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A Jubilee Present!
By E. W. HORNLNO. I
Author of "The Shadow of the Rope." "The Rogue's March," 5
"A Bride from the Bush," "Stlngaree Stories," "Dead Men Tell No B
Tales." etc.
(CopyrlRht. lflni. by fharlei Bcrlbner's Sons)
9TH STORY
... OUT NEXT
WEEK
Eighth Raffles Story
The Room of Gold In the British Museum Is probably well
enough known to the Inquiring alien and the traveled American.
A true Londoner, however, I myself had never heard of It until
Raffles casually proposed a raid.
"The older I grow, Bunny, the less I think of your so-colled
precious stones. When did they ever bring in half their market
i value In . s. d.? 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 Ardugh emeralds weren't much better, old Lady Melrose's neck
luce was fur worse, but that little lot the other night bus about fin
ished me. A cool hundred for goods priced well over four, and
30 to come off for bait, Mne we only got a tenner for the ring I
, bought and puld for llki; :in ass. I'll be shot If 1 ever touch a dia
mond ugaln! Not If It was the Kohinoor; those few whacking
Stones am too well known, and to cut them up Is to decrease their
value by arithmetical retrogression. Besides, that brings you up
.1 against the Fence once more, and I'm done with the beggnrs for
! good and all. You talk about your editors and publishers, you lit
erary swine! Burabbns was neither a robber nor a publisher, but a
; six-burred, barbed-wire, spike-topped Fence. What we really want is
j an Incorporated Society of Thieves, wlih some public-spirited old
( forger to run it for us on business lines."
Unfiles uttered these blasphemies under his breath, not, I am
, afraid, out of any respect tor my one redeeming profession, but be
" cause we were taking a midnight airing on the roof after a whole
t day of Juno In the little flat below. The stars shone overhead, the
C lights of London underneath, and between the Hps of Rallies a
cigarette of the old und only brand. I h:id sent In secret for a box
of the best. The boon hud arrived that night, and the foregoing
speech was the result. I c:.u'd afford to Ignore the insolent asides,
however, where the apparent contention was so manifestly un
sound. "And how are you going to get rid of your gold?" said I, per
tinently. "Nothing easier, my dear rabbit." L
"Is your Room of Gold a roomful of sovereigns?"
Ra tiles laughed softly at my scorn.
"No, Bnnny, It's principally in the shape of archaic ornaments,
whose value, I admit. Is largely Intrinsic. But gold Is gold, from
Phoenicia to Klondike, and If we cleared the room we should
eventually do very well."
"How 7"
"I should melt It down Into a nugget and bring It home from
the 1'. S. A. tomorrow."
"And then?"
Make them pay up In hard cash across the counter of the Bank
of Knglaud. And you can make them."
That I knew, and so said nothing for a time, remaining a hos
tile though a silent critic, while we paced the cool, black leads
with our bnre feet softly ns cats.
f- - "And how do you propoe to get enough away," at length I
asked, "to make It worth while?"
"Ah, there yon have It," said Raffles. "I only propose to re
connolter the grouud to see what we can see. We might find some
.hiding pluce forfti night; that, I am afraid, vould be our only
chance.
"Have you ever been there before?"
r:m s "Not since they got the one good, portable piece which I believe
J: that they exhibit now. It's a long time since I read of It I can't
remember where but I know they have got a gold cup of sorts
worth several thousands. A number of the immorally rich clubbed
together and presented it to the nation, and two of the richly iin-
moral Intend to snaffle it for themselves. At any rate, we niigbj
N go and have a look at It, Bunny, don't you think?"
i Think! I seized his arm.
j "When? When? When?" I asked, like a quick-firing gun.
, "The sooner the better, while old Theobald Is away on bis honey-
moon."
' Our medico had married the week before, nor was any fellow
practitioner taking his work at least, not that considerable branch of
i It which consisted of Raffles during bis brief absence from town.
