"
Mr. Levy's uneasiness was a sight for timid eyes. He had presented his
case to us naked and unashamed; already he was in our hands more surely
than Raffles was in his. But Raffles was the last person to betray his
sense of an advantage a second too soon: he merely gave me another
wink. The usurer was frowning at the carpet. Suddenly he sprang up and
burst out in a bitter tirade upon the popular and even the judicial
prejudice against his own beneficent calling. No money-lender would
ever get justice in a British court of law; easier for the camel to
thread the needle's eye. That flagrant forgery would be accepted at
sight by our vaunted British jury. The only chance was to abstract it
before the case came on.
"But if it can be proved to be a forgery," urged Raffles, "nothing could
possibly turn the tables on the other side with such complete and
instantaneous effect."
"I've told you what I reckon my only chance," said Levy fiercely. "Let me
remind you that it's yours as well!"
"If you talk like that," said Raffles, "I shan't consider it."
"You won't in any case, I should hope," said I.
"Oh, yes, I might; but not if he talks like that."
Levy stopped talking quite like that.
"Will you do it, Mr. Raffles, or will you not?"
"Abstract the--forgery?"
"Yes."
"Where from?"
"Wherever it may be; their solicitors' safe, I suppose.
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