Mr. Justice RafflesHornung, E. W. (Ernest William)
General
Mr. Justice Raffles
Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William)
Criminals -- England -- Fiction; Raffles (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
"Then I did feel it was a toss-up between my razor and a charge of shot!
I had no idea it was raining; if you look up at that coloured skylight,
you can't say if it's raining now. There's another sort of hatchway on
top of it. Then you hear that fountain tinkling all the time; you don't
hear any rain, do you?--It was after three, but I lay till nearly four
simply cursing my luck; there was no hurry then. At last I wondered what
the papers had to say about me--who was playing in my place, who'd won
the toss and all the rest of it. So I had the nerve to send out for one,
and what should I see? 'No play at Lord's'--and sudden illness of my poor
old father! You know the rest, Manders, because in less than twenty
minutes after that we met."
"And I remember thinking how fit you looked," said I. "It was the
bath, of course, and the sleep on top of it. But I wonder they let you
sleep so long."
"How could they know what I'd been up to?" said Teddy. "I mightn't have
had any sleep for a week; it was their business to let me be. But to
think of the rain coming on and saving me--for even Raffles couldn't have
done it without the rain. That was the great slice of luck--while I was
lying right there! And that's why I like to lie there still--for luck
rather than remembrance!"
The drinks came; we smoked and sipped. I regretted to find that Teddy was
no longer faithful to the only old cigarette. But his loyalty to Raffles
won my heart as he had never won it in his youth.
"Give us away to your heart's content," said he; "but give the dear old
devil his due at last."
"But who exactly do you mean by 'us'?"
"My father not so much, perhaps, because he's dead and gone; but self and
wife as much as ever you like."
"Are you sure Mrs. Garland won't mind?"
"Mind! It was for her he did it all; didn't you know that?"
I didn't know Teddy knew it, and I began to think him a finer fellow than
I had supposed.
"Am I to say all I know about that too?" I asked.
"Rather! Camilla and I will both be delighted--so long as you change our
names--for we both loved him!" said Teddy Garland.
I wonder if they both forgive me for taking him entirely at his word?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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