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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 30, 1905)
TflE OMAnA ILLUSTRATED HEE. ff Aa Old Fleurnel ADVENTURE i iTti omnv n i o i ii oiuni ... OUT NEXT n ' I A 3 -JfrW . NUMBER TWFIVF 5t By 13. W. HORNUNO. Author of "Tbe Shadow of the Rope.- "The Rogue's March." "A Bride from the Bush' "Stlngaree Stories." "Dead Men Tell No Tales," etc. III WEEK : ITlieAniateurCrackstmi! M llllllll (Copyright, 1901. by Charles Scrtbnsr's Bona ) iiiiii r II llC Amateur Cracksman .i - ii. "g mm r. i ti i m m mr r r ) - AX I ' 4 l ' t v. ps j H f i w i 1 5 i f 1 . Twelfth Raffles Story THE square shull lx namole-s, but If you drive due west from Piccadilly the cabman will eventually find It on bis left, and he ought to thank you for two shillings. It Is not a fashiona ble square, but there nre few with a finer garden, while the studios on the south wide lend distinction of another sort. The houses, bowevrr, are small and dingy, and almut the Inst to attract the expert practitioner In search of :l crib. IIe;ivon knows It was with no such thought I trailed Raffles tlilther, otic unlucky evening at the latter end of that same season, wntn Dr. Theobald bad at last Insisted upon the bath chuir which I had foreseen iu th beginning. Trees whispered in the green garden aforesaid, and the co d, smooth lawns looked so inviting that I wondered whether some philanthropic resident could not be induced to lend us the key. But Raffles would not listen to the suggestion, when I stopped to make it, and what wa worse, 1 found him looking wistfully at the little houses instead. "Such balconies. Bunny! A leg up, and there you would be!" I expressed u couvletlou that there would be nothing worth taking in the square, but took care to have him under way again as I spoke. "I daresay you're right," sighed Baffles. "Kings and watches, I suppose, but It would be hard luck to take them from people who live In bouses like these. I don't know, though. Here's one with an extra Btory. Stop, Bunny; if you don't stop I'll hold on to the railings! This is a good house; look at the knocker and the electric bell. They've had that put Jn. There's some money here, my rabbit! 1 dare bet there's a silver table In the drawing room; and the windows are wide open. Electric light, too, by Jove!" Since stop I must, I had done so on the other side of the road, in the shadow of the leafy palings, and as Baffles spoke the ground floor windows opposite had flown alight, showing as pretty a llttlo dinner table as one could wish to see, with a man at his wine at the far end, and the back of a lady In evening dress toward us. It was like a lantern picture thrown upon a screen. There were only the pair of them, but the table was brilliant with silver and gay with flowers, and the maid waited with the Indefinable air of a good servant. It certainly seemed a good house. "She's going to let down the blind!" whispered Raffles In high ex citement "No, confound them, they've told her not to. Mark down her necklace, Bunny, and Invoice his stud. .What a brute he looks! But I like fhe table, and that's her show. She has the taste, but he must have money. See the festive picture over the sideboaird? Looks to me like Jacques Saillard. But that silver table would be good enough for me." "Get on,", said I. "You're In a bath chair." "But the whole square's at dinner! We should have the ball at our feet. It wouldn't take two twos!" "With those blinds up and the kitchen underneath?" lie nodded, leaning forward in the chair, his hands upon the wraps about his legs. "You must be mad," said I, and got back to my handles with the word, but when I tugtfed the chair ran light. "Keep an eye on the rug," came in a whisper from the middle of the road, and there stood my invalid, his pale face in a quiver of pure mischief, yet set with his insane resolve. "I'm only going to see whether that woman has a silver table" "We don't want it" "It won't take a minute" "It's madness, madness" "Then don't you wait!" It was like him to leave me like that, and this time I had taken him at his last word, had not my own given me an idea. Mad I had called him, and mad I could declare him upon oath if necessary. It was not as though the thing had happened far from home. They could learn all about us at the nearest mansions. I referred them to Dr. Theobold; this was a Mr. Maturln, one of his patients, and I was his keeper, and he had never given me tile slip before. I heard myself miking these explanations on the door step, and pointing to the deserted policeman still in view. So far no word had passed between the pair, "' i : ' ill. J&rfirV ; i 4P- : wm 'tm- m m irtc if ... 