between, were to be my portion too. You stiffen your lip at that, eh,
Bunny? I told you that you never would or could have stood it; but it was
the only game to play for the Emerald Stakes. It kept one above suspicion
all the time. And then I didn't mind that part as much as you would, or
as my hunting pal did; he was driven to fainting at the doctor's place
one day, in the forlorn hope of a toothful of brandy to bring him round.
But all he got was a glass of cheap Marsala."

"But did you win those stakes after all?"

"Of course I did, Bunny," said Raffles below his breath, and with a look
that I remembered later. "But the waiters are listening as it is, and
I'll tell you the rest some other time. I suppose you know what brought
me back so soon?"

"Hadn't you finished your cure?"

"Not by three good days. I had the satisfaction of a row royal with the
Lord High Humbug to account for my hurried departure. But, as a matter of
fact, if Teddy Garland hadn't got his Blue at the eleventh hour I should
be at Carlsbad still."

E.M. Garland (Eton and Trinity) was the Cambridge wicketkeeper, and one
of the many young cricketers who owed a good deal to Raffles. They had
made friends in some country-house week, and foregathered afterward in
town, where the young fellow's father had a house at which Raffles
became a constant guest. I am afraid I was a little prejudiced both
against the father, a retired brewer whom I had never met, and the son
whom I did meet once or twice at the Albany. Yet I could quite understand
the mutual attraction between Raffles and this much younger man; indeed