an oath. "I'll lend you a hand as often as you
like! What does it matter now? I've been in it once. I'll be in it
again. I've gone to the devil anyhow. I can't go back, and wouldn't
if I could. Nothing matters another rap! When you want me, I'm your
man!"

And that is how Raffles and I joined felonious forces on the Ides of
March.

A COSTUME PIECE

London was just then talking of one whose name is already a name and
nothing more. Reuben Rosenthall had made his millions on the diamond
fields of South Africa, and had come home to enjoy them according to
his lights; how he went to work will scarcely be forgotten by any
reader of the halfpenny evening papers, which revelled in endless
anecdotes of his original indigence and present prodigality, varied
with interesting particulars of the extraordinary establishment which
the millionaire set up in St. John's Wood. Here he kept a retinue of
Kaffirs, who were literally his slaves; and hence he would sally, with
enormous diamonds in his shirt and on his finger, in the convoy of a
prize-fighter of heinous repute, who was not, however, by any means the
worst element in the Rosenthall melange. So said common gossip; but
the fact was sufficiently established by the interference of the police
on at least one occasion, followed by certain magisterial proceedings
which were reported with justifiable gusto and huge headlines in the
newspapers aforesaid.

And this was all one knew of Reuben Rosenthall up to the time when the
Old Bohemian Club, having fallen on evil days, found it worth its while
to organize a great dinner in honor of so wealthy an exponent of the
club's principles. I was not at the banquet myself, but a member took
Raffles, who told me all about it that very night.

"Most extraordinary show I ever went to in my life," said he. "As for
the man himself--well, I was prepared for something grotesque, but the
fellow fairly took my breath away. To begin with, he's the most
astounding brute to look at, well over six feet, with a chest like a
barrel, and a great hook-nose, and the reddest hair and whiskers you
ever saw. Drank like a fire-engine, but only got drunk enough to make
us a speech that I wouldn't have missed for ten pounds. I'm only sorry
you weren't there, too, Bunny, old chap."

I began to be sorry myself, for Raffles was anything but an excitable
person, and never had I seen him so excited before. Had he been
following Rosenthall's exam