The evening world. Newspaper, July 1, 1905, Page 2

bid think it was! its own sake? It would be worth having only to live up to! the lid up over it, so that you can see how thin it is. fd iift it, Bunny, by hook or crock?” 'd better try, sir,” sald a dry voice at his elbow, Madman seemed to think we the room to ourselves. I knew f, but, like another madman, Jet him ramble on unchecked. here was a stolid constable von- ting us in the short tunic that wear in summer, his whistle on Phain, but no truncheon at his side lens! how I see him now—a man edium size, with a broad, good- red, perspirins face and a limp Hache, He looked sternly at Raf- and Raffles looked merrily at Going to run me in, officer?” “That would be a joke—my didn’t say as I w res ¥the policeman, "But that's talk for a gentleman like you, the British Museum!" nid ed his helmet at my inyalid, had taken his airing in frovk P and top hat, the more readily ume his present part. ‘What!" cried Raffles, “simyiy ig to my friend shat I'd like to he gold cup? Why, so | should, so I should! I don't ‘ind hears me say so, It's one of the beautiful things I ever saw .n /my life.” The constable'’s face had already ed, and now a grin peeped under limp mustache. “I dare say Y's many as feels like that, sir,” fl he. “Exactly; and I say what I feel ’s all,” sald Raffles airily. “But jusly, fficer, is @ Valuabie suing this quite safe in @ case like er “Sate enough as long as I’m re,” replied the other between grim ft and stout earnest. Raffles stud- his ‘ace; he was still watching ffles, and I kept an eye on them hk without putting in my word, “You appear to be single-hand- observed Raffles, * hat wise?” The note of anxiety was capltally Jught; it was at once personal und blic-spirited, that of the enthusi- savant, afraid for a national re which few appreciated us he himself, And, to be sure, the of us now had this treasury to lirselves, One or two others had there when we entered, but now ‘were gone, “I'm not single-handed,” said the leer comfortably, “See that seat y the door? One of the attendaits ite there all day long.” | “Then where is he now?” “Talking to another attendant just outside, hem for yourself." We listened and we did hear them, but not just outside, In my own sind I even questioned whether they were in the corridor through which te had come. To me {it sounded as though they were just outside ine cor- dor. “You mean the fellow with the billiard cue who was here when we ame in?” pursued Raffles. “That wasn't a billiard cue! xplained. . “Tt ought to be a javelin,” said Raffles nervously, “It ought to be a Mleaxe! The public treasure ought to be better guarded than this, 1 hall write to the Times about it. You see if I don’t!”” Ail at once, yet somehow not so suddenly as to excite suspicion, Raf- bs had become the clderly busybody with nerves; why I could not for the fe of me imagine, and the policeman seemed equally at sea, “Lor' bless you, sir,” said he, “I’m all right, Don't you bother your ead about me,” “But you haven't even got a truncheon!" “Not likely to want one either, You see, sir, it's early as yet. In w BW minutes these here rooms will fll up, and there's safety in numbers, as hey say.” “Oh, it will fill up soon, will it? “Any minute now, sir” mA!" “It isn’t often emply as Jong as this. sir. It's the jubilee, 1 suppose.” “Meanwhile what if my friend and 1 had be Why, we could have overpowered you in an instant, “That you couldn't; leastways not without bringing the out your ca » “Well, I shall write to the Times all the same. I'm a connoisseur in all sort of thing, and I won't have unnecessary risks run with the nation’s rty, You said there was an attendant Just c ide, but he as though he were at the other end of the corridor, 1 1” For an instant we all three listened and Raffles was right bw two things in one glance. RaMes had stepped a few inche pd stood polsed upon the ball of cach foot his arms half raised, a Neht in ia eyes, And another kind of light was breaking over the crass features f our friend the constable. Posed by Kyrie Bellew, arrangement Liot If you listen you'll hear It was a pointer,” the intelligent omicer n professional thieves? ny good fellow!” whole place sounds to shall write to- Then 1 backward é P “Then shall I tell