If you had looked
it up you would have seen there was no such train in the morning, and
I never said there was. But I meant you to be deceived, Bunny, and I
won't say I didn't--it was all for the sake of the side! Well, when
you carted me away with such laudable despatch, I had rather an
uncomfortable half-hour, but that was all just then. I had my candle,
I had matches, and lots to read. It was quite nice in that strong-room
until a very unpleasant incident occurred."

"Do tell me, my dear fellow!"

"I must have another Sullivan--thank you--and a match. The unpleasant
incident was steps outside and a key in the lock! I was disporting
myself on the lid of the trunk at the time. I had barely time to knock
out my light and slip down behind it. Luckily it was only another box
of sorts; a jewel-case, to be more precise; you shall see the
contents in a moment. The Easter exodus has done me even better than I
dared to hope."

His words reminded me of the _Pall Mall Gazette_, which I had brought
in my pocket from the Turkish bath. I fished it out, all wrinkled and
bloated by the heat of the hottest room, and handed it to Raffles with
my thumb upon the leaded paragraphs.

"Delightful!" said he when he had read them. "More thieves than one,
and the coal-cellar of all places as a way in! I certainly tried to
give it that appearance. I left enough candle-grease there to make
those coals burn bravely. But it looked up into a blind backyard,
Bunny, and a boy of eight couldn't have squeezed through the trap.
Long may that theory keep them happy at Scotland Yard!"

"But what about the fellow you knocked out?" I asked. "That was not
like you, Raffles."

Raffles blew pensive rings as he lay back on my sofa, his black hair
tumbled on the cushion, his pale profile as clear and sharp against
the light as though slashed out with the scissors.

[Illustration: Raffles in the strong-room.]

"I know it wasn't, Bunny," he said regretfully. "But things like that,
as the poet will tell you, are really inseparable from victories like
mine. It had taken me a couple of hours to break out of that
strong-room; I was devoting a third to the harmless task of simulating
the appearance of having broken in; and it was then I heard the
fellow's stealthy step. Some might have stood their ground and killed
him; more would have bolted into a worse corner than they were in
already. I left my candle where it was, crept to meet the poor devil,
flattened