bank gave no receipts for deposits of this nature. I am
now aware that few London banks do. But it is pleasing to believe that
at the time I looked--what I felt--as though all I valued upon earth
were in jeopardy.

I should have got through the rest of that day happily enough, such was
the load off my mind and hands, but for an extraordinary and most
disconcerting note received late at night from Raffles himself. He was
a man who telegraphed freely, but seldom wrote a letter. Sometimes,
however, he sent a scribbled line by special messenger; and overnight,
evidently in the train, he had scribbled this one to post in the small
hours at Crewe:

"'Ware Prince of Professors! He was in the offing when I left.
If slightest cause for uneasiness about bank, withdraw at once
and keep in own rooms Like good chap,

"A. J. R.

"P. S.--Other reasons, as you shall hear."

There was a nice nightcap for a puzzled head! I had made rather an
evening of it, what with increase of funds and decrease of anxiety, but
this cryptic admonition spoiled the remainder of my night. It had
arrived by a late post, and I only wished that I had left it all night
in my letter-box. What exactly did it mean? And what exactly must I
do? These were questions that confronted me with fresh force in the
morning.

The news of Crawshay did not surprise me. I was quite sure that
Raffles had been given good reason to bear him in mind before his
journey, even if he had not again beheld the ruffian in the flesh. That
ruffian and that journey might be more intimately connected than I had
yet supposed. Raffles never told me all. Yet the solid fact held
good--held better than ever--that I had seen his plunder safely planted
in my bank. Crawshay himself could not follow it there. I was certain
he had not followed my cab: in the acute self-consciousness induced by
that abominable drive, I should have known it in my bones if he had. I
thought of the porter's friend who had helped me with the chest. No, I
remember him as well as I remembered Crawshay; they were quite
different types.

To remove that vile box from the bank, on top of another cab, with no
stronger pretext and no further instructions, was not to be thought of
for a moment. Yet I did think of it, for hours. I was always anxious
to do my part by Raffles; he had done more than his by me, not once or
twice, to-day or yesterday,