feather completed a headdress as unseasonable as my skating skirt
and feather boa; of course, the good lady had all. her summer frocks
away with her in Switzerland. This was all. the more annoying from
the fact that we were having a very warm September; so I was not
sorry to hear Raffles return as I was busy adding a layer of powder
to my heated countenance. I listened a moment on the landing, but
as he went into the study I determined to complete my toilet in
every detail. My idea was first to give him the fright he deserved,
and secondly to show him that I was quite as fit to move abroad as
he. It was, however, I confess, a pair of the colonel's gloves that
I was buttoning as I slipped down to the study even more quietly
than usual. The electric light was on, as it generally was by day,
and under it stood as formidable a figure as ever I encountered in
my life of crime.

Imagine a thin but extremely wiry man, past middle age, brown and
bloodless as any crabapple, but as coolly truculent and as casually
alert as Raffles at his worst. It was, it could only be, the
fire-eating and prison-inspecting colonel himself! He was ready for
me, a revolver in his hand, taken, as I could see, from one of those
locked drawers in the pedestal desk with which Raffles had refused
to tamper; the drawer was open, and a bunch of keys depended from
the lock. A grim smile crumpled up the parchment face, so that one
eye was puckered out of sight; the other was propped open by an
eyeglass, which, however, dangled on its string when I appeared.

"A woman, begad!" the warrior exclaimed. "And where's the man, you
scarlet hussy?"

Not a word could I utter. But, in my horror and my amazement, I