases, which both fill and line it, may contain unique examples of the goid- smith’s art in times and places of which one heard quite enough ‘in the course Of one's classical education; but. fessional point of view I would as lief have the ransacking of a single window in the West End as the pick of all those spoils of Etruria and of ancient Greece, The gold may not be so soft as it appears, but it certainly looks as though you could bite off the business ends of the spoons, and ston vour own teeth in doing so. Nor should | care to be seen wearing one of the rings; but the great- est fraud of all (from the aforesaid standpoint) is assuredly that very cup of which Raffles had spoken. Moreover, he felt this himself. “Why, it's as thin as paper,” said he, “and enameled like a nv aged lady of quality! But, by Jove, it’s one of the most beautiful things I ever saw in my life, Bunny. I should like to have it for its own sake, hy all my gods!” i The thing had a little square case of plate glass all tovitself atlone end of the room, It may have been the thing of beauty that Raffles affected to consider it} but 1, for my part, was in no mood to look at it in that light. Underneath were the names of the plutocrats who had subseribed for thisinational gewgaw, and 1 fell (o wondering where their eight (ou- <I TE sand pounds came in, while Raffles devoured his two-penny guide-book! as greedily as a schoolgirl with a zeal for culture, “Those are scenes from the martyrdom o translucent;on relief * * * one of the fin 1 ieee Ved a iss ¢ A ns,” said he * # specimens of its Kit 5: