Bisbee daily review., 1911-09-17

 "RAFFLES''
By CASPER GREEN

some daring things in the way of entering houses in the city and sub urbs. His exploits numbered 30. and the police had not even caught sight of him az yet. Some of his victims had seen dark figure and fired at 1t. but there had been no bloody trails to follow to success. He had robbed househ6lders at dinner time and be had robbed others Es they slept the sleep of the just. lp the instance most talked about. he had visited seven different bedrooms in country house and robbed each one, and had then sat down in the dining room for a lunch and smoke before depart ing. Half a dozen of the club mem bers agreed that he must have nerves of steel, but the seventh was the ex- ception- IL was Howard Burt. a young broker. who had sat quietly listening for the last half hour.
 "Yes. it's all nonsense" he repeat ed as the others turned to him fin surprise. There is no nerve in robbing sleeping house. or in porch climbing when you know that there Is not one chance in fifty of meeting anyone upstairs"
 Thereupon arose a discussion in which there was considerable acri- mony, and in which the~seventh man held his own against the six so well that one of them finally resorted to bluff and said:
 There Is way to prove your contention. Turn Rafnes' and give us the honest results of the experi- ment"
 There are six of you" slowly re piled the young man. "Ill lay you one hundred each that I enter some house within week as a Rafnes' and bring to this club some article that you will all recognize"
 ''Donei Done! Donei" was shouted at him from all sides. and with a laugh he rose and left the club to keep an engagement.
 The family of General Blrney, oo- cupying a manor house ten miles out of the city, consisted of the general and his wife. both of whom were well along in years, their son, Fred, who was in sn Insurance office in the city, and Edith. who had finished her educa- ton at Vassar and had returned home to wait the great event of the life of every young woman, matrimony. Raf- fles had visited the houses to the east and west. but had deferred his call on the general. There was plunder there, but 1t was taken by the general 10 signify that the robber was afraid to tackle an cid veteran of the wars, who had turned the family bedroom into an armorg and had had the house rigged out with all sorts of burglar alarms and electric bells and traps for the unwary.
 Some young ladies, while waiting for prince charming turn to poetry. Others write play. Miss Edith had had the plot of a comedy-drama in her lead ever since she was ten years old. The time had now arrived to develop it. For a month she had been resting and thinking all day and working with her pen until 12 or o'clock at night There came a par icular night when she was bothered more than usual She had brought her hero under such a cloud of sus- picion that 1t seemed as if career must end in his being clubbed by a policeman and dragged 10 jail, and tine girl was thinking deeply when a slight noise behind her made her turn. She turned to see "Raffes." She was in the library on the first floor. and father, mother, brother and servants were all on the second and third, sound asleep. Rallies was masked, but there was no trouble in figuring out that he was not the hired man who had come in to tell her that one of the horses in the stable had the cohc or that he was the gardener with the announcement that a COW had broken into the grounds and eaten up her favorite rose bush.
 It was well for Miss Edith that she had been writing a play in which her heroine swan rivers, jumped over Sliffs and pursued the James brothers to their lair. She represented the heroine. IL would not do for her 10 faint away in the presence of one rob- Der, who did not even display a pistol. The two looked at each other for half a minute, and then Rallies quietly sat down in chair a few feet away. At the same moment the young lady re- membered that there was a revolver in a drawer of the desk at which she was writing. She had used it when posing in the place of her heroine.
 You are up late" observed Rallies, after he was comfortably seated.
 Who are you. and why are you here?" she asked in reply.
 Just Rallies, if you please. The first question will answer the sec ond"
 He had a pleasant voice. He had an aristocratie foot and hand. While he lounsed earelessly, his attitude was thet of a gentleman. As her first chill of fear passed away. the girl noticed these things. They counted in his favor. but only to an extent. The newspapers and the police had said that Rallies was a gentleman. If you must be robbed, It is better to be robbed by gentleman than by a tramp. but it is still better not to be robbed at all Miss Edith figured that the intrduer must have been in The house for some time. and that he