at the Savoy Hotel, in Carlsbad I mean. I go to Pupp's. We meet. They
stare. I come out of my British shell as the humble hero of the affair at
the other Savoy. I crab my hotel. They swear by theirs. I go to see their
rooms. I wait till I can get the very same thing immediately overhead on
the second floor--where I can even hear the old swine cursing her from
under his mud-poultice! Both suites have balconies that might have been
made for me. Need I go on?"

"I wonder you weren't suspected."

"There's no end to your capacity for wonder, Bunny. I took some sweet old
rags with me on purpose, carefully packed inside a decent suit, and I had
the luck to pick up a foul old German cap that some peasant had cast off
in the woods. I only meant to leave it on them like a card; as it
was--well, I was waiting for the best barber in the place to open his
shop next morning."

"What had happened?"

"A whole actful of unrehearsed effects; that's why I think twice before
taking on old Shylock again. I admire him, Bunny, as a steely foeman. I
look forward to another game with him on his own ground. But I must find
out the pace of the wicket before I put myself on."

"I suppose you had tea with them, and all that sort of thing?"

"Gieshuebler!" said Raffles with a shudder. "But I made it last as long as
tea, and thought I had located the little green lamps before I took my
leave. There was a japanned despatch box in one corner. 'That's the
Emerald Isle,' I thought, 'I'll soon have it out of the sea. The old man