Never had I known Raffles in so pessimistic a mood. I did not share his sombre view of either matter, though I confined my remarks to the one that seemed to weigh most heavily on his mind. "A guinea to a gooseberry," I wagered, "that you find your man safe and sound at Lord's." "I rang them up ten minutes ago," said Raffles. "They hadn't heard of him then; besides, here's his cricket-bag." "He may have been at the club when I fetched it away--I never asked." "I did, Bunny. I rang them up as well, just after you had left." "Then what about his father's house?" "That's our one chance," said Raffles. "They're not on the telephone, but now that you're here I've a good mind to drive out and see if Teddy's there. You know what a state he was in last night, and you know how a thing can seem worse when you wake and remember it than it did at the time it happened. I begin to hope he's gone straight to old Garland with the whole story; in that case he's bound to come back for his kit; and by Jove, Bunny, there's a step upon the stairs!" We had left the doors open behind us, and a step it was, ascending hastily enough to our floor. But it was not the step of a very young man, and Raffles was the first to recognise the fact; his face fell as we looked at each other for a single moment of suspense; in another he was out of the room, and I heard him greeting Mr. Garland on the landing. "Then you haven't brought Teddy with you?" I heard Raffles add. "Do you mean to say he isn't here?" replied so pleasant a voice--in accents of such acute dismay--that Mr. Garland had my sympathy before we met. "He has been," said Raffles, "and I'm expecting him back every minute. Won't you come in and wait, Mr. Garland?" The pleasant voice made an exclamation of premature relief; the pair entered, and I was introduced to the last person I should have suspected of being a retired brewer at all, much less of squandering his money in retirement as suggested by his son. I was prepared for a conventional embodiment of reckless prosperity, for a pseudo-military type in louder purple and finer linen than the real thing. I shook hands instead with a gentle, elderly man, whose kindly eyes beamed bravely amid careworn furrows, and whose slightly diffident yet wholly cordial address won my heart outright. "So you've lost no time in welcoming the wanderer!" said he. "You're nearly as bad as my boy, who was quite bent on seeing Raffles last night or first thing this morning. He told me he should stay the night in town if necessary, and he evidently has." There was still a trace of anxiety in the father's manner, but there was also a twinkle in his eyes, which kindled with genial fires as Raffles gave a perfectly truthful account of the young man's movements (as distinct from his words and deeds) overnight. "And what do you think of his great news?" asked Mr. Garland. "Was it a surprise to you, Raffles?"