There were reasons, delightfully obvious to us, why such a plan would
hare been highly unwise In Dr. Theobald. I, however, was sending
bis dally screeds and both matutinal and nocturnal telegrams, the
; composition of which afforded Raffles not a little enjoyment
? "Well, then, when when?" I began to repeat.
"Tomorrow, if you like."
"Only to look?"
The limitation was my one regret.
"We niust do so, Bunny, before we leap."
; . "Very well," I sighed. "But tomorow it is!"
t And the morrow It really was.
I saw the porter that night and. I still think, bought his absolute
allegiance for the second coin of the realm. My story, however, ln
- vented by Raffles, was sufficiently specious In Itself. That sick gen
? tleman, Mr. Maturln (as I had to remember to call him), was really or
? .apparently sickening for fresh air. Dr. Theobald will allow blm
none; ho was pestering me for Just one day In the country while the
glorious weather lasted. I was myself convinced that no possible
harm could come of the experiment. Wou'd the porter help me in to
Innocent and meritorious an Intrigue? The man hesitated. I pro
duced my half sovereign. The man was lost And at half past 8
next morning, before the heat of imy, Raffles and I drove to Kew
i Carders in a hired landau, which was to call for us at midday and
'f wait uttll we came. The porter had assisted me to carry my invalid
downstairs, in a carry lug chair hired (like the landau) from Harrod's
Stores for the .occasion.
It was a little after 0 when we crawled together Into the gar
dens; by half past my Invalid had had euough, 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 pedes-
; triaus now not very many minutes a(ter the opening hour of 10 a. m.
It wua one of those glowing days which will not be forgotten by
; many who were In town at tho time. The Diamond Jubilee was upon
us, the queen's weather had already set In. Raffles, indeed, declared It
V was as hot as Italy and Australia put together; and certainly the short
suumier nights gave the chanuels of wood and asphalt and the
continents of brick aud mortar but little time to cool. At the British
Museum the pigeons were crooning among the shadows of the grimy
oolonuude and the stalwart Janitors locked lees s'alwart than usual,
as though their medals were too heavy for them. I recognised some
habitual Readers going to their labor uuderueath the dome; of mere
visitors we seemed among the first.
That's the room." said Raffles, who had bought the 2 penny guide,
as we studied It oienly on the nearest bench; "No. 43, upstairs and
aharp round to the right. Come on, Bunny!"
And he led the way in silence, but with a loug. methodical stride
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 ami thirty-nine yards from this to the open street,"
aid Raffles, "not counting the Hairs. I suppose we could do it In
twenty seconds, but ir we did we should have to Jump the gates No
you must remember to loaf out at 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 saugiter out with the crowd next duy-after doing the whole
show thoroughly."
"What! With gold In our pockets"
"And gold iu 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
pair of trousers sewu together at the foot! This Is only a preUmnary
s reconnolter. Aud here we are."
.. Aud It Is none of my business to describe the so-called Room of
Gold, with which I, for one, was not a little disappointed. The glass
cases, which both fill and Hue It, may coutaln unique exampiea of the
goldsmith's art In times and places of which one beard quite enough
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I RAN TO TIIB DOOR.
In the course of one's classical education, but from a professional 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
stop your own teeth in doing so. Nor should I care to be seen wear
ing one of the rings; but the greatest 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 middle
aged lady of quality! But, by Jove, It's one of the most beautiful
things I ever saw In my llfj, Bunny. I should like to have it for Its
own sake, by all my gods!"
The thing had a little square case of plate glass all to ltse'lf at one
end of the room. It may have been the thing of beauty thut Ruffle
affected to consider it, but I, for my part, was in no mood to look at It
In that light Underneath was the name of the plutocrats who had
eubscribed for this national gewgaw, and I fell to wondering where
their 8,000 come in, while Raffles devoured his 2-peuny guide book as
greedily as a school girl with a zeal for culture.
"Those are scenes from the martyrdom or St. Agues," said he
" 'translucent on relief one of the finest specimens
of Its kind.' I should think It was! Bunny, you riillllstlne, why can't
you admire the thing for Its own sake? It would be worth having
only to live up to! There never was such rich enameling on such
thin gold, and what a good scheme to hang the Ud up over It, so
that you can see how thin It Is. I wonder If we could lift It, Bunny,
by hook or crook ?"
