Fhe Omaha Illustrated
Bee
NUMBER 309.
Entered Recond Class at Omaha Postoffiee Published Meekly by The Roe Publishing Co. Subscription, ?2.r0 Per Year.
MAY 14, 1003.
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The Amateur Cracksman
Adventure No. 1.
"The Ides of March
59
BY E. W. HORNUNG
Author of "The Shadow of the Rope," 'The Rogue's
March," "A Bride from the Bush." "Stingaree Stories," "Dead
Men Tell No Tales," Etc.
Copyright 1S90 by Charles Rcribner's Sons.
matmr
First Raffles Story
This is the first of a series of thirteen new stories on
titled "Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman."
Raffles is destined to achieve as widespread fame In
his own peculiar line as did Sherlock Holmes in a totally
different spheres, for Raffles and Holmes are exact oppo- 0f color that cape too late. "To tell the truth, though. I half thought
sites in view, character and career.
While Sherlock Holmes exercised his wonderful pow
ers toward the detection of crime, Raffles is represented as
a man of unusual intellect and of high birth and breed
ing who has sunk to employing his undoubted genius to
enable him to live by his wits.
The second adventure of Raffles "A Costume Piece''
will appear next week.
to my baser egotism, and had fear or horror flown to my companion's
face, I shudder to think 1 might hare died diabolically happy with
that look for my Inst impious consolation. It was the look that came
Instead which held my band. Neither fear nor horsur were in it; only
wonder, admiration, and such a measure of planned expectancy as
caused me after all to pocket my revolver with an oath.
"You devil!" 1 said. "1 believe you wanted me to do It!"
Not quite." was the reply, made with a little start and a chance
you meant it, and 1 'was never more fascinated in my life. I never
dreamt you had such stuff in you. Bunny! No, I'm hanged if I let you
go now. And you'd better not try that game again, for you won't
catch me stand and look on a second time. We must think of some
way out of this niess. I had no Idea you were a chap of that sort!
There, let me have the sun."
One of his hands fell kindly on my shoulder, while the other
wait a bit, and perhaps I'll be able to do you a better one. Give nie
tiiue to think."
lie put up, lit a fresh cigarette, and fell to pacing the room once
more, but with a slower and mere thoughtful step, and for a much
longer period than before. Twice he stopped at uiy chair, as tlxuili
on the point of speaking, but each time he checked himself and re
sumed his stride in silence. Once lie threw up the window, which he
had shut some time, and stood for some moment leaning out into
the fog which filled the Albany court yard. Meanwhile a clock cm
the clilmneyplece struck 1, and 1 again for the half hour, without
a word between us.
Yet I not only kept my chair with patience, but I acquired n in
congruous equanimity In that half hour. Insensibly I had shifted my
burden to the broad shoulders of this splendid friend, and my thought
wandered with my eyes as the minutes passed. The room was the
good sized square one. with the folding doors, the marble mantelpiece
i T WAS about half-past 12 when I returned to the Albany as a
last desperate resort The scene of my disaster was much as I
left It The baccarat counters still strewed the table, with the
empty glasses and the loaded ash trays. A window had been
opened to let the smoke out and was letting in the fog Instead.
Raffles himself had merely discarded his dining Jacket for one of his t
innumerable blazers. Yet be arched his eyebrows as though I had
dragged him from his bed.
"Forgotten something?" said he, when he saw me on his mat
"No," said Iv pushing past him without ceremony. And I led the
way into bis room with an impudence amazing to myself.
"Not come back for yonr revenge, have you? Because I am a frail
X can't give it to you single-handed. I was sorry myself that the
others"
We were face to face by his fireside, and I .cut him short
"Rallies," said I, "you may well be surprised at my coming back
In this way and at this hour. I hardly know you. I was never in
your rooms before tonight But I fagged for you at school, and you
raid you remembered me. Of course, that's no excuse; but will you
Listen to me for two minute?"
In my emotion I had at first to struggle for every word, but hi
face reassured me as I went on, and I was not mistaken in its ex
pression. "Certainly, my dear man," said he; "as many minutes as you like.
Have a Sullivan and Bit down." And he banded me his -silver cigar
ette case.
. "Not said L finding a full voice aa I shook my head; "no, I won't
smoke and I won't tit down, thank your Nor will you ask me to do
either when you'va heard what I have to say."
"Really," said be, lighting his own cigarette with one clear, blue
eye noon me. "How do you know?" '
"Because you'll probably show me the door," I cried, bitterly;
"and you'U be Justified in doing It! Bnt it's no use beating about the
bush. You know I dropped over two hundred Just now?"
He nodded.
"I hadn't the money in my pocket" ,
"I remember." .
"But I bad my check book, and I wrote each of you a check at
that desk."
