"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!"
"You want me to warn him?"
"Yes--but not from me!"
"And suppose he really did take Mrs. Levy's necklace?"
"That's just what we are supposing."
"But suppose it wasn't for a joke at all?"
I spoke as one playfully plumbing the abysmally absurd; what I did desire
to sound was the loyalty of this new, unexpected, and still captious
ally. And I thought myself strangely successful at the first cast; for
Miss Belsize looked me in the face as I was looking her, and I trusted
her before she spoke.
"Well, after yesterday," she said, "I should warn him all the same!"
"You would back your Raffles right or wrong?" I murmured, perceiving that
Camilla Belsize was, after all, like all the rest of us.
"Against a vulgar extortioner, most decidedly!" she returned, without
repudiating the possessive pronoun. "It doesn't follow that I think
anything of him--apart from what you did between you for Teddy
yesterday."
We had continued our stroll some time ago, and now it was I who stood
still. I looked at my watch. It still wanted some minutes to the
luncheon interval.
"If Raffles took a cab to his rooms," I said, "he must be nearly there
and I must telephone to him.
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