"You'd better try, sir," said a dry voice at bis elbow.
The madman seemed to think we bad the room to ourselves. I
knew better, but, like another madman, hud let him ramble on un
checked. And here was a stolid constable confronting us lu the short
tunic that they wear iu summer, his whistle ou Its chain, but no
truncheon at his side. Heavens! how I see him" now a man of medium
site, with a broad, good-humored, perspiring face and a limp mus
tache. He looked sternly at Raffles and Raffles looked merrily at him.
"Going to run me iu, officer?" said he. "That would be a Joke
my hat!"
"I didn't say as I was, sir," replied the policeman. "But that's
queer talk for a gentleman like yoji, 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!" cried 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 constahle's face had already relaxed, and now a grin peeped
under the limp mustache. "I dare say there's many as feels like that,
sir," said he.
"Exactly, and I say what I feel, that's all," said Raffles, airily.
"But, seriously, officer, Is a valuable thing like this quite safe in a
case like thut?"
"Safe enough as long as I'm here." replied the other between grim
Jest and stout earnest. Raffles studied bis face; he was still watch
lng Raffles, and I kept my eye on them both without putting In mj
word.
"You appear to l)e single-handed," observed Ruffles. -Is that
wise?"
The note of anxiety was capitally caught; it was at once per
sonal and pubUc-splrted, tiiat of the enthusiastic savaut, afraid of a
nation's treasure which few appreciated as be did himself. And, to
be sure, the three of us now had the treasure to ourselves. One of
two others had been there when we entered, but now they were gone.
"I'm not single-handed." said the officer, comfortably. -See that
seat by the door? One of the attendants sits there all day loug."
"Then where Is he now?"
Talking to another attendant Just outside. If you'll listen you'll
hear them for yourself."
We listened and we did bear them, but uot Just outside. In my
own mind I even questioned whether they were In the corridor through
which we had come. To me it sounded as though they were Just out
aide the corridor.
"You mean the fellow with the bllliurd cue who was here when
we came in?" pursued Raffles.
It's the Jubilee, I sup-
had been professjonal
"That wasn't a billiard cue! It was a pointer," the Intelligent
officer explained.
"It ought to be a Javelin," said Raffles, nervously. "It ought to be
a poleaxe! The public treasure ought to, bo better guarded than this.
I shall write to the Times about it. You see If I don't."
All at once, yet somehow not so suddenly as to excite suspicion,
Raffles had become the elderly busybody with nerves; why I could
not for the life of me imagine, and the policeman seemed equally at
aea.
"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 truncheon."
"Not likely to want one, either. You see, sir, it's early as yet In
a few minutes these here rooms will fill up, and there's safety In num
bers, as they say."
"Oh, It. will fill up soon, will it?"
"Any minute now, sir." 1
"Ah!"
"It Isn't often empty ns long as this, sir.
pose."
"Meanwhile, what If my friend and I
thieves? Why, we could have overjwwered you lu an instant, my
good fellow!"
"That you couldn't; leastways not without bringing tho whole
place alwut your ears."
"Well, I shall write to the Times all the snine. I'm a connoisseur
In all this sort of thing, and I won't have unnecessary risks run with
the nation's property. You said there was an attendant Just outside,
but he sounds to me as though he were at the other end of the corri
dor. I shall write today!"
For un instant we ull three listened, nnd Raffles was right Then
I saw two things In one glance. Raffles had stepped a few Inches
backward and stood poised upon the ball of each foot, his arms half
raised, a light in his eyes. And another kind of light was breaking
over the crass features of our friend, t lie constable.
"Then shall I tell you what I'll do?" he cried, with a sudden
dutch at the whistle chain on his chest. The whistle flew out, but It
never reached his lips. There were a couple of sharp smacks like
double barrels discharged all but simultaneously, and the man reeled
against me so that I could not help catching him ns he felj.
