that I might have to tell of Raffles, it is only fair that
I should make as clean a breast of my own baseness. It was I, then,
and I alone, who outraged natural sentiment, and trampled the expiring
embers of elementary decency, by proposing and planning the raid upon
my own old home.

I would not accuse myself the more vehemently by making excuses at this
point. Yet I feel bound to state that it was already many years since
the place had passed from our possession into that of an utter alien,
against whom I harbored a prejudice which was some excuse in itself.
He had enlarged and altered the dear old place out of knowledge;
nothing had been good enough for him as it stood in our day. The man
was a hunting maniac, and where my dear father used to grow prize
peaches under glass, this vandal was soon stabling his hothouse
thoroughbreds, which took prizes in their turn at all the country
shows. It was a southern county, and I never went down there without
missing another greenhouse and noting a corresponding extension to the
stables. Not that I ever set foot in the grounds from the day we left;
but for some years I used to visit old friends in the neighborhood, and
could never resist the temptation to reconnoiter the scenes of my
childhood. And so far as could be seen from the road--which it stood
too near--the house itself appeared to be the one thing that the horsey
purchaser had left much as he found it.

My only other excuse may be none at all in any eyes but mine. It was
my passionate desire at this period to "keep up my end" with Raffles in
every department of the game felonious. He would insist upon an equal
division of all proceeds; it was for me to earn my share. So far I had
been useful only at a pinch; the whole credit of any real success
belonged invariably to Raffles. It had always been his idea. That was
the tradition which I sought to end, and no means could compare with
that of my unscrupulous choice. There was the one house in England of
which I knew every inch, and Raffles only what I told him. For once I
must lead, and Raffles follow, whether he liked it or not. He saw that
himself; and I think he liked it better than he liked me for the
desecration in view; but I had hardened my heart, and his feelings were
too fine for actual remonstrance on such a point.

I, in my obduracy, went to foul extremes. I drew plans of all the
floors from memory. I actually descended upon my friends in the