itement than ever. Yet I
had then no conception of the game that Raffles was deciding to play,
and that I was to play with him in another minute.

It cannot have been longer before Lord Ernest came into his bedroom.
Heavens, but my heart had not forgotten how to thump! We were standing
near the door, and I could swear he touched me; then his boots creaked,
there was a rattle in the fender--and Raffles switched on the light.

Lord Ernest Belville crouched in its glare with one Indian club held by
the end, like a footman with a stolen bottle. A good-looking,
well-built, iron-gray, iron-jawed man; but a fool and a weakling at
that moment, if he had never been either before.

"Lord Ernest Belville," said Raffles, "it's no use. This is a loaded
revolver, and if you force me I shall use it on you as I would on any
other desperate criminal. I am here to arrest you for a series of
robberies at the Duke of Dorchester's, Sir John Kenworthy's, and other
noblemen's and gentlemen's houses during the present season. You'd
better drop what you've got in your hand. It's empty."

Lord Ernest lifted the club an inch or two, and with it his
eyebrows--and after it his stalwart frame as the club crashed back into
the fender. And as he stood at his full height, a courteous but ironic
smile under the cropped moustache, he looked what he was, criminal or
not.

"Scotland Yard?" said he.

"That's our affair, my lord."

"I didn't think they'd got it in them," said Lord Ernest. "Now I
recognize you. You're my interviewer. No, I didn't think any of you
fellows had got all that in you. Come into the other room, and I'll
show you something else. Oh, keep me covered by all means. But look
at this!"

On the antique sideboard, their size doubled by reflection in the
polished mahogany, lay a coruscating cluster of precious stones, that
fell in festoons about Lord Ernest's fingers as he handed them to
Raffles with scarcely a shrug.

"The Kirkleatham diamonds," said he. "Better add 'em to the bag."

Raffles did so without a smile; with his overcoat buttoned up to the
chin, his tall hat pressed down to his eyes, and between the two his
incisive features and his keen, stern glance, he looked the ideal
detective of fiction and the stage. What _I_ looked God knows, but I
did my best to glower and show my teeth at his side. I had thrown
myself into the game, and it was obviously a winning one.

"Wouldn't take a share, I suppose