armed these nights with a better light than gas; if it were not
immoral, I might recommend a dark-lantern which was more or less his
patent. It was that handy invention, the electric torch, fitted by
Raffles with a dark hood to fulfil the functions of a slide. I had
held it through the bars while he undid the screws, and now he held it
to the keyhole, in which a key was turned upon the other side.

There was a pause for consideration, and in the pause we put on our
masks. It was never known that these Thames Valley robberies were all
com-mitted by miscreants decked in the livery of crime, but that was
because until this night we had never even shown our masks. It was a
point upon which Raffles had insisted on all feasible occasions since
his furtive return to the world. To-night it twice nearly lost us
everything--but you shall hear.

There is a forceps for turning keys from the wrong side of the door,
but the implement is not so easy of manipulation as it might be.
Raffles for one preferred a sharp knife and the corner of the panel.
You go through the panel because that is thinnest, of course in the
corner nearest the key, and you use a knife when you can, because it
makes least noise. But it does take minutes, and even I can remember
shifting the electric torch from one hand to the other before the
aperture was large enough to receive the hand and wrist of Raffles.

He had at such times a motto of which I might have made earlier use,
but the fact is that I have only once before described a downright
burglary in which I assisted, and that without knowing it at the time.
The most solemn student of these annals cannot affirm that he has cut
through many doors in our company, since (what was to me) the maiden
effort to which I allude. I, however, have cracked only too many a
crib in conjunction with A. J. Raffles, and at the crucial moment he
would whisper "Victory or Wormwood Scrubbs, Bunny!" or instead of
Wormwood Scrubbs it might be Portland Bill. This time it was neither
one nor the other, for with that very word "victory" upon his lips,
they whitened and parted with the first taste of defeat.

"My hand's held!" gasped Raffles, and the white of his eyes showed all
round the iris, a rarer thing than you may think.

At the same moment I heard the shuffling feet and the low, excited
young voices on the other side of the door, and a faint light shone
round Raffles's wrist.

"Well done, Beefy!"

"Hang