ts, for I not only took all I wanted, but
left the whole place exactly as I found it, and shut things after me
like a good little boy. All that took a good deal longer; to-night I
had simply to rag the room a bit, sweep up some studs and links, and
leave ample evidence of having boned those rotten robes _to-night_.
That, if you come to think of it, was what you writing chaps would
call the quintessential Q.E.F. I have not only shown these dear
Criminologists that I couldn't possibly have done this trick, but that
there's some other fellow who could and did, and whom they've been
perfect asses to confuse with me."

You may figure me as gazing on Raffles all this time in mute and rapt
amazement. But I had long been past that pitch. If he had told me now
that he had broken into the Bank of England, or the Tower, I should
not have disbelieved him for a moment. I was prepared to go home with
him to the Albany and find the regalia under his bed. And I took down
my overcoat as he put on his. But Raffles would not hear of my
accompanying him that night.

"No, my dear Bunny, I am short of sleep and fed up with excitement.
You mayn't believe it--you may look upon me as a plaster devil--but
those five minutes you wot of were rather too crowded even for my
taste. The dinner was nominally at a quarter to eight, and I don't
mind telling you now that I counted on twice as long as I had. But no
one came until twelve minutes to, and so our host took his time. I
didn't want to be the last to arrive, and I was in the drawing-room
five minutes before the hour. But it was a quicker thing than I care
about, when all is said."

And his last word on the matter, as he nodded and went his way, may
well be mine; for one need be no criminologist, much less a member of
the Criminologists' Club, to remember what Raffles did with the robes
and coronet of the Right Hon. the Earl of Thornaby, K.G. He did with
them exactly what he might have been expected to do by the gentlemen
with whom he had foregathered; and he did it in a manner so
characteristic of himself as surely to remove from their minds the
last aura of the idea that he and himself were the same person. Carter
Paterson was out of the question, and any labelling or addressing to
be avoided on obvious grounds. But Raffles stabled the white elephants
in the cloak-room at Charing Cross--and sent Lord Thornaby the
ticket.

The Field of Philippi

Nipper Nasmyth had been head of our