"Well?"
"Not one of them was worth the paper It was written on, Raffle.
I am overdrawn already at my bank."
"Surely only for the moment?"
"No, I have spent everything."
"But somebody told me you were ao well oft I heard you had
come In for money."
"So did I.- Three years ago. It. has been my curse; now it's all
n . a .... nantKl Vna IVO hAn It font! thATW IlPVPf WU TlOr Will
liUUC c-T.-i j j. uj . - - .
be such a fool aa I've been. . . . Isnt this enough for you? Why
don't you turn me out?" He was walking up and down with a very
long face Instead.
"Coudn't your people do anything?" he asked at length.
"Thank God!" I cried, "I have no people! I was an only child. I
came In for everything there was. My one comfort Is that they're
gone and will never know."
"I cast myself Into a chair and bid my face. Raffles continued
to pace the rich carpet that was of a piece with everything else in
his rooms. There was no variation in his soft and even footfalls.
"You used to be a literary little cuss," be said at length; "didn't
you edit the mag. before you left? Anyway, I recollect fagging you
to do my verses; and literature of all sorts is the very thing nowa
days; any fool can make a living at it"
1 shook my head. "Any fool couldn't write off my debts," said X.
"Then you have a flat somewhere?" be went on.
"Yes, in Mount street"
"Well, what about the furniture?"
"I laughed aloud in my misery. "There's been a bill of. sale on
very stick for months!"
And at that Raffles stood still, with raised eyebrows and stern
eyes that I could meet the better now that he knew the worst; then,
with a shrug, be resumed his walk, and for some minutes neither of
us spoke. But In his handsome, unmoved face I read my fate and
death warrant and with every breath I cursed my folly and my
cowardice In coming to him at all. Because be had been kind to me
at school, when he was captain of the eleven, and I his fag, I bad
dared to look for kindness from him now, because I was ruined and
be rich enough to play cricket all the summer, and do nothing for the
rest of the year, and I had fatuously counted on his mercy, bis sym
pathy, bis help! Yes, I bad relied on him in my heart for all my
outward diffidence and humility; and I was rightly served. There
was as little of mercy as of sympathy in that curling nostril, that
rigid Jaw, that cold blue eye which never glanced away. I caught up
my bat I blundered to my feet I would have gone without a word,
but Raffles stood between me and the door.
"Where are you going?" said he.
"That's my business." I replied. "I won't trouble you any more."
"Then how am I to help you?"
"I didn't ask your help."
"Then why come to me?"
"Why, indeed!" I echoed. "Will you let me pass?"
"Not until you tell me where you are going and what you mean
to do."
"Cant you guess?" 1 cried. And for many seconds we stood
Slf nus ut mil uuicft rjn.
"Have you got the pluck f said he, breaking the spell In a tone
so cynical that It brought my last drop of blood to the boil.
"You shall see," said I, ss I stepped back and whipped the pistol
from my overcoat pocket "Now, wlU you let me pass or shall I do It
here?" '
The barrel touched my temple and my thumb the trigger. Mad
with excitement as I was, ruined, dishonored, snd now finally deter
mined to make an end of my misspent life, my only surprise to this
day is that I did not do so then end there. The deplcahle satisfaction
of Involving another In one's destruction added lu miserable appeal
' MffiJ -lfy fr fig
MY TART WAS SIMPLY TO STAND BY WITH THE DARE LANTERN lN ONK HAND AND A SMALL BOTTLE OP ROCK OIL IN
OTHER. Posed by Kyrle Bellew. Permission of Liebler & Co.
THE
slipped into my overcoat pocket, and I suffered him to deprive me of
my weapon without a murmur. Nor was thla simply because Raffles
had the subtle power of makiug himself irresistible at will. He was
beyond comparison the most masterful man whom I had ever known,
yet my acquiescence was due to more than the mere subjection of the
weaker nature to the stronger. The forlorn hope which had brought
me to Albany was turned as if by magic Into an almost staggering
sense of safety. Raffles would help me after all! A. J. Raffles would
be my friend! It was as though all the world had come round sud
denly to my side; so far, therefore, from resisting his action, I caught
and clasped his hand with a fervor as uncontrollable as the frenzy
which preceded it
"God bless youl" I cried. "Forgive me everything. I will tell
you the truth. I did think you might help me in my extremity, though
I well knew that I had no claim upon you. Still for the old school's
sake the sake of old times 1 thought you might give me another
chance. If you wouldn't I meant to blow out my brains and will still
If you change your mind!"
In truth, I feared that it was changing, with his expres
sion, even as I spoke, and in spite of bis kindly tone and
kindlier use of my old school nickname. His next words
showed me my mistake.