4i "W'm mil i All mrnm' ;rf - mm A BIGUT ABM STBETOUEU OUTWARD AJSD UPWARD. the flesh, and like marble she stood, or rather like some beautiful pale bronze, for that was her coloring, and the lost none of it that I could see, neither trembled, but her bosom rose and fell, and that was all. So she stood without flinching before a masked rufflan, who I felt would be the first to appreciate her courage; to me it was so superb that I could think of it in this way even then, and marvel how Raffles himself could stand unabashed before so brave a figure. He had not to do so long. The woman scorned him, and he stood unmoved, a framed photograph still in his hand. Then, with a quick, determined movement she turned, not to the door or to the bell, but to the open window by which Raffles had entered, and this with that accursed bath chair as the proof, while the pretty parlor maid ran for the police. it would be a more serious matter for me than for my charge. I should lose my place. No, he had never done such a thing before, and 1 would answer for it that he never should again. I saw myself conducting Raffles back to his chair with a firm hand and a stern tongue. I heard him thanking me In whispers on the way home. It would be the first tight place I had ever got him out of, and I was quite anxious for him to get into it, so sure was I of every move. My whole position had altered in the few seconds that it took me to follow this illuminating train of ideas; it was now so stiong that I could watch Raffles without much nnxlety. And fie was wuth watching. He had stepped boldly but softly to the front door, and there he was still waiting, ready, to ring if the door opened or a face appeared in the area, and doubtless to pretend that he had rung already. But he had not to ring at all; and suddenly I saw his foot in the letter box, his left hand on the lintel overhead. It was thrilling, even to a hardened accomplice with an explanation up his sleeve! A tight grip with that left hand of his, as he leaned forward with all his weight But at this point Raffles said something, I could not hear what, but at tbe sound of his voice the woman wheeled. And Raffles was look ing humbly in her face, the crape mask snatched from his own. "Arthur!" she cried; and that might have been heard in the middle of the square garden. Then they stood gazing at each other, neither unmoved any more, and while they stood tbe street door opened and banged. It was the husband leaving the house, a fine figure of a man, but a dissipated face, and a step even now distinguished by the extreme caution which precedes unsteadiness. He broke the spell. His wife came to the balcony, then looked back into the room, and yet again along the road, and this time I saw her face. It was the face of one glancing indeed from Hyperion to a satyr. And then I saw the rings flash, as her hand fell gently upon Raffles' arm. They disappeared from that window. Their heads showed for an instant in the next. Then they dipped out of sight, and an lnnej cell ing flashed out under a new light; they had gone into the back drawing room, beyond my Ken. xne maia came up wun conee, ner mistress bedside Theobald, but Raffles did not smile. His eyes had been downcast all this time, and now, when he raised them, I perceived that my comfort had been ad ministered to deaf ears. "Do you know who she is?" aid he. "Not from Eve." "Jacques Saillard," he said, as though now I must know. ' But the name left me cold and stolid. I had heard it, but that was all. It was lamentable Ignorance, I am aware, but I had specialised in Letters at the ex pense of Art. "You must know her pic tures," said Raffles, patiently; "but I suppose you thought she was a man. They would appeal to you, Bunny; that festive piece over the sideboard was her work. ' Sometimes they risk her at the Academy, sometimes they fight shy. She has one of those studios in the same square; they used to live up near Lord's." My mind was busy brightening a dim memory of nymphs reflected in woody pools. "Of course!" I exclaimed, and added something about "a clever woman." Raffles rose at the phrase. "A clever woman!" be echoed scornfully; "if she were only that I should feel safe as houses. Clever women can't forget their cleverness, they carry it as badly as a boy does wine, and are about as dangerous. I don't call Jacques Saillard clever outside her art, but neither do I call her a woman at all. She does man's work over a man's name, has the will of any ten men I ever knew, and I don't mind telling you that I fear her more than any per son on God's earth. I broke with her once," said Raffles grimly, "but I know her. If I had been asked to name the one person in London by whom I was keenest not to be bowled out I should have named Jacques Saillard." That he had never before named her to me was as characteristic as the reticence with which Raffles spoke of their past relations, and even of their conversation in the bnck drawing room that evening; it was a question of principle with him, and one that I like to remem ber. "Never give a woman away, Bunny," he used to say; and he said it again tonight, but with a heavy cloud upon him, as though hla chivalry was sorely tried. "That's all right," said