out to the
Rockerbilt mansion, sent in word that Mr. de Pelt's man was waiting for
him, and in ten minutes had the young gentleman in my possession. I took
him to his apartment, dismissed the cab, and, letting ourselves into his
room with his own latch-key, put him to bed. His clothes I took, as a
well-ordered valet should, from his bed-chamber into an adjoining room,
where, after removing the contents of his pockets, I hung them neatly
over a chair and departed, taking with me, of course, everything of
value the young gentleman had about him, even down to the two brilliant
rubies he wore in his garter buckles. This consisted of two handfuls of
crumpled twenty-dollar bills from his trousers, three rolls of
one-hundred-dollar bills from his waistcoat, and sundry other lots of
currency, both paper and specie, that I found stowed away in his
overcoat and dinner-coat pockets. There were also ten twenty-dollar
gold pieces in a little silver chain-bag he carried on his wrist. As I
say, there was about fifteen hundred dollars of this loose change, and I
reckon up the value of his studs, garter rubies, and finger-rings at
about twelve hundred dollars more, or a twenty-seven hundred dollars
pull in all. Eh?"

"Mercy, Bunny, that was a terribly risky thing. Suppose he had
recognized you?" cried Henriette.

"Oh, he did--or at least he thought he did," I replied, smiling broadly
at the recollection. "On the way home in the cab he wept on my shoulder
and said I was the best friend he ever had, and told me he loved me like
a brother. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for me, and if ever I
wanted an automobile or a grand-piano all I had to do was to ask him for
it. He was very genial."

"Well, Bunny," said Henriette, "you are very clever at times, but do be
careful. I am delighted to have you show your nerve now and then, but
please don't take any serious chances. If Mr. de Pelt ever recognizes
you--and he dines here next Wednesday--you'll get us both into awful
trouble."

Again I laughed. "He won't," said I, with a conviction born of
experience. "His geniality was of the kind that leaves the mind a blank
the following morning. I don't believe Mr. de Pelt remembers now that he
was at the Rockerbilts' last night, and even if he does, _you_ know that
I was in this house at eleven o'clock."

"I, Bunny? Why, I haven't seen you since dinner," she demurred.

"Nevertheless, Henriette, you know that I was in the house at eleven
o'