diate danger of dying anywhere. The
old Australian doesn't know a soul in town; he's got to be consistent,
or he's done. This sitter Theobald is his only friend, and has seen
rather too much of him; ordinary dust won't do for his eyes. Begin to
see? To pick you out of a crowd, that was the game; to let old
Theobald help to pick you, better still! To start with, he was dead
against my having anybody at all; wanted me all to himself, naturally;
but anything rather than kill the goose! So he is to have a fiver a
week while he keeps me alive, and he's going to be married next month.
That's a pity in some ways, but a good thing in others; he will want
more money than he foresees, and he may always be of use to us at a
pinch. Meanwhile he eats out of my hand."

I complimented Raffles on the mere composition of his telegram, with
half the characteristics of my distinguished kinsman squeezed into a
dozen odd words; and let him know how the old ruffian had really
treated me. Raffles was not surprised; we had dined together at my
relative's in the old days, and filed for reference a professional
valuation of his household gods. I now learnt that the telegram had
been posted, with the hour marked for its despatch, at the pillar
nearest Vere Street, on the night before the advertisement was due to
appear in the Daily Mail. This also had been carefully prearranged;
and Raffles's only fear had been lest it might be held over despite his
explicit instructions, and so drive me to the doctor for an
explanation of his telegram. But the adverse chances had been weeded
out and weeded out to the irreducible minimum of risk.

His greatest risk, according to Raffles, lay nearest home: bedridden
invalid that he was supposed to be, his nightly terror was of running
into Theobald's arms in the immediate neighborhood of the flat. But
Raffles had characteristic methods of minimizing even that danger, of
which something anon; meanwhile he recounted more than one of his
nocturnal adventures, all, however, of a singularly innocent type; and
one thing I noticed while he talked. His room was the first as you
entered the flat. The long inner wall divided the room not merely
from the passage but from the outer landing as well. Thus every step
upon the bare stone stairs could be heard by Raffles where he lay; and
he would never speak while one was ascending, until it had passed his
door. The afternoon brought more than one appl