you what I'll do?” he cried, with a sudden ciuteh at © whistle chain on his chest. The whistle flew out, but it never reached is lips. There were a couple of sharp smacks like double barrels dis- rged all but simultaneously, and the man reeled against me so that I ld not help catching him as he fell Well done, Bunny! I've knogke him out—l've knocked him ont! u to the door and see if the atteydants hove heard anything, and ke them on if they have.” ag Mechanically 1 did as 1 was told, “There was ro time for thought, still for remonstrance or reproach, though my curprise must have m more complete than that of the consty)l¢ Ram 1ovked the fae out of him. Even in my utter bewilderment, however, the instine= Wve caution of the real criminal did not desert me. | van to the door, but fintered through {t to plant myself before a Pomgeiian fresco in the dor, and there were the two attendants still gossiping outeide the fire Moor: nor did they hear the dull crash which T heard ever Pout of tho corner of each eye. i was hot weather, as f have sail, but the perspiration on my body ready to have turned into a ekin of ice. Then T eanght the faint of my own face in the casing of the fresco, and it frightened me semblance of mysel Ralfes Joined me with his hands in his But my fear and indignation were redoubled at the ingle glance convinced me that his packets wore hia mad outr een T watched ‘ght of him, 18 OMipty his the most wanton and reckless of his whole Bunny, you Philistine, why can't you admire the rher such rich enamelling on such thin gold, and what a good scheme I wonder if —the beggar ha THE WORLD: You n Meanwhile e in the museum at Naples or jinny, I've a good mind to take you myself. n't moved in eyelid, in Pompsil itself. day, indecent haste! “wei” “Wel” [ whispered, cane BAe atc ie { Jer Company, We paced the cool, black leads with our bare feet. And my knees knocked together as we came up to the chatting attend- aunts. But Raffles must needs interrupt them to ask the way to the Pre- historie Saloon. “At the top of the stairs “Thank you. Then we'll work round that way to the Egyptian part.” And we left them resuming their providential chat. “I believe you're maa,” I said bitterly as we went. “T believe I was," admitted Raf- fles, “but I'm not now, and I'll see you through. A hundred and thirty nine yards, wasn't it? Then it can't be more than a hundred and twenty now—not as much, Steady, Punny for God's sake, It's slow m for our lives,” There this much ment. The rest was our colossal luck A hansom was being paid off at the foot of the steps outside, and in we jumped, Raffles “Charing Cross!” for all Bloomsbury to hear. We had turned into Bloomsbury Street without exchanging a syllable when he struck the trapdoor with bis fist “Where the devil are you driving was manage shouting “Charing Cross, “I said 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 tnd then we'll slope through the sub- way to the Metropolitan sround via Baker street and Earl's Court,” And actually in half an honr he Was seated once more in the hired carrying chalr, wh the porter and red up: with my decrepit for whose shattered strength even one hour in Kew Gardens had proved too much! Then, and not until then, when we had got rig of the porter and were alone at last, did 1 tell Raffles in the most nervous English at my command frankly and exuetly what I thought of him and of his latest deed over, L spoke a to living Once started, more T have seldom spoken and Raffles, of all abuse without a murs rather, he it if out, too astounded even to take off his hat, though | thought his eyebrows have lifted it from his head “Butit always was your inforna wen” Twas ly concluding “You make one plan and you tell me anoth = “Not to-day, Bunny, 1 sw “You mean to tell me you a place to hide in for a night?” “Of course T did.” (“It was to be the mer man tood my men, mur, or would bi itennno | \ ‘lly did start with the bare idea of finding kava reconnoitre you pretended?” \ “Thore was no preterge about, Bunny.” hat you did?” SATURDAY EVEN “Ah, very interesting, very interesting, but nothing to what they havo ist go there some slow march We may swing for him if you show temptation as that, Bunny. ni at one and the same time. it would have been flying in the