Oh, his cleverness! His fiendish cleverness! Had he fallen back
on threats, coercion, sneers, all might have been different even
yet. But he set me free to leave him in the lurch. He would not
blame me. He did not even bind me to secrecy; he trusted me. He
knew my weakness and my strength, and was playing on both with
his master's touch.

"Not so fast," said I. "Did I put this into your head, or were
you going to do it in any case?"

"Not in any case," said Raffles. "It's true I've had the key for
days, but when I won to-night I thought of chucking it; for, as a
matter of fact, it's not a one-man job."

"That settles it. I'm your man."

"You mean it?"

"Yes--for to-night."

"Good old Bunny," he murmured, holding the lantern for one moment
to my face; the next he was explaining his plans, and I was
nodding, as though we had been fellow-cracksmen all our days.

"I know the shop," he whispered, "because I've got a few things
there. I know this upper part too; it's been to let for a month,
and I got an order to view, and took a cast of the key before
using it. The one thing I don't know is how to make a connection
between the two; at present there's none. We may make it up here,
though I rather fancy the basement myself. If you wait a minute