I, "if you're not going to be given away yourself." "That's Just it, Bunnyt That's Just" The words were out of him, it was too late to recall them. I had hit the nail upon the head. "So she threatened you," I said, "did she?" "I didn't say so," he replied coldly. "And she is mated with a clown!" I pursued. "How she ever married him," he admitted, "is a mystery to me." "It always is," said I, the wise man for once, and rather enjoying the role. "Southern blood?" "Spanish." "She'll be pestering you to run off with her, old chap," said I. Raffles was pacing the room. He stopped in his stride for half a second. So she had begun pestering him already! It is wonderful how acute any fool can be in the affairs of his friend. But Raffles resumed his walk without a syllable, and I retreated to safer ground. "So you sent her to Earl's Court," I mused aloud, and at last he smiled. "You'll be interested to hear, Bunny," said he, "that I'm now liv ing in Seven Dials, and Bill Sykes couldn't hold a farthing dip to me. Bless you, she had my old police record at her Angers' ends, but it was fit to frame compared with the one I gave her. I had sunk as low as they did. I divided my nights between the open park and a thieves' kitchen in Seven Dials. If I was decently dressed it was because I had stolen the suit down the Thames Valley beat the night before last I was on 'my way back when first that sleepy square, and then her open window proved too much for me. You should have heard me beg her to let me push on to the devil In my own way; there I spread myself, for I meant every word; but I swore the final stage would be a six-foot drop." "You did lay it on," said I. "It was necessary, and that had its effect She let me go. But at the last moment she said she didn't believe I was so black as I painted myself, and then there was the balcony scene yqu missed." . So that was all. I could not help telling him that he had got out of it better than he deserved for ever getting in. Next moment I re gretted the remark. "If I have got out of it" said Raffles doubtfully. upon those Ave fingers; a right arm stretched outward and upward to bB8tlly met her Bt the do0r and nce mre dlsaPPeared- The square fuy npar nelghl)orB( and x can.t m0Te m ft mlnute( old Tbe0bald fresh sur it, last inch, and the base of the 'low, projecting balcony was safely wns 89 qulet 88 ever' 1 ren,alned me wl)ere 8- taking a grave view of my case. I suppose I had better He low. and uttle flat, caugfct , nd toe I thought I heard their voices in the back drawing room. I thank god8 agaln fop puWng her off the gcent for tIme be,ng ., I looked down and took breath. The maid was removing the crumbs in the lighted room, and the square was empty as before. What ft blessing it was the end of the season! - Many of the houses remained In darkness. I looked up again and Raffles was drawing Ms left leg over the balcony railing. In another moment he had dis appeared through one of the French windows which opened upon the tn loony, and in yet another he had switched on the electric light within. This was bad enough, for now I at least could see everything he did; but the crowning folly was still to come. There was no point in it; the mad thing was done for my benefit as I knew at once and was seldom sure. My state of mind may be imagined by those readers who take an interest -in my personal psychology. It docs not amuse me to look back upon it. But ut length I had the sense to put myself In Raffles' place. He bad been recognized at lust he had come to life. Only one person knew as yet, but that person was a woman, and a woman who had once been fond of him, If the human face could speak. Would she keep his secret? Would he tell her where he lived? It was ter rible to thluk we were such neighbors, and with the thought that it was terrible came a little enlightenment as to what could still be done for he afterward confessed, but the lunatic reappeared on the balcony," tbe beit Ile would Dot tel1 ber wnere ne.llved- 1 kuew him to well bowing like a mountebank in his crape ma'k! I set off with the empty chair, but I came back. I could not desert old Raffles even when I would, but must try to explain away his mask as well. If he had not the sense to take it off in time. It would be rtlfflcnlt, but burglaries are not usually committed from a bath chair, and for the rest I pnt my faith in Dr. Theobald. Meanwhile Raffles hr.rt at least withdrawn from the balcony, arid now I could only see Ms head as he peered into a cabinet at the other side of the room. It was like the opera of "Alda;" In which two scenes are enacted, simul taneously one in the 'dungeon below, the other In the temple above. In the same fashion my attention now became divided between the picture of Baffles moving stealthily about the upper room and that of the husband and wife at table underneath. And all at once, as the roan replenished his glass w ith a shrug of the shoulders, the woman pushed back her