The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-02-11

or the other Or it's u long stretch for
you and me-"
Better that than this"
Then stay where you are, my good
fellow. told you l didn't want you,
and this Is the house So good night" o
1, could see no hoHse at all, only the
angle Of high wall rising solitary in
the night, with the starlight glitter
ing on battlements Of broken glass,
and in the wall tall green gate bris-
ting with spikes and showing a front
for battering rams in the feeble rays
an outlying lamp pest cast across the
new made road. II seemed to me a
road Of building sites, with but this
one house built all by itself at one
end, but the night was too dark for
more than a mere impression.
Rafles. however, had seen the place
by daylight and had come prepared for
the special obstacles. Already he was
reaching up and putting champagne
corks on the spikes, and In another mo-
ment he had his folded covert coat
across the corks. stepped back as he
raised himself and saw a little pyra-
mid of states snip the sky above the
gate. AS he squirmed over l ran for
ward and had my weight on the spikes
and cOrks ard. covert coat when he
gave the latter tug.
Coming, after all7"
Rather
Take care, then; the place is all
bell wires and springs. It's no soft
thing. this! There-stand still while
take of the corks" "
The garden was very small and new,
with a grass plot stillin separate sOds,
but a quantity of full grown laurels
stuck into the raw clay beds. Bells
in themselves" as Rah1es whispered.
there's nothing. else rustles so-cun-
ming old beast" And we gave them a
wide berth as we crept across the
grass.
Hes gone to bedw
at don't think SO, Bunny. 1 believe
he's seen u.s."
"Why?'
ST saw light"
'"Wherey e. E
Downstairs, for an instant, when
r.
His whisper died away. He had seen
the light again, and so had /.
It lay like a. golden rod under the
front door-and vanished. 1t reap
peared like a gold thread under the
Intel and vanished for good. We
heard the stairs creak, creak and cease,
also for good We neither saw nor
heard any more, though we stood wait
ing on the grass till our feet were
soaked with the dew.
I'm going in, ,. said Raf1es at last.
81 don't believe he saw US at all. l
wish he had. This way"
We trod gingerly, on the path, but
the gravel stuck to our. wet soles and
grated horribly in little tiled veranda
with a glass door leading within. 1t
was through this glass that Raffies had
first seen the light, and he now pro-
ceeded to take out a pane with the
diamond, the-pOt Of tTeacle and the
sheet Of brown paper which were sell
dom omitted from his impedimenta.
Nor did he dispense with my own as
sistance, though he may have accepted
it as instinctively as it was prOfered.
In any case, it was these fingers that
helped to spread the treacle on the
brown paper and pressed the latter
to the glass until the diamond had
completed its circuit and the pane fell
gently back into our hands.
Rafies now inserted bis hand
turned the key in the lock and by max
ing a long arm succeeded in drawing
the bolt at the bottom of the door. II
proved to be the only one, and the
door opened. though not very wide.
Whats that?" said Rafaes as some
/ thing crunched beneath his feet on the
! very threshold.
e "A pair of spectacles," whispered
picking them up. was still lingering
the broken lenses and the bent rims
when Rafies tripped and almost fell