Read E. W. Hornung_A J Raffles 03 for Free Online

Suburban Bank in Sloane Street, W.
From the details so far to hand, the robbery appears to have been
deliberately planned and adroitly executed in the early hours of
this morning.
    A night watchman named Fawcett states that between one and two
o'clock he heard a slight noise in the neighborhood of the lower
strong-room, used as a repository for the plate and other
possessions of various customers of the bank. Going down to
investigate, he was instantly attacked by a powerful ruffian,
who succeeded in felling him to the ground before an alarm could
be raised.
    Fawcett is unable to furnish any description of his assailant
or assailants, but is of opinion that more than one were engaged
in the commission of the crime. When the unfortunate man
recovered consciousness, no trace of the thieves remained, with
the exception of a single candle which had been left burning on
the flags of the corridor. The strong-room, however, had been
opened, and it is feared the raid on the chests of plate and
other valuables may prove to have been only too successful, in
view of the Easter exodus, which the thieves had evidently taken
into account. The ordinary banking chambers were not even
visited; entry and exit are believed to have been effected
through the coal cellar, which is also situated in the basement.
Up to the present the police have effected no arrest.
    I sat practically paralyzed by this appalling news; and I swear that,
even in that incredible temperature, it was a cold perspiration in
which I sweltered from head to heel. Crawshay, of course! Crawshay
once more upon the track of Raffles and his ill-gotten gains! And
once more I blamed Raffles himself: his warning had come too late:
he should have wired to me at once not to take the box to the bank
at all. He was a madman ever to have invested in so obvious and
obtrusive a receptacle for treasure. It would serve Raffles right
if that and no other was the box which had been broken into by the
thieves.
    Yet, when I considered the character of his treasure, I fairly
shuddered in my sweat. It was a hoard of criminal relics. Suppose
his chest had indeed been rifled, and emptied of every silver thing
but one; that one remaining piece of silver, seen of men, was quite
enough to cast Raffles into the outer darkness of penal servitude!
And Crawshay was capable of it - of perceiving the insidious revenge
- of taking it without compunction or remorse.
    There was only one course for me. I must follow my instructions to
the letter and recover the chest at all hazards, or be taken myself
in the attempt. If only Raffles had left me some address, to which
I could have wired some word of warning! But it was no use thinking
of that; for the rest there was time enough up to four o'clock, and
as yet it was not three. I determined to go through with my bath
and make the most of it. Might it not be my last for years?
    But I was past enjoying even a Turkish bath. I had not the patience
for a proper shampoo, or sufficient spirit for the plunge. I
weighed myself automatically, for that was a matter near my heart;
but I forgot to give my man his sixpence until the reproachful
intonation of his adieu recalled me to myself. And my couch in the
cooling gallery - my favorite couch, in my favorite corner, which I
had secured with gusto on coming in - it was a bed of thorns, with
hideous visions of a plank-bed to follow!
    I ought to be able to add that I heard the burglary discussed on
adjacent couches before I left I certainly listened for it, and was
rather disappointed more than once when I had held my breath in vain.
But this is the unvarnished record of an odious hour, and it passed
without further aggravation from without; only, as I drove to Sloane
Street, the news was on all the posters, and on one I read of "a
clew" which spelt for me a doom I was grimly resolved to share.
    Already there was something in the nature of a "run" up on the
Sloane Street branch of the City and Suburban. A