"I know! I know! And Whipham's reserve man, isn't he?" "And another wicket-keeper, worse luck!" exclaimed Raffles. "If he turns out and takes a single ball, and Teddy is only one over late, it will still be too late for him to play." "Then it's too late already," said Mr. Garland, sinking back into his chair with a groan. "But that note from Studley may have been half-an-hour on the way." "No, Raffles, it's not an ordinary note; it's a message telephoned straight from Lord's--probably within the last few minutes--to a messenger office not a hundred yards from this door!" Mr. Garland sat staring miserably at the carpet; he was beginning to look ill with perplexity and suspense. Raffles himself, who had turned his back upon us with a shrug of acquiescence in the inevitable, was a monument of discomfiture as he stood gazing through a glass door into the adjoining conservatory. There was no actual window in the library, but this door was a single sheet of plate-glass into which a man might well have walked, and I can still see Raffles in full-length silhouette upon a panel of palms and tree-ferns. I see the silhouette grow tall and straight again before my eyes, the door open, and Raffles listening with an alert lift of the head. I, too, hear something, an elfin hiss, a fairy fusillade, and then the sudden laugh with which Raffles rejoined us in the body of the room. "It's raining!" he cried, waving a hand above his head. "Have you a barometer, Mr. Garland?" "That's an aneroid under the lamp-bracket." "How often do you set the indicator?" "Last thing every night. I remember it was between Fair and Change when I went to bed. It made me anxious." "It may make you thankful now. It's between Change and Rain this morning. And the rain's begun, and while there's rain there's hope!" In a twinkling Raffles had regained all his own irresistible buoyancy and assurance. But the older man was not capable of so prompt a recovery. "Something has happened to my boy!" "But not necessarily anything terrible." "If I knew what, Raffles--if only I knew what!" Raffles eyed the pale and twitching face with sidelong solicitude. He himself had the confident expression which always gave me confidence; the rattle on the conservatory roof was growing louder every minute. "I intend to find out," said he; "and if the rain goes on long enough, we may still see Teddy playing when it stops. But I shall want your help, sir." "I am ready to go with you anywhere, Raffles." "You can only help me, Mr. Garland, by staying where you are." "Where I am?" "In the house all day," said Raffles firmly. "It is absolutely essential to my idea." "And that is, Raffles?" "To save Teddy's face, in the first instance. I shall drive straight up to Lord's, in your brougham if I may. I know Studley rather well; he shall keep Teddy's place open till the last possible moment." "But how shall you account for his absence?" I asked.