Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-10-14

4 NdihC uP ~
But Raffies must needs interrupt them
to ask the way TO the prehistoric sa.
loon
| AT the top of the stairs"
| Thank you. Then We'll work round
that way to the Egyptian part"
F! And we left them resuming their
| providential chat
II believe you're mad" I said bit
| terly as we went
"A hundred and thirty-nine yards.
| wasn't it," said Raff1es. Then IL can't
be more than hundred and twenty
now-not as much. Steady. Bunny. for
| Gods sake It's slow march-for our
| lives"
There was This much management
The rest was our colossal luck A
hanson was being paid off at the foot
| of the steps outside. and IN we jumped,
| Ratfles shouting "Charing Crosse for
/ all Bloomsbury to hear
We had turned into Bloomsbury
street without exchanging syllable
when he struck the trapdoor with his
fist
Where the devil are you driving
| u.s."
''Charing Cross. SIR"
81 said Kings Cross. Round you
spin and drive like blaZes or we miss
our train, There's one TO York 1T
1925" added Rallies as the trapdoor
slammed. Wen book there. Bunny.
and then We'll slope through the sub
way to the Metropolitan. and so to
ground via Baker street and Earrs
Court
And actually in half an hour he was
seated once more in the hired carry
ing chair. while the porter and / stag
gered upstairs with my decrepit charge.
for whose shattered strength even one
hour in Kew gardens had proved too
much. Then. and not till then. when
we had got rid of the porter and We're
alone at last did l tell Rallies, in the
most nervous English at my command,
frankly and exactly what 1 thought OF
him and of his latest deed. Once start
ed, moreover, l spoke as have seldom
spoken to living man, and RatfieS, Of
all men, stood my abuse without a
murmur, or, rather, he sat it out, too
aStounded even to take off his hat.
though l thought his eyebrows would
have lifted it from his head.
But it always was your Internal
way l was savagely concluding. You
make one plan and you tell me an
other
''NOt today, Bunny, 1 swear"
you mean TO tell me you really did
start with the bare idea of finding a
place to hide in for a night?"
'Of course 1 did,
cit was to be the mere reconnoiter
you pretended?"
There was no pretense about it.
Bunny"
Then why on earth go and do what
y6d did,"
1.-The reason would be obvious to any
one but you," said Raffies. still with
no unkindly scorn. ut was the temp
tation of minute, the final impulse
of the fraction of a second, when RO
berto saw that / was tempted and let
me see that he saw ii. It's not n thing
care to do, and shan't be happy till
the papers tell me the poor devil is
alive. But a knockout shot was the
only chance for us then"
why? You don't get run in for be-
ing tempted nor yet for showing that
you are"
"But L should have deserved running
in if hadn't yielded to such Il tempta-
ton as that, Bunny. 1t was a chance
in a hundred thousand. We might go
there every day of our lives and never
again be the only outsiders In the
room, with the billiard marking John
ME practically out of earshot at one
and the same time. 1T was gift from
the gods. Not to have taken it would
have been flying in the face of Provi-
dence."
But you didn't take it," said I. you
went and left it behind"
1 wish / had a kodak for the little
smile with which Raff1es shook his
head, for it was one that he kept for
those great moments of which our vo-
cation is not devoid. All this time he
had been wearing his hat tilted little
over eyebrows no longer raised. And
now at last / knew where the gold
cup was.
1t stood for days upon his chimney
piece. this costly trophy whose ancient
history and final fate filled newspaper
columns even in these days of jubilee
and for which the flower of Scotland
Yard was said to be seeking high and |
low. Our constable, we learned, had |
been stunned only, and from the mo- |
ment that i brought him an evening |
paper with the news Rallies spirits |
rose to height Inconsistent with his |
eauable temperament and as unusual |
in him as the sudden impulse upon |
which he had acted with such effect. |
The cup itself appealed to me no more
than it had done before. Exquisite it
might be. handsome it was, but so
light in the hand that the mere gold
Of 1T would scarcely have poured three
figures out of melting pot. And what
said Rafffes but that he would never
melt II at all!
Taking 1T was an offense against
the laws of the land, Bunny. That is
But destroying 1t would be
a crime against God and art and may |