Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Sherlock Holmes: he is a 'gentleman thief, ' living at a very upscale address in London, playing cricket for the Gentlemen of England and supporting himself by carrying out ingenious burglaries. He is called the 'Amateur Cracksman, ' and differentiates between himself and the 'professors' -- professional criminals from the lower classe

Meeting failure in his search for wealth in the 1851 Australian gold rush, a dispirited Mr. Cole takes the next available ship back to England -- and falls in love with Eva Denison, a beautiful and accomplished young woman traveling with her exotic Portuguese step-father. After a disaster at sea Cole returns to anonymity in London... or so he thinks. Events lead to the discovery of a horrible conspiracy, and then to an adventure that may cost Cole his greatest love.

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Nothing is so easy as falling in love on a long sea voyage, except falling out of love. Especially was this the case in the days when the wooden clippers did finely to land you in Sydney or in Melbourne under the four full months. We all saw far too much of each other, unless, indeed, we were to see still more. Our superficial attractions mutually exhausted, we lost heart and patience in the disappointing strata which lie between the surface and the bed-rock of most natures.

It was half-past twelve when I returned to the Albany as a last desperate resort. The scene of my disaster was much as I had left it. The baccarat-counters still strewed the table, with the empty glasses and the loaded ash-trays. A window had been opened to let the smoke out, and was letting in the fog instead. Raffles himself had merely discarded his dining jacket for one of his innumerable blazers. Yet he arched his eyebrows as though I had dragged him from his bed.