"Well done. Bunny! 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 1 did ns I was told. There was no time for thought,
still less for remonstrance or reproach, though my surprise must have
been even more complete than thut of the eons'able before Raffles
knocked the sense out of him. E"n In my utter bewilderment, however,
the instinctive caution of the real criminal did not desert me. I ran
to the door, but I sauntered through It to plant myself before a l'oin
pellan fresco In the corridor, and there were the two attendants still
gossiping outside the further door; nor did they hear the dull crash
which I heard even as I watched them out of the corner of each eye.
It was hot weather, as I have sail, but the perspiration on my
body seemed already to have turned Into a skin of ice. Then I caught
the faint reflection of my own fuce 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 glauce 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 Pompeii Itself. You must go
there some day. Bunny. I've a good mind to take you myself. Meuu
while slow march tho beggar hasn't moved un eyelid. We may
swing for him If you show Indecent haste!"
"We!" I whispered. "We!"
And my kneps knocked together as we came up to the chatting
attendants. But Raffles must ueeds Interrupt them to ask the way to
the Prehistoric Saloon.
"At the top of the stairs."
"Thank you. Then we'll work around that way to the Egyptian
part."
And we loft them resuming their providential chat
"I believe you're mad." I said bitterly as we went.
"I believe I was," admitted Raffles, 'but I'm not now, and I'll
see you through. A hundred and thirty-nine yards, wasn't it?
iln u it cauuol oe more thuu ii.0 now not us much, bteady, JUuuny,
lor God's sake. It's slow marcU for our Uveal"
There waa this uiucn management. The rest was our colloss&l
luck. A hansom was being paid ott at the loot of the eteps out
side, and lu we Jumped, Rulues ehouung "Charing Cross I" for ail
Biooumbury to hear.
We hud turned into Bloomsbury street without exchanging A
syllable when he struck the trapdoor with his list
"Where the devil are you driving us?"
"Charing Cross, sir."
"I said King s Cross! Round your spin and drivo like blazes or
we miss our ti-Hlu! There's one to York at 105," added Raffles aa
the trapdoor slammed; "we'll book there, Bunny, aud then we'll
slope through the subway to the Metropolitan, and so to grouud via
I Baker etreet and Earl's Court."
And actually lu half an hour ho was seated once more in the
hired carrying chair, while the porter aud I staggered upstairs with
my decrepit charge, for whose shattered strength even one hour in
Kew Gardens hud proved too much! Then, and not until then,
when we had got rid of the porter and were alone at last did I
tell Raffles In the most nervous English at my command, frankly
and exactly what I thought of him nnd of his latest deed. Ouce
started, moreover, I spoke as I have seldom spoken to living man.
and Unfiles, of all men. stood my abuse without a murmur, or,
rather, he sat It out, to astounded even to take off his hat, though
I thought his eye brows would have lifted from hla head.
"But it always was your Infernal wuy," I was savagely con
cluding. "You make ono plan and you tell me another"
"Not today, Bunny, I swear!"
"You mean to tell me you really did start with the bare Idea of
finding a place to hide in for a night?"
"Of course I did."
"It was to be the mere reconnolter you pretended?"
"There was no pretenso about that. Bunny."
"Then why on earth go and do what you did?"
"The reason would be obvious to anyone but you," said Raf
fles, still with no unkludly scorn. "It was the temptation of a
minute the final Impulse of the fraction of a second, when Roberto
saw that I was tempted, and let me see that he saw It. It's not a
thing I care to do, aud I shan't be happy till the papers tell me the
poor devil Is alive. But a knockout shot was tho only chance for
us then."
"Why? You don't get run In for being tempted, nor yet for
showing that you are!"
"But I should have deserved running in If I hadn't yielded to
, such a temptation as that. Bunny. It was a chance in a hundred
thousand! We might go there every day of our Uvea and never
again bo the only outsiders In the room, with the billiard-marking
Johnnie practically out of earshot at one and the same time. It
was a gift from the gods; not to have taken it would have been
flying in the face of Providence."
