The Amateur Cracksman
"The man with the beard who came aboard last."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure! I was only sorry to see you didn't recognise him too."
I took my handkerchief to my face; now that I thought of it, there had been something familiar in the old man's gait, as well as something rather youthful for his apparent years; his very beard seemed unconvincing, now that I recalled it in the light of this horrible revelation. I looked up and down the deck, but the old man was nowhere to be seen.
"That's the worst of it," said Raffles. "I saw him go into the captain's cabin twenty minutes ago."
"But what can have brought him?" I cried miserably. "Can it be a coincidence—is it somebody else he's after?"
Raffles shook his head.
"Hardly this time."
"Then you think he's after you?"
"I've been afraid of it for some weeks."
"Yet there you stand!"
"What am I to do? I don't want to
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