"What a boy it is for Jumping at conclusions. I have my
vices, Bunny, but backing and filling Is not one of them. Sit
down, my good fellow, and have a cigarette to soothe your
nerves. I insist Whisky? The worst thlni for you; here's
some coffee that I was brewing when you came In. Now,
listen to me. You speak of 'another chance.' What do you
mean? Another chance at baccarat? Not if I know it! You
think the luck must tdrn; suppose It didn't? We' should only
have made bad worse. No, my dear chap, you've plunged
enough. Do you put yourself In my hands or do you not?
Very well, then you plunge no more, and I undertake not to
present my check. Unfortunately, there are the other men,
and, still more unfortunately. Bunny, I'm as bard up at this
moment as you are yourself!" '
It was my turn to sure at Raffles. "You?" I vociferated.
"You hard up? How am I to sit here and believe that?"
"Did I refuse to believe it of your he returned, smil
ingly. "And, with your own experience, do you think that
because a fellow has rooms In .this place, and belongs to a
club or two, and plays a little cricket, he must necessarily
have a balance In the bank? I tell you, my dear man, that
at this moment I'm as hard up as you ever were. Phave
nothing but my wits to live on absolutely nothing else. It
was as necessary for me to win some money this evening as
it was for you. Wo're in the same boat Bunny; we'd better
pull together."
"Together V I Jumped at it "I'll do anything In this
world for you, Rallies," I said, "if you really mean that you
won't give me away. Think of anything you like, and I'll do
it! I was a desperate man when I came in here, and I'm
just as desperate now. I don't mind what I do if only I can
get out of this without a scandal."
Again I see him, leaning back in one of the luxurious
chairs with which his room was furnished. I see his Inso
lent athletic figure; bis pale, sharp, clean-shaven features;
his curly black hair; his strong, unscrupulous mouth. And
again I feel the clear beam of his wonderful eye, cold and
luminous as a star, shining into my brain sifting the very
secrets of my heart
"1 wonder if you mean all that!" he said at length. "You
do in your present mood; but who can back his mood to the
last? SUU, there's hope when a chap takes that
tone. Now I think of It too, ' you were a
plucky little devil at school; you once did me a
rather good turn, I recolect Remember it. Bunny) Well,
and the gloomy, old-fashioned distinction peculiar to Albany. It was
charmingly furnished and arranged, with the right amount of negli
gence and the right amount of taste. What struck me most however,
was the absence of the usual Insignia of a cricketer's deu. Instead of
the conventional rack of war-worn bats, a carved oak bookcase, with
every shelf in a Utter, filled the better part of one wall, and where I
looked for the cricketing groups I found reproductions of such works
as "Love and Death" and "The Bfessed Damozel," in dusty frames
and different parallels. The man might have been a minor poet in
stead of an athlete of the first water. But there had always been a
fine streak of aestheticisra In bis complex composition; some of tbeso
very pictures I had myself dusted In his study at school; and they set
me thinking of yet another of his many sides and of the little Inci
dent to which we had Just referred.
Everybody knows how largely the tone of a public school de
pends on that of the eleven, and on the character of the captain of
cricket in particular, aad I have never beard it denied that in A. J.
..
. -r-
- - . - - - - - --
, -. . n. - - - (;
mj
RINU3 BY THE DOZEN, DIAMONDS BY THE SCORE . . . LAST
OF ALL CAME MY OWN REVOLVER FROM AN INNER
rOCKEX-fosed by Kyrle Bellew. PernUssloa of Llebler Si Co.
Raffles' time our tone was good or that such Influence as he troubled;
to exert was ounhe side of the angels. Yet it was whispered in the
school that he was in the habit of parading the town at night In loud
checks and a false beard. He was whispered, and disbelieved. I
alone knew it for a fact, for night after night had I pulled the rope
up after him when the rest of the dormitory were asleep and kept
awake by the hour to let it down again on a given signal Well, one
night he whs over bold and within an ace of Ignominious expulsion in
the lieydey of his fame. Consummate daring and extraordinary nerve
on his part aided doubtless by some little presence of mind on mine,
averted that untoward result; and no more need be said of a dis
creditable Incident But I cannot pretend to have forgotten it In
throwing myself on this man's mercy in my desperation. And I was
wondering how much of his leniency was owing to the fact that
Raffles had not forgotten it either, when he stopped and stood over
fhy chair once more.
"I've been thinking of that night we had the narrow
squeak," he began. "Why do you start?"
"I was thinking of it too."
He smiled as though he had read my thoughts.
"Well, you were the right sort of little beggar then.
Bunny; you didn't talk and yon didn't flinch. You asked
no questions and you told no tales. I wonder if you're
like that now?"
