my head, or one premeditated lie upon my lips. I
might do the decent, natural thing, and explain matters without loss of
time; on the other hand, there was no hurry. I had not opened the
letter, and could always pretend I had not noticed the initials;
meanwhile something might turn up. I could wait a little and see.
Tempted I already was, but as yet the temptation was vague, and its
very vagueness made me tremble.

"'Bad news, I'm afraid?' said the manager, when at last I sat down at
his table.

"'A mere annoyance,' I answered--I do assure you--on the spur of the
moment and nothing else. But my lie was told; my position was taken;
from that moment onward there was no retreat. By implication, without
realizing what I was doing, I had already declared myself W. F.
Raffles. Therefore, W. F. Raffles I would be, in that bank, for that
night. And the devil teach me how to use my lie!"

Again he raised his glass to his lips--I had forgotten mine. His
cigarette-case caught the gas-light as he handed it to me. I shook my
head without taking my eyes from his.

"The devil played up," continued Raffles, with a laugh. "Before I
tasted my soup I had decided what to do. I had determined to rob that
bank instead of going to bed, and to be back in Melbourne for breakfast
if the doctor's mare could do it. I would tell the old fellow that I
had missed my way and been bushed for hours, as I easily might have
been, and had never got to Yea at all. At Yea, on the other hand, the
personation and robbery would ever after be attributed to a member of
the gang that had waylaid and murdered the new manager with that very
object. You are acquiring some experience in such matters, Bunny. I
ask you, was there ever a better get-out? Last night's was something
like it, only never such a certainty. And I saw it from the
beginning--saw to the end before I had finished my soup!

"To increase my chances, the cashier, who also lived in the bank, was
away over the holidays, had actually gone down to Melbourne to see us
play; and the man who had taken my horse also waited at table; for he
and his wife were the only servants, and they slept in a separate
building. You may depend I ascertained this before we had finished
dinner. Indeed I was by way of asking too many questions (the most
oblique and delicate was that which elicited my host's name, Ewbank),
nor was I careful enough to conceal their drift.

"'Do you know,' said this fellow