ell, it
isn't that, Bunny; so get into that chair, and take one of these
Sullivans and sit tight."

He held the match to my cigarette; he brought me a whiskey and soda.
Then he went out into the lobby, and, just as I was beginning to feel
happy, I heard a bolt shot home. It cost me an effort to remain in
that chair; next moment he was straddling another and gloating over my
discomfiture across his folded arms.

"You remember Milchester, Bunny, old boy?"

His tone was as bland as mine was grim when I answered that I did.

"We had a little match there that wasn't down on the card. Gentlemen
and Players, if you recollect?"

"I don't forget it."

"Seeing that you never got an innings, so to speak, I thought you
might. Well, the Gentlemen scored pretty freely, but the Players were
all caught."

"Poor devils!"

"Don't be too sure. You remember the fellow we saw in the inn? The
florid, over-dressed chap who I told you was one of the cleverest
thieves in town?"

"I remember him. Crawshay his name turned out to be."

"Well, it was certainly the name he was convicted under, so Crawshay
let it be. You needn't waste any pity on HIM, old chap; he escaped
from Dartmoor yesterday afternoon."

"Well done!"

Raffles smiled, but his eyebrows had gone up, and his shoulders
followed suit.

"You are perfectly right; it was very well done indeed. I wonder you
didn't see it in the paper. In a dense fog on the moor yesterday good
old Crawshay made a bolt for it, and got away without a scratch under
heavy fire. All honor to him, I agree; a fellow with that much grit
deserves his liberty. But Crawshay has a good deal more. They hunted
him all night long; couldn't find him for nuts; and that was all you
missed in the morning papers."

He unfolded a Pall Mall, which he had brought in with him.

"But listen to this; here's an account of the escape, with just the
addition which puts the thing on a higher level. 'The fugitive has
been traced to Totnes, where he appears to have committed a peculiarly
daring outrage in the early hours of this morning. He is reported to
have entered the lodgings of the Rev. A. H. Ellingworth, curate of the
parish, who missed his clothes on rising at the usual hour; later in
the morning those of the convict were discovered neatly folded at the
bottom of a drawer. Meanwhile Crawshay had made good his second
escape, though it is believed that so distinctive a guise will lead to
his recap