es."

"Well, you must take me to another of your old haunts, where we can lie
low till morning."

"And then?"

"Sufficient for the night, Bunny! The first thing is to find a burrow.
What are those trees at the end of this lane?"

"St. Leonard's Forest."

"Magnificent! They'll scour every inch of that before they come back
to their own garden. Come, Bunny, give me a leg up, and I'll pull you
after me in two ticks!"

There was indeed nothing better to be done; and, much as I loathed and
dreaded entering the place again, I had already thought of a second
sanctuary of old days, which might as well be put to the base uses of
this disgraceful night. In a far corner of the garden, over a hundred
yards from the house, a little ornamental lake had been dug within my
own memory; its shores were shelving lawn and steep banks of
rhododendrons; and among the rhododendrons nestled a tiny boathouse
which had been my childish joy. It was half a dock for the dingy in
which one plowed these miniature waters and half a bathing-box for
those who preferred their morning tub among the goldfish. I could not
think of a safer asylum than this, if we must spend the night upon the
premises; and Raffles agreed with me when I had led him by sheltering
shrubbery and perilous lawn to the diminutive chalet between the
rhododendrons and the water.

But what a night it was! The little bathing-box had two doors, one to
the water, the other to the path. To hear all that could be heard, it
was necessary to keep both doors open, and quite imperative not to
talk. The damp night air of April filled the place, and crept through
our evening clothes and light overcoats into the very marrow; the
mental torture of the situation was renewed and multiplied in my brain;
and all the time one's ears were pricked for footsteps on the path
between the rhododendrons. The only sounds we could at first identify
came one and all from the stables. Yet there the excitement subsided
sooner than we had expected, and it was Raffles himself who breathed a
doubt as to whether they were turning out the hunters after all. On
the other hand, we heard wheels in the drive not long after midnight;
and Raffles, who was beginning to scout among the shrubberies, stole
back to tell me that the guests were departing, and being sped, with an
unimpaired conviviality which he failed to understand. I said I could
not understand it either, but suggested the general influence of