E. W. Hornung_A J Raffles 03 Read Online Free Page A

truth, the meanest lie of all, and the very last to
which I could have dreamt that Raffles would stoop. So far there
had been a degree of honor between us, if only of the kind understood
to obtain between thief and thief. Now all that was at an end.
Raffles had cheated me. Raffles had completed the ruin of my life.
I was done with Raffles, as she who shall not be named was done
with me.
    And yet, even while I blamed him most bitterly, and utterly
abominated his deceitful deed, I could not but admit in my heart
that the result was put of all proportion to the intent: he had
never dreamt of doing me this injury, or indeed any injury at all.
Intrinsically the deceit had been quite venial, the reason for it
obviously the reason that Raffles had given me. It was quite true
that he had spoken of this Lochmaben peerage as a new creation,
and of the heir to it in a fashion only applicable to Alick
Carruthers. He had given me hints, which I had been too dense to
take, and he had certainly made more than one attempt to deter me
from accompanying him on this fatal emprise; had he been more
explicit, I might have made it my business to deter him. I could
not say in my heart that Raffles had failed to satisfy such honor
as I might reasonably expect to subsist between us. Yet it seems
to me to require a superhuman sanity always and unerringly to
separate cause from effect, achievement from intent. And I, for
one, was never quite able to do so in this case.
    I could not be accused of neglecting my newspaper during the next
few wretched days. I read every word that I could find about the
attempted jewel-robbery in Palace Gardens, and the reports
afforded me my sole comfort. In the first place, it was only an
attempted robbery; nothing had been taken, after all. And then -
and then - the one member of the household who had come nearest to
a personal encounter with either of us was unable to furnish any
description of the man - had even expressed a doubt as to the
likelihood of identification in the event of an arrest!
    I will not say with what mingled feelings I read and dwelt on that
announcement It kept a certain faint glow alive within me until the
morning brought me back the only presents I had ever made her. They
were books; jewellery had been tabooed by the authorities. And the
books came back without a word, though the parcel was directed in
her hand.
    I had made up my mind not to go near Raffles again, but in my heart
I already regretted my resolve. I had forfeited love, I had
sacrificed honor, and now I must deliberately alienate myself from
the one being whose society might yet be some recompense for all
that I had lost. The situation was aggravated by the state of my
exchequer. I expected an ultimatum from my banker by every post.
Yet this influence was nothing to the other. It was Raffles I loved.
It was not the dark life we led together, still less its base
rewards; it was the man himself, his gayety, his humor, his dazzling
audacity, his incomparable courage and resource. And a very horror
of turning to him again in mere need of greed set the seal on my
first angry resolution. But the anger was soon gone out of me, and
when at length Raffles bridged the gap by coming to me, I rose to
greet him almost with a shout.
    He came as though nothing had happened; and, indeed, not very many
days had passed, though they might have been months to me. Yet I
fancied the gaze that watched me through our smoke a trifle less
sunny than it had been before. And it was a relief to me when he
came with few preliminaries to the inevitable point.
    "Did you ever hear from her, Bunny?" he asked.
    "In a way," I answered. "We won't talk about it, if you don't mind,
Raffles."
    "That sort of way!" he exclaimed. He seemed both surprised and
disappointed.
    "Yes," I said, "that sort of way. It's finished. What did you
expect?"
    "I don't know," said Raffles. "I only thought that the girl who
went so far to get a fellow out of a tight place might go a