e her special attention the minute she set foot on shore; but
instead of doing as they all believed she would do, and giving the
inspectors a chance to catch her at trying to evade the duties, to their
very great profit, she calmly and coolly declared the stuff, paid her little
sixty-five per cent. like a major, and drove off to the Castoria in full
possession of her jewels. The Collector of the Port had all he could do to
keep 'em from draping the custom-house for thirty days, they were all so
grief-stricken. She'll probably take the rope to Atlantic City with her."

"Aha!" said I. "That's the milk in the cocoanut, is it? You're after that
pearl rope, are you, Raffles?"

"On my honor as a Holmes," said he, "I am not. I shall not touch the pearl
rope, although I have no doubt that I shall have some unhappy moments during
the week that I am in the same hotel with it. That's one reason why I'd like
to have you go along, Jenkins--just to keep me out of temptation. Raffles
may need more than Holmes to keep him out of mischief. I am confident,
however, that with you to watch out for me, I shall be able to suppress the
strong tendency towards evil which at times besets me."

"We'd better keep out of it altogether, Holmes," said I, not liking the
weight of responsibility for his good behavior that more than once he had
placed on my shoulders. "You don't deny, I suppose, that the pearl rope is a
factor in your intentions, whatever they may be."

"Of course I don't, Jenkins," was his response. "If it were not for her
pearl rope, Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe could go anywhere she pleased without
attracting any more attention from me than a passing motor-car. It would be
futile for me to deny that, as a matter of fact, the pearl rope is an
essential part of my scheme, and, even if it were not futile to do so, I
should still not deny it, because neither my father nor my grandfather,
Holmes nor Raffles, ever forgot that a gentleman does not lie."

"Then count me out," said I.

"Even if there is $7500 in it for you?" he said, with a twinkle in his eye.

"If it were $107,500 you could still count me out," I retorted. "I don't
like the business."

"Very well," said he, with a sight. "I shall have to go alone and endeavor
to fight the terrible temptation unaided, with a strong probability that I
shall fail, and, yielding to it, commit my first real act of crime, and in
that event, with the possibility of a term at Trenton prison, if