parate
sods, but a quantity of full-grown laurels stuck into the raw clay
beds. "Bells in themselves," as Raffles whispered; "there's nothing
else rustles so--cunning old beast!" And we gave them a wide berth as
we crept across the grass.

"He's gone to bed!"

"I don't think so, Bunny. I believe he's seen us."

"Why?"

"I saw a light."

"Where?"

"Downstairs, for an instant, when I--"

His whisper died away; he had seen the light again; and so had I.

It lay like a golden rod under the front-door--and vanished. It
reappeared like a gold thread under the lintel--and vanished for good.
We heard the stairs creak, creak, and cease, also for good. We neither
saw nor heard any more, though we stood waiting on the grass till our
feet were soaked with the dew.

"I'm going in," said Raffles at last. "I don't believe he saw us at
all. I wish he had. This way."

We trod gingerly on the path, but the gravel stuck to our wet soles,
and grated horribly in a little tiled veranda with a glass door leading
within. It was through this glass that Raffles had first seen the
light; and he now proceeded to take out a pane, with the diamond, the
pot of treacle, and the sheet of brown paper which were seldom omitted
from his impedimenta. Nor did he dispense with my own assistance,
though he may have accepted it as instinctively as it was proffered.
In any case it was these fingers that helped to spread the treacle on
the brown paper, and pressed the latter to the glass until the diamond
had completed its circuit and the pane fell gently back into our hands.

Raffles now inserted his hand, turned the key in the lock, and, by
making a long arm, succeeded in drawing the bolt at the bottom of the
door; it proved to be the only one, and the door opened, though not
very wide.

"What's that?" said Raffles, as something crunched beneath his feet on
the very threshold.

"A pair of spectacles," I whispered, picking them up. I was still
fingering the broken lenses and the bent rims when Raffles tripped and
almost fell, with a gasping cry that he made no effort to restrain.

"Hush, man, hush!" I entreated under my breath. "He'll hear you!"

For answer his teeth chattered--even his--and I heard him fumbling with
his matches. "No, Bunny; he won't hear us," whispered Raffles,
presently; and he rose from his knees and lit a gas as the match burnt
down.

Angus Baird was lying on his own floor, dead, with his gray hairs glued
t