E. W. Hornung_A J Raffles 01 (21 page)

"An' all easy to prove," said the Scotchman, pocketing the
warrant. "I've one o' these for you," he added, nodding to me,
"only not such a long one."

"To think," said the captain reproachfully, "that my shib should
be made a den of thiefs! It shall be a very disagreeable madder,
I have been obliged to pud you both in irons until we get to
Nables."

"Surely not!" exclaimed Raffles. "Mackenzie, intercede with him;
don't give your countrymen away before all hands! Captain, we
can't escape; surely you could hush it up for the night? Look
here, here's everything I have in my pockets; you empty yours,
too, Bunny, and they shall strip us stark if they suspect we've
weapons up our sleeves. All I ask is that we are allowed to get
out of this without gyves upon our wrists!"

"Webbons you may not have," said the captain; "but wad aboud der
bearl dat you were sdealing?"

"You shall have it!" cried Raffles. "You shall have it this
minute if you guarantee no public indignity on board!"

"That I'll see to," said Mackenzie, "as long as you behave
yourselves. There now, where is't?"

"On the table under your nose."

My eyes fell with the rest, but no pearl was there; only the
contents of our pockets—our watches, pocket-books, pencils,
penknives, cigarette cases—lay on the shiny table along with the
revolvers already mentioned.

"Ye're humbuggin' us," said Mackenzie. "What's the use?"

"I'm doing nothing of the sort," laughed Raffles. "I'm testing
you. Where's the harm?"

"It's here, joke apart?"

"On that table, by all my gods."

Mackenzie opened the cigarette cases and shook each particular
cigarette. Thereupon Raffles prayed to be allowed to smoke one,
and, when his prayer was heard, observed that the pearl had been
on the table much longer than the cigarettes. Mackenzie promptly
caught up the Colt and opened the chamber in the butt.

"Not there, not there," said Raffles; "but you're getting hot.
Try the cartridges."

Mackenzie emptied them into his palm, and shook each one at his
ear without result.

"Oh, give them to me!"

And, in an instant, Raffles had found the right one, had bitten
out the bullet, and placed the emperor's pearl with a flourish in
the centre of the table.

"After that you will perhaps show me such little consideration as
is in your power. Captain, I have been a bit of a villain, as
you see, and as such I am ready and willing to lie in irons all
night if you deem it requisite for the safety of the ship. All I
ask is that you do me one favor first."

"That shall debend on wad der vafour has been."

"Captain, I've done a worse thing aboard your ship than any of
you know. I have become engaged to be married, and I want to say
good-by!"

I suppose we were all equally amazed; but the only one to express
his amazement was von Heumann, whose deep-chested German oath was
almost his first contribution to the proceedings. He was not
slow to follow it, however, with a vigorous protest against the
proposed farewell; but he was overruled, and the masterful
prisoner had his way. He was to have five minutes with the girl,
while the captain and Mackenzie stood within range (but not
earshot), with their revolvers behind their backs. As we were
moving from the cabin, in a body, he stopped and gripped my hand.

"So I 've let you in at last, Bunny—at last and after all! If
you knew how sorry I am. . . . But you won't get much—I don't
see why you should get anything at all. Can you forgive me? This
may be for years, and it may be for ever, you know! You were a
good pal always when it came to the scratch; some day or other
you mayn't be so sorry to remember you were a good pal at the
last!"

There was a meaning in his eye that I understood; and my teeth
were set, and my nerve strung ready, as I wrung that strong and
cunning hand for the last time in my life.

How that last scene stays with me, and will stay to my death!
How I see every detail, every shadow on the sunlit deck! We were
among the islands that dot the course from Genoa to Naples; that
was Elba falling back on our starboard quarter, that purple patch
with the hot sun setting over it. The captain's cabin opened to
starboard, and the starboard promenade deck, sheeted with
sunshine and scored with shadow, was deserted, but for the group
of which I was one, and for the pale, slim, brown figure further
aft with Raffles. Engaged? I could not believe it, cannot to
this day. Yet there they stood together, and we did not hear a
word; there they stood out against the sunset, and the long,
dazzling highway of sunlit sea that sparkled from Elba to the
Uhlan's plates; and their shadows reached almost to our feet.

Suddenly—an instant—and the thing was done—a thing I have
never known whether to admire or to detest. He caught her—he
kissed her before us all—then flung her from him so that she
almost fell. It was that action which foretold the next. The
mate sprang after him, and I sprang after the mate.

Raffles was on the rail, but only just.

"Hold him, Bunny!" he cried. "Hold him tight!"

And, as I obeyed that last behest with all my might, without a
thought of what I was doing, save that he bade me do it, I saw
his hands shoot up and his head bob down, and his lithe, spare
body cut the sunset as cleanly and precisely as though he had
plunged at his leisure from a diver's board!

Of what followed on deck I can tell you nothing, for I was not
there. Nor can my final punishment, my long imprisonment, my
everlasting disgrace, concern or profit you, beyond the interest
and advantage to be gleaned from the knowledge that I at least
had my deserts. But one thing I must set down, believe it who
will—one more thing only and I am done.

It was into a second-class cabin, on the starboard side, that I
was promptly thrust in irons, and the door locked upon me as
though I were another Raffles. Meanwhile a boat was lowered, and
the sea scoured to no purpose, as is doubtless on record
elsewhere. But either the setting sun, flashing over the waves,
must have blinded all eyes, or else mine were victims of a
strange illusion.

For the boat was back, the screw throbbing, and the prisoner
peering through his porthole across the sunlit waters that he
believed had closed for ever over his comrade's head. Suddenly
the sun sank behind the Island of Elba, the lane of dancing
sunlight was instantaneously quenched and swallowed in the
trackless waste, and in the middle distance, already miles
astern, either my sight deceived me or a black speck bobbed amid
the gray. The bugle had blown for dinner: it may well be that all
save myself had ceased to strain an eye. And now I lost what I
had found, now it rose, now sank, and now I gave it up utterly.
Yet anon it would rise again, a mere mote dancing in the dim gray
distance, drifting towards a purple island, beneath a fading
western sky, streaked with dead gold and cerise. And night fell
before I knew whether it was a human head or not.