back.

"You don't say!" he cried. "I took you for some darned crook, but now
I remember you perfectly. If you hadn't 've spoke up slick I'd have
bu'st your face in, sonny. I would, sure! Come right in, and have a
drink to show there's--Jeehoshaphat!"

The secretary had turned the latch-key in the door, only to be hauled
back by the collar as the door stood open, and the light from the
inner room was seen streaming upon the banisters at the foot of the
narrow stairs.

"A light in my den," said Maguire in a mighty whisper, "and the
blamed door open, though the key's in my pocket and we left it locked!
Talk about crooks, eh? Holy smoke, how I hope we've landed one alive!
You ladies and gentlemen, lay round where you are, while I see."

And the hulking figure advanced on tiptoe, like a performing elephant,
until just at the open door, when for a second we saw his left
revolving like a piston and his head thrown back at its fighting
angle. But in another second his fists were hands again, and Maguire
was rubbing them together as he stood shaking with laughter in the
light of the open door.

"Walk up!" he cried, as he beckoned to us three. "Walk up and see one
o' their blamed British crooks laid as low as the blamed carpet, and
nailed as tight!"

Imagine my feelings on the mat! The sallow secretary went first; the
sequins glittered at his heels, and I must own that for one base
moment I was on the brink of bolting through the street door. It had
never been shut behind us. I shut it myself in the end. Yet it was
small credit to me that I actually remained on the same side of the
door as Raffles.

"Reel home-grown, low-down, unwashed White-chapel!" I had heard
Maguire remark within. "Blamed if our Bowery boys ain't cock-angels
to scum like this. Ah, you biter, I wouldn't soil my knuckles on your
ugly face; but if I had my thick boots on I'd dance the soul out of
your carcass for two cents!"

After this it required less courage to join the others in the inner
room; and for some moments even I failed to identify the truly
repulsive object about which I found them grouped. There was no false
hair upon the face, but it was as black as any sweep's. The clothes,
on the other hand, were new to me, though older and more pestiferous
in themselves than most worn by Raffles for professional purposes. And
at first, as I say, I was far from sure whether it was Raffles at all;
but I remembered the crash that cut short our talk ov