Part 17 (2/2)

I sank my voice with the last sentence, but I might just as well have raised it instead. I had said the same thing over and over again to see whether the wilful tautology would cause the secretary to open his eyes. It seemed to have had the very opposite effect. His head fell forward on the table, with never a quiver at the blow, never a twitch when I pillowed it upon one of his own sprawling arms. And there sat Maguire bolt upright, but for the jowl upon his s.h.i.+rt-front, while the sequins twinkled in a regular rise and fall upon the reclining form of the lady in the fanciful chair. All three were sound asleep, by what accident or by whose design I did not pause to inquire; it was enough to ascertain the fact beyond all chance of error.

I turned my attention to Raffles last of all. There was the other side of the medal. Raffles was still sleeping as sound as the enemy-or so I feared at first I shook him gently: he made no sign. I introduced vigor into the process: he muttered incoherently. I caught and twisted an unresisting wrist-and at that he yelped profanely. But it was many and many an anxious moment before his blinking eyes knew mine.

”Bunny!” he yawned, and nothing more until his position came back to him. ”So you came to me,” he went on, in a tone that thrilled me with its affectionate appreciation, ”as I knew you would! Have they turned up yet? They will any minute, you know; there's not one to lose.”

”No, they won't, old man!” I whispered. And he sat up and saw the comatose trio for himself.

Raffles seemed less amazed at the result than I had been as a puzzled witness of the process; on the other hand, I had never seen anything quite so exultant as the smile that broke through his blackened countenance like a light. It was all obviously no great surprise, and no puzzle at all, to Raffles.

”How much did they have, Bunny?” were his first whispered words.

”Maguire a good three fingers, and the others at least two.”

”Then we needn't lower our voices, and we needn't walk on our toes. Eheu! I dreamed somebody was kicking me in the ribs, and I believe it must have been true.”

He had risen with a hand to his side and a wry look on his sweep's face.

”You can guess which of them it was,” said I. ”The beast is jolly well served!”

And I shook my fist in the paralytic face of the most brutal bruiser of his time.

”He is safe till the forenoon, unless they bring a doctor to him,” said Raffles. ”I don't suppose we could rouse him now if we tried. How much of the fearsome stuff do you suppose I took? About a tablespoonful! I guessed what it was, and couldn't resist making sure; the minute I was satisfied, I changed the label and the position of the two decanters, little thinking I should stay to see the fun; but in another minute I could hardly keep my eyes open. I realized then that I was fairly poisoned with some subtle drug. If I left the house at all in that state, I must leave the spoil behind, or be found drunk in the gutter with my head on the swag itself. In any case I should have been picked up and run in, and that might have led to anything.”

”So you rang me up!”

”It was my last brilliant inspiration-a sort of flash in the brain-pan before the end-and I remember very little about it. I was more asleep than awake at the time.”

”You sounded like it, Raffles, now that one has the clue.”

”I can't remember a word I said, or what was the end of it, Bunny.”

”You fell in a heap before you came to the end.”

”You didn't hear that through the telephone?”

”As though we had been in the same room: only I thought it was Maguire who had stolen a march on you and knocked you out.”

I had never seen Raffles more interested and impressed; but at this point his smile altered, his eyes softened, and I found my hand in his.

”You thought that, and yet you came like a shot to do battle for my body with Barney Maguire! Jack-the-Giant-killer wasn't in it with you, Bunny!”

”It was no credit to me-it was rather the other thing,” said I, remembering my rashness and my luck, and confessing both in a breath. ”You know old Swigger Morrison?” I added in final explanation. ”I had been dining with him at his club!”

Raffles shook his long old head. And the kindly light in his eyes was still my infinite reward.

”I don't care,” said he, ”how deeply you had been dining: in vino veritas, Bunny, and your pluck would always out! I have never doubted it, and I never shall. In fact, I rely on nothing else to get us out of this mess.”

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