The rooms opposite appeared to be an empty set; those on the second and first floors were only partially shut off by swing doors leading to different departments of the mighty offices of Burroughs and Burroughs. There were no lights upon these landings, and I gathered my information by means of successive matches, whose tell-tale ends I carefully concealed about my person, and from copious legends painted on the walls. Thus I had little difficulty in groping my way to the private offices of Sir John Burroughs, head of the celebrated firm; but I looked in vain for a layer of light under any of the massive mahogany doors with which this portion of the premises was glorified. Then I began softly trying doors that proved to be locked. Only one yielded to my hand; and when it was a few inches open, all was still black; but the next few brought me to the end of my quest, and the close of my solitary adventures. CHAPTER XII A Midsummer Night's Work The dense and total darkness was broken in one place, and one only, by a plateful of light proceeding from a tiny bulb of incandescence in its centre. This blinding atom of white heat lit up a hand hardly moving, a pen continually poised, over a disc of snowy paper; and on the other side, something that lay handy on the table, reflecting the light in its plated parts. It was Raffles at his latest deviltry. He had not heard me, and he could not see; but for that matter he never looked up from his task. Sometimes his face bent over it, and I could watch its absolute concentration. The brow was furrowed, and the mouth pursed, yet there was a hint of the same quiet and wary smile with which Raffles would bowl an over or drill holes in a door. I stood for some moments fascinated, entranced, before creeping in to warn him of my presence in a whisper. But this time he heard my step, snatched up electric torch and glittering revolver, and covered me with the one in the other's light. "A.J.!" I gasped. "Bunny!" he exclaimed in equal amazement and displeasure. "What the devil do you mean by this?" "You're in danger," I whispered. "I came to warn you!" "Danger? I'm never out of it. But how did you know where to find me, and how on God's earth did _you_ get here?" "I'll tell you some other time. You know those two brutes you dodged the other day?" "I ought to." "They're waiting below for you at this very moment." Raffles peered a few moments through the handful of white light between our faces. "Let them wait!" said he, and replaced the torch upon the table and put down his revolver for his pen. "They're detectives!" I urged. "Are they, Bunny?" "What else could they be?" "What, indeed!" murmured Raffles, as he fell to work again with bent head and deliberate pen.