Read Online E. W. Hornung_A J Raffles 03 by A Thief in the Night - Free Book Online

shaved on Campden Hill. That morning, however,
I did my best with a very fair razor which the colonel had left
behind in my room; then I turned out the lady's wardrobe and the
cardboard boxes, and took my choice.
    I have fair hair, and at the time it was rather long. With a pair
of Mrs. Crutchley's tongs and a discarded hair-net, I was able to
produce an almost immodest fringe. A big black hat with a wintry
feather completed a headdress as unseasonable as my skating skirt
and feather boa; of course, the good lady had all. her summer frocks
away with her in Switzerland. This was all. the more annoying from
the fact that we were having a very warm September; so I was not
sorry to hear Raffles return as I was busy adding a layer of powder
to my heated countenance. I listened a moment on the landing, but
as he went into the study I determined to complete my toilet in
every detail. My idea was first to give him the fright he deserved,
and secondly to show him that I was quite as fit to move abroad as
he. It was, however, I confess, a pair of the colonel's gloves that
I was buttoning as I slipped down to the study even more quietly
than usual. The electric light was on, as it generally was by day,
and under it stood as formidable a figure as ever I encountered in
my life of crime.
    Imagine a thin but extremely wiry man, past middle age, brown and
bloodless as any crabapple, but as coolly truculent and as casually
alert as Raffles at his worst. It was, it could only be, the
fire-eating and prison-inspecting colonel himself! He was ready for
me, a revolver in his hand, taken, as I could see, from one of those
locked drawers in the pedestal desk with which Raffles had refused
to tamper; the drawer was open, and a bunch of keys depended from
the lock. A grim smile crumpled up the parchment face, so that one
eye was puckered out of sight; the other was propped open by an
eyeglass, which, however, dangled on its string when I appeared.
    "A woman, begad!" the warrior exclaimed. "And where's the man, you
scarlet hussy?"
    Not a word could I utter. But, in my horror and my amazement, I
have no sort of doubt that I acted the part I had assumed in a manner
I never should have approached in happier circumstances.
    "Come, come, my lass," cried the old oak veteran, "I'm not going to
put a bullet through you, you know! You tell me all. about it, and
it'll do you more good than harm. There, I'll put the nasty thing
away and - God bless me, if the brazen wench hasn't squeezed into
the wife's kit!"
    A squeeze it happened to have been, and in my emotion it felt more
of one than ever; but his sudden discovery had not heightened the
veteran's animosity against me. On the contrary, I caught a glint
of humor through his gleaming glass, and he proceeded to pocket his
revolver like the gentleman he was.
    "'Well, well, it's lucky I looked in," he continued. "I only came
round on the off-chance of letters, but if I hadn't you'd have had
another week in clover. Begad, though, I saw your handwriting the
moment I'd got my nose inside! Now just be sensible and tell me
where your good man is.
    I had no man. I was alone, had broken in alone. There was not a
soul in the affair (much less the house) except myself. So much I
stuttered out in tones too hoarse to betray me on the spot. But
the old man of the world shook a hard old head.
    "Quite right not to give away your pal," said he. "But I'm not one
of the marines, my dear, and you mustn't expect me to swallow all.
that. Well, if you won't say, you won't, and we must just send
for those who will."
    In a flash I saw his fell design. The telephone directory lay open
on one of the pedestals. He must have been consulting it when he
heard me on the stairs; he had another look at it now; and that gave
me my opportunity. With a presence of mind rare enough in me to
excuse the boast, I flung myself upon the instrument in the corner
and hurled it to the ground with all. my might. I was myself sent
spinning into the opposite