"In itself, I have heard, it was not a sympathetic case?" was the
remark with which he broke the general silence.
"Not a bit."
"That must have been a comfort to you," said Raffles dryly.
"It would have been to me," vowed our author, while the barrister
merely smiled. "I should have been very sorry to have had a hand
in hanging Peckham and Solomons the other day."
"Why Peckham and Solomons?" inquired my lord.
"They never meant to kill that old lady."
"But they strangled her in her bed with her own pillow-case!"
"I don't care," said the uncouth scribe. "They didn't break in for
that. They never thought of scragging her. The foolish old person
would make a noise, and one of them tied too tight. I call it jolly
bad luck on them."
"On quiet, harmless, well-behaved thieves," added Lord Thornaby,
"in the unobtrusive exercise of their humble avocation."
And, as he turned to Raffles with his puffy smile, I knew that we
had reached that part of the programme which had undergone rehearsal:
it had been perfectly timed to arrive with the champagne, and I was
not afraid to signify my appreciation of that small mercy.
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