"I don't know," said I, slightly puraled by his tone,
"I've made such a mete of my own affairs that I trust my
self about ds, little as I'm likely to be trusted by anybody
else. Yet I never in my life went back on a friend, I will
say that, otherwise, perhaps I mightn't bo in such a hole
tonight"
"Exactly," said Raffles, nodding to himself, as though
In assent to some hidden train of thought; "exactly what
I remember of you, and I'll bet it's as true now as it was
ten year ago. We don't alter, Bunny. We only develop.
I suppose neither you nor I was really altered since you
used to let down that rope and I used to come up It hand
over hand. You would stick at nothing for a pal what?'"
"At nothing in this world," I was pleased to cry.
' "Not even at a crime?" said Raffles, smiling.
I stopped to think, for his tone had ehanged, and I
felt sure he was chaffing me. Yet his eye seemed as
much in earnest as ever, and for my part, I was In no
mood for reservations.
"No, not even that" I declared; "name your crime,
and I'm your man."
He looked at me one moment In wonder and another
moment in doubt then turned the matter off with a shake
of his bead and the little cynical laugh that was all his
own.
"You're a nice chap, Bunny! A real desperate charac
terwhat? Suicide one moment, any crime I like the
next! What you want Is a drag, my boy, and you did
well to come to a decent law-abiding citizen with a repu
tation to lose. None the less, we must have that money
tonight by hook or crook."
"Tonight, Raffles?"
"The sooner the better. Every hour after 10 o'clock tomorrow
morning is an hour of risk. Let one of those checks get round to your
own bank, and you and I are dishonored together. No, we must raise
the wind tonight and reopen your account first thing tomorrow. And
I rather think I know where the wind can be raised."
"At 2 o'clock In the morning?"
"Yes."
"But how but where at such an hour?"
"From a friend of mine here In Bond street"
"ne must be a very intimate friend!"
"Intimate's not the word. I have the run of his place and a
latch key all to myself."
"You would knock him up at this hour of the night?"
i "If he's In bed."
"And It's essential that I should go with yon?"
"Absolutely." -
"Then I must; but I'm bound to say I don't like the Idea, Raffle.
"Do you prefer the alternative?" asked my companion, with a
sneer. "No, hang It, that's unfair!" be cried, apologetically, in the
same breath. I quite understand. It's a beastly ordeal. But
It would never do for you to stay outside. I tell you what you shall
have a peg before we start Just one. There's the whisky, here's a
siphon, and I'll be putting on an overcoat while you help yourself."
Well, I daresay I did so with some freedom, for this plan of bis
was not the least distasteful to me from Its apparent Inevitability.
I must own, however, that it possessed fewer terrors before my glass
was empty. Meanwhile Raffles rejoined me, with a covert coat over
his blazer and a soft felt bat set carelessly on the curly bead be
shook with a smile as I passed him the decanter.
"When we come back," said he. "Wprk first, play afterward.
Do you see what day it Is?" he added, tearing a leaflet from a
Shakespearian calendar, as I drained my glass. "March 15. 'The
Ides of March, the Ides of March, remember.' Eh, Bunny, my boy)
Y'ou won't forget them, will you?"
And, with a laugh, he threw some coals on th fire before turning
down the gas like a careful householder. So we went out together
as the clock on the chimney piece was striking 2.
II.
Piccadilly was a trench of raw, white fog, rimmed with blurred
street lamps and lined with a thin coating of adhesive mud. We met
no other wayfarers on the deserted flagstones and were ourselves fa
vored with a very hard stare from the constable on the beat who,
however, touched his helmet on recognising my companion.
"You see, I'm known to the police," laughed Raffles as we passed
on. "Poor devils, they've got to keep tbelr weather eye open on a
night like this! A fog may be a bore to you and me, Bunny, but it's a
perfect Godsend to the criminal classes, especially so late In the sea
son. Here we are, though and I'm hanged if the beggar isn't in bed
and asleep after all!"
We had turned Into Bond street and had halted on the curb a few
yards down on the right. Raffles was gaclng up at some windows
across the road, windows barely discernible through the mint and
without the glimmer of a light to throw them out They were over a
Jeweler's shop, as I could see by the peephole In the shop door and
tho bright light burning within. But the entire "upper part' with
the private street door next the shop, wits black and blank as the
sky Itself. '
"Better give it up for touight" I urged. "Surely, the morning
will be time enough!"
"Not a bit of It" said Raffles. "I have bis key. We'll surprUe
him. (Vtme along."
And seising my right arm, be hurried me across the road, opened
the door with his latchkey, and In another moment had shut It swiftly,
but softly, behind us. We stood together iu the dark. Outside a
measured step was aiproachlng; we had heard It through the fog as
we crossed the street; now. as It drew nearer, my companion's fingers
tightened on my arm.
lt may be tb chap himself," he whispered. "He's tits devil of
