Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-10-07
docs he guess there's nothing

wrong
Knows. bless you, But he doesn't
know / know he knows, and there
isn't disease in the dictionary that he
hasn't treated me for since he's had
me in hand. To do him justice. 1 be-
lieve he thinks me Il hypochondriac of
! the first water. but that young man
will go far if-he keeps on the wicket.
He has spent half his nights up here at
| guineas apiece"
''Guineas must be plentiful, old
chap
"They have been, Bunny. 1 can't
| say more. But l don't see why they
shOuldn': be again.
l was not going to inquire where the
| guineas came from. As if L cared!
But / did ask old Rallies how in the
world he had got upon my tracks, and
| thereby drew the sort of smile with
| which old gentlemen rub their hands
and old ladies nod their noses. Raf-
| fies merely produced Il perfect oval of
blue smoke before replying.
81 was waiting for you to ask that,
Bunny It's long time since l did
anything upon which L plume myself
more OF course i'll the first place
spotted you at once by these prison
articles They were not signed. but
the fist was the fist of my sitting rab-
Bit
But who gave you my address,
Il wheedled it out of your excellent
editor. Called on him at dead of night.
when occasionally so atield like 9th
| er ghosts, and wept it out of him in
4 I NuIt tiy-p
| Your name was not your own name.
If he insisted would give him mine.
He didn't insist, Bunny, and l danced
down his stairs with your address i'll
| my pocket"
Last night?''
NO, last week"
"And so the advertisement was yours
as well as the telegram"
l had of course forgotten both in the
| high excitement of the hour or l should
scarcely have announced my belated
| discovery with such an air. As it was,
l made Rallies look at me as l had
known him to look before, and the
droop of his eyelids began to sting
why all this subtlety?' l petulantly
exclaimed. why couldn't you come
straightaway to me in cab?'
He did not inform me that l was
hopeless as ever. He did not address
me as his good rabbit. He was silent
for time, and then spoke in tone
which made me ashamed of mine.
You see, there are two or three of
me now, Bunny. Ones at the bottom
of the Mediterranean and ones an old
Australian DESTROYS of dying in the
.,fI iat. a
ger of dying anywhere. The old Aus
tralian didn't know soul in town.
He's got to be consistent or he's done.
This sitter Theobald is his only friend
and has seen rather too much of him.
Ordinary dust won't do for his eyes
Begin to see? To pick you out of Il
crowd, that was the game; to let old
Theobald help TO pick you, better still.
To start with. he was dead against my
having anybody at all; wanted me all
to himself, naturally, but anything rath-
er than kill the goose, So he is to have
a flyer Il week while he keeps me alive,
and he's going to be married next
month. That's a pity in some ways,
but good thing in others. He will
want more money than he foresees,
and he may always be of use to us in
pinch. Meanwhile he eats out of my
hand"
l complimented Raffies on the mere
composition of his telegram, with half
the characteristics of my distinguished
kinsman squeezed into a dozen odd
words, and let him know how the old
ruffian had really treated me. Raffies
was not surprised; we had dined to-
gether at my relatives in the old days
and filed for reference Il professional
valuation of his household gods. | now
learned that the telegram had been
posted. with the hour marked for its
dispatch at the pillar nearest We're
street, Oh the night before the adver-
tisement WAS due to appear in the
Daily Mail. This also had been care
fully prearranged, and Raffies' only
fear had been lest it might be held
over despite his explicit instructions
and so drive me to the doctor for an
explanation of his telegram. But the
adverse chances had been weeded out.
and weeded out to the irreducible min
imum of risk.
His greatest risk, according to Raj
ficS, lay nearest home. Bedridden in
valid that he was supposed to be, his
nightly terror was of running into
Theobaid's arms in the immediate
neighborhoOd Of the fat. But Raffles
had characteristic methods Of minimiZ-
ing even that danger of which some |
thing anon. Meanwhile he recounted |
more than one of his nocturnal adven- |
lures, all, however, of a singularly in |
nocent type, and one thing ! noticed |
while he talked. His room was the |
first as you entered the fiat; the long |
inner wall divided the room not merely |
from the Passage, but from the outer |
landing as well. Thus every step upon |
the bare stone stairs could be heard |
by Rafiies where he lay. and he would |
never speak while one was ascending |
until it had passed his door The aft |
ernoon brought more than one appli- |