The Amateur Cracksman by E. W. Hornung (best novels for students .txt) 📕

once before, and it was my friend here who took over from you the fellow who split on all the rest, and held him tightly. Surely that entitles him, at all events, to see any fun that’s going? As for myself, well, it’s true I only helped to carry you to the house; but for old acquaintance I do hope, my dear Mr. Mackenzie, that you will permit us to share such sport as there may be. I myself can only stop a few minutes, in any case.”

“Then ye’ll not see much,” growled the detective, “for he’s not up here. Constable, go you and stand at the foot o’ the stairs, and let no other body come up on any conseederation; these gentlemen may be able to help us after all.”

“That’s kind of you, Mackenzie!” cried Raffles warmly. “But what is it all? I questioned a porter I met coming down, but could get nothing out of him, except that somebody had been to see these rooms and not since been seen himself.”

“He’s a man we want,” said Mackenzie. “He’s concealed himself somewhere about these premises, or I’m vera much mistaken. D’ye reside in the Albany, Mr. Raffles?”

“I do.”

“Will your rooms be near these?”

“On the next staircase but one.”

“Ye’ll just have left them?”

“Just.”

“Been in all the afternoon, likely?”

“Not all.”

“Then I may have to search your rooms, sir. I am prepared to search every room in the Albany! Our man seems to have gone for the leads; but unless he’s left more marks outside than in, or we find him up there, I shall have the entire building to ransack.”

“I will leave you my key,” said Raffles at once. “I am dining out, but I’ll leave it with the officer down below.”

I caught my breath in mute amazement. What was the meaning of this insane promise? It was wilful, gratuitous, suicidal; it made me catch at his sleeve in open horror and disgust; but, with a word of thanks, Mackenzie had returned to his windowsill, and we sauntered unwatched through the folding-doors into the adjoining room. Here the window looked down into the courtyard; it was still open; and as we gazed out in apparent idleness, Raffles reassured me.

“It’s all right, Bunny; you do what I tell you and leave the rest to me. It’s a tight corner, but I don’t despair. What you’ve got to do is to stick to these chaps, especially if they search my rooms; they mustn’t poke about more than necessary, and they won’t if you’re there.”

“But where will you be? You’re never going to leave me to be landed alone?”

“If I do, it will be to turn up trumps at the right moment. Besides, there are such things as windows, and Crawshay’s the man to take his risks. You must trust me, Bunny; you’ve known me long enough.”

“Are you going now?”

“There’s no time to lose. Stick to them, old chap; don’t let them suspect you, whatever else you do.” His hand lay an instant on my shoulder; then he left me at the window, and recrossed the room.

“I’ve got to go now,” I heard him say; “but my friend will stay and see this through, and I’ll leave the gas on in my rooms, and my key with the constable downstairs. Good luck, Mackenzie; only wish I could stay.”

“Goodbye, sir,” came in a preoccupied voice, “and many thanks.”

Mackenzie was still busy at his window, and I remained at mine, a prey to mingled fear and wrath, for all my knowledge of Raffles and of his infinite resource. By this time I felt that I knew more or less what he would do in any given emergency; at least I could conjecture a characteristic course of equal cunning and audacity. He would return to his rooms, put Crawshay on his guard, and⁠—stow him away? No⁠—there were such things as windows. Then why was Raffles going to desert us all? I thought of many things⁠—lastly of a cab. These bedroom windows looked into a narrow side-street; they were not very high; from them a man might drop on to the roof of a cab⁠—even as it passed⁠—and be driven away even under the noses of the police! I pictured Raffles driving that cab, unrecognizable in the foggy night; the vision came to me as he passed under the window, tucking up the collar of his great driving-coat on the way to his rooms; it was still with me when he passed again on his way back, and stopped to hand the constable his key.

“We’re on his track,” said a voice behind me. “He’s got up on the leads, sure enough, though how he managed it from yon window is a myst’ry to me. We’re going to lock up here and try what like it is from the attics. So you’d better come with us if you’ve a mind.”

The top floor at the Albany, as elsewhere, is devoted to the servants⁠—a congeries of little kitchens and cubicles, used by many as lumber-rooms⁠—by Raffles among the many. The annex in this case was, of course, empty as the rooms below; and that was lucky, for we filled it, what with the manager, who now joined us, and another tenant whom he brought with him to Mackenzie’s undisguised annoyance.

“Better let in all Piccadilly at a crown a head,” said he. “Here, my man, out you go on the roof to make one less, and have your truncheon handy.”

We crowded to the little window, which Mackenzie took care to fill; and a minute yielded no sound but the crunch and slither of constabulary boots upon sooty slates. Then came a shout.

“What now?” cried Mackenzie.

“A rope,” we heard, “hanging from the spout by a hook!”

“Sirs,” purred Mackenzie, “yon’s how he got up from below! He would do it with one o’ they telescope sticks, an’ I never thocht o’t! How long a rope, my lad?”

“Quite short. I’ve got it.”

“Did it hang over a window? Ask him that!” cried the manager. “He can