?" Lord Ernest said casually.

Raffles did not condescend to reply. I rolled back my lips like a
bull-pup.

"Then a drink, at least!"

My mouth watered, but Raffles shook his head impatiently.

"We must be going, my lord, and you will have to come with us."

I wondered what in the world we should do with him when we had got him.

"Give me time to put some things together? Pair of pyjamas and
tooth-brush, don't you know?"

"I cannot give you many minutes, my lord, but I don't want to cause a
disturbance here, so I'll tell them to call a cab if you like. But I
shall be back in a minute, and you must be ready in five. Here,
inspector, you'd better keep this while I am gone."

And I was left alone with that dangerous criminal! Raffles nipped my
arm as he handed me the revolver, but I got small comfort out of that.

"'Sea-green Incorruptible?'" inquired Lord Ernest as we stood face to
face.

"You don't corrupt me," I replied through naked teeth.

"Then come into my room. I'll lead the way. Think you can hit me if I
misbehave?"

I put the bed between us without a second's delay. My prisoner flung a
suit-case upon it, and tossed things into it with a dejected air;
suddenly, as he was fitting them in, without raising his head (which I
was watching), his right hand closed over the barrel with which I
covered him.

"You'd better not shoot," he said, a knee upon his side of the bed; "if
you do it may be as bad for you as it will be for me!"

I tried to wrest the revolver from him.

"I will if you force me," I hissed.

"You'd better not," he repeated, smiling; and now I saw that if I did I
should only shoot into the bed or my own legs. His hand was on the top
of mine, bending it down, and the revolver with it. The strength of it
was as the strength of ten of mine; and now both his knees were on the
bed; and suddenly I saw his other hand, doubled into a fist, coming up
slowly over the suit-case.

"Help!" I called feebly.

"Help, forsooth! I begin to believe YOU ARE from the Yard," he
said--and his upper-cut came with the "Yard." It caught me under the
chin.

It lifted me off my legs. I have a dim recollection of the crash that
I made in falling.

III

Raffles was standing over me when I recovered consciousness. I lay
stretched upon the bed across which that blackguard Belville had struck
his knavish blow. The suit-case was on the floor, but its dastardly
owner had disappeared.

"Is he