Chapter 4 - Page 2

piano-board projecting from the wall. "I can recommend the Tokay.
I have it from the man who supplies the Emperor of Austria, though I
think I may say that I get the cream of it."

He struck twice upon one of the piano-notes, and sat expectant. With a
sharp click at the end of ten seconds a sliding shutter flew open, and a
small tray protruded bearing two long tapering Venetian glasses filled
with wine.

"It works very nicely" said Raffles Haw. "It is quite a new thing--
never before done, as far as I know. You see the names of the various
wines and so on printed on the notes. By pressing the note down I
complete an electric circuit which causes the tap in the cellars beneath
to remain open long enough to fill the glass which always stands beneath
it. The glasses, you understand, stand upon a revolving drum, so that
there must always be one there. The glasses are then brought up through
a pneumatic tube, which is set working by the increased weight of the
glass when the wine is added to it. It is a pretty little idea. But I
am afraid that I bore you rather with all these petty contrivances.
It is a whim of mine to push mechanism as far as it will go."

"On the contrary, I am filled with interest and wonder," said Robert
warmly. "It is as if I had been suddenly whipped up out of prosaic old
England and transferred in an instant to some enchanted palace, some
Eastern home of the Genii. I could not have believed that there existed
upon this earth such adaptation of means to an end, such complete
mastery of every detail which may aid in stripping life of any of its
petty worries."

"I have something yet to show you," remarked Raffles Haw; "but we will
rest here for a few minutes, for I wished to have a word with you.
How is the cigar?"

"Most excellent."

"It was rolled in Louisiana in the old slavery days. There is nothing
made like them now. The man who had them did not know their value.
He let them go at merely a few shillings apiece. Now I want you to do
me a favour, Mr. McIntyre."

"I shall be so glad."

"You can see more or less how I am situated. I am a complete stranger
here. With the well-to-do classes I have little in common. I am no
society man. I don't want to call or be called on. I am a student in a
small way, and a man of quiet tastes. I have no social ambitions at
all. Do you understand?"

"Entirely."

"On the other hand, my experience of the world has been that it is the
rarest thing to be able to form a friendship with a poorer man--I mean
with a man who is at all eager to increase his income. They think much
of your