ich he immediately
buried his face. I watched him closely as a subtle odor reached my
nostrils; and it was like the miracle of oil upon the billows. His
shoulders rested from long travail; the stertorous gasping died away
to a quick but natural respiration; and in the sudden cessation of the
cruel contest, an uncanny stillness fell upon the scene. Meanwhile the
hidden face had flushed to the ears, and, when at length it was raised
to mine, its crimson calm was as incongruous as an optical illusion.

"It takes the blood from the heart," he murmured, "and clears the
whole show for the moment. If it only lasted! But you can't take two
without a doctor; one's quite enough to make you smell the
brimstone.... I say, what's up? You're listening to something! If it's
the policeman we'll have a word with him."

It was not the policeman; it was no out-door sound that I had caught
in the sudden cessation of the bout for breath. It was a noise, a
footstep, in the room below us. I went to the window and leaned out:
right underneath, in the conservatory, was the faintest glimmer of a
light in the adjoining room.

"One of the rooms where the presents are!" whispered Medlicott at my
elbow. And as we withdrew together, I looked him in the face as I had
not done all night.

I looked him in the face like an honest man, for a miracle was to make
me one once more. My knot was cut--my course inevitable. Mine, after
all, to prevent the very thing that I had come to do! My gorge had
long since risen at the deed; the unforeseen circumstances had
rendered it impossible from the first; but now I could afford to
recognize the impossibility, and to think of Raffles and the asthmatic
alike without a qualm. I could play the game by them both, for it was
one and the same game. I could preserve thieves' honor, and yet regain
some shred of that which I had forfeited as a man!

So I thought as we stood face to face, our ears straining for the
least movement below, our eyes locked in a common anxiety. Another
muffled foot-fall--felt rather than heard--and we exchanged grim nods
of simultaneous excitement. But by this time Medlicott was as helpless
as he had been before; the flush had faded from his face, and his
breathing alone would have spoiled everything. In dumb show I had to
order him to stay where he was, to leave my man to me. And then it was
that in a gusty whisper, with the same shrewd look that had
disconcerted me more than once during our