He was as keen as knives to show us
how he could take care of his purple diamonds; and, do you know,
Bunny, _I_ was as keen as knives to see."
And Raffles leaned towards me with a sly, slow smile that made
the hidden meaning of his visit only too plain to me at last.
"So you think of having a try for his diamonds yourself?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"It is horribly obvious, I admit. But--yes, I have set my heart
upon them! To be quite frank, I have had them on my conscience
for some time; one couldn't hear so much of the man, and his
prize-fighter, and his diamonds, without feeling it a kind of
duty to have a go for them; but when it comes to brandishing a
revolver and practically challenging the world, the thing becomes
inevitable. It is simply thrust upon one. I was fated to hear
that challenge, Bunny, and I, for one, must take it up. I was
only sorry I couldn't get on my hind legs and say so then and
there."
"Well," I said, "I don't see the necessity as things are with us;
but, of course, I'm your man."
My tone may have been half-hearted. I did my best to make it
otherwise. But it was barely a month since our Bond Street
exploit, and we certainly could have afforded to behave ourselves
for some time to come. We had been getting along so nicely: by
his advice I had scribbled a thing or two; inspired by Raffles, I
had even done an article on our own jewel robbery; and for the
moment I was quite satisfied with this sort of adventure.
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