go."

"Tut! tut!" said Raffles Haw. "If the run continues you must send me a
wire, and I shall make a small addition to my account. You will send me
a receipt by post. Good-morning, gentlemen!" He bowed himself out ere
the astounded partners could realise what had befallen them, or raise
their eyes from the huge black bag and the visiting card which lay upon
their table. There was no great failure in Birmingham that day, and the
house of Garraweg still survives to enjoy the success which it deserves.

Such were the deeds by which Raffles Haw made himself known throughout
the Midlands, and yet, in spite of all his open-handedness, he was not
a man to be imposed upon. In vain the sturdy beggar cringed at his gate,
and in vain the crafty letter-writer poured out a thousand fabulous woes
upon paper. Robert was astonished when he brought some tale of trouble
to the Hall to observe how swift was the perception of the recluse, and
how unerringly he could detect a flaw in a narrative, or lay his finger
upon the one point which rang false. Were a man strong enough to help
himself, or of such a nature as to profit nothing by help, none would
he get from the master of the New Hall. In vain, for example, did old
McIntyre throw himself continually across the path of the millionaire,
and impress upon him, by a thousand hints and innuendoes, the hard
fortune which had been dealt him, and the ease with which his fallen
greatness might be restored. Raffles Haw listened politely, bowed,
smiled, but never showed the slightest inclination to restore the
querulous old gunmaker to his pedestal.

But if the recluse's wealth was a lure which drew the beggars from
far and near, as the lamp draws the moths, it had the same power of
attraction upon another and much more dangerous class. Strange hard
faces were seen in the village street, prowling figures were marked at
night stealing about among the fir plantations, and warning messages
arrived from city police and county constabulary to say that evil
visitors were known to have taken train to Tamfield. But if, as Raffles
Haw held, there were few limits to the power of immense wealth, it
possessed, among other things, the power of self-preservation, as one or
two people were to learn to their cost.

"Would you mind stepping up to the Hall?" he said one morning, putting
his head in at the door of the Elmdene sitting-room. "I have something
there that might amuse you." He was on intimate terms