chair and sailed to the d.or. Raffles was standing before the fireplace upstairs. He bad taken one of the framed photographs from the chlmneyplece and was scan ning it at suicidal length through the eye holes in the hideous maHk which he still wore. He would need it after all. The lady had left the room below, opening end shutting the door for herself; the man was filling his glass ouco more. ' I would have shrieked my warning to Raffles, so fatally engrossed overhead, but at this moment (of all others) a constable (of all men) was marching sedately down our side of the sonnre. There was nothing for It but to turn a melancholy eye upon the bath chair and to ask the constable tha time. I was evidently to be kept there all night, I remarked, and only realized with the words that they disposed of my other explanations before they were uttered. If was a horrible moment for such a discovery. Fortunately the enemy was on the pavement, from which he could scarcely have seen more than the drawing room celling had he lo iked, but he was not many honses distant when a door opened and a woman gasped so tbtt I beard both across the road. And never shall I forget the subse quent tableaux in the lighted room behind the low balcony and the French windows. t , i Raffles stood confronted by a dark and handnome wman, whose profile as I saw It first In the e'eetrie lUht Is cut like a cameo in my niemory. It had the undeviatlng line of brow and nose, the short upper Up, the perfect chin, that are united in marble oftener than in for that He would run for It when he could, and the bath chair and I must not be there to give him away. 1 dragged the Infernal vehicle round the nearer corner. Then I waited there could be no harm In that and at last he came. ' He was walking briskly, so I was right, and he had not played the Invalid to her; yet I heard him cry out with pleasure as he turned the corner, and be flung himself into the chair with a long-drawn sigh that did me good. "Well done. Bunny well done! I am on my way to Earl's Court, she's capable of following me, but she won't look for me in a bath chair. Home, home, home, and not another word till we get there!" Capable of following him? She overtook us before we were past the studios on the south side of the square, the woman herself in a hooded opera clonk. But she never gave us a glance, and we saw her turn safely In the right dlreetkn for Earl's Court, and the wrong one for our humble mansions. Raffles thanked his gods in a voice that trembled, and five minutes later we were in the flat Then for once it was Raffles who filled the tumblers and found the cigarettes, and for once (and once only in all my knowledge of him) did he drain his glass in a draught "You didn't see the balcony scene?" he asked at length; and they were his first words since the woman passed us on his track. "Do you mean when she came iu?" "No, when I came down." "I didn't." "I hope nobody else saw it," slid Rallies devoutly. "I don't say that Romeo and Juliet were brother and sl-ter to us. But you might have said so, Bunny!" He was starfng at the carpet with as wry a face as lover ever wore. "Aji old flame?" said I, gently. "A married woman," he groaned , "So I gathered." "But she always was one. Bunny," said he, ruefully. "That's the trouble. It makes all the difference In the world!" I saw the difference, but said I did not see how It could make any now. He bad eluded the lady, after all; had we not seen her oft uion a scent asraise ns scent oouia oe? mere was occasion for redoubled No doubt our conversation was carried beyond this point but it certainly was not many minutes later, nor had we left the subject, when the electric bell thrilled us both to a sudden silence. "The doctor?" I queried, hope fighting with my horror. "It was a single ring." - "The last post?" "You know he knocks, and It's long past his time." The electric bell rang again, but now as though it never would stop. "Y'ou go. Bunny," said Raffles, with decision. His eyes were sparkling. His smile was firm. "What am I to Bay?" "If it's the lady let her in." It was the lady, still in her evening cloak, with ber fine dark head half hidden by the hood, and an engaging contempt of appearances upon her angry face. She was even handsomer than I had thought, and her beauty of a bolder type, but she was also angrier than I had anticipated when I came so readily to the door. Tbe passage into which it opened was an exceedingly narrow one, as I have often said, but I never dreamed of barring this woman's way, though not a word did she stoop to say to me. I was only too glad to flatten myself against the wall, as tbe rustling fury strode past me into the lighted room with the open door. "So this is your thieves kitchen!" she cried, in high-pitched scorn. I was on the threshold myself, and Raffles glanced toward me with raised eyebrows. "I have certainly had better quarters in my day," said he, "but you need not call them absurd