I was just putting out my light when the telephone rang a furious tocsin in the next room. I flounced out of bed more asleep than awake; in another minute I should have been past ringing up. It was one o'clock in the morning, and I had been dining with Swigger Morrison at his club. "Hulloa!" "That you, Bunny?" "Yes--are you Raffles?" "What's left of me! Bunny, I want you--quick." And even over the wire his voice was faint with anxiety and apprehension. "What on earth has happened?" "Don't ask! You never know--" "I'll come at once. Are you there, Raffles?" "What's that?" "Are you there, man?" "Ye--e--es." "At the Albany?" "No, no; at Maguire's." "You never said so. And where's Maguire?" "In Half-moon Street." "I know that. Is he there now?" "No--not come in yet--and I'm caught." "Caught!" "In that trap he bragged about. It serves me right. I didn't believe in it. But I'm caught at last ... caught ... at last!" "When he told us he set it every night! Oh, Raffles, what sort of a trap is it? What shall I do? What shall I bring?" But his voice had grown fainter and wearier with every answer, and now there was no answer at all. Again and again I asked Raffles if he was there; the only sound to reach me in reply was the low metallic hum of the live wire between his ear and mine. And then, as I sat gazing distractedly at my four safe walls, with the receiver still pressed to my head, there came a single groan, followed by the dull and dreadful crash of a human body falling in a heap. In utter panic I rushed back into my bedroom, and flung myself into the crumpled shirt and evening clothes that lay where I had cast them off. But I knew no more what I was doing than what to do next I afterward found that I had taken out a fresh tie, and tied it rather better than usual; but I can remember thinking of nothing but Raffles in some diabolical man-trap, and of a grinning monster stealing in to strike him senseless with one murderous blow. I must have looked in the glass to array myself as I did; but the mind's eye was the seeing eye, and it was filled with this frightful vision of the notorious pugilist known to fame and infamy as Barney Maguire.