ff of a Sullivan which he flung into my fire before he
spoke.

"No, I won't have another, thank you. I'm going to talk to you, Bunny.
Do you really suppose I didn't see through these wiseacres from the
first?"

I flatly refused to believe he had done so before that evening. Why
had he never mentioned his idea to me? It had been quite the other
way, as I indignantly reminded Raffles. Did he mean me to believe he
was the man to thrust his head into the lion's mouth for fun? And what
point would there be in dragging me there to see the fun?

"I might have wanted you, Bunny. I very nearly did."

"For my face?"

"It has been my fortune before to-night, Bunny. It has also given me
more confidence than you are likely to believe at this time of day.
You stimulate me more than you think."

"Your gallery and your prompter's box in one?"

"Capital, Bunny! But it was no joking matter with me either, my dear
fellow; it was touch-and-go at the time. I might have called on you at
any moment, and it was something to know I should not have called in
vain."

"But what to do, Raffles?"

"Fight our way out and bolt!" he answered, with a mouth that meant it,
and a fine gay glitter of the eyes.

I shot out of my chair.

"You don't mean to tell me you had a hand in the job?"

"I had the only hand in it, my dear Bunny."

"Nonsense! You were sitting at table at the time. No, but you may
have taken some other fellow into the show. I always thought you
would!"

"One's quite enough, Bunny," said Raffles dryly; he leaned back in his
chair and took out another cigarette. And I accepted of yet another
from his case; for it was no use losing one's temper with Raffles; and
his incredible statement was not, after all, to be ignored.

"Of course," I went on, "if you really had brought off this thing on
your own, I should be the last to criticise your means of reaching such
an end. You have not only scored off a far superior force, which had
laid itself out to score off you, but you have put them in the wrong
about you, and they'll eat out of your hand for the rest of their days.
But don't ask me to believe that you've done all this alone! By
George," I cried, in a sudden wave of enthusiasm, "I don't care how
you've done it or who has helped you. It's the biggest thing you ever
did in your life!"

And certainly I had never seen Raffles look more radiant, or better
pleased with the world and himself, or nearer that elati