Darkness and
bed I could not face in my anxiety. In a way I felt as though
duty and loyalty called me out into the winter s night; and yet
whither should I turn to look for Raffles? I could think of but
one place, and to seek him there would be to destroy myself without
aiding him. It was my growing conviction that he had been
recognized when leaving Scotland Yard, and either taken then and
there, or else hunted into some new place of hiding. It would all.
be in the morning papers; and it was all. his own fault. He had
thrust his head into the lion's mouth, and the lion's jaws had
snapped. Had he managed to withdraw his head in time?
There was a bottle at my elbow, and that night I say deliberately
that it was not my enemy but my friend. It procured me at last
some surcease from my suspense. I fell fast asleep in my chair
before the fire. The lamp was still burning, and the fire red,
when I awoke; but I sat very stiff in the iron clutch of a wintry
morning. Suddenly I slued round in my chair. And there was Raffles
in a chair behind me, with the door open behind him, quietly taking
off his boots.
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