Manders?' I made some suitable asseveration, and she added: 'Mr.
Garland's a member, you know, and dying to go into the Pavilion.'
'Only just to hear what they think of Teddy,' the poor old boy confessed; and when we had arranged where to meet in the interval, away he hurried with his keen, worn face.
Miss Belsize turned to me the moment he was gone.
'I want to speak to you, Mr. Manders,' she said quickly but without embarrassment. 'Where can we talk?'
'And watch as well?' I suggested, thinking of the young man at his best behind the sticks.
'I want to speak to you first,' she said, 'where we shan't be overheard.
It's about Mr. Raffles!' added Miss Belsize as she met my stare.
About Raffles again! About Raffles, after all that she had learnt the day before! I did not enjoy the prospect as I led the way past the ivy-mantled tennis-court of those days to the practice-ground, turned for the nonce into a tented lawn.
'And what about Raffles?' I asked as we struck out for ourselves across the grass.
'I'm afraid he's in some danger,' replied Miss Belsize. And she stopped in her walk and confronted me as frankly as though we had the animated scene to ourselves.
'Danger!' I repeated, guiltily enough, no doubt. 'What makes you think that, Miss Belsize?'
My companion hesitated for the first time.
'You won't tell him I told you, Mr. Manders?'
'Not if you don't want me to,' said I, taken aback more by her manner than by the request itself.
'You promise me that?'
'Certainly.'
'Then tell me, did you notice two men who passed close to us just after we had all met?'
'There are so many men to notice,' said I to gain time.
'But these were not the sort one expects to see here to-day.'
'Did they wear bowlers and short coats?'
'You did notice them!'
'Only because I saw you watching them,' said I, recalling the whole scene.
'They wanted watching,' rejoined Miss Belsize dryly. 'They followed Mr.
Raffles out of the ground!'
'So they did!' I reflected aloud in my alarm.
'They were following you both when you met us.'
'The dickens they were! Was that the first you saw of them?'
'No; the first time was over there at the nets before play began. I noticed those two men behind Teddy's net. They were not watching him; that called my attention to them. It's my belief they were lying in wait for Mr. Raffles; at any rate, when he came they moved away. But they followed us afterwards across the ground.'
'You are sure of that?'
'I looked round to see,' said Miss Belsize, avoiding my eyes for the first time.
'Did you think the men—detectives?'
And I forced a laugh.
'I was afraid they might be, Mr. Manders, though I have never seen one off the stage.'
'Still,' I pursued, with painfully sustained amusement, 'you were ready to find A.J. Raffles being shadowed here at Lord's of all places in the world?'
'I was ready for anything, anywhere,' said Miss Belsize, 'after all I heard yesterday afternoon.'
'You mean about poor Mr. Garland and his affairs?'
It was an ingenuously disingenuous suggestion; it brought my companion's eyes back to mine, with something of the scorn that I deserved.
'No, Mr. Manders, I meant after what we all heard between Mr. Levy and Mr. Raffles; and you knew very well what I meant,' added Miss Belsize severely.
'But surely you didn't take all that seriously?' said I, without denying the just impeachment.
'How could I help it? The insinuation was serious enough, in all conscience!' exclaimed Camilla Belsize.
'That is,' said I, since she was not to be wilfully misunderstood, 'that poor old Raffles had something to do with this jewel robbery at Carlsbad?'
'If it was a robbery.'
She winced at the word.
'Do you mean it might have been a trick?' said I, recalling the victim's own make-believe at the Albany. And not only did Camilla appear to embrace that theory with open arms; she had the nerve to pretend that it really was what she had meant.
'Obviously!' says she, with an impromptu superiority worthy of Raffles himself. 'I wonder you never thought of that, Mr. Manders, when you know what a trick you both played Mr. Levy only yesterday. Mr. Raffles himself told us all about that; and I'm very grateful to you both; you must know I am—for Teddy's sake,' added Miss Belsize, with one quick remorseful glance towards the great arena. 'Still it only shows what Mr. Raffles is—and—and it's what I meant when we were talking about him yesterday.'
'I don't remember,' said I, remembering fast enough.
'In the rockery,' she reminded me. 'When you asked what people said about him, and I said that about living on his wits.'
'And being a paid amateur!'
'But the other was the worst.'
'I'm not so sure,' said I. 'But his wits wouldn't carry him very far if he only took necklaces and put them back again.'
'But it was all a joke,' she reminded us both with a bit of a start. 'It must have been a joke, if Mr. Raffles did it at all. And it would be dreadful if anything happened to him because of a wretched practical joke!'
There was no mistake about her feeling now; she really felt that it would be 'dreadful if anything happened' to the man whom yesterday she had seemed both to dislike and to distrust. Her voice vibrated with anxiety. A bright film covered the fine eyes, and they were finer than ever as they continued to face me unashamed; but I was fool enough to speak my mind, and at that they flashed themselves dry.
'I thought you didn't like him?' had been my remark, and 'Who says I do?' was hers. 'But he has done a lot for Teddy,' she went on, 'and never more than yesterday,' with her hand for an instant on my arm, 'when you helped him! I am dreadfully sorry for Mr. Garland, sorrier than I am for poor Teddy. But Mr. Raffles is more than sorry. I know he means to do what he can. He seems to think there must be something wrong; he spoke of bringing that brute to reason—if not to justice. It would be too dreadful if such a creature could turn the tables on Mr. Raffles by trumping up any charge against him!'
There was an absolute echo of my own tone in 'trumping up any charge,' and I thought the echo sounded even more insincere. But at least it showed me where we were. Miss Belsize was not deceived; she only wanted me to think she was. Miss Belsize had divined what I knew, but neither of us would admit to the other that the charge against Raffles would be true enough.
'But why should these men follow him?' said I, really wondering why they should. 'If there were anything definite against old Raffles, don't you think he would be arrested?'
'Oh! I don't know,' was the slightly irritable answer. 'I only think he should be warned that he is being followed.'
'Whatever he has done?' I ventured.
'Yes!' said she. 'Whatever he has done—after what he did for Teddy yesterday!'
