News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1905-10-25
(Concluded.)

dressing room"
TITS my private pavilion" said Raj.
fes. "Disguises? In some cases they
are half the battle, and it's always
pleasant to feel that If the worst comes
to the worst you needn't necessarily
be convicted under your own name
Then they're Indispensable in dealing
with the fences. | drive all my bar
gains in the tongue and raiment of
Shoreditch. If | didn't there'd be the
very devil to pay in blackmail. Now,
this cupb0ard's full of all sorts of tog-
gerry. | tell the woman who cleans
the room Alat it's for my models when
! find 'em BY the way. / only hope
I've got something that'll fit you, for
you'll want a rig for tomorrow night"
Tomorrow night" l exclaimed.
"Why, what do you mean to do?"
The trick" said Raffles. 81 intend
ed writing to you as soon as got back
to my rooms to ask you to look me
up tomorrow afternoon. Then l was
going to unfold my plan of campaign
and take you straight into action then
and there. There's nothing like put
ting the nervous players in first. It's
the sitting with their pads on that up
sets their apple cart. That was anoth-
er of my reasons for being so confound-
edly close. You must try to forgive
me. | couldn't help remembering how
well you played up last trip, without
any time to weaken on it beforehand
All want is for you to be as cool and
smart tomorrow night as you were
then; though, by Jove, there's no COM
parison between the two casesw
Il thought you would find it So"
"YOu were right | have. Mind you,
don't say this will be the tougher job
all round. We shall probably get in
without any difficulty at all; it's the
getting out again that may fummoX
us. That's the worst of an irregular
household" cried Ratf1es with quite
burst of virtuous Indignation. Il as
sure you, Bunny, | spent the whole of
Monday night in the shrubbery of the
garden next door, looking over the
wall, and, if you'll believe me- some
body was about all night long! don't
mean the Katfirs. | don't believe they
ever get to bed at all-poor devils!
No, l mean Rosenthall himself and
that pasty faced beast Purvis. They
were up and drinking from midnight,
when they came in, to broad daylight,
when / cleared out. Even then l left
them sober enough to slang each other
By the way, they very nearly came to
blows in the garden within a few yards
of me, and l heard something that
might come in useful and make Rosen-
thall shoot crooked at a critical mo-
ment You know what an l. D. B. ISL"
illicit diamond buyer?'
Exactly. Well, it seems that Rosen-
thall was one. He must have let it
out to Purvis in his cups. Anyhow,
heard Purvis haunting him with it and
threatening him with the breakwater
at Cape Town, and begin to think our
friends are friend and foe. But about
tomorrow night. There's nothing
subtle in my plan. It's simply to get
in while these fellows are out on the
loose and to lie low till they come
back, and longer. If possible we must
doctor the whisky That would sim
plify the whole thing, though it's not
q very sporting game to play. Still,
we must remember Rosenthalrs re-
volver We don't want him to sign his
name on us. With all those Kaffirs
about, however, it's ten to one on the
whisky and hundred to one against
us if we go looking for it. A brush
with the heather would spoil every
thing, if it did no more. Besides. there
are the ladies'
1.-THE deuce there arep'
Ladies with an |, and the very
voices for raising Cain fear, fear
the clamor! 1t would be fatal to us.
Au contraire, if we can manage to
stow ourselves away unbeknown half
the battle will be won. If Rosenthall
turns in drunk it's a purple diamond
apiece. If he sits up sober it may be
a bullet instead. We will hope not,
Bunny, and all the firing wouldn't be
on one side; but it's on the knees of
the gods"
And so we left it when we shook
hands in Piccadilly-not by any means
as much later as / could have wished.
Raffles would not ask me to his rooms
that night. He said he made it a rule
to have a long night before playing
cricket and-other games. His final
word to me was framed on the same
principle.
: Mind, only one drink tonight, Bun
ny; two at the outside-as you value
your life-and mine"
remember my abject obedience and
the endless, sleepless night it gave me
and the roofs of the houses opposite
standing out at last against the blue
gray London dawn. l wondered wheth
er l should ever see another and was
very hard on myself for that little ex-
pedition which had made on my own
willful account.
1t was between and o'clock in the
evening when we took up our position
in the garden adjoining that Of Reuben
Rosenthall. The house itself was shut
up, thanks to the outrageous libertine
4 Il