at he would be in soon after eleven. Hence I went to the
theater, and on returning at midnight awaited him.

I sat reading by the fire and dozed till just past two o'clock, when
he returned dressed in unfamiliar clothes: a rough suit of tweeds in
which he presented the appearance of a respectable artisan. His left
hand was bound roughly with a colored handkerchief, and he appeared
very exhausted. Before speaking he poured himself out a liqueur glass
of neat brandy which he swallowed at a single gulp.

"I've had a rather nasty accident, George," he said. "I've cut my hand
pretty badly. Only not a soul must know about it--you understand?"

I nodded, and then at his request I assisted him to wash the wound and
rebandage it.

"What's been the matter?" I asked with curiosity.

"Nothing very much," was his hard reply. "You'll probably know all
about it to-morrow. The papers will be full of it. But mind and keep
your mouth shut very tightly."

And with that he drew from his pockets a pair of thin surgical rubber
gloves, both of which were blood-stained, and hurriedly threw them
into the fire.

On the following evening about six o'clock I was alone in Rayne's
chambers when the evening newspaper was, as usual, pushed through the
letter-box. I rose, and taking it up glanced casually at the front
page, when I was confronted by a startling report.

It appeared that just after midnight on the previous night the
watchman on duty at the Chartered Bank of Liberia, in Lombard Street,
had been murderously attacked by some unknown person who apparently
battered his head with an iron bar, and left him unconscious and so
seriously injured that he was now in Guy's Hospital without hope of
recovery. The bank robbers had apparently used a most up-to-date
oxyacetylene plant for cutting steel, and from the strong-room in the
basement--believed to be impregnable and which could only be opened
by a time-clock, and, moreover, could be flooded at will--they had cut
out the door as butter could be cut with a hot knife. From the safe
they had abstracted negotiable bonds with English, French and Italian
notes to the value of over eighty thousand pounds, with which the
thieves had got clear away.

The bank robbery was the greatest sensation of the moment. The thieves
had cleverly effected an entrance by one of them having secreted
himself in a safe in the bank when it had closed. In the morning at
nine o'clock when the first clerk, a lady acc