It
had been an unconscious withdrawal on my part, an instinctive
tribute to my leader; but, I was sufficiently ashamed of it as we
stood and faced the problem in each other's eyes.
"If we simply cleared out," continued Raffles, "you would be
incriminated in the first place as my accomplice, and once they had
you they would have a compass with the needle pointing straight
to me. They mustn't have either of us, Bunny, or they will get us
both. And for my part they may as well!"
I echoed a sentiment that was generosity itself in Raffles, but in
my case a mere truism.
"It's easy enough for me," he went on. "I am a common house-breaker,
and I escape. They don't know me from Noah. But they do know you;
and how do you come to let me escape? What has happened to you,
Bunny? That's the crux. What could have happened after they all.
dropped off?" And for a minute Raffles frowned and smiled like a
sensation novelist working out a plot; then the light broke, and
transfigured him through his burnt cork. "I've got it, Bunny!" he
exclaimed. "You took some of the stuff yourself, though of course
not nearly so much as they did.
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