"Here's Lady Melrose's door open," said Crowley. "Lady Melrose! Lady
Melrose!"
"You forget she's deaf," said Lord Amersteth. "Ah! that'll be her maid."
An inner door had opened; next instant there was a little shriek, and a
white figure gesticulated on the threshold.
"Où donc est l'ecrin de Madame la Marquise? La fenetre est ouverte.
Il a disparu!"
"Window open and jewel-case gone, by Jove!" exclaimed Lord Amersteth.
"Mais comment est Madame la Marquise? Est elle bien?"
"Oui, milor. Elle dort."
"Sleeps through it all," said my lord. "She's the only one, then!"
"What made Mackenzie--Clephane--bolt?" young Crowley asked me.
"Said there were more of them below."
"Why the devil couldn't you tell us so before?" he cried, and went
leaping downstairs in his turn.
He was followed by nearly all the cricketers, who now burst upon the
scene in a body, only to desert it for the chase. Raffles was one of
them, and I would gladly have been another, had not the footman chosen
this moment to hurl me from him, and to make a dash in the direction
from which they had come. Lord Amersteth had him in an instant; but
the fellow fought desperately, and it took the two of us to drag him
downstairs, amid a terrified chorus from half-open doors. Eventually
we handed him over to two other footmen who appeared with their
nightshirts tucked into their trousers, and my host was good enough to
compliment me as he led the way outside.
"I thought I heard a shot," he added. "Didn't you?"
"I thought I heard three."
And out we dashed into the darkness.
I remember how the gravel pricked my feet, how the wet grass numbed
them as we made for the sound of voices on an outlying lawn. So dark
was the night that we were in the cricketers' midst before we saw the
shimmer of their pyjamas; and then Lord Amersteth almost trod on
Mackenzie as he lay prostrate in the dew.
"Who's this?" he cried. "What on earth's happened?"
"It's Clephane," said a man who knelt over him. "He's got a bullet in
him somewhere."
"Is he alive?"
"Barely."
"Good God! Where's Crowley?"
"Here I am," called a breathless voice. "It's no good, you fellows.
There's nothing to show which way they've gone. Here's Raffles; he's
chucked it, too." And they ran up panting.
"Well, we've got one of them, at all events," muttered Lord Amersteth.
"The next thing is to get this poor fellow indoors. Take his
shoulders, somebody. Now his middle. Join hands under him. All
together, now; that's the way. Poor fellow! Poor fellow! His name
isn't Clephane at all. He's a Scotland Yard detective, down here for
these very villains!"
Raffles was the first to express surprise; but he had also been the
first to raise the wounded man. Nor had any of them a stronger or more
tender hand in the slow procession to the house.
In a little we had the senseless man stretched on a sofa in the
library. And there, with ice on his wound and brandy in his throat,
his eyes opened and his lips moved.
Lord Amersteth bent down to catch the words.
"Yes, yes," said he; "we've got one of them safe and sound. The brute
you collared upstairs." Lord Amersteth bent lower. "By Jove! Lowered
the jewel-case out of the window, did he? And they've got clean away
with it! Well, well! I only hope we'll be able to pull this good
fellow through. He's off again."
An hour passed: the sun was rising.
It found a dozen young fellows on the settees in the billiard-room,
drinking whiskey and soda-water in their overcoats and pyjamas, and
still talking excitedly in one breath. A time-table was being passed
from hand to hand: the doctor was still in the library. At last the
door opened, and Lord Amersteth put in his head.
"It isn't hopeless," said he, "but it's bad enough. There'll be no
cricket to-day."
Another hour, and most of us were on our way to catch the early train;
between us we filled a compartment almost to suffocation. And still we
talked all together of the night's event; and still I was a little hero
in my way, for having kept my hold of the one ruffian who had been
taken; and my gratification was subtle and intense. Raffles watched me
under lowered lids. Not a word had we had together; not a word did we
have until we had left the others at Paddington, and were skimming
through the streets in a hansom with noiseless tires and a tinkling
bell.
"Well, Bunny," said Raffles, "so the professors have it, eh?"
"Yes," said I. "And I'm jolly glad!"
"That poor Mackenzie has a ball in his chest?"
"That you and I have been on the decent side for once."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"You're hopeless, Bunny, quite hopeless! I take it you wouldn't have
refused your share if the boodle had fallen to us? Yet you positively
enjoy coming off second best--for the second time running! I confess,
however, that the professors' methods were full of interest to me. I,
for one, have probably gained as much in experience as I have lost in
other things. That lowering the jewel-case out of the window was a
very simple and effective expedient; two of them had been waiting below
for it for hours."
"How do you know?" I asked.
"I saw them from my own window, which was just above the dear old
lady's. I was fretting for that necklace in particular, when I went up
to turn in for our last night--and I happened to look out of my window.
In point of fact, I wanted to see whether the one below was open, and
whether there was the slightest chance of working the oracle with my
sheet for a rope. Of course I took the precaution of turning my light
off first, and it was a lucky thing I did. I saw the pros. right down
below, and they never saw me. I saw a little tiny luminous disk just
for an instant, and then again for an instant a few minutes later. Of
course I knew what it was, for I have my own watch-dial daubed with
luminous paint; it makes a lantern of sorts when you can get no better.
But these fellows were not using theirs as a lantern. They were under
the old lady's window. They were watching the time. The whole thing
was arranged with their accomplice inside. Set a thief to catch a
thief: in a minute I had guessed what the whole thing proved to be."
"And you did nothing!" I exclaimed.
"On the contrary, I went downstairs and straight into Lady Melrose's
room--"
"You did?"
"Without a moment's hesitation. To save her jewels. And I was
prepared to yell as much into her ear-trumpet for all the house to
hear. But the dear lady is too deaf and too fond of her dinner to wake
easily."
"Well?"
"She didn't stir."
"And yet you allowed the professors, as you call them, to take her
jewels, case and all!"
"All but this," said Raffles, thrusting his fist into my lap. "I would
have shown it you before, but really, old fellow, your face all day has
been worth a fortune to the firm!"
And he opened his fist, to shut it next instant on the bunch of
diamonds and of sapphires that I had last seen encircling the neck of
Lady Melrose.