e
smoke of his beloved Sullivan, as he took me into these, the secrets of
his infamous trade! Neither look nor language would betray the infamy.
As a mere talker, I shall never listen to the like of Raffles on this
side of the sod; and his talk was seldom garnished by an oath, never in
my remembrance by the unclean word. Then he looked like a man who had
dressed to dine out, not like one who had long since dined; for his
curly hair, though longer that another's, was never untidy in its
length; and these were the days when it was still as black as ink. Nor
were there many lines as yet upon the smooth and mobile face; and its
frame was still that dear den of disorder and good taste, with the
carved book-case, the dresser and chests of still older oak, and the
Wattses and Rossettis hung anyhow on the walls.

It must have been one o'clock before we drove in a hansom as far as
Kensington Church, instead of getting down at the gates of our private
road to ruin. Constitutionally shy of the direct approach, Raffles was
further deterred by a ball in full swing at the Empress Rooms, whence
potential witnesses were pouring between dances into the cool deserted
street. Instead he led me a little way up Church Street, and so
through the narrow passage into Palace Gardens. He knew the house as
well as I did. We made our first survey from the other side of the
road. And the house was not quite in darkness; there was a dim light
over the door, a brighter one in the stables, which stood still farther
back from the road.

"That's a bit of a bore," said Raffles. "The ladies have been out
somewhere--trust them to spoil the show! They would get to bed before
the stable folk, but insomnia is the curse of their sex and our
profession. Somebody's not home yet; that will be the son of the
house; but he's a beauty, who may not come home at all."

"Another Alick Carruthers," I murmured, recalling the one I liked least
of all the household, as I remembered it.

"They might be brothers," rejoined Raffles, who knew all the loose fish
about town. "Well, I'm not sure that I shall want you after all,
Bunny."

"Why not?"

"If the front door's only on the latch, and you're right about the
lock, I shall walk in as though I were the son of the house myself."

And he jingled the skeleton bunch that he carried on a chain as honest
men carry their latchkeys.

"You forget the inner doors and the safe."

"True. You might be useful to me