"It's you!" he whispered, in amazement no less than our own; "it's you
two! What's it mean, Raffles? I saw you get over the gate; a bell
rang, the place is full of them. Then you broke in. What's it all
mean?"

"We may tell you that, when you tell us what in God's name you've done,
Rutter!"

"Done? What have I done?" The unhappy wretch came out into the light
with bloodshot, blinking eyes, and a bloody shirt-front. "You
know--you've seen--but I'll tell you if you like. I've killed a
robber; that's all. I've killed a robber, a usurer, a jackal, a
blackmailer, the cleverest and the cruellest villain unhung. I'm ready
to hang for him. I'd kill him again!"

And he looked us fiercely in the face, a fine defiance in his
dissipated eyes; his breast heaving, his jaw like a rock.

"Shall I tell you how it happened?" he went passionately on. "He's
made my life a hell these weeks and months past. You may know that. A
perfect hell! Well, to-night I met him in Bond Street. Do you
remember when I met you fellows? He wasn't twenty yards behind you; he
was on your tracks, Raffles; he saw me nod to you, and stopped me and
asked me who you were. He seemed as keen as knives to know, I couldn't
think why, and didn't care either, for I saw my chance. I said I'd
tell him all about you if he'd give me a private interview. He said he
wouldn't. I said he should, and held him by the coat; by the time I
let him go you were out of sight, and I waited where I was till he came
back in despair. I had the whip-hand of him then. I could dictate
where the interview should be, and I made him take me home with him,
still swearing to tell him all about you when we'd had our talk. Well,
when we got here I made him give me something to eat, putting him off
and off; and about ten o'clock I heard the gate shut. I waited a bit,
and then asked him if he lived alone.

"'Not at all,' says he; 'did you not see the servant?'

"I said I'd seen her, but I thought I'd heard her go; if I was mistaken
no doubt she would come when she was called; and I yelled three times
at the top of my voice. Of course there was no servant to come. I
knew that, because I came to see him one night last week, and he
interviewed me himself through the gate, but wouldn't open it. Well,
when I had done yelling, and not a soul had come near us, he was as
white as that ceiling. Then I told him we could have our chat at last;
and I picked the poker out of t