is nothing. person wi them do iustice to is my dear cup. ever anything so rich and yet so chaste? bad time, but it would be @lmost worth it to go down to posterity in such enamel upon such gold. put my ashes in yonder cup and jay us in Lhe deep-delved earth together eye.” to his own absurdity. lis appreciation of any and every f could not conecal very pure passion, since the circumstances debarred him from the chief joy of the averag last, however an idea after your own bh JULY ‘The reason would be obyious to any one but you,” said RaMes, still vith no unkindly scorn, “It the temptation of a minuto—th dial impulse of the fraction of a second, when Roberto saw that | was tempter, and let me see that he saw it. It's not a thing I care to do, and | sha'n't ve happy till the papers tell me the poor devil is alive, But a knock-out 1, 1905. shot was the only chance for us then,” “Why? You don't get run in for being tempted, nor yet for showing that you are!” “Rut T should have deserved running in if I hadn't yielded to such o It was a chance in a hundred thousand! Wo t go there every day of our liv nd never again be the only outsiders in the room, with the billiard-marking Johnnie practically out of earshot Tt was ft from the gods; not to have taken face of Providence.” “But you didn’t take it.’ said 1 “You went and left {t behind,” 1 wish I had had a kodak for the little smile with which Raffles shook his head, for it was one that he kept for those great moments of which our vocation is not devoid. lite over eyebrows no longer raised All this time he had been wearing his hat tilled a And now at list I knew where the gold cup was. It stood for days upon his chimney piece, this costly trophy whose ancient history and final fate filled newspper columns even in these days of jubilee and for which the flower of Scotland Yard was said to be ing high and low. fron seek ned, had been stunned only, and vening paper with the nows Raf- Our constable, we lea the moment that I brought him an fles's spirits rose to & height incousistent with his equable temperament, and as unusual in him as the sudden impulse upon which he had acted with such effe 1 fore, 1 the mor pot, And it appealed to me no more than it had done de+ xquisite it might be, handsome it was, but so light in the hand that ld of it would scarcely have poured three figures out of melting what said RaMes but that he would never melt it at all! sing it wi s an offense against the laws of the land, Bunny. That Rut destroying it would be a crime against God and Art, and I be spitted on the vane of St. Mary Abbot's if T commit it!” whole affalr had J the pate cf usefMl comment, and the one course left to a practical to slrg his shoulders and enjoy the joke need ly Talk such as this was unan prable; indeed, the This was not a described RaMes as a the newspaper reports, which handsome youth and his vnwilling accomplice as an older man of Mack- guardly appearance and low type. “Hits us both off rather neatly, Bunny,” said te, “But what none of Look at it. only look at ft, nan! Was St. Agnes must have had a pretty And then the lussory of the thing Do you realize and has belonged to Henry VIII, and to when you have me erynsted you can it's five hundred years old Bun» oth mmong cthe “And meanwhile?” “It is the joy of my heart, the light of my life, the delight of mine nd suppose other eyes catch sight of it?” “They never must; they never shall,” Raffles would have been too absurd had he not been thoroughly alive There was nevertheless an underlying sincerity in ) of beauty which all his nonsense And his infatuation for the cup was, as he declared, a re to his friends. At 3 and reason seemed to collector, that of showing his tre: ze, Ram nd at the neight of his come together again as suddenly as they had parted company in the Room of Gold. ‘Bunny,” he cried, flinging his nowspaper across the room, “I've got I know where I can place it after all!" art, “Do you mean the cup?” "1 do.” “Then I congratulate you." “Thanks,” Posed by Kyrle Bellew, arrange: ment Liebler Company Upon the recovery of your senses,” "Thaouks galore, But you've been confounded th hing, ett con't think T shall toll you my scheme til! I'ra dit ont." “Quite time enough," said 1. ‘ cure) “It will mean your