The Return Match

"The Return Match"
	1898 Collier's illustration by E. V. Nadherny
Author	E. W. Hornung
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	A. J. Raffles
Genre(s)	Crime fiction
Publisher	Cassell & Co
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	October 1898
Preceded by	"Nine Points of the Law"
Followed by	"The Gift of the Emperor"

Last updated November 13, 2020

"The Return Match" 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 October 1898 by Cassell's Magazine .^[1] The story was also included as the seventh 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.^[2]

Plot

Raffles brings Bunny to his Albany rooms. Raffles says the famous thief whom Raffles outsmarted during the affair of Lady Melrose's necklace, named Crawshay, was imprisoned at Dartmoor but escaped yesterday. Raffles suspects that Crawshay is coming after him, to seek revenge against Raffles. Suddenly, Crawshay enters the room.

"We must take on this job; we aren't in a position to refuse it; even if we were, I should take it on! Our friend is a great sportsman; he has got clear away from Dartmoor; it would be a thousand pities to let him go back."

— Raffles, to Bunny^[3]

Crawshay smoothly tells Raffles that Raffles must find a way to get Crawshay out of the country. Raffles acknowledges to Bunny that Crawshay is blackmailing them, but is genuinely excited to help the daring prison escapee get away. Raffles and Bunny leave, as Crawshay falls asleep.

In the courtyard, they pass Inspector Mackenzie of Scotland Yard. Despite Bunny's reservations, Raffles greets the inspector. They briefly discuss Crawshay. The inspector continues into the Albany, and Raffles and Bunny follow him.

Upon questioning by Raffles, a porter explains that police have come because a man of Crawshay's description was seen in the Albany earlier. Raffles leads Bunny into the set of rooms where several officers are investigating, Mackenzie among them. Mackenzie accepts Raffles's offer to help the police; Raffles is even glad to leave the key to his room with the police, amazing Bunny. Raffles departs, ostensibly to dinner, while Bunny remains with Mackenzie. Bunny observes Raffles's departure through the window.

While Bunny and Mackenzie are in the attic, a rope is found hanging over Raffles's window. This causes Mackenzie to begin searching Raffles's rooms. Inside, they find Raffles himself, lying on the floor on his back, and wounded by a poker in the forehead. The Raffles who departed was actually Crawshay in disguise. Bunny is tearful.

Later, Raffles reveals to Bunny that he intentionally struck himself. The day has been a success: they have won some credit with Mackenzie, and are even with Crawshay.

Adaptations

Television

The story was adapted into the pilot of the Raffles television series, with Anthony Valentine as A. J. Raffles and Christopher Strauli as Bunny Manders. The episode, titled "The Amateur Cracksman", first aired on 10 September 1975.

Radio

BBC Radio adapted part of the story into the second half of the fifth episode of its Raffles radio series, "Wilful Murder or the Return Match", which first aired on 17 November 1985.^[4] The drama features Jeremy Clyde as Raffles and Michael Cochrane as Bunny. The first part of the episode is based on the events of "Wilful Murder", which then leads into the plot of "The Return Match." The episode follows much of the original plot, with some differences:

Whereas Crawshay is wanted for escaping prison in the original story, he is wanted for murder in the drama.
In the drama, Bunny encounters Inspector Mackenzie outside the Albany alone, investigating the murder of Baird. As opposed to Mackenzie's relative indifference to Raffles in the original story, the drama shows Mackenzie specifically interested in protecting Raffles from the threat of Crawshay's revenge, albeit with less haste than Bunny would appreciate.
In the drama, Crawshay is already present in Raffles's flat when Bunny arrives at the Albany.
In the drama, Raffles charges Bunny with the job of distracting Mackenzie with conversation, to give Crawshay time to get away. Bunny has no such role in the original story.
In the original story, Mackenzie deduces from the evidence of the rope to check Raffles's flat. In the drama, he instead remembers a suspicious smell of tobacco, not the smoke of Raffles's trademark Sullivan cigarettes, in Raffles's flat.
In the drama only, Raffles helps Crawshay take refuge in Bunny's own rooms.

An adaptation of "The Return Match" aired in 2010 as part of Raffles, the Gentleman Thief , a series on the American radio show Imagination Theatre .^[5]

Related Research Articles

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The Amateur Cracksman is an 1899 short story collection by E. W. Hornung. It was published in the UK by Methuen & Co., London, and in the US by Scribner's, New York. Many later editions expand the title to Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman. Some editions such as Penguin Books, 1948, retitle the collection simply, Raffles.

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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.

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"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 to 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.

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"A Costume Piece" 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 July 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.

"Le Premier Pas" 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 fourth 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. This and "Wilful Murder" were the two stories in the collection not published previously in magazine format.

"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.

"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.

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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 283.
↑ Rowland, page 280.
↑ Hornung, page 223.
↑ Frank M. Passage (20 May 2004). "Raffles". Old-Time Radio. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
↑ Wright, Stewart (30 April 2019). "Raffles, the Gentleman Thief: Broadcast Log" (PDF). Old Time Radio. Retrieved 10 March 2020.

Sources

Hornung, E. W. (1899). The Amateur Cracksman. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Rowland, Peter (1999). Raffles and His Creator. London: Nekta Publications. ISBN 0-9533583-2-1.

External links

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 283.

[2] Rowland, page 280.

[3] Hornung, page 223.

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

[5] Wright, Stewart (30 April 2019). "Raffles, the Gentleman Thief: Broadcast Log" (PDF). Old Time Radio. Retrieved 10 March 2020.

"The Return Match"
1898 Collier's illustration by E. V. Nadherny
Author	E. W. Hornung
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	A. J. Raffles
Genre(s)	Crime fiction
Publisher	Cassell & Co
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	October 1898
Preceded by	"Nine Points of the Law"
Followed by	"The Gift of the Emperor"

v t e The Amateur Cracksman by E. W. Hornung
"The Ides of March" "A Costume Piece" "Gentlemen and Players" "Le Premier Pas" "Wilful Murder" "Nine Points of the Law" "The Return Match" "The Gift of the Emperor"
The Amateur Cracksman The Black Mask A Thief in the Night Mr. Justice Raffles