ler
sky than ever, and the shadows melting even in the colonnade
underneath. Masters' houses flitted by on the left, lesser landmarks
on either side, and presently we were running our heads into the dawn,
one under either hedge of the Stockley road.

"Did you see that light in Nab's just now?" cried Raffles as he led.

"No; why?" I panted, nearly spent.

"It was in Nab's dressing-room."

"Yes?"

"I've seen it there before," continued Raffles. "He never was a good
sleeper, and his ears reach to the street. I wouldn't like to say how
often I was chased by him in the small hours! I believe he knew who it
was toward the end, but Nab was not the man to accuse you of what he
couldn't prove."

I had no breath for comment. And on sped Raffles like a yacht before
the wind, and on I blundered like a wherry at sea, making heavy
weather all the way, and nearer foundering at every stride. Suddenly,
to my deep relief, Raffles halted, but only to tell me to stop my
pipes while he listened.

"It's all right, Bunny," he resumed, showing me a glowing face in the
dawn. "History's on its own tracks once more, and I'll bet you it's
dear old Nab on ours! Come on, Bunny; run to the last gasp, and leave
the rest to me."

I was past arguing, and away he went. There was no help for it but to
follow as best I could. Yet I had vastly preferred to collapse on the
spot, and trust to Raffles's resource, as before very long I must. I
had never enjoyed long wind and the hours that we kept in town may
well have aggravated the deficiency. Raffles, however, was in
first-class training from first-class cricket, and he had no mercy on
Nab or me. But the master himself was an old Oxford miler, who could
still bear it better than I; nay, as I flagged and stumbled, I heard
him pounding steadily behind.

"Come on, come on, or he'll do us!" cried Raffles shrilly over his
shoulder; and a gruff sardonic laugh came back over mine. It was
pearly morning now, but we had run into a shallow mist that took me by
the throat and stabbed me to the lungs. I coughed and coughed, and
stumbled in my stride, until down I went, less by accident than to get
it over, and so lay headlong in my tracks. And old Nab dealt me a
verbal kick as he passed.

"You beast!" he growled, as I have known him growl it in form.

But Raffles himself had abandoned the flight on hearing my downfall,
and I was on hands and knees just in time to see the meeting between
him and old Nab.