liquor, and expressed my envy of their state. I had drawn my knees up
to my chin, on the bench where one used to dry one's self after
bathing, and there I sat in a seeming stolidity at utter variance with
my inward temper. I heard Raffles creep forth again and I let him go
without a word. I never doubted that he would be back again in a
minute, and so let many minutes elapse before I realized his continued
absence, and finally crept out myself to look for him.

Even then I only supposed that he had posted himself outside in some
more commanding position. I took a catlike stride and breathed his
name. There was no answer. I ventured further, till I could overlook
the lawns: they lay like clean slates in the starlight: there was no
sign of living thing nearer than the house, which was still lit up, but
quiet enough now. Was it a cunning and deliberate quiet assumed as a
snare? Had they caught Raffles, and were they waiting for me? I
returned to the boat-house in an agony of fear and indignation. It was
fear for the long hours that I sat there waiting for him; it was
indignation when at last I heard his stealthy step upon the gravel. I
would not go out to meet him. I sat where I was while the stealthy
step came nearer, nearer; and there I was sitting when the door opened,
and a huge man in riding-clothes stood before me in the steely dawn.

I leaped to my feet, and the huge man clapped me playfully on the
shoulder.

"Sorry I've been so long, Bunny, but we should never have got away as
we were; this riding-suit makes a new man of me, on top of my own, and
here's a youth's kit that should do you down to the ground."

"So you broke into the house again?

"I was obliged to, Bunny; but I had to watch the lights out one by one,
and give them a good hour after that I went through that dressing room
at my leisure this time; the only difficulty was to spot the son's
quarters at the back of the house; but I overcame it, as you see, in
the end. I only hope they'll fit, Bunny. Give me your patent
leathers, and I'll fill them with stones and sink them in the pond.
I'm doing the same with mine. Here's a brown pair apiece, and we
mustn't let the grass grow under them if we're to get to the station in
time for the early train while the coast's still clear."

The early train leaves the station in question at 6.20 A.M.; and that
fine spring morning there was a police officer in a peaked cap to see
it off; but he was t