The Raffles Relics

"The Raffles Relics"
"The Raffles Relics"
by E. W. Hornung
	1905 Pall Mall illustration by Cyrus Cuneo
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	A. J. Raffles
Genre(s)	Crime fiction
Publisher	Pall Mall Magazine
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	September 1905
Chronology
← Preceded by; The Spoils of Sacrilege	Followed by →; The Last Word

Last updated July 23, 2023

"The Raffles Relics" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was published in September 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London.^[1] The story was also included as the eighth story in the collection A Thief in the Night , published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.^[2]

Plot

It is December 1899, at which time the reputations of Raffles and Bunny are ruined and they are secretly living in Ham Common. They read in a magazine about the so-called Raffles Relics on display at the Black Museum at New Scotland Yard. Excited, Raffles passive-aggressively persuades Bunny, now a journalist, to get a journalist's pass for two to visit the museum.

They enter the museum without incident. An enthusiastic young clerk arrives to give them a tour, though he is less knowledgeable than Raffles and Bunny on the museum's inventory, which includes the infamous cigarette box of two criminals who were never caught. Eventually, the clerk shows them the Raffles Relics, taken from Raffles's Albany rooms after his apparent death. He points out several objects, including Raffles's old revolver, which Raffles had once fired at a man on a roof and had once hidden a pearl inside of, the rope-ladder and telescope walking-stick he used at the house of Lord Thornaby, the velvet bag whose use is unknown, the life-preserver that Bunny had once hit Raffles with, and Raffles's chest. The clerk speaks poorly of Raffles's partner, to Bunny's chagrin.

A well-known detective and two other guests also browse the museum. Raffles, wary of the detective, tells Bunny to hide his face in some photographs; Bunny does so, until he realizes that Raffles has vanished. Irritated, he nonetheless tells the clerk that Raffles had to catch a train. Bunny lingers until the detective's party leaves, then tips the clerk and leaves. He searches for Raffles for four hours, in vain. At home, he anxiously waits hours for Raffles.

“A lot may happen in three or four weeks; and what should you say if this turned out to be the last as well as the least of all my crimes? I must own that it seems to me their natural and fitting end, though I might have stopped more characteristically than with a mere crime of sentiment."

— Raffles to Bunny, after stealing the Relics^[3]

Bunny wakes abruptly in the morning to see Raffles, and the entire collection of Raffles Relics, except for the chest. Raffles had hid himself in the chest, using its secret side door. He had replaced his relics with items from other collections, so that the robbery will not be noticed for weeks. Raffles wonders about putting his relics to use again, but also speaks prophetically about the competing excitement that the ongoing war might soon offer them.

Adaptations

BBC Radio adapted the story into the first half of the sixteenth episode of its Raffles radio drama, "The Raffles Relics", which first aired on 20 August 1992.^[4] The drama features Jeremy Clyde as Raffles and Michael Cochrane as Bunny. The episode faithfully follows the plot of the original story, with a minor change:

In the drama, the stealing of the Raffles Relics is their first Ham Common crime, rather than their last. In the episode, Raffles and Bunny use the stolen items to carry out the burglary in "The Wrong House".

Related Research Articles

A. J. Raffles is a British fictional character – a cricketer and gentleman thief – created by E. W. Hornung. Between 1898 and 1909, Hornung wrote a series of 26 short stories, two plays, and a novel about Raffles and his fictional chronicler, Harry "Bunny" Manders.

"A Jubilee Present" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in Scribner's Magazine in February 1901. The story was also included as the second story in the collection The Black Mask, published by Grant Richards in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1901.

<i>A Thief in the Night</i> (short story collection)

A Thief in the Night is a 1905 collection of short stories by E. W. Hornung. It was published in the UK by Chatto & Windus, London, and in the US by Scribner's, New York.

"A Trap to Catch a Cracksman" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was published in July 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. The story was also included as the seventh story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

"The Criminologists' Club" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was published in March 1905 by Collier's Weekly in New York, and in April 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. It was also included as the fourth story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

Arthur J. Raffles is a fictional character created in 1898 by E. W. Hornung, brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is, in many ways, an inversion of Holmes – he is a "gentleman thief", living at the Albany, a prestigious address in London, playing cricket as a gentleman for the Gentlemen of England and supporting himself by carrying out ingenious burglaries. He is called the "Amateur Cracksman" and often, at first, differentiates between him and the "professors" – professional criminals from the lower classes.

"The Ides of March" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and the first appearance of the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in June 1898 by Cassell's Magazine. The story was also included in the collection The Amateur Cracksman, published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899.

"Gentlemen and Players" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in August 1898 by Cassell's Magazine. The story was also included in the collection The Amateur Cracksman, published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899.

"Wilful Murder" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published as the fifth part of the collection The Amateur Cracksman, published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899. This and "Le Premier Pas" were the two stories in the collection not published previously in magazine format.

"Nine Points of the Law" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in September 1898 by Cassell's Magazine. The story was also included as the six story in the collection The Amateur Cracksman, published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899.

"The Fate of Faustina" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in Scribner's Magazine in March 1901. The story was also included as the third story in the collection The Black Mask, published by Grant Richards in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1901.

"To Catch a Thief" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in Scribner's Magazine in May 1901. The story was also included as the fifth story in the collection The Black Mask, published by Grant Richards in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1901.

"An Old Flame" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in Scribner's Magazine in June 1901. The story was also included as the sixth story in the collection The Black Mask, published by Grant Richards in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1901.

"The Wrong House" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in Scribner's Magazine in September 1901. The story was also included as the seventh story in the collection The Black Mask, published by Grant Richards in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1901.

"Out of Paradise" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in December 1904 by Collier's Weekly in New York, and in January 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. The story was also included as the first story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

"The Chest of Silver" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was published in January 1905 by Collier's Weekly in New York, and in February 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. It was also included as the second story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

"The Rest Cure" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was published in February 1905 by Collier's Weekly in New York and in March 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. The story was also included as the third story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

"The Field of Philippi" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was published in April 1905 by Collier's Weekly in New York and in May 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. The story was also included as the fifth story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

"A Bad Night" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was published in June 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. The story was also included as the sixth story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

Raffles is a British radio programme including eighteen episodes that first aired on BBC Radio 4 from 1985 to 1992, and an additional radio play that aired in 1993 on the BBC World Service. The series was directed by Gordon House and was based on the A. J. Raffles stories by author E. W. Hornung.

References

Notes

↑ Rowland, page 282
↑ Rowland, page 280.
↑ Hornung, page 502.
↑ Frank M. Passage (20 May 2004). "Raffles". Old-Time Radio. Retrieved 8 October 2017.

Sources

Hornung, E. W. (2009). A Thief in the Night. Auckland, New Zealand: The Floating Press. ISBN 9781775415114.
Rowland, Peter (1999). Raffles and His Creator. London: Nekta Publications. ISBN 0-9533583-2-1.

External links

A Thief in the Night at Project Gutenberg

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Rowland, page 282

[2] Rowland, page 280.

[3] Hornung, page 502.

[4] Frank M. Passage (20 May 2004). "Raffles". Old-Time Radio. Retrieved 8 October 2017.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e A Thief in the Night by E. W. Hornung
"Out of Paradise" "The Chest of Silver" "The Rest Cure" "The Criminologists' Club" "The Field of Philippi" "A Bad Night" "A Trap to Catch a Cracksman" "The Spoils of Sacrilege" "The Raffles Relics" "The Last Word"
The Amateur Cracksman The Black Mask A Thief in the Night Mr. Justice Raffles