"Cut you didn't take it," said L "You went and left It be
hind." I wish I had had a kodak for the little smilo with which Raf
fles shook his bead, for It was one that he kept for those great mo
ments of which our vocation Is cot devoid. All this time he had
been wearing his bad tilted a little over eyebrows no longer raised.
And now at last I knew where the gold cup was.
It stood for days upon bis chimney piece, this costly trophy
whose ancient and final fate filled newspaper columns even in these
days of Jubilee, and for which the flower of Scotland Yard was said
to be seeking high and low. Our constable, we learned, had been
stunned only, and from the moment that I brought blm an evening
paper with the news Raffles' spirits rose to a height Inconsistent
with bis equable temperament, and as unusual In blm as the sud
den impulse upon which he had acted with such effect The cup Itself
appealed to me no more than It had done before. Exquisite It might be,
handsome It was, but so light in the hand that the mere gold of it
would scarcely have ponred three figures out of the melting pot And
whut said Raffles but that he would never melt It at all!
"Taking It was an offense against the laws of the land, Bunny.
That Is nothing. But destroying It would be a crime against Ood and
Art, and may I be spitted on the vane of St Mary Abbot's If I com
mit ft!"
Talk such as this was unanswerable; Indeed, the whole affair had
passed the pale of useful comment, and the one course left to a practi
cal person was to shrug his shoulders and enjoy the Joke. This was
not a little enhanced by the newspaper reports, which described Raf
fles as a handsome youth and his unwilling accomplice as an older
man of blackguardly appearance and law typo.
"Hits us both of 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 bo almost worth it to go down to
posterity in such enamol upon such gold. And then the history of the
thing. Do you realize that It's WK) years old and has belonged to
Henry VIII and to Elizabeth among others? Bunny, when you have
me cremated you can put my ashes In yonder cup and lay us in tho
deep-delved earth together!"
"And meanwhile?"
"It Is the Joy of my heart, the light of my life, tho delight of
mine eye."
"And 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 to his own absurdity. There was, nevertheless, an underlying
sincerity In his appreciation of any and every form of beauty which
all his nonsense could not conceal. And his infatuation for the cup
was, as he declared, a very pue passion, since the circumstances de
barred him from the chief Joy of the average collector, that of show
ing his treasure to his friends. At last, however, and at the height of
bis craze, Raffles and reason seemed to come together again as sud
denly as they had parted company In the Room of Gold.
"Bunny," he cried, flinging bis newspapor across the room, "I've
got an Idea after your own heart I know where I can place It after
all!"
"Do you mean the cup?"
"I do."
"Then I congratulate you."
"Thanks."
"I'pon the recovery of your senses."
"Thanes galore. But you've been confoundedly unsympathetic
about this thing. Bunny, and I don't think I shall tell you my scheme
till I've carried it out."
"Quite time enough," said I.
"It will mean your letting me loose for an hour or two under cloud
of this very night. Tomorrow's Sunday, the Jubilee's on Tuseday, and
old TLenbold's coining back for It."
"It doesn't much matter whether he's back or not If you go !at
enough."
"I musn't be late. They don't keep open. No, It's no use you ask
ing any questions. Go out and buy me a big box of Huntley &
Palmer's biscuits, any sort you like, only they must be theirs, and ab
solutely the biggest box they sell."
"My dear man!"
"No questions, Bunny; you do your part and I'll do mine."
Subtlety and success were in his face. It was enough for me, and
I had done his extraordinary bidding within a quarter of an hour. In
another minute Raffles had opened the Ikx and tumbled all the bis
cuits iuto the nearest chulr.
"Now newspapers."
I fetched a pile. He bid the cup of gold a ridiculous farewell,
wrapped It up in newspaper after newspaper, and flmilly packed It in
the empty biscuit Isix.
"Now some brown paper. I don't want to be taken for the grocer's
young man."
A neat enough parcel it made when the string had len tied and
the ends cut close. What was more difficult was to wrap up Raffles
(Continued ou Eighth Pag.)
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