y, and not a trace of dishonesty in the
whole business."

And with that Raffles Holmes filled his pockets with cigars from my stores,
and bidding me be patient went his way.

The effect of his visit upon my nerves was such that any more work that day
was impossible. The fear of possible complications to follow upset me
wholly, and, despite his assurance that the suit-case was innocent of
surreptitiously acquired stomachers, I could not rid my mind of the
suspicion that he made of my apartment a fence for the concealment of his
booty. The more I thought of it the more was I inclined to send for him and
request him to remove the bag forthwith, and yet, if it should so happen
that he had spoken the truth, I should by that act endanger our friendship
and possibly break the pact, which bade fair to be profitable. Suddenly I
remembered his injunction to me to look for myself and see if the stomacher
really was concealed there, and I hastened to act upon it. It might have
been pure bluff on his part, and I resolved not to be bluffed.

The case opened easily, and the moment I glanced into it my suspicions were
allayed. It contained nothing but bundle after bundle of letters tied
together with pink and blue ribbons, one or two old daguerreotypes, some
locks of hair, and an ivory miniature of Raffles Holmes himself as an
infant. Not a stomacher, diamond or otherwise, was hid in the case, nor any
other suspicious object, and I closed it with a sheepish feeling of shame
for having intruded upon the sacred correspondence and relics of the happy
childhood days of my new friend.

That night, as Holmes had asserted, a reward of $10,000 was offered for the
recovery of the Burlingame stomacher, and the newspapers for the next ten
days were full of the theories of detectives of all sorts, amateur,
professional, and reportorial. Central Office was after it in one place,
others sought it elsewhere. The editor of one New York paper printed a full
list of the names of the guests at Mrs. Burlingame's dinner the night the
treasure was stolen, and, whether they ever discovered it for themselves or
not, several bearers of highly honored social names were shadowed by
reporters and others everywhere they went for the next week. At the end of
five days the reward was increased to $20,000, and then Raffles Holmes's
name began to appear in connection with the case. Mrs. Burlingame herself
had sent for him, and, without taking it out of the hands of