lowly and gently as to be almost
inaudible to me listening just below.

Raffles went through hands first, disappeared for an instant, then
leaned out, lowering his hands for me.

"Come on, Bunny! You're safer in than out. Hang on to the sill and let
me get you under the arms. Now all together--quietly does it--and over
you come!"

No need to dwell on our proceedings in the bank. I myself had small
part in the scene, being posted rather in the wings, at the foot of
the stairs leading to the private premises in which the manager had
his domestic being. But I made my mind easy about him, for in the
silence of my watch I soon detected a nasal note overhead, and it was
resonant and aggressive as the man himself. Of Raffles, on the
contrary, I heard nothing, for he had shut the door between us, and I
was to warn him if a single sound came through. I need scarcely add
that no warning was necessary during the twenty minutes we remained in
the bank. Raffles afterward assured me that nineteen of them had been
spent in filing one key; but one of his latest inventions was a little
thick velvet bag in which he carried the keys; and this bag had two
elastic mouths, which closed so tightly about either wrist that he
could file away, inside, and scarcely hear it himself. As for these
keys, they were clever counterfeits of typical patterns by two great
safe-making firms. And Raffles had come by them in a manner all his
own, which the criminal world may discover for itself.

When he opened the door and beckoned to me, I knew by his face that he
had succeeded to his satisfaction, and by experience better than to
question him on the point. Indeed, the first thing was to get out of
the bank; for the stars were drowning in a sky of ink and water, and
it was a comfort to feel that we could fly straight to our beds. I
said so in whispers as Raffles cautiously opened our window and peeped
out. In an instant his head was in, and for another I feared the
worst.

"What was that, Bunny? No, you don't, my son! There's not a soul in
sight that I can see, but you never know, and we may as well lay a
scent while we're about it. Ready? Then follow me, and never mind the
window."

With that he dropped softly into the street, and I after him, turning
to the right instead of the left, and that at a brisk trot instead of
the innocent walk which had brought us to the bank. Like mice we
scampered past the great schoolroom, with its gable snipping a pa