names before my man." "Then send your 'man' about his business," said Jacques Saillard, with an unpleasant stress upon the word indicated. But when the door was shut I heard Raffles assuring her that I knew nothing, that he was a real invalid overcome by a sudden mad temptation, and all he had told her of his life a lie to bide his where abouts, but all he was telling her now she could prove for herself without leaving that building. It seemed, however, that she bad proved it already by going first to the porter below stairs. Yet I do not think she cared one atom which story was the truth. "So you thought I could pass you In your chair," she said, "or ever in this world agaiw without hearing from my heart that It was you. power. Otherwise there would have been little point in hiding any thing from the one person in possession of the cardinal secret of his Idoutity. But Raffles thought it worth his while to hoodwink Jacques Saillard in the subsidiary matter of his health, in which Dr. Theobald lent him uuwlttiug assistance, and, as we have seen, to impress upon her that I was actually his attendant and as iguorant of his past aa the doctor himself. "So you're all right Bunny," he had assured me; "she thinks you knew nothlug the other night. I told you she wasn't a clever woman outside her work. But hasn't she n will!" I told Baffles It was very considerate of him to keep me out of it but that it seemed to mo like tying up the bag when the cat had escaped. His reply was an admission that one must be on the defensive with such a woman and In such a case. Soon after this, Raffles, looking far from well, fell back upon his own last line of defense, namely, his bed; and now, as always, in the end, I could see some sense in his subtleties, Plnce It wns comparatively easy for me to turn even Jacques Saillard from the door, with Dr. Theobald's explicit injunctions, and with my own honesty unquestioned. So for a day we had peace once more. Then came letters, then the doctor again and again, and finally my dismissal in the Incredible words which have necessitated these ex planations. "Go?" I echoed. "Go where?" "It's that ass Theobald," said Raffles, "ne insists." "On my going altogether?" He nodded. "And you mean to let htm have his way?" I had no lnnguage for my mortification and disgust though neither was as yet quite so great as my surprise. I had foreseen almost every conceivable consequenco of the mad act which brought all this troubl to pass, but a voluntary division between Raffles and me had certainly never entered my calculations. Nor could I think that it had occurred to him before our egregious doctor's last visit this very morning. Raffles had looked irritated as he broke the news to me from his pil low, and now there was some sympathy In the way he sat up iu bed as though he felt the thing himself. "I am obliged to give in to the fellow." said he. "He's saving me from my friend, and I'm bound to humor him. But I can tell you that we've been arguing about you for the last half hour, Bunny. It was no use; the Idiot has had his knife in you from the first; and he wouldn't see me through on any other conditions." "So he is going to see you through, I9 he?" "It tots up to that" said Raffles, looking at me rather hard. "At all events he has come to my rescue for the time being, and it's for me to manage. the rest You don't know what it has been, Bunny, these last few weeks; and gallantry forbids that I should tell you even now. But would you rather elope against your will, or have your continued existence made known to the world in general and the police In par ticular? That is practically the problem which I have had to solve, and the temporary solution was to fall 111. As a matter of fact I am ill; and now what do you think? I owe it to you to tell you, Bunny, though it goes against the grain. She would take me, 'to the dear, warm underworld, where the sun really shines, and she would 'nurse me back to life and love!' The artistic temperament is a fearsome thing, Bunny, in a woman with the devil's own will!" Raffles tore up the letter from which he had rend these piquant extracts, and lay back on the pillows with the tired air of the veritable invalid which he seemed able to assume at will. But for once he did look as though bed was the best place for him; and I used the fact as an argument for my own retention in defiance of Dr. Theobald. The town was' full of typhoid, I said, and certainly that autumnal scourge was in the air. Did he want me to leave him at the very mo ment when he might be sickening for a serious illness? "You know I don't 'my good fellow," said Raffles wearily; "but Theobald does, and I can't afford to go against him now. Not that I really care what happens to me now that that woman knows I'm In the land of the living; she'll let it out to a dead certainty, and at the best there'll be a hue and cry, which is the very thing I have escaped all these years. Now, what I want you