Publisher's Synopsis
The Gift Of The Emperor is a novel written by E. W. Hornung. The story is set in the early 1900s and follows the adventures of a British gentleman thief named A. J. Raffles and his accomplice, Bunny Manders. The two are approached by a Japanese diplomat who asks them to steal a valuable pearl from the British Museum. The pearl is a gift from the Emperor of Japan to the British government and its loss would cause a diplomatic incident. Raffles and Bunny accept the challenge and embark on a daring heist, but soon find themselves embroiled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the police and a rival gang of thieves. The novel is a thrilling tale of suspense, adventure, and intrigue, and is a must-read for fans of crime fiction and classic literature.Not a hitch occurred. Everything had been foreseen; everything happened as I had been assured everything must. Nobody was about below, only the ship's boys on deck, and nobody on the bridge. It was twenty-five minutes past one when Raffles, without a stitch of clothing on his body, but with a glass phial, corked with cotton-wool, between his teeth, and a tiny screw-driver behind his ear, squirmed feet first through the ventilator over his berth; and it was nineteen minutes to two when he returned, head first, with the phial still between his teeth, and the cotton-wool rammed home to still the rattling of that which lay like a great grey bean within.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.