That was soon after Christmas, when one's always hard up, and for the first time I was a day or two late—not more, mind you; yet what do you suppose happened? My cheque was returned, and the whole blessed balance demanded on the nail!'
Raffles was following intently, with that complete concentration which was a signal force in his equipment. His face no longer changed at anything he heard; it was as strenuously attentive as that of any judge upon the bench. Never had I clearer vision of the man he might have been but for the kink in his nature which had made him what he was.
'The promissory note was for four-fifty-six,' said he, 'and this sudden demand was for the lot less the hundred you had paid?'
'That's it.'
'What did you do?' I asked, not to seem behind Raffles in my grasp of the case.
'Told them to take my instalment or go to blazes for the rest!'
'And they?'
'Absolutely drop the whole thing until this very week, and then come down on me for—what do you suppose?'
'Getting on for a thousand,' said Raffles after a moment's thought.
'Nonsense!' I cried. Garland looked astonished too.
'Raffles knows all about it,' said he. 'Seven hundred was the actual figure. I needn't tell you I have given the bounders a wide berth since the day I raised the wind; but I went and had it out with them over this. And half the seven hundred is for default interest, I'll trouble you, from the beginning of January down to date!'
'Had you agreed to that?'
'Not to my recollection, but there it was as plain as a pikestaff on my promissory note. A halfpenny in the shilling per week over and above everything else when the original interest wasn't forthcoming.'
'Printed or written on your note of hand?'
'Printed—printed small, I needn't tell you—but quite large enough for me to read when I signed the cursed bond. In fact I believe I did read it; but a halfpenny a week! Who could ever believe it would mount up like that? But it does; it's right enough, and the long and short of it is that unless I pay up by twelve o'clock to-morrow the governor's to be called in to say whether he'll pay up for me or see me made a bankrupt under his nose. Twelve o'clock, when the match begins! Of course they know that, and are trading on it. Only this evening I had the most insolent ultimatum, saying it was my 'dead and last chance.''
'So then you came round here?'
'I was coming in any case. I wish I'd shot myself first!'
'My dear fellow, it was doing me proud; don't let us lose our sense of proportion, Teddy.'
But young Garland had his face upon his hand, and once more he was the miserable man who had begun brokenly to unfold the history of his shame. The unconscious animation produced by the mere unloading of his heart, the natural boyish slang with which his tale had been freely garnished, had faded from his face, had died upon his lips. Once more he was a soul in torments of despair and degradation; and yet once more did the absence of the abject in man and manner redeem him from the depths of either. In these moments of reaction he was pitiful, but not contemptible, much less unlovable. Indeed, I could see the qualities that had won the heart of Raffles as I had never seen them before. There is a native nobility not to be destroyed by a single descent into the ignoble, an essential honesty too bright and brilliant to be dimmed by incidental dishonour; and both remained to the younger man, in the eyes of the other two, who were even then determining to preserve in him all that they themselves had lost. The thought came naturally enough to me. And yet I may well have derived it from a face that for once was easy to read, a clear-cut face that had never looked so sharp in profile, or, to my knowledge, half so gentle in expression.
'And what about these Jews?' asked Raffles at length.
'There's really only one.'
'Are we to guess his name?'
'No, I don't mind telling you. It's Dan Levy.'
'Of course it is!' cried Raffles with a nod for me. 'Our Mr. Shylock in all his glory!'
Teddy snatched his face from his hands.
'You don't know him, do you?'
'I might almost say I know him at home,' said Raffles. 'But as a matter of fact I met him abroad.'
Teddy was on his feet.
'But do you know him well enough—'
'Certainly. I'll see him in the morning. But I ought to have the receipts for the various instalments you have paid, and perhaps that letter saying it was your last chance.'
'Here they all are,' said Garland, producing a bulky envelope. 'But of course I'll come with you—'
'Of course you'll do nothing of the kind, Teddy! I won't have your eye put out for the match by that old ruffian, and I'm not going to let you sit up all night either. Where are you staying, my man?'
'Nowhere yet. I left my kit at the club. I was going out home if I'd caught you early enough.'
'Stout fellow! You stay here.'
'My dear old man, I couldn't think of it,' said Teddy gratefully.
'My dear young man, I don't care whether you think of it or not. Here you stay, and moreover you turn in at once. I can fix you up with all you want, and Barraclough shall bring your kit round before you're awake.'
'But you haven't got a bed, Raffles?'
'You shall have mine. I hardly ever go to bed—do I, Bunny?'
'I've seldom seen you there,' said I.
'But you were travelling all last night?'
'And straight through till this evening, and I sleep all the time in a train,' said Raffles. 'I hardly opened an eye all day; if I turned in to-night I shouldn't get a wink.'
'Well, I shan't either,' said the other hopelessly. 'I've forgotten how to sleep!'
'Wait till I learn you!' said Raffles, and went into the inner room and lit it up.
'I'm terribly sorry about it all,' whispered young Garland, turning to me as though we were old friends now.
'And I'm sorry for you,' said I from my heart. 'I know what it is.'
Garland was still staring when Raffles returned with a tiny bottle from which he was shaking little round black things into his left palm.
'Clean sheets yawning for you, Teddy,' said he. 'And now take two of these, and one more spot of whisky, and you'll be asleep in ten minutes.'
'What are they?'
'Somnol. The latest thing out, and quite the best.'
'But won't they give me a frightful head?'
'Not a bit of it; you'll be as right as rain ten minutes after you wake up. And you needn't leave this before eleven to-morrow morning, because you don't want a knock at the nets, do you?'
'I ought to have one,' said Teddy seriously. But Raffles laughed him to scorn.
'They're not playing you for runs, my man, and I shouldn't run any risks with those hands. Remember all the chances they're going to lap up to-morrow, and all the byes they've not got to let!'
And Raffles had administered his opiate before the patient knew much more about it; next minute he was shaking hands with me, and the minute after that Raffles went in to put out his light. He was gone some little time; and I remember leaning out of the window in order not to overhear the conversation in the next room. The night was nearly as fine as ever. The starry ceiling over the Albany Courtyard was only less beautifully blue than when Raffles and I had come in a couple of hours ago. The traffic in Piccadilly came as crisply to the ear as on a winter's night of hard frost. It was a night of wine, and sparkling wine, and the day at Lord's must surely be a day of nectar. I could not help wondering whether any man had ever played in the University match with such a load upon his soul as E.M. Garland was taking to his forced slumbers; and then whether any heavy-laden soul had ever hit upon two such brother confessors as Raffles and myself!
