"Certainly, but it"s a mighty slender one, and in any case I mean to--I _must_--risk it."
"I"m awfully sorry for you."
"Now, Jack, I want you to listen to me," said Acton, very gravely, and his voice showed his genuine anxiety. "The c.o.o.n"s match does not commence until eleven o"clock at night, because an awful lot of the Universal Sporters are actors and they cannot get away before that time at earliest. Now, there are two entrances for the members into the club, one in Pelican Street and the other in Ridge Street. Raffles must enter by one or the other, and there must be some one at each doorway to give him my note. I can take the one, and the question is--who will take the second doorway?"
"Not I, Acton," said Jack, in a blue funk. "Please, Acton, don"t ask me."
"Jack, believe me, you were the last person I wanted to ask. I would have asked Worcester or Chalmers if it had been any good, but they would not know Raffles from Adam. It is ten thousand pities, but you are the only fellow who knows Raffles here. No one else has ever set eyes on him."
"Acton, it means expulsion," said Jack, hoa.r.s.ely.
"Certainly for me if I"m caught, but, of course, I"ve no idea of being caught. Jack, I"m not going to ask you to come with me. I shall think no worse of you if you say you won"t come, and I cannot take advantage over you to force you against your own wish, because I lent you money.
Don"t think so meanly of me."
"Acton," said Jack, sweating drops of terror, "it _is_ expulsion if we"re caught."
"Jack," said Acton, "have you ever known me to fail yet in anything I undertake?"
"No."
"Well, I _will_ not fail here. If you like I"ll give you my word of honour we shall not be caught, and, if by a miracle of ill-luck we should be, I shall see you through. I"ll take every iota of blame on my own shoulders. You"ll find yourself captain of the school one day yet."
"If I were expelled, Acton," said Jack, with intense conviction, "the pater would kill me first, and die himself afterwards; and as for Phil----"
"Jack," said Acton, "I must see the business through myself. You can"t do it, I see. I must lose the 30."
Jack got up and walked up and down the room in agony.
For five minutes Acton watched his wretched prey torn to pieces by his conflicting fears--his shame of leaving Acton in the lurch, and his dread of discovery.
"Acton," said Jack at length, "I can"t leave you in the lurch. I"ll go with you to London."
Acton clasped Jack"s hand, and said, "Jack, you are a brick. I can only say I thank you." He had landed his fish, as he knew he would.
Half an hour afterwards Jack said, almost cheerfully, for Acton had been doing his best to smooth poor Bourne"s ruffled feathers--
"But how are we to go to town?"
"I"ve got a plan," said Acton; "but I must turn it over in my mind first. If you"ll look in, young "un, after tea, I"ll tell you how we do it. I"m going to see about it now. Once again, Jack, I thank you. You do stand by a fellow when he"s down on his luck."
Acton and Jack went out--the monitor to make arrangements for the escapade, and Jack to Grim"s quarters, where he was due for tea, which he demolished with comparative cheerfulness, for Jack"s confidence in Acton was illimitable. After he had taken the jump he was not--is not now--the kind of boy to look back.
At six young Bourne left his friend Grim among a waste of empty teacups, plates, and jam-pots, and went to Acton"s room.
"I"ve arranged all," said that worthy. "I"ve seen the proprietor of the hotel down at Bring, and he"s going to have a smart dog-cart and a smarter horse to do the dozen miles between here and Charing Cross ready for us at nine. He says we shall be rattled into town within the hour.
So if we aren"t in time to spot Raffles we are down on our luck with a vengeance. Your room is on the ground floor, isn"t it?"
"Yes," said Jack, "overlooking Corker"s flowerbeds."
"Well, pull up the window after supper as quietly as you can, and slip into the garden. Then scoot through the field, and you"ll find me waiting for you in the hotel stables. You can pa.s.s the word to your chums in Corker"s that you aren"t going to be on show after supper, and then they won"t be routing you out."
"My chums are mostly in Biffen"s," said Jack. "Grim and Rogers, etc."
"Good omen," said Acton. "Leave your window so that you can easily shove it up when you come back, and leave your school cap behind, and bring a tweed instead. Got such an article?"
"Yes."
"How"s your room lighted?"
"Oh, we have the electric. It is switched off at ten, so that the light will not give any trouble, Acton."
"Well, bolt your door, too. It seems as though the fates were fighting for us, eh, young "un?"
CHAPTER XXI
LONDON AND BACK
At nine that night the two, as agreed upon, met at Dring in the hotel stables. There had been no mishaps.
The groom was busy putting the horse into the trap, and, when Jack saw what a really smart turn-out Acton had engaged, his fears began to occupy less of his thoughts and the pleasures of a rattling hour"s spin a jolly lot more. Punctually to the minute Jack climbed up beside the driver, the place of honour, and Acton swung himself up behind; the yard doors were flung open, and the gig rattled smartly out. The hotel proprietor had not chanted the praises of his horse in vain. On the level road it laid itself out to go for all it was worth.
The pleasant music of the jingling harness and the scurrying of the wheels made as jolly a tune as Jack could wish to hear. There was a touch of frost in the air, which made the quick motion of the gig bite shrewdly on his cheeks, and made him b.u.t.ton up his overcoat to the chin and settle his cap well over his ears. Acton threw out jokes, too, from behind, which made Jack feel no end clever to listen to them, and the driver now and then restrained his horse"s "freshness" with the soothing mellow whistle which only drivers possess. The farmhouses, hayricks, and an occasional village, drifted past now to the right, now to the left, and occasionally they overhauled a leisurely belated cyclist, who at once began to take an unimportant position in the rear, his lamp growing less and less down the stretch of long white road.
Soon the houses began to come more frequently, then came the streets with their long avenues of yellow lights, and within the hour they were rolling smoothly over the wooden pavements.
"Piccadilly," said Acton. "Drop us at the top of Whitehall, will you?
Then you can take the horse to the mews. Be ready for us outside Frascati"s by twelve. Understand?"
"Yes, sir, at Frascati"s by twelve! I know the place." A minute or two later the two swung off in Trafalgar Square, and the driver rattled away into the crowd.
Jack was delighted. "Spiffing run, Acton, eh?"
"Glad you liked it, young "un. Now let us localize the Universal Sporting Club. I know it"s about Covent Garden somewhere." Together they went up the crowded Strand, Jack enjoying every minute of the bustling walk to the Garden and imagining that he was a very much daring young desperado to be so far from his little white bunk at St. Amory"s. He would have been usually fast asleep by this time.
The Universal Sporting Club was not a difficult place to find, and though all its windows were lighted up, upon its fast shut doors were two little notices: "This door will be open at 11 p.m. None but members and friends admitted."
"Well," said Acton, "we"ve got about twenty minutes before there"s any particular need to begin our watch for Raffles, but some of the members are hanging round now. The early birds get the best perch for the show.
On the whole, perhaps you"d better prowl about this door now, whilst I go round the corner and see if I can run our fox to his earth."
"All serene," said Jack. "I"ll mark time out here till I see you."
Acton walked round the corner, and Jack perambulated about, peering into the faces of the idlers to see if he could spot the well-known and much-detested face of Raffles. He had (of course) no luck.
Five minutes afterwards Acton came back smiling. "Almost first fellow I ran against was Raffles, and I"ve given him his instructions. He"ll hedge for me with the bookie within five minutes."