to do Is to go and take some quiet place somewhere, and then let me know, so that I may have a port In the storm when it breaks." "Now you're talking!" I cried, recovering my spirits. "I thought you meant to go and drop a fellow altogether!" . "Exactly the sort of thing you would think," rejoined Baffles, with a contempt that was welcome enough after my late alarm. "No, my dear rabbit, what you've got to do is to make a new burrow for us both. Try down the Thames, In some quiet nook that a literary man would naturally select I've often thought that more use might be made of a boat while the family are at dinner, than there ever has been yet If Raffles Is to come to life, old chap, he shnll go a-R:iffllng for all he's worth! There's something to be done with a bicycle, too. Try Ham Common or Roebampton, or some sleepy hollow a trifle off the line; and say you're expecting your brother from the colonies." Into this arrangement I entered without the slightest hesitation, for we had funds enough to carry it out on a comfortable scale, and Raffles Dlaced a sufficient share at my disposal for the nonce. More over, I for one was only too glad to seek fresh fields and pastures new We are dread- a phrase which I determined to Interpret literally In my choice of surroundings. I was tired of our submerged life In the poky especially now that we had money enough for better things. mvseir had or late naa uarK aeaungs wun me receiver, wuu uie result that poor Lord Ernest Belville's successes were now indeed ours. Subsequent complications had been the more galling on that account, while the wanton way in which they had been created was the most irritating reflection of all. But It had brought its own punishment upon Raffles, and I fancied the lesson would prove salutary when we again settled down. "If ever we do, Bunny!" said he, as I took his hand and told him how I was already looking forward to the time. "But of course we will," I cried, concealiug the resentment at leaving him which his tone and his apioaranre renewed In my breast "I'm not so sure of it," he said, gloomily. "I'm' in somebody's clutches, and I've got to get out of them first." "I'll sit tight until you do." "Well," he said, "If you don't Fee me In ten days you never will." "Only ten days?" I echoed. "That's nothtiig at all." "A lot may happen In ten days." replied Rallies, iu the same de pressing tone, so very depressing iu him; and with that he held out his hand a second time, and dropped mine suddenly after ns sudden a pressure for farewell. I left the flat In considerable dejection after all, unable to decide whether Raffles was really 111, or only worried as I knew him to be. And at the foot of the stairs the author of my dismissal, that con founded Theobald, flung open his door and waylaid me. "Are you going?" he demanded. The traps In my hands proclaimed that I was, but I dropped them at his feet to have It out with him then and there. "Yes," I answered fiercely, "thanks to you!" "Well, my good fellow," he said, his full blooded face lightening and softening at the same time, as though a load were off his mind, "It's no pleasure to me to deprive any man of his billet but you never were a nurse, and you know that as well as I do." I began to wonder what he meant and how much he did know, and my speculations kept me silent. "But come in here a moment" he continued, Just as I decided that he knew nothing at all. And, leading me into bis mlnHte consulting room, Dr. Theobald solemnly presented me with a sovereign by vay of compensation, which I pock eted as solemnly, and with as much gratitude as if I had not fifty of hem distributed over my person as it was. The good fellow had caution in the future, but none for immediate anxiety. I quoted the deliberate pose to conceal the extent to which she had him in hei "Bunny," said Raffles, "I'm awfully sorry, old chap, but you've quIte for,;otten my social status, about which he himself had been so got to go." ' particular at our earliest Interview; but he had never accustomed It was some weeks since the first untimely vlsltaUon of Jacques nimg.if to treat me as a gentleman, and I do not suppose he bad been Saillard, but there had been many others at all hours of the day, while improving his memory by the tall tumbler which I saw him poke be- Raffles had been Induced to pay at least one to her studio in the nin(j a photograph frame as we entered. neighboring square. These intrusions he had endured at first with an "There's one thing I should like to know before I go," said L turn air of humorous resignation which Imposed upon me less than he 1m- ing suj(jen!y on the doctor's mst, "and that Is whether Mr. Maturln is aglued. The woman meant well, he said, after all. and could be rpaly , 0P not,.. trusted to keep his secret loyally. It was plain to me. however, that j lnpant, of course, at the present moment; but Dr. Theobald Raffles did not trust ber. and that his pretence upon the point was a