for me to refuse him, and I am still glad to remember that my assent
was given, on the whole, ungrudgingly.

"But when will the chest be ready for me I merely asked, as I stuffed
the notes into my cigarette case. "And how are we to get it out of
this, in banking hours, without attracting any amount of attention at
this end?"

Raffles gave me an approving nod.

"I'm glad to see you spot the crux so quickly, Bunny. I have
thought of your taking it round to your place first, under cloud
of night; but we are bound to be seen even so, and on the whole it
would look far less suspicious in broad daylight. It will take
you some twelve or fifteen minutes to drive to your bank in a
growler, so if you are here with one at a quarter to ten to-morrow
morning, that will exactly meet the case. But you must have a
hansom this minute if you mean to prepare the way with those notes
this afternoon!"

It was only too like the Raffles of those days to dismiss a subject
and myself in the same breath, with a sudden nod, and a brief grasp
of the hand he was already holding out for mine. I had a great mind
to take another of his cigarettes instead, for there were one or
two points on which he had carefully omitted to enlighten me. Thus,
I had still to learn the bare direction of his journey; and it was
all that I could do to drag it from him as I stood buttoning my coat
and gloves.

"Scotland," he vouchsafed at last.