letting me loose for an hour or two unuer cloud of this very night. To-morrow's Sunday, the Jiubilee’s on Tuesday, and old Theobald's coming back for it. “It doesnt muclt matter whether he's back o: r not if a enough." you go late “T mustn't be late. They don't keep open, No, it's no use your asking any questions, Go out and buy me a big box of Huntley & Palmer's bis- cnlts, any sort you like, only they must be theirs, ani 5 » and absolutely the - Best box they sell." ? = “My dear man!" “No questions, Bunny; you do your part and I'll do mine,” Subtlofy and success were in his face, It was enough for me, and 1 had Gone his extraordinary bidding within a quarter of an hour, In ane ether minute Rafles had opened the box and tumbled all the biscuits fito the nearest chair, “Now newspapers!” I fetched a pile. He bid the cup 0 gold a ridiculous farewell, wrapped {t up in newspaper after newspaper and finally packed it in the empty biscuit box, Now some brown want to be young man,” A neat enough parcel it made when the string nad een tled and the ends cut close, What was more difficult Was to wrap up Raffles himself in such a way that even the porter could not recognize him if they came face to face at the corner, And the sun wis still up. But Raffles would go, and when ne did 1 should not known him myself. He may have been an hour away. It was barely dusk when he I don't grocer’s paper. taken for the have returned, and my first question referred to our dangero} y. the porter, Raffles had passed him unsuspected in going, but had managed to ayoid him alto- Bether on the return journe, hich be had completed by way of the other entrance and the roof, 1 again, And what have you done with the breathed “The Queen,” he said, “God bless her!” “Placed it!" ‘How much for? tow much for?” “Let me think I had a couple of eabe and the postage was a tannor, with another twopence for registration. Y¢ etght.” “Tt cost you? t cost me exactly five-and- But what did you get for it, Raffles?” “Nothing, my Boy." “Nothing!” “Not a crit ison cent" “Iam not surprised. T never though’ jt had a market value you so in the beginning,” I said irritably, done with the thing?” “Sent it to the Qneen,” “You haven't!" I told “But what on earth have you Rogue is a word with various meanings, and Raffles had been one sort of Rog gue ever since | had known him, but now for once he was the inno- cent variety, @ great gray-haired child, running over with merriment and mischief, sty, with “Well, I've sent it to Sir Arthur Hiege to present to Her M r the loyal respects of the thief, if tha will do for you,” said Raffles, “I thought they might take too much stock of me at the G, P.O, if 1 ad- dressed it to the sovereign herself, Yes, I drove over to St. Murtin’s-le- Grand with it, and I registered the box into the bargain. Do a thing properly if you do it at pli.” “But why on earth," [ grouned, “do such a thing at all?” “My Bunny, we have been reigned over for over sixty years by infinitely the finest’ monarch the world has ever seen, The world is taking the present opportunity of signifying the fact for all It is worth. Every nation is laying of its best at her royal feet, every elass in the com- munity is doing its little level—ex- cept ours. All I have done is to re- move one reproach from our fra- ternity." At this T came round, was infected with his spirit, called him the sports. man he always was and would be, and shook his dare-devil hand in mine, but at the same time I still had my qualms, “Supposing they trace it to us?" said 1. “There's not much to catch hold of in a biscuit box by Huntley & Palmer,” replied Raffles; “that was why I sent you for one, And T didn't write a word upon a sheet of paper which could possibly be traced, 1 simply printed two or three on a vir- ginal post-card—another halfpenny to the bad--which might have been bought at any post-office in the king- dom, No, old chap, the G. P, O, was the one real danger; there was one detective I spotted for myself, and the sight of him has left me with a thirst. Whiskey and Sullivans for two, Bunny, If you please,” Raffles was soon clinking his glass against mine, “The Queen,” bless her!” (THE END.) ASK ———— ne, ® dear said he, “God Next Saturday —‘‘The Fate of Faustina,’’ the Ninth Adventure of