urse of equal cunning and audacity. He would return
to his rooms, put Crawshay on his guard, and--stow him away? No--there
were such things as windows. Then why was Raffles going to desert us
all? I thought of many things--lastly of a cab. These bedroom windows
looked into a narrow side-street; they were not very high; from them a
man might drop on to the roof of a cab--even as it passed--and be
driven away even under the noses of the police! I pictured Raffles
driving that cab, unrecognizable in the foggy night; the vision came to
me as he passed under the window, tucking up the collar of his great
driving-coat on the way to his rooms; it was still with me when he
passed again on his way back, and stopped to hand the constable his key.

"We're on his track," said a voice behind me. "He's got up on the
leads, sure enough, though how he managed it from yon window is a
myst'ry to me. We're going to lock up here and try what like it is
from the attics. So you'd better come with us if you've a mind."

The top floor at the Albany, as elsewhere, is devoted to the
servants--a congeries of little kitchens and cubicles, used by many as
lumber-rooms--by Raffles among the many. The annex in this case was,
of course, empty as the rooms below; and that was lucky, for we filled
it, what with the manager, who now joined us, and another tenant whom
he brought with him to Mackenzie's undisguised annoyance.

"Better let in all Piccadilly at a crown a head," said he. "Here, my
man, out you go on the roof to make one less, and have your truncheon
handy."

We crowded to the little window, which Mackenzie took care to fill; and
a minute yielded no sound but the crunch and slither of constabulary
boots upon sooty slates. Then came a shout.

"What now?" cried Mackenzie.

"A rope," we heard, "hanging from the spout by a hook!"

"Sirs," purred Mackenzie, "yon's how he got up from below! He would do
it with one o' they telescope sticks, an' I never thocht o't! How long
a rope, my lad?"

"Quite short. I've got it."

"Did it hang over a window? Ask him that!" cried the manager. "He can
see by leaning over the parapet."

The question was repeated by Mackenzie; a pause, then "Yes, it did."

"Ask him how many windows along!" shouted the manager in high
excitement.

"Six, he says," said Mackenzie next minute; and he drew in his head and
shoulders. "I should just like to see those rooms, six windows along."

"Mr. Raffles