spoons, valuable as they
are; they made the difference in the weight.... Here we have probably
the Kenworthy diamonds.... I don't know the history of these
pearls.... This looks like one family of rings--left on the
basin-stand, perhaps--alas, poor lady! And that's the lot."

Our eyes met across the bed.

"What's it all worth?" I asked, hoarsely.

"Impossible to say. But more than all we ever took in all our lives.
That I'll swear to."

"More than all--"

My tongue swelled with the thought.

"But it'll take some turning into cash, old chap!"

"And--must it be a partnership?" I asked, finding a lugubrious voice at
length.

"Partnership be damned!" cried Raffles, heartily. "Let's get out
quicker than we came in."

We pocketed the things between us, cotton-wool and all, not because we
wanted the latter, but to remove all immediate traces of our really
meritorious deed.

"The sinner won't dare to say a word when he does find out," remarked
Raffles of Lord Ernest; "but that's no reason why he should find out
before he must. Everything's straight in here, I think; no, better
leave the window open as it was, and the blind up. Now out with the
light. One peep at the other room. That's all right, too. Out with
the passage light, Bunny, while I open--"

His words died away in a whisper. A key was fumbling at the lock
outside.

"Out with it--out with it!" whispered Raffles in an agony; and as I
obeyed he picked me off my feet and swung me bodily but silently into
the bedroom, just as the outer door opened, and a masterful step strode
in.

The next five were horrible minutes. We heard the apostle of Rational
Drink unlock one of the deep drawers in his antique sideboard, and
sounds followed suspiciously like the splash of spirits and the steady
stream from a siphon. Never before or since did I experience such a
thirst as assailed me at that moment, nor do I believe that many
tropical explorers have known its equal. But I had Raffles with me,
and his hand was as steady and as cool as the hand of a trained nurse.
That I know because he turned up the collar of my overcoat for me, for
some reason, and buttoned it at the throat. I afterwards found that he
had done the same to his own, but I did not hear him doing it. The one
thing I heard in the bedroom was a tiny metallic click, muffled and
deadened in his overcoat pocket, and it not only removed my last
tremor, but strung me to a higher pitch of exc