round he is a whale for theory and a sprat for practice--but he
looks quite capable of both at crime!"

I now longed to behold this remarkable peer in the flesh, and with the
greater curiosity since another of the things which he evidently never
did was to have his photograph published for the benefit of the
vulgar. I told Raffles that I would dine with him at Lord Thornaby's,
and he nodded as though I had not hesitated for a moment. I see now
how deftly he had disposed of my reluctance. No doubt he had thought
it all out before: his little speeches look sufficiently premeditated
as I set them down at the dictates of an excellent memory. Let it,
however, be borne in mind that Raffles did not talk exactly like a
Raffles book: he said the things, but he did not say them in so many
consecutive breaths. They were punctuated by puffs from his eternal
cigarette, and the punctuation was often in the nature of a line of
asterisks, while he took a silent turn up and down his room. Nor was
he ever more deliberate than when he seemed most nonchalant and
spontaneous. I came to see it in the end. But these were early days,
in which he was more plausible to me than I can hope to render him to
another human being.

And I saw a good deal of Raffles just then; it was, in fact, the one
period at which I can remember his coming round to see me more
frequently than I went round to him. Of course he would come at his
own odd hours, often just as one was dressing to go out and dine, and
I can even remember finding him there when I returned, for I had long
since given him a key of the flat. It was the inhospitable month of
February, and I can recall more than one cosy evening when we
discussed anything and everything but our own malpractices; indeed,
there were none to discuss just then. Raffles, on the contrary, was
showing himself with some industry in the most respectable society,
and by his advice I used the club more than ever.

"There is nothing like it at this time of year," said he. "In the
summer I have my cricket to provide me with decent employment in the
sight of men. Keep yourself before the public from morning to night,
and they'll never think of you in the still small hours."

Our behavior, in fine, had so long been irreproachable that I rose
without misgiving on the morning of Lord Thornaby's dinner to the
other Criminologists and guests. My chief anxiety was to arrive under
the aegis of my brilliant friend, and I had begg