licott, with a grim geniality.
"I've just woke up with the devil of an attack of asthma, and may have
to sit up in my chair till morning. You'd better come up and see me
through, and kill two birds while you're about it. Stay where you are,
and I'll come down and let you in."

Here was a dilemma which Raffles himself had not foreseen! Outside, in
the dark, my audacious part was not hard to play; but to carry the
improvisation in-doors was to double at once the difficulty and the
risk. It was true that I had purposely come down in a true detective's
overcoat and bowler; but my personal appearance was hardly of the
detective type. On the other hand as the soi-disant guardian of the
gifts one might only excite suspicion by refusing to enter the house
where they were. Nor could I forget that it was my purpose to effect
such entry first or last. That was the casting consideration. I
decided to take my dilemma by the horns.

There had been a scraping of matches in the room over the conservatory;
the open window had shown for a moment, like an empty picture-frame, a
gigantic shadow wavering on the ceiling; and in the next half-minute I
remembered to tie my shoes. But the light was slow to reappear through
the leaded glasses of an outer door farther along the path. And when
the door opened, it was a figure of woe that stood within and held an
unsteady candle between our faces.

I have seen old men look half their age, and young men look double
theirs; but never before or since have I seen a beardless boy bent into
a man of eighty, gasping for every breath, shaken by every gasp,
swaying, tottering, and choking, as if about to die upon his feet. Yet
with it all, young Medlicott overhauled me shrewdly, and it was several
moments before he would let me take the candle from him.

"I shouldn't have come down--made me worse," he began whispering in
spurts. "Worse still going up again. You must give me an arm. You
will come up? That's right! Not as bad as I look, you know. Got some
good whiskey, too. Presents are all right; but if they aren't you'll
hear of it in-doors sooner than out. Now I'm ready--thanks! Mustn't
make more noise than we can help--wake my mother."

It must have taken us minutes to climb that single flight of stairs.
There was just room for me to keep his arm in mine; with the other he
hauled on the banisters; and so we mounted, step by step, a panting
pause on each, and a pitched battle for bre