dull and dreadful
crash of a human body falling in a heap.

In utter panic I rushed back into my bedroom, and flung myself into
the crumpled shirt and evening clothes that lay where I had cast them
off. But I knew no more what I was doing than what to do next. I
afterward found that I had taken out a fresh tie, and tied it rather
better than usual; but I can remember thinking of nothing but Raffles
in some diabolical man-trap, and of a grinning monster stealing in to
strike him senseless with one murderous blow. I must have looked in
the glass to array myself as I did; but the mind's eye was the seeing
eye, and it was filled with this frightful vision of the notorious
pugilist known to fame and infamy as Barney Maguire.

It was only the week before that Raffles and I had been introduced to
him at the Imperial Boxing Club. Heavy-weight champion of the United
States, the fellow was still drunk with his sanguinary triumphs on
that side, and clamoring for fresh conquests on ours. But his
reputation had crossed the Atlantic before Maguire himself; the
grandiose hotels had closed their doors to him; and he had already
taken and sumptuously furnished the house in Half-moon Street which
does not re-let to this day. Raffles had made friends with the
magnificent brute, while I took timid stock of his diamond studs, his
jewelled watch-chain, his eighteen-carat bangle, and his six-inch
lower jaw. I had shuddered to see Raffles admiring the gewgaws in his
turn, in his own brazen fashion, with that air of the cool connoisseur
which had its double meaning for me. I for my part would as lief have
looked a tiger in the teeth. And when we finally went home with
Maguire to see his other trophies, it seemed to me like entering the
tiger's lair. But an astounding lair it proved, fitted throughout by
one eminent firm, and ringing to the rafters with the last word on
fantastic furniture.

The trophies were a still greater surprise. They opened my eyes to the
rosier aspect of the noble art, as presently practised on the right
side of the Atlantic. Among other offerings, we were permitted to
handle the jewelled belt presented to the pugilist by the State of
Nevada, a gold brick from the citizens of Sacramento, and a model of
himself in solid silver from the Fisticuff Club in New York. I still
remember waiting with bated breath for Raffles to ask Maguire if he
were not afraid of burglars, and Maguire replying that he had a trap
to catch the