?" asked a voice with a sudden start in it. The secretary was
blinking as he drained his glass.

"About the very thing we've just had explained to us," said I, watching
my man intently as I spoke. "I made sure it was a man-trap. Raffles
thought it must be something else. We had a tremendous argument about
it. Raffles said it wasn't a man-trap. I said it was. We had a bet
about it in the end. I put my money on the man-trap. Raffles put his
upon the other thing. And Raffles was right--it wasn't a man-trap.
But it's every bit as good--every little bit--and the whole boiling of
you are caught in it except me!"

I sank my voice with the last sentence, but I might just as well have
raised it instead. I had said the same thing over and over again to
see whether the wilful tautology would cause the secretary to open his
eyes. It seemed to have had the very opposite effect. His head fell
forward on the table, with never a quiver at the blow, never a twitch
when I pillowed it upon one of his own sprawling arms. And there sat
Maguire bolt upright, but for the jowl upon his shirt-front, while the
sequins twinkled in a regular rise and fall upon the reclining form of
the lady in the fanciful chair. All three were sound asleep, by what
accident or by whose design I did not pause to inquire; it was enough
to ascertain the fact beyond all chance of error.

I turned my attention to Raffles last of all. There was the other side
of the medal. Raffles was still sleeping as sound as the enemy--or so
I feared at first I shook him gently: he made no sign. I introduced
vigor into the process: he muttered incoherently. I caught and twisted
an unresisting wrist--and at that he yelped profanely. But it was many
and many an anxious moment before his blinking eyes knew mine.

"Bunny!" he yawned, and nothing more until his position came back to
him. "So you came to me," he went on, in a tone that thrilled me with
its affectionate appreciation, "as I knew you would! Have they turned
up yet? They will any minute, you know; there's not one to lose."

"No, they won't, old man!" I whispered. And he sat up and saw the
comatose trio for himself.

Raffles seemed less amazed at the result than I had been as a puzzled
witness of the process; on the other hand, I had never seen anything
quite so exultant as the smile that broke through his blackened
countenance like a light. It was all obviously no great surprise, and
no puzzle at a