by E. W. Hornung
Classic mysteryNo. 22338 minA. J. Raffles
Tonight, the story that answers a question we left hanging. When we opened the Raffles stories with "The Ides of March," he mentioned, almost in passing, an unreported incident on a certain cricket tour — and then refused to say another word about it. Bunny tried for years. Raffles would only shake his head and watch his cigarette smoke, with that look half cynical and half wistful, as though the honest days that were no more had had their merits after all. Tonight he finally tells it. "Le Premier Pas" — the first step. This is the story of the very first crime A. J. Raffles ever committed: a young cricketer far from home, touring Australia, riding out through gum trees and dust to a bank in a small country town. Where he is mistaken for somebody he is not. It is one small misunderstanding, and it hands him an opportunity no honest man would have taken. Of all his stories, this is the only one that carries the ghost of a dead remorse. FOR LISTENERS This is a complete, unabridged reading of Le Premier Pas by E. W. Hornung, collected in The Amateur Cracksman (1899) and now in the public domain. Every word is the author's own. Part of The Midnight Archive: three nights of classics every week, alongside four original Nocturnal Tales mysteries. He didn't set out to become a thief. He was handed a door that happened to be open, and he walked through it. Do you think there's a single first step in anyone's life that decides the rest — or do we only see it looking backwards? SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS CREDITS Narrated and produced by Nocturnal Tales. Story by E. W. Hornung (public domain). TAGS / KEYWORDS e w hornung audiobook, raffles audiobook, le premier pas audiobook, the amateur cracksman, gentleman thief story, raffles first crime, cricket tour australia story, origin story crime fiction, bunny manders, victorian crime story, classic detective story audiobook, public domain audiobook, unabridged classic mystery
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