I
fear, I fear the clamor! It would be fatal to us. Au contraire,
if we can manage to stow ourselves away unbeknownst, half the
battle will be won. If Rosenthall turns in drunk, it's a purple
diamond apiece. If he sits up sober, it may be a bullet instead.
We will hope not, Bunny; and all the firing wouldn't be on one
side; but it's on the knees of the gods."
And so we left it when we shook hands in Picadilly--not by any
means as much later as I could have wished. Raffles would not
ask me to his rooms that night. He said he made it a rule to
have a long night before playing cricket and--other games. His
final word to me was framed on the same principle.
"Mind, only one drink to-night, Bunny. Two at the outside--as
you value your life--and mine!"
I remember my abject obedience; and the endless, sleepless night
it gave me; and the roofs of the houses opposite standing out at
last against the blue-gray London dawn. I wondered whether I
should ever see another, and was very hard on myself for that
little expedition which I had made on my own wilful account.
It was between eight and nine o'clock in the evening when we took
up our position in the garden adjoining that of Reuben
Rosenthall; the house itself was shut up, thanks to the
outrageous libertine next door, who, by driving away the
neighbors, had gone far towards delivering himself into our
hands.
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