Raffles takes Bulstrode’s letter from Stone Court

Raffles takes Nicholas Bulstrode’s letter from Stone Court by chance, turning a discarded paper into an unwittingly portable clue. He wedges it beneath the leather covering of his flask, unaware—or at least unconcerned—that the paper he has carried away bears Bulstrode’s signature.

The Letter in the Fender

As Raffles prepares to leave, he notices that his flask has become dangerously loose from its leather covering. A folded paper has fallen within the fender; he picks it up and pushes it under the leather to steady the glass. The action is practical rather than investigative: the letter serves as packing material, not as a document whose contents or importance he examines.

Departure from Stone Court

Rigg fills Raffles’s flask and gives him a sovereign without looking at him or speaking. After locking the bureau, Rigg turns to the window while Raffles takes a small drink, puts the flask into his side-pocket, and leaves. Rigg watches him go through the grounds and into the lane, but the scene gives no indication that either man recognizes the paper’s significance.

A Clue Carried Forward

Raffles reaches the highroad, catches a stage-coach to Brassing, and continues by the newly made railway. He performs his usual role of an educated, socially superior tormentor, making a joke to fellow passengers about the railway’s having already killed Huskisson. His outwardly successful journey is shadowed by the concealed letter: the narration identifies the paper wedging the flask as a letter signed by Nicholas Bulstrode, while noting that Raffles is unlikely to disturb it from its useful position. The document therefore leaves Stone Court with him without being deliberately stolen or knowingly deployed, setting up its potential significance through an accidental act of concealment.