icant for the post which
it was my duty to tell them that I had already obtained. Between three
and four, however, Raffles, suddenly looking at his watch, packed me
off in a hurry to the other end of London for my things.

"I'm afraid you must be famishing, Bunny. It's a fact that I eat very
little, and that at odd hours, but I ought not to have forgotten you.
Get yourself a snack outside, but not a square meal if you can resist
one. We've got to celebrate this day this night!"

"To-night?" I cried.

"To-night at eleven, and Kellner's the place. You may well open your
eyes, but we didn't go there much, if you remember, and the staff seems
changed. Anyway we'll risk it for once. I was in last night, talking
like a stage American, and supper's ordered for eleven sharp."

"You made as sure of me as all that!"

"There was no harm in ordering supper. We shall have it in a private
room, but you may as well dress if you've got the duds."

"They're at my only forgiving relative's."

"How much will get them out, and square you up, and bring you
back bag and baggage in good time?"

I had to calculate.

"A tenner, easily."

"I had one ready for you. Here it is, and I wouldn't lose any time if
I were you. On the way you might look up Theobald, tell him you've got
it and how long you'll be gone, and that I can't be left alone all the
time. And, by Jove, yes! You get me a stall for the Lyceum at the
nearest agent's; there are two or three in High Street; and say it was
given you when you come in. That young man shall be out of the way
to-night."

I found our doctor in a minute consulting-room and his shirt-sleeves, a
tall tumbler at his elbow; at least I caught sight of the tumbler on
entering; thereafter he stood in front of it, with a futility which
had my sympathy.

"So you've got the billet," said Dr. Theobald. "Well, as I told you
before, and as you have since probably discovered for yourself, you
won't find it exactly a sinecure. My own part of the business is by no
means that; indeed, there are those who would throw up the case, after
the kind of treatment that you have seen for yourself. But
professional considerations are not the only ones, and one cannot make
too many allowances in such a case."

"But what is the case?" I asked him. "You said you would tell me if I
was successful."

Dr. Theobald's shrug was worthy of the profession he seemed destined to
adorn; it was not incompatible w