Besides, these people deserve it, and can afford it. And don't
you run away with the idea that all will be plain sailing;
nothing will be easier than getting some stuff, and nothing
harder than avoiding all suspicion, as, of course, we must. We
may come away with no more than a good working plan of the
premises. Who knows? In any case there's weeks of thinking in
it for you and me."
But with those weeks I will not weary you further than by
remarking that the "thinking," was done entirely by Raffles, who
did not always trouble to communicate his thoughts to me. His
reticence, however, was no longer an irritant. I began to accept
it as a necessary convention of these little enterprises. And,
after our last adventure of the kind, more especially after its
denouement, my trust in Raffles was much too solid to be shaken
by a want of trust in me, which I still believe to have been more
the instinct of the criminal than the judgment of the man.
It was on Monday, the tenth of August, that we were due at
Milchester Abbey, Dorset; and the beginning of the month found us
cruising about that very county, with fly-rods actually in our
hands. The idea was that we should acquire at once a local
reputation as decent fishermen, and some knowledge of the
countryside, with a view to further and more deliberate
operations in the event of an unprofitable week.
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