The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-18
Raffles, The Amateur Craftsman

Werner you wanted us to play stran-
gers. was it? You have some deeper
game than that, eh?'
II suppose I have
"Then hadn't you better tell me
s what 1t is?''
Raffes treated me to the old, eau
tious scrutiny that I knew so well;
the very familiarity of it, after all
these months. set me smiling In
way that might have reassured him,
for dimly already l OWNED his en-
terprise.
1T won't send you off in the pilots
boat. Bunny?"
mot quite
"Then-you remember the pearl you
wrote the"
I did not wait for him to finish the
sentence.
you've got it, I cried, my face
on fire, for I caught sight of 1t that
moment in the stateroom mirror.
Raffles seemed taken aback.
mot yet" said he; but / mean
to have it before we get to Naples.
us it on board?"
YES"
But how-where-whos got it?''
"A little German officer, a whipper-
snapper with perpendicular mus
atches."
Il saw him In the smoke-room.
That's the chap; he's always there.
Herr Capt. Wilhelm von Heumann,
If you look in the list Well, he's the
special envoy of the Emperor and he's
taking the pearl out with him.
you found this out in Bremen?'
mo, In Berlin, from a newspaper
man l know there. I'm ashamed TO
tell you Bunny, that / went there on
purpose"
| burst out laughing.
''You needn't be ashamed. You are
doing the very thing | was rather
hoping you were going to propose the
other day on the river"
you were hoping it, said Raffies.
with his eyes wide open. Indeed, 1t
was his turn to show surprise and
mine to be much more ashamed than
l felt.
YES" I answered, 81 was quite
keen on the idea but | wasn't go
ing to propose It,"
yet you would have listened to
me the other day?'
Certainly I would, and I told him
so without reserve; not brazenly, you
understand; not even now with the
gusto of a man who savors such an
adventure for its own sake, but dog
gedly defiantly, through my teeth,
as one who had tried to live honestly
and failed. And while | was about
1t l told him much more. Eloquently
enough, l dare say, / gave him chap
ter and verse of my hopeless struggle,
my inevitable defeat; for hopeless and
inevitable they were to man with
my record, even though that record
was written in ones own soul 1t was
the old story of the thief trying to
turn honest man; the thing was
against nature and there was an end
of 1t.
Raffies entirely disagreed with me.
He shook his head over my conven-
tional view. Human nature was
board of checkers; why not reconcile
ones self to alternate black ana
white? Why desire to be all one
thing or, all the other like our fore
fathers on the stage or in the old
fashioned fiction? For his part he
enjoyed himself on all squares OF the Z
board and liked the light the better
for the shade Ny conclusions he
considered absurd. ~
But you err in good company,
Bunny. for all the cheap moralists
who preach the same twaddle; old
Virgil was the first and worst Often
der of you all back myself to
climb out of Avernus any day I like,
and sooner or later shall climb out
for good. l suppose ] can't very we'll
turn myself into Limited Liability
Company. But l could retire and set
tie down and live blamelessly ever
after. Pm not sure that it couldn't
be done on this pearl alonel"
Then yous don't still think II too
remarkable to self"
I'VE might take fishery and haul
1t up with smallfry 1t would come
after months Of i'll luck, just as we
were going to sell the schooner; by
Jove, 1t would be the talk OF the
Pacfic!
well, we've got to get it first. Is
this Won What's-his-nam a formid-
able cuss?"
More so than he looks, and he has
the cheek of the devili''
As he spoke a white drill skirt hut-
tered past the open stateroom door,
and | caught 4 glimpse of an up
turned mustache beg ond.
'But is he the chap we have to
deal WITH Won't the pearl be in the
pursers keeping?"
Raffies stood at the door, frowning
upon the Solent, but for an instant
he turned to me with a sniff.
MY good fellow